It is a fact that the stream of continuous invaders in India has always challenged the Vedic thoughts in order to fix their strong hold over the land and people. Vedic culture has withstood the challenges of each and every incursion of foreign elements and has retained its identity intact, often going through a process of rejuvenation and has kept the basic essentials much the same. No invading race or proselytizer exercise has ever succeeded in making any significant dent in the Vedic cultural aspect of universal thought.
There have been concentrated and planned attacks to eradicate Hinduism and consign it to a forgotten page of history book. Even the basic Aryan philosophy was distorted and misrepresented in a prejudiced and pre-planned arrangement. The very monism and the rare description of cosmological dogma were distorted by the use of jugglery of words and phrases. In the garb of simplification, the full freedom of worshippers was slighted and in the name of wrong and false worship, Hindu gods were condemned, something on the line of their own discarded and condemned gods. The concept of individual soul and reincarnation was unconceivable to these people and the concept of God remained an intellectual exercise, far away from the cry of the soul. The spiritual idea stood pagan to them.
It is unfortunate that a part of our English media and extra-territorial loyalists delight in act of distortion of the Vedic values and its relevance in modern day life of man and nation some like to paint the Vedic culture as world-negating and backward. The young generation is being misguided in the name of progress and progressive approach does progress mean going away from the base? No progress can be built without a strong foundation of Vedic culture.
Do not we have an absolute right to know our past especially the glory of Vedic age, so long suppressed from us? The general people want an access to it. Why should we be in so much haste of embracing modernity on global footage in the name of progress with growing applause? It may distract us from our extraordinary heritage, which we have to understand and withhold boldly to our best capability. We should be proud of our glorious past and built a glorious future for generation to come. Bharat has a rich history and a most elevated culture. We need to explore it and get it done by our own dedicated authors and not depend upon the motivated foreigners to speak to us about our mother country. Remember that Vedic culture is universal. It is the foundation and base on which a real progressive India can stand upon.
The Policy to DeHinduize is Born
The western scholars of missionary mindset along with the imperialist colonizers always reared an ambition of de-Hinduising Hindustan and westernizing the land for the cultivation of Christianity to “save people” The name of Lord Thomas Babington Macaulay, Head of the Education Deptt. Of Br. India, in 1834 and Friedrich Max Muller, the German missionary scholar, tops the list. Max Muller wrote to the Duke of Argyll, the Secretary for State for India on December 1868, “India has been conquered once, but India must be conquered again and the second conquest should be a conquest through education.” Lord Macaulay said, “We must form a class of persons who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern, a class of persons, Indian in blood and color but English in taste, in opinion, in mind and in intellect.”
prior to Macaulay, the Goan Inquisition under Alexia Dias Felear had committed immense atrocities on Hindus of Goa, Daman, Diu, and Vasai for about 250 years between 1560-1802 but an Italian Jesuit tried to built a bridge between Hindu and Christian societies. In 1608, Robert De Nobile, a Jesuit priest wore sacred thread, a knot and claimed he was a Brahmin from Rome. He learnt Tamil, Telegu and Sanskrit, wrote a Christian Sandhya Bandanam and also YeshurVeda. He called it; the fifth Veda .He took pains in acquiring knowledge of Hindu customs and rituals. Thus in this garb he snared simple Hindus and converted the largest harvest for Christians—87 Brahmins and a Lakh others. Forgery was his nature. Outwardly he retained all signs of Hinduism, sacred cord, oral caste mark on brow, a paste of ashes of sandalwood, and even wrote a Veda on Christianity.
There has been another ghastly side of the missionaries. They had already consigned to flames the biggest Alexandria library, housing about seven lakhs rolls. All the books of Gnostic Basilides, Porphyry’s 36 rolls and 27000 ancient documents were totally burned to ashes. St. John Chrysostom, the Father of Church proudly declared, ”Every trace of old philosophy and literature of ancient world has vanished from face of the earth.’ Missionaries planned to do, which they did to pagan cultures in Europe, the same in India. They destroyed traditional centres of learning, distorted history to create confusion among the various sections of Hindu society. The misinterpretation of Vedas, myth of Aryan Invasion Theory, putting Hindu epics in the category of myth and distortion of history was intended to drive a wedge between North and South and divide the country. Nevertheless we are thankful to the British rulers for, had they planned, they would have systematically destroyed all Hindu manuscripts as had been witnessed in the burning of Nalanda library which consisted of three sections—Ratna Sagar, Ratna Ranjak and Ratna Bandhu. The Britishers carefully collected and preserved the literature, saved it and paved way for a systematized work on them in Europe - Thanks to the rulers for this act of righteousness.
