RELIGIOUS IDENTITY AND RENEWAL: JEWISH, CHRISTIAN AND MUSLIM EXPLORATIONS Identity Past: Who are We and What Constitutes Identity - Busi Suneel Bhanu*1 - Identity is an unfathomable as it is all-pervasive. It deals with a process that is located both in the core of the individual and in the core of the communal culture. - Erik Erikson A. Introduction ‘Identity’ is an integral part of every human being. However, understanding and identifying the identity of a person is a complex process and being dependent on varied and diverse factors, it is a life-long search and struggle. Identity is plural, changeable and can be overcome as well. One can change his/her identity of nationality through immigration and naturalization; one can also change the identity of his/her gender from male/female to female/male and to transgender; and changing of religious and political identities are also possible. I wonder at these un-ending possibilities that offer some of us to develop alternate identity/identities. But when it comes to ‘caste’, especially in our Indian context, one is born into it and hence dies in the same caste-identity. When I reflect on my self-identity, in my story, I am reminded of the saying of Prophet Jeremiah, ‘Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots?’ (Jeremiah 13:13a). a) Identity Past -The Creation Narrative I was born and brought-up in a Christian and well-educated family. While my father was a well-placed official in the Government, my mother was a School teacher. We lived in a town, about 12 kilometers away from the ancestral village of my father. Once a month, on a week-end, my father would visit his parents who lived in the village. He would ride his bicycle and I used to accompany him as a pillion-rider. To my surprise, my father would always get down from his bicycle upon reaching the entrance of his village and would walk only on either of the extreme sides of the village-path and all the way to his parents’ house, a kilometer stretch of dirt road. To my dismay he would also ask me to get down from the bicycle and walk, knowing well that as a small boy it was difficult for me to cover that distance. Whenever I insisted to remain seated on the bicycle, somehow, he would convince me to get down and walk. Even after I had grown up to the age of riding on my own bicycle, I was made to get down from it at the entrance to the village and made to walk to my grand parents’ house. Whenever I protested and demanded an answer for this practice, my father always had two responses: one, that it was the custom of the village that no one *Bishop Busi Suneel Bhanu is a Professor of Religion and Dalit Theology and Dean of the Department of Research at the Gurukul Lutheran Theological College and Research Institute, Chennai, India 1 should ride on a bicycle or use any other transport vehicle on the road of the village; (but I did notice others of the village riding); and second, ‘it is our karma’. Only later, I came to know that we were strictly forbidden to enjoy our rights and privileges of the facilities available in the village, because we belong to the ‘untouchables’ communities – the Dalits. In the Indian society, certain categories of people who were not included in the catur-varna (the four-fold caste) system are known historically as the untouchables and today, these people call themselves as Dalits. One is not very sure about the exact period in which the evil of caste was dyed on the Indian social fabric, but it was the Itihāsa (Epics) and Dhramasāstra (Manuals of Law) period that consolidated and codified the rules and regulations, rights and responsibilities relating to caste and many other socio-religious and politico- economic factors. There are different theories and views about the origin of caste system in India, the most popular being, the arrival of the fair complexioned Āryans on the Indo-Gangetic plains which marked the beginning of the practice of varnā or caste. The Āryan settles not only devised and implemented the four main divisions of peoples – the Brāhmin, Kshatriya (Rājanya), Vaisya and Sūdra, but also gave the system strong religious moorings with the introduction of a ‘creation story’ in the Rigved which describesa: When they divided the Purusa, into how many parts did they arrange him? What was his mouth? What were his two arms? What were his thighs and feet called? The brāhmin was his mouth, his two arms were made the rājanya (Warrior), his two thighs the vaisya (trader and agriculturist), from his feet the sūdra (servile class was born).2 Added to this, Manusmriti offered a systematic articulation and interpretation of caste; But the Sudra, whether bought or unbought, he may