Om Prakash Sharma

THE Hindus have welcomed and respected all religions with an open mind. St Thomas Church, the oldest Church at Palyar in Trichur, Kerala was established in 52 A.D.  Christianity reached India three centuries before it reached Rome. Likewise, Cheraman Jama Masjid located at Kodungallur, about 37-km from Thrissur, built in 628 AD, 7 years after the Prophet's migration to Medina, is believed to be the second oldest mosque in the world after the Medina mosque. Hounded and persecuted in other countries, the Jews in India led a peaceful life in the coastal state of Kerala. The first Jewish migration was around 605 BC when they landed in the ancient port town of Cranganore (now called Kodungallore). After that there were waves of migration in 586 BC, 68 AD, 369 AD, 486 AD and 490AD. Nathan Katz, in his book titled: ‘Who are the Jews of India?’ writes that India is the only country where the Jews were not persecuted. Zoroastrians, fleeing from the persecution of Muslim rulers in Iran made India their home as early as the 10th century AD. A population of 70,000 out of about one lakh Parsees live in India.  Some 2.2 Million Bahá'ís of India - members of the largest Bahá'í Community of the world, persecuted in Iran, live here in peace. In their sheer liberal exuberance the Hindus even wrote Allah-Opanishad, probably during Akbar’s reign.
 
Emperor Ashoka was the epitome of national integration. D.R. Bhandarkar commenting on Ashoka, observed that he perceived the fundamental unity of all religions as seen in his edicts. He summed it up in two words: self-restraint (sanyama) and purity of heart (bhavaa-shuddhi). He exhorted his people to cease praising one’s own sect and decrying other’s unnecessarily. On the contrary, they should show reverence to other sects for those aspects where they deserve it. His advice to mankind is: “Listen and desire to listen to one another’s dharma.” The consequence of all this would be that they would be bahushrut- more knowledgeable about dharama and they will also be kalyanagam- conducive to the welfare of the world.  
 
 In sharp contrast to the above, Christianity holds, that if a man does not follow the teachings of Jesus Christ, he shall be condemned to hell. Islam says the same about those who do not follow the teachings of Prophet Mohammed.  Tagore had misgivings about the adverse impact of such religious views on the human psyche when he said: “It has become tragically evident during the course of human history that the religions that were to liberate soul have in some form or the other been instrumental in shackling freedom of mind and even moral rights. Much of the bigotry, fanaticism, and religious persecution, have risen in the world from our dogmatizing.” Thomas Jefferson, an American President, seemed to echo the attitude of a liberal Hindu. He wrote his own Gospel minus the miracles.  It was published 75 years after his death. He retained the teachings of the Bible through parables. He thought all miracles were added through the stupidity or roguery of Jesus’ disciples. His Jesus was simply a praying man. In defense of religious freedom he wrote: “It does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods or no gods. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.”
 
For several centuries, the men concerned with religious organisations, especially in Europe, imprisoned, tortured and even put to death the seekers of truth. The revolutionary theory of Copernicus about the earth revolving around the sun was published on his deathbed, sparing him conflict with the Vatican church. Bruno, born seven years after the death of Copernicus, published a book ‘Infinity of universe and the Worlds.’ He was burnt alive at the stake in Italy. He was produced before the Roman governor in 1600 who sentenced him with the usual directives to treat him “with as great clemency as possible and without the effusion of blood.” He was burnt at the stake; there was no effusion of blood!  Thousands of ‘heretics’ were done to death in Inquisitions by the Roman Catholic church in such a compassionate manner! Contemporary historians have given blood-curdling accounts of the Hindu killings during the Goa Inquisitions carried out by the Portuguese. Francis Xavier sent to Goa by Ignatius Loyola of Jesuit order under the direction of the King João III of Portugal in 1541, came to the conclusions: “Hindus are an unholy race that they are liars and cheats to the very backbone, that the Indians being black themselves, consider their own color the best and also that they believe that their gods are black. On this account the great majority of their idols are as black as black can be, and moreover are generally so rubbed over with oil as to smell detestably, and seem to be as dirty as they are ugly and horrible to look at." He wrote to Rome to install inquisition in Goa immediately. The Goan inquisition is regarded by all contemporary portrayals as the most violent inquisition ever executed by the Portuguese Catholic Church. It lasted from 1560 to 1812 though in Europe it ended by 1774, (briefly restarted in 1778).
 
