Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Volume 8 Article 3

January 1995

Four Responses to Prof. Dharampal's "Bharatiya Chitta Manas and Kala"

Francis X. Clooney

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Recommended Citation Clooney, Francis X. (1995) "Four Responses to Prof. Dharampal's "Bharatiya Chitta Manas and Kala"," Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies: Vol. 8, Article 3. Available at: https://doi.org/10.7825/2164-6279.1108

The Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies is a publication of the Society for Hindu-Christian Studies. The digital version is made available by Digital Commons @ Butler University. For questions about the Journal or the Society, please contact [email protected]. For more information about Digital Commons @ Butler University, please contact [email protected]. Clooney: Four Responses to Prof. Dharampal's "Bharatiya Chitta Manas and Kala"

Four Responses to Prof. Dharampal's Bharatlya Chitta Manas and Kala

Francis Clooney, S.J. Boston College

Introduction

FOR DECADES PROF. Dharampal has scholarship, Indian and western; he cares been well-known and respected for his deeply about his theme and his research is research on eighteenth-century ; his imbued with his personal convictions and analyses of a wide range of social, cultural, questions. His key point is perhaps the one political, economic and technological issues expressed at the end of chapter 4 and have been respected and valued during this beginning of 5 (47 -8): Indians do have a time. Bhiiratfya Chitta Manas and Kala - unique sense of the world order and of time, perhaps, "The Indian Sense of Conscious­ of the human place in relation to all of ness, Mind and Time" - is both a continua­ reality - and therefore they do have a tion of his earlier work and a new venture in different attitude toward technology and reflection on larger and more elusive progress, learning, universities, etc. India religious and cultural issues. In introducing must recover its sense of itself and stop the book, Jitendra Bajaj, Director of the imitating the West, if it is to flourish as a Centre for Policy Studies in Madras (with coherent culture - it can and must do this. which Prof. Dharampal has been associated Bhiiratfya Chitta Manas and Kala was in recent years), tells us that Prof. released with great fanfare during a Dharampal wrote the essay (in Hindi) Srlvaisnava conference in Madras in March because he has begun to feel 1993; the chief guest at the event was the that though his historical studies have to revered Tridandi Chinna Srimannarayana some extent helped him understand the Ramanuja Jeear Swami, founder of the Jeear ways in which the Indians prefer to Educational Trust and Veda Viswavi­ organize the physical world around dyalayam at Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh; if them, yet he has failed to comprehend the conference was a celebration of tradition the Mind that provides the anchorage and heritage at the end of the twentieth for these typically Indian ways, century, this book is perhaps the clearest preferences and seekings. And, to learn enduring mark of the conference. Even at about this anchorage, to understand the that time it was clear to me that great hopes Indian Chitta and KaIa, as he puts it, he were invested in the book, as a real began a study of the Indian classical contribution to a new intellectual atmosphere literature (9).1 in contemporary India, and rightly so. It is In this new reflective venture Prof. thoughtful, bold and provocative, it invites Dharampal remains an attentive observer of and deserves responses in kind - hence this Indian history, its habits and symbols, of issue of the Hindu-Christian Studies Bulletin. what makes sense to Indians and motivates Before turning to four invited responses, them, and what remains foreign and however, I offer an outline of the book's six unpersuasive; he has a good eye too for the chapters along with some key passages from styles, strengths and weaknesses of modern the book.

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Prof. Dharampal's Bharatfya Chitta Manas and Kala 3

Outline and excerpts

Key Points in Chapter I: the power and time in terms of their Pural}ic conceptions ... limits of Gandhi's influence on Indian In any case the twentieth century is not the culture; India as confined to the West's century of India (19). twentieth century; India's need to rediscover its own identity, ways of thinking and Key Points in Chapter II: The limits of living. western , which is the quintessential study of the conquered by the conquerors; Excerpts from Chapter I: We the educated the tendency of much research by Indians elite of India are wary of any attempt to themselves to be industrious, yet quantitative understand the Indian mind. Many of us had rather than qualitative, eager but alienattd; felt uneasy even about Gandhiji's efforts to how can Indians recover the Indian past in a delve into the Chitta and Kala of the people productive and properly Indian way? of India and voice what he perceived to be their innermost thoughts and feelings. We Excerpts from Chapter II: There are are somehow afraid of those inner thoughts probably many paths to an understanding of of the people of India. We want to proceed the Chitta and Kala of a civilization. In with the myth that there is nothing at all in studying the eighteenth-century Indian the Indian mind, that it is a clean slate on society and polity I traversed one such path. which we have to write a new story that we But that path led only to a sketchy ourselves have painstakingly learnt from the comprehension of merely the physical West. But we are also probably aware that manifestation of the Indian mind. It gave the Indian mind is not such a clean slate. In some understanding of the way Indians reality it is imbued with ideas on practically preferred to organize their social, political all subjects. Those ideas are not new ... and economic life, when they were free to From whatever source and at whatever do so according to their own genius and epoch the various ideas that dominate the priorities ... To learn about the people of minds of the Indian people have arisen, India, to try to understand the way they liYe, those ideas are indeed etched very deep. the way they think, the way they talk, the Deep within, we, the elite of India, are also way they cope with the varied problems of acutely conscious of this highly elaborate day-to-day living, the way they behave in structure of the Indian mind. We, however, various situations - and thus to know in want to deny this history of Indian detail 'about the ways of the Indians - is consciousness, close our eyes to the long perhaps another path to a comprehension of acquired attributes of the Indian mind, and the Indian Chitta and Kala. We are probably wish to reconstruct a new world for too far removed from the reality of Indian ourselves in accordance with what we life to be able to perceive intelligently the perceive to be the modern consciousness ways in which the people of India live (17). within this reality. It may be relatively easier to comprehend the Indian mind ... Whose twentieth and twenty-first centuries through the ancient literature of Indian are we so anxious about? The epoch civilization. In fact, the process of represented by these terms has little to do understanding the Indian Chitta and Kala with our Chitta and Kala. The people of cannot possibly begin without some India, in any case, have little connection understanding of the vast corpus of literature with the twentieth or the twenty-first that has formed the basis of Indian century ... The people of India, in fact, may civilization and regulated the actions and not be living even in the eighteenth century thoughts of the people of India for millennia of the West. They may still be reckoning (22). https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/jhcs/vol8/iss1/3 DOI: 10.7825/2164-6279.1108 2 Clooney: Four Responses to Prof. Dharampal's "Bharatiya Chitta Manas and Kala" 4 Prof. Dharampal's Bharatfya Chitta Manas and Kala

