HVK Archives: Virtual Spirituality
Virtual Spirituality - The Times of India
Swagato Ganguly
()
8 August 1996
Title : Virtual Spirituality
Author : Swagato Ganguly
Publication : The Times of India
Date : August 8, 1996
As Indians we profess to be a uniquely spiritual people,
although within the classical three-fold schema of human
aims set forth as dharma, artha and kama and later
expanded to include moksha, only the last refers
unambiguously to spiritual goals.
The British saw religion as the ordering principle of
Indian society, but perceived Hinduism as marked by wild
and disorderly sensual excess. Central to the myth of
spirituality was the related idea of the village as a
spiritual haven, idyllic and self contained, untouched by
trade and politics. Charles Metcalfe, company official
and assessor in the early 19th century, was one of the
first to adumbrate this vision: "Dynasty after dynasty
tumbles down; revolution succeeds to revolution; Hindoo,
Patan, Mogul, Mahratta, Sikh, English are all masters in
turn; but the village community remains the same".
In these formulations forces of the state and market are
(or were) ephemeral to village India, which is an
unchanging bedrock of spiritual values. Historical
evidence indicates that even in Mughal India, villages
participated in substantial trade and political exchanges
with centres of power. Sophisticated markets existed for
the sale of rural produce, along with institutions such
as credit and capital; land revenues were paid in cash.
The Mughal emperor was linked to local lords in the
countryside through an overlapping hierarchy of power.
The nationalist premise (as popularised by Gandhi) of an
organic village society, untouched by the state and
market prior to the ravages of colonialism, is therefore
overdrawn.
Cultural nationalism assuming the form of a lofty
spirituality once had its uses; it gave to Indians a
powerful sense of their own autonomy and identity which
helped them resist an alien power. At the current
moment, however, such attitudes have outlived. their
utility. Cool-headed pragmatism will probably cut more
ice than the proclamation of elevated spiritual goals.
Perhaps, beneath all the hype we are moving towards such
a realisation. An interesting sign of the times is the
transvaluation that the Congress uniform of white khadi
costume and Gandhi cap, a product of Gandhi's many
sartorial experiments with truth, has undergone in our
collective consciousness. In the days of the
independence movement it suggested purity and a spirit of
sacrifice; nowadays it conveys the utmost in venality and
corruption. Those who claim descent from the
freedom fighters of yesteryears are nowadays. an arrogant
elite; outdated ideals and pretensions of humility do not
sit well with them. Dharma, yes, but artha and kama as
well; our classical; texts had it just about right.
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