BOOK REVIEW Nationalism and Social Reform in India Vijay Nambiar Indian Nationalism and Hindu Social Reform by Charles H Heimsath; Oxford University Press, 1964; pp xiii + 379, Rs 27.50. O the student of Indian social that the social basis of Hinduism, the saw the incompatibility of particular T history, the intellectual move­ caste system, came to be questioned. practices with the total progress of ments of the nineteenth century pre­ Various social service institutions took society, Furthermore, in their attempt sent a fascinating subject for study. up the cause of the less fortunate to 'rationalise' the Hindu religion, Never before in India's chequered past groups in society and sought to lift these reformers sought to distinguish had there occurred a social and politi­ India from the morass of caste tyranny. the essential aspects of Hinduism from cal transformation of the magnitude the nonessential ones, to separate the What was unique about the social such as was initiated as a result of the pristine religion from the subsequent reform movement initiated in the nine­ impact of Western ideas. Uptil now, accretions. teenth century? Heimsath notes that Hinduism had responded to efforts at Throughout the period surveyed, even prior to the nineteenth century, cultural penetration by wrapping itself one notices that the movement for there were movements aimed at reform more closely in its own Ivory Tower. social and religious reform and the ^especially in the field of religion. The Muslim domination, like earlier influ­ political movement, though interacting, entire Bhakti cult was in a way a re­ ences, left the general basis of Hindu constituted separate and clearly dis­ volt against orthodox Hinduism. How­ beliefs undisturbed. The presence of tinguishable traditions and were ever, this was more a negative or the British in India, however, brought together to lay the intellectual sannyasin-renunciative type of move­ about a radical change in the entire foundations for the emergence of ment than one of positive social ac­ social perspective. Apart from the nationalism. Heimsath, discussing the tion. For all its spiritual egalitarian- introduction of the idea of equality course of the Social Reform Movement ism, the Bhakti movement failed to based on a conception of the individual till the First World War, sees it as a cure the diseased condition of the as a repository of values and rights, three stage development. The first Indian social system. Its appeal was this contact with the West gave to stage was marked by efforts on the more emotional than rational and India, for the first time, a doctrine of part of individuals to order their individual salvation rather than social social progress — the belief that man personal lives in accordance with salvation was stressed. Even in the can himself, through collective action, standards adopted from the West. The nineteenth century, one finds Bhakti- change the structure of society. archtype of such individual revolt type movements, as in the Swami and reform was Raja Rammohan Roy. Professor Heimsath's purpose in this Narayana Sect and the Sanmargha The onset of the second stage was book is to attempt a historical analysis Sangha of Mahatnia Ramalingam and. marked by the formation of subnation- of this intellectual movement, more Heimsath maintains, in the immediate al groups and the growth of a new particularly as it related to organised effects of Shri Ramakrishna's mystrical desire for unity between the scattered efforts at social reform. Not content preachings. with providing a purely chronological and culturally diverse social groups. account:, he tries to see the social re­ Politically this was the period when form movement in the broad perspec­ The Motivating Force the first glimmer of nationalism tive of Hindu India's intellectual res­ The approach of the modern social appeared on the subcontinent. With ponse to the West. The interaction of reform movement was not one nxelu- the turn of the century, social reform social, religious and political forces sively of religious dedication. Con­ came to mean a regeneration of the and the gradual weaving of the com­ ceived under the influence of Western traditional spirit of the nation — a plex motif of Indian nationalism are methods of organisation, propagating regeneration founded on religious studied with an insight as sharply and recruiting support mainly from revival and cultural xenophopia. penetrating as it is coldly impartial. the English educated, and maintaining This review will concentrate not so as its basic premises western concepts much with the actual reforms effected Social Reform in India did not of individualism, natural rights and as on the close interaction of practical ordinarily mean, as it did in the West, social efficiency, the principal motivat­ and social movements over the last a reorganisation of the entire structure ing force was sober rationalism and century and a half. of society with a view to the allevia­ positive social ethics. Heimsath traces tion of the conditions of the under­ The modern social reform move­ the stimulation of modern social reform privileged; rather, it meant the infusion ment properly begins with Raja Ram­ to two main sources : the introduc­ into the existing social structure of mohan Roy. More than any other tion of English education and with it newer ways of life and modes of be­ Indian of his generation, Roy saw the transmission of Western knowledge haviour. Generally such change was the need for a rational social basis and experiences and secondly the acti­ gradual and was