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May:
Dharma and
Government & Politics
Dharma as it applies to obtaining and holding
political office. The extent of our involvment in American politics as
Hindus. Also, implementing government in a dharmic fashion.
Summary
The Dharmic Way of Governing
Between the third and fourth centuries B.C., Kautilya,
the prime minister of then Emperor Chandragupta Maurya, laid out his ideas of
how a ruler should lead the country, protect his reign, and steward the
nation in the famous Arthashastra. The principles were enmeshed with popular
Hindu tradition and have had a strong influence on the ensuing reigns of
maharajahs who have looked to the book for guidance.
Though it is nearly impossible to ascertain the extent
to which the ideals Kautilya espoused were implemented, the book is an
important formulation of a governing style modeled after Hinduism.
Behavior
The five duties of a ruler are to protect the good,
punish the wicked or guilty, deliver impartial justice, collect taxes at
reasonable rates, and safeguard the nation (“Atri Samhita” – 28). It is
important that he or she prove to be a role model for the citizens of the
nation, because as the Bhagavad Gita reminds us, “Whatsoever a great man
does, that very thing other men also do; whatever standard he sets up, the
common men follow the same.”
Of course, these lofty ideas become quite thorny when
conflicting with other interests. How far should a ruler bend to appease his
people—was Rama right to repeatedly subject his wife Sita to humiliating
tests of her honesty in order to satisfy his subjects’ curiosity? What is the
appropriate response for a government to make when the principle of ahimsa
interferes with national security—is it right to build arsenals of hugely
destructive nuclear weapons that could obliterate entire populations in order
to deter a rogue state?
Caste, Class & Economics
Despite the harsh pragmatism of the Arthashastra that
seeks primarily to maintain and expand the power of the emperor, Kautilya
demonstrates a generous compassion towards the lower classes and castes. He
refers to the peasants as the base of a nation’s prosperity and advocates
land reform on their behalf. He recommends provisions that would fine a
Brahmin for violating the chastity of lower caste female workers. Though he
safeguards the lower castes from carrying corpses and removing human excreta,
he allocates these demeaning and inhumane tasks to the untouchables.
Environment
The Dharmic approach to life has always incorporate
reverence towards nature and the harmony within the ecological system. This
appreciation of nature can be found in the vegetarianism of many Hindus, the
important stature given to cows, monkeys, and other animals, and the worship
of elements of nature such as Fire, Wind, and Sun.
This approach is at odds with a contemporary India that
suffers from acute air and water pollution and that faces the extinction of
several of species of indigenous animals. The Dharmic approach would
specifically focus on sustainable development and ecological and
environmental responsibility.
Contemporary Issues concerning Dharma & Politics
India
With the advent of Hindutva in the Indian political
arena, the interaction between Dharma and politics has become an important
and controversial issue. In a country that is home to adherents of all
religions, the division of religion and state becomes an especially sensitive
question. Can governance that is based explicitly on Hindu philosophy and
norms support the pluralism and tolerance that secularism is purported to
foster?
Specific examples of this question arise with the
controversy in introducing Vedic Astrology in the university curriculum and
incorporating prayers to Saraswati in school. Revisionist history that seeks
to center more on the indigenous perspective has been condemned as right-wing
and nonobjective.
In a country where religious minorities such as
Christians and Muslims already feel marginalized, can a Hindu style of
governance reach out to all of India’s citizens?
International Politics
Dharmic principles have been hugely influential in the
international arena. Gandhi’s strategy of nonviolence, civil disobediance and
passive resistance deeply impacted the movements of Martin Luther King, Jr.
and Nelson Mandela.
Yet the full potential of Dharma’s influence in the
global political arena has not thus far been reached. As the world’s largest
democracy situated in a region of geopolitical importance, India has a
relatively strong voice in international politics. Its periods of foreign
subjugation and sufferance of racism and intolerance makes it naturally
sympathetic to other Third World countries. The pluralism of Hinduism and its
reverence of nature are similar to many indigenous traditions and peoples in
the world today struggling to be visible. These natural allies should be
supported more vocally and staunchly by India.
North America
In the primarily Judeo-Christian discourse of North
American politics, the Dharmic perspective is an important one to shed light
on other points of view. As mentioned above, the history of intolerance and
racism against Dharmic peoples should make them more naturally sympathetic towards
the minorities in this country, most notably Native Americans. These
alliances should be cemented and strengthened.
