ASI Keeladi Report: Sangam Age pushed to 800 BCE

 Keeladi is a hamlet located near Madurai city in Tamil Nadu. It is along the banks of River Vaigai. The ASI started its excavations in Keeladi in 2014. Evidence was found that the civilization at Keeladi, that is, the Sangam Age civilization is older than thought before. Earlier it was believed that Sangam Era was 300 BCE. But the excavations at Keeladi revealed that Sangam Era was older and dated 800 BCE. Controversies arose with the new findings. Today, the ASI has put an end to the controversies finalizing that Sangam Age dates from 800 BCE.

What is the issue?

ASI conducts excavations in four to five phases. During the Keeladi excavations, consecutive phases did not receive funds on time. Also, the Tamil archaeologists working with ASI performing the excavations were transferred to Assam and other states. This created controversies. The issue was politicized. Criticisms were made that the BJP government is doing Hindutva politics. If the excavations proved that the Sangam era dated 800 BCE, there is an established fact that the civilization in the south was secular and modern. And the modernization occurred earlier than in other parts of India. The Sangam era had excellent trade connections with the world. The women’s literacy rate of the era was high and equal to men.

The criticism made: Hindutva politicians associated with the central government are not liking the fact that Tamil culture was older than thought before.

The significance of Amar Jawan Jyoti, and why it was merged with National War Memorial flame

 

As part of the Central Vista redevelopment project, the Amar Jawan Jyoti flame has been merged with the one at National War Memorial. What was the Amar Jawan Jyoti? Why was it placed at India Gate, and why has it been shifted now?

The government has put out the eternal flame of the Amar Jawan Jyoti underneath India Gate and merged it with the one instituted at the National War Memorial in 2019 a few hundred meters away.

The decision kicked off a political row, with Opposition leaders claiming that it was a disrespect to the soldiers who have laid down their lives fighting for the country.

What was the Amar Jawan Jyoti and why was it constructed?

The eternal flame at the Amar Jawan Jyoti underneath India Gate in central Delhi was an iconic symbol of the nation’s tributes to the soldiers who have died for the country in various wars and conflicts since Independence.Established in 1972, it was to mark India’s victory over Pakistan in the 1971 War, which resulted in the creation of Bangladesh. The then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had inaugurated it on Republic Day 1972, after India defeated Pakistan in December 1971.

The key elements of the Amar Jawan Jyoti included a black marble plinth, a cenotaph, which acted as a tomb of the unknown soldier. The plinth had an inverted L1A1 self-loading rifle with a bayonet, on top of which was a soldier’s war helmet. The installation had four urns on it, with four burners. On normal days one of the four burners were kept alive, but on important days like the Republic Day, all four burners were lit. These burners were what is called the eternal flame, and it was never allowed to be extinguished.

How was the eternal flame kept burning?

For 50 years the eternal flame had been burning underneath India Gate, without being extinguished. But on Friday, the flame was finally put off, as it was merged with another eternal flame at the National War Memorial.

Since 1972, when it was inaugurated, it used to be kept alive with the help of cylinders of liquified petroleum gas, or LPG. One cylinder could keep one burner alive for a day and a half.

In 2006 that was changed. Though a project that cost around Rs 6 lakh the fuel for the flames was changed from LPG to piped natural gas, or PNG. It is through this piped gas that the flame marking the tribute to Indian soldiers had been kept alive eternally.

Why was it placed at India Gate?

The India Gate, All India War Memorial, as it was known earlier, was built by the British in 1931. It was erected as a memorial to around 90,000 Indian soldiers of the British Indian Army, who had died in several wars and campaigns till then. The inscription on the monument reads:

“TO THE DEAD OF THE INDIAN ARMIES WHO FELL AND ARE HONOURED IN FRANCE AND FLANDERS MESOPOTAMIA AND PERSIA EAST AFRICA GALLIPOLI AND ELSEWHERE IN THE NEAR AND THE FAR-EAST AND IN SACRED MEMORY ALSO OF THOSE WHOSE NAMES ARE HERE RECORDED AND WHO FELL IN INDIA OR THE NORTH-WEST FRONTIER AND DURING THE THIRD AFGHAN WAR.”

Names of more than 13,000 dead soldiers are mentioned on the memorial commemorating them.

As it was a memorial for the Indian soldiers killed in wars, the Amar Jawan Jyoti was established underneath it by the government in 1972.

Why was the eternal flame extinguished from there?

There are several reasons that have been mentioned by officials. Since the political controversy broke out government sources have claimed, giving a “correct perspective” that the flame will not be extinguished, but just moved to be merged with the one at the National War Memorial. Sources said that the eternal flame paid homage to the soldiers killed in the 1971 War, but does not mention their name, and the India Gate is a “symbol of our colonial past”.

“The names of all Indian martyrs from all the wars, including 1971 and wars before and after it are housed at the National War Memorial. Hence it is a true tribute to have the flame paying tribute to martyrs there.”

Defence establishment officials said that once the National War Memorial came up in 2019, Indian political and military leaders and foreign dignitaries pay their tributes to the fallen soldiers at the National War Memorial, which used to happen at the Amar Jawan Jyoti earlier. With this change it was felt that two flames were not needed, even though when the National War Memorial was built officials had categorically stated that both the flames will be kept alive.

But another reason is that the Amar Jawan Jyoti was etched so strongly in the emotional psyche of the country that the new war memorial did not get the attention as the government had expected, and the government wants to promote the new memorial it built in 2019. Further, it can also be seen as part of the government’s redevelopment of the entire Central Vista, of which India Gate, the Amar Jawan Jyoti and the National War Memorial are parts of.

Along with moving the flame, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on Friday morning that the canopy next to the India Gate will get a statue of the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. The new statue will be 28 feet high. Till the statue is completed, Modi said that a hologram statue of Bose will be placed under the canopy, which he will unveil on January 23. The canopy used to have a statue of Kind George V, which was removed in 1968.

What is the National War Memorial and when was it made?