initiated only by the for Hinduism. Combining deep erudi­ vities of the Christian missionaries. upper classes. Social change in India tion with uncommon wisdom, Roy was, for a very long time, based on Broadly considered, the uniqueness tried to synthesise the age old Hindu the 'filtration theory' — the filtration of the Social Reform Movement in values with the rational elements of of attitudes and modes of behaviour India lay in the inspiration, the ideas the Christian and Islamic traditions. from the upper layers of society to and the motivations of the reformers In his effort to attract the educated the lower ones. It was only at the themselves. While earlier reformers Bengalis of his time, Roy founded the beginning of this century with the were prompted by a love for the Brahmo Samaj -- a monotheistic growth of organised reform groups underdog, these modern reformers religious body that drew much from 1441 September 18, 1965 THE ECONOMIC WEEKLY the Christian doctrines but which had astonishingly revolutionary in his actually of a congeries of several as its avowed purpose the restoration attitudes and actions, Dayanand typi­ separate nationalisms. The reason for of the Hindu faith to its pristine fies a complex reaction to Western this, Heimsath says, was that the sub­ purity. Even before the establishment influence, Rejecting the existing caste continent had few if any of the pre­ of the Brahmo Samaj, however, Roy basis of society, the interior status of conditions which bring a single nation had initiated a social reform movement women and the system of child marri­ into being. of the first order. Through a succession ages, he called for a vigorous pro­ What developed as Indian nation­ of polemical battles waged both during gramme of social reform aimed not so alism, Heimsath says was actually a discussion in the Atmiya Sabha later much at westernising the Hindu myth based on consciously propagated the Brahmo Samaj) and in the pages religion as in reviving the glory of ideas and one which was more a of the Samvad Kaumudi, Roy was able the Vedic religion. What Dayanand product of the personal preferences of to enlist support for such reform sought was not to help individuals the so-called nationalists than an measures as the abolition of 'sati' and attain personal salvation by isolating enunciation of social realities. He 'kulinism' and the introduction of themselves from society; he was inter­ believes that once this was lone, widow remarriage. ested in the salvation of society by through a process of rationalisation, With Roy began the rationalising of means of individual self-assertion and an attempt was made to relate this the Hindu tradition and the clearing the amelioration of social evils. myth to shared religious, linguistic of the underbrush of social evils. The Of considerable relevance was the and geographic identifications. In thread was taken up by other enlighte­ effect of Dayanand's militant: spiTittial- short, the author suggests that there ned individuals in Bengal. Bombay ism upon the emergence and develop­ was nothing spontaneous about the and Madras. In Bengal, Ishwarehan- ment of extremist nationalism in India. appearance of nationalism in India; it dra Vidyasagar shattered the very By bringing the dynamism of the past was consciously and carefully contriv­ core of orthodoxy by his monumental to vivify the modern mould, Dayanand ed by an "eminent company of intel­ crusade for widow remarriage. In blazed the trail for the extremists in lectuals" (p 135). Bombay Vishnu Shastri Pandit sought two significant respects: (1) His own governmental sanction for the same, deep-rooted xenophobia was carried New Set of Group Loyalities while in Madras the cause was taken on to the subsequent generations and up by Viresa Lingam Pantulu with the served to inspire the militant anti- Such a conception of nationalism is formation of the Rajamundhry Social British temper of extremist politics at undoubtedly stimulating. However, Reform Association. To mention some the turn of the century. (2) Connected one should not be led by this inter­ of the leading lights of the social re­ to this was Dayanand's idea that his­ pretation to believe that the genesis of form movement in Western India, tory could be interpreted in order to nationalism in India was uniquely there was Balgangadhar Shastri Jam- justify social action. This attitude was different from that in other countries. bhekar, the founder of the Bombay closely followed by Tilak in his in­ in essence, nationalism results from Darpan and a prominent champion of terpretation of the Gceta and Savarkar the confrontation and interaction of social reform, the Gujaratis Mehtaji in his interpretation of the 'Indian two distinct levels of group solidari­ Mancharam arid Narmada Shankar and War of Independence'. ties. There is, on the one hand, the that ebullient literary social critic solidarity that covers a whole conti­ nent, civilisation or culture. This we Gopal Hari Deshmukh Tokahitwadi'. Genesis of Nationalism On the practical level, there was shall term Culturalism. On the other syotiba Phule, an ardent reformer and By the 1870's already there had hand, there is a smaller, more social worker, and Karsondas Mulji of emerged a new stage in the modern chauvinistic kind of solidarity based the Maharaja Libel case fame. Even development of Indian intellectual on the identification of local customs, the Prarthana Samaj, formed in 1867. life. No longer was social protest habits of living and social attitudes. devoted itself to the reconstruction of confined to individual