The Death of the Debate Culture

The debate culture is killed. No, it is actually murdered, by the people over the recent years. Why? Because it gets heated and may lead into violence. So why debate at all? Leave it all to individualism. So the society is breaking its thread slowly. Man is becoming individualistic. When man becomes solo, he becomes psycho and violent.

Society living forces man to become accommodative and appreciative of the differences. If you follow, Hindu tenets, the culture is so vibrant only due to its accommodation of various differences without killing the differences. There is appreciation of differences between opposing communities also. Communities are allowed to freely find their living and non-living gods.

For example in JP Nagar, Bangalore, we have 2 main local deities. Banashankari and Shakhambari.

Banashankari: Bana means Vana which is Forest. She is the forest god. The communities in ancient times lived on the forest produce & trade and they worshipped her as the Adhidevatha of Forest.
Shakhambari: Shakha means vegetables. The communities cleared forest to grow vegetables for their living & trade. So she becomes the Adhidevatha for the vegetable growers.
So if you see these 2 communities lives are in contrast. One protects the forest but the other clears it for their living. But they live in harmony! They respect each other’s god also equally.

Of course, there are skirmishes and violence erupted between communities in ancient India & even today. But what killed that violence? It is the reasoning and debate culture. Understanding and appreciating differences. Then coming to terms with harmonious living. Ultimately harmony prevailed & is sustained for many millennia.

Debate Culture in Ancient India

In India they say, the Veda’s were revealed to the Rishis and Munis by nature or by God himself. But being rationalist, I would not agree with that explanation. I agree with some saying, that it evolved over a period of many centuries through long debates. In Vedic periods, Yaga, Yagna was held for centuries in patronage of wealthy kings where there was large congregation of many Rishis. The story of debates and wins in those Yagna is well described in various later day texts. Through those debates of different views and opinions, the Vedas must have emerged.

In Mahabharatha, Bheeshma Parva is probably one of the largest sections. In that, it is all about stories & stories told by Bheeshma to Yudhistrira through long debates and questions. Bheeshma is a pithamaha having seen the world through his own eyes for 3 generations. He has immense practical knowledge. When is he is on Shara Shaiye (Bed of Arrows), Yudhistira after having won a long fought battle, which is a Dharma Yuddha considered Dharma’s win over Adharma, approaches the pithamaha to learn about what is Dharma and how to keep it up while he is the King of such a large kingdom? One of the main things he teaches through those various stories is that, god has created a divergent world. A Raja has to understand, appreciate and ensure harmony through maintaining those differences and not killing the differences.   

Bhagavad Geeta is basically Nara-Narayana Samvada, means dialogue between Man & God. Nara means Man, represented by Arjuna. God is represented by Krishna. Man is always in dilemma. He is confused what is right and what is not. In the middle of the war, Arjuna is in dilemma. Krishna is calm and at bliss even at the congruence of 2 largest armies, ready with venomous attack on each other. Krishna gives Vishwaroopa darshana to Arjuna & reasons with him to go to Dharma Yuddha. Arjuna listens and follows. Similarly when Krishna goes for Sandhana, not to go for war and reasons with Duryodhana, he does not listen. So the war breaks out. Dharma prevails.

Debate Culture in Medieval India

Chanakya the author of the Arthasasthra is another genius detailing various aspects of Raja Dharma. He emphasized the prevalent theory of: Sama, Dana, Danda, Bhedha: Means: Reasoning, Money Attraction, Force & Divide respectively, in that order of priority while dealing in political situations of differences cropping up between various groups. So here always, the first one takes preference and time consuming. One has to get into the reasoning first to take issues head on and resolve it through debate & reasoning.

Many religions came about in medieval India and still persist. Reasoning and debate was the basis of these religions. Budhism, Jainism came about espousing their theory in peace. Attracting people into their fold through utmost reasoning. In their quest for larger influence on the populace, they impressed Raja (King) and then carried out their conversion of the Praja (Public).

The great revival for Hinduism happened through Sankaracharya. This again was through peaceful means of reasoning and influencing the political powers of the day.

Of course there were community violence, attacks, burning, beheading breaking the long peace in pockets. But those skirmishes were quelled mostly by intellects invoking society reforms.