Indology, by its very definition, is the the four ages (yuga) of the world; the science of comprehending India from a non­ "smallness" of the human in the broader Indian perspective, and practically all Indi~n context of the universe. scholars and Indian institutions engaged III Excerpt from Chapter N: The major lesson the study of fall within the of this Indian story of creation is of the discipline of Indology. They have thus been smallness of man and his efforts in the vast trying to make India comprehensible to the drama of the Universe that has no beginning world. But what we need to learn from and no end. The cosmic play of creation Indian literature is how to make modernity unfolds on a very large scale, in time cycles comprehensible to us, in terms of our Chitta of huge dimensions. In that large expanse of and Kala, and to place the modern time and Universe, neither the man living in consciousness and modern times within that the simple bliss of K~ta, nor the man caught picture. Instead, our scholars have so far in the complexity of Kali, has much only been trying to place India, the Indian significance. Simplicity and complexity, mind and Indian consciousness, within the bliss and anxiety keep following each other. world-picture of modernity (23). But the play goes on (47). Key Points in Chapter III: The divide Key Points in Chapter V: The distinction of between the theory and practice of Indian para vidya ("knowledge of the sacred") and life; true Indian education as comprehensive apara vidya ("mundane knowledge"), and of right intellect, right conduct, right the way in which this distinction became meditation; the need for a holistic approach reduced to a hierarchicai order, the "higher" to Indian culture, neither Indological nor and the "lower", with the former over­ merely piecemeal. valued, the latter neglected; the negative Excerpt from Chapter III: If knowledge of influence of this attitude on social Prajiia [right intellect], Sf/a [right conduct] classification; how the theory of karma with and Samadhi [right meditation] is what is its appreciation of intention ~s actually a called education in our tradition, then we corrective to caste thinking. have to understand this form of education. Excerpts from Chapter V: The peculiarly We also need to find out how many amongst Indian awareness of the insignificance of us are educated in this sense of education. man and his efforts in the unending flow of Perhaps there are not many Indians who Kala is however not in consonance with may be called educated on this criterion. modernity. The belief that in every new There many be only half a per cent of cycle the Universe, from the moment of its Indians who are educated in the practice of creation, starts declining towards a lower Prajiia, Sf/a and Samadhi. Or, there may and lower state is also incompatible with even be five per cent, for all we know. But modern consciousness... If the Indian supposing there are only half a per cent understanding of the unfolding of the Indians who turn out to be educated in this Universe, and the place of man and his sense of educated, even that number may be efforts in it, is so contrary to the concepts of five or to ten times the number of people modernity, then this contrariness has to be adept at Prajiia, Sf/a and Samtidhi seriously pondered over. The structures that throughout the world. According to our own we wish to implant in India and the definition of education, therefore, we may processes of development that we want to be the most educated people in the world initiate can take root here, only if they seem (36). compatible with the Indian view of the Universe, with the Indian Chitta and Kala. Key Points in Chapter N: Indian notions of Structures and processes that are contrary to time and creation; the need for a retrieval of

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the picture of the Universe and its unfolding Key Points in Chapter VI: Toward a positive etched on the Indian mind are unlikely to appreciation of the Kali Yuga, the need for find much response in India. At least the a heightened sense of compassion, and for people of India, those who are still basically deeper faith in the value of the Indian anchored in their own Chitta and Kala, are tradition as preferable to foreign cultural and unlikely to participate in any efforts that religious values; the need for a new vision seem essentially alien to the Indian of the whole like Arjuna's comprehension of the Universe (48). Visvariipadarsana in Bhagavad Gftii 11) Thus the Brahmanas associated with the Excerpts from Chapter VI: What matters, recitation and study of the Vedas become the perhaps, is not the accuracy of an highest, and the Siidras engaged in the interpretation, but the sense of compassion practice of the arts and crafts of ordinary that the interpreter feels for his fellow living become the lowest. This hierarchy beings. It is this compassion, the concern for may not in reality be a fundamental aspect the state of all beings and respect for their of classical Indian thought ... the issue of the efforts, even if these seem insignificant on hierarchy of the Var~l.as is not a closed the cosmic canvas, which makes a particular question in the Indian tradition. During the interpretation valuable. Only in light of such last two thousand years, there have occurred compassion and concern can we hope to numerous debates on this question within the make any meaningful new interpretations of Indian tradition. And, in practical social life the Indian Chitta and Kala. Contemporary such a formulation of high and low could interpretation flowing from such transparent not have survived anyway. The concepts of compassion and concern alone can have any the irreconcilability of the Para Vidyii and chance of forming a secure basis for the re­ Aparii Vidyii, and the corresponding establishment of the Indian way of life asymmetry between the Brahmana and the today. Interpretations that lack compassion, Siidra, could never have meant much in like the one about poverty and destitution actual practice in any healthily functioning being the result of one's own earlier social organization... The imbalance seems Karmas, are not going to be of much help in to have arisen mainly through the such an effort (58-9). interpretations of the canonical texts that What is of significance is always the have been made from time to time (52). present. If we wish to affirm the validity of Comprehending and appreciating these Indian consciousness, of Indian Chitta and various interpretations, and working out a Kala,we can do so only by establishing the new interpretation that falls within the Indian way of life in the present-day world. ancient tradition and is yet capable of being And, this reassertion of India in the present related to the modern contexts, is perhaps context is the major task today which Indian the paramount task of Indian scholarship. scholarship, Indian politics, Indian sciences This continuous reinterpretation and renewal and technologies, Indian arts, drafts and of the tradition, continuous meditation on other diverse skills must accomplish (59). the ways of manifesting the Indian Chitta This at least can be said about all Indians, and Kala in practical day-to-day life, and the even about the ordinary Christians of India, continuous exploration of the Indian way of that their Chitta and Kala have little in life in different times and different contexts, common with modern European civilization. is what the Rl?is, MUIJ-is and other great They are all equally alien in the world of scholars of India have been concerned with European modernity. In fact, except for at through the ages (56). most half a per cent of Indians, the rest of India has precious little to do with European modernity. Whatever else may be etched on

https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/jhcs/vol8/iss1/3 DOI: 10.7825/2164-6279.1108 4 Clooney: Four Responses to Prof. Dharampal's "Bharatiya Chitta Manas and Kala" 6 Prof. Dharampal's Bharatfya Chitta Manas and Kala

