A new debate has been perpetuated on the statement of Udaynidhi Stalin, a minister of Youth affairs and Sports Development in Tamil Nadu Government who happens to be son of M.K. Stalin, Chief Minister of that state. Addressing a conference in Chennai, he equated the Sanatan Dharma with dengu, malaria, fever and corona and further stated not merely to oppose it but eradicate it. His statement was endorsed by A. Raja, an another leader of DMK and Priyank Khadge who is son of Congress President Mallikarjun Khadge. His so called statement was grabbed by the BJP as if boon. The party picked the issue to malign the image not only of DMK but majority parties of newly constituted INDIA alliance branding them as anti-Hindu and against the basic concept of Indianess. It is deliberate conscious effort of the BJP to subvert the gains of opposition and setting a narrative for the forthcoming parliamentary election. The battery of national level spokespersons has been entrusted with the diatribe against the DMK and against the other opposition parties in proxy. Prime Minister Narender Modi pressed himself in this imbroglio sensing the gravity of the issue and asked his party and ministers to aggressively raise this issue with the public.
Sanatan Dharma is a Sanskrit term that can be loosely translated as eternal religion. Over the time it is used as the synonyms to Hinduism in 19th century. The word Sanatan appears in Bhagvad Gita in reference to knowledge of the soul which is eternal. The five basic participles of Sanatan Dhrama are Karma, Dharma, Moksha, Yoga and Ahimsa. Dharma generally refer to a structured religion or religious duties as in Islam, Christianity, Budhism which are monotheistic religions. The term Dharma in Hinduism refers to nature such as dharma of fire to burn, river to flow, air to blow. Abstractly, dharma is unchangeable nature of human beings irrespective of any religious affiliation. The term Hindu was coined by Persians for the people living beyond river Sindhu. Later on Greeks invaders referred the people of trans Sindhu or Indus rives as Indu and that slang into Indians over the time.
Thousands of years before the term Hindu came into existence, the term Sanatan Dharma finds reference in Vedas. The duties have been broadly classified into Sanatan Dharma( spiritual in nature and can not change from person to person) and Varnasharma Dharma (duties performed according to the system of four varnas i.e. social division and four stages of life). The latter part is the source of inherent contradictions, exploitation, ownership of resources, segmentation of the society in rigid social hierarchy, subjugation and evolution of caste system in Hindu Dharma. This bred into gross inequality, repression, exploitation of all kinds and shun the minimum rights of a human. The well chanted phrase of Goswami Tulsidas in Ram Charit Manas “dhol, gawar, pashu, shudra, nari. Sakal tadan ke adhikari (Drums, the illiterate, lower castes, animals and women deserve to be beaten to straighten). The great Tulsidas might have propounded this equation on the bases of conditions of that time but it denotes clearly that society particularly Hindu society was badly infested with inequality and repression.
Gandhi has campaigned against and commented on the caste system vigorously during the freedom struggle but he recognized it as an integral part of the society and preached the harmony amongst the castes. He wrote in Young India “From the economic point of view, its value was once very great. It ensured hereditary skills; it limited competition. It is best remedy against the pauperism and it had all the advantage of trade guide. Although it didn’t foster adventure or invention there, it is not known to have come in the way either. Historically speaking, caste may be regarded as man’s experiment or social adjustment in the laboratory of Indian society. If we can prove it to be success, it can be offered to the world as a heaven and as the best remedy against heartless competition and social disintegration born of avarice and greed.”
The view of Ambedkar on religion and the caste system were more vociferous as he had encountered the vagaries of caste and religion existing during his period. He said “ Religion must mainly be a matter of principles only. It cannot be a matter of rules. The moment it degenerates in rules, it ceases to be a religion, as it kills responsibility which is an essence of true religious act.” Ambedkar castigated the caste system prevalent in India and noted that “Caste is not a physical object like a wall of bricks or a line of barbed wire which prevents the Hindus from co-mingling and which has, therefore, to be pulled down. Caste is a notion; it is a state of mind.” Ambedkar commented on caste system in his famous book ‘Annihilation of caste’ saying that “ Caste is another name for control. Caste puts a limit a limit on the enjoyment. Caste does not allow a person to transgress caste limits in pursuit of his enjoyment. That is the meaning of such caste restrictions as inter-dining and inter-marriage.” He further extend his argument by saying “ Religion, social status, and property are all source of power and authority which one man has, to control the liberty of another.”