Background Articles
The
Hindu Worldview
By David Frawley
(Vamadeva Shastri)
In media accounts today, any group that identifies itself
as Hindu or tries to promote any Hindu cause is immediately and uncritically
defined as 'right-winged'. In the leftist accounts that commonly come from
the Indian press, Hindu organizations are routinely called militants and
fascists. However, if we look at their actual views, Hindu groups have a very
different ideology and practices than the political right in other countries.
In fact many Hindu causes are more at home in the left in the West than in
the right.
The whole idea of the 'Hindu right' is a ploy to
discredit the Hindu movement as backward and prevent people from really
examining it. The truth is that the Hindu movement is a revival of a native
spiritual tradition that has nothing to do with the political right-wing of
any western country. Its ideas are spiritually evolutionary, not politically
regressive. Let us examine the different aspects of the Hindu movement and
where they would fall in the political spectrum of left and right as usually
defined in the West.
Hinduism and Native Traditions
The Hindu cause is similar to the cause of native and
tribal peoples all over the world, like native American and African groups.
Even Hindu concerns about cultural encroachment by western religious and
commercial interests mirrors those of other traditional peoples who want to
preserve their cultures. Yet while the concerns of native peoples have been
taken up by the left worldwide, the same concerns of Hindus are styled
right-wing or communal, particularly by the left in India! When native
Americans ask for a return of their sacred sites, the left in America
supports them. When Hindus ask for a similar return of their sacred sites,
the left in India opposes them and brands them as intolerant for their
actions! When native peoples in America or Africa protest missionaries for
interfering with their culture, they are supported by the left. Yet when
Hindus express the same sentiments, they are attacked by the left. Even the
Hindu demand for rewriting the history of India to better express the value
of their indigenous traditions is the same as what native Africans and
Americans are asking for. Yet the left opposes this Hindu effort, while
supporting African and American efforts of a similar nature.
In countries like America, native traditions are
minorities and thereby afforded a special sympathy. Leftists in general tend
to support minority causes and often lump together black African and native
American causes as examples of the damage caused by racism and colonialism.
In India, a native tradition has survived the colonial period but as the
tradition of the majority of the people. Unfortunately, the intellectual
elite of India, though following a leftist orientation, has no sympathy for
the country's own native tradition. They identify it as right-wing in order
to express their hostility towards it. They portray it as a majority
oppression of minorities, when it is the movement of a suppressed majority to
regain its dignity. Not surprisingly, the same leftists in India, who have
long been allied to communist China, similarly style the Dalai Lama and the
Tibetan cause as right-wing and regressive, though the Dalai Lama is honored
by the American left. This should tell the reader about the meaning of right
and left as political terms in India. When one looks at the Hindu movement as
the assertion of a native tradition with a profound spiritual heritage, the
whole perspective on it changes.
Hindu Economics
The Hindu movement in India in its most typical form follows
a Swadeshi (own-country) movement like the Swadeshi Jagaran Manch. It
emphasizes protecting the villages and local economies, building economic
independence and self-reliance for the country. It resists corporate
interference and challenges multinational interests, whether the bringing of
fast food chains to India, western pharmaceuticals or terminator seeds.
Such an economic policy was supported by Mahatma Gandhi
with his emphasis on the villages, reflected in his characteristic usage of
the spinning wheel. Its counterparts in the West are the groups that protest
the World Trade Organization (WTO), the World Bank and the International
Monetary Fund (IMF). However, these protest groups are generally classified
as 'left-wing' by the international press.
The international press considers the economic
right-wing to be the powers of the multinational corporations, particularly,
the oil industry, which certainly are not the allies of Hindu economics.
Clearly Hindu economics is more connected with the New Left in the West and
has little in common with the right. The Republican right in America, with
its corporate interests, would hardly take up the cause of Hindu economics
either.
