CEREMONIES AND THE INDIAN HUMANIST TRADITION*1

Babu R R Gogineni

The Birth of Tragedy

The Web of Indian LifeIn the now fully literate Indian state of Kerala, more than eleven hundred educated couples gathered in 1992 to perform a ritual called the Putra Kamesti Yaga2 - the antediluvian Vedic fertility rite which guarantees a male child to the couple performing it. This brazen display of sex-bias was conducted, under semi-official patronage3, despite opposition from rationalist and progressive groups. Apart from the consideration that male children are immensely profitable in the marriage market, there are more compelling spiritual reasons underlying this Indian fondness for male progeny: no Hindu is permitted to enter Heaven if his or her funeral rites are not performed by a son.

Ceremonies in India, however, are not limited to securing a safe passage to Heaven. They help us in relieving drought, and in fighting famine by compelling the rain gods to perform their sacred duties. And since in India elections have become more regular than monsoons, there is now a flourishing business of providing special prayer services and sacrifices which help politicians win elections. But, these ignoble politicians, like us Humanists, believe in the worth of human effort and so they manipulate the elections anyway. Here is some consolation to the saddened humanist: it is not very often that in India, Man is trusted more than God

In today’s world of specialisation, we also have ceremonies specifically to purify the elements, to set right the ecological imbalance as well as to bring peace to the world. Hopefully somewhere in the Vedas there might be something for the impending Recession! In fact, in 1991, for about ten action-packed days, I had the opportunity to interact with the Tantrik underworld in my city when I was interpreting for two French black-magic men who came to India to learn new skills. During this transfer of technology from the South to the North, I discovered more rites and rituals whose utility ranges from silencing the enemy to controlling nagging mothers-in-law!Sadly, India is a nation 'infested with saints', sorcerers and god-men who thrive on the 'carrion of popular superstition'. Life in India, for the most part, is still conceived in tribal and magical terms. Perhaps there is something in the collective unconscious of this Nation, something which makes its people go back again and again to the primitive and the irrational... Indian life is built on the 'substratum of sociological backwardness and primitive religion' - evident in the personal and public aspects of life. It is this backwardness which manifests itself in the 'antiquated cult of nationalism' and in the renewed calls for tribal loyalty to language, clan, caste, and religion. One suspects that in the endless speeches, in the solemnity with which resolutions are passed and societal changes 'willed' during seminars and congresses, the Indian betrays a subconscious belief in the potency of the spoken word and in the magical power of the mantra. In the celebration of festive occasions in contemporary India, in the human sacrifice that accompanies them in the form of communal violence, in the idolatry of political leaders (even atheist leaders!), and in the transformation of the electoral process into a seasonal ritual, one can see India's religious bent of mind.

An Area of Darkness

With these preliminaries, let us go to the living museum of rituals where you will encounter the fetishism of the lower cults4, tree and animal veneration5, the totemic worship of tools6, relics of sympathetic magic7, ancestor, and phallic worship8 along with harvest9 and spring10 festivals. Some ceremonies also mark the important events of one's life: conception, birth, adolescence, marriage and death. Some of the festivals are linked to mythology, most had started as secular celebrations (seasonal or harvest festivals) or to mark rites de passage, but soon became ‘handmaidens’ to the highly formalistic Hinduism which depended on ceremonies and rituals for the reinforcement of its world view among the masses.

Let us then look at the relevant world view sponsored by Hinduism.


Our Roots

The famous verse called Purusha Sukta in the 4000-year old fountainhead of Indian wisdom, the Rig Veda11 reads ‘the Brahmins sprang from the mouth (of the Lord Prajapati), the Kshatriyas from the arms, the Vysyas from the thighs and the Sudras from the feet’. The Westerner will gladly note that there is no mention of the demeaning rib; men and women were apparently created in much the same way! Virtue or Dharma consists in knowing one's pedigree and sticking to the divinely ordained duties.


Krishna, the good Lord himself says in the song celestial the Bhagavad Gita - 'I myself have created the arrangement known as Chaturvarna12 asssigning them (the people) different occupations in accordance with the native capacities.” He goes on, “whenever this religion of duties and occupations declines, then I myself will come to birth to punish those who are responsible for its downfall and restore it”13.


