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Mantras of Anti-Brahmanism: Colonial Experience of Indian Intellectuals
Abstract
Opposing factions in the Orientalist-Anglicist controversy in the 19th century shared a common understanding of Indian religion and society. Europeans from diverse ideological and religious backgrounds identified the brahmins as priests and brahmanism as a 'religion of the priests'. This common understanding derived its consistency from a Christian understanding of religion. Even the writings of Rammohun Roy and Babasaheb Ambedkar, this article suggests, reveal an unconditional acceptance of Europe's conceptualisation in a debate over religion that continued into the 20th century.
... The Americans do not think the way the Indians do (ibid. [43][44]. They find that what the widow eats and how she dresses do not belong to the ethical domain. ...
... The Indian intellectuals and reformers enthusiastically embrace the criticism of the 'Brahman' priesthood, which was a reformulation of the Protestant criticism of the Catholic Christianity, as a 'scientific' criticism of the 'caste system'. 43 How is it possible to have a firm moral opinion on the caste system, when no-one understands what that system is? ...
... One intellectual fashion in vogue because of the Protestant tendencies of British society was the retrospective force-fitting of the career of Hindu sects such as Buddhism and Jainism on the Procrustean bed of 'common people revolting against a corrupt priesthood' i.e., Brahmins, modelled on European movements against Catholicism (or 'Popery' as it was pejoratively termed) (Gelders & Derde, 2003). To be sure, Buddhism was recognized by the ancient Hindu philosophers as a sect that denied the authoritative position of the Vedas, and members of the Hindu priestly class (Brahmins) were found to both join Buddhism (Nagarjuna) and polemicize against it (Adi Shankaracharya (Elst, 2015b). ...
The twentieth century witnessed the rapid and extensive decolonization of Asian, African and New World territories of European nations. While military and political decolonization could be accomplished rapidly, there is no doubt that the mental and intellectual effects of colonialism have been more durable and lingering than anticipated. In this chapter, I review the work of a self-described Orientalist–Koenraad Elst, a Flemish native of Belgium, an erstwhile colonial power–who has made a unique and deep study of the processes and pitfalls in the mental decolonization of Hindus. Specifically, I revisit some of the observations and ideas expressed in his extensive and diverse works, and discuss their implications for the Indian humanities curriculum.
... Цікаво, що ця тема була популярною в британському та німецькому сходознавстві і найкраще висвітлена Фрідріхом Шлегелем. Раф Гелдерс і Віллем Дерде вбачають у розумінні брахманства як "священництва" та індуїзму як "релігії священництва" наслідок європейської концептуалізації релігії, яку перейняли індійські реформатори [Gelders 2003]. Протестантське засудження кліру та ідея, що чиста, нічим не заплямована, Богом дана релігія з часом відходить від своїх першооснов і псується під впливом діяльності "посередників", знайшла твердий ґрунт в Індії. ...
... In fact, these characterizations transformed both 22 Catholicism and Judaism into negations of the ideals of Protestant Christianity: the latter stood for Christian liberty and inner spiritual faith; the former embodied clerical tyranny and servitude to external ceremonial and laws. This contrast then served as a general template for conceptualizing "false religion" or, in secular sounding terms, "organized religion": it was a tyranny of laws and ceremonies imposed by a priesthood that used the name of God to claim religious authority (see Balagangadhara 1994;De Roover 2015, 169-233;Gelders and Derde 2003;Gelders 2009). ...
In the currently dominant discourse about Indian society, the caste system appears as an immoral social structure. This moral dimension is perhaps most visible in political and popular rhetoric. Award-winning author Arundhati Roy (2014) calls the caste system as “one of the most brutal modes of hierarchical social organisation that human society has known.” A report published in the UK, titled The Evil of Caste, denounces the system as “the largest systemic violation of human rights in today’s world” (Chahal 2008, 1). The same type of judgement is present in academic scholarship also. By deploying the caste hierarchy, one scholar writes, “Brahmins did not articulate ‘human rights’ but ‘caste rights’, which had the side effect that, in the course of time, about one-fifth of the total population, as ‘outcastes’, had virtually no rights. They were treated worse than cattle, which even in legal theory ranked above them” (Klostermaier 2007, 296–7). Or in the words of another scholar: “Untouchables…were dehumanized by the caste Hindu order” (Rao 2010, 1).