Today what we Indians consider to be something like progress, progressive but read what Macaulay means to say,”No Hindoo who has received an English education ever remains sincerely attached to his religion. Some continue to profess it as a matter of policy, but many profess themselves pure deists and some embrace Christianity.” How much confident and progressive was Macaulay when he declared, “It is my firm belief if our plan of education are followed up, there will not be a single idolater among the respectable class in Bengal 30 years hence” (The Shaping of Hindustan page 411)
The western game was well planned and its signs are evident even today after 63 long years of independence. English education flourishes at the cost of ignoring education in mother tongue all over the country... The dream of a progressive India still remains a very distant dream. Is it not because for providing temporal benefits to some people, we are out to destroy their faith in their age -old values?
The westerners were pragmatic and realistic. They planned their strategy well in advance .Their very first prerequisite was to get acquainted with Hindu ideology, society and culture. Reading and studying Sanskrit scriptures and Hindi language was the need of the day. So for the purpose dictionaries of local languages into English were edited. Indo-linguists and scholars like H.K.Wilson; J. T. Moles worth and many others agreeing with Macaulay came to his aid. As a result, Malayalam –English dictionary was prepared by Günter Stephenson and Marathi English dictionary was translated by Moles worth .In preface ,Moles worth writes, ‘It was undertaken for a desire to promote the propagation of the glorious gospel.”It was meant to conquer India once again through Education. Prof. Monier Williams was the author of Sanskrit- English Dictionary. He was the Professor of Sanskrit at the Oxford University. In 1878, he said that enormous territory of India has been committed to England for a great purpose - that every man, woman and child, from Cape Cameron to Himalaya Mountains, may be elevated, enlightened and Christianized. On May 2, 1877, he said that, ’the chief obstacle to spread Christianity in India is that these people are proud of their tradition and religion,” is it not a fact that pride in ones culture and religion is natural? It is instinctive. This is why Hindus are assertive and say, “We are proud to be Hindus.”
Formation of Institutions
For this very purpose educational institutions and universities were established. They also formed oriental societies to facilitate missionary propaganda and patronized many such institutions. In the series, Fort William College in Calcutta was formed in about 1800A.D. and translation into local languages was encouraged. This proved handy for the missionary work in common dialect to convert the people and platform and leaflets were flooded for the common masses with misleading truths about Hindu religion and its deities. They founded anti-Vedic and pro-Christian societies in order to de-Hinduism and Christianize the De-Hinduized ones. One such was Brahmo Samaj. Max Mullar, in September 1879, said, “There is a religious movement going on in India, the Brahma Samaj, which both in its origin and in its later development is mainly the result of European influences. It began with an attempt to bring the modern corrupt form of worship back to the purity and simplicity of the Vedas; and by ascribing to the Vedas the authority of a Divine revelation, it was hoped to secure that infallible authority without which no religion was supposed to be possible .How was that movement stopped and turned into a new channel? Simply by the publication of the Veda and by work of European scholars, such as Stevenson, Mill, Rosin, Wilson and others, who showed the natives what the Vedas really were and made them see the folly of their way?”
At the beginning the Samaj followed the chanting of Vedic richas in its meetings and accept the infallibility of the Vedas. Raja Ram Mohan Rai was the leading light who cherished Vedic ideals but also wanted some reforms. By 1848, the Vedic utilitarianism was superseded and western influence came in. Feeling of Hinduism faded away and forefathers were not remembered with pride. These people hesitated in mentioning the word “Brahma “even. The names of Hindu sages and seers were neglected. It was believed that since creation, there have never been men so learned as the Europeans. Fortunately there existed a line of thinkers like Dayanand , AryaSamaj, RKMission and Yogi Aurobindo who saved the fall and decline of Hinduism. Aurobindo said, ”The hollow worm-eaten outside of Hinduism, all crumbling so fatally, to some sudden and astonishing dissolution, do not frighten me. I find the soul of civilization alive, though sleeping.”