compel to do servile work; for he was created by the self-existent (svayambhu) to be the slave of a Brahmin. A Sudra, though emancipated by his master, is not released from servitude; since that is innate in him, who can set him free from it?3 These inunctions were further reinforced by the Puranic myths and the renditions of the great epics, Rāmāyana and Mahābhārata. Accordantly, Brahmins, the pure Āryans declared themselves as Bhūdevās (gods on earth) and placed themselves at the helm of affairs, both social and spiritual with access to learning and knowledge as their birth right; and further to 2 Shriram Sharma Acharya, ed., Rigveda (Bareilly: Sanskrit Sansthan, 1985) X. 90:11-12 3 Arthur Coke Burnell, tr., The Ordinances of Manu, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidas 1971. VIII. 413-414 2 impart the acquired knowledge to deserving pupils was their duty. They had the right to command and demand respect, as well as to enjoy unquestioning loyalty, support and service from anyone and everyone. Even the Kings were to rule and could only rule by obeying and accepting the guidance of the Brahmin priests. Thus the Brahmins elevated themselves to the top most status of both as temporal and spiritual leaders. Next on the ladder is Kshatriya (Rājanya), the warriors group who were rulers and their duty is to protect the land and its people from external and internal threats and enemies. They were expected to rule keeping in view the advice given by the Brahmin ministers and teachers who were considered to be well- versed in Dharmasāstrās. Third in the hierarchy was the Vaisya, the trading community, whose duty is to provide for the needs of the society. This business community was to carry on their tradecraft within the parameters of the rules and regulations provided in the Dharmasāstrās. These three upper castes are also known as dvija (the twice-born - physical as well as spiritual birth) and enjoyed the privilege of being adorned with the sacred thread, a religious sign of superior birth and a qualification to learn the sacred Vedas. The last in the caste hierarchy was the Sūdra, the servile caste, whose only duty, as already mentioned, is to serve the above mentioned three upper castes. b). Assigned Identity vs. Chosen Identity While all these four castes fall within the framework of caste in the majority Hindu religious tradition, there is also a large percentage of people who are differentiated from the other four castes but their lowest position was also underlined. With the Arthasastra of Kautilya4 written sometime between 4th and 5th centuries B. C. mentioning separate wells for the exclusive use of these people known as candāla and restrictions from entering the village proper during the night, their segregation, and their ritual pollution gradually resulted in their untouchability. Further, Manu, the Brahmin Law-giver, in one stroke fashioned and consolidated the outcaste and untouchable status of the candāla forever in the following passage: Bu the dwelling of candālās and svapākās shall be outside the village, they must be made apapātrās, their wealth (shall be) dogs and donkeys. Their dress shall be the garments of the dead, they shall eat) their food from broken dishes, black iron (shall be) their ornaments and they must always wander from place to place. A man who fulfils a religious duty shall not seek intercourse with them; their transactions (shall be) among themselves and their marriages with their equals. Their food shall be given to them by others (other than Aryan giver) in a broken dish; at night they shall not walk about in villages and towns. By the day (they) may go 5 about for the purpose of their work … that is a settled rule. 4 T. Ganapati Sastri, ed., The Arthasastra of Kautilya, 3 Vols. (Trivandrum: N.p., 1952). P. 114 5 Wendy Doniger and Brian K. Smith, trans., Manusmriti (New Delhi: Penguin Books), 1992. X.31.pp. 92-94 3 Today these candālās who are popularly known as the untouchables constitute about 16.6% of the total Indian population. These people are identified as the Untouchables. According to 1961 Census, these untouchables numbered 64 million out of a total population of 439 million; in 1971, they were estimated to have reached 80 million out of a total population of 548 million; in 1991, they were numbered as 138 million in a total population of 846 million and In the latest 2011 enumeration, out of a total population of 1.21 billion, they constitute about 167 million. This means that at the beginning of the last decade, they constituted about 16 percent of the Indian population, and now at the beginning of this decade they are 16.6% of the total Indian population.