A Practical Indian Philosophy

1.    Except by a fringe, the people of India remained away from conversion by rulers following Islam or Christianity for about eleven centuries. This is a mysterious sign of the strength of the vibrant nascent heritage of India to cherish, probe into and to secure profit from it. Conversions were more of Buddhists and of Hindus who sought escape from mal-treatment of the low caste by high caste Hindus, unless reliable research proves to the contrary. In the end of 2001, 50,000 low caste Hindus became Buddhist by choice in New Delhi. Muslims and followers of seven religions lived peacefully in close neighbourhoods for centuries. It is a proof of the acceptance by followers of all faiths of the diversity and universality of this nascent Sanaatana heritage of India in practice. This acceptance is possible because the core of every religion must have the universal in it for its followers to survive as human beings first.

2.    With the universal Sanaatana tradition of benevolence, respect  and non-violence towards all in the people's blood, they could live in harmony among followers of seven other religions without interfering with their social and religious practices. Their peaceful life for centuries by recognizing spirituality in all human beings achieved prosperity for all. The Islamic way of life in India did not cause abhorrence or animosity among the people. Hatred and violence was only among the rulers as a result of ego for hegemony . In their last days, the British for their own purpose created hatred among only some of the British educated leaders of society.

3.    For the Indian people, caste was the expression of the gregarious nature of a human being often limited by region. Its name was tribes in other lands. Caste was an institution growing with time. The ancient migrants to India known as Sakas and Huns, the new Christians in Kerala and Jews and Buddhists elsewhere in the country and Muslims invaders later were for practical purposes just another caste in the Indian subcontinent. As any other caste, they lived within themselves totally separate from other castes socially and for marriages. They had their own caste or family God to worship accompanied by their own customs and practices. The present-day concept of divisive religions was unknown in the olden days. 

4.    The Indian people were not interested in changing the new caste to make it one with their own. The Muslims could intermarry and live in their own customs and practices. Being free in their ways, the Muslims rightly shed fear of any danger to their religion. Danger to Islam was always the clarion call for all past Islamic aggressive wars to spread it from Medina to Mongolia in just one hundred years after the Prophet Mohammed. The Muslims therefore sheathed their sword in India and joined the people in evolving a common culture in perennial Indian non-violent ethos.

5.    This ancient traditional living together in distinctive identities of cultures was possible because it rested on the universal and liberal in Sanaatana Dharma. Observing the peaceful Indian way, others probed for the universal in their own religions. That is why all the people of India could understand the message of the man who lived truly in the core of Sanaatana Dharma. He could communicate with their hearts. He could unite them for a single purpose and lead them to the achievement of that purpose. It was the independence of the country from the British. The strength that Indian heritage gave to the poor was so great that petty landowners allowed their lands or livelihood to be auctioned by the British for refusal to pay land revenue just because they understood the value of liberty for which Gandhi ji told them to do so. It was this strength of the wise though illiterate and poor rural India that Gandhi ji could harness to secure independence.

6.    In 1917, at the height of the British rule, there was a larger percentage of the poor in India than in Russia and in China. In Russia  the communist revolution took place. China became communist later on. On independence, the Indian situation was worse. Many of its leaders educated in Oxford, Cambridge and English medium universities in India forgot their own heritage and became communists and socialists. For more than a decade after independence, dirt-cheap Russian communist literature in Indian languages flooded India. Indian masses were always alert to social and political situations. They rejected communist philosophy. They lived in the ancient Indian wisdom that easily attains that social welfare purpose which both communism and capitalism have failed to attain. That purpose of amity and acceptance of all is achieved by what is known as nishkaama karma (selflessness) of the Geetaa. It is the cardinal faith also in all religions if their followers just look deeply into their own religion. Wisdom also draws its strength from faith in the law of karma under the supremacy of God, which sustains the concept of sin and punishment in all religions. When we give all as our duty to society and demand nothing as a right, we live for God's children. We do God's work. So, God takes care of us. In ancient Indian parlance, this is called Dharma and it protects those who protect Dharma by living in it. This is that selflessness that secured prosperity for people for millenniums in the Indian subcontinent.