the minds of these 99.5 per cent of Indians, western phase... The consciousness of the there is nothing there that even remotely Indian people would have also been modeled resembles the consciousness of the modern into the same state of sUbordination as that West or even that of ancient Greece or of the western man, if the attempts of the Rome. But in the unbounded flow of last two hundred years to westernize or modernity almost every Indian seems to Christianize India had reached anywhere have lost the ability to express his innate (61-2). consciousness even in small ways. Even his If the westernization of India is not possible, festivals, that in a way reminded him of his then we shall have to revert to our own Kala, and gave him, until recently, some civilizational moorings. We shall have to little pleasure in his otherwise impoverished come back into our own Chitta and Kala. drab life, and even the 'most vital of his Ridding ourselves of the western ways of rituals, those of birth, marriage and death, thought and action we shall have to start that gave him a sense of belonging to the understanding ourselves and the world from universe of his Chitta and Kala, have fallen our own civilizational perspective. This by the wayside ... We have to find some way effort to understand ourselves and our Kala out of such a state of rootlessness . We have will probably be similar to the way Vyasa, to somehow find an anchor again in our in his Mahabharata, surveys the complete civilization's consciousness, in our innate story of Indian civilization, explores its Chitta and Kala (60). diverse seekings, its ways of thought and If all these efforts [at Christianization] had action, and then, shows a path that is led to a thorough-going westernization of the appropriate to the Kali Yuga. Or, perhaps it Indian mind so that the people of India on will be like the way Srikrishna offers Arjuna their own could start associating themselves a glimpse of the Universe and on the basis with the late twentieth and the twenty-first of that view of the world, the Visvarilpa centuries of the West, then that perhaps Darsana, shows him the way out of his would have been some sort of a solution to dilemma. In any case, we shall have to form India's problems. If that change of Indian a view of the world and other present tinIe, civilizational consciousness had taken place, from our own perspective, before we can then the ordinary Indian today would think find a path of our own. This task of having and behave more or less like the ordinary a new Visvarilpa Darsana for ourselves, and man of Europe and America, and his searching a path of action in the light of that priorities and seekings would have become Darsana, has to be performed by all those similar. Indians would then have also lost who are closely connected with the Indian the peculiarly Indian belief, which even the tradition and have a deep sense of respect most ordinary of the ordinary Indians for it. It is, however, important that those harbours in his heart, that he is a part of the involved in this exercise are motivated by ultimate Brahman, and by virtue of this compassion for fellow beings. And, for that relationship with Brahman, he too is to happen, the beliefs of the people of India completely free and sovereign in himself. In and their ways of thought and action will place of this feeling of freedom and have to be given priority over anything that sovereignty, that so exasperates those who is written in the texts (62). seek to administer or reform India, the Once we seriously get down to the task, it Indian too would have both acquired the may not turn out to be too difficult to find a western man's innate sense of total new direction for the Indian civilization. To subordination to the prevailing system, a redefine our seekings and aspirations, our subordination of the mind that man in the ways of thought and action, in a form that is West has always displayed irrespective of appropriate and effective in today's world whatever the system was in any particular

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may not be too hard a task after all. Such that recollection of the past, they then define reassertions and redefinitions of the path for their future. Many civilizations civilizational thrust are not uncommon in of the world have undergone such self­ world history. For every civilization there appraisal and self-renewal at different times. comes a time when the people of that We ourselves, in our long history, must civilization have to remind themselves of have many times engaged in this recollection their fundamental civilizational and reassertion of the Chitta and Kala of consciousness and their understanding of the India. We need to undertake such an Universe and the Time. From the basis of exploration into ourselves once again (64).

Four responses to Bharatfya Chitta Manas and Kala

What follows now is a small symposium in of History at Jesus and Mary College, New response to Prof. Dharampal's work; it is Delhi, and Anand Amaladass,S.J., Director our hope that in this way the Hindu­ of the Institute for Philosophy and Culture, Christian Studies Bulletin will contribute to Madras. Professors Rambachan and this new, important and interesting Chitgopekar are Hindu, Professors Nelson conversation about , its cultural and Amaladass Christian. As the reader will and cross-cultural possibilities today: Is note, their responses are engaged, vigorous, there an Indian mind? Is it to be discovered critical, taking quite seriously the points in the rich traditions of ancient India? What raised by Prof. Dharampal; their comments should Indians think of the West today, what are direct, frank and critical; they thus do should Hindus think of Christianity? How do honour to Prof. Dharampal's reflections, religions modernize - when they do it well? even when in disagreement with him. Responses are offered here by four scholars We hope that the issues raised will who are themselves very much concerned become topics for lively discussion among with the issues Prof. Dharampal raises: in readers of the Bulletin and members of the the United States, , Society for Hindu Christian Studies; and we Professor of Religious Studies at St. Olaf's look forward to a response from Prof. College, and Lance Nelson, Professor of Dharampal in the next issue of the Hindu Religious Studies at University of San Christian Studies Bulletin. Diego; in India, Nilima Chitgopekar, Prof.

Lance Nelson University of San Diego

Prof. Dharampal evokes a sense of urgency century of India. Prof. Dharampal's essay as he calls India's westernized intelligentsia and the project it describes reflects, of to a rediscovery of India's ethos and destiny. course, a global movement. Those who were This task is essential, he feels, if India is to colonized are seeking decolonization, as regain its bearings and revitalize its ethnic groups everywhere attempt to civilization. While he. recognizes that the rediscover their cultural and religious . twentieth century is "the century of the identities in face of the homogenizing assault West", he envisions a possible. future of modernity.

https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/jhcs/vol8/iss1/3 DOI: 10.7825/2164-6279.1108 6 Clooney: Four Responses to Prof. Dharampal's "Bharatiya Chitta Manas and Kala"