The National War Memorial, which is around 400 meters from India Gate was inaugurated by Modi in February 2019, in an area of around 40 acres. It was built to commemorate all the soldiers who have laid down their lives in the various battles, wars, operations and conflicts of Independent India. There are many independent memorials for such soldiers, but no memorial existed commemorating them all at the national level.

Discussions to build such a memorial had been ongoing since 1961, but it did not come up. In 2015, the Modi-led government approved its construction, and the location east of the India Gate at C Hexagon was finalised. The final design of the memorial was selected through a competition.

The architecture of the memorial is based on four concentric circles. Largest is the Raksha Chakra or the Circle of Protection which is marked by a row of trees, each of which represent soldiers, who protect the country. The Tyag Chakra, the Circle of Sacrifice, has circular concentric walls of honour based on the Chakravyuh. The walls have independent granite tablets for each of the soldiers who have died for the country since Independence. As of today, there are 26,466 names of such soldiers on these granite tablets etched in golden letters. A tablet is added every time a soldier is killed in the line of duty.

This Veerta Chakra, the Circle of Bravery, has a covered gallery with six bronze crafted murals depicting the battles and actions of our Armed Forces.

The final is the Amar Chakra, the Circle of Immortality, which has an obelisk, and the Eternal Flame. The flame from the Amar Jawan Jyoti at the India Gate will be merged with this flame, which has been kept burning since 2019 when the memorial was unveiled. The flame is a symbol of the immortality of the spirit of the fallen soldiers, and a mark that the country will not forget their sacrifice.

Busts of the 21 soldiers who have been conferred with the highest gallantry award of the country, Param Vir Chakra, are also installed at the memorial.

Written by Krishn Kaushik

Source: Indian Express, 24/01/22

Whether in India or the UK, discrimination begins in school

 

Sameena Dalwai writes: It is a rite of passage to a senseless, prejudiced world.

Early in the morning, my brother’s message wakes me up from my slumber: “…and it has started!”

My nephew told his parents that one of his friends at school informed him that half of the class does not want to play with him because they do not like Chinese faces. How does the friend know this? It seems he asked the other kids.

My nephew is six years old — a truly beautiful boy of Chinese-Indian parentage growing up in Oxford. My brother and his wife both have PhDs in economics and finance, and hold faculty positions.

And, yet, it has started for the little boy. A life that is full of small daily rejections, token acceptance and patronising tolerance.

The United Kingdom even celebrates a “tolerance day” at school. That is the best my nephew will get. Not wholehearted acceptance, not joyful assimilation, but tolerance, for one day of the year. In a Twitter post, a Chinese Oxford faculty member reported that he was asked to step aside as white tourists wanted to take a photograph of an “authentic Oxford setting”.

When I was studying for my PhD in the UK, shopkeepers would talk loudly to me, lest I do not understand their English. “You speak English very well” was the usual compliment to Indians and we were asked if we have doctors in India. Statistics tell us that Indians form the largest English-speaking population outside the US, and the NHS, the government health provider in England, is mostly run by Indian doctors and nurses. But can you fight prejudice with statistics?

Better, then, to fight it with humour and a certain level of arrogance. When I was asked whether we have mangoes in India, I just laughed, as I had never sighted a mango tree on the green pastures of England. When I was told that I must try the black pudding or bacon, I responded with, “I do not relish pigs, dogs or frogs, but respect those who do”.

Yet, we realised that no amount of jokes can make us equal. When we are amongst a group of white people, many of them will not notice us or remember meeting us the next time. Their gaze will just pass over us as if we do not exist. We learnt that love conquers all, but not race. Being a girlfriend/ boyfriend is ok, but when it is time for commitment, it will boil down to, “you will not be able to adjust to British culture” or “wouldn’t the children face an identity crisis?”

All of this plays in my head like a reel. My heart sinks.

It starts with school. Everywhere.

I was six years old — the same age as my nephew is now — when my teacher, a Maharashtrian, called me to her and asked, “Your father writes from right to left, na?” My father was Muslim and she meant to mock his Urdu writing — a “reverse” language to her simple mind. I was perplexed. Why would my father write incorrectly? When I asked my mother, she must have been as devastated as my brother is now by the helplessness of not being able to protect one’s child from a harsh, ignorant world.

My father and his clan were Konkani Muslims and most of them spoke and wrote impeccable Marathi. Yet, we got compliments on how we speak Marathi “very well”. When, as a five-year-old, I got the first rank in Sanskrit recitation, the teachers all huddled together to discuss whether someone with that kind of name should be given an award for Sanskrit.

My brother once painted a picture of a blue sky with a crescent moon and sparkling stars. His teacher was not happy. She asked, “Why did you paint this picture? Like the flag of Pakistan? Is it because you are Muslim?” My brother was stunned. Was he a Muslim? And what was Pakistan?

As children of Hindu, Muslim, socialist parentage, we were raised on Russian books, Dalit poetry and revolutionary songs. However, since our father was born Muslim, we were marked as Muslim. Patriarchy is an unimaginative system.

The same patriarchy spared me the worst experiences because I was a girl. A Muslim girl needs saving from her own community — from abusive husbands with four wives, from oral triple talaq. My brother, however, was a boy and so definitely an “enemy”. When he was 12 years old, the boys who lost to him on the playground turned hostile, they began a tirade against him and all Muslims. “Rajputs finished the Mughals, now we will finish you,” they yelled. The intricate relationship between masculinity and violence puts little boys in harm’s way. The history classes turned into “us” vs “them”, where everyone would look at the lone Muslim boy, blaming him for the battles between Aurangzeb and Shivaji. The boys routinely taunted my brother and cousins using a derogatory term for circumcised men.

The school becomes a rite of passage to a senseless world. In parallel experiences, Dalit autobiographies recount the branding and degradation that first-generation learners face when they enter schools. It is not the difficulty of subjects such as math, science or languages that causes failure and dropouts among poor, Dalit/ Muslim/ OBC students. It is the hostility of upper-caste teachers and classmates that makes learning impossible.