7.    This way of living and not depriving the other of his subsistence, the joy of his way of life and his freedom was Sanaatana Dharma summed up in non-violence, selflessness and acceptance. This living became difficult for the leaders of society when the British rulers deprived them  of their traditional means of livelihood for a century and exploited the country to make itpoor. After their departure, the Indian educational, political and industrial leadership barring an ineffective minority in them became westernized. It made selflessness a liability and set an example of selfishness as an asset. The excess of this selfishness moves modern economics, which stands on 'profit for me' only. This mind-set continued the poverty of the people .

8.    Whenever a change for the betterment of all was needed the response was immediate from the masses who were illiterate in western thought. They switched over to the metric system in six months. Without satisfactory support from government, they raised effective literacy over 1200 times in 43 years. In 1947, a literate was one who put his signature instead of his thumb impression on a document regardless of his inability to read or write a letter of the alphabet. In the 1991 census, population was over 4.5 times that of 1947. Literacy was fifth standard. Percentage from near zero was to 54 percent. (5 x 4.5 x 54 = 1215) When the farmers were shown the use of chemical fertilizers, they brought about a green revolution in just two years. They made the country an exporter of food from an importer in one decade. When direct democracy resting on adult suffrage was introduced, they made it such a success that even Indira Gandhi, a very powerful Prime Minister, could not dare change the Constitution to introduce the Presidential form of Government which denies direct power to the people. That was why the framers of the Indian Constitution rejected presidential form. Being close to the people they saw vibrant Indian legacy in their trustworthy wisdom and strength of character for electoral power.

9.    That wise India unsullied by the westernized education is unknowingly keeping the country on an even keel. The educated do not practically see the cause of Indian's problems today as lack of character in accord with perennial universal values.  The only power that the wise rural poor has today to remove this cause is the power to vote in an election. He is fully alert to its value. So, the rural voters’ turnout in a dozen elections so far was seldom less than seventy percent. 'Guptaa kee kachaurhee aur Khannaa ko vote." (Take what A offers and vote for B) is a wisdom he learnt from the introduction of municipal elections in India since the teens of the last century. The voter knows how to make use of the money spent by politicians on their elections. In India, money can never secure power to any party or person. This was repeatedly demonstrated by the voter in three elections of 1996,1998 and 1999.

10.    After being patient for decades after independence, he set himself to solve the national problem. By individual thinking and without any organization or think tanks to formulate public opinion, he destroyed the absolute political power of any person or party, which caused absence of good character and continuance of corruption.

11.    Without conscious effort and collective thinking, that illiterate in westernized ethos proved wrong all westernized educated doomsayers in the media, analysts, experts and think tanks. These had clamoured for five years fixed terms for legislatures and executive for stable government or for a change in the form of voting to ensure stable governments or their continuance or even Presidential form of government. By changing about fifty percent of faces in the three last Parliaments, the voter gave final notice to selfish non-performers. By destroying absolute power for politicians, the voter cut off 'goonddaas' (hooligans) from their patronage. Left on their own, the 'goonddaas,' had to switch over to kidnapping. If not already there, the non-performing and corrupt politician will have fear for his life after he is defeated in elections. The voter has ensured that regardless of ideology, no government in India can return any longer to power if it does not take care of the poor.

12.    Unknowingly, the wise illiterate has changed the political map of the country. By demonstrating the solidity of 15 and then stability of 24 party coalition governments at the Centre, he has replaced one- or two- party system of government with a multi-party system. He has shifted power from Delhi to state capitals. The next change he will force will be to shift this power from the state capital to districts and last to the panchayats. This last will bring back the Raamaraajya that most of us think as Utopia and which Communism and socialism failed to attain but Mahatma Gandhi could envision.