8 Prof. Dharampal' s Bharatfya Chitta Manas and Kala

Speaking of the Indian psyche, Prof. This is a promIsIng start. Readers Dharampal uses the Sanskrit word citta, hoping for a courageous probing of this emphasizing that citta contains subliminal contrariness, however, will soon be impressions that condition all experience. disappointed. Having underscored how India This means that cultural values are "etched is momentously different, Prof. Dharampal very deep" in the Indian mind, which has a proceeds to minimize important aspects of "highly elaborate structure" that resists that difference. His argument in this respect westernizing overlays (17). India's "innate is unconvincing. consciousness" is something that India's elite The traditional Hindu distinction between cannot disconnect themselves from, Prof. para and apara vidyas, sacred and mundane Dharampal argues (60). They must make a forms of knowledge, Prof. Dharampal conscious effort to recover it. believes, is not hierarchical, despite having The primary method that Prof. become deeply ingrained in the Indian Dharampal offers is a thoughtful reading of psyche as such. For centuries India's elites India's ancient Sanskrit literature. Unlike have esteemed "spiritual" knowledge over Roy and Dayananda, he favours the epics practical disciplines, for which they have and Pural!as over the Vedic-Upanishadic had contempt. But this long-standing habit corpus. In particular, he seizes on pural!ic must be corrected. Prof. Dharampal argues conceptions of the flow of time (kala) as the that this false hierarchical conception of key to authentic Indian consciousness. knowledge has vitiated India's understanding India's masses, he suggests provocatively, of both caste and karma. The idea that "may not be living even in the eighteenth certain knowledge is higher led to the belief century of the West" (19). Rather, they are that certain actions were superior. This, in probably living in the Dark Age, the Kali turn, led to a distorted hierarchical reading Yuga. Prof. Dharampal challenges his of caste. Gandhi's non-hierarchical view of readers to think what it means to relate to caste, Prof. Dharampal claims, is more modernity from within such a horizon. authentic. The ancient and well-known Certainly the sense of universe as play Pun~a Srlkta, which shows Brahmins proceeding in cycles without beginning or originating from the mouth of the cosmic end is deeply rooted in the Indian psyche. man and SUdras from his feet, intends no Surely this image provides the context for hierarchy by this arrangement. The much much that is distinctive about India. While revered Sailkaracarya of Jyotir Math, the the West sees human beings and their late Swami Brahmananda Sarasvati, is technology in an evolutionary perspective, misreading the doctrine of karma when he Prof. Dharampal notes, the traditional Indian states that poverty is a karmically view rules out progress. Starting with an determined state. initial perfection, the cycles display an Perhaps. But when a scholar seeking the inexorable decline, over which human authentic spirit of traditional India implies beings have little, if any, control. that Hindus regard the head as ritually equal Traditional India looks on science and to the feet, one wonders. When he casually technology as symptoms of this descent. Its dismisses the teachings of a highly regarded tools and devices are seen as "temporary spokesperson for traditional Hinduism with human artifacts required to sustain life in a no supporting arguments, one must confess constantly decaying state of the Universe". perplexity. Still, Prof. Dharampal's tactic Prof. Dharampal's conclusion: "If the Indian here will be familiar to students of understanding . . . is so contrary to the nineteenth-century reform Hinduism. What concepts of modernity, then this contrariness is disagreeable by the standards of modern has to be seriously pondered over" (48). western liberalism is not essential to the Hindu view, but a later accretion. Prof.

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Dharampal admits the need for a "new As a Christian who acknowledges a interpretation" of the Indian mind and sense profound spiritual debt to India, and as a of time. The standard he proposes is scholar who has taken Indological studies as compassion, but the reader - confronted his life's work, I can only agree with Prof. with his forced reading of the tradition - Dharampal's estimate of the urgency of his begins to wonder whether "compassion" in chosen task. But, however understandable, this case is a back door for western egalita­ I find his easy disparagement of Indology rian values. Prof. Dharampal himself asks and Christianity disturbing. I would suggest Indian Indologists: "Why demean this that he and his colleagues would do well not ancient literature by imputing it with to cut themselves off prematurely from any modernistic presentiments?" (27). Why source of aid in the complex work they face. indeed? Why not instead courageously Sympathetic Indologists - and there are continue the promised investigation into such, both in India and abroad - might help India's "contrariness"? Such an inquiry, provide . some greater objectivity. For pursued knowledgeably and resolutely, example, they might question the wisdom of would be tremendously fruitful. searching for the mind of India through an Prof. Dharampal avoids carefully exclusively Sanskrit vocabulary, ignoring the defining para and apara, but do they not - contribution of Tamils and Muslims, Basava in this context - mean precisely "higher" and Kabir, and others. Understanding India and "lower", "superior" and "inferior"? in terms of a Sanskritized essence might Has Prof. Dharampal read Sankara? Caste provide further fuel for . may not have been a factor in the paradisal But would it promote genuine KIJa Yuga, and Gandhi may have denied the decolonization, or just more sorrowful hierarchical conception of caste, but has manifestations of the colonial trauma? Prof. Dharampal read the Dharmaslistras? Christians, including those who have How could he deeply ponder the puraI)ic been in India for almost two thousand years, universe that he describes so well without might also provide valuable input. No doubt seeing that it is thoroughly hierarchical? He the western tide that has overwhelmed India himself admits, as we have seen, that it is to a considerable degree an outgrowth of relegates technology - the apara vidya - to Christian culture. But modernity has been an the ages of decline as a symptom thereof. ungrateful child, attacking Christianity When souls are at different stages in their equally with other traditions. Christians have transmigratory ascent toward moksa, the devoted considerable effort toward idea of hierarchy is unavoidable. . understanding themselves within modernity, Prof. Dharampal hopes that the present era and critiquing it. Hindus could learn from is "the nether end of one of those cycles of their successes, and perhaps equally from decay of Dharma and its reestablishment that their failures. keep recurring" (63-4). However, his In an earlier issue of this journal, readings of the cultural pulse of India Francis X. Clooney, S.J., suggested that remind us of a very different possibility. It dialogue between Hindus and Christians is a is more likely that the Indian tradition - like necessary luxury. 2 But for those Hindus Christianity - confronts an unprecedented and Christians who are striving to hold their onslaught, in the face of which it is spiritual centres against a planetary kala now uncertain whether dharma, in the forms it ruled by modernity and its products, I would has been known, will survive. say that it not a lUxury at all but a simple and pressing necessity.

https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/jhcs/vol8/iss1/3 DOI: 10.7825/2164-6279.1108 8 Clooney: Four Responses to Prof. Dharampal's "Bharatiya Chitta Manas and Kala"

