Author: Anuja Prashar
Publication: Asian Voice
Date: December 1, 2007
When CNN IBN website carried the story titled:
Who is a Hindu? UK school lists out the 'qualities'. published , Wednesday,
November 21, 2007 at 09:35 (World section) , a global online debate erupted,
encompassing Hindu intellectuals and scholars from Australia, India, Malaysia,
Germany, UK, USA, Trinidad and Canada,
The story was referring to the first UK state
funded school, that wishes to be known as a Hindu School. Krishna-Avanti Primary
School is going to be promoted by a charity organisation called the I-Foundation,
which has strong links to the ISKCON movement based in Hertfordshire.
The I-Foundation boasts an advisory board
made up of several prominent ISKCON followers, a founding executive member
of the Interfaith Network, Academics from Oxford and Cambridge, Ex-head teacher
of Swaminarayan prep school, Head of St. James school, investment bankers,
Indian businessmen, including the multi-millionaire Anil Agarwal CEO of Vedanta
Resources, and Sir Geoffrey Allan, vice president to the Royal Society and
board member for Unilever plc.
The recent heated debate, raging through various
online discussion forums, reveals that great offence has been caused to Hindu
intellectual and emotional sensibilities across the globe, by the presumptuous
act of the I-foundation to define who is or is not a Hindu. According to the
admissions policy for the new ISKCON-Hindu school, children will only be admitted
to the school from 'practising' Hindu families.
Dr. Vaidhyanathan of IIM, Bangalore, India,
himself a devout Hindu, says, "The school ought to aim to develop good
Hindu principles and educated citizens, rather than admit students based upon
these pedantic criteria". Regarding the specific criteria set out by
the ISKCON-Hindu school's admission's policy, Dr. Gautum Sen of LSE, UK says,
"I am sympathetic to giving vegetarianism a higher status within the
Hindu fold, though not a vegetarian myself, but to use it to exclude virtually
everyone is absurd".
According to the CNN IBN news item, the school's
admissions policy "defines 'practising Hindus' as those who perform daily
prayer and deity worship either at a temple or at home, and accept and follow
Vedic scriptures, in particular the Bhagavad Gita. They must also be involved
in at least weekly temple-related voluntary work, attend temple programmes
at least fortnightly and abstain from meat (including fish and eggs), alcohol,
smoking and drugs". Professor Arvind Sharma of McGill University, Canada
suggests that, "ISKCON would be on more solid ground preferring students
who fulfill a list of criteria, without using them to define a Hindu. In a
sense Hinduism is a no-fault religion; It seems to extend the principle of
'preference' but no exclusion by religious practise".
The real dilemma comes from two key assumptions
made by advisors of the ISKCON-Hindu school. The first assumption is that
Hinduism can be "practised". This misconception reflects the Christian
origins of most ISKCON followers. This assumption directly corresponds to
the epistemological notion of 'practitioners of the faith' which all Abrahamic
worldviews espouse to.
The idea of 'practise' as opposed to a 'way
of life' contravenes the conceptual universal framework of Dharma and the
Vedic worldview. Separating supposed 'practitioners' from the rest of humanity
contradicts the foundational tenants of Hinduism. ISKCON followers have made
a lifestyle choice to follow certain practises and rituals, which should not
be confused with a Hindu 'way of life'.
The second assumption that there are a nominal
number of activities required to define a 'Hindu Practise' is also questionable.
Within the framework of Dharma, each and every activity within creation is
associated with Karma and therefore all activities contribute to a 'way of
life' for all Hindus.
Even the great seers of ancient Vedic scriptures
would not prescribe superiority of one set of practise over another and therefore
advocated in the Rig Veda, "Sarva Dharma Saman" (Respect all paths
of Righteousness). Hindus in the UK are widely recognised for their success
story of integration and dominating achievement within the academic system
of the UK. The development of the ISKON-Hindu school, as a platform to promote
Hindu exclusivist practises and spaces, will be a radical step in the opposite
direction.
The ISKCON-Hindu school's admissions criteria
appear to be particularly biased and inadvertently exclude many Hindus, like
myself, who practise Yoga, Havan, vegetarian diet, meditation, community service,
with no deity worship within their own homes. The recent online debates indicate
that the school's selection process may also sit uncomfortably with the majority
of Hindus who exemplify, by their own life style choices, the integrative,
democratic and egalitarian principles of a Dharmic worldview.