Childhood humiliation haunts all of us well into our adult lives. The 36-year-old, super-educated, confident self cannot protect the six-year-old confused and hurt self. Must the next generation face it all over again?

Source: Indian Express, 21/10/21

How the militant aspect of India’s freedom struggle was sidelined

 

Arjun Subramaniam writes: A recent film, Udham Singh, highlights how the role of violent acts of defiance was diminished by overplaying the impact of the non-violent movement. This only served British interests

This is not an article about the recently released film, Sardar Udham, or the power-packed and understated performance of Vicky Kaushal. The movie was a good watch, intense and engrossing as a biopic ought to be and searing in its indictment of British colonial rule. The only minor blemish is its extended and gory depiction of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. The impact of the massacre would have been driven home with a shorter sequence. The biggest takeaway from the film is its indirect and oblique indictment of several contemporary Indian historical narratives that underplay the impact of revolutionaries like Subhas Chandra Bose, Bhagat Singh and Udham Singh on British colonial strategies. The film also shines a light on the failure of traditional Indian historiography to assess the countervailing impact of the more publicised non-violent freedom movement over the several violent expressions of angst amongst the Indian people, and its bearing on British rule.

Beyond a chapter or two, I do not recall having read much in school about the various violent and militant expressions against British rule beyond the rather disparaging analysis of the 1857 Revolt, which was showcased as a failure and a manifestation of a divided India. The narratives that influenced many young Indians like me were the building of the road-railway-telegraph network by the British; or the Quit India Movement, Dandi March or the several imprisonments of Jawaharlal Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi in urban prisons, and not the trials, tribulations and even torture of prisoners like Udham Singh, or those incarcerated in the Andamans. Seminal events such as the Indian Naval uprising of 1946 and other violent acts of defiance by youth across the country have been subsumed by an Anglicised pedagogical system that drew heavily from colonial archives. Making matters worse was the inability of vernacular historiography to contribute to the predominantly Oxbridge and Delhi-centric histories churned out since Independence.

The propensity of traditional Indian historians to overplay the impact of the non-violent movement, which had its roots in a hybrid value system that combined a westernised model with spiritual Indian moorings, suited the exit strategies of India’s colonial masters in several ways. First, it allowed the sun to set gently on the empire and helped the British retain significant influence in the subcontinent for decades. Second, imagine if events like the assassination of Governor Michael Dwyer; the Naval Revolt; a widespread violent uprising against the trial of the INA leaders; or the organised expression of dissent by the tens of thousands of troops of the Indian Army led by well-trained Indian officers coerced the British out of India. There has been little discussion on whether such events could have prevented the British from influencing events such as the Partition or continuing with the Great Game during and after the first India-Pakistan conflict in 1947-48.

The impact would have been huge and was anticipated by prescient British generals like Claude Auchinleck, who transmitted their fears to Whitehall soon after WWII ended. That London appreciated this possibility and sped up the transfer of power to a political dispensation that was largely trained by them and heavily influenced by Western liberal thought, is testimony to the strategic foresight of an erstwhile great power.

War and conflict as waged by states are nothing more than sophisticated and organised violence, and the apparatus that states build to wage war is largely dictated by the strategic elite. India’s emerging strategic posture and its ability to intellectualise the conduct of war as a legitimate instrument of statecraft in the post-Independence era, was, to a large extent, shaped by the intellectual DNA of a well-meaning, well-educated and unrealistically altruistic set of leaders who overestimated the impact of the non-violent freedom struggle on nation-building. Consequently, the flavour of deterrence that emerged in independent India was one of diffidence clothed in the garb of restraint and responsibility. This is not to glorify the use of violence in inter or intra-state conflict. Nor to undermine the achievements of India’s founding fathers, who laid the foundations of a vibrant democracy.

By consigning the more militant and military events that dotted India’s struggle for independence to the sidelines, the British shaped a significant part of the larger historical narrative even as they left India. It is in this context that Sardar Udham is a “must watch” for every Indian to understand “other” narratives of India’s freedom movement.

Source: Indian Express, 21/10/21

Why India’s ancient republics need to be recognised for their place in world history

 

Abhishek Banerjee, Sumedha Verma Ojha write: An India that sees its own democracy as a pale imitation of an Anglo-American system is neither good for itself nor the world.

On September 25, while addressing the UN General Assembly in New York, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made an important historical point: India is not just the world’s largest democracy, but also the “mother of democracy”. This assertion would unsettle several long-held Western notions about our world, and it should. The existence of proto forms of democracy and republicanism in ancient India is part of humanity’s common heritage and deserves an important place in our shared view of the past.

There are two pillars of the modern world. The first is science-based rational thinking, and the second is democracy. It is also telling that both are often believed to be Western inventions, reflecting Western ascendancy over our world.

In recent years, there has been a move to recognise advances in science made in the past by non-Western societies. The Pythagorean theorem, for instance, was well known in ancient India. It would be more historically accurate to refer to the Fibonacci numbers perhaps as Pingala’s numbers or Hemachandra’s numbers. But old beliefs and the assumptions that go with them are still strong. As Joe Biden noted last year, they don’t tell you how a black man contributed to the making of the electric bulb. In a similar vein, it is time to fix the historical record on the origins of democracy.

The evidence for republics in ancient India has always been available in plain sight. In the Mahabharata’s Shanti Parva, republics (ganas) are mentioned along with the essential features of administering them. The Vedas describe at least two forms of republican governance. The first would consist of elected kings. This has always been seen as an early form of democracy, later practised in Europe, especially in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 16th-18th centuries.

The second form described in the Vedas is that of rule without a monarch, with power vested in a council or sabha. The membership of such sabhas was not always determined by birth, but they often comprised people who had distinguished themselves by their actions. There is even a hint of the modern bicameral system of legislatures, with the sabha often sharing power with the samiti, which was made up of common people. The “vidhaata”, or the assembly of people for debating policy, military matters and important issues impacting all, has been mentioned more than a hundred times in the Rig Veda. Both women and men took part in these deliberations, a far cry from the Greeks who did not admit women (or slaves) as full citizens of their “democracies”.