Devaluating the Hindu Gods
The Christian philosophy is said to be based on love and the phrase, Love thy neighbour as you love yourself” is the most significant one. European scholar Paul Deussen says, “The Gospels fix correctly as the highest law of morality, Love your neighbour as you love yourself. But why should I do so, since by the order of nature I feel pleasure and pain only in myself, not in my neighbour? The answer is not in the Bible but in the Vedas, in the great formula, Tat-Tvam-Asi which gives in three words, metaphysics and moral together, - ‘you are your neighbour”. (Easwarana: The Upanishads) This is monism of Vedas but the invaders had their own agenda.
MaxMuller declared that Hinduism is dead and dying religion, while Christianity is living and vibrant. He said,”The worship of Shiva or Vishnu and the other popular deities, is of the same, nay, in many cases of a more degraded and savage character than the worship, of Jupiter, Apollo, and Minerva; it belongs to a stratum of thought which is long buried beneath our feet, it may live on like the lion and the tiger but the mere air of free thought and civilized life will extinguish it.’ (Westminster lectures on Missions December 1873)
The reality was different and the facts were otherwise. Zimmer says,”The gods were never dethroned in India, disintegrated, and dissolved as were the Greek deities in the days of Anaxagoras, Aristotle, and Democritus etc. Gods of Homer became laughable, were mocked as they were known for too much human love affairs and too much wrath - Hindus retained its anthropomorphic personification of cosmic gods force as vivid masks which alternately assist mind to comprehend that is manifest through them. They remained useful symbols, full of meaning and interest, served as guides and were accessible by rituals and Bhakti (devotion) “(Voice of Freedom page 106)
It has to be recollected that when whole of Bengal rose against British rule, Vande Matarama was chanted in the temple of Kalighat in Kolkata and goddess Kali was made a national symbol of destruction and death.
Echoing Macaulay’s views was another civil servant Edward Trevelyan. He attacked bitterly against Hindu belief of cosmology. What a fine understanding of Hindu philosophy, he had, when he said,” It is sufficient to prove that the world does not rest on back of the tortoise, or is composed of concentric circles of wine and cake and milk and so forth and their religion is gone (Virag Pachpore: The Indian Church? page 39) This quote refers to Post Vedic age belief, when Incarnation theory was accepted and divinity was seen even in small things like tortoise. The quote only means that it is God in His smallest form that bears the burden load of the Earth. God is great and omniscient.
The above quote will surely satisfy us in our quest as to why Max Muller chose to translate Vedas and other Hindu scriptures and with what intent.
The Great Conspiracy - AIT and Translation of Hindu scriptures
There is much more to tell. It was on December 1854, the Prussian ambassador Barron Von Bunsen became instrumental in arranging a meeting of the German MaxMuller with the English Lord Thomas Babington Macaulay. Germany and England were not on good terms. The East India Company agreed to pay Pound 200 per annum to Max Muller, the German national, for translation of Vedas and other Hindu scriptures. Then the annual salary of a British teacher was only pound 60. The German Max Muller accepted the offer in the interest of spreading Christianity in India. The company agreed to pay a sum of one lakh only in the way as he writes to his wife in his letter in July 1862. As a truly declared Christian, he writes, “All I can say is that I have read and heard the worst that can be said against our religion. I mean the true original teachings of the Christ. I feel that I am ready in mind, if not in body, to lay down my life for the truth of his teachings. All our difficulties arise from the doctrine of men and not from his doctrine.”