And so by divine sanction, the Brahmins - like the druids of ancient Gaul - became the repositories of wisdom and the spiritual guides of all men; performed the sacred rites and sacraments according to the scriptures, and soon degenerated into a 'sunken priesthood'. It was the duty of the Kshatriyas to rule while it befell on the Vysyas to trade. Much like the treatment meted out to the untouchable Bourakumin of Japan, the Sudras (and the Ati Sudras) were society's outcasts and were cut off from the Vedic 'knowledge'. We may recall Pope Gregorius IX (1145-1241) who in a similar manner forbade the laity from reading the Holy Writ. Women, irrespective of caste, were forbidden to read or to hear the Vedas.
Manu14, that law giver of the 2nd century B.C.E. whose passion for inequality is well known, decreed that it was the bounden duty of the Sudras to serve the upper three varnas and that neither they nor any women had any business with the Holy Scriptures.

Gautama15, another law giver and misanthrope, made it clear that if a Shudra listened to the recitation of the Vedas, his ears should be filled with molten lead; if he uttered them, his tongue should be cut off and if he studied them, his body should be cut to pieces16.



The Hindu Circle of Life

Varna and the later day caste system of 'graded inequality’ made its appearance in all aspects of life. People blindly accepted Manu’s prescription that the first part of a Brahmin’s name should denote something auspicious, a Kshatriya's name should be associated with power, a Vysya's with wealth, and a Sudra's name should express something contemptible and should denote service17.


The end of babyhood is usually marked by ceremonial tonsuring of the head in a temple. Upanayanam - the initiation or confirmation ceremony - during which the sacred thread18 is given to the initiate and the mysterious Gayatri mantra19 taught, is still limited to the upper Varnas. Manu had decreed that the Brahmin child could be initiated at age 8, the Kshatriya at 11 and the Vysya at 12. The sacrament in Hinduism is called a Samskara, and once initiated, the twice-born - the dvija - is declared eligible to perform the respective caste duties20.


Girls, however, have no right to the sacred thread21 and, on attaining pubescence are - even today in many households - declared impure during the period22.


Since prolonged virginity is considered a disgrace, infant and child marriages - still practised on a large scale in North India became natural. Gandharva Vivaha or marriage by mutual consent was permitted, though stigmatised! It is important that horoscopes should match and marriage is performed only after the purohit (priest) advises on compatibility of the horoscopes, as also compatibility of the family gotra23. Broadly, marriages could be contracted by a man with women of his own caste - in no case should he aspire to marry above his own rank. During the ceremony itself, recitations from the Vedas are permitted only to the upper castes. Since the mantras are in Sanskrit, not many understand their lewd contents. Marriage is a transfer of property (the bride!)24 to the bridegroom. After marriage the priest claimed the right of jus primae noctis (practised in isolated parts of Kerala and Maharastra states until recently). Prolonged widowhood and the shocking - but not universally practised - sati need little mention.


Mortuary rites are important for the Hindus, and the correctness of the ceremony and the gifts made to the Brahmin priest also decided traditionally whether one could go to Heaven. A cow donated to the Brahmin ensured that the dead person’s soul could cross the deadly Vaitarini river, beyond which lay heaven. Antigone may disapprove of Hindu rites - women are not allowed into the cremation grounds. Only a son, or generally a male member of the family, can light the funeral pyre. A death in the family still makes the house impure (like the law of Moses in Israel), and a purificatory ceremony has to be carried out, generally after thirteen days. Shraddh25 rites are still performed for the dead on anniversaries, to ensure continuing happiness of the departed soul.


A Wounded Civilisation

Thus in the name of Hinduism, the socially incestuous caste system thrived, creating a society where literacy and knowledge were matters of privilege. Some human beings were considered ‘untouchables', and women - along with the lower castes - were relegated to a position of extreme inequality, which is not yet redressed26. An absurd theogony27 flourished in such a closed society alongside the melodious verses of society’s agro-pastoral hopes and beliefs in magic (the Vedas). Impressive philosophical speculations and achievements (some of the Upanishads) coexisted with mythology (Puranas) which governed the minds of the common people. Astrology - the panchangam - and other such dismal sciences flourished in this unique nation of holy rivers28, pilgrimages and expiatory baths.


All this brought about a cultural decay and the atrophying of a once great civilisation. That was of course a great human tragedy in the drama of Indian life. Tragedy worse compounded because much before the revival of Brahminism, the germs of equality and progress had been laid in India. Nearly six centuries before the Christian era, the Buddha did not recognise caste in his order29. He also reacted against the excessive ritualism and sacrificial nature of the Vedic religion; and his morality was this wordly. Many of the Buddha's contemporaries were bold and innovative thinkers.