Other sources appear in the Ashtadhyayi of Panini, the Arthashastra of Kautilya, as well as a variety of ancient Buddhist and Jain writings. Buddhist and Jain texts list 16 powerful states or mahajanapadas of the time. After Alexander’s invasion in 327 BCE, Greek historians also record Indian states that did not have kings. The Lichchavi state of Vaishali, in particular, deserves special mention. Buddhist writings describe in detail Vaishali’s rivalry with neighbouring Magadha, which was a monarchy. The long battle of attrition between Magadha and Vaishali, which the former won, was a fight also between two systems of governance, ganatantra and rajatantra. Had the Lichchavis won, the trajectory of governance may well have been non-monarchical in the Subcontinent.

Was the rajatantra an “off with his head” kind of system with concentration of powers in one person? No. Instead, any state is thought of as composed of seven elements. The first three, according to Kautilya, are swami or the king, amatya or the ministers (administration) and janapada or the people. The king must function on the advice of the amatyas for the good of the people. The ministers are appointed from amongst the people (the Arthashastra also mentions entrance tests). As per the Arthashastra, in the happiness and benefit of his people lies the happiness and benefit of the King. Isn’t this the lodestone of democracy?

It would be unreasonable to expect republics in ancient India, as with the Greek city of Athens, to have developed full-fledged democratic institutions as we understand them today. As late as the 1780s, when America was founded, voting rights were restricted to (white) males who owned property or paid taxes, which amounted to a mere six percent of the population. The idiosyncrasies of that old system are still visible today. As with scientific advancement, democracy remains and will always be a work in progress.

Another criticism of the idea of India as the “mother of democracy” would be that there is no surviving direct line between the ancient ganas and the modern republic of India. However, the same applies to ancient Greek city-states. If the line survives, it is as a way of thinking. The stability of India’s democratic institutions is more or less an exception among post-colonial states since 1945. This is best explained by an ancient system of thought that contains expressions of democracy.

Why is it so important in the 21st century for us to recognise the origins of democracy in ancient India? There are at least two reasons. First, as a growing power on the world stage, India has to offer its own narrative on world history, as well as provide the world with a vision. We as a nation are not aspiring upstarts. We are the nation that inspired great journeys, from those of Alexander to the voyage of Columbus.

The other reason relates to the general loss of confidence in the US. The power struggles of the near future are becoming clear. It is also a struggle to define history and take it forward. At this time, an India that sees its own democracy as a pale imitation of an Anglo-American system is neither good for itself nor the world.

This column first appeared in the print edition on October 5, 2021 under the title ‘Roots of democracy’. Banerjee is a scientist, columnist and author. Verma Ojha is a historian, author of historical fiction series, ‘Urnabhih’

Source: Indian Express, 5/10/21

Celebrating the ‘essence of Hinduism’: How 19th century Brahmo Samaj altered Bengali society

 Amit Das recollects a little anecdote from his grandmother’s life. “If she ever saw any of us praying to an idol before going to school, she would immediately rebuke us,” he says. “Her point was that if one had studied properly then they would do well regardless of whether they pray to God or not.” The 57-year-old is a fourth generation member of the Brahmo Samaj, a Hindu reformist movement that began in the early 19th century.

His great grandfather, Sundari Mohan Das, a freedom fighter, doctor and social worker of the late 19th century, was the first in his family to have joined the Samaj. “Like many young Bengali men of the time, he too was a follower of Keshub Chandra Sen, who influenced them to dream of a world devoid of superstition; where widows could remarry and women’s education was deemed essential,” says Das.

One of the most influential religious movements of the 19th century that took birth in Bengal and spread far and wide from here, Brahmoism is today reduced to a few thousand members. The community, for the past few years, has been demanding minority status from the government of India. Das, an active member of the religious organisation, is a firm believer in the principles laid down by the Brahmo Samaj: denunciation of idol worship and polytheism, rejection of the caste system, emancipaBack in the 19th century, Brahmoism was established as an effort to reform Hinduism from within, in response to the criticisms being levelled against Hindu society by the West. “It was a movement that struck a fine balance between reform and rejection. These were people willing to change contemporary Hindu society without uprooting themselves from tradition- obviously, this was guided by the emergence of a sense of cultural pride and patriotism to which, paradoxically, modern Western education had greatly contributed,” says historian Amiya Sen over the phone. In other words, the Brahmo Samaj was both an effort to alter Hinduism through western ideologies, and at the same time stay true to its traditional principles.

Although the movement lost momentum by the end of the 19th century, the Brahmo Samaj did have an impact on the psyche of the Bengali middle class. At a time when the political landscape of Bengal is witnessing the possibility of inroads being made by the Bharatiya Janata Party, adherents of Brahmoism say the party will be unable to understand the liberal nature of religion practised by them.

The Brahmo Samaj and its impact on Bengali society

Historian David Kopf, who authored the book ‘The Brahmo Samaj and the shaping of modern India’, explains that the establishment of the Brahmo Sabha by the social reformer Raja Ram Mohan Roy, needs to be understood in context of the Unitarian movement that was raging in large parts of the Western world since the 16th century. Unitarianism was a radical approach to religion, society and ethics which looked to substitute popular religious traditions with a rational faith.

“By 1822 he (Roy) had helped form the Calcutta Unitarian Committee and by 1825-26, his scattered writings in their cumulative effect already contained a kind of syllabus for activists dedicated to Hindu reform,” writes Kopf. Roy formed the committee in collaboration with a missionary, Rev. W. Adam. Apart from conducting Unitarian services, the committee also established the Vedanta College meant for churning out Hindu Unitarians. But Roy and Adam fell off soon after and the mission was abandoned.

