Immortal India: Articles and Speeches by Amish

by Amish Tripathi

Charles Dickens; actually, a line from his book, A Tale of Two Cities: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

Rules bring order to society; but within families, primacy of rules over love, is usually a path to unhappiness.

How about Mahatma Gandhi? He united our nation in a peaceful struggle for independence. He taught Indians, nay the world, that violence need not be the answer. We revere him today as the Father of the Nation. But not only did he struggle in the role of a father, he also faced challenges as a husband to Kasturbaji.

Let’s consider Gautam Buddha, one of the greatest Indians ever. He left behind a body of philosophical tools that continue to guide hundreds of millions of people in negotiating the challenges of life. His kindness, His compassion, and wisdom are worthy of worship. His Middle Path is worthy of instilling discipleship. But He too struggled as a father, son and husband.

The best definition of liberalism is brought forth in a statement that has been popularly, albeit incorrectly, credited to Voltaire; it was actually written by Evelyn Hall: ‘I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.’

We don’t profess to ‘tolerate’ religions that we internally ‘disapprove’ of; we actively respect and embrace religions that are different from our own. The Rig Veda encompasses this philosophy beautifully: Ekam sat vipra bahuda vadanti—Truth is one, but the wise men speak (or know) it as many.

We have to understand that religious extremism will only be defeated by religious liberalism,

I believe that religious liberals—especially those who remain apolitical—can help resolve many of the issues that confront us. People will change their regressive social attitudes more easily if they feel their religion asks them to do so.

Religious liberals can alleviate many of India’s social problems. And it’s easy for us since we are a vast majority in our country. Unfortunately, we have abdicated public discourse to both secular and religious extremists. We must rise. We must speak loudly. We must bring out the liberal interpretations of our respective religions. It is our patriotic duty!

the key idea is this: religions are ‘dissimilar’, and this need not be a cause of worry.

Perhaps herein lies the problem with many inter-faith dialogues. There is discomfort with differences. Often one detects an almost desperate attempt to prove that ‘We are all the same.’

We must understand that our paths will be different. All cannot walk the same path, practice the same religion or even the same so-called ‘universal values’. Consequently, we must refrain from judging another’s path, or force-fit similarities where none exist. We need to learn to respect differences. It’s not a competition. We shouldn’t just ‘tolerate’ other religions, but respect them as well. I respect your path, and you respect mine (this is important though: respect must be mutual and not a one-way street).

So then, what is the point of inter-faith dialogue, if not to find some elusive similarities between all religions? Why do it at all? I think one should do it to satisfy that human quality that is at the very root of our uniqueness: intellectual curiosity. As we seek to learn about other lives and life forms, we should also seek to learn the different paths to God. No strand of wisdom is a waste. It plays a role in this great journey that our souls have undertaken. In this life. Or in the ones to follow.

Why are most ancient civilisations left with merely the soulless shell of their mythological heritage, while in India we remain endlessly animated by the vibrant kernel of these millennia-old memories that continue to guide our everyday lives?

I believe it is because they lost their relevance in the lives of their people. Why? Because the Gods did not modernise and keep pace with their devotees.

Why did this not happen in India? I think it was due to our genius for modernising and localising our myths.

Despite the visible improvements in their status at a surface level, in many ways, our society is regressing. New technologies make it possible to commit crimes in a sanitised, seemingly ‘non-brutal’ manner—female foeticide is one appalling example of this.

However, the truth is that our resplendent tradition also offers a solid foundation for alternative insights, including the strongly matrilineal. For example, while the hugely popular Tulsidasji’s Ramcharitmanas (a sixteenth-century modernisation of the original tale of Lord Ram) depicts Lady Sita as submissive and docile, the original Ramayan, scripted by Maharishi Valmiki, has a much stronger Lady Sita, portrayed as a woman with a mind of her own. The Lady Sita of Adbhut Ramayan (one among the hundreds of interpretations of Ramayan) is a fierce warrior Goddess. Even Lord Manu, the apparent torch-bearer of Hindu patriarchy, had espoused that ‘where women are honoured, the Gods are pleased.’ Perhaps liberal Hindus should highlight these alternative perspectives from the past to those who think a woman is inferior. A Deobandi fatwa makes it unlawful for Muslim women to find employment in mixed-gender work groups. Many non-Muslims may be unaware of the illustrious Lady Khadija al-Kubra, who ran a hugely successful trading business in ancient Arabia and donated large sums to charity. She would later marry one of the agents who worked for her, Mohammad Ibn Abdullah, a man who was fifteen years her junior; and her husband honoured and loved her. We know Him today as the Prophet Mohammad. Perhaps liberal Muslims should mention the example of Lady Khadija to those co-religionists who think women should be suppressed.