10 Prof. Dharampal's Bharatfya Chitta Manas and Kala

Anantanand Rambachan St. Olaf's College

The Hindu sage Sri have lost all touch with any stable norms of (1879-1950) emphasized the primacy of self­ behaviour and thinking. All around, and in inquiry and self-understanding. For this all situations, there prevails a sense of teacher, a proper perspective about human confusion and forgetfulness" (32). The existence is impossible without resolving spurce of this rootlessness is the implicit first the problem of one's identity. Self­ acceptance of the superiority of western knowledge, Ramana Maharshi taught, is the modes of thinking and acting, while at the consequence of persistent inquiry into the same time being rooted inescapably in the very source of the "I" thought. The priority unique consciousness and time (chitta and which Ramana Maharshi gave to self­ kala) of India. The way out of this absurdity understanding is reflected continuously in his is through the establishment of a "conceptual didactic methodology. He repeatedly guided framework that makes Indian ways and his questioners to this foundational issue. aspirations seem viable in the present, so Ramana's response, for example, to a visitor that we do not feel compelled or tempted to who inquired about whether God possessed indulge in demeaning imitations of the a form or not was typical. Until the visitor modern world .... And this secur'e basis for could decide whether he had a form or not, the Indian civilization, this framework for argument about God's nature was mere the Indian self-awakening and self-assertion, pedantry. When asked about the posthumous has to be found mainly within the Chitta and state of the human being, the Maharshi Kala of India" (16). pointed out the futility of wanting to know Prof. Dharampal expresses particular what one will be after death without concern about the assumptions and knowing who one is in the present. methodology of Indian scholars studying In his small work, Bharatfya Chitta traditional texts. While acknowledging the Manas and Kala, Prof. Dharampal argues labours and contributions of these scholars, for the necessity of a similar kind of the author concludes, however, that "their inquiry. The inquiry is not about the main objective was to find a place for Indian ultimate reality of the human person or of learning within the various streams of the universe, but some of the modern western scholarship" (24). They presuppositions are the same. Prof. have been concerned with trying to situate Dharampal issues a call for a continuous the Indian mind within the "world-picture of inquiry to define the main elements of the modernity", rather than trying to make Indian "civilizational consciousness". Such "modernity comprehensible to us, in terms a clarification of the characteristic elements of our Chitta and Kala" (23). His main point of the Indian Weltanschauung is a is that Indian scholars have been wittingly or prerequisite for meaningful and equal unwittingly studying their society through interaction with and evaluation of the the tools and categories of the modern West. modern West. As the author puts it, "the Prof. Dharampal's general concern is questions regarding interactions with others legitimate and understandable. Those of us can be addressed only after having achieved who have grown up in colonial communities some level of clarity about ourselves" (21). do not need to be convinced of the pervasive The urgency for such an investigation, ways in which the institutions, values and according to Prof. Dharampal, arises from beliefs of the colonial powers are assumed to the state of rootlessness which is evident in be normative and of the processes by which the contemporary Indian attitude and subjected people view and evaluate conduct. The Indian intelligentsia "seems to themselves through colonial eyes. It is not

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unusual for a colonized people, educated in in the present, to recover and define the the institutions of the colonizer, to be principal elements of such a consciousness. anxious to show that they are not deviators Both of these assumptions may be correct from the canons of the latter and to labour and Prof. Dharampal attempts (chapter 4) to to vindicate themselves in the colonizer's outline some of these distinctive elements. eyes. Such labours often assume ludicrous This is undoubtedly an exciting venture. It forms, but proceed on the assumption of the must, though, be of some significance that superiority of the colonizer's yardstick. Prof. Dharampal chooses to characterize this Prof. Dharampal gives the example of consciousness by a term that is suggestive of Indian scholars working assiduously to show a national identity (Indian) rather than one that the attributes of the modern West were with religio-cultural connotations (e.g. already discovered and affirmed in India's Hindu). Although the author acknowledges, ancient literature! somewhat tentatively (17), that elements of Religious traditions and cultures, the Indian consciousness may have been emerging from long periods of colonial contributed by Gautama Buddha or domination, must ask again, with new Mahavira, the textual sources which he cites vigour, the ever relevant question, "Who are as necessary for probing the Indian mind we?" This question assumes multiple and the elements of that mind which he meanings when the questioner struggles, not identifies are all traditionally Hindu. Perhaps only to define himself from the perspective Prof. Dharampal is reluctant, for valid of his own religious heritage, but to untangle reasons, to employ the term "Hindu" or also the internalized assumptions and ways perhaps he can argue, legitimately, for of seeing himself through the eyes of others. subsuming all that is implied by the latter in It is often too easy for the Hindu who is the wider national category. One must involved in interreligious dialogue with the admit, at any rate, that there are dangers and Christian to fall into the habit of striving difficulties in the implicit or explicit assiduously to show that the insights of equation of both terms. Hinduism do not differ, in essentials, from Prof. Dharampal is not unaware of the those of Christianity. One's contribution to diversity that is included in his preferred the encounter of religions is greatest when category. He refers to "some sections of the one is able to offer, humbly, at the table of Indian people who do not subscribe to the mutual inquiry and respect, the uniqueness traditional Indian understanding of creation of one's perspective and experience of the and unfolding of the Universe" (59) and Ultimate. The search for and recovery of mentions, in the same context, the Indian this uniqueness, however, is a prerequisite Muslims, Christians and Pars is . Such for being able to offer it to the other. Like differences, in the author's view, are the offering that one makes and then minimal. Who decides, one must ask, receives as prasiidam in a Hindu temple, whether particular differences are one's special gift of understanding may be insignificant or weighty? The method received again with enrichment and suggested by Prof. Dharampal for enhanced meaning. comprehending the Indian mind is the study While I am supportive, therefore, of the of India's ancient literature and the sources broad concern of Prof. Dharampal's thesis, which he mentions, like the ~gveda, the I see his argument as an opportunity for a Upanishads, the Puranas, the Mahabharata, constructive discussion on the nature of the the Ramttya,!a and the canons of Buddhism Indian consciousness and the methods for and J ainism, are seminal. In the search for determining its contents. His thesis assumes the Indian consciousness, however, the reality of a distinctive Indian investigation of ancient textual sources must civilizational consciousness and our ability, be pursued side by side with dialogue among

https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/jhcs/vol8/iss1/3 DOI: 10.7825/2164-6279.1108 10 Clooney: Four Responses to Prof. Dharampal's "Bharatiya Chitta Manas and Kala"