Even before the Buddha were a number of outstanding thinkers like Brihaspati, the Charvakas, Kapila30 and Kanada31. Panini32 had already written his great grammar of the Sanskrit language in the seventh century B.C.E. The period immediately after the Buddha was a glorious one too: in the 4th century B.C.E., Kautilya wrote Arthasastra33 - his outstanding thesis on political and economic organisation. Emperor Ashoka The Great34 established an era of justice, peace and stability during his reign. A period of great intellectual and artisic ferment was inaugurated, but all of it was nipped in the bud by a resurgent Brahminism35.

And ceremonies and rituals were the mainstay of Brahinism!



Do Humanists Believe In Rebirth?

Among The Believers

There were of course many people who did reject the ritualism of Hinduism, but all that we know about these opponents of superstitious rituals has been obtained largely by exhuming Hindu mythological and philosophical literature where they are attacked, reviled or described in negative terms. Such of those who declared themselves against religious ceremonies or sacrificial Yajnas – rituals - were variously called the ritual-less people, Nastikas – atheists -, Lokayatas or the Charvakas. Manu classed the Buddhists and the Jains along with these infidels.


The Samaveda (which for the most part repeats the verses of the Rigveda) is one of the earliest records of the Indo-European race and dates to around 1500 B.C. Even in so ancient a document we find this charming invocation to Indra36, the chief of the then pantheon of Aryan gods, "O Indra, control and punish the anti-yajna (sacrifice) men, remove ritual-less men from around our homes ... may our enemies the atheists be ever wanting and our holy prayers succeed.' In those times an atheist was one who merely rejected the authority of the vedas and was not necessarily an unbeliever in God!


The Svetasvatara Upanishad which dates back to 700 - 600 BCE makes references to the materialist heretics who regarded matter - bhutani - as the ultimate principle and hence rejected rituals and prayers. Mostly reviled and despised for their sophistry, these men were known to practise 'the science of disputation, sophistry – haitukas - and causistry' - vithanda-vada-sattham. The 14th century compendium of Indian Philosophic thought – the Sarvadarsanasamucchaya - by Mdhava says 'it is difficult to refute the Charvakas’.


What kind of men were these who troubled not only the Hindus but also the Buddhists and the Jains with their logic and disturbed all by their ideas?


We know that in logic they admitted the validity only of perception and rejected inference as a valid means of knowledge: they anticipated modern scepticism 2000 years before Hume. Though often castigated for their lack of morals, in the Mahabharata we see a Charvaka who meets his death for having admonished the ‘just’ Emperor Dharmaraja for destruction caused in a war. About morals, these despicable creatures had this to say in summary: "Morality is natural; it is a social convention and convenience, not a divine command. There is no need to control instincts and emotions; they are commands of nature. The purpose of life is to live; and the only wisdom is happiness."37


From the accusations made against them we also know that they were sexually liberated.
There is no independent extant work by the Charvakas or the Lokayatas at all, and their works are suspected to have been destroyed between the 7th and the 10th centuries after Christ. The legendary Brihaspati is the first rationalist we know by name and this is all that remains of what he said:
"No heaven exists, no final liberation, No soul, no other world, no rites of caste… The triple veda, triple self command, And all the dust and ashes of repentence - These yield a means of livelihood for men Devoid of intellect and manliness... How can this body when reduced to dust Revisit earth? And if a ghost can pass To other worlds, why does not strong affection For those he leaves behind attract him back? The costly rites enjoined for those who die Are but a means of livelihood devised By sacerdotal cunning - nothing more... While life endures, let life be spent in ease And merriment; Let a man borrow money From all his friends, and feast on melted butter."38


Since their emphasis was on feasting and celebrating life, one wonders how these first known rationalists/humanists of the world celebrated the important events in their lives. What were their rites of passage like? How did they celebrate their marriages? How did they deal with their lives' crises? How did they confront death? We do not know. No record of their lives remains except when mentioned in opposition literature. But we do know that neither they, nor the lives and teachings of many religious and non-religious reformers have been successful in changing to a large extent, the views and practices of the common man.


Which is why nearly 2000 years later in the 17th century C.E. we hear this impatient admonishing by the rationalist deist Telugu poet Vemana in the state of Andhra Pradesh. “The solitariness of a dog! The meditation of a crane! The chanting of an ass! How are you better for smearing your body with ashes? An ass can wallow in dirt as well as you... The books called Vedas are like courtesans, deluding men and wholly unfathomable...Will a cord cast over your neck make you twice born? Why should we constantly revile the pariah? Are not his flesh and blood the same as our own?"39


Not long after Vemana, in the Bengal State, Raja Rammohan Roy (1772 - 1833) helped in the abolition of the abominable sati. This scholar and reformer, well-versed in Sanskrit, Persian and Arabic and later Greek, Latin, Hebrew and English, was deeply impressed by the then Western Science and Technology and advocated modern education in 'Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, Anatomy and other useful sciences'. He established his own mono-theistic religious movement Brahmo Samaj against idolatry and other Hindu practices.