Consequently, in 1828 Roy along with a group of wealthy upper caste men started a more Indian variant of the Unitarian movement. This was named the ‘Brahmo Sabha’ and its first meeting was held on August 20, 1828 at a house in Chitpore road in Calcutta. Among the most notable supporters of Roy in the Sabha was Dwarkanath Tagore, grandfather of Rabindranath Tagore. Activities carried out by the group included chanting of verses from the Upanishads, and then translating them in Bengali and singing of theistic hymns composed by Roy. “There was no organisation, no membership, no creed. It was a weekly meeting open to any who cared to attend. Ram Mohan believed he was restoring Hindu worship to its pristine purity,” writes John Nicol Farquhar, a Scottish education missionary in Calcutta who authored the book, ‘Modern religious movements in India’.tion of women, respect for all religions, and others.

Throughout this period, the Brahma Sabha played a key role in modernising Indian society. Roy successfully campaigned against Sati or the immolation of Hindu widows, he established a number of educational institutions including the Vedanta College, the English School and the City College of Calcutta popularising English education and promoted a rational and non-authoritarian form of Hinduism. He also played a pioneering role in opening the Hindu School in 1817, which is now the Presidency University.

With Roy’s death in 1833, the still infant Brahmo Sabha lost its wind a bit. It was in 1842 that the Sabha was given a fresh lease of life under the leadership of Debendranath Tagore, son of Dwarkanath Tagore. “Debendra followed Ram Mohan in his belief that original Hinduism was a pure spiritual theism, and in his enthusiasm for the Upanishads, but did not share his deep reverence for Christ,” writes Farquhar. He was also the one to give an organised structure to the Sabha. In 1843, he drew up a Brahmo convent or a list of solemn vows to be taken by every member. Some of these included abstaining from idolatry and to worship God by doing good deeds.

In 1857, Keshub Chandra Sen joined the Sabha, and he would soon turn out to be its third leader. Under his influence, Debendranath decided on giving up the tradition of Durga Puja in the Tagore family, which was a grand annual affair. The Sabha also discussed caste, with its members giving it up altogether. Debendranath too got rid of his sacred thread.

Sen was heavily influenced by Christianity. At his suggestion, the Sabha began to follow the example of Christian philanthropy, gathering money and food for the needy.

In 1860, members of the Sabha realised the need to spread out from Bengal. In 1861, the preacher Pundit Navin Chandra Roy went to Punjab to spread the new faith. He established the Brahmo Samaj in Lahore. Another preacher, Atmuri Lakshminarasimham went to the Madras Presidency to spread the Brahmo teachings in the Telugu speaking areas.

“Brahmo Samaj was not just restricted to Bengal. It was the first pan Indian movement of Hindu reform,” says Sen. “But Bengal was the first province to come under western influence through British colonialism. In cultural terms, Bengal was indeed the province of paradoxes. It was to produce the first crop of western educated intelligentsia, many of whom were anglophiles. On the other hand, this early and excessive enthusiasm for Western ideas or ways of life eventually also produced a wave of anglophobia which took the shape of a reactionary, anti–reformist position,” he adds.

“But the Brahmo Samaj was a very small community and that too an urban and elite community,” explains researcher Snigdhendu Bhattacharya who authored the book, ‘Mission Bengal: the Saffron experiment’. “Although it was a miniscule community, it remained one of the most influential ones since it included some of the finest social reformers and personalities of Bengal. Two of the most influential Bengali families, the Tagores and the Rays, were both Brahmos,” he says.

Speaking about the kind of influence that Brahmo families had on middle class Bengali society, Bhattacharya says, “every child in any urban area grows up reading Sukumar Ray. When they read the Ramayana, it is Upendrakishore Roychowdhury’s interpretation in most cases. Then of course there is Satyajit Ray whose films have influenced every child and adult in all of Bengal.” The influence of the Tagore family not just in Bengal, but all over India, remains unmatched. “The essence of all their work remained humanism and rationalism which emerged from the fountainhead of Brahmo philosophy,” says Bhattacharya.

From the 1860s, a number of schisms and splinter groups emerged within the Samaj. In 1866, the first formal division between liberal younger Brahmos and conservative older Brahmos led to the establishment of the Brahmo Samaj of India under Sen. In 1878, the marriage of Sen’s daughter to the maharaja of Cooch Behar in violation of the Brahmo Marriage Act of 1872 caused yet another major schism in Brahmo history, resulting in the formation of the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj. “These splits resulted in the dwindling popularity of the Samaj,” says Bhattacharya.

“I would say that the Brahmo movement began to decline from the 1880s. Firstly, there was a distinct Hindu counter discourse, or Hindu revival. Also by this time, the political overtook the social,” says Sen. By 1885 the Indian National Congress was formed. “The Hindus realised that the best way to fight against colonialism is to politically unite, rather than focusing on social reform,” Sen says.

Despite their decline though, the Brahmo Samaj made an enormous impact ideologically and culturally to Bengal and created an enduring value system in the region. “They were the people behind promoting women’s education, introducing widow remarriages, inter caste marriages, questioning the very hierarchy of caste, and democratising education. Unlike traditional Hindus, Brahmos gave as much importance to moral uprightness as to a spiritual life. In traditional Hinduism, moral purity was considered subservient to the spiritual call. Not so for the Brahmos.” says Sen.

The Brahmo Samaj in Bengal today

Given the dwindling popularity of the Samaj since the late 19th century, a majority of Brahmo members today are those by birth. Nonetheless, there are instances of those who have taken formal initiation in the community in the recent past. Ketuki Bagchi (67) took up formal membership of the Samaj in 2004. She says her parents were staunch followers of Roy and thereby she had been associated with the Brahmo ideology since her childhood even though not a member. “The influence of the Samaj was such that there were many Bengali families who believed and practised the principles of Brahmoism, despite the fact that they were not formal members,” she says. She explains that her parents perhaps never formally joined the Samaj because the organisation never went about promoting its beliefs or engaged in proselytising activities.