12 Prof. Dharampal's Bharatfya Chitta Manas and Kala

the diverse contemporary communities who own geographical boundaries, one's own have made the Indian sub-continent their perspective, contrary to the author's claim home. Such dialogue ought to be conducted (20), is not the only vantage point. His in ways that allow these communities to argument about the need to define and apply freely define themselves and the essential one's own perspective is valid, but this elements of their particular or shared perspective must be informed and modified identity. Such conversations must be an by the articulated self-understanding of the indispensable part of the quest for self­ other. I have already cited what I consider definition in India. In the absence of such to be an unfair generalization about the dialogue, there is the perilous risk of consciousness of the western individual from generalizations and assumptions which are the author's perspective. imposed by one community upon another The need for deliberation about the and one discerns in Prof. Dharampal's process of searching for the Indian arguments a tendency to such sweeping consciousness and the dangers of subsuming generalizations. In one instance, for all darsanas in one's own are evident also in example, the author writes of "the western the elem~nts of the Hindu tradition cited by man's innate sense of total subordination to the author. I am sure that Bharatfya Chitta the prevailing system, a subordination of the Manas and Kala is not an exhaustive mind that man in the West has always statement of Prof. Dharampal's thinking, but displayed irrespective of whatever the his references to Hinduism in this work are, system was in any particular western phase, nevertheless, revealing. While Prof. whether it was a despotic feudal oligarchy, Dharampal may have cogent reasons for his a slave society like that of ancient Greece selectivity, it appears the vital elements of and Rome, a society of laissez /aire, or of the Indian consciousness, as he delineates it, marxist communism, or the currently are derived from the non-dual traditions of ascendant society of market forces" (61). India. One may advance the claim that Such an indiscriminate generalization about Advaita (Non-duality) is the most distinctive the consciousness of the western individual element of the Indian outlook, but such a can hardly endure the light of historical claim cannot be made a priori and by the reality. exclusion of other perspectives. Two The task of searching for the Indian examples will suffice. Writing about the civilizational consciousness, which Prof. problems of the relationship between apara Dharampal charts for us, underlines the vidya and para vidya (50-1), the author necessity for dialogue among the various suggests th'at contempt for the former is religious communities in India. While perhaps not fundamental to the Indian Hindus ought to embrace opportunities for consciousness. The earlier idea may have dialogue with Christians, there must be been "that while dealing with Aparii, while attentiveness also to the need for and the living within the complexity of the world, enriching possibilities of dialogue with one should not forget that there is a simple Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, Muslims, Jews and undifferentiated reality behind this seeming Sikhs in the Indian context. The significance complexity, that there is the unchangeable of such conversations is often overlooked by Brahman beyond this ever-changing Hindus who tend to minimize differences. mundane world". Later on, tie writes about Such dialogue among the traditions of India "the peculiarly Indian belief, which even the will have beneficial effects on any most ordinary Indian harbours in his heart, subsequent conversations individual groups that he is a part of the ultimate Brahman, may have with Christians. In seeking to and by virtue of this relationship with understand another community, whether that Brahman, he too is completely free and community exists within or outside one's sovereign in himself" (61).

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In these brief remarks, I have given science of comprehending India from a non­ support to Prof. Dharampal's plea for self­ Indian perspective" (23), we cannot ignore, definition and for the recovery of as Prof. Dharampal does, the significant characteristic elements of the Indian outlook, progress which has been made since then. while expressing some of my concerns about There has been significant scholarship by the methodology of this enterprise and Prof. western and Indian scholars trying to Dharampal's attentiveness to the diversity of understand and describe India on its own the Indian mental landscape. Finally, while terms and such studies can contribute to the I agree with the author that the task of search for India's vision. The claim that all constructing "this conceptual basis for western scholars and Indian Indologists Indian thought and action" must be "have been merely searching for occasional undertaken by Indians, I disagree with his scraps of contemporary relevance from the claim that outsiders have little to contribute remains of a civilization that for them is (38). Distance· and detachment often enable perhaps as dead and as alien as it is for the the outsider to perceive aspects of our West " is another example of a questionable outlook which we may take for granted and generalization which deflects from the we often see ourselves clearer when we look serious concerns of Prof. Dharampal's through the eyes of others. While Indology, work. in its origin, may indeed have been "the

Nilima Chitgopekar Jesus and Mary College

The essay by Prof. Dharampal entitled happening that not only destroyed a Bharatfya Chitta Manas and Kala historical monument but precipitated emphasizes the urgent need to understand widespread rioting and bloodshed. That it the "Indian Mind", "Indian Consciousness" , did occur is a frightening reality that should supposedly to save the country from be and is being studied in almost all imminent disintegration and destruction. intellectual and other circles. I am not sure This apocalyptic vision is exemplified in six whether the path Prof. Dharampal is sections. Attempting a thematic study would strongly recommending is the apt one. not only have made the methodology more However, as an attempt to suggest one, it is systematic but the reading easier. worth reading. Unfortunately we find themes overlapping in The entire booklet disturbed me all the sections. considerably. The sections that I am The turning point, or rather the raison commenting on are sections II and III. d'etre for writing this booklet, is provided in However, since there are, as I stated earlier, the preface. The motivation seems to have no clear demarcations in themes, I will be been the "precipitate action" (5) on the referring to parts of other sections as well. Babri Masjid in December 1992, which In section II Prof. Dharampal states that according to the preface was done by "the the way of saving India would be to people" of India to remind the ruling elite understand the Indian Chitta and Kala. The that they do not particularly relish the way to begin would entail studying the vast persistent insults to their civilizational corpus of literature that has formed the basis sensibilities. However, at the outset it may of Indian civilization and regulated the be stated that the "action" (a euphemism that actions and thoughts of the people of India makes one distinctly uncomfortable) on the for millennia (22). An overview of texts like Babari Masjid was a very unfortunate the !3--gveda, the Upanishads, the Epics and https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/jhcs/vol8/iss1/3 DOI: 10.7825/2164-6279.1108 12 Clooney: Four Responses to Prof. Dharampal's "Bharatiya Chitta Manas and Kala" 14 Prof. Dharampal's Bharatfya Chitta Manas and Kala

the Pural}as should provide us with a The texts Prof. Dharampal refers to preliminary picture of the Indian mind, by moreover reflect overtly and explicitly the showing us what they say about Indian ways dominant hegemonic section of society. For and preferences - which Prof. Dharampal example, they underscore the caste system feels have to be understood. In order to as a suitable system for maintaining the study these texts a thorough knowledge and status. quo. They also usually privilege the competence in Sanskrit should be there. role of men over the submissive role of Prof. Dharampallaments the fact that there women, amid other evils of society, as an are so few involved in the study of Sanskrit essential part of the Indian ethos. They and he criticizes the education system in reveal unjust treatments to minoritized India for being influenced by the West sections of society which should not be (24-7). The apparatus of valorized or glorified any longer. as in other parts of the ancient world, it The structure of disseminating must be remembered, was tied up with knowledge was therefore somewhat closed. ecclesiastic interests on the one hand, and Nobility of birth as a prime qualification for those of the ruling elite on the other. There undergoing the process .of learning is is a cultural imperialism if we live in the constantly stressed in the "traditional past. This is because the process of learning organization of learning in India" (124). was an exclusive preserve based on caste. In This is why universities of Indian learning a country where religion was always and is were probably conceived along the lines laid always inextricably interwoven with social down by western scholarship. The developments, it is commendable that we acceptance of a more modern, albeit have tried and continue to try to remove western, model of governance was also ourselves from the past. We believe that bound to occur. It does not seem to be a every present has the right and even the duty blind following of western ideals in polity as to discard much of its own past, especially Prof. Dharampal suggests, but is in large those particular traditions . which have measure an indigenization of a western become "irrational" and yet survive as signs framework. This framework has the of stasis in popular life or as oppressive advantage of being a time-tested one. India encrustations in the social make-up. Sanskrit in ancient times also had not seen the entire is the language of a hierarchical and country being governed or unified under one institutionalized religious order, standing central government. Diffused polities with above and in opposition to all vulgates and smaller autonomous units were the political, vernaculars. It has been the language of social and economic structure that India had "high" culture for centuries. High been accustomed to. Some adaptation was Brahmal}ism always sought a kind of necessary. In the absence of an a priori homogenization of populations in belief experience of government, the western one systems and social practice; it assigned to was far more suitable than one which was itself a sort of cultural supremacy, a special steeped in tradition. Prof. Dharampal wants relation with the language of belief and us to take the help of ancient texts for command and an agential role as the rewriting and reasserting our civilizational ideological guardian of the Indian systems. thrusts (22-3). It must be stressed that we It must be remembered that in a cannot randomly take up that literature and multireligious, multilingual country like those ideals, riding roughshod over' India there are regionally differentiated subsequent centuries and the influence the idioms of culture and language. There is a literature of those periods would have had, cultural fragmentation that in fact should be and try to establish traditional ideals. Those recognized. texts were clearly written to suit a particularly social and economic milieu. A