His friend P.B. Pusey in 1860 wrote to him, “Your work will form a new era in the efforts of the conversion of India and Oxford will have reason to be thankful that, by giving you a home, it will have facilitated a work of such primary and lasting importance for the conversion of India and which, by enabling us to compare that false religion with the true, illustrates the more than blessedness of what we enjoy.”’(Cradle of Civilization Page 12) Max Muller considered it God’s work to expose the roots of Hindu culture. He writes to his wife in December 1899, “I hope , I shall finish that work and I feel convinced that this edition of mine and the translation of the Vedas will hereafter tell to a great extent on the fate of India and on the growth of millions of millions of souls in that country. It is the root of that religion and to show them what the root is, I feel sure is the only way of uprooting all that sprung from it during the last 3000 years. (The Life and letters of Max Muller 1902 vol.1-page 328)
”Now the Missionary man Max Muller was to present the Hindu religious scriptures before the world, something which was the privilege of Aryan seers and sages. Hindus were made to know their own scriptures through the missionary translators and not from their own seers and teachers or through their guidance.
There was no East India Company after 1857. By the time the company had revised its earlier commitment, and he was still satisfied to work on the project. Theodore Goldstucker says that he planned such a chronology of Vedas as Aryan invasion may be proved to occur only after the period of deluge as stated in the Bible and Aryans be established as a race ( Sacred Hymns of Brahmans ed. W. H. Allen page73)
Max Muller set the date of Rig Veda at only 1200 B.C. under Christen faith. The Christian belief current in those days was that the world was created at 9 A.M. on 23rd. October 4004 B.C. Bishop Ussher had declared it as the date of creation. The Holy Bible says that the human race began with Adam and Eve. Since their most direct descendents were among the Semitic tribe, Hebrew had to be the oldest language, then how can the Aryans be the possessors of the oldest culture? As no position is acceptable, lowering their culture, so the Vedic culture has to be of a later date and time. The cause of such facile conclusion and tailored theories, ignoring the facts of available history, was their commitment to Christianity.
There was great opposition among scholars. MaxMuller had to eventually disown the date he had ascribed and had to accept that “he put 1200 B.C. without any evidence whatsoever,” but the date continues still as a benchmark.
Dales, a U.S.A. historian challenged the proposed date and the findings to it. Wheeler, the political appointee of Lord Curzon, the viceroy of India, was quick to retrace but not without a cunning. He amended and said that, “It cannot be proved that the invaders were Aryans. It is also possible that it might be completely wrong to conclude like it but however it is not entirely impossible” (Refer; In Search of Cradle of Civilization page 7-8) Max Muller was changing position regarding the dates of said Invasion. He said,” Whether Vedic hymns were written in 1000, 1500, or 2000 B.C or 3000B.C. no power on earth will ever be able to determine.”
Kenoyer says, ’we have no evidence for new population entering into sub-continent and replacing the indigenous people of the Indus valley” ‘From scholars like Langdon to Ranfrieve, the archaeological investigation accepted India as original homeland of Aryans and disapproved the A.I.T. of Max Muller. Thereafter Gordon Childe and Wheeler indicated that the Aryans may possibly be the invaders. Macoi was doubtful. Wheeler and Norman Brown sided with Max Muller and deliberately distorted the historical basis. Wheeler had to retrace and Childe was hesitant in naming Aryans. From Sir Wheeler to Stuart Piggott, there has been planned attempt to prove the AIT.
Max Muller was the master mind behind the Aryan Invasion Theory. He was the highly paid German employee of the East India Company. He intended to safeguard the rights of the foreigners on Indian soil to rule the country. So he planned to deny the Hindus of any political and moral ground to claim independence from the British proving that they too like them were outsiders and invaders .All of them were foreigners and invaders and being immigrants had claim on India. The then Viceroy Lord Curzon said that India had ever been the booty of foreign invaders and the British P.M. said,”We have as much right to be in India as anyone else except perhaps for the depressed class who are the native stock.’ (Koreroed Elst: Political aspects of the A. I. T, Debate page 49)The European political weapon; the A.I.T. questioned the very Aryan identity on their own land of birth. The loyalists and the Macaulay brand Indians began to justify the British presence and called it a reunion with the Aryan cousins
We all know well that people derive satisfaction in running down and humiliate their own brethren. Love to obey outsiders, to be patted by them is all they like...This was the general opinion prevailing then that Hindus are the most docile race, always willing to crawl in anticipation of being asked to bend. They liked to justify their slavery rather than offer any resistance. Friedrich Max Muller and Lord Macaulay successfully won the game. In independent India, an attempt was made to declare Sanskrit as a language of immigrants and therefore on par with Arabian and Persian languages, thus delegitimizing Sanskrit and deleting it in the 8th. Schedule of the constitution on the ground of its being a foreign language brought by the invading Aryans to India. and its effect was seen in the judgment on a writ petition (C) no 299 of 1989 by the bench of the Supreme Court Of India which delivered its historical judgment in favour of reinstating the teaching of Sanskrit in the syllabus of Delhi Board of CBSC on Oct. 4, 1994 The Board had treated Sanskrit on par with Persian and other foreign languages and ordered removal of its teaching which was in accordance to line of Macaulay but the supreme Court set aside the order. The press shied from publishing the reality and from taking the matter before the common man with full publicity.
