In a translation of a collection of writings by ancient visitors to India, published in 1857 as India in the fifteenth century: being a collection of narratives of voyages Richard Henry Major wrote: “Before the days when Alexander of Macedon sought to add to his triumphs the conquest of the Eastern world, India had been pronounced by Herodotus to be the wealthiest and most populous country on the face of the earth. The subsequent history of commerce has proved the correctness of his assertion.”
By common consensus, from ancient to modern times, India is among the major cultures and civilizations that have contributed significantly to humanity’s heritage. Indic civilization is as ancient as any, more ancient than many, and is remarkable in its uninterrupted continuity since the misty millennia of unrecorded history. To this day, scholars are unable to trace the precise roots of Indic culture, except to note that there flourished in the ancient subcontinent cultures that preceded the Vedic-Sanskritic and the Dravidian which are the principal weaving threads in the fabric of current Indic civilization. The principal languages constituting the latter are Malayálam, Kannada, Tamil, and Telugu, each one with a rich literary and cultural tradition.
But, in fairness and in the light of current awakening, it should be pointed out that when we speak of Indian culture, Hinduism, and the people of India in sweeping terms, one sometimes tends to ignore vast numbers of pristine people for whom also India has been home for millennia. The constitution of India recognizes some 645 different tribes living in the Republic of India. They are generally referred to as ádivásis (original inhabitants). They are sometimes referred to as tribals. The term ádivási, like aborigine, has acquired pejorative and political connotations in recent years. No matter how they are labeled, the fact remains that there are large numbers of people in India, who are often not taken as belonging to the mainstream inhabitants. They correspond to the aborigines of Australia and the Amerindians of the Americas.
The ádivásis are both within and outside of Hinduism. They have their sages and saints. Perhaps even Lord Shiva of mainstream Hinduism has roots in tribal worship. It has been said that the great poet Valmiki, author of the immortal Ramayana, was a tribal, as was the saint Kannappanayanar of the Tamil tradition. And yet, for far too long these people were excluded from mainstream Hindu society. The varna-framework, also known as the caste-system, which is endemic to all groups in India, did not include them. They were avarnas: non-caste people. Yet, they themselves followed some aspects of the játi (family lineage) division. As Koenraad Elst points out “The Munda tribals not only practice tribal endogamy and commensality, but also observe a játi division within the tribe, buttressed by notions of social pollution, a mythological explanation and harsh punishments.” Ignored or marginalized by the mainstream Hindu world for long centuries, many of them were lured to Islamic and Christian faiths with hopes of finding more respectful recognition. Now, suddenly, many Hindus are claiming them to be their own. So, Hindus, Christians, Buddhists, Muslims – are all eager to have these very people who had been marginalized for millennia. How diametrically history can reverse itself!
Whether in food or in costume, in marriage customs or in festivals, there are significant regional variations within India, let alone differences resulting from language and caste. These too change periodically. Not unlike in Europe when Christendom reigned supreme, the people of India, even with their impressive linguistic and alimentary diversity, have for long maintained a commonalty, bound together largely by their Sanskritic and Dravidian heritages. They are unified, as they have been for many centuries, in a multi-ethnic framework of religion and culture. The categorization of the roots of Indic culture in these terms is resented by some because it has the potential for dividing the Indian nation into cultural subdivisions. This is a valid concern. However, there is also divisions based on religions: It does not follow that we must argue that all the religions in India are derived from a single source. While it is important to foster cultural unity, this cannot and need not be achieved by insisting on historically questionable commonalty. In our own times, the English language and modern science are the major forces that bind the elite of the nation at the intellectual and discursive levels, while the people at large are held together in a political, cultural, and national fabric by a democratic and secular system of government.