Henry Vivian Derozio (1809-31) and his group of Bengal radicals came after Rammohan Roy and they rejected caste, polygamy and the various taboos and rituals connected with pollution and purification. They advocated emancipation of women and equality of the sexes. They sought to subject every belief and practice to the scrutiny of free inquiry40.

Back in Andhra Pradesh in 1855, Samineni Muddu Narasimha Naidu, the little known pioneer of the popular language movement, the widow remarriage movement and the later day rationalist movement wrote Hitasuchani41 (a book in a modern Telugu of the age), which denounced popular superstition, belief in alchemy, advocated scientific education and rejected the marriage institution as it existed then.

The Maharashtra State saw the birth of Gopal Rao Deshmukh - famous as Lokhitwadi - who criticised priests and aristocrats alike and advocated the swadeshi42 movement much before Gandhi. He was followed by Jyotirao Phule (1827-1890) and Agarkar (1856-1895) who sought “to open their (people's) eyes to the pleasures of the rich and free life - courtship, clothes, games, festivals and the enjoyment of poetry". It may be appropriate to note here that in protest against Agarkar’s revolutionary ideas, the Brahmins of his town ceremonially performed his symbolic funeral rites, wishing him dead!
This was an exciting time in India.


A Festive Secularism

Meanwhile in Bengal, some 70 years before Erich Fromm (1900-1980) articulated his views about the need for reviving collective art and ritual on a non-clerical basis43; 80 years before Sir Julian Huxley's call for translating our ceremonials into a new framework44, Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), the reluctant humanist under the influence of Brahmo Samaj was experimenting with 'secular' festivals in Shanti Niketan - his experimental University.

Tagore's festivals succeeded in longevity where the French Revolution's "Religion of Reason" failed because of his genius in combining the cyclical changes in nature, Indian tradition and the educational activities of Shanti Niketan. In a celebration of our humanity, he was able to incorporate the colour and gaiety of the Indian Festival along with the 'joy of reunion' that comes from the intermingling of people. One such festival is Ananda Bazaar - the Joy Market - where a handicraft fair is organised. In another festival, man's creativity - his making things as distinct from tilling - is celebrated. On some festive days, the birthdays of the Buddha, Christ and Rammohan Roy too are celebrated. A good part of Tagore's 29 festivals are extremely secular in nature and use carefully selected couplets and recitations from the Vedas and the Upanishads.

Some festivals are Dionesian and celebrate the regenerative power of the Earth while others celebrate the art and craftsmanship of man. For this mystic-nature-poet, the seasonal festivals were, (as a friend put it), "the theoretical centre of the Shanti Niketan educational experience". The arrival of seasons like autumn and spring is welcomed with sowing, ploughing, singing, drama and fancy dress.


Le Bourgeois Gentlihomme

Let us now go to 1915, just a few years before Gandhi gave to us in India the secular ritual of the spinning wheel, which like the prayer wheel of the Buddhists captured everyone's imagination. In Andhra Pradesh at this time a fierce struggle had been started by the newly educated and prosperous castes. These castes led by the Kamma caste, wanted to be recognised as Kshatriyas, first petitioning to the religious heads, and later demanding that they be recognised as the higher castes, so that they too could wear the sacred cord and read the Vedas. In defiance of orthodox opposition, these castes performed their own initiation ceremonies with priests from their own castes.

The struggle dates back to 1815 when the Vysya scholar Mamidi Venkaiah (l764-1834), amidst great opposition, performed the initiation ceremonies of his children, using the Vedic rites which tradition denied him. He advocated, as did the leaders of the Kamma caste a hundred years later, the training of his own caste men to conduct initiation, marriage and death rites according to the Vedas. Needless to say, such protestant movements are not humanist by any means. It was an attempt to be equal with the Brahmins, but not to get out of the discriminating hierarchy of caste. It reminds us of Moliere's Monsieur Jourdain who tried to join the ranks of the bourgeois gentilhomme.