The best way to bring about a change in human beings is to tap into the very beliefs that are central to their being, instead of attacking those beliefs. By respectfully showcasing an alternative perspective as to who we are, we allow for the flow of natural transformation. It is an organic, non-destructive evolution in which lies the gentle essence of life.

A medicine was discovered in the 50s and 60s, Thalidomide, which was considered a miracle cure for morning sickness. As I am sure you are all aware, morning sickness is something that women face during pregnancy. If there are dedicated husbands here, I’m sure they would also recall the collateral impact of morning sickness. So, Thalidomide rapidly became a very popular drug. But it was discovered a few years later, that a few children whose mothers had taken Thalidomide, were born with some chronic and serious physical issues. Many had deformed limbs, for instance. Others were born with malfunctioning hearts; some were visually or even hearing impaired. Thalidomide was subsequently banned. So a very strong medicine can do good for some and also cause serious damage to others, including making some differently-abled.

Faith begins when your knowledge reaches its finish line. Knowledge helps you grow; faith helps you make sense of things you don’t understand. Or at least find some peace with it.

The longer the timeframe, the more ‘whole’ the perspective. My suggestion is that you look at the life of a nation the same way. Six to seven decades seem like a very long time for a human being, but for a nation which could have a 10,000 year life-span, it is not so long. Changes in a nation take time. We just need to see that we are moving in the right direction.

Lord Ram’s way, the way of maryada is obviously the Suryavanshi (or Masculine) way, a path of honour, of truth, of justice; and Lord Krishna’s way is the Chandravanshi (or Feminine) way, the path of freedom, passion, individuality. And Lord Shiva is impartial to both these ways of life. I should clarify that when I say a way of life is Masculine or Feminine, it has nothing to do with men and women. It’s about a way of life.

There’s a version of the Ramayan called the Adbhut Ramayan, which is also credited to Maharishi Valmikiji. Sita Maa kills the elder Ravan in that version when she takes her true form as Maa Kali.

It’s better to be a good atheist doing good karma, as compared to a religious extremist doing bad karma.

a very high quality paper which was presented at the same Congress claiming that an Indian, Rishi Baudhayanaji, discovered the Pythagoras Theorem before Pythagoras did. That is actually a fact. It finds mention in the Shulba Sutras, which is credibly dated 200 years before Pythagoras. This is something that even the Europeans have accepted.

I believe it’s time we debated Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code that criminalises sexual activity of LGBTs (Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Transgenders).

Muslim Saudi Arabia prescribes severe punishment, including the death penalty for homosexuality, while Kuwait does not criminalise lesbianism (though male homosexuality is still a crime).

Having said that, let us examine what even the conservative Manu Smriti has to say about homosexuality. It was listed as a relatively minor misdemeanour; and the only punishment prescribed was a ritual bath with your clothes on. Interestingly, if a man cheated on his wife, it was considered a very serious crime, the punishment for which was the death penalty. So even the conservative Manu Smriti does not view homosexuality as an abomination. Culturally, ancient India had a liberal attitude towards non-mainstream sexual practices. Perhaps this was because sex itself was not embroiled in tortuous guilt. It was not an obsession either. It was just another beautiful aspect of this wondrous cycle of life.

Section 377 does not reflect the traditional Indian attitudes towards sex. It is, in fact, a reflection of the British colonial mind-set, influenced by medieval interpretations of Christianity. This attitude gradually seeped into the colonised people over the centuries.

Hindus have tax benefits that are not available to non-Hindu Indians through the HUF clause (also see Divide And Rule Laws in Modern India, page 131). Muslim women suffer injustices (such as polygamy and triple talaq) that their other Indian sisters don’t. The Right to Education (RTE) Act, combined with the 93 amendment, specifically contains clauses that are inapplicable to Muslim and Christian educational institutions.

In all honesty, while there may be material gains from religious conversions, spiritually, it is almost always negative. Why? Because spiritual growth happens with internal focus, when you attempt to seek truth within yourself; not when you try to prove ‘other religions’ as false.

The corporate world has a dictum: In God we trust; for everything else, show me data.

We have had nearly sixty episodes of sectarian violence (incidents in which more than five people have been killed) in India since the mid-1960s, leading to a total death toll of over 13,000*.

But were any of them holocausts, in which millions or even lakhs were killed? No. A holocaust is what Hitler carried out in Germany (six million deaths in the 1940s), what Churchill consciously precipitated in pre-independence eastern India (1.5 to four million deaths in the 1940s), the Indian-Partition riots (one million deaths) or Pakistan’s atrocities in East Pakistan, the nation we know as Bangladesh today (one to three million deaths in the 1970s). It is a fitting description of what is happening in Syria right now (1,60,000 to 4,00,000 deaths, and counting). Why, the Native American population was approximately ten million in North America when Columbus famously landed. It was reduced to less than a million by the time the genocide stopped. Once again, without belittling the suffering of the victims of communal violence in India, we need to be careful with the words we use. Admittedly on an unrelated issue, according to the US CDC, in 2010 alone, there were over 30,000 gun-related deaths in the United States. That single year’s gun-related death toll in the US is more than twice the total number of deaths in ALL the religious violence in India, cumulatively, in the last fifty years!