Introducing the word Arya
So Max Muller became the first man in 1853, to introduce the word Aryan in the English and European usage applying it to racial and linguistic group .Later on he had to retreat and say that Arya means simply those who speak in Aryan language and Aryan grammar , whatever their colour, whatever their blood. There is nothing like Aryan blood, Aryan race, or Aryan eyes or hairs.” (Muller: Biography of words and the Home of Aryans)Vedas never speak of Arya in context to a race or language. It simply means, a gentleman. But Max Muller persisted with his concept of “Aryan language”There is a difference between language and race. They differ. They cannot be equated. Race is physical. Biological descent; language is cultural. Both have separate existence. But the fact stands that in n reference to Aryans, the two were equated right from the very start in the popular mind. Aryan race meant Aryan language also’ in this way the westerners assaulted the Vedic conception of universalism.
Fixing the Dates of Epics
Macaulay while setting the dates of Vedas had to alter the dates of other classical literatures, Ramayana and Mahabharata also. There are strong and sufficient evidences in these two epics to prove that Ramayana is older than Mahabharata and that Vedas are still very old. Swami Dayanand in “Light of Truth” presents a chart of rulers from Delhi king Prithviraj to Yudhisthir’s dynasty. It proves that the rule of Yudhisthira comes about 4099+885=4984Years. The astronomical date supports 3100 B.C. or close to it as the date of Mahabharata war... Post Vedic Sutric literature as contained in the works of Budhyana and Apasthamba and others refer to Rohini krttika transition in support of the astronomical date of 3100B.C. But the European scholars and colonial lobby of Macaulay invented their own arguments against history. They knew that to weaken a nation of its identity, one has to distort its ancient history. They declared that old traditions do not contribute proof of chronology of the Vedic hymns. This measurement was approved, though they were fully aware that their Bible was composed on the authority of verbal evidence of four or five centuries.
Lee Mee voiced against this wrong. He writes, ”Precious stones or durable material in gold, silver, bronze, marble, onyx or granite have h been used by most ancient peoples in an attempt to immortalize their achievements, not so, however, the Aryans. They turned to what may seem the most volatile and insubstantial material of all—the spoken word—and out of this bubble of air fashioned a monument which 30 perhaps 40 centuries later stands untouched by time or elements—Vedas remain recited by an unbroken chain of generation, travelling like a great wave throughout the living substance of the mind.”
Macaulay was determined to prove his Aryan Invasion Theory. He ignored the significance of Vedas as historical document and declared Vedas as mythology and theology but not as history. It is really strange that Europeans see relevance of history in their Christian scriptures, the Bible and treat Bible as history, the historical situation out of which the Old Testament and the Gospels grew.