Thus you see, in Kannada history, great Jain literature coming out from the Hindu kings patronage. Pampa, Ranna, Janna, etc., were Jain poets, who produced great works under the ages of Hindu kings. Hoysala kings were Jains. They produced some of the sculptural marvels second to none in the world Viz., Belur, Halebid sculptures. In these great sculptures, everything is discussed from Puranas, Mahabharatha to visiting Chinese monks. Even sex is not a taboo for depicting. Nothing, absolutely nothing should be taboo for healthy discussing, debating and depicting in a peaceful society. Across India the same open culture persisted.

The great debates on Advaitha, Vishishtadvaitha, Dvaitha happened under the various Kings courts and patronage. Vijayanagara kingdom is termed as Golden Age of Hindu Culture. Under their rule, there was freedom of thought and expression. Dasa Sahitya took root and flourished well in their kingdom. All the 3 philosophies flourished well across the Deccan peninsula.  They protected the great monuments, temples, enhanced all ancient temples with their signature Gopura, Praakaara & Pushkarani. Not only Hindu temples, but the Jain basadi’s, monuments of significance were made to thrive. Muslim monuments were protected and they were allowed to absorb the Hindu tolerant culture.

Amartya Sen has written a book on Indian Debate Culture titled “Argumentative Indian”. It is a big book with very poor content. A thorough review is put up in another blog: http://npraveer.blogspot.in/2014/02/the-argumentative-indian-by-amartya-sen.html

Onslaught of Debate Culture by Islam in India:

The Islamic invasion on India started around 8^th century CE. Various invaders like Afghans, Turks, Moghuls, and Arabs invaded India & established their kingdoms here. Moghuls in north India and Arabs in South India had profound impact on Indian society and are well assimilated today in India.

The Islam’s debate culture is through “Jihad”. Jihad is a means of spreading the Islam tenets. But Jihad also espouses violent means to spread their religion. Jihad explained in Quran is highly inconsistent & incoherent. Scholars who want to engage with the scholars of other community for meaningful dialogue use it peacefully. But there is hardly any evidence of conversion through those peaceful means. Al-Beruni, Ibn Battuta were scholars of eminence and travelers of that time from Mid-East, accompanying invading Sultans. They were more impressed with the Indian scholars and translated great many Sanskrit works but never succeeded in conversions or may be too overwhelmed to get into theological dialogue.

But the barbaric invading army used the violent Jihad means, to loot, destroy temples, treasures. Anyone who wanted to question the Islam tenets or wanted to debate its merits were termed Kafirs and bulldozed.  All across India today, many of the great temples, monuments are mute evidences of their onslaught. Halebeedu and Hampi stand as grandeur cut to pieces in Karnataka.

The Hindus were caught unawares completely for this kind of barbaric culture of conversion in the name of God! For them God was a means of providing sustenance of life and livelihood. They could not fathom what is happening around.

The scholars and upper casts kept Muslims away and did not bother to engage with them for the fear of life. Invaders converted any hapless people who came on their way, through many cruel means.

Today, in India while in many work places, Hindus, Muslims work together. But there is very high fear of broaching the subject of religion or its merits, demerits. Lets keep it professional at work and not discuss faith & not mingle socially; is the way of life today. The onslaught of debate culture is near complete here.

Christian Propaganda Vs Debate

The Europeans came to India lured by her wealth. As they started establishing their political power, they also brought in their religion. And Christianity thrives on the missionary actions. They started directly with propaganda culture than wasting time in the debates. They had their successful experience of killing Pegan culture in Europe through those tactics. Through propaganda they started undermining Hindus. Indians were made to feel inferior. The superior culture was touted as coming through Aryans who they claimed were Europeans. Aryan invasion theory was ingrained so much, that it was there in our textbooks even in Independent India when we studied. Even today after so much of research and UN resolution rubbishing the Aryan invasion theory, many scholars do believe in that & write about it.

Swami Vivekananda outraged over this propaganda culture, went into their territory called for some meaningful research and dialogue. He was well received by the open westerners in the United States.

Raja Ram Mohan Roy was one of the great Social Reformist during British India. He was fighting to remove the various superstitious practices in Hindus. He formed Brahmo Samaj towards this cause. An impressed Christian Pastor invited him for debate over the religious tenets of Hinduism and Christianity. It went for few weeks. And the at the end of it, the Pastor converted to become a Hindu Sanyasi, and Rajaram brought in various Christian tenets into his Brahmo Samaj for the revival of the Hindu Samaj.