revolts against This we may term Localism or Paro­ Hinduism along more rational lines. established patterns of conduct. With chialism. the building up of the infra-structure Now, if nationalism is an artificially of social mobility — a rapidly growing inducible stimulation resulting from Different Patterns system of communication, the expan­ consciously prorogated ideas, this An important characteristic of the sion of educational facilities and the requires the manipulation of certain activities of the reformers of Western increase in the number and circulation deep-rooted social symbols. National­ India was their conscious effort to of newspapers — a new set of group ism thus becomes a matter primarily imbue public opinion with their loyalties began to sweep over the of social communication. According rationalism. As against the dramatic various sections of the educated popu­ as these symbols are derived from the unconventionality of )the Bengali Re­ lace. Thus it was that the first glimmer wider or the narrower of the above- formers, in Bombay there was no com­ of national consciousness began to discussed solidarities, the ambit of plete break with traditional society; appear on the Indian intellectual nationalism extends toward cultural­ rather what was sought was a practi­ horizon. ism or toward localism. This inter­ cal adjustment of religious convictions Discussing the emergence of nation­ pretation applies to the development and social behaviour toward a more alism in India, Heimsath refuses to of nationalism as much in the West open and egalitarian basis. give credence to the assumption that as in the newer nations. "Totally different was the impact of it was a logical-historical outgrowth In a consideration of the emergence Swami Dayanand and the early Arya of 19th century political reform acti­ of India nationalism, therefore three Samaj on Northern India. Dayanand vities. Nor is it accurate, he believes, important factors have to be analysed: combined in himself several parodoxi- to suggest that Indian rationalism was who were the agents for such stimula­ cal dements. Extremely conservative a single and unified movement. In fact, tion? what is the character or type of in his thought and beliefs, sometimes the author maintains that what we the solidarity desired? "and what are to the point of obscurantism, yet term Indian nationalism consists the types of symbols manipulated? 1442 THE ECONOMIC WEEKLY September 18. 1965

Answers to these questions ultimately The relevence of this extremist — The growing xenophobic reaction to would provide the due as to the moderate conflation for the develop­ Governmental interference in social actual nature of the nationalism that ment of the social reform movement and religious affairs came to be steadily would evolve. was nowhere more dramatically evident harnessed by the extremist political Several scholars date the emergence than in the debate over the Age of leaders and, by the lust decade of llus of nationalism with the. founding of Consent Bill. The background of the century, extremism had reached its the Indian National Congress, The Age of Consent controversy is com­ peak. early Congress idea of nationalism was mon knowledge. Consciously advocat­ In his assessment of the Age of elitist and gradualist in conception. ed by moderate reformers lik.- Consent controversy. Heimsath -main­ Broadly it was based on the theory of Malabari and Gidumal the movement tains that the real issue was the con­ filtaration of ideas from the top to against Infant Marriage grew in vigour fidence of Indians in Western inspired lower layers of society. "The dominant and evoked the active response of the political and social change, and to a reformers or the Social Conference. nationalist group, which was responsible lesser extent, their faith in the British However, when Gidumal sugges'ed a for the founding of the Indian Na­ Government. In 1891, he says this legal remedy in the amendment of the tional Congress, supported the creation confidence and faith outweighed the Age of Consent Act, opposition grew of conditions that they fell, from their desire to define and manage India's extraordinarily fierce. In Bengal, the knowledge of the West, should exist advance along traditional lines, One controversy centred on the religious before a nation embodying all of India's is curious to know what the term question of the 'garbhadhana', while people could make its identity felt. "Western inspired political and social in Madras both reformers and anti- Those were mass education, economic change'' exactly means in this context. reformers were equally active. The advancement, social reform,and a If it means Government initiated social vernacular press viewed this unwar­ unity of a kind that Western nations reform, this is patently incorrect: as ranted interference in religious affairs enjoyed. Having at its base an amti- Heimsath himself admits (P 174), no with suspicion and mistrust. t~aditioual, liberal-democratic, secular major social reform legislation was .and politically oriented concept of the passed between 1891 and 1929. As for nation, the nationalism of the early Tilak and Ranade political change. this controversy Congress could properly encompass all It was in Bom buy, however, that marks the beginning of the transition Indian cultures and religions". Though, the debate took on the magnitude of of nationalism from an elitist move­ conceptually the Congress had a clear a national issue. This was largely due ment to a popular mass movement; notion of nationalism, the precise to the publicity