After the perspective account based on the observations of scholars, statesmen and historians, the stage is set to examine the rationale behind the ‘The Ancient Hindu Way’- the amalgam that has galvanized India into a nation with its creed of tolerance. The Vedas, world’s most ancient library of scriptures, hold the key to a proper understanding of the phenomenon that India is. According to Dr. Radha Kumud Mookerji, the Rig Veda is the first book of Hindus and also of mankind. Some observations that may appear in the nature of clichés need to be stated as a prologue to the narrative that follows. According to the Yajur Veda, the Vedas represented the first civilization in the entire world: prathama sanskritih vishvara (Ya. 7.14). The Yajur Veda further proclaims that the Vedic seers had the task of awakening mankind: vayam rastre jagrayama purohitah- with the purpose of ennobling the human race: kranvantu vishvam aryam-(Rig. 9.63.5); not through conquests but through the pursuit of truth. The Vedic Aryan had the vision of the world as one family: Vasudheva Kutumbakam or yatra vishvam bhavati ek nidam (YAJ. 3.8). In the bhumi sukta, he delighted in being the son, not merely of the Aryavrata, but of the Earth: putro ahm   prithviyah. The Sukta further hails the earth for giving shelter to numerous faiths:  nana dharmanam  Prithvi yathanksam.
 
The Vedas were envisioned by the seers who had seen the Truth: Satya-Shrutah, Kavayah. They are also referred to as mantra- drasta, seers who had divined the hymns. More importantly, what the seers could perceive is not the whole Veda, but part of the Veda - 'anantah vai vedah'. There is no dogmatic finality about the Truth. The Upanishads also proclaimed the same, concluding that there is no end to it - 'neti neti '.   This is typical of the India-born religions. The Buddha told Anand, his chief disciple, that he “had given him a handful of truths, but besides these there are many thousands more truths than can be enumerated.” The syadvaad of the Jains also deals with probability of the Truth, not the finality of it.  Only Truth as per the Upanishads was that of the Self-existent- braham eva satyam. The second sutra of the Brahma-sutra defines braham as: janmadasya yatah- That who is the cause of creation etc. This observation is to be viewed in the light of a fierce debate that was going on between the Mimansakas who did not believe that God was the cause of creation and the Vedantists, who did.
 
The term for religion in the Rig Veda is ‘rit’, synonymous with Truth personified (ritam- to go the right way, be pious or virtuous: RV- Sanskrit English Dictionary by M. Monier- Williams).    The religion of Hindus, a nomenclature tagged by Persians, had no founder. It sprang from the depths of surging spiritualism. The Nasadiya Sukta (RV X, 12 9), the poetic Hymn of Creation of the Rig Veda, is the core of monotheism of the Vedas. It states that in the beginning when nothing existed and it was like darkness wrapped in layers of darkness; only That One (Tad Ekam) breathed by itself: aanid vaatam swadhaya tad ekam.  The Creator had no name, as Lao Tse said: You can not name the nameless. The Vedic Aryan was in close communion with the forces of Nature, which he deified as His divine aspects.  The Veda, however, clarified unequivocally:  One alone exists though the sages call It variously- ekam sad vipra bahudha vadanti. (Rig. I. 164. 46). God is One without a parallel: ekameva-advityam or as interpreted by Sayana Acharya: There is only one supreme deity: 'Ekam eva Sat Tatva'. That only one Supreme Being created the earth and the heaven. (Rig. X. 8.3). That the Truth was called variously supplied the genes to the liberal Hindu psyche.  Significantly, one name for war in the Rig Veda is ‘mam satyam’- my truth. History is a witness to religious wars to settle scores over the claims of Truth.  India has a long history of resolving spiritual and religious differences through enlightened debates.
 