... The Indian intellectuals and reformers enthusiastically embrace the criticism of the "Brahman" priesthood, which was a reformulation of the Protestant criticism of the Catholic Christianity, as a "scientific" criticism of the "caste system". 45 How is it possible to have a firm moral opinion on the caste system, when no-one understands what that system is? This question hardly troubled the British; it hardly troubles the Indian intellectuals. ...
... 1 We have tried to elaborate this point in our ongoing work on conversion, truth, and violence. 2 For an analysis of the impact which the Christian view of Hinduism as an immoral and false religion has had on the contemporary understanding of the Indian caste system, see Raf Gelders and Willem Derde (2003). 3 For a scientific account of the dynamic of religion and its implications for the relation between religion and tradition, see S N Balagangadhara (1994). ...
The Indian debate on religious conversion has been an ongoing one for a few centuries now. However, the mutual understanding between the advocates and the adversaries of conversion has not advanced much. This paper suggests that this is due to the fact that Hindus and Christians refer to two different objects when they discuss 'religion'. The traits which the Christians ascribe to religion account for the premium they put on the right to convert, while the traits of the Hindu view of religion explain the opposition to conversion. As the two parties attribute mutually exclusive properties to religion, they encounter difficulties while seeking to make sense of each other's claims about religion and conversion.
This article discusses the nineteenth-century debate between German and British Indologists on ancient Indian commentators, shedding light on how Italian Indologists received and responded to this discussion. It reveals why Italian scholars, although trained under the most eminent German philologists, often disagreed on the status of native commentaries, sometimes viewing them as an unreliable guide to interpreting the Vedas and other texts. Moreover, Italian criticisms of the German approach to ancient Indian texts reflected differences in the ideological concerns underpinning the hegemonic discourses between Europe and India. Because of both transnational reception and nation-building concerns, the history of Italian Indological studies represents a unique perspective in the context of European approaches to the subcontinent.
What explains the peculiar trajectory of the university and liberal education in India? Can we understand the crisis in the university in terms of the idea of education underlying it? This book explores these vital questions and traces the intellectual history of the idea of education and the cluster of concepts associated with it. It probes into the cultural roots of liberal education and seeks to understand its scope, effects and limits when transplanted into the Indian context. With an extensive analysis of the philosophical writing on the idea of university and education in the West and colonial documents on education in India, the book reconstructs the ideas of Gandhi and Tagore on education and learning as a radical alternative to the inherited, European model. The author further reflects upon how we can successfully deepen liberal education in India as well as construct alternative models that will help us diversify higher learning for future generations. Lucid, extensive and of immediate interest, this book will be useful for scholars and researchers interested in the history and philosophy of education and culture, social epistemology, ethics, postcolonial studies, cultural studies and public policy.
The origin of the Aryan invasion theory (AIT) is generally located in the discovery of the Indo-European and Dravidian language families. However, these discoveries cannot account for the emergence of the AIT, because the postulation of the invasion preceded the linguistic research. In its search for an alternative account of the cognitive conditions under which this theory could come into being, this article illustrates a particular way of studying the intellectual history of Orientalism. The Orientalist discourse on India is approached as a body of reflections on the western cultural experience of India. This perspective brings us to the thesis that the pre-conditions for the emergence of the AIT lay in the postulation of two entities in the Orientalist discourse on India: the ‘Hindu religion’ and its ‘caste system’. Both these notions and the AIT appeared cogent and coherent to European minds, because they mirrored internal developments within European culture and its intellectual debates, which had given shape to Europe’s experience of India.
This article explores the strategies of pandas (Hindu pilgrimage priests) in Vrindavan, relating changes in their trade (pandagiri) to tourism. These changes are the result of the pandas’ creative adjustments to shifting travel patterns that affect their market niche. Utilizing audio-recordings of the pandas’ guided tours, the article first portrays how pandas acquire ritual income from pilgrims by ‘inspiring’ donations of which they get a percentage. While commercial interests and economic conditions have always been crucial in shaping and perpetuating pilgrimage institutions and practices, global tourism has become an increasingly significant factor. Pandas all over India modify their services while the traditional exchange model (jajmani system) wanes. Changing travel patterns have made the guided tour a crucial component in the operation of Hindu pilgrimage. Vrindavan pandas have therefore turned into guides conducting religious sightseeing tours (darshan yatra). These tours are core to the new strategy for acquiring ritual income. To secure clients, pandas build connections with travel agencies and drivers and, in some cases, establish their own travel agencies that combine priestly and tourism services. The pandas’ own understandings of their methods and contemporary travel trends further reflect the dynamic interplay between pilgrimage and tourism in India.
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