The inhabitants of India are a variety of complex peoples. They range from simple folks that still guard their one-with-nature ways to an array of sophisticated groups that contribute to international debates and to modern science and technology. There are astrologers galore in India, but also astrophysicists, mantra-chanting medicine men, but also world-class heart surgeons, preachers who persist in the five-element theory of matter, but also nuclear physicists. Notwithstanding their lingering caste consciousness and obsession with sectarian purity in matters of matrimony, present-day Hindus are products of healthy mixtures that have resulted from waves upon waves of immigrants and invading hordes. Aside from their indigenous lineage, today’s Indians include descendents from ancient Africans, Greeks, Mongols, Portuguese, Persians, Afghans and more. It is no longer possible to separate them out into indigenous ones and people from alien seeds.
The tropical land of India has witnessed countless triumphs and tribulations. It has had more than its share of famines, frustrations, wars, and battles. The resilience of Indic culture to alien intrusions, whether of the pillaging and plundering variety, or of the occupying kind, has few parallels in the history of humankind. Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism, which transformed beyond recognition many ancient cultures to whom they brought their messages, did not destroy Hinduism, though they affected it in significant ways. On the other hand, aspects of Hindu society and modes of worship have never left Hindu converts to any of these missionary religions. Thus Indian Christians and Muslims are known to be caste conscious. In this context it is to be noted that the underlying concepts in caste categorization are two. The first is that professions in any society may be broadly put under four groups: those dedicated to primarily intellectual and spiritual pursuits (Brahmins); those committed to the administration and defense of the county (Kshatriyas); those that contribute to the economy, i.e. traders and merchants (Vaishyas); and those that are engaged primarily in manual labor (the Shúdras). What made the system morally unacceptable was when these became hierarchical, rigid, and hereditary, making mobility from the lower to upper castes extremely difficult. Interestingly, all through the caste-profession correlation has not been strictly adhered to: there have been Brahmin administrators, Shúdra saints, Vasihya scholars and Kshatriya laborers also. And changes are occurring in claims of superiority of one caste over another.
The ideal would be to acknowledge the countless ways in which Brahmins infused life and learning, poetry and philosophy, profound wisdom and meaningful rituals into the tradition; the countless ways in which Kshatriyas defended the tradition and administered various Hindu kingdoms; the countless ways in which Vaishyas kept the economy of the society alive and thriving; the countless ways in which Shúdras worked hard with physical exertion in fields and smithies and elsewhere to sustain Hindu society; and also the countless ways in which avarnas (Dalits), despite being excluded from the caste framework, served society, often in menial and degrading professions. Indeed, every class and caste has enriched the Hindu world in myriad ways. Therefore, it is important to acknowledge that no one group is intrinsically superior to any other.
Without condoning the fact that the people of the subcontinent were plundered and exploited many times in their history, it can still be said in fairness that in the long view India has also benefited from her contacts with the alien races and religions that barged into her shores without being welcome. This, however, is a very touchy point in current post-colonial debates. Now ardent ethnic Hindu nationalists, recognizing the immeasurable cultural and economic harm that Mogul occupation and British colonialism inflicted upon Hindus, will not cheerfully concede the positive impacts of the seigwailo, as the Chinese used to describe the foreign devils.
Though this is understandable as an emotional reaction to the persistence of victimhood which is still there in the hearts of many Hindus, the historical fact remains that in music, art and literature, in science, technology, and mode of government, and in other contexts, India as a modern nation has become all the richer as a result of her contacts with the intruders. What may be said with reason is that many of these benefits could well have accrued without the economic exploitation and political humiliation that the people suffered.
What really matters now that India and Indic culture have been resilient even in the midst of all the ravages she has suffered. The French Indologist Sylvain Lévi said this about India (L’Inde et le Monde, 1926) Her civilization, spontaneous and original, unrolls itself in a continuous time across at least thirty centuries, without interruption, without deviation. Ceaselessly in contact with foreign elements which threatened to strangle her, she persevered victoriously in absorbing them, assimilating them and enriching herself with them. Thus she has seen the Greeks, the Scythians, the Afghans, the Mongols to pass before her eyes in succession and is regarding with indifference the Englishmen – confident to pursue under the accidence of the surface the normal course
Spurts of Thought 