10 Highland Clearances

10 HIGHLAND CLEARANCES ensuring that financial responsibility for a destitute popu- HINDUISM. Hinduism today has approximately 800 lation would never again fall at their door. million adherents around the world, though the vast ma- The land agitation that took place in the Highlands and jority of these are to be found in South Asia, the land of its islands in the 1880s saw crofters and their advocates seek origins. Modern Hinduism developed, in more ways than is redress for historical grievances over land tenure. The customarily understood, under the crucible of colonial Clearances, still fresh in the memory of many tenants, rule. By the late eighteenth century, considerable portions provided a rallying point for reformers. Similarly, the out- of India had fallen under British rule, and the British break of World War I coincided with the centenary of some ‘‘discovery’’ of Hinduism dates to this period. Translations of the most notorious Sutherland Clearances, and the call of various classes of Hindu religious literature into Euro- for homes ‘‘fit for heroes’’ for returning Highland soldiers pean languages were first attempted at this time, just as was backed up by the idea that such a policy would finally lengthy accounts purporting to offer insights into Hindu right past wrongs. customs, manners, and mores were also beginning to Literature and dramaÀoften based on the Sutherland appear. Though the establishment of British rule would experienceÀsaw the Clearances return to public discourse eventually ease the way for Christian missionaries, until in the latter part of the twentieth century. Land and its 1813 the East India Company was not favorably disposed ownership was among the first devolved issues tackled by toward missionary activity. Indians were perceived as the reconvened Scottish Parliament, and the ‘‘expression of being particularly religious-minded, and British officials regret’’ by the Parliament placed the Clearances in a context were certain that nothing was calculated to jeopardize of apologies for perceived historic wrongs wrought on British rule in India as much as creating insecurity of various peoples throughout the world. Internationally, land, religious belief and expression among their subjects. and the forced removal of the people occupying that land in According to conventional scholarly accounts that are the name of economic advancement, remains an issue with still not without their adherents, early British Orientalists global relevance in the twenty-first century. The Three or Indologists, such as Sir William Jones, Nathaniel Gorges Dam on the Chang (Yangtze) River will displace over Halhead, and Charles Wilkins, who never doubted the one million Chinese from their homes. The Sardar Sarovar superiority of their culture and intellectual attainments, dam in Gujarat, India, also highlights the ongoing tension were nevertheless enthusiastic about the achievements of between economic development and the displacement of the ancient Hindus. By the early nineteenth century, how- thousands of families in order to accommodate that devel- ever, British rule was firmly in place and racial feelings had opment. Land reform and redistribution has been high on become more pronounced. There was much less hesitation in the political agenda in Brazil, Venezuela, South Africa, denouncing Hinduism as a polytheistic faith ridden with andÀmost controversiallyÀZimbabwe. superstitions, and scores of works drew attention to bar- barous practices alleged to have been inspired or sanctioned [See also Scotland.] by the Hindu faith, including sati (widow-immolation), BIBLIOGRAPHY female infanticide, human sacrifice, child marriages, hook- Devine, Tom M. Clanship to Crofters’ War: The Social Transform- swinging, polygamy (among some classes of Brahmans), and ation of the Scottish Highlands. Manchester, U.K.: Manchester prohibitions designed to prevent widows, including prepu- University Press, 1994. The most accessible recent academic work on the chronology and themes of the Clearances and their bescent girls, from remarriage. European observers, quite aftermath. unmindful of the clearly subservient status of their own Fry, Michael. Wild Scots: Four Hundred Years of Highland women, had nevertheless concluded that one reliable evalua- History. London: John Murray, 2005. Condemned as ‘‘Clear- tive scale for judging civilizations consisted in assessing how ance denial’’ by critics, Fry offers an interesting and thoughtful counterbalance to many recent works on the subject. they treated their women. In this respect, India was found Hunter, James. The Making of the Crofting Community. gravely wanting. Edinburgh: Donald, 1976. New ed., 2000. An innovative Reform Hinduism. The Bengali Brahman Rammohun ‘‘history from below’’ of the Highlands, which is