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The political scene in India seems stalemated with no party able to
make the great leap forward. The ubiquitous caste factor appears
to be once again at work, its long arm preventing cross-varna
alliances. Uttar Pradesh may be an obvious victim, but the malaise
affects the entire union.
In this deadlocked situation it may seem perverse to claim that a
homogenised Hindu society is very much in the offing - a social
order, sanskritised and brahmanised to a degree never before in the
country's history. The widespread anti-brahmin sentiments
notwithstanding, we seem forward bound.
The roots of this development can be traced to the reform movement
two hundred years ago when a concerted effort began to remake Hindu
society. Down with brahmins, up with brahmanical values seemed to
be the undeclared motto of the reformers. It was this apparent
paradox that led scholars to describe socio-religious reform in
Hindu India as "double-edged sword" that tended to reinforce
superior values even as it sought to undermine superiority itself.
Till about a hundred years ago, village goddesses as localised
forms of Devi - the Goddess - constituted the single most important
category of deities worshipped in the Indian countryside. In
contrast to the great gods who were linked to the universe as
celestial space, goddesses were tied to the world and the earth.
Bhudevi, for instance, was earth divinized.
The divinity rubbed off on the village goddesses as well. They
were the presiding deities of their little kingdoms, their
sovereignty being coterminous with the boundaries of the
settlement. They were responsible for the protection of the
populace within the village precincts. Agricultural production and
human reproduction were also dependent on their grace. Thus
Village India was dotted with countless shrines of mata, amman, and
so on. Whatever their local name or form, all village goddesses
shared certain common features. The vast majority were represented
without male consorts. Though not necessarily unmarried, they stood
alone in their temples. The Tamil village goddess Angalamman, for
example, was depicted both as an auspicious married woman with
sons, and as a virgin without husbands. In both cases the male
consort was absent.
Goddesses could stand and act alone because they embodied shakti,
the energising power. Such single goddesses, however, were
generally perceived as dangerous, quickly angered and bloodthirsty.
They demanded animal sacrifices as appeasement, a trait which
further set them apart from the great deities of Hinduism who.,
were, all vegetarian.
But in the modern era, village goddesses underwent a metamorphosis.
Dietary reform now became the rage. The brahmanical commitment to
vegetarianism was elevated to an all-India ideal. Overnight,
Mahatma Gandhi made it the new moral imperative. By making all
Hindus pure and superior, he struck a powerful blow at caste
inequality.
The emphasis on vegetarianism had a telling effect on the position
of the village goddesses. Here, too, Gujarat led the way. The
state had witnessed powerful Vaishnava devotionalist movements
which vigorously opposed animal sacrifices. This triggered off a
reform of village goddesses. They were either made vegetarian, or,
if they still demanded animal sacrifices, abandoned. The overall
result was a marked decline in the popularity of village goddesses.
This phenomena, though most pronounced in Gujarat, is visible
elsewhere as well. Distinctions between the so-called high and low
deities are dissolving right across the board. C. J. Fuller writes,
"reformist pressure tends to make all gods and goddesses the same;
they must all be vegetarians who never get blood sacrifices. Obey
must, in other words, all be converted into Superior 'Sanskritic'
deities, so that divinity - by a new path - is made uniform and
substantial, rather than variable and relational."
Village goddesses are not the only category to be transformed.
When the government of independent India granted Harijans entry
into temples, the purity of the high castes and their very idea of
worship was endangered. In such a situation the only viable
solution was the reform of Untouchables so that they would not
longer be "abettors of impurity." Since they were traditionally
associated with animal sacrifices, reforming Harijans entailed the
abolition of sacrifices.
It would be disingenuous to assert that India has abolished all
forms of separatism and realised the twentieth century dream of a
classless world order. Ale point is that Hindu society is being
reconstituted and the political crisis reflects the flux.
As in the case of religion, society, too, is being streamlined.
Varna solidarity is replacing jati consciousness, as the local is
rising to regional and national stature. The millenia - old
hierarchical ranking is no longer legitimate. Caste equality is
the in slogan, a situation which has prompted many old timers to
complain that "there is no caste left."
This process is vertical decline and horizontal growth has been
called the "ethnicisation of caste." The new ethnic caste identity
is often expressed as a Hindu identity. 'Re symbols of Hindu
identity and the new ethnic caste identity are routinely
interchanged. Many castes insist that their distinctive caste
culture is a manifestation of Hindutva, or Hinduness. But clearly,
the process is not yet advanced enough to pull us out of the
present quagmire.
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