Marriage And Mortals

But these movements were started by men who were in the first phase of their development towards full-blown humanism. The one name that comes to mind is Tripuraneni Ramaswamy (né Tripuraneni Ramaswamy Choudhary, 1886-1943), one of the ablest writers who enriched Telugu literature in this century. With phenomenal creativity and productivity, this ‘king of poets’ -kavi raju - as he was called, examined closely the Hindu scriptures and puranas (mythologies) and they withered under his critical gaze. Transcreating the traditionally accepted mythologies, recreating the mythological scenarios through plays he wrote, he is believed to have created a veritable revolution in Telugu society by teaching almost an entire generation of literate people to think and to question. Fifty years after his death the traditional orthodox society still smarts under the blows he dealt them.


In 1930, during his deist phase, Ramaswamy wrote a book Vivaha Vidhi – The Method of Marriage - where he proposed that marriage vows be taken in Telugu language and not in Sanskrit which no one understood. Until then all marriage ceremonies, however progressive, were conducted in Sanskrit, like the liturgical services in Latin. Some of the traditional practices of mangala sutram45 and kanya danam were retained in Ramaswamy's method (which would be unacceptable to today's humanists). A fire too was lit around which the couple had to go - a vestige of the Hindu practice - in order to fulfil the legal requirement of saptapadi.

Later, this was modified in order to make it more modern and completely humanist. In the first five years, only seven marriages were conducted in this manner. Since then many, many hundreds of mariages have been conducted by people initially influenced by Tripuraneni like the rationalist-humanist intellectuals Avula Gopalakrishna Murthy, Ravipudi Venkatadri46 and their associates. Well known atheists like Gora too performed many non-religious marriages, as did a large number of Communists. My estimate is that an average of 4-5 marriages per month are still conducted in this manner. There are no paid officiants - local humanist leaders officiate, and at the end give a small speech about the significance of this marriage ceremony. At this function which signifies once more the 'triumph of hope over experience', they advise the newly wed couple on their duties towards each other and their future offspring.

Since such marriage ceremonies are not yet legalised in my state, a visit to the registrar of marriages completes the ceremony47. One could criticise that these ceremonies are generally dry, without music or hilarity, though the latter element is missing in a religious ceremony as well.About this time in 1925, Periyar (né Ramaswamy Naicker, 1879 - 1973) the militant dravidian leader swept the state of Tarnil Nadu with his strong anti-Brahminism and anti-Gandhism. His idea of Self-Respect Marriages was totally secular and devoid of religious vows. The political party which was inspired by Periyar's ideas, the DMK, which came to power adding the 'more fiery urges of sub-nationalism' to 'the tepid enthusiasm of rationalism'48, legalised these marriages in the state of Tamil Nadu.

In Vijayawada, Gora (1902-1975) the atheist leader replaced flower garlands by vegetable garlands at marriage ceremonies that he conducted. It appears that all the social reformers encouraged inter-caste marriages. But my sympathies do not lie with this advocating of inter-caste marriages because one tends to forget in the process that marriages are ultimately between individuals and not between castes and even in an 'inter-caste marriage' the caste consciousness is there.

It is interesting, however, to note that most of these reformers have not concentrated much on funeral rites.


New Wine?

Can modern day humanists make any additions to the rich repertoire of Indian ceremonies? I answer in the positive: Ceremonies which have a properly focussed social and individual purpose could be designed with some creativity.

There is a wonderful celebration in the Indian tradition which is my favourite: Aksharabhyasam - 'the introduction to writing' ceremony is performed when a child is initiated formally into the world of literacy and is made to write some letters of the alphabet on sand, rice or on a slate. Usually, it is the religious symbol 'Om' for the Hindus. Muslims too have a similar way of marking this important occasion. With suitable amendments, this could be one of the major ceremonies humanists may take up. Can there be a more beautiful and joyous occasion in an illiterate country than the learning of reading and writing?

In a society where we have not yet learnt to treat each other as equals, 'the coming of age' ceremony could be a symbolic initiation into the human tribe, when the values of tolerance are introduced formally to the child. This could replace the tradition of Upanayanam. The ceremony must introduce secular values and educate children about good citizenship in a pluralist society. Sex education must be an essential feature of this program. Exposure to the different exciting fields available for a developing human being could also be done at this stage49.


In India, where mate selection is done on a commercial basis and marriages are occasions for a vulgar display of wealth, the obvious answer would be to humanise this institution50. In view of our population problems, any wedding ceremony must be accompanied by an explanation of the need for small families and planned parenthood. During children's naming ceremonies, parents could take care to avoid names which indicate caste.


There is a charming family celebration, shastipoorthi when the male head of the family attains his sixtieth year, when the couple's children perform their parents' second wedding. This is reason for a grand family reunion and charming enough for humanists to adapt, so that the celebration takes care to incorporate an important event in the woman's life or in the couple’s married life.