given to it by Tilak. relying not so much on Western libe­ strategy for the mobilisation of popu­ Though Tilak recognised that this was ral ideas as on the manipulation of lar support was not. carefully worked primarily a religious issue, he was indigenous cultural symbols. As for out by the early Congress nationalists. concerned rather with strengthening restoring faith in the British Govern­ the political forces at that time moving ment, it was with Tilak that the idea Parochial Nationalism in the direction of extremist opposi­ of 'Purna swaraj' crystallised and However, almost alongside this there tion to British rule. What was most found popular acceptance, had emerged another distinct effort at important for him was not any part­ stimulating "national feeling." Hist icular programme of social or political Emphasis on Social Reform initialed by Rnjnarain Bosc in the reform, hut the awakening within the 1860's, later taken up by N abagopaI masses of a political and social con­ One of the most urgent questions Mitra, that zealous organiser of the sciousness. Accepting Bankings uLea the nationalist movement faced in its Hindu. Mela, this movement sought to that nationalism could only be based very early stages, was whether social develop ties on the basis of religion. on a solidarity that was deep-rooted reform should precede political reform "The Hindus are destined to become a in the consciousness of the masses, or vice versa. The earlier moderates religious nation" (P 137). The most Tilak saw that such consciousness tried to bypass this problem by assign­ brilliant advocate of this type of could only be developed through the ing social reform to private action on nationalist-parochial sentiment was evocation of religious and cultural the local level, while political reform Bankim Chandra Chatterji. Though loyalties. Only in this way could India was considered on the national level Bankim thought in terms of a paro­ be liberated from the yoke of foreign and through public discussion. the chial nationalism - - his evocation in tyranny. Admittedly, these roc:il Indian National Congress deliberately 'Bande Mataram' was to Bengal not to evils to be curbed; but to argue in kept aloof from social questions. How­ India - - no one realised more clearly favour of legislation of social reform ever it was Ranade who sought to give than him how this solidarity was to be seemed to imply acknowledgement national recognition to the social re­ evoked. To Bankim. social solidarity that India's advancement was depen­ form movement, by attaching the could be achieved primarily by stir­ dent upon the British (p 163). National Social Conference to the In­ ring religious and cultural loyalties and Few reformers could counter this dian National Congress as its counter­ by working out a close identification argument advanced by Tilak. Even part. of the individual with a particular Ranade, who formulated the classic The National Social Conference itself community. What this ultimately moderate argument for social reform was soon to split into two distinct amounted to was that the basis of na­ had to seek conciliation with Tilak at schools. On the one side, there was tionalism was to be religious revival­ the Fourth Social Conference in 1890. the Ranade-Telang school which ad­ ism. No longer was nationalism view­ The ultimate passage of the Bill was, hered to the doctrine of "progress ed as a theoretical concept; it became however, interpreted as a victory for along the line of least resistenee". Ac- a vibrant collective consciousness. An­ the Sudharakas. The Social Reform cording to them, reformers must "flow other important noticeable feature was movement itself gained, for the first with the tide of social change''. For the stress on the vernacular as the time, a national recognition. Yet, it Telang, this meant a greater emphasis vehicle of this nationalism. was no more than a phyrric victory. upon political reform, which he felt 1441

THE ECONOMIC WEEKLY September 18, 1965 was easier to achieve in his day. This a cultural and religious awakening (the moderate and the extremist) and approach sought to effect change only could effect this. evolved an altogether new response to in "constructive channels" and rarely In the held of social reform, Annie the British influence. Like the social sought to undermine the foundations of Besant, after an initial attempt to bols­ reformers, sometimes even mote vehe­ Hindu society. The opposite school of ter the orthodox position, came out mently, Gandhi insisted that social reform, led by Chandavarkar and the in her book "Wake Up India: A Plea progress, especially (for the untouch­ Madras reformers (particularly the for Social Reform'' with a vigorous ables, was a condition for political Hindu and the Social Reformer) called plea for all the major planks of the progress. However, Gandhi's method of for a vigorous campaign of social re­ social reformer's programme including evoking popular response and of social form, Chandavarkar appealed to men remarriage of virgin widows and the communication differed radically from and women to act from a free con­ emancipation of the depressed classes. the traditional methods of the social science and stand up against social Further, the Theosophical Society car­ reformers. His emphasis was not al­ evils. ried her concern into endeavours of a ways on reason and empirical evidence social service or educational nature. but rather on an ethical imperative. Such divergences naturally affected Further and most effectively, he im­ the overall efficacy of the movement Another