Bhagat Singh criticized the Brahmanical theory of karma in one of his article ‘Problems of the untouchability’, which postulates that people are assigned caste or varna according to the merit of their last birth. He emphatically castigate this thought and practice in his famous book ‘Why I am an ashiest” where he says “well, you Hindus, you say all the present sufferers are belong to the class of siiners of the births. Good. You say the present oppressors' were saintly people in their previous births, hence they enjoy the power. Let me admit that your ancestors were very shrewd people; they tried to find out theories strong enough to hammer down all the efforts of reason and disbelief.” in the same book he criticizes the “varna system” and says that these rules and laws related with the varna system are the inventions of the privileged ones’ to justify their usurped power, riches and superiority.
Dravidian are influenced by iconoclastic and atheistic concept. They dissociate themselves from religious affiliations. They consider Hinduism as a Brahmanical and Sanskritic and proponent of irrationalism and foolish beliefs. E.V. Ramaswamy who is revered as Periyar and father of Dravidian movement who spearheaded the movement against caste and gender inequality. Periyar movement has been the guiding spirit of Dravidian movement which was an anti-caste movement and largely against the religion. Pariyar was critical to Ramayan as it upholds the caste principles. The movement and ideology of atheistic streak of Periyar was furthered by C.N. Annadurai and M.K.Karunanidhi.
RSS is the chief patron and proponent of Hindutva philosophy which was initited by V.D.Savarkar. The mission of RSS is “The Hindu culture is the life-breath of Hindusthan. It is therefore, clear that if Hidusthan is to be protected, we should first nourish the Hindu culture. If Hindu culture perishes in Hindusthan itself, and if the Hindu society ceases to exist, it will hardly be appropriate to refer to the mere geographical entity that remains as Hindusthan. Mere geographical lumps do not make a nation. The entire society should be in such a vigilant and organized condition that no one would dare to cast an evil eye on any of our points of honour.”
It clearly establishes that there is unavoidable and inherent contradictions between those who propound the idea of Sanatan Dharma and the majority section of the Indian society which have been victim of this regressive, exploitative and traditional approach over centuries whether they are rational thinking people or Ambedkarites or followers of the great Dravidian movement or communists. The philosophy of the ancient Sanatan Dharma potentially would negate the advancement of the society through continuously and unabated struggles by the significant sections of the society. Adherence with the idea of perseverance of Sanatan Dharma would necessitate the acceptance of all maladies emanated from this whether it is caste system or gender inequality or basic principles of the Indian Constitution; chiefly sovereignty, fundamental Rights, directive principles of state policy, socialism, secularism, judicial independence, federalism etc. Ours is a democratic country with huge and varied diversity plurality is the reality of India. An idea of certain thought like perpetuation of Sanatan Dharama will do more harm than good. It may suit some political parties or social organizations to advance their vested interests and might be a tool to grab the power but India is a vast and diverse nation encompasses of different many religions, tribes, social groups of big and small size and all these have their own way of leading life with distinct thought and practices. The statement of Udaynidhi, a scion of Krunanidhi who inherited the ideology of opposition of the Hinduism from E. V. Ramaswamy, C.N. Annadurai and M.K. Karunanidhi, that compared the Hinduism with dengu, malaria, fever and corona is not good in taste due to his selection of words and should have been avoided this slang but on the same time the statement of his, strongly underline the deliberate tendency to mitigate the progress and achievement made by the Indian societies through persistent struggles against the hegemony of the exploitative forces who had the power and resources and ruled over the masses for centauries and; these forces treated them worse than an animal. The diatribe of rightists is indicative of this notion that these forces represented the Sanatan Dharma in the society. The statement should have been taken in the broader perspective of the social development. The position taken by the BJP on this issue justifies the cliam of those who say the ideology of Sangh Parivar is against the scheduled castes, backward castes, farmers and religious minorities. Let’s see how the far right thinking RSS conglomeration takes this new debate to counter the nascent formed opposition alliance of INDIA? It is to be seen how this debate strengthens the Hindutva ideology and give rich dividends in the coming parliamentary elections?