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lot has changed since then. There have "been them away. We are, as a civilization, a countless influencing factors on the "Indian product of all the cumulative epochs. This is way of thinking". I am concerned about the an inescapable, if for some uncomfortable, author's notion and implication that there is fact for those who claim that everything one universal idea, one aspiration of the Indian goes back to the ~gveda or the entire people of India. The caveat, the Mahabharata, riding roughshod over more fascination and the exasperation for those recent occurrences. This is in tune with who work on India or who have anything to viewing Hinduism as a monolithic, pristine do with India, lies in the fact that India does entity that has come to us unchanged not have one homogeneous Indian people, through the millennia (23). History stands only peoples. There are variables and testament to a constant influx of ideas in the differentiations and pluralisms at all levels realm of sculpture, architecture and even which negate the possibilities of trying to religion. The dissemination and proselytizing impose a particular thinking on the people. trait of Indians and of Hinduism is what we Since time immemorial there has been a take pride in. Moreover, with all the dispersal of cultures and traditions each with different types of people in India, will they their own regional affinities and royalties. all be able to identify with notions of Chitta The nurturing of the idea that there can be a and Kala as presented or found in the uniform code of social behaviour based on PuraI)as and Vedas? Here I am referring to randomly selected "scriptural" texts is not Christians, Muslims, Parsis, etc. the answer. It is true that maybe a The entire discourse on education is conceptual ground should be there in order thought-provoking (35-7). However, we find to "firmly stand and have a look at the Prof. Dharampal floundering into a world" (29), but I am not sure whether this discussion that may appear naive and at can be achieved by understanding our Chitta times ill-informed. He seems to believe that and Kala. Just the idea that there can be an Indians are learning or speaking English Indian view of the world - a unitary, because the America.ns or the western monolithic, singular idea of such a English-speaking world are the current composite and complex society - is not only masters of the world (37). That is not how unrealistic but perilous as well, so asking for we view the situation in India. As mentioned a "rough and ready comprehension ... " (29) earlier, British rule lasted for two centuries. of ourselves and the world is also not It has willy-nilly left its influences on us. possible. The author is asking us to critique We cannot wish them away. Today we everything western: "Ridding ourselves of speaK English and try to remove linguistic the western ways of thought and action we barriers as far as possible. Prof. Dharampal shall have to start understanding ourselves refers to Bhojpuri and asks: "Will a person and the world from our own civilizational who is familiar with Bhojpuri be considered perspective" (62). Getting rid of western literate, will he qualify as an educated ways of thought would be tantamount to person or should he know at least Nagari erasing nearly two hundred years of our Hindi?" That is exactly the point. Will the history. We cannot seek what we want from knowledge of Bhojpuri or Hindi be useful to certain texts belonging to the remote past someone in the south of India, for example? without considering the impact made by the Can English provide some kind of link intervening, intermediary period. Certainly between the different regions? Secondly, the it too has left its own indelible mark on the English we speak is our own English, it is Indian mind and the Indian civilization. The neither American or British, but an English author does not mention the that has evolved in India over the centuries, medieval/Mughul period or the British to suit the Indians. I am aware of the elitist period of Indian history . We cannot wish stamp that might befall these statements, but

https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/jhcs/vol8/iss1/3 DOI: 10.7825/2164-6279.1108 14 Clooney: Four Responses to Prof. Dharampal's "Bharatiya Chitta Manas and Kala" 16 Prof. Dharampal's Bharatfya Chitta Manas and Kala

we are all endeavouring to grapple with the Elsewhere (59) the author says that, problem of the non-existence of a language "Reassertion of India in the present context that can be a cementing force, a unifying is the major task which Indian scholarship, factor and yet please everybody. Indian politics, Indian sciences and There are several ways of studying technologies, Indian arts, crafts and other Indian literature. Many enlightened Indian diverse skills must accomplish". scholars want to approach this mass of In our thinking we should try and infuse literature holistically - that is, by trying, more justice into systems of thought. endeavouring to comprehend the background Ideally, we should try and rid ourselves of of the period in which it was written and unprogressive, oppressive signs from the also the background, if possible, of the tradition and retain those which give us an authors involved. identity, but also help us to merge and Reading a historical text, understanding tolerate others (32). There are many leading the milieu in which it was written or problems that Indians should be tackling composed helps in understanding the headlong: provision of drinking water, contextual element. The milieu will include primary education, employment, matters the regional and chronological contexts. In pertaining to ecology. These should be given a country that has not shared a common primacy. Trying to lessen the chasm history, let alone common cultural idioms, between the haves and the have-nots would to attempt to impose them, on the threshold be an achievement. of the twenty-first century, appears naive No one is trying to abruptly transform a and shortsighted. traditionally religious society, but one is I am also disturbed as to who the trying to bring the world closer by seeking audience is that Prof. Dharampal is similarities in certain humanitarian ideas. addressing. This confusion I seem to share One is trying to draw out a framework with the author. Is he approaching the where being a good person becomes very grhastha,. scholars, scientists, the labourer important and this should be the main thrust on the street, the housewife? (63). of any civilization.