figure on the intellectual hori­ zon was Swami Vivekananda. Vivek- pressed by the strength of personal for social reform. This was further example. Yet, again, he refused to vitiated by the fact that the social ananda was profoundly struck by the malaise of his own society. Much of accept the moderates' stand that true reformers themselves failed to live national unity could only be achieved up to their high precepts. They the country's tragedy, he felt, could be ascribed to the hopeless quest for by the complete removal of caste bar­ yielded in the face of precisely those riers. elements against which they should. mukli. Vivekananda wanted to go to have stood up (e g Ranades 'praya- the very root of this malaise and ef­ Even in the political field. Gandhi schita', his second marriage to a child fect a radical reformation. This he felt emerged as the most successful synthe­ of eleven; Raghunatha Rao's reluctance was possible only by means of a spiri­ siser. While he wielded the xenophobic to attend the marriage of a widow, etc). tual rejuvenation. "Put the tire there spirit that had been roused by the It is against this background that one (at the level of the masses) and let it earlier extremist, his rejection of viol­ sees the strength of Tilak's insistence burn upwards and make the Indian ence in politics changed the very that social reform should be complete­ nation." Vivekananda condemned the strategy of the national movement. ly set aside and that the all important. so-called reformeis as having done no Gandhi thus was able to rouse the task was that of invigorating the poli­ good "excepting the creation of a most masses but he taught them to wield a tical movement, (p 210). vituperative, and most condemnatory different weapon. Again, though he literature." Rather- than endorse the appealed to the masses through the The early moderate nationalists tried ornamental reforms advocated by the conscious use of symbols borrowed to define a new India in terms of cate­ Social Conference, he sought to bring from Hinduism, he was prompt to gories derived from European political a new life for 'all' of India's women stress his universalism and prevent the and social experiences. These efforts and for the lower classes Vivekananda's national movement from becoming a failed inasmuch as the general mass thought marked the culmination of the mere communal congregation. Gandhi's of people were unaffected. What was 19th century social revolt, As Heim- success in the mobilisation of the needed was a completely new alignment sath says: nation was very evident so long as the of political and social forces. predominant aims of the movement "The challenge Vivekananda pre­ were negative. The precise utility of The formation of the Muslim League sented to Indians to reform totally these very same weapons and symbols and the theory of two separate streams their religious and social life was for the purpose of positive action and of cultural consciousness cut at the not accepted, because on the one reconstruct ion of the nation is, how­ roots of the earlier Congress stand on hand it called for too great a sacri­ ever, being questioned today. nationalism. Slowly, nationalism in the fice from the still complacent edu­ early years of this century became cated and privileged groups and on Heimsath concludes his study with Hindu and adopted Hindu symbols and the other hand, demanded an up­ the assertion that Social Reform and traditions on a mass scale. The r>ath- rooting of traditions, customs and nationalism are irrevocably linked as finders of this new religio-polirical beliefs unacceptable to the general living processes and as organised move­ movement were the practitioners of populace" ments in India as well as elsewhere. political extremism like B C Pal, Tilak Following Lerner, he believes that and Aurobindo. The basic requisites nationalism and social reform emerge Revivalist Nationalism for the reconstruction of nationalism, as a result of transformation of tradi­ the extremists believed, were : (a) the The impact of this new revivalist tional societies and the transfer of in­ incorporation of the masses into the nationalism upon the social reform dividual loyalties from the family and political movement and (b) the identi­ movement is of much significance in caste groups to larger societies of the fication of the nation with religious that the new nationalists stimulated the city, region and nation. It is basically ideas. These were linked together and reformers belief that all groups in so­ from this social perspective that Heim­ gave to the movement a strong militant ciety must benefit from the advances sath views change and reform in India. and revivalist character. As Aurobindo modern India was making. Even the Written with extraordinary breadth said (p 313) Swaraj was "the fulfilment National Social Conference responded of vision and sensitivity, Heimsath's of the ancient life of India under by enlarging the scope of social reform analysis is as refreshing in style is it modern conditions, the return of the by expanding it to cover housing, edu­ is original in interpretation. The author 'Satyayuga' of national greatness . . '. cation of the masses and other welfare combines paintaking research with the If the national spirit was to penetrate activities and objectives. intellectual simplicity that goes with beneath the English-educated intellec­ In a very important sense, Mahatma true scholarship to provide us with a tual groups, and be truly Indian, only Gandhi synthesised the two approaches definitive work on the subject. 1445