Hindu Ecology and Nature Concerns
Hindu groups are well known for promoting vegetarianism
and animal rights, particularly the protection of cows. The Hindu religion as
a whole honors the Divine in animals and recognizes that animals have a soul
and will eventually achieve liberation. Hindu groups have tried to keep fast
food franchises, which emphasize meat consumption, out of India. Such a
movement would be part of consumer advocacy movements that are generally
leftist or liberal causes in the West. Again it is hardly an agenda of the right-wing
in America, which has a special connection to the beef industry; or to the
right-wing worldwide, which has no real concern for animal rights and is
certainly not interesting in spreading vegetarianism. Hindus look upon nature
as sacred, honoring the rivers and mountains as homes of deities. They stress
the protection of Mother Earth, which they worship in the form of the cow.
They have a natural affinity with the western ecology movement and efforts to
protect animals, forests and wilderness areas. This is also hardly a
right-wing agenda.
Hindu Religious Pluralism
The Hindu religion is a pluralistic tradition that
accepts many paths, teachers, scriptures and teachings. One cannot be a
Christian without accepting Christ or a Buddhist without accepting Buddha,
but one can be a Hindu without accepting any single figure. In fact there are
Hindus who may not follow Krishna, Rama, Shiva, Vishnu or other Hindu sages
or deities and still count as Hindu.
Hindus have been at the forefront in arguing for the
cause of religious diversity and the acceptance of pluralism in religion,
rejecting the idea that any single religion alone can be true.
This Hindu idea of religion-which is also subscribed to
by so-called right wing Hindu groups like RSS-is obviously not part of the
agenda of the religious right in the West. The American Christian right is
still sending missionaries to the entire world in order to convert all people
to Christianity, the only true religion. It is firmly fixed on one savior,
one scripture and a rather literal interpretation of these. Yet when Hindus
ask the pope to make a statement that truth can be found outside of any
particular church or religion they are called right-wing and backwards, while
the pope, who refuses to acknowledge the validity of Hindu, Buddhist or other
Indic traditions, is regarded as liberal! Such pluralism in religious views
is hardly a cause for any right-wing movement in the world, but is also
considered progressive, liberal, if not leftist (except in India).
Hinduism and Science
Unlike the religious right in the West, the Hindu
movement is not against science or opposed to teaching evolution in the
schools. Hinduism does promote occult and spiritual subjects like astrology,
Ayurvedic medicine, Yoga or Vedanta, but these are the same basic teachings
found in the New Age in the West, generally regarded as a liberal or leftist
movement, not those of the religious right in the West. Many leaders of the
Hindu movement are in fact scientists. For example, RSS leaders like former chief
Rajinder Singh, or BJP leaders like Murli Manohar Joshi have also been
professors of modern physics.
The Hindu Movement and Caste
The Hindu right is often defined in the media in terms
of caste, as favoring the upper castes over the lower castes. This is another
distortion that is often intentional. Modern Hindu teachers have been at the
forefront of removing caste. This includes great figures like Vivekananda,
Mahatma Gandhi and Aurobindo. It includes major Hindu movements like the Arya
Samaj, the largest Vedic movement in modern India, and the Swadhyaya
movement.
The RSS, the largest so-called Hindu right wing group,
rejects caste and works to remove it from Hindu society, giving prominence to
leaders from lower classes and working to open the Hindu priesthood to
members of all castes. While caste continues to be a problem in certain
segments of Hindu society, it is generally not because of these current Hindu
social, religious and political movements, but because their reform efforts
are resisted.
The Hindu Movement and Women's Rights
Generally, the right wing in the West is defined as
opposed to women's rights. However, there are many women's groups and active
women leaders in the Hindu movement and in the Hindu religion. Being a woman
is no bar for being a political or religious leader in India as it often is
in the West. Hinduism has the worlds' largest and oldest tradition of the
worship of the Divine as Mother, including as India itself. Great female
Hindu gurus like Ammachi (Mata Amritanandamayi) travel and teach all over the
world. The Hindu movement worships India on a spiritual level as a
manifestation of the Divine Mother (Shakti).
The Hindu Bomb
Perhaps the main thing in recent years used to define
Hindus in India as right-winged is India's testing of the nuclear bomb in
1998. Yet India's concern for its military welfare and need for a nuclear
deterrent is certainly no more than what the democratic party in the United
States, America's left-wing party, has asked for. The Indian government has
at the same time argued for complete nuclear disarmament, which it would be
happy to comply with, which no right-wing party in the USA would argue for.
