divide rule

[Guest guest]

Divide and Convert; Divide and

Rulehttp://www.rediff.com/news/2002/nov/22spec.htmThe Rediff Special / Michel

DaninoMajestic, fluid, quietly mighty! In many ways, the waters of the

Brahmaputra encapsulate the North-East. We saw them only late October, after

their summer fury had abated yet the great river's beauty still fills our eyes.

Cutting open the Himalayas, bringing life and fertility to this huge valley, and

providing a gateway to the rest of India, how hard it has worked through the

ages.On its banks stands the Vivekananda Kendra Institute of Culture, our first

halt in Guwahati. Buzzing with activity, among other things it conducts

considerable research and documentation on the North-East's ancient cultures

and traditions. I had the honour of delivering there the Bhubaneswar Bharthakur

Memorial

Lecture, on the theme of The Invasion That Never Was; with the help of slides I

presented recent archaeological and cultural evidence to show the falsity of

the divisive nineteenth-century Aryan invasion theory -- a theory which, as we

discovered a few days later, is still much misused in the North-East in order

to convince tribals that they have no connection with Indian "Aryan" culture,

no identity of their own, and would therefore be better off

embracingChristianity.Missionaries and others who have recourse to such

perverse arguments really belong to the colonial dark ages -- for massive

evidence from archaeology, anthropology and other sciences, piling up in recent

decades, has thoroughly disproved the theory of an Aryan invasion of India. It

simply never took place, nor was there ever any Aryan race or any Dravidian

race. It is time these crude and unscientific distortions of India's past are

laid to rest forever;they have done enough harm to the Indian people as it is.

Do we really have to blindlyperpetuate colonial myths in this 'scientific era'?

Science was also the topic of a talk and slideshow I gave at the Indian

Institute of Technology, Guwahati, about India's scientific heritage,

highlighting some of the early -- and pioneering -- developments in mathematics

and astronomy in ancient India.Back in the city, this was followed by a

well-attended public lecture organized by the Bharat Vikas Parishad, on the

theme 'Is Indian Culture Obsolete?'Focusing on some essential roots of Indian

culture, I explained why, in my view,the answer to this question can only be in

the negative, and why India still has much to contribute to the world - perhaps

even more today than in the past.The next day took us to the Kamakhya temple

with its impressive underground garbha griha. We also enjoyed the sweeping view

of the city from atop the Nilachal Hill, near the quiet Bhubaneswari shrine.

After a flight to Dibrugarh, we left eastern Assam through Marguerita, braving

the roads with a four-wheel drive jeep and an expert driver -- but "road" is

too noble a term for these endless series of bottomless potholes and gaping

mudpits, eloquent andback-breaking testimonies of State neglect. It was a

relief to enter Arunachal Pradesh, where we remained at foothill level for a

few days, during a teachers' orientation camp organized by the Vivekananda

Kendra. This spiritually-oriented service organization based at Kanyakumari is

well known in Assam and Arunachal for its 25 excellent schools and numerous

balwadis. History and culture were the central themes of the five-day camp --

and so the many distortions Indian history remains burdened with, from Harappan

to colonial times. Again we touched on the discarded yet still widespread Aryan

invasion theory, the many features of the Harappan civilizations that have

survived to this day, the grossly unscientific race concept (still in vogue

with our professional division-walas), the essential continuity of

Indiancivilization, also how the organic, polymorphic, assimilative,

integrating entity called"Indian culture" succeeded in cementing the

subcontinent, giving to, but also taking from, regional and tribal

sub-cultures, without ever imposing itself on anyone....We talked of science

and technology, ecological heritage, the caste system, India's considerable and

always peaceful contributions to world culture, but also how to make the

teaching of history more living and relevant to a student.

India has so much rich history -- tragedies but also achievements, wars but

alsopeaceful expansions, advances in art, science, literature -- yet few

countries have been so clumsy in projecting their heritage to their younger

generations. A look at the drab and sad textbooks in use in various parts of

the country is enough to put one off learning history, not to speak of the

heavy ideological biases they often inflict on Indian students; Marxist

historians have long been past masters at this game, which is why they are so

loud against any attempt to alter their misrepresentations and provide a fair,

ungilded, andunmuddied perspective of Indian civilization. A few public

programmes -- at Kharsang, Jairampur, Marguerita and Changlang --brought into

sharp focus some of those misrepresentations, together with the racial biases

introduced by colonial scholars. Often, following my positive projection of

Indian culture -- which evoked surprise, so deep the habit of self-denigration

has gone -- there would be the usual objections: but look at the perverse caste

system, look at the imposition of Aryan culture on the Dravidians, on the

tribals, note how this region never had any linkswith India, was always

separate culturally, linguistically, racially, see how Hinduism isnow trying to

convert the tribals....