Anand Amaladass, S.J. Institute of Philosophy and Cultu.w;e, Madras

Prof. Dharampal's book sets out to look for nothing positive in India seeks to write on a conceptual framework that makes Indian an Indian clean slate what they have learned ways and aspirations seem viable in the from the West, and the other group present. He pleads for the rediscovery of the discovers everything of the modern world Indian spirit and the return of India to its already seminally contained in the ancient civilization and tradition as enshrined in our literature of India. Avoiding these extreme literature. He raises valid questions and groups he finds a way of interacting with the makes people think. His search for Indian twentieth century West after achieving some mind and consciousness is challenging. His level of clarity about ourselves. concern for the ordinary people in India who On the positive side, the author of this live chronologically in the twentieth century book has something interesting to say. He and think and act psychologically in the says that the effort to construct a framework eighteenth century is to be appreciated. He for Indian thought and action is not to be is critical of the extreme reactionary confused with the search for the ultimate attitudes of Indians: one group finding truth of India - sanatana. We only need

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some basis from which to start asking the If we only start raising those questions appropriate questions. There will never be again, we may regain some anchorage any final answers. But the fact of having in our chitta and kala (40). raised the right questions would have This continuous questioning, reinterpretation provided us with some directions to the right and renewal of the tradition is what the r~is path. and munis and other great scholars of India He quotes two examples to illustrate his have been concerned with through the ages. point - one from the Ramiiya'!a and the The author gives two criteria to guide any other from the Mahabharata. Sita questions meaningful interpretation: one is the sense of Rama about the violent tendencies that she compassion that the interpreter feels for his discerns arising in Rama. She warns Rama fellow beings; the other is an abiding faith against the warlike inclinations that the in the inherit soundness and strength of the possession of weapons invariably generates. Indian tradition. That is quite insightful. Sri Rama did reply to the question Sita Such a conclusion is a creative contribution raised about his warlike demeanour in the to the progress of tradition, in the sense of forest. But it is the questioning that is interpreting the past for the present and important; not so much the answers. What is future generation. important is to keep raising questions about Prof. Dharampal is uneasy about the human conduct in various situations, not Indians who have adopted western values necessarily to arrive at final prescriptions and attitudes. He is also negative about the (39). Indological research done in India with The second example is a dialogue western methods. One cannot afford to be between Bhrgu and Bharadvaja in the isolated while reading and interpreting the Mahabharata. Bhrgu initiates the dialogue Indian texts. Awareness of modern western with his teaching that after creating the methods and their discipline has become part humans and other beings, Brahma classified of Indian consciousness. In a way it the former into four different var,!a. provokes, challenges, questions our Bharadvaja asks for the basis of the traditional way of going about things. This differentiation. Sweat, phlegm, bile and process of exposure is a risk, because it blood circulate within everyone. Then on challenges us, questions sometimes all that what basis is the var'!a divided? Bh~gu we cherish as dear. It might disillusion some answers that originally there was no of us about our own world, but it can also distinction among the people. At the draw us back into what is genuinely Indian. beginning all were of the same var,!a. But So there is no need to feel uneasy or with the passing of time they began to threatened. The risk is worth taking for the differentiate into different vamas according discovery. In fact the whole search for the to their karmas. But Bharadvaja persists with Indian mind and way of thinking undertaken his questioning. But there are no final by Prof. Dharampal results from the answers given in the text. confrontation with another culture. If he had Perhaps their way of questioning is the not been thus confronted, he would not have Indian way. To keep asking questions undertaken this trouble and come out with about personal and social conduct and an enriching discovery of what is the about the appropriate modes of social essence of the Indian way of thinking, and organization and to keep finding so on. provisional answers in various contexts, Secondly, one need not be negative this way of continuous awareness and about Indological research done with the continuous reflections is perhaps the western method. It is true that westerners essence of the Indian way of life. We cannot fully understand Indian tradition just have somehow lost this habit of constant as Indians cannot understand the western questioning and the courage to question.

https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/jhcs/vol8/iss1/3 DOI: 10.7825/2164-6279.1108 16 Clooney: Four Responses to Prof. Dharampal's "Bharatiya Chitta Manas and Kala" 18 Prof. Dharampal's Bharatfya Chitta Manas and Kala

mind and values fully, even if the Indians hand, an urge in all of us to transcend the read western history and literature, speak "boundaries" of culture, religion and their language, listen to the BBC and die philosophy as human beings. After all, what Deutsche Welle. But the efforts of the is genuinely human has a universal western Indologists are great and their dimension, which is valid for all, contribution to Indian studies is enriching irrespective of the geographical and cultural and praiseworthy and that needs to be boundaries in which one happens to be born acknowledged. and brought up. In that sense, any culture Today interaction is unavoidable. It is has something unique about it, offering a even a necessary process for our healthy challenge to any open-minded person. Hence growth and identity. The search for our one cannot speak always in terms of East­ Indianness is provoked by the confrontation West or North-South values, when some, with another culture. It was not perhaps the who have the opportunity to be exposed to problem of our ancient thinkers. Our ancient different traditions, adapt and even adopt thinkers like Samkara and Ramanuja did not new ways of thinking, different from the one ask what was Indian about what they wrote. ones in which they were born. After all Today we need to ask that question, we need what are the factors that define our identity to articulate for ourselves what is Indian and ensure security? It is true, the conflict about and so on, while we of values in such a process is real and one are interacting with our counterparts in the has to face the challenge in one's own actual West. That is part of the process of living context. But there is no need to be understanding and interpreting our own alarmed if some people adopt "western" or tradition, and integrating ourselves with it in "eastern" values, if the human in them finds today's context. That is participating in the a vision and provides meaning in their life wider tradition, or philosophizing in the enabling them to be open to and appreciative Aristotelian sense - by listening to the of others. numerous voices in answering the universal Finally, the project of Prof. Dharampal questions of life and adding our own - what is Indian mind and consciousness - is graciously. a valid quest for self-identity. This search One can understand the concern and for Indianness has to ta.ke into account one's anguish of Prof. Dharampal when he says personal and national history, its religious that Indians should find their own style of and secular traditions, its cultural heritage as government, since the system bequeathed by enshrined in art and literature. In India such the British does not suit Indian a heritage is multi-faceted due to its past consciousness, and his consequent history. Though the major tradition is Hindu annoyance with those who have adopted - which one has to admit in identifying the western values and are trying to transcend Indian identity - one cannot absolutize this, the Indianness in them. The concern is as if India's past is of a mono-cultural genuine, and one should look at it with tradition. What about the "Indianness" of sensitivity in the context of what is those others who do not directly belong to happening around the world - people the major literary tradition of Hindu struggling and even waging wars to find religious culture - like the tribals, the dalits, their ethnic, linguistic, religious, national the Muslims and the Christians in India? and cultural identity. On the one hand, there They have other literary and religious is the valid human search to find one's traditions, which define their identity in the identity in terms of one's cultural and Indian soil, without denying the contribution religious traditions. But this search does not of .the typically Hindu culture in shaping end within one's own limited, national, the