The humanist's alternative to a regular cremation would be advocating the use of electric crematoria in order to save valuable wood. This, if the Humanist has not already donated his eyes to the eye bank and his body for medical research. Usually, humanists hold a memorial meeting a few days after the cremation. Non-believing children of religious parents, however, frequently find themselves making the difficult choice between a humanist funeral ceremony and a religious funeral ceremony.


Rakhee is an interesting non-religious festival where sisters tie a colourful thread on their brothers' wrists, asking the brother symbolically to protect them. Students of women's colleges visit prisoners in jail on this day, to tie the Rakhee and express their solidarity with the prisoners. However, this is usually a family function. Dr. Mrs Indumati Parikh introduced a reciprocal tying of thread ceremony wherein a brother too symbolically asks his sister to protect him. This is adequate reflection of the humanist attitude towards women.

In Delhi, humanists take the opportunity provided by the celebration of Holi - the spring festival of colours - to help members of the Muslim and Hindu communities come together. Ugadi the traditional New Year day, and Diwali, the festival of lamps, are occasions of much joy and celebration. Preparation of delicious sweets is a necessary accompaniment. Humanists adopt these festivals, rejecting the astrology and mythology surrounding these days of celebration.

Darkness At Noon

Notwithstanding the fact that many humanists may not want any ceremonies at all, I am of the considered opinion that ceremonies cannot be the high priority of organised humanism in today's India. (Individual humanists will naturally continue to design their own ceremonies for rites de passage). One thinks now of Julian Huxley who said that ritual expressions are determined more by the beliefs of people than the other way around51. Many have tried and attempted to change and reform Indian society attacking the superficial expressions of its beliefs.

Inter dining - Langar - was first introduced in India not by the Gandhians and their associates as many believe but by the 3rd Sikh guru, Guru Amar Das (1469 - 1524). His express purpose was the intermingling of castes so that casteism may be eliminated. Today, 500 years later, Sikhism has as much casteism as other Indian religions. The so-called Untouchables themselves practise internal untouchability, discriminating against people lower down in the hierarchy. Christianity, after 2000 years of cohabiting with Hinduism has today Brahmin Christians and Untouchable Christians! Islam has adopted in part the Hindu practice of worshipping the dead - an act expressly prohibited by Islamic scripture. The black veiled Muslim women have demanded that their Islamic personal law be retained. Some Hindu women even protested against the abolition of sati a few years ago. One cannot understand this, but it is important to know that it happens.


Can Humanism Too Go Pop?

Even the Buddha who refused to entertain any questions about God has himself been made a deity, both by his followers as well as by the Hindus he had opposed. The humanist Tripuraneni Ramaswamy is claimed as their own by the Kamma caste. The political parties that the Dravidian movement has spawned are today champions of orthodoxy and destroyers of democracy52. If one looks carefully, many of us are not as rational as we ought to be, not as radical as we claim to be and not as open and democratic as we profess to be. We keep a mixed company in India and we too, as part of the general decay, imbibe some of those very trends we are trying to fight.


Is There A Way Out?

The only redemptive metaphor is the metaphor of rebirth. In India, Humanists too believe in Rebirth - not the Hindu or the Buddhist concept - but the humanist concept: that of a Humanist Renaissance. Long back, in 1935, Will Durant wrote in his book 'Our Oriental Heritage', "India awaits with unformulated longing her Renaissance, her Reformation and her Enlightenment".

Just as Will Durant made this comment, one of India's foremost intellects and certainly the greatest revolutionary of his time, the Radical Humanist M.N. Roy (1887 - 1954) was engaged in analysing the problem of the 20th Century Renaissance. Thanks to imperialist hospitality in a district jail, during six years in solitary confinement, Roy re-examined his Marxist ideas and came to the conclusion that no worthwhile social revolution could be brought about without the base of a cultural and philosophical revolution that precedes it. With the advantage of lessons learnt during his terrorist-nationalist-communist past, this freedom-loving Humanist and self-proclaimed 'lie-hunter' talked of the revolutionary role of ideas, and of his burning passion of bringing about a Humanist Revolution through a 20th Century Cultural Renaissance. Such a cultural revolution would "involve the dissemination among the people of…values and attitudes followed by setting up of appropriate political, economic and social institutions through which those values and attitudes may be expressed."53


Plus ça Change...?