Internal reform has been a regular feature of Hinduism. There was an opposition to ritualism within Rig Veda itself. It not approve of ritualism: richa kim karishyati- what can the mere recitation of the hymns do? The Gita admonished the veda-vaada ratah- those who paid mere lip service to the Vedas. There is a celebrated legend about Ashtavakra, an eight-humped scholar, during king Janaka’s reign. While in his mother’s womb he had the audacity to tell his father who was reading Veda to her mother, to look within for enlightenment, instead of reading scriptures which were only a storehouse of verbiage. The Sama Veda takes a stand against sacrifices of the early Vedic age. It says of famous Horse Sacrifice (ashva-medha): “O! Ye gods! We use no sacrificial stake. We slay no victim. We worship entirely by the repetition of sacred mantras”. The Gita transformed the Vedic theory of sacrifices and reconciles it with true knowledge of the eternal as Manduka Upanishad observed: ‘braham vid braham eva havarti- the knower of Braham is Braham Himself.

The freedom of thought is the hallmark of Hindu scriptures.  The Mahabharata says: “There is no muni that has not an opinion of his own”. The differences of opinion between Rishi Vaishampayan and Rishi Yagvalkya led to the division of the Yajur Veda into two schools of thought: The Krishana Yajur Veda and the  Sukla Yajurveda.  The acceptance of the Atharva Veda as the fourth Veda was a momentous development. It  illustrates the Hindu genius to resolve conflicts in religious matters with great sagacity.   There were polemics between the followers of the three Vedas, called strotriya, and those of the Atharva Veda, derisively called mantrikam (believers in magic), as they believed in   mantra vidya.  In many early scriptures only three Vedas were mentioned. (R.V., x. 90. 9.;v. 7. 1; Tait Up., ii. 2-3.) The Gita, Valmiki Ramayan and the Maha Bharata mention only 'Veda Trai’.  The canonical works of the Buddhists do not mention the Atharva Veda. Grammarian Panini who   flourished in the 3rd century B.C mentioned only three Vedas and not the  Atharva Veda. Brahadaryanak Upanishads also mentions three Vedas.  Some Atharva-vedic Acharyas considered it as the first Veda or even as brahmveda.   Jayant Bhatt wrote in Nyay Manjari: "tatra vedaschtvar prathmo Atharva   Veda"- among the four Vedas, the Atharva Veda is the first.

Ved Vyas, the compiler of the Vedas, can be called the first nation builder  as he created the institution of teertha yatra- pilgrimages, for ‘chitta-shuddhi’ that prepared the ground for national unity.  He was a great harmoniser. He could see the threat of schism among the Vedas to religious harmony.  He regrouped the four Vedas by accommodating the Atharva Veda as the fourth Veda. Sumantu, son of Rishi Atharvan (of Atharva Veda), was one of his four shishyas, whose chain of disciples founded 1180 shakhas:   Rig Veda 21, Yajurveda 101, Samaveda 1000 and Atharveda 58. Four disciples of Vyas, representing four Vedas were Pail, Jaimini, Vaishampayan and Sumantu. Dr P.V. Kane in the ‘History of Dharma Shastra,’ highlights how, in every age, the social thinkers tried to adjust Hindu institutions to the requirements of the time. [Continued]

[The writer is former governor of Nagaland and a well known commentator on public affairs]

BACK

Kerala firms reject GM seeds, urges prime minister not go ahead

IN a clear and cogent manner the CPM led government in Kerala has rejected GM seeds. In a letter to the prime minister, the chief minister has argued in derail about the dangers of these GM seeds and the threat from the multinationals to Indian bio diversity.