Prasun Ganguly, 74, a fourth generation Brahmo says the first thing that any new member of the Samaj has to do is give up idol worship and follow the basic principles of egalitarianism and rationalism promulgated by Roy. That apart, the social ceremonies of its members like marriage and funerals are in stark contrast to those in Hindu society. “For instance at a Brahmo wedding, the bride and the groom assemble in front of people and declare their vows to each other. Similarly, at a funeral first the preacher presiding over the ceremony says a few words about the departed soul and then the others join in to sing a few Brahmo sangeet (spiritual songs written by Roy and other influential members of the Samaj),” says Ganguly.

Speaking about what the current political situation in Bengal means to the Brahmo community, Ganguly says, “In most Bengali families even today, there is a reverence for Brahmoism because of the kind of social reforms brought by them. It believes in a kind of religion devoid of the ill practices and superstitions of Hinduism. In that sense, Brahmoism is the essence of Hinduism.”

“Any political party in power must not try to impose its own understanding of Hinduism on anyone.”

Further reading:

The Brahmo Samaj and the shaping of modern India’ by David Kopf

Modern religious movements in India by John Nicol Farquhar

Hindu revivalism in Bengal, 1972-1905 by Amiya Sen

Written by Adrija Roychowdhury

Source: Indian Express, 17/04/21

When the violence of Chauri Chaura prompted Gandhi to suspend the non-cooperation movement

 On February 4, 1922, a large group of nationalist volunteers had gathered on the streets of a small, obscure hamlet in the Gorakhpur district of the United Provinces. More than a year had passed since Mahatma Gandhi had launched the non-cooperation movement with the aim of attaining ‘Purna Swaraj’ (full independence). The volunteers marched through the streets shouting slogans of Gandhi and the Khilafat. Soon they walked into the police. Sticks and stones were thrown from one end in return for bullets from the other. As the crowd grew larger and fiercer, the cops retreated inside the police station. The protestors doused the building in kerosene and set it on fire. Twenty-three policemen perished. A total of 228 people were brought to trial in the incident, out of which 19 were sentenced to death.

The village was Chauri Chaura, and the moment went down the pages of Indian history as one which marked the end of the non-cooperation movement. It is interesting that while the Chauri Chaura incident was abhorred by Gandhi, under whom the national movement practically took shape, in the memory of post-Independent India, it has been commemorated with two memorials and a train being named after it. This year PM Narendra Modi will inaugurate the Chauri Chaura centenary celebration on February 4 through video conferencing. The Uttar Pradesh government has organised for all of the state’s districts to record a video singing Vande Mataram in a salute posture from February 3 to 4 to pay homage to the martyrs of the Chauri Chaura incident.

“‘Chauri Chaura’ is a tale of how the celebrated condemnation of a riot by Gandhi paradoxically entitles it to national importance,” writes historian Shahid Amin in his celebrated book on the incident, ‘Event, memory, metaphor: Chauri Chaura (1922-1992).’ As he explains, “the unforgettable event was largely forgotten in nationalist lore; it came to be remembered only as the episode which forced Gandhi to call off his all-India movement of non-cooperation with the British.” “The ‘true’ significance of Chauri Chaura in Indian history lay outside the time and place of its occurrence.”

The unfolding of the incident at Chauri Chaura

In September 1920, at a special session of the Congress, Gandhi was able to push through a radical programme of non-cooperation with British rule. “The programme provided for surrender of government titles, boycott of schools, courts and councils, boycott of foreign goods, encouragement of national schools, arbitration of courts and khadi (homespun cloth),” writes historian Sekar Bandopadhyay in his book, ‘From Plassey to Partition: A History of modern India’. Further, Gandhi assured that the movement would bring swaraj within a year. In case that did not happen, or if the government resorted to repression, a civil disobedience movement would be carried out.

But Gandhi also realised that the nationalist sentiment of people was in need of a disciplinary reform. Consequently, he put forward a 20-point programme for controlling the ‘mobocracy’ of the crowds. It was mandatory for everyone to obey the instructions in the programme. As written by Gandhi and reproduced by Amin in his book, “Before we can make real headway, we must train these masses of men who have a heart of gold, who feel for the country, who want to be taught and led. But a few intelligent, sincere, local workers are needed, and the whole nation can be organised to act intelligently, and democracy can be evolved out of mobocracy.” By the winter of 1921, thousands of volunteers had turned up to pledge non-cooperation.

A few days before the incident, a few police officers beat up a group of volunteers at Chotki Dumri, a village one mile west of the Chauri Chaura police station. The leaders of the Chotki Dumri volunteer group sent letters to others in the neighbouring villages about the oppression by the local police. They decided to congregate at Dumri on February 4, where the volunteers took an oath and marched to the Chauri Chaura thana to demand an explanation from the officer there and mass picket the Mundera Bazaar nearby.

Gupteshwar Singh, the thanedar, was expecting the crowd and had arranged for more policemen to be sent from Gorakhpur. In the battle of abuses, stones and bullets that followed, three from the crowd were killed and several injured. Seeing the crowd more agitated now, the police retreated into the thaana. The crowd locked it and set it on fire, killing 23 policemen.

By the time of this incident, a year had gone by since the non-cooperation movement had started and independence as Gandhi had promised was still as distant as ever. Gandhi had planned on starting a civil disobedience movement in February 1922, in the taluks of Bardoli and Anand in Gujarat. Peasants were to be asked to stop paying taxes and refuse all cooperation with the government. If it succeeded, Gandhi had hoped to replicate the movement elsewhere in the country.

However, before the movement could take off, he received news of the Chauri Chaura incident. On February 8, he wrote to the Congress Working Committee. “This was the third time he had received a rude shock on the eve of embarking on mass civil disobedience,” notes historian Ramachandra Guha in his book, ‘Gandhi: The years that changed the world: 1914-1948’. “The first occasion was in April 1919, when his fellow Ahmedabadis rioted after he had been stopped from entering Punjab. The second was in November 1921, the violence in Bombay ensuing from the boycott of the Prince of Wales’ visit. Now again he had been violently agitated by the events in Chauri Chaura,” adds Guha.