Even they set aside the linguistic evidence to prove that the epics bear no historical evidence. These missionary scholars planned further to call these epics as myth and create doubt and confusion even on the existence of Rama and Krishna. We all know that the treatment of myth in the western experience has been negative. !8th. Century Greek and Roman heritage of pre-Christian religious stories; badly distorted and misshaped, were treated as myths. This word was used for all non-Jews and non-Christian cultural stories. On the other hand, the missionary scholars chose to place biblical and Christian stories in the category of history so the stories of Moses and Parting the Red Sea came as history unmindful of any chronological and textual evidences. It is strange that these very assaulters considered Ramayana and Mahabharata as myth despite enough archaeological and textual evidences. What else can we expect of these people who are out to DeHinduize Hindus in their own land? They used the term myth as a powerful weapon to minimize the effect of Hindu way of life; religious literature and sacred stories and to delegitimize the stories told to common folk of illiterate and ignorant people. All ancient seers, Manu, Parashar, Vyasa, Narada, Vashishtha etc. and even Rama and Krishna became mythic and therefore unreal to them. Vedas, Aranyakas, Brahmanas and Mahabharata, Ramayana all ancient literature of value became mythology, traditional narratives involving supernatural or imaginary persons and often embodying popular ideas on natural or social phenomena.
The mischievous propaganda proved so detrimental that in Independent India, the Question of Rama’ existence was raised and the present Ram Setu question reached the Supreme Court. The west has sown the poison and the sons of Macaulay want to reap the harvest to their benefit and vested interests.
Inventing the Dravidian – Aryan Divide
Bishop Robert Caldwell, a British Christian missionary in 1875, attempted a divide in Aryan life by calling Dravidians and Aryans as apart from each other. He said that the dark-skinned people living in the south and speaks Telegu, Tamil and Malayalam languages differ from Aryans who are white skinned. So inventing the theory, he admitted that it is of “vast political and moral importance.” W.W. Hunter said,” Scholarship is warmed with holy flames of Christian zeal.”Basham is clear. He says that many hymns in Rigveda refer to the battles between Aryan tribe and another. These have been wrongly interpreted. They interpret the word Anarya as non- Aryans or as some indigenous people originally living there as pre- Aryans. There existed no such Pre-Aryans. During the battle of Ten Kings we find that diverse tribes of people lived together in diversity of language and culture .Vedic Aryans looked down upon Dasses, Asuras, Dasyus, and called them Anaryas. It was a fight between spiritualism and materialism. Between light and Darkness. S.C. Talageri says that Dasas refer to non-Puru tribe and Dasyu to priestly class of the same Aryan language group. Their Gurus were all Aryans. Vashistha and Viswamitra on the side of Sudas and Pasadyumna Vayate, a sage of Sanskrit name on the rival side and all of them shared the same gods.Vedic seers guided all of them. Hence the divisive plot proved another attempted trick to break the Vedic culture.
The Reality of Max Muller
How strange that we Call Max Muller, a learned Sanskrit scholar even though he never visited Bharat nor met with any saint or seer in Europe. He did not read Sanskrit scriptures nor knew any Indian language. He declared India not as a country but as a sub-continent and invented a new theory of AIT while dividing Hindus on caste lines and differentiating them with tribals and animists...He had a band of followers of scholars like Alphinston, Keith, Parzitor, and others to side with him in converting Hindus into Christianity. He was adept in distortion, manipulation, and in creating confusion which he successfully did. While avoiding meeting Hindu seers, he tried to devaluate them. In his letter to Bairamji Malwari on 28 Jan. 1882, he writes, “People like Dayanand give undue importance to Vedas. They deduce the meaning which is not in the root. Observe Veda as a historical document only then even the simple thought of the primitives would look pleasant. But to search the source of electricity, magnetism, ethics and philosophy, we have to cut a sorry figure.” Max Muller in serial of importance had laid down the following scriptures as no 1-- The first is New Testament, 2-Quran 3-Old Testament 4-Tripitak 5-Leo 6-Confucious 7-Veda and lastly 8-Avesta. Such a man was made to translate the scriptures and Vedas by the vested interests with a motive to de-Hinduize the Hindus.