still required reading three decades after its appearance. Roy (1772–1833) was perhaps the most illustrious of the Richards, Eric. The Highland Clearances: People, Landlords and early reformers who accepted that European rule in India Rural Turmoil. Edinburgh: Birlinn, 2000. The most accessible had fortuitously compelled Hindus to recognize the short- single-volume work by the most important historian of the Clearances in recent times, this book should be a first point of comings in Indian society. While Roy was unable to accept reference for anyone with a serious interest in the Highlands. the charge that Hinduism was intrinsically flawed, he A NDREW G. NEWBY acknowledged that the original teachings of the Vedas had HINDUISM 11 been corrupted; and while receptive to the ethical content of founded in the same year, is often described as a revivalist Christianity, he rejected its doctrinal teachings. Roy under- movement, Dayananda thought of himself as a modernist. took a careful scholarly study of the Hindu scriptures and He found no sanction for idol-worship, the practice of un- came to the conclusion that Hinduism, far from being a touchability, child marriage, or even the subjection of women polytheistic faith, was fundamentally monotheistic. He did in the Vedas; on the contrary, he was quite certain that not pause to consider, however, that ‘‘polytheism’’ and the social scientific learning of the West had been anticipated ‘‘monotheism’’ alike are not categories through which in the Vedas. The reformist and crusading impulses of the Hindus would have described themselves. His opposition Arya Samaj, which sent out missionaries throughout north to sati, which was to lead to its abolition in the territories India and even among diasporic Indian populations in Fiji, of the East India Company, enraged the Hindu orthodoxy. Trinidad, South Africa, and elsewhere, are seen today Roy was also a proponent of education in English, since he in the figure of Swami Agnivesh (b. 1941), a fiery activist wished to bring Western scientific and humanistic learning known as much for his critiques of Hindu superstitions as to India. for his work in procuring the freedom of bonded laborers. In 1828, Roy established an organization called the Divergent Strands of Hinduism: Nationalism, Brahmo Sabha (Society) dedicated to the Worship of One Devotionalism, and Spiritual Masters. Two of God. Apart from its advocacy of a simpler, more Unitarian- Dayananda’s contemporaries at the other end of India, in like form of Hinduism, the Brahmo Sabha promoted mod- Bengal, point to the diverse developments taking place ern learning and fought strenuously for the removal of under the rubric of Hinduism. The renowned novelist traditional disabilities against women. In the emergent and essayist Bankim Chandra Chatterjee (1838–1894), middle-class Hindu society of Bengal, girls were now edu- while not a supreme figure in the history of modern cated and child marriages were debated if not always Hinduism as such, nonetheless eloquently voiced the repudiated. The Tattvabodhini Sabha (Meeting Group), anguish of middle-class Hindus in posing the question, founded in 1839, aimed both to familiarize Hindus with ‘‘Just how had India repeatedly succumbed to foreigners?’’ their scriptures through inexpensive publications and In works such as Krsnacaritra (‘‘Life of Krishna,’’ 1886), stem the expansion of Christianity in India. Debendranath Bankim argued that the Hindu’s attachment to the Tagore (1817–1905), the father of the famous poet philosophy of bhakti (devotion) had rendered the once Rabindranath Tagore, endeavored to bring the two orga- vigorous race of Aryans into an effeminate people who, nizations together in 1843 and created something like a lost in rapturous and ecstatic devotion, had become charter of faith for the newly energized Brahmo Samaj incapable of defending their faith. Bankim called for the (Society). Under the controversial leadership of Keshub affirmation of a more masculine Hinduism. Chunder Sen (1838–1884), the Brahmo Samaj experienced Meanwhile, in another part of Calcutta, one of the most a number of schisms, even as its influence was experienced remarkable figures of modern history was steering Bengali in other parts of India and its agenda of social reform youth back toward bhakti. Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa became bolder. In western India, for example, the liberal- (1836–1886), who was far removed from the elite circles of minded Mahadev Govind Ranade (1842–1901) established Bengali society, came to acquire a large following among the a similar organization by the name of Prarthana Samaj modernizing, middle-class Bengali families as a Hindu mys- (Prayer Society) in 1869, and there, too, debates over

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