LITERATURE-LIGHT AND DELIGHT. 29.EAST AND WEST

LITERATURE-LIGHT AND DELIGHT

29. EAST AND WEST

The differences- imaginary or real- between the East and West have been a subject of discussion and dispute among idle scholars, politicians and even some well meaning people. Even Swami Vivekananda and Sri Aurobindo have written about it, not to mention their faithful followers.

Most educated Indians know the famous words of Rudyard Kipling, considered an arch imperialist: 'The East is East, the West is West, and never the twain shall meet." But most educated Indians are only 'half baked' and do not check their sources, or read it full or well. We often go for the pleasing sound of words and miss the profound sense. These words occur in a fairly long Ballad (of over 95 lines ) written by Kipling in 1889. The ballad celebrates the friendship of Kamal, an Afghan horse thief in the border and the son of a Colonel ,whose horse he steals. The friendship is formed on each showing, and appreciating the other's, courage; so it is not due to submission or condescension, but mutual respect. Kipling thus reveals a great secret of association between people of different races: mutual respect, based on the recognition of a basic value or quality, which is really one in substance, though different in expression.(The original reference to east and west is found in the Psalm,103 and others, but not in a defferent sense and context.)

Actually, these are the first two lines of the poem, but are immediately contradicted by the next two lines! Most of us do not go beyond the two because the words are so strong, and so seemingly self-evident.Theyarrest our attention. The lines are:

Oh, East is East, and West is West,
       and never the twain shall meet,
Till Earth and Sky  stand presently
       at God's great Judgment Seat;
But there is neither East nor West,
       nor Border, nor Breed, nor Birth,
When two strong men stand face to face
       tho' they come from the ends of the earth!

And these are also the concluding lines of the long poem!

It reveals Kipling not as an imperialist, but as a universalist,  pioneer or champion of multiracial harmony, though this was a later conception. See how mistaken is our initial understanding, how unfair our view of Kipling based on it!

But this sense of superiority is not the monopoly of the white races. Of course because of imperialism, they have displayed it most adroitly in recent history. But we Hindus have been equally guilty. We invented the word "Mleccha" and condemned all foreigners. Even today, most of us would not dine with a Muslim or Christian in our homes or their homes, because of our assumed superiority, however it may be camouflaged or justified (their meat eating, ideas of purity or pollution, as if we are all so utterly pure now). 

Today, because of the rising Western influence in the name of globalisation, we have utterly lost  any justification of any sense of superiority: we have become a nation of imitators in social, cultural and intellectual matters. No imitator can command respect; he will only invite contempt and ridicule. Still, when it comes to matters of literature, many of us have an innate sense of superiority: our Scriptures are the best; Valmiki, Vyasa, Kalidasa have no equal;our language is the best and superior,etc. Really, we are divided: the modern educated Indians do not know much about our past, except what  has been drilled into their heads through their schooling; they look to the West for everything; the traditional advocates feel we are self sufficient in everything and have nothing to learn from others, even while we use all the conveniences of modern life, many of which do not have our scriptural sanction or mention.

However, the North-South and East-West divide within India is also very strong. I have lived and worked in 7 states over 35 years and know it first hand. In Delhi, everybody south of the Vindhyas was a Madrassi. The prejudice was so crude and pronounced, that one journalist ,Madhavan Kutty wrote a feature in the then popular Illustrated Weekly Of India with the caption "In Delhi Without A Visa". They could not even distinguish between a Malayan and a Malayalee! The plight of south Indians in Bombay was well known. Shiv Sena grew on their blood. Our children were teased at school for wearing sacred ash on the forehead, and men wearing dhotis were not safe. The position continued like this for twenty years. Then came the courageous Varadarajan Mudaliar. He once organised a mammoth procession of South Indians (mostly Tamilians) in Bombay in which more than 5 lakh people took part. Though it was in connection with the Sri Lankan issue, it sent the message: the Tamilians were courageous and could organise themselves! Shiv Sena got the message, and open targeting of South Indians abated, but the Udupi hotels had to buy security by paying the Shiv Sena regularly! The prejudice continues silently, and it has now become open against the Biharis and people from UP! 