An example of Raama Rajya follows. As Assistant Collector at Kanpur in 1956, the Author set up camp in a village for inspection of revenue records, which was last inspected by a British officer in 1942. This was because one could not reach the village by car but by cycle over a couple of miles. The village elders assured the Author that this Indian administrative neglect of 14 years saved them all problems. The village had no secret because of daily early morning gossip among village women for toilet in the fields. None from the village would steal from a neighbour when he could get it for use for the asking. If an outsider dared and was caught he would be killed and buried without trace. The police were not interested because the village did not need their services to get bribes. All family disputes were settled in the panchayat. Civil matters could not arise because the annual land records were completed on the spot where the Author was sitting. The villagers or their neighbours present eliminated mischief by the revenue official who prepared annual land record that caused all civil disputes. Anyone going to Tehsil (lowest civil administration unit and shopping centre) would attend to some stray court matter on behalf of the party and do shopping for other villagers. So, the village was having Mahatma Gandhi's Raama Raajya or a place of selflessnes, peace and prosperity in the ancient Indian heritage of oneness. 

13. The wisdom of the illiterate masses in elections and in their adaptability to technology, and the power of the harmony of their heart and intellect can bring national prosperity if the educated at all levels in our country see these signs. The educated can ensure that the power of the vote will be guaranteed to all. They will not crib about elections as costly and accept the capacity of the illiterate for change at breakneck speed. Leaders in professions, industry, trade, services, and in voluntary fields have to find ways of making the best use of the capability of the masses steeped in ancient values for the country's benefit. Barring a minority of the ineffective, leadership has been selfish and unscrupulous for decades. Surprisingly the masses used their individual common sense and brought about uniformly healthy national results.

14.    The classic example of this result achieved by individual thinking of the masses of eight religions living in the core of Sanaatana Dharma till today, which disregarded all the money spent and selfish propaganda by all politicians, is the Parliamentary elections of 1996, 1998 and 1999. In the first the voter broke the back of the Congress Party, which sponsored world acclaimed liberalization of economic policy pursued by Manmohan Singh, because it made the rich richer and the poor poorer. In 1998, the voter recognized Atal Behari Vajpayee, the present Prime Minister, as a man of the desired character and the leader of the selfless social service organization of the Rashtrya Swayamsevak Sangh for decades. The voter gave Vajpayee a chance to form a government. In 1999, the voter confirmed his faith in Vajpayee as the leader but totally rejected those who were his bigoted and ambitions supporters that became intoxicated with sudden bestowal of power they thought they earned in 1998. The reaction to this of the individual thinking of voters conditioned by Sanaatana principles brought about an electoral result of national magnitude, which no westernized expert could explain satisfactorily to the knowledge of the Author. In 1999 Parliamentary elections, Vajpayee's the Bharatya Janta Party only added one more seat in the Parliament. The voter gave notice that he wanted Vajpayee to lead the nation but not allow any extremist party to do it or hamper Vajpayee, whom the voters chose as a trustworthy leader. Ever since the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhyaa in 1992, the wise illiterate voter has ensured that bigots of two religions and their direct and indirect patrons, the secularist, are kept out of political power.

15.    Leadership has to learn from the wise led what the led knows from ancient times. Leadership has to learn the basics of that continuing awareness of Indian legacy. It has to motivate all activity and every objective by the wellbeing of all and especially of the poor. Its economics has to follow Sanaatana or universal principles across all man-made social, economic and religious barriers. When not interfered with by the state and leadership, the agricultural economy in our country cared for the poor for ages. When our mind is pure, nature becomes our ally. Regardless of its religion, every family lives by these ideas and so can the nation. Mahatma Gandhi showed how to live universal Sanaatana principles to secure the limitless power that he received by living by it. The latest western solution called globalization will bend to the Sanaatana wisdom of the wellbeing of all and not of the largest number or of the powerful few, sooner or later. This is because no western solution has yet been found to secure the welfare of all. Loud rumblings against some malevolent aspects of globalization are already being heard across the world and particularly in Europe against its use for hegemony of the particular over the universal.

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