BJP TODAY

May 16--31, 2003 - Vol. 12, No. 10

Hindutva is casteless
By Bulbul Roy Mishra

Hindutva in Sanskrit or Hindi connotes the same as Hinduism in English, as has been settled by the apex court of the country. Prime Minister Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee has pronounced unequivocally more than once that the BJP believes in Hindutva of Swami Vivekananda who was the greatest exponent of Hinduism in modern time. The religion of the Hindus, according to Vivekananda, is divided into two parts: the ceremonial and the spiritual. In the spiritual part there is no room for caste while in ceremonial part, caste that is a social institution plays an important role. The Vedas also deal with both ceremonial part and spiritual part. The latter deals with the knowledge of Brahman. The knowledge of Brahman is not theory but a matter of realisation. In Swami's words, " Soul has no caste, and to think it has is a delusion…The Atman never changes, never goes nor comes. It is the eternal witness of Its own manifestations… an eternal illusion, without beginning or end, ever going on." In Gita (ref. Stanza 18, chap.5), Lord Krisna tells Arjuna that to a man of wisdom, a learned and modest Brahmin, a cow, an elephant, a dog and a pariah look same (as he sees Brahman in all). This in short is the spiritual essence of Hinduism.

The caste as a social institution evolved gradually and not all of a sudden, as has been stated in the Mahabharata. In the beginning of the Satya yuga, according to the epic, there was only one caste, the Brahmins, and thereafter according to divergent occupations, they went on dividing themselves into different castes. In the beginning, caste system was not hereditary. Once it became hereditary, exploitation, torture and humiliation of lower castes by upper castes became the bane of the Hindu society. What is the remedy? "The solution is not by bringing down the higher," said Vivekananda, "but by raising the lower up to the level of the higher." "It is no use fighting among the castes. What good will it do? It will divide us all the more, weaken us all the more, degrade us all the more." To the Brahmins I appeal," wrote Swamiji ('The future of India'), "that they must work hard to raise the Indian people by teaching them what they know, by giving out the culture that they have accumulated for centuries. It is clearly the duty of the Brahmins of India to remember what real Brahminhood is. As Manu says, all these privileges and honours are given to the Brahmin, because 'with him is the treasury of virtue.' He must open that treasury and distribute its valuables to the world." He appealed to the Brahmins to raise the non-Brahmins around them, not in the spirit of a master, but in the spirit of a servant, "for verily he who knows how to serve knows how to rule." What a loaded statement, apt not only for dominant castes but also for our political leaders!

Vivekananda was totally against inter-caste quarrels. "The non-Brahmins also have been spending their energy in kindling the fire of caste hatred - vain and useless to solve the problem - to which every non-Hindu is only too glad to throw on a load of fuel." "Not a step forward can be made by these inter-caste quarrels, not one difficulty removed; only the beneficent onward march of events would be thrown back, possibly for centuries, if the fire bursts out into flames."

Does Vedanta recognize caste? According to Vivekananda, the caste system is opposed to the religion of the Vedanta. Caste is a social custom and all our great preachers tried to break it down. "Caste is simply the outgrowth of the political institutions of India; it is a hereditary trade guild." Trade competition with western countries has broken and will break caste more than any teaching, as Swamiji rightly observed.

India has bled enough in the relentless and meaningless wars of castes and faith, and has still been bleeding in the hands of terrorists. Casteist politicians like Mr. Udit Raj will surely earn the gratitude of the nation if they restrain themselves from encouraging another caste war by planting bitterness in the minds of under-privileged Dalits against upper castes with an eye on vote politics. One surely understands his passion to convert the Dalits into Buddhists, but one fails to understand how by mere conversion, the economic status of the Dalits will improve. Besides, it is also inexplicable why to achieve his objective he should distort Hindu philosophy that is not only liberal but also secular. Politicians like him will do well to read Swami Vivekananda to understand Hindu philosophy and thereafter their bitterness will surely disappear.

Addressing the upper classes in India, Vivekananda wrote in his Memoirs of European Travel: " let new India arise in your place. Let her arise - out of the peasants' cottage, grasping the plough; out of the huts of the fisherman, the cobbler, and the sweeper. Let her spring from the grocer's shop, from beside the oven of the fritter -seller....Let her emerge from groves and forests, from hills and mountains. These common people have suffered oppression for thousands of years - suffered it without murmur, and as a result have got wonderful fortitude….Living on a handful of grain, they can convulse the world." He had not urged them to forsake religion, but visualized that one day they would take the leadership of new India. The fiery Swami's admiration for the oppressed people is evident from the following words: "they have got the wonderful strength that comes of a pure and moral life, which is not to be found anywhere else in the world."

To Swami Vivekananda, religion must 'recognize divinity in every man and woman, and whose whole scope, whose whole force, will be created in aiding humanity to realize its own true, divine nature'.

Religion, according to him, 'will have no place for persecution or intolerance in its polity'.
Swami Vivekananda stood for unity of all Indians, irrespective of caste, creed, and faith, when he visualized future India to rise with Vedantic brain and Islamic body. Vedantic Hindutva that Swami Vivekananda had spread to the world does not admit of any caste discrimination. This is true Hindutva. No less a person than the Prime minister himself has emphatically stated that the Hindutva of his Party is the Hindutva that Swami Vivekananda stood for. Let us not allow any distortion or dilution of this view. Let our Hindutva be casteless, with oneness of our souls and no discrimination.