Sometimes, it’s better to let the data speak, and desist from allowing fantastic prose to hog the limelight. You never know what agenda lies hidden beneath the prose.

I propose re-adoption of the principles of debate drawn from many ancient cultures (including our own), whose underlying premise was: no one can know the AbsoluteTruth. Modern science gave this esoteric idea a cool term: Observer-bias, which professes that your values and expectations impact your perception of ‘facts’. Even theoretical physicists factor it into their conclusions. Accepting this can instil humility, and thereby open the possibility of listening to an alternative point-of-view.

The second suggestion is also based on the ancient worldview. Absolute Truth was elusive in all fields, except one: Mathematics, also called the ‘language of the Universe’. In order to make arguments a little more ‘truthful’, use numbers to support your proposition. In other words: Use Data.

If Indians who debate in the public square can accept Observer-bias, foster the ability to listen, use data and most importantly, stay calm, we may just avoid the American spectacle where debates have degenerated to gladiatorial matches rather than an attempt to develop collective thought that is sophisticated, nuanced and productive.

If we can actually put some thought into our concept of charity, we can finally pay heed to the wise Vidur from the Mahabharat. He said that there are two ways to waste money. One is by giving money or charity to the unworthy. And the other is by not giving it to the worthy.

there is little credible archaeological evidence of a violent invasion 3,500 years ago.

there was no significant addition to the Indian gene pool 3,500 years ago!

So, let us summarise: AIT/AMT proponents ask us to believe that there was this small bunch of nomadic people called the Aryans who came to India 3,500 years ago. It was too minuscule a band to show up in any archaeological or genetic records. And this tiny group did not indulge in any mass violence. But somehow, these mythical supermen managed to, peacefully, convince the far more populous, advanced and urbane Dravidians to migrate en masse to South India. Presumably they debated the so-called Dravidians into abandoning their homes. And while doing so, these nomadic ‘Aryan barbarians’ also overturned the entire linguistic and cultural landscape of India. Moreover, this allegedly foreign culture was so comprehensively absorbed, that it survives to this day, thousands of years later, across the country. Honestly, does this make any sense? Consider another paradox we are asked to swallow unquestioningly: the so-called Dravidians who built the greatest civilisation of its time (called the Harappan/Indus civilisation today), left no literature at all. On the other hand, these nomadic-barbarian ‘Aryans’, with no settled homeland, created the largest body of literature, philosophical and technical texts of that era. Creating narratives of history to reconcile these huge contradictions leads to more contortions than in a jalebi.

But remember that if rebellion uses violence and verbal abuse, it’s hooliganism, goondagardi. The moment you resort to violence, you lose the moral high-ground and transform into those you are rebelling against. Also, rebellion without a sense of personal duty and purpose often leads to chaos, as is evident in India’s recent past. Besides expecting others to earn your respect, you must be alive to the responsibility of deserving respect, through your conduct. So go ahead and rebel, but always within the constraints of the law and always with a sense of purpose.

DIVIDE AND RULE LAWS IN MODERN INDIA

Hindus are granted tax benefits through the Hindu Undivided Family (HUF) principle, which are not available to Muslims and Christians.

State governments across the country use existing laws to take over Hindu temples from local communities. Not surprisingly, there have often been serious allegations of corruption and maladministration made against many bureaucrats who administer these Hindu temples. Amazingly enough, the government cannot similarly take over Muslim or Christian religious properties, as that is illegal.

The Right to Education (RTE) Act, combined with the sectarian 93rd Amendment, is also a tool for differentiation. For example, the government forces a 25% free-seat quota only on Hindu-run schools (not on non-Hindu schools), which is theoretically supposed to be reimbursed by the government.

Consider the Maharashtra Anti-Superstition Act. Allegedly a ‘rationalist law’, in practice this Act often targets and bans ‘superstitions’ that are more widely prevalent among low-caste Hindus, Ajlaf/Arzal Muslims and low-class Christians. This law rarely targets the superstitions of upper-caste Hindus, Ashraf Muslims or upper-class/white-skinned Christians. For example, an obscure Christian pastor was arrested recently for claiming disease-cures through miracles. However, Mother Teresa was celebrated for doing exactly the same thing; in fact, those professed miracles actually led to her canonisation.

The Aghoris (treated as outcastes by some) are probably the only religious group in India whose freedom to practice their faith has been legally banned under this same law.