Author: M. S. N. Menon
Publication: The Tribune
Date: May 10, 2002
URL: http://www.tribuneindia.com/2002/20020510/edit.htm#6
Tolerance and diversity, we are
told, are the two distinguishing features of the Asian identity. Who said
this? Two eminent ladies of Asia - Ms Kumaratunga and Ms Soekarnoputri.
And yet there is no tolerance to be found anywhere in South Asia.
How is one to explain this? There
is only one explanation: while the religions born in South Asia are founded
on tolerance and diversity, the semitic religions, which are new entrants
in the region, are not founded on tolerance. They are against diversity,
against pluralism.
The Pope proclaimed from the soil
of India that the Vatican's mission in the 21st century is to "plant the
Cross in Asia". In other words, to convert Asia into Christianity. The
Muslim fundamentalists say that their unfinished business is to conquer
the rest of the World for Islam. They even go further: they say that they
can achieve their spiritual goals only in an Islamised society. There is
no scope here for co-existence. Can Hinduism agree to disappear? It cannot.
It has a distinct mission in the world - to spread tolerance.
In the Vatican declaration "Dominus
Jesus", the Pope exhorts Catholic theologians to "baptize all nations".
It says: "God wills the salvation of everyone through the knowledge of
the truth". But the "truth" is with the Church only.
The document is particularly hostile
to the concept of religious pluralism. It states that its aim is to "rule
out in a radical way" the thinking that "one religion is as good as another."
Islam considers other religions as "false".
Maulana Maududi, a fundamentalist
exponent of Islam, concentrates his ire on secularism as the main adversary
of Islam because it "banishes religion from public life". Secularism creates
its own values in violation of the values of Islam, he says. When Muslims
swear by secularism in India, how are we to interpret it?
The Hindus belong to a different
tradition. Their tolerance is rounded on a very long tradition. In the
"Nasadiya Sukta" of the Rig Veda, the most sacred scripture of the Hindus,
the rishi-poet says:
"He from whom this creation arose,
Whether he made it or did not make
it,
The highest seer in the heaven,
He knows - or does even he not know?"
Well, he has doubts about even God's
knowledge of the final truth: So it was natural for him to set out on an
eternal quest to explore the ultimate truth.
This is blasphemy to the Semitic
faiths. For them, the truth is already revealed by God. There is no cause
for further enquiry. Man's role is merely to live a repetitive existence
till he is called up for final judgement. But the quest of the Hindu makes
his life more meaningful.
What is more, the quest of the Hindu
led to freedom - freedom of his mind and freedom of his senses. These led
to the diversity of his achievements, and contributed to the richness of
India's civilisation. Remember, Socrates was forced to drink the hemlock;
the Inquisition burnt the Christian apostates at the stake and Islam beheaded
its dissenters. Which explains why the Christian and Islamic civilisations
are so poor in content.
Having set out on his quest, the
Hindu discovered some final truths. For example: "Ekam sad viprah bahuda
vadanti" (Truth is one, the learned describe it variously.)
After this, he had no cause to be
dogmatic, or claim infallibility. India chose to remain tolerant of differences.
Freedom of the mind created the
world of thought - the world of religions and philosophies - and freedom
of the senses gave us our music and dance, painting and sculpture, arts
and architecture - in short, the sights, sounds and smells of our civilisation.
If India's diversity is without
parallel, it is because India had always been free to think. No other civilisation
can make similar claims.
Freedom led to diversity and diversity
to the richness of the civilisation and richness led to tolerance. In short,
the Hindu way of life was born. It was characterised by an eternal quest
for truth. It produced freedom and diversity. Above all, tolerance.
A religion can be tolerant of other
religions only if it tolerates diversity within itself. This is true of
Christianity today, not of Islam, which excommunicates any group for the
slightest deviation.
The Hindu never fell to the error
of imagining, as the West does, that he has the ultimate truth and that
no further enquiry was required. Says Dr S. Radhakrishnan, "The Aryan did
not possess the pride of the fanatic that his was the true religion."
India has never been afraid of knowledge.
The "Gyana marga" is one of the ways to salvation among the Hindus. No
such liberty exists in the Semitic faiths.
This spirit of accommodation and
tolerance led to concepts like universal brotherhood. In one of his Rock
Edicts, Emperor Ashoka says: "There is no higher service than the welfare
of the whole world".
Although an ardent Buddhist missionary,
Ashoka never insisted that the world should first embrace Buddhism. Nor
did he divide the world into a Christian and pagan world, into a Dar-ul-Islam
and Dar-ul-Harb. For him, there were no enemy lands. All were his brothers.
There are many Hindus in India who
want to follow the Semitic path. There are Muslims who still believe in
the two-nation theory. And there are Christians who believe that salvation
is possible only through Jesus Christ. It is obvious that these people
do not reflect the tolerant and accommodative spirit of India, they do
not accept its diversity. In short, they do not know how to live in a multi-cultural
society.
One led to many and many led to
one - this is the cycle of evolution and involution according to Hindu
philosophy. Diversity is rooted in India's basic concepts.
India abhors dogmatism. It is comfortable
with speculation and transcendence. Thus, there can be different forms,
but only one substance; different roads, but only one goal. It is this
simple acceptance of diversity which has guided India's outlook. And this
explains its theory of "Sarvadharma Samabhava". Do Christians and Muslims
subscribe to this theory? Once they do so, South Asia will be different.
We will be back with our Asian identity.
