By: Abhijit Bagal
Srikrshnah@yahoo.com
January 28, 2004

This is in response to an article published in Dissent Magazine, Summer 2003, titled “Genocide in Gujarat - The International Community Looks Away” by Martha C. Nussbaum, Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago, appointed in the Philosophy Department, Law School, and Divinity School. The article can be read in its entirety at the following website: http://www.dissentmagazine.org/menutest/articles/su03/nussbaum.htm

Dissent is a quarterly magazine of politics and culture, and in the words of the New York Times, Dissent "ranks among the handful of political journals read most regularly by U.S. intellectuals." The website of Dissent magazine describes themselves as “A magazine of the left, Dissent is also a magazine of independent minds. A magazine of strong opinions, Dissent is also a magazine that welcomes the clash of strong opinions.”

The article by Martha C. Nussbaum describes the religious riots between the Hindus and the Muslims that occurred in the State of Gujrat, in India, and resulted in the torture and deaths of innocent civilians. What happened in Gujarat was vile and reprehensible and there is no justification for these barbaric acts in the name of religion, whatever religion that might be. The author is right in condemning these acts of violence perpetrated by groups of people following their own ideologies.

However, I strongly object to some portions of the following comment made by the author that I have reproduced below, verbatim, as they appear in the third paragraph of the article: “ The attackers were Hindus, many of them highly politicized, shouting Hindu-right slogans, such as "Jai Sri Ram" and "Jai Hanuman" (an aggressive monkey god) along with "Kill!" "Destroy!" "Slaughter!" ”

As a practicing Hindu, born and raised in India, I was not aware of the fact that “Jai Sri Ram” is a “Hindu-right slogan” until I read this article. In Sanskrit (an ancient language considered as the mother of many modern Indian languages such as Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Oriya etc.) “Jai” means victory and “Sri” has several meanings such as wealthy, venerable, and possessor of opulences. In the present context, “Ram” refers to the Hindu God, Lord Ram (also referred to as Lord Rama or Ramachandra) whom millions of Hindus worship as an incarnation or “Avatar” of the Supreme God, who descended on earth to uphold the principles of religion and to protect the pious. Thus, “Jai Sri Ram” translates to “Victory to Lord Ram, the possessor of opulences”. “Jai Sri Ram” is a very common term that Hindus use - to greet each other, to sing in praise of Lord Ram in temples in the form of devotional musical songs called “bhajans” and “kirtans”, and, while meditating or chanting on their rosaries. I fail to see the rationale behind providing “Jai Sri Ram” as an example of “Hindu-right slogan”. Sure, people involved in the riots were using this term, that does not make the term itself “Hindu-right slogan”, or does it? “Jai Sri Ram” is NOT a “Hindu-right slogan”; it is a term that millions of Hindus use all over the world to glorify their beloved God, Lord Ram.

Neither had I known about the existence of a personality classification of Hindu Gods, until I read the authors description of “Jai Hanuman” as “an aggressive monkey god”. Did Martha C. Nussbaum refer to some kind of a measurement scale that classifies the personalities of Hindu Gods to reach this conclusion? I would also be interested in knowing whether this personality classification applies to non-Hindu Gods, such as those in Christianity and Islam? Hindus consider Sri Hanuman as an incarnation of Lord Shiva, one of the three Gods in the trinity of Hindu Gods who manage the universe, the other two being Lord Brahma and Lord Vishnu. Sri Hanuman appeared on earth in the form of a monkey as the son of the wind God “Vayu” also known as “Pavan Dev”. Sri Hanuman acted as the chief of armies of Lord Ram and is the very emblem of strength, chivalry, loyalty, and devotion to Lord Ram. Hindus worship Sri Hanuman as the greatest devotee of God and try to emulate his devotion. To describe Sri Hanuman as “an aggressive monkey god” would be a great insult to many Hindus to say the very least.

I find the abovementioned terms used by Martha C. Nussbaum in rather bad taste. The usage of these descriptions for Hindu Gods shows a blatant disregard for, and, hurts the religious sentiments of millions of Hindus worldwide. Being residents of a democratic and free country, the author has every right to present her opinion and the editors of Dissent magazine have every right to publish it, does that preclude the author and the editors of Dissent magazine from showing a little more discretion while describing Hindu Gods? Even if the material for the article was obtained from another source, or even if the author was quoting somebody else, it does not make these statements any less offensive or insulting. The horrendous behavior of the attackers could have been just as effectively and vividly described without involving any Hindu Gods and their characteristics at all. There was absolutely no need to indulge in the psychological analysis and personality classification of Hindu Gods.

The life and activities of Lord Ram and his associates (including Sri Hanuman) are recorded in the great Sanskrit epic Ramayana (“The path of Ram”) , known for its beauty in terms of Sanskrit poetry, evocative visualization, and profound dialogue. Ramayana has the distinction of being called the “Adi Kavya” (first or original poem) within the storehouse of Sanskrit literature, is composed of 24,000 couplets (48,000 lines) and thus eclipses the Iliad and Odyssey put together, which have 15,693 lines and 12,000 lines respectively. The Ramayana depicts the themes and ideals of righteous behavior, loyalty to family and kingdom, the balancing of good and evil, self-sacrifice for the betterment of society, morality, role of family, ideal relationships between father and son, brother to brother, friend to friend, and wife to husband.

Not all Hindus can be termed as right wing Hindu fanatics by default. Neither does fanaticism nor intolerance fall exclusively in the domain of Hindus. The destruction of the Aztec and other native cultures and civilizations in the South and North American continent , the Jewish holocaust in Germany, the mass executions in the forced labor camps of the former Soviet Union and other countries in Eastern Europe, the quelling of Chinese students in Tiananmen Square, the ethnic cleansing in Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo, the September 11 attacks at the World Trade Center, the suicide bombings in Turkey, and Saudi Arabia were not the handiwork of right wing Hindu fanatics.