Peeping into depth of Vedic Vedanga
A part of Vedic literature, the Vedanga is unparallel. we have works on Ayurveda (Science of life); Dhanurveda (science of warfare); Gandharva veda (science of arts and music); Satpathya veda (science of architect and mechanism) Then the literature on phonetics, Kalpa, (Ritual with base of geometry and maths and calendar), Vyakarana, Nirukta (etymology or glossary); chandas 9prosody or metrical structure); jyotish (astronomy and other cyclical phenomena. 64 subjects were taught. Dhanvantari gave us surgery including bladder surgery and variety of surgical instruments. Carak in Samhita spoke on Anatomy, physiology, aetiology, pathology, therapeutics, and rules and regulations of diets and drugs. Susruta describes grouped and classified surgical operations; extraction of solid bodies, excising, incising, probing, scarifying, sulphuring, punching, fluid evacuation, and 125 instruments of surgery and midwifery.
The work of Aryabhatta and his contribution in Algebra bio-geometry and astronomy – he told us for the first time that the earth is round and rotates about its axis He gave us the value of (Pie )^=3.1416 and definition of time .He invented zero system. Albert Einstein says, ‘We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us to count without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been. Wheeler Wilcox writes, “India—the land of the Vedas, the remarkable work contains not only religious ideas for a perfect life, but also facts which science has proved true. Electricity, radium, electronics, airship all were known to the seers who founded the Vedas.” Now that Max Muller challenges our seers, we have to give him a fitting reply and make India know and realize our glorious past.
Another Divide: Tribals and Animists
Max Muller had another game-plan. He tried to bring about a divide between different sections of Hindu community. He targeted the forest dwellers and the hill dwellers, describing them as Tribals and Animists. These were the people who had played important role in Mahabharata and Ramayana. They had their ancestors linked in ancient times with Hindus. The A.I.T. described that these people were attacked by the invading Aryans in the past and were driven out towards the forests for shelter. The census report of 1921 did not approve of this finding. It opposed the plot of separation of these tribes with Hindu community. It was in 1931 census that the word Animists was replaced with a new invented category of “Tribal Regions. It was so coined as it may not be equated with Hindus Each tribe was given a proper religion So India was made a many tribal religion country. Their separate identity from Hindu society was also justified. Mahatma Gandhi opposed this discrimination and said, We were strangers to this sort of classification - animist, aboriginals etc. but we have learnt it from the English rulers.” speaking about the tribals in Kond hills, he said that from time immemorial they have been absorbed in Hinduism.
The west game did not stop in damaging India’s unity. It targeted the untouchables and the caste system. The British rulers documented caste and tribe in all its complexities in the gazetteers and counted it in census operations from 1881. For 1911 census, Sir Herbert Risley, the commissioner went a step further and said that the census had also to identify “social precedence as recognised by native public opinion “It means that the caste had to be located in the ritual and social hierarchy and it was to determine which caste was high, which intermediate, and which low. It was a divisive game played by the western rulers to divide and Rule and reduce the Hindu society into many fractions. Gandhiji felt that the caste was like religion a purely social institution and had no place in public life and political decision making.
The west and the proselytizers had already planted a seed of division and disintegration to fructify a politics of separation in future.
Distorting Vedic Values - Beef Eating
In Independent India, another conspiracy was hatched to justify the eating of beef and cow-slaughter in the name of Vedas. Articles in papers were written and published, quoting Vedic richas. It was all deliberate as they translated the word ghrit (clarified butter) into “fat implying tallow of cattle” and Mahisha (buffalo) into cow. They also invoked the richas regarding funeral fire and forest fire into their kitchens. The story is an old one. It was the allegation of fat i.e. tallow of cows and pigs were b being used in cartridges that sparked the War of Independence in 1857 called the Sepoy Mutiny against the British raj. Now it alerted the British. They tried to lower down the image of the cow and its reverence and prove that they were as much foreigner as the Hindus are. So it was their plan to invent the evidence of beef eating in Vedic age. It has always been the game plan of the west to field mercenaries as scholars and elites and through them propagate their own view point. Even today we witness such award winners working as a tool to vested interests and multinationals. They ascribed this job to European and some Indian nationals to invent evidence in the Vedas favouring cow slaughter and beef-eating. One Rajendra Lal Mitra came out and published “Beef in Ancient India” in the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1872 It was the time of Gandhiji Go Raksha Movement. So to face it, a swami was recruited. He was Swami Prakashanand He appeared on the scene and published the same essay in a booklet form.