The Indian Left: The Old Left
In India, the political terminology of right and left is
defined by Marxists, who like to call anyone that opposes them right-wing or
fascists. According to their view anything traditionally Hindu would have to
be right-wing on principle, just as only their views are deemed progressive,
even if supporting Stalinist tactics. This means that in India such subjects
as Yoga, natural healing, vegetarianism and animal rights are all
automatically right-wing because they are causes of the Hindu mind, with
antecedents in ancient Indian culture. Great Hindu yogis and sages from Shankaracharya
to Sri Aurobindo are classified by modern Marxists as right-wing, if not
fascist.
However, the Indian left is mainly the Old Left,
emphasizing a failed communist ideology and state economic planning such as
dominated Eastern Europe in the decades following World War II and took it
nowhere. It wreaked the same havoc with the economy and educational systems
of India and kept the country backward. Indian communists are among the few
in the world that still proudly honor Stalin and Mao (while warning of the
danger of Hindu fundamentalism)! Communist ruled Bengal still teaches the
glory of the Russian revolution for all humanity, though Russia gave up
communism ten years ago! The Old Left was itself intolerant, oppressive and
dictatorial, sponsoring state terrorism and genocide wherever it came to
power. Indian leftists have never rejected these policies and look back with
nostalgia on the Soviet Union!
Therefore, we must remember that the leftist criticism
of Hinduism coming from the Indian left is that of the old left. This old
left in India does not take up many of the causes of the new left like
ecology or native rights. It even sides with the policies of the political
right-wing in western cultures upholding the rights of missionaries to
convert native peoples and continuing colonial accounts of Indic
civilization. The communist inspired left in India has tried to demonize the
Hindu movement as a right-wing phenomenon in order to discredit its spiritual
orientation. The aim of the Indian left is to keep the Hindu movement
isolated from any potential allies. After all, no one likes fascists, which
is a good term of denigration that evokes negative emotions for both
communists and capitalists.
Hinduism and the Left
The causes taken up by the Hindu movement are more at
home in the New Left than in right wing parties of the West. Some of these
resemble the concerns of the Green Party. The Hindu movement offers a
long-standing tradition of environmental protection, economic simplicity, and
protection of religious and cultural diversity. There is little in the
so-called Hindu right that is shared by the religious or political right-wing
in western countries, which reflect military, corporate and missionary
concerns. The Hindu movement has much in common with the New Age movement in
the West and its seeking of occult and spiritual knowledge, not with the
right wing in the West, which rejects these things. Clearly, the western
right would never embrace the Hindu movement as its ally.
To counter this distortion, some Hindus are now arguing
for a new 'Hindu Left' to better express the concerns of Hindu Dharma in
modern terms. They would see the new left as more in harmony with Hindu
concerns and a possible ally. Hindu thought has always been progressive and
evolutionary, seeking to aid in the unfoldment of consciousness in humanity
and not resting content with material or political gains as sufficient. Hindu
Dharma should be reexamined by the new left and the distortions of by the old
left discarded. The new left will find much in Hindu Dharma that is relevant
to its concerns.
The Hindu movement can be a great ally to many social
movements throughout the world. It has a base of nearly a billion people and
the world's largest non-biblical religious tradition, with a long tradition
of spiritual thought and practice. The Hindu movement can be an ally for any
native causes, environmental concerns, women's spiritual issues and movements
toward economic simplicity and global responsibility, to mention but a few.
Groups espousing such causes may have looked upon Hinduism as an enemy, being
taken in by leftist propaganda. They must question these distortions of the
old left. They should look to the Hindu view for insight, even if they may
not agree with it on all points. They should not trust the anti-Hindu
stereotypes of the old left, any more than they trust the views of the now
defunct Soviet Union.
Towards a Non-Political Social Order
However, the entire right-left division reflects the
conditions of western politics and is inaccurate in the Indian context. We
must give up such concepts in examining Indic civilization, which in its core
is spiritually based, not politically driven. It reflects older and deeper
concerns that precede and transcend the West's outer vision. As long as we
define ourselves through politics our social order will contain conflict and
confusion. Democracy may be the more benign face of a political order, but it
still hides the lack of any true spiritual order. We must employ the vision
of dharma and subordinate politics to it, which should be a form of Karma
Yoga.
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