With the rise of linguistic states, such prejudice is common against other language groups even between southern states. Drive a car with Kerala or Tamil Nadu registration in  Karnataka (Bengaluru) and you will know! Every state now has a dept of culture centred on its language, obliterating the common Indian base. If you live in a state and work in another language, you will have neither state recognition, not even security, even if you are an international figure. We saw it recently in respect of R.K.Narayan. Only the local elements are exalted, and the differences are celebrated.

We tend to think that the Muslims are a solid unified bloc. It is not so, as I saw it personally. In Delhi, I knew a Muslim doctor family well. They had a doctor son. I had a senior South Indian  Muslim colleague who had a marriageable , well-educated daughter. He knew about my doctor friend, and asked me if I would speak to them about the girl and see if there could be a match. This colleague was a nice gentleman, cultured and from a good background.I had known him for over 20 years and I really wanted to help. So I spoke to the doctor, who referred me to his wife. She told me bluntly that they were all Rajputs from the North and would not accept alliance from the South! So, this was not only North/South, but also Rajput v.others- this among Muslims famed for their feeling of brotherhood!

But the ancient world was not like this.We see traders and scholars wandering all over the world, visiting and working wherever they pleased. There were regular contacts even between Europe and Asia. Ancient Greece and Rome had great regular intellectual contacts with India, even before Alexander's invasion. Pythagoras was certainly in touch with Indian philosophers. In the middle ages too scholars roamed about wherever they liked. 

However, political rivalries  prevailed even within  the same linguistic groups. We see this clearly among the Tamil kings in the Sangam age, who fought among themselves for over 1000 years. Aristotle was a Macedonian, who studied with Plato in his Academy in Athens for 20 years; on Plato's death he returned to Macedonia, and became tutor to Alexander. On Alexander becoming the ruler, he returned to Athens, opened his own school the Lyceum and became famous as a teacher attracting many scholars. But after Alexander's death, Athens turned anti-Macedonian , and Aristotle left the place! We see the East-West prejudice here, even within ancient Greece.And the rivalry between Athens and Sparta is also legendary. Right now, we see the great animosities among the Scots, Irish and English within the British isles! So, we should not make a special villain of Kipling! After all, how many Asians live in the UK, Enoch Powells not withstanding! And how many Englishmen were supporters of our freedom movement ( while many within India opposed it, including Dr.Ambedkar)!

The real problem is not East or West. It is human nature. We are quick to notice differences, and clever enough to make them grounds for our own superiority. To day, the West, especially the US is politically powerful and the US is the ideal and also the object of hatred in the third, especially the Muslim world. Japan was the ideal in Asia, but now China is rising. These bring prejudices in their wake.However, the US is also  a great multi-cultural, multi-racial country, whose great Universities attract, harbour and nourish talent and excellence in all fields from all over the world! (even if they are sometimes anti-Hindu). Sure, there are differences and prejudices against Hispanics,African-Americans, Asians,Muslims. But there are also prejudices against Catholics,Jews. And the term 'Yankee' regarded outside the US as denoting Americans  has several connotations within it, both cultural and geographic.

This is the key: culture, and not geography.As I have been saying, really cultured people are alike in essence all over the world in their thinking, values, quality of life, though expression is bound to acquire local colour or flavour.

Mahatma Gandhi gave us a new, fundamental insight. In his 1908 book "Hind Swaraj" (or booklet-it is so small; the only book he ever wrote) he wrote that the real problem was not East V.West, but Ancient v.Modern. All ancient civilisations were alike, East or West; all modern civilisations were tending alike, East or West! India was trying to ape the West but it was an attempt to become modern! He told us how modern civilisation had ruined the West and it would ruin India too. Modern civilisation was an eight days' wonder; wait, and it would wither away. But ancient Indian civilisation was strong and India should not give it up. 'My Swaraj is to keep intact the genius of our civilisation'- this was Gandhiji's declaration in 1908, before he took up active politics in India.Consequently, he had sympathy for England which he saw as the victim of modern civilisation.Gandhi was not a scholar, and it is surprising how he arrived at this insight, which scholars have missed! 