A Sanskrit to Sanskrit dictionary in six volumes was used for this purpose. Pt Taranath, a prof. of Vyakarana at Sanskrit college Calcutta was made to translate the word Goghn as killer of cow. This was a deliberate attempt at distortion so as to prove that beef was eaten in Vedic age. H. H. Swami Prakashanand Saraswati in “The true History and Religion of India“ explains that goghn actually stands for the guest who receives cow as gift. He quotes Panini n3.4.73. as authority to justify that it only means the receiver of the gift of cow and nothing else but Tarachand overrules even the authority of Panini and the British agree. Why? The reality is that in 1866, the Bengal government had granted a commitment in advance to purchase 200 copies of his books @50/ per book to a total of 10,000/rupees (.vide letters no 507 dated 26 01-1866.) Mark the present market value, may be 25 lakhs. Even the governor vide letter no 1480 dated 12. 12 1870 granted extension of time to them for completing Vachaspatyam, the proposed Sanskrit dictionary... The income was assured and they had to justify what the payers wanted. The game goes on but with a changed garb and a different strategy.
Conclusion
On October, 26, 2008, Pope Benedict invoked Mahatma Gandhi name in an appeal to end violence. The Pope has chosen wisely for Gandhiji is revered by all of us even today for his cosmopolitan views, for his compassionate work for the poor and the downtrodden and for his morals. All this was possible because of his understanding of core Hindu philosophical tenets. In August 1925, he wrote in Young India, “Hinduism as I know it, entirely satisfies my soul, fill my whole being and I find solace in the Bhagavad-Gita and the Upanishads that I miss even in the Sermon on the Mount - I must confess to you that when doubts haunt me, when disappointments stare me in the face and when I see not one ray of light in the horizon, I turn to the Bhagavad-Gita.” It was Gandhi who showed in his life’s example that cowardly acceptance of injustice and unprovoked violence was not in keeping with his doctrine.
Today global powers so dominate that our identity in our own country is being questioned. M.J. Akbar says,”The church using international reach, has converted the attack on prayer halls in South and tribals in Orissa in a global story, persuading Rome, Washington and Paris to berate India publicly. While such assaults are never justified, this undermines the human value of our society but what a pity? Our PM says that he is embarrassed by the rebukes he heard in Washington and Paris. Ok, “but why should not the PM tell that the same fundamentalist missionaries, buoyed by fabulous donations have said blasphemous things about the most venerate Hindu gods. Implicit in their vituperation is the assumption that Hindus are the soft target.”
The Hindu view is liberal. His appeal is universal and therefore eternal. It is based on spiritual values. So long as spiritually is alive, Hinduism will not die. Macaulay and Max Muller may come and go the torch bearers of Hinduism; its saints and sages will deliver the good... Gandhi was the recent one. Vedic culture preaches the way of life where individual comes next duty first. Unity in diversity and that the man is essentially divine. There is divinity in every man. Happiness is the nature of man. We all have to realize this here and now. So act and stop not till the goal is reached. Be proud of being born for duty, without expectation of any fruit, to perform. No one can hinder the way. We know that a Parasuram is born when needed, a Viswamitra appears with a sword and a Drone is there to train you .It is a country of seers. Sages and not politicians can deliver the good. They can work only under a Chanakya. There was a Gandhi and there is a Ramdeo and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar to guide and lead you on the altar of sacrificial fire. Why worry? The future is bright and shining. The demon of corruption and black money has to vanish away soon and the feeling of brother hood has to dominate the future projects. To the lowest level of B.P.L., the brotherhood stands together and intact. Let the centre of gravity in religion shift from authority to experience, from intellect that divides to spirituality that unites. Intuition will bind and unite together into tolerance and brotherhood, going beyond sphere of divergence on way to Eternity. Vedas teach us that the sole purpose of life is - Lead us from darkness unto Light; from untruth to truth and from mortality to immortality. Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (The whole world as one family) is all we desire to see “AUM”.
(May 29, 2010 by Dr. R.K. Lahiri)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- कोई भी मूल्य एवं संस्कृति तब तक जीवित नहीं रह सकती जब तक वह आचरण में नहीं है.
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