Such a revolution is imperative in contemporary India. Even eternal India is slowly changing. The stock market scandal and the industrial and ecological disasters, sure indicators of modernity, have come to stay. The Indian nation today is caught in the cultural crossfire of weary religiosity and troubled modernity. With a newfound fundamentalist longing for the decadent past and the progressive's Sehnsucht towards the uncertain future, India is painfully coming to terms with her atavistic social heritage and her present economic disaster. There is now an attempt - at least by some - to reconcile her authoritarian, centralised institutions with the incipient and uncertain democratic aspirations of her people. Breaking apart for the wrong reasons, troubled by terrorism, in the grip of religious hatred, this country is reluctantly recognising her fractious-plural character. I think the Indian Nation is trying to come to terms with its own identity, while the torturous and crucial search for a consensual secular basis of nationhood continues.


In this context, Humanists have a vision of what this country should be like, and try to prepare the ground for the desired changes. By creating the political and economic blue prints for a future post-religious humanist society, by making fertile contributions to the theory and practice of democracy, by spreading secular moral values, by promoting amity among the people, by cherishing, defending and living freedom, and by promoting the cause of Human Rights – in short, by living their philo­sophy, humanists in India strive towards the construction of the Sane Society.

It is this Renaissance work that humanists in India will be busy with for a long time to come. Of course, the dwindling numbers of humanists are trying to put on a brave front in the impossible context of profligate demagoguery, exploding population, extreme indigence - and now a right-wing government in power. We know well that even in the past our society had not lent itself willingly to humanist experiments, and that we may be only a few steps away from a fascist society, if present tends continue.
But the humanist hope for a modern democratic and tolerant nation remains: and hopefully some day we will be able to celebrate, with an appropriate ceremony, this national rite of passage.

• Slightly revised version of speech Ceremonies in India made at the 1992 IHEU World Humanist Congress, Amsterdam. The original version has been reproduced in Free Inquiry (USA), Indian Skeptic (Tamil Nadu), The Modern Rationalist (Tamil Nadu) , The Humanist Way (collection of Essays), and in translation in Les Cahiers Rationalistes (French, France) and Hetuvadi (Telugu). 6 years after, the author stands by the central arguments – that ceremonies are not a priority for India, and that humanists should extend their penetrating critical gaze on themselves, so that they could become better.
  
  In view of History’s unpredictability, the historical facts mentioned here may be open to dispute. After the BJP came to power in India, it has reconstituted the membership of the Indian Council of Historical Research. We are only a step away from accepting that the Taj Mahal was not constructed by Muslims - but by Hindus -; that the Aryans had never invaded India – they always lived in this holy land -; that there were no two races of Aryans and Dravidians – that is an Imperialist plot to divide Indians, etc. etc.
  
  
• This survey does not trace the history of organisational humanism in India- Indian Humanism does not fit into an organisational mould. Also, a comprehensive survey of humanism’s impressive influence in modern Indian literature, specially in Bengali, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Tamil & Telugu is yet to be attempted.
  