On February 10, when Gandhi spoke to the Congress workers in Bardoli about whether the non-cooperation movement should be suspended in view of Chauri Chaura, the majority of them responded disagreed. As Guha notes, Gandhi was “dismayed by the response which showed that even the ‘best workers’ of the Congress had failed to understand the message of non-violence.” He immediately resolved to suspend non-cooperation and civil disobedience. Peasants were advised to pay land revenue and not hold public demonstrations.

As a means of penance, Gandhi went on a five-day fast. Even when informed about the ruthlessness of the police, he remained unmoved. As he noted in the Young India, “no provocation can possibly justify the brutal murder of men who had been rendered defenceless and had virtually thrown themselves on the mercy of the mob.”

“There was a lot of discussion and debate within the national movement after this incident. There were people who were very disappointed and felt that the movement as a whole could not be held responsible for the actions of a few people. However, even the critics understood later on that there were problems in the movement, and that it was losing steam,” says historian Mridula Mukherjee.

“Nevertheless, before the next phase of mass struggle, which is the civil disobedience movement of 1930s, they discussed with Gandhiji and he too agreed that there could be isolated acts of violence in such a big country, and that would not become the cause for suspending the movement,” she adds.
Mukherjee says there were many other issues for suspending the movement in 1922, violence at Chauri Chaura being one of them. “My understanding is that the non-cooperation movement had already passed its peak by the middle of 1921 and that the popular enthusiasm of people was declining. After all these were ordinary people who had a limited capacity to sacrifice and struggle. Gandhiji understood this and when this incident occurred he took the opportunity of unilaterally withdrawing the movement rather than letting it fizzle out or being suppressed,” she says.

The memory of Chauri Chaura

Despite the unfortunate fate it brought upon the national movement, the incident at Chauri Chaura has been assiduously incorporated and almost ‘celebrated’ within the collective memory of India’s freedom struggle. In 1924, the British erected a memorial for the dead policemen adjacent to the railway station at Chauri Chaura. Amin notes that this monument too was nationalised post the Independence of the country. “The legend the colonial masters engraved on it was gouged out by Baba Ramghav Das, the prominent Gandhian of East UP, On August 15, 1947. This noble worthy was followed by the post-colonial government, which did more than just smoothen the rough cutting edges of nationalist chisels. It chose to inscribe ‘Jai Hind’ on the police memorial,” he writes.

In 1973, the Chauri Chaura Shaheed Smarak Samiti, in their effort to commemorate the 19 people tried and executed in the incident, built a 12.2-metre high triangular monument near the lake at Chauri Chaura. On each side of the monument, a figure is depicted hanging a noose around his neck.

In 1982, the Indira Gandhi-led government built another monument, opposite to the one commemorating the police. It contains the names of the 19 executed engraved upon it. A library and museum containing information on the freedom movement were also built next to the memorial.
Later, in 1990, the Indian railways named a train in honour those executed — the Chauri Chaura Express runs from Gorakhpur to Kanpur.

“Chauri Chaura is a reminder that if certain unfortunate incidents happen, then it can impact the movement as a whole. Gandhiji took responsibility for the incident and in order to protect the people from the wrath of the British who would have used that incident of violence in order to crush the whole movement,” says Mukherjee.

Speaking about the way in which the incident has come to be commemorated a century later, Mukherjee says, “we can observe this incident, but we can’t celebrate the killing of 22 policemen… The freedom struggle does not allow us to glorify these acts of violence.”

Written by Adrija Roychowdhury

Source: Indian Express, 5/02/21

Bihar’s lost city: A newly unearthed Buddhist monastery holds vital clues

 Ward No 33, Jaynagar village, Lakhisarai is some 125 kilometres east of Patna. Here, on a hilltop known as Lal Pahari, a recent discovery of two burnt clay sealings has left researchers ecstatic.

The burnt sealings recovered from the site records: śrīmaddharmahāvihārik āryabhikṣusaṅghasya which translates into “this is the sealing of the council of monks of the Srimaddhama vihara.” The inscription on the sealings are written in Sanskrit and the script is Siddhamātṛkā dating around the 8th-9th century.

Researchers say the discovery is evidence to the fact that the excavated area atop the red-soiled hill was a Buddhist monastery of the early medieval period. The geographical location of the site also makes it the first such hilltop monastery in the entire Gangetic valley. Artefacts extracted from the site also substantiate a nearly 140-year-old clue that the monastery was run by a woman monk named Vijayshree Bhadra.

The excavation at Lal Pahari is yet another clue found in recent years as part of a larger effort by researchers and government officials to resurrect a long-forgotten, prosperous city called Krimila, which has been identified in and around the present-day town of Lakhisarai.

The ancient city

The ancient city of Krimila is said to be a religious-cum-administrative centre in eastern India during the early medieval period. A flourishing urban settlement, Krimila is said to have been famous for the manufacture of stone sculpture, particularly Tibetan-Buddhist sculptures. The region drew the attention of ancient scholars, travellers and was explored from time to time by British and later by Indian scholars.

The region was first surveyed by Major General Sir Alexander Cunningham, a British Army engineer who took interest in archaeology and went to form what we know as the present day Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). Cunnigham first surveyed the area in 1871 and again visited it in between 1879-80. During his visit, the archaeologist identified several stupas and the recorded presence of ancient temples in the region in his reports.

In his records, Cunningham spoke of “a large town or city” that existed at the confluence of River Kiul, old Ganges and Harohar. The British archaeologist also cited accounts of Hiuen Tsang, the famous Chinese Buddhist monk-traveller who referred to this place as lo-in-ni-lo in his accounts. “Hwen Thsang says only a few words about lo-in-ni lo. It possessed a monastery and a stupa of Asoka… the only place which suits this special description is Rajaona, which is situated two miles to the north-west of the Lakhi-Sarai Railways station, near the junction of the River Kiul with the old Ganges and River Harohar,” Cunningham wrote.