If you read the ancient literature of the world, from anywhere- you are struck by their fundamental note: it was spiritual-intuitive-mystic, as great scholars are increasingly realising now. The language was cryptic, symbolic and not literal and logical. They thought differently, but they all thought about the  same fundamental  aspects of life- its mystery, and man's place or purpose in it. If you read the Red Indian lore and tear through its symbols, you would be stuck with its similarity to Vedic thought! If you study the Socratic and pre-Socratic philosophies, you will wonder how Spiritual they are, like our Veda and Upanishads, not theological. Not that they are the same, but similar! When you come to Plato, you will notice that rationality is rising to assert itself above intuition and when you come to Aristotle, you will see the complete triumph of reason, exactly like what happened in India after the Upanishads- the rise of systematic and partisan philosophies based on the same Upanishads! The only difference was that India made Spirituality the centre of activity and could not reconcile the world; the West made this world the centre of focus, and could not reconcile spirituality. It was not that the West lacked spirituality or spiritual leaders; or that India was only, or even wholly, spiritual and lacked material advance. Both had both, but the question was one of emphasis. Both have lost in the bargain! And both can gain by mutual understanding.

Up to the end of the Middle Ages (in Europe) people of both the East and West shared some basic views: that this world was only a transitory place, that there was a greater Reality behind it and it was the true aim of humanity to realise that Reality, for which life here should be viewed as a preparation. Doctrines and theologies of different religions conceived of the details in different ways and called them by different names, but these were the bare facts. The Catholic church had united the people of Europe in faith and religious practices; society was governed by occupational hierarchies and economic relations were governed by mutual obligation, rather than money.The Church owned almost half of all lands. One's station and role in life was taken as given at birth. In all essentials, this is very much the same as our caste system. (But we had no centralised religious command. Most religious people were poor.) In fact many surnames  such as Barber, Butler, Tailor, Smith etc are all occupational (caste ) names, like our own Nayi, Darji, Adiga, Majhi, Kuruba, Ganiga, Konar,etc!

The Renaissance (late 15th Century), Reformation (16th Century) Scientific advances, French and other political revolutions, Industrial Revolution, Rise of Capitalism (which was attributed to the Protestant ethic, in contrast to Catholicism), revolutionary new socio-political-economic thought, Geographical discoveries and the rise of Imperialism, the works of Darwin, Marx, and Freud- all these rose  in wave upon wave  and totally overturned the old order. Imperialism, the two world wars, advances in communication have all made them global. The keynote today is this-worldliness, lack of belief in organised theology, refusal to subscribe to any higher value except humanism. The objective method of science is the yardstick to measure everything, and what it cannot capture is simply not true! (And what is not convenient to the science establishment and those who fund and control it- such as global warming, hazards of nuclear power, ecological disaster, etc  will continue to be disputed till the 29th Day.)

This is the bare outline of how things have shaped in the last 400 years.Here is the difficulty. Theology has not accepted real philosophical insight; organised Christianity and Islam have destroyed all ancient insights.Science since 19th century  destroyed organised religion; new science is hinting at  true spirituality once again as against formal religion- but this is only among the very top scientists,a microscopic minority. Old cultural and religious prejudices are continuing and preventing understanding. At the same time, commercial and money interests have assumed control over public affairs, including science.

The Bible can be understood as a symbolic account of the human situation- not the actual history of the human race, not even of the Jews. What is the 'fall of Adam' and his expulsion from the garden of Eden?  It is simply man forgetting his real spiritual nature and identity with the Source. This fall was due to his eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge- ie his self identity or ego. Once ego asserts itself, the whole world becomes 'the other'.Man's sense of unity with the Universe is lost. This is his expulsion from the garden. As history, the Bible is bunkum; as symbol of psychological truth, it is profound.  Man forgetting his real nature is also the theme of the Gita; at the end, Arjuna states: " Nashto moha: smritir labda" = my delusion is destroyed, I have regained my memory! (18.73). Memory here is of the true nature of the Self.

If we study the ancient literature of the world, without getting stuck at the sectarian claims and counter claims, and the names and labels, we are struck by the basic insight of all the ancient people. The western academic scholars who do not practise any spiritual discipline and do not have any first hand experience of Truth, do not even understand the words properly. Why go to ancient scriptures: even the key words of Aristotle like 'TEKHNE', 'MIMESIS', 'KATHARSIS'  from his Poetics are not understood by them! Each one has a guess, which becomes a theory because he is an academic! Philosophers complicate the truth; theologians muddle it; academics murder it. Scientists don't know and don't care. It is poets who sometimes capture the truth and clothe it in language.This is ultimately the value of all great literature-East or West.