The missionaries even today, are carrying out their propaganda culture in urban slums and in tribal areas. Those, less educated and impoverished fall for their propaganda & monetary attractions. And there is no debate culture in those echelons of class.

Today, Religion & Faith is a Taboo:

Recently a third rate Indologist wrote a book on India. Certain person took legal route to ban its publishing stating it hurt Indians. It is so Un-Hindu culture. It made the undeserving author & her book famous. It made us question our openness in book publishing. Social Media is more open!

Today due to the slow degradation and onslaught of foreign cultures, everything is a taboo for open discussion. Politics is taboo. Religion is taboo. Sex is taboo. Faith is taboo. Language is taboo. Caste is taboo. Even expressing Pride to be Hindu, Christian, Muslim, Or Kannadiga or Tamilian is a taboo.  We fear what they will brand me as. Nobody talks more than the twitter length on these subjects. Within that length you would be branded. For branding there are many isms.

No lengthy written debates. No assimilation of ideas. No lengthy reading.

Our work place is only profit & loss. School textbooks are only profit & loss. Politics is profit & loss. Religion is profit & loss. Sports is profit & loss. Even sociology is profit & loss.

The profit culture makes man chase his individual profit only. He becomes more individualistic & silos. No thought towards community good, no tolerance for differences, no appreciation of differences.

In the next article lets delve into Faith Conversion / Proselytization & its effect.  

It will be titled:
“Your God is My God” Vs “My God is Your God”

Context of Some World Religions

In Kannada there is a saying ಮನೆಯೇ ಮೊದಲ ಪಾಠಶಾಲೆ, means, Home is the first school. The education we get at home is immensely impactful in our life. And religion plays a major part in our home environment. Most people in the world are religious. In India majority of the population follow some religion. Very few question god’s existence. And yes religion is about god but definitely not only about god. So the education through religion is essential in man making mission.

Religion is a very vast subject and one can have only limited knowledge there. And writing about it is a bit of arrogance only. So I apologize for my arrogance. But I have to write what I know of. And being a proud Hindu, my writing will have that flavor or view.

Prakruthi in Religion

Gayathri manthra is one of the most potent manthra in Vedas. Every child who starts his intellectual journey is taught Gayathri Manthra in Hinduism. Gayathri is the embodiment of the entire Prakruthi. Vedas call upon the gods of elements as most potent gods. Every elemental God like Agni, Vayu, Varuna, Indra, Rudra, Vishnu, etc., are revered as the most powerful gods in Vedas.

Later Upanishads and Puranas came upon to define the concept of “Supreme God”, probably initiating Shaivaites, Vaishnavaites and other sects, where one God is Supreme. Like for Shaivaites, Shiva is the supreme god.

Hinduism originated with the exploration of the worldly elements and wondering of its strength. Pancha Bhoothagalu – Land, Air, Water, Sky & Agni form the basics of exploration. It is the beginning. Each of them have so much to study and wonder about its strength. That’s how the study of Khagola (Astrology), Ayurveda (Health Science), Yoga, Pranayama etc., started and is continuing. The nature is all powerful and meets all needs of man, animals and other forms. But man is the only enemy for man & other forms. Man instead of exploring the strengths of the nature in harmony with the nature, is involved in exploiting it in pursuit of something called luxury which is elusive.

Sandhyavandana is a daily ritual stipulated for all Hindus. In that we pay reverence to all the elements of the nature from earth to sun & beyond.

The nature worshipping extended beyond the basic elements in our civilization. For example, in Mahabharatha, Krishna lifted the Govardhana Giri, indicating, it is the life giver and saver for the Gokula community. Thus, very diversified, vibrant, beautiful culture & tradition developed through worshipping various forms of nature like, Mountains, Rivers, Forests, Trees, and different animals in different forms. For example fishing communities eat & trade fish. The richness they have is due to fish. Everything they can get for their life depends upon fish. So Fish becomes their God.

The religion encourages the communities to protect their richness, thrive their generations upon the nature’s peculiar gift to that community in that region. For many millennia’s, they have extracted the wealth without destroying it, but harnessing it. They have lived in harmony with it. Naturally they worship it as God. That’s how we got crores of Gods in India.

