Sanatan Followers Must Unite To Save India

A lot of controversy is made out due to assertion of Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath that "bantoge to katoge" (if you get divided you would be destroyed) and of Prime Minister Narendra Modi that "Ek hain to safe hain" (if we are united, we are safe). These must be seen in the context where virus of hatred is being spread among Hindus using the same fault-lines that British used to divide India.

After an understanding that it is difficult to defeat Modi or oust the BJP from power, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and others in the INDIA alliance have been trying to denigrate Hinduism by hurling abuses unheard of before. They have been trying to foster division by pitting one caste against the other. The response from the BJP and other members of the RSS Parivar has been to give a strong counter to opponents of 'Sanatan Dharma'.

They have forgotten one clear underlying principle of India's social and political unity which is that no one caste is capable of dominating the entire political set-up. The biggest category which is Scheduled Castes is about 22-24 per cent which also is sub-divided into various categories with different political affiliations. Forming a caste coalition is a compulsion and it work for all parties.

Castes have more or less crystallized in terms of traditional occupations and they pride rather than feel sad for their profession. This is besides the gate modern education provides to occupy skill based white collar jobs. The caste is not as important as the education, skill and desire to work hard. And those who move out into cities discover a loosening of the caste divide due to inter-caste marriages that such a movement provides. They also get more opportunities to interact with one another on equal terms.

With expansion of education and proliferation of social media, there is new assertion of Sanatan Values. Once a senior BJP leader who worked among tribals in Jharkhand and Chattisgarh told me that conversion to Christianity had almost stopped in these areas due to the Door Darshan beaming out various mythological serials including the Ramayan. Tribals who watched these serials identified and enjoyed these serials. Attendance to Church had declined and even those who converted to Christianity identified with the Sanatan culture.

While "The Ramayan" and "The Mahbharatha" cannot be defined as a holy book in the sense of "The Bible" or "The Koran", the tales contained in these two great epics define the cultural and ideological principles that shape the Sanatan tradition. People still look forward to these two epics to understand the values enshrined in family tradition. The goal of a human being defined as "purusharth" still continues to dominate the life of an average Indian.

Whenever Indian values were attacked by foreign powers thought leaders delved into the past and got their inspiration from "The Vedas". During the ancient time it was Chanakya who spoke of unity and created a strong Empire under Chandragupta Maurya. His treatise on economy, army and good governance holds good even today.

The massive response to Western evangelicalism came in the form of reassertion of Sanatan values by Swami Vivekanand. Dayanand Saraswati sought to reform Hinduism that was losing its beauty because of Brahminical assertion in religious rites and rituals. The counter to British imperialism and its ideological standing was given also by Mahatma Gandhi who elucidated the strength of Sanatan in his book: "The Hind Swaraj" that was banned by the British as a seditious book.

A time has come once again when actors around the world supported by vested interests within the country are trying to use the fault-lines to destroy Sanatan tradition and force each caste to treat itself as an independent unity and not a part of the larger umbrella of Hinduism. But they do not do so in the case of Islam which has a large majority of backwards classes and Pasmanda Muslims.

Some opportunistic forces speak of Muslim-Dalit unity ignoring the fact that Br BR Ambedkar, an icon of Dalit assertion, had opposed Islam. He did not find any ground for the two to come together. Jogendranath Mandol who thought differently and believed Dalits would get a better deal aligning with Muslims left India for Pakistan to become one the founding fathers of Pakistan and took oath as a minister there. However, he got completely dejected at persecution of minority Hindus and attempts to transform Pakistan into an Islamic republic and destroy the concept of equality of citizens. He returned to India and this was the biggest statement that Muslim-Dalit unity was not possible because Muslims would not tolerate the religious and social practices of Dalits that were essentially Sanatan.

New assertion calling for the unity of follower of Sanatan tradition is a call to appreciate the culture that evolved over centuries and has withstood the vagaries of time. Sanatan culture had no enemy since it was assimilative and did not believe in conversion. It eventually became syncretic, assimilative and liberal. The way it celebrates diversity is a unique study in itself. Even deviants were assimilated and a meaning given. The call for unity of followers of this evolved culture cannot be a threat to any other religion.