  
  Notes:
  1
  2 This is the same ceremony that King Dasaratha of the Sun dynasty performed, since he had no male progeny. His rituals and penance were rewarded with a magical porridge by the gods, which he distributed among his wives. The result is four sons, the first of whom is Lord Rama, an avatar, - or incarnation - of Lord Vishnu.
  A controversy around the claimed birth-place of Lord Rama has been the source of tensions between Hindus and Muslims in India. Militant Hindus, disobeying judicial restrictions, marched to, and pulled down in 1992 a mosque (in disuse) in the North Indian city of Ayodhya, claiming that this 14th century mosque built by the first Moghul Emperor Babar was on the birth-place of Lord Rama. Dozens of other sites in Ayodhya too claim to be the birth place, but they lost out since they have to Mosque on them! Sunday broadcasts of the epic Ramayana on State-run television, the promise of construction of a Temple for Lord Rama on the disputed site, and opposition to a shameful law absolving Muslim men from paying maintenance to their wives after uttering the triple talaq were the most important factors which helped the Hindu-rightist political party BJP to improve its electoral performance from 2 seats in 1984 in the lower house of Parliament (total 544 seats) to 162 in 1996 and to 192 in 1998. 3
  In Kerala, the annual January-fraud of a divine light – Makarajyoti - appearing magically on a hill top receives encouragement from the government for touristic reasons, as Communist Chief-Minister Nayanar justified once! 4 The celebration of many festivals by tribals in India – specially the jatras are examples. Popular Hinduism, Islam and Christianity also provide many examples. 5 The Tulasi plant (Ocimum sanctum) or Holy Basil is venerated both for its medicinal as well as divine qualities. Ficus religiosa is a holy plant for some. Snakes are venerated, as are, in some cases, rats. Ganesha the elephant-headed god (object of much creative and symbolic art, and also an inspiration for 19th century Hindu independence fighters) as well as Hanuman, the monkey god are favourites of children and wrestlers. Killing a cow was crime worse than killing a lower caste person for many ancient Hindu law-givers. 6 During Dussera festival, tools of work and even vehicles are prayed to. In general, one can see flowers and lemons tied to cars and other vehicles to ward off evil. In modern factories, prayers are offered to machinery! 7
  Sporadic reports of villagers performing marriages of frogs to ensure rain come usually from Gujarat. In Karnataka state, when the government conducted rituals for inducing rains: Dr. H. Narasimhaiah, India’s leading rationalist, and former Vice-Chancellor of Bangalore University, was arrested for organising a protest march. 8
  Initially a Dravidian God, Lord Shiva, is not worshipped in an image form, but as a form of the phallus or the Lingam. 9
  Sankranti - the harvest festival - marks the sun entering a new zodiacal house: this is usually celebrated on 14 January. City dwellers celebrate this rural festival by paper-kite flying. 10
  Holi festival, celebrated with a traditional splash of colour, was meant to welcome spring. Somewhere along the line, it degenerated into a vulgar festival – and also got entangled with some interesting mythological stories about Manmadha the Indian cupid and his partner Rati Devi. Some scholars believ there was a Dyonisian influence. 11 The Rig Veda is the most important of the Hindu ‘revealed’ scriptures, the Vedas. The Sama Veda, the Atharva Veda and the yajur Veda are the other vedas. They are variously dated: Friedrich Maxmuller supposed the date to be 1200 B.C.E.; Haugh 2400 B.C.E., and Balgangadhar Tilak dates them as far back as 4000 B.C.E. (History of Indian Philosophy, Vol.1, Surendranath Gupta). In a recent symposium on Indian Chronology, Dr. B.G. Siddharth, Director General of the B.M. Birla Science Centre unconvincingly said Vedic Civilisation was as old as 10,000 B.C.E. 12 The four varna system is a broad classification and the caste system exists under this umbrella classification. 13 Geeta, IV.13, quoted in Vol III, Writings and Speeches of Babasaheb Ambedkar, page 80 & 81. Pub. By Education Dept., Govt. of Maharashtra. 14
  His real name is believed to be Sumeeti Bhargava and the Laws of Manu are believed to be the outcome of not one mind, but many. While Indian society lived as per Manu’s anti-social rules for nearly 2 millennia; the next time Indian society underwent political and social re-organisation by adopting a new Constitution for the Indian Republic, its father was none other than Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar who was born into an ‘untouchable family’. Dr. Ambedkar was one of the most vehement critics of Gandhi, a great scholar and an almost-humanist! 15
  Chronologically Gautama comes after Manu. 16
  It was keeping in line with this general policy that to restore order in society, Lord Rama slayed Shambuka the Sudra for the unforgivable crime of studying the Vedas. 17 In his Stories for the Innocent, C. Rajagopalachari has a charming story about an employer who dislikes his servant’s name: Periyar (wise-man), and so offers him money to change his name. The servant returns with a new name Periya-Periyar (the great wise-man)! 18
  The triple-cord symbolises mastery over body, speech and mind. 19
  This much sought after secret mantra reads:
  Tat savitur varenyamBhargo devasya dhinahiDhiyo yo nah prachodayat
  And means “Let us worship the supreme light of the sun, the God of all things, who can so well guide our understanding, like an eye suspended in the vault of heaven”. 20
  Upanayanam enables the Brahmin to have the right to six privileges which are inherent in his status:
  
  1. To read the Vedas
  2. To have them read to him
  3. To perform the sacrifice of yajna
  4. To cause the yajna to be performed
  5. To give, and
  6. To receive presents and alms.
  21
  The reformist school Arya Samaj established by Swami Dayanand Saraswati remedied the situation and requires girls also to be initiated in the same way as boys. Girls initiated the Arya Samaj way also wear the sacred thread. Though a Gujarati by birth, Dayananda Saraswati was most influential on the Hindus of Punjab. A leading advocate of women’s education, his main slogan was the retrograde “back to the vedas”. 22 On the attainment of puberty by a girl, there is a non-religious ceremony in most house-holds. 23
  Gotras are ancient totemic clans to which families trace their origins. 24
  Kanyadanam (the donation of the virgin) is an important event in a Hindu marriage ceremony.