Sociology in Religion

Most of all the other religions in the world originated in that day’s sociological context. It is the sociological context which is the origin of many of these religions rather than a holistic universal view to begin with.

Man is a social animal. He needs society to live in. An enlightened man from the society emerges and questions the order. He questions the authority of that present day ruling system or living system & revolts against it. He creates followers. And then it is the followers who create a separate religion under him or his preaching.

Gauthama Buddha originated Buddhism. When he encountered poverty and despair outside his palace, the reality of the world hit him hard. He went for penance and was enlightened under the Bodhi Vriksha. He found that the “Desire is the cause of misery”. He called upon renunciation to attain moksha (Salvation). In that social context, the sociological class divide compelled him to run away and find answer to the cause.

Jainism started mainly in the social context of propagating nonviolence. Their doctrine is “Ahimso paramo dharma” which means the Nonviolence is the righteous path. Mahavira is one of the most revered 24 thirthanakara in Jainism.

Jesus is the author of the Christianity. The Judaism precedes the Christianity. And Jesus is one of their prophets. The social divide between the kings and the subjects were stark in those days. The prophets of Judaism tried organizing the oppressed slaves. The famous journey to the Promised Land started. The infighting amongst the subjects broke the peace. Then came the Ten Commandments to discipline them. The commandments being very rigid, made every man a sinner. And lord was not supposed to be forgiver for the sinners. And people remained sinner. In that social context, there came the great prophet, Jesus Christ to release the sin of the sinner. His simple message touched everyone. He said the “Lord is a forgiver”. His social message was simple and crisp. It was very appealing. The Bible is a holy book of Christians mainly from his preaching.

Prophet Mohammad is the messenger of God in Islam. The sociological context in that present day was marred with tribal conflicts. The conflicts used to conflagrate to bloody wars causing lot of loss of lives. His doctrine was that of “Universal Brotherhood”. He struggled to bring all humanity to accept one God calling him – Allah, The Great. Different tribes worshipping different forms and idols was discouraged by him and called upon all of them to accept and worship the formless God, Allah the Great. The peaceful message in the Holy Book of Quran of Islam helped coercing the warring factions to come under the universal brother hood of Islam. The Holy Quran is the book of his preaching. The followers of Islam are carrying out his example of Jihad on people to adopt Islam through various means which are not necessarily peaceful.

Sociology in Hinduism

“Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” is a popular phrase in Hinduism signifying the entire world is one family. The Ramayana and Mahabharatha are epic stories depicting throughout the sociological conflicts between different styles of living clans. While Rama is Maryada Purushothama upholding the rules & abiding by it very strictly at the expense of personal agony, Krishna is at ease while breaking the rules in vogue to keep up the “Dharma”. So what is Dharma?

Dharma is simply Manava Dharma. That is to be compassionate towards another human being. “ದಯವೇ ಧರ್ಮದ ಮೂಲವಯ್ಯ” is a famous saying from the 12^th century social reformer Basavanna who started the Lingayat movement in Karnataka.

Every human being has personal liberty. But personal liberty often comes in conflict with the social well-being. Then the social well-being takes importance. It should take importance. That is what Dharma is. And through story telling technique, the righteous path was being taught in the ancient Gurukula system. The Ramayana & Mahabharatha are full of stories of such conflicts and underlining what is Dharma, Nyaya & Neethi.  

Because, through stories, you get into the lives of both the affected and the affecting people. So the listener will be able to judge the righteousness throughout the story.

Today's Sociology Study

But unfortunately today, in the schools and universities, the Subject of Sociology is very bland and boring. It is restricted to only in BA. Other important degrees like, MBA, BE etc., are about Business management, technology. For whom? For self. Not for people. Student coming out from BE, MBA is made to think for himself only and not for people at all. But shouldnt the masters degree student study both benefits and impact of technology on society as a whole?

Even sociology is deduced to numbers. Through numbers you really cannot understand the people’s lives and resonate. Policy decisions are based on sociological assessment. But sociological assessment in today’s parlance is only numbers & not people’s lives. Dharma is taken back seat. In fact in today’s milieu of politics Dharma is not Manava Dharma, instead it indicates “which god’s follower”? And hence Dharma is wrongly construed as religion.

Isn’t it wrong?

In the next blog we’ll discuss “The Death of Debate Culture” through religions.