Author: Bulbul Roy Mishra
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: June 17, 2004
"All life both here and there, do
I renounce, All heavens and earths and hells, all hopes and fears".
The above lines from The Song of
the Sannyasin composed by Swami Vivekananda bring out the essence of sannyasa
and the saffron robe which symbolises renunciation for the good of others.
"Those of you who are sannyasins," addressed Swami to the young initiates
in Belur Math on June 19, 1899, "must try to do good to others, for sannyasa
means that". But does it? It appears just the opposite going by media reports
of political bashing of saffronisation. It is the degeneration of our thinking
process that relegates saffron to a state of ridicule, and saffronisation
a matter of contempt in a so-called secular society. As a result we have
a new breed of self-serving and corrupt politicians, hated but voted to
power for want of an alternative. All political parties in India, Marxists
included, have silently been undergoing transformation as they have started
recognising, like Mr Vajpayee did, that the inner strength of India lies
in its innate spirituality and renunciation and not in self-aggrandisement.
To understand how Indian Marxists
have undergone a dialectic transformation with a good deal of saffronisation,
let us briefly trace Marxian philosophy. Marx's dialectical materialism
was based on Hegel's theory that "history progresses through a dialectic
or clash of opposing forces". Hegel was an idealist who like the Vedantists
in India believed that we live in the world of appearances and true reality
was an ideal. To Marx, the material world was real and our ideas of it
were the consequences and not the causes of it. Marxian concept of alienation
of labour from the capitalist was materialistic, and their differences
irreconcilable.
Hence, Marxian dialectic envisaged
revolution of the proletariat by transgressing the limit of Hegel's clash
of opposing forces. "Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature," wrote
Marx, "the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions.
It is the opium of the people". To Marx, religion was an instrument in
the hands of the capitalist to provide divine justification for the impoverished
state of the have-nots, and used as a weapon to blunt any aggression of
the oppressed class.
Indian Marxist ideologues after
briefly tinkering with the idea of armed revolution in the late 60s, known
as Naxalite movement, rejected it as it did not suit Indian condition.
Instead they concentrated on trade union movements, and after having come
to power in West Bengal implemented land reforms, which were in conformity
with Marxist ideas and with the tenets of Kautilya's Arthashastra which
prescribed stringent punishment for exploitation of the people. Where the
Marxists compromised their ideology was in their active participation in
all religious festivals in Bengal, notably Durga Puja and Kali Puja, after
initial hesitation. Besides, their respect for the spiritual masters like
Ramakrishna Paramahansa and Swami Vivekananda, intensely spiritual Tagore
whose puja (devotional) songs were predominantly based on the Upanishads,
and lately Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, whose remarkable patriotism was
inspired by spirituality, and was hardly materialistic.
The Marxist metamorphosis was necessitated
by the fact that Indians cannot be severed from their spiritual past. In
the Indian context, the reality is like an everlasting thesis that cannot
be altered by Marxian anti-thesis through revolution, clash or persuasion.
Marxian dialectic has failed even in West Bengal to bring about changes
either in social customs or in religious practices. On the contrary, it
is the Marxists who opted for change to avoid any clash with traditional
values, essentially spiritual, for they knew that in the event of any such
clash they would perish.
The spiritual tradition of India
also speaks of dialectic evolution of a different kind. In the words of
Swami Vivekananda, "Every evolution is preceded by an involution". Evolution
is nothing but gradual unfolding of grosser forms, from a state of involution,
to be involved again once more. In Indian philosophy, the last stage to
be achieved in evolution is 'intelligence' which was involute in the beginning
of the creation and gets evolved in the end. We term this universal intelligence
as God, from whom we come and to whom we return. Thus, evolution of man
or the universe admits of struggle against nature on a material plane,
and struggle of the soul to ultimately identify with God on the spiritual
plane. The clash of opposite forces like the proletariat and the bourgeois
as envisaged by Marx has no place in Indian tradition of evolution.
By adjusting Marxist concept of
revolution with Indian spiritual tradition and religious practices, Indian
Marxists, whether wittingly or otherwise, have saffronised their thoughts.
Hence, it does not lie with them to denounce saffronisation per se. The
Marxists in West Bengal happen to be ardent admirers of Tagore, and this
is how he had shown his respect for the saffron-clad sannyasin:
"Not a king, thou great renouncer
is dearest to my inmost soul. Discarding all alien decoration, I yearn
to don your robes."
