LITERATURE-LIGHT AND DELIGHT
STUDY OF INDIAN LITERATURE
Since 1836, when English education was introduced under the influence of Macaulay, Indians have taken to it in a big way.The colonial govt. established its own system of schools and prescribed qualification from these schools with knowledge of English as a condition for jobs. The colonial rule had also disturbed the indigenous economic arrangements based on a network of delicate mutual relationships and obligations, largely devoid of money. So people were tempted to go to govt schools, get English education and seek govt jobs on an ever-increasing scale. This system of education-job linkage continues even now!
What started as English education ie study of English as a subject at the school level turned into English medium at the University, which had been established at Bombay, Calcutta and Madras in 1857.The subjects taught were mainly of Western orientation like Western philosophy, science, English and European history, English language and literature etc. The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna records how deeply the middle class Bengalis were influenced by such education in all spheres. This was the case in the other provinces too. Sri Ramakrishna used to jokingly call such people "Englishmen". This adversely affected their faith in our religion and considerably reduced their interest in our languages and literature.
Indian indigenous school systems were run on private initiative and were supported by public charity and old rulers' patronage.. The colonial govt did not support them. With the change in the economic arrangements and consequent disruption in social relations, these schools slowly withered away. We read from the autobiography of Dr.U.Ve.Swaminatha Iyer how he studied Tamil- and Tamil alone- in the Tiruvavaduthurai Aadheenam. The colonial govt did not encourage the learning of indigenous languages and literature; the schools which taught them gradually dwindled and disappeared. Tamil was taught as a subject at the school level, but the large literature was neglected.
Since the old generation was still present in sufficient strength ,our knowledge and proficiency were not lost immediately. But over the years, indigenous ways and methods of mastering our language and literature were given up completely. No one learns Tamil today as did a Ki.Va.Ja. under Dr.Iyer, as he had himself done under Pillaival.
But here history crossed us.Modern Science rose gigantically in the 20th century, and English emerged as the leading international language of trade, commerce, academic studies and scientific research. And more and more, the academic standards and practices adopted by the western European and then American institutions became worldwide. Proficiency in English became indispensable for higher education in all academic subjects, not just science.
None of the Indian languages could develop on modern lines to become a medium of study in any discipline, beyond very elementary levels. All of them have just become languages for strictly local communication for mainly non-academic purposes.Classical or not, these languages are only useful for studying the old literature: they simply cannot cope with the expansion of English in all spheres. So we face a dichotomy: we may learn our language (mother tongue) for sentimental reasons but it is not sufficient or indispensable or even useful for serious learning in any academic discipline. They survive only on fiction or frivolous writing.
The great middle class is under terrible economic stress to acquire means of survival, but knowledge of our languages is not helping them in any way. The load of academic studies is so heavy the students have no time or energy or inclination left to master our language and literature. The state govts are all making appropriate noises for encouraging local languages, but the standards have fallen dismally low. A stage has come for instance in Tamil Nad when most school children cannot even read old poems unless the words are split; there is no question of comprehending their meaning!
The Dravidian parties spread the canard that Sanskrit is a dead language because it is not spoken; but Tamil is worse because it is not spoken as it is written, and it is not used for any serious purpose other than filling some govt.forms. Pure or literary Tamil is not useful even for entertainment, as the many Tamil TV channels show.
The problem for Sanskrit is not that it is not spoken; in fact it was never the means of mass communication. As its very name implies, it was for elite and selected use; these uses are still there! The danger is that the number of Indians with the knowledge of Sanskrit adequate to read our scriptures in the original is fast declining; more and more Indians are resorting to translations.
This is the real danger because the translation business has become an almost total monopoly of foreigners who learn Sanskrit and attain academic proficiency in foreign universities which have their own hidden agendas, influenced by Christian missionary interests! This has world-wide ramifications, since these academics have nexus with the press and international publishers with wide distribution networks so that their books get adequate publicity and circulation! Most such books are written without practical knowledge or experience, and on the basis of some western academic theories; they almost always distort the truth, misrepresent facts and give inaccurate meanings.
Some examples are necessary.In the academic circles, there are theories as to how to interpret literature: eg. Marxism, feminism,psychoanalysis, post-colonialism, structuralism, deconstruction,etc. Western academics have applied psychoanalysis (Freud) to Sri Ramakrishna and pronounced that he was a paedophile! They have written that Kali is a blood-thirsty goddess who killed her own husband, and that Shiva is a notorious womaniser! Their books are prescribed for study in universities and every year thousands of students pass out with such ideas about Hinduism! They are all backed by church organisations.Neither Indian Mathadipathies and their hero-worshipping followers, nor the new-age Gurus and their followers seem to care. These Maths or Gurus have not made any serious attempts to counter such publications,nor come out with their own authentic translations. For instance, if you want to study Manu or Kautilya or even Mahabharata, there are few competent translations and comments by Indian scholars.Those who know the subject,do not have competence in English; those who are competent, do not know the subject or are west-oriented.