Here is the Text of the letter.

Shri. Manmohan Singh,
Honourable Prime Minister of India,
South Block, New Delhi.
Greetings from the ‘God’s own country’.

I am addressing an important issue here - the introduction of GM crops and food in the State as well as in the country. I understand our stand on the GM crops and foods was already made very clear to the Union Agriculture Minister, Shri. Sarat Pawar, and to your kind self, by our Agriculture Minister, Shri . Mullakara Ratnakaran and the Chairman of the Kerala State Biodiversity Board, Dr. V. S. Vijayan respectively.

We are concerned about the introduction of the GM crops into the State. We had conducted a national workshop on the desirability of the GM crops sometime in April 2008 and, at the end of the two day workshop, it had come out with a unanimous resolution that the GM crops and foods should not be allowed in the State and, the resolution further says that we should also try to impress upon the Union Government in banning the GM in the country. A copy of the resolution is enclosed herewith for your ready reference.

May I reiterate that the Kerala State has already taken a policy decision not to allow GM crops, even for trials, until the debate on the issue of GM that is going on the world over is settled for ever. We are convinced with the available information that:


(a) GM crops are not economically viable for the farmers,
(b) GM crops and foods lead to unimaginable health hazards,
(c) GM crops contaminate the local and wild varieties, the damages of which are irrevocable and, such contamination of our traditional varieties cause irreparable damage to food security of the country
(d) GM denies the farmers right to choose what he wants to sow in his own farm, and ultimately,
(e) The country’s sovereignty over food and agriculture will be endangered.

Moreover, we are convinced that the Genetic Modification of crops is not a solution for hunger as has been wrongly advocated by the proponents of the GM, because the genetic modification is done not to increase the productivity, but to control the insect pests or the weeds. I am sure, you would agree with me that there are several cheaper and environment-friendly options to control the pests and weeds.
It may also be noted the Task Force on Application of Biotechnology on Agriculture headed by Prof. M. S. Swaminathan is unambiguous that the mega-diversity centres and biodiversity hotspots like Western Ghats shall be kept free of any GM experiments/ crops.

The Task Force report further recommends that even the transgenic research should not be undertaken in crops/commodities where our international trade will be affected.

In this context, you may please note that Kerala is a State heavily depended on international market for its agricultural commodities. Any contamination from genetic modification can cause further damage in the trade prospects of the State.

Kerala is also an important centre of diversity of medicinal plants and heritage of traditional medicines like ayurveda. Serious concern has already been expressed by the Ayurveda practitioners on GM research being undertaken on various crops.

You would be delighted to note that the State has already declared an Organic Farming Policy, Strategy and Action Plan in 2008. Accordingly, the entire food crops would be converted to organic within five years and the cash crops within another five years. This will, apart from helping to feed the people with non-poisoned food, enhance our export possibilities with a high premium. However, introduction of GM crops will certainly defeat the very purpose of organic farming, because GM crops/foods are more disastrous than those from crops raised using chemical pesticides and fertilisers. It would also kill the State’s trade prospects.

Considering all these, the Government of Kerala has taken a decision to prohibit all environmental release of GMOs and keep the State totally GM free. We would also request the Honourable Prime Minister to reconsider the policy on GM in the national scale and declare a moratorium at least for the next 50 years, so that we could learn the desirability of GM from other countries where it is being practised in large scale.

We would urge the Central Government to respect the well informed decision of the State Government and issue necessary orders to all concerned Ministries not to permit any GM research or release of GMOs within the boundaries of the State. Such an order from the Union Government will further strengthen the federal fabric of our nation as enshrined in the constitution.

With kind regards
Yours sincerely,
V. S. Achuthanandhan
Copy to: Ministry of: Environment and Forests; Agriculture and Cooperation; Science and Technology; Health and Family Welfare; and Department of Biotechnology

BACK