Here, Cunningham also discovered images of Lord Buddha seated under the Bodhi tree, made of black basalt stone with inscription and an image of Bodhisattva Padmapani, a Buddhist deity also known by the name Avalokitesvara.

Apart from Cunningham, several other British explorers including J D Beglar and Buchanan explored the nearby villages of Valgudar, Rajaona, Chowki and Jaynagar, all of which falls under Lakhisarai.

However, Anil Kumar, Professor and Head of the Department of Indian History Culture and Archaeology at the Visva Bharati University in Santiniketan, argues that the exploration done by the British archaeologists primarily focused only on identifying ruins mentioned in Tsang’s account. Work done by Indian archaeologists such as D.C Sircar and R.K Choudhary, who visited the site in the 1950s and 1960s respectively, holds vital importance in figuring out important clues about the location of the city, Kumar says.

Sircar had found an inscription in Valgudar, a village near Lakhisarai, which mentioned the name Krimila Visaya (an administrative unit) of Gupta period. “Several other inscriptions of early India also mentioned Krimila as a Visaya. In this regard the Nalanda plate of Samudragupta, Bihar inscription of Gupta period, Naulagarh inscription of Pala period and two inscriptions from Valgudar and its adjacent areas are significant,” Kumar wrote in his paper titled Krimila: A forgotten Nagar of Early Medieval Eastern Inn his paper, Kumar also argued that Krimila played a role of an important political centre of early medieval eastern India during the rule of Palas, as proved by a citation in King Devapala’s Munger copper plate which mentions Krimila as a Visaya of the Sri Nagara bhukti (believed to be the Pataliputra region).

Further clues about the city’s growth and socio-religious structure appeared in another inscription deciphered by Sircar that said: That in Dharmapala’s state at Krimila Visaya Madhu Srenika (a guild of probably honey collectors) in honour of Dharmapala has founded a Devadhmmayam (a religious centre). The inscription also mentioned Krimila as an Adhisthana meaning centre of administration, a city or town.dia.

Hints of a flourishing economy were also discovered in another inscription dating the 12th century that recorded a donation made by a daughter-in law-of an oil maker for religious purposes.

Excavation work

Exploration work to unearth the lost city began in 2009. So far, an area of 72 sq km has been identified as a tentative territorial boundary of the ancient city where remains of habitation are scattered all over.

A total of 60 sites have been identified by the researchers out of which six sites–Lal Pahari, Sarsanda Hill, Ghosikundi Hill, Bicchwe Hill, Lai, Nongarh have been declared as state-protected.

Amongst the items discovered by the excavation team include a large number of finished and unfinished early medieval sculptures of Buddhist and Brahmanical Gods Such as Lord Buddha, Brahma, Parvati, Ganesh and Durga. Besides, hundreds of architectural remains, fragments of daily items used by residents and objects of ritualistic use have also been unearthed.

“In due course of the exploration, we have documented over 500 brahminical and Buddhist sculptures from all over the regions. Out of these 200 have been shifted to a temporary museum while others are currently in temples or are in private possession,” Kumar told indianexpress.com.

A specific lintel representing Buddhist deity Avalokiteshvara recovered from one of the sites in the region has also caught the eye of researchers. “The lintel is unfortunately incomplete, the right third of it having been lost, but from what has survived it can be seen to have been carved in three panels, so what is seen today are its central and left (for the viewer) panels. This sculpture was carved with the utmost care, with elements such as decorative ornamentation, jewellery, garments, or facial features carved in an exquisite and detailed manner – qualities which characterize the production of the site in the 12th century as we know it from the images previously discovered,” Claudine Bautze-Picron, an Indian art historian wrote in h“Those involved in the creation of this panel, monks and sculptors, were evidently animated by a profound impulse of the imagination and the creative mind,” Picron added.

The Lal Pahari monastery

Talks about the presence of a vihara atop the Lal Pahari were also first mentioned by Cunningham during his visit to the region. In 2015, during an accidental dig, nearby villagers discovered a bastion that led authorities to call for an urgent archaeological excavation.

In 2017, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the Bihar Heritage Development Society and Visva Bharati University. On November 25, 2017, excavation began at Lal Pahari following As the systematic excavation proceeded, structural remains of a Buddhist monastery on a stone masonry foundation with several unique architectural features emerged. Discovery of the two burnt clay sealings and evidence of excessive protection measures further confirmed that the site was a vihara with a significant woman or mixed population.inauguration by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.er analysis of the discovery.

“We discovered a total of 12 bastions (3 in each corner) in the structure, perhaps used for security purposes. Several cells meant for monks were interconnected and had doors. The cells also had one elevated painted platform with an inner chamber,” Kumar told indianexpress.com

Dozens of wooden votive tablets with figures of a person, most probably Buddha sitting in Padmasana have also been recovered. “These tablets have never been found in monasteries in India before. They were only discovered in Burma and other south-east Asian countries,” he said.Hundreds of bangles made of copper and silver, neck ornaments, finger rings and nose pins were also recovered from the site during excavation.Asked about the claim of a woman monk named Vijayshree Bhadra running the monastery, Kumar said that the discovery of women’s ornaments and excessive security measures corroborates the inscriptional evidence found from this hill by Cunningham.  “The inscription depicted over an image of Singhnadavalokeshavara (a Buddist goddess) read that an elderly nun, Vijayashri Bhadra, used to receive donations from Mallika Devi, perhaps the wife of Pala ruler Sura Pala,” he added.The above-said sculpture was kept in the Berlin Museum but was taken away to Russia as “war booty” by the Russian army during the Second World War. At present, it is housed in the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia.

In 2018, excavation at the Lal Pahari was briefly halted after rumours of gold coins and other valuables being found made rounds on social media triggering locals to rush to the site.

Source: Indian Express, 21/01/21