It was not too hard to guess that most of the questioners were devout Christians

or recent converts. Nor was it hard to show the incurable ignorance all such

statements were founded on. For instance, the fact that the North-East,

repeatedly mentioned in the Mahabharata, the Ramayana, in Kautilya or Kalidasa,

and of course in several Puranas, was always regarded as just one of the regions

of Bharat, a fact confirmed by the existence of tribal versions of the Epics,

also by archaeological finds from the 4th Century AD onward ofestablished Hindu

and Buddhist settlements (I am sure that more systematic excavationswould push

those dates further back). Or again the falsity of the racial concept and

thenon-existence of any so-called Aryan or so-called Dravidian race.

Finally, the inherently non-aggressive nature of Hinduism, in contrast to the

inherentlyaggressive nature of Christianity (recall the Pope's call for "a

great harvest of faith from Asia" during his state visit to India; can we

imagine a swami visiting the Vatican and calling for Christians to convert to

Hinduism?).So when my questioners, subtly or not so subtly, tried to paint

Hinduism in a bad light, they found the spotlight on Christianity rather

uncomfortable, especially when I pointed out that not a single pre-Christian

culture or religion of ancient Europe was allowed to live, or that

Christianity's essentially non-rational, unverifiable, dogmatic foundation was

thecause for its virtual disappearance from the West, where more and more

people are nowturning to yoga, meditation (as in America), or (as in France) to

Buddhism. Such debates have of course been taking place all over India, but it

is distressing to see how they stick to obsolete theories, discarded

misconceptions, and unjustifiable strategies of systematic conversion and

division of society.The last point was brought to us in sharp focus during our

interactions with a few tribals of Arunachal, who voiced the same distress at

the methods used to secure conversions to Christianity: not only monetary

allurements, but psychological pressure on the sick, promises of cure upon

conversion, pressures to rope in the rest of the family when the promises don't

materialize, and finally to throw out of the family those who continue to

"worshipSatan". In fact some missionaries and Christian educational

institutions openly refer totribals, Hindus, and Buddhists as Satan ka bachcha

[children of Satan] while Christians are Ishwar ka bachcha [children of God].

We heard several heart-rending tales of teenage boys or girls having been thus

expelled from their families when they refused to convert, accused by their own

parents of being "Satan". Converted families are then instructed not to

havecontacts with the non-Christians, as a result of which they refuse to take

part intraditional harvests and other aspects of the community's collective

life; the centuries-oldharmonious working of the community suddenly becomes

divided, and indeed division is a great way to secure conversions: "divide and

convert",until you can "divide and rule".That ultimate step is already visible

in the militant movements of the North-East, most of which are rooted in

Christian ideology. Witness the conversions the militants secure at unpoint in

remote villages at night, a fact asserted to us repeatedly. I remembered a Don

Bosco father in Tamil Nadu telling me a few years ago how "tribes have no

future within the Indian Union" and explaining why he was exhorting them "to

take up guns". It all fell intoplace.The real tragedy is perhaps not the

devious methods used by Baptists or Catholics alike -- for, after all, the

whole of Christian history is full of them and tainted in deep red. Rather it

is the failure of the government to fulfil its primary duty of protecting from

aggression peace-loving citizens and endangered communities and cultures. And

the failure of educated Indians ("miseducated" would be more correct) to ably

project the specificvalues of Indian culture, such as the oneness of humanity,

the essential divinityof man, or the complete spiritual freedom to choose one's

path towards the manifestationof that divinity -- values that are conspicuously

absent from Abrahamic religions (notwithstanding the hollow slogan that "all

religions preach the same truths": unfortunately they don't). Surely, one may

be critical of a few aspects of Hinduism or Indian traditions; but to throw

away a gem because some mud has stained it is plain ignorance.The flight from

Dibrugarh to Guwahati followed the Brahmaputra, whose hundred branches

meandered lazily around countless islets. The Himalayas glistened to the north,

a perfect line of white peaks hovering over the clouds and kissed by the setting

sun. Yes, that which has its roots beyond time cannot die. That which has

countless forms will always be reborn.French-born Michel Danino has been

settled in Tamil Nadu for 25 years; he has given many lectures in India and is

co-author of The Invasion That Never Was. He is also the convener of the

International Forum for India's Heritage.

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