Two centuries of English education have made us all acquire a western orientation, not only in our attire and attitude, but in our very thought process. For instance, we regard a scripture like Ramayana or Mahabharata as literature! Kamban called his Ramayana "Ramavataram" but our people take it as mere kavya! Valmiki and Vyasa are poets, but they are not like Kalidasa or Bana. They represent a different /higher category altogether. Valmiki and Vyasa are Rishis,though they wrote poetry but Kalidasa is not:he is a mere poet, though a great one. He wrote Sakuntalam , Raghuvamsam and Kumarasambhavam which are themes occurring in our Itihasa-Purana, but what Kalidasa wrote is kavya, not itihasa!
The general western orientation has some serious effects on our idea of culture and civilisation.
- We all tend to believe, like westerners, that civilisation started with ancient Greece and Rome.Even our ideas and institutions are assessed on that basis.Our people do not know that our philosophy is more ancient than that of Greece.
- Since western criteria rule academic standards, and since these are based directly or indirectly on Christian ideas, these are generally applied here too. After all, we observe weekly holiday on Sunday, according to christian notion! Kautilya is spoken of as our Machiavelli!
- Western literary, mythological, and classical figures are accepted in our usage too.
- Science is regarded as a western discovery. Most educated Indians are not aware of India's own contribution.
- Political ideas and institutions as well as economic principles and practices are all copied from the West. Most Indians are not even aware that till the middle of 18th century, India contributed about 30% of world GDP!
- Generally , in everything we apply western standards or yardsticks. Some Christian bishop determined in 1794, on the basis of the Bible, that the world was created by God on 23 October, 4004 BC, when Adam the first man was created. Everything in history was decided on that basis. Since the world was colonised by the Christians, this was applied to other cultures also. In the case of India, they assigned arbitrary dates to our scriptures on this basis. And our so called scholars (including unfortunately such nationalistic figures as Dr.S.Radhakrishnan, Dr.R.C.Majumdar etc) merely worked on that basis, and still do so- because all of them want western acceptance! The irony is that science have proved that the earth is billions of years old, and Biblical theory of creation is utterly discredited;but our people cannot come out of the old mind-set.
What is overlooked through all this is that unlike ancient Greece and Rome, which are now in the museums, India is still a living civilisation, and our religion, in all its rich variety, is still practised, as it has always been! We still repeat the same Gayatri mantra uttered by our ancients 10,000 years ago.We still visit Kashi and Rameswaram, Badri and Kedar, observe Kumbhamela etc -we do not know since how long. Our Valmiki and Vyasa are still part of our daily life and are accordingly honoured. We still remember and honour our Rishis and offer them tarpana. Who does anything for a Socrates or Plato, Homer or Virgil? They are great figures, mighty and majestic, but they are not part of the daily life of Westerners.They are remembered by scholars , but that is about all.
One thing most Indians do not understand is that western academics simply apply theories to our practices and such theories keep changing! These theories in sociology, anthropology, economics or politics or even in the sciences are mostly not proven facts, but merely the opinion of some powerful group which has power to enforce compliance. The pity is that Indians still continue to hold on to old theories and ideas which have been discarded.The same incident or observation may be explained by many theories, but what is the truth?
In considering Indian subjects, we have to adopt Indian standards. We have to distinguish between mere literature, and itihasa-purana and other scriptures. We cannot merely analyse characters in Ramayana as we would do in say, Sakuntalam or Shakespeare. ( Rt.Hon'ble Srinivasa Sastry did that in his famous lecture series on Ramayana in the early 40s.) No doubt Mahabharata is poetry, but it is itihasa written in poetry form- it was written for edification, not entertainment.Its main concern is Dharma- something foreign academics will never understand and respect. For that we need someone like Chaturvedi Bhadrinath, whose delightful book on Mahabharata deals just with this single theme!
But the irony is that we cannot read Ramayana and Mahabharata in the original, even as literature! The same thing applies to many classical Tamil works, including Sangam literature or even Kamba Ramayana. It appears to me that the solution is very simple: some of us should take up just one book and study it in the original- be it Ramayana, or Bhagavata or Gita or Narayaneeyam. We would thus master both the language and the scripture. We don't have to study Sanskrit to become poets, but we may learn enough to read, understand and appreciate poetry written in it! Age is no bar. I know one who retired as Deputy Accountant General, learned Sanskrit, studied Ramayana and Bhagavatam in the original and acquired enough proficiency to expound it too.Incidentally, he could also compose poems in Sanskrit! So, let us not curse darkness, but light lamps-even small ones!