India, like the United States, is a democratic country and has a government elected by the people. India is a very diverse country with people of many religions, ethnicities, languages, cultures and customs. According to the CIA World Fact Book, India has over a billion people, with the majority being Hindus (about 81.3 %) followed by Muslims (about 12 %), Christians (about 2.3 %), Sikhs (about 1.9 %) rest being Jains, Buddhists, Zoroastrians (Parsis), Jews and others. From a global perspective, there are about a billion people worldwide who follow the Hindu religion, about 850 million of whom reside in India, the remaining in various countries outside India.

The Hindus of India, since a long time, have played gracious hosts to many minority groups such as the Syrian Christians, the Zoroastrians (Parsis) from Iran, the Jews, the Buddhists from Tibet - all these groups had to flee their own land because of persecution. While the Jewish race was getting systematically exterminated in Europe, the Jewish people in India were living peacefully among the Hindus. The only country in the world where the Jews could live without fear of persecution was India; out of 128 countries where Jews lived before Israel was created, only one, India, did not persecute them and allowed them to prosper and practice Judaism in peace. When the Peoples Republic of China moved into Tibet, many Buddhists, along with their spiritual leader, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, fled Tibet, and took shelter in India, where they currently live, in exile, driven from their own homeland. While Buddhist monasteries and Libraries in Tibet are being dismantled by the Chinese government and numerous people from mainland China are settling in Tibet (so that the Tibet is "assimilated" in the Chinese culture), new monasteries and libraries have been built in the city of Dharmashala in Northern India, where the Dalai Lama currently lives, so that the Tibetan Buddhists can practice their religion and preserve their culture. Richard Gere, the Hollywood actor, commented that no other country has helped the Tibetan Buddhists as much as the people of India have.

Hindus accept the fact that the one and same universal God is called by different names such as Jehovah, Allah, Ram, Krishna, Buddha etc. by people of different religions and that God incarnates in person on earth in various forms called “Avatars”, or sends his sons and messengers to preach his message to the world based on time, place, and circumstance. Hindus don`t consider their Gods as the only “true” Gods and the only path to salvation, nor do Hindus insist that people who don’t accept Hindu Gods as their saviors are infidels or heathens and are bound to go to hell. Hindus believe that people are free to follow any religion of their choice (or for that matter no religion at all), and respect all religions as equal, without trying to convert followers of other religions to Hinduism and in return expect the same courtesy from practitioners of other religions.

Every year, thousands of babies in India are named after Lord Ram and other characters from the epic Ramayana. Millions of Hindus see the Ramayana as the victory of good over evil and try to live their lives based on the teachings from the Ramayana. The story of Lord Ram and Ramayana is performed in different parts of India, in different languages, and in different traditions with different styles of dance and music, such as the processional and ritualistic "Ramlila" of North India and the highly stylized and codified dance theatre "Kathakali" of Kerala State in South India. In many Indian villages it is customary to hear stories or watch plays of Ramayana in the evening. After sunset villagers gather to hear the storyteller bring the characters to life; they cheer or cry as the story unfolds, then go home to sleep and dream of Ramayana.

Jonah Blank, former editor of Asahi Evening News in Tokyo, Japan, observes: " Imagine a story that is the Odyssey, Aesop`s fables, Romeo and Juliet, the Bible and Star Wars all at the same time. Imagine a story that combines adventure and aphorism, romance and religion, fantasy and philosophy. Imagine a story that makes young children marvel, burly men weep, and old women dream. Such a story exists in India, and it is called the Ramayana.”

The universal themes and ideals in the Ramayana, have long appealed not only to the Hindus of India, but also to the diverse cultures of Southeast Asia. The story of Lord Ram as an individual who established human values in society can be seen and heard in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, and Indonesia. All these countries have a majority non-Hindu population, yet the non-Hindu people of these countries have made the Ramayana a part of their culture.

In Thailand, the Ramayana is called Ramakien. In the past 200 years nine kings of Thailand have been named Rama, and for 400 years the capital of Thailand was Ayutthaya, named after “Ayodhya”, a city in Northen India, and Lord Ram`s birthplace and kingdom as described in the epic. Later, the capital was moved to Bangkok which is 45 miles south of Ayutthaya. The highly theatrical "Khon" mask play depicting the Ramayana in a dance-drama fashion has become the national dance of Thailand.

In Laos and northeastern Thailand there is a version of the Ramayana entitled Phra Lak Phra Lam. The people of these regions speak the same language, have similar customs, and enjoy the same literature. To the people of this region Lord Ram represents the ideals of righteousness and his life is depicted in dance, music, art, narrative, oral, and folkloric tradition. Another version of the Ramayana in this region is Gvay Dvorahbi and is used for instructional and entertainment purposes.

There are literary and folktale versions of Ramayana in Malaysia. The Hikayat Seri Rama exists in both written and oral form, and the Wayang Kulit Siam is a shadow play from Kelantan on the border of Malaysia and Thailand. The main purpose of the Hikayat Seri Rama is to show the ideals of righteousness, love, loyalty, and selfless devotion. This Malaysian version has combined elements of the Indian Sanskrit Ramayana with local traditions and beliefs to create a highly developed story which is enjoyed by many. In 1989 the largest Rama temple in Malaysia was built in the northern state of Perak on the Thai border which is about 150 miles from Kuala Lumpur. The temple has 1001 sculptures and pictures relating the Ramayana story.

In Indonesia, the Ramayana is titled Ramayana Kakawin. Puppet shadow plays Wayang Kulit and the Wayang Purwa depicting Ramayana are held in Sumatra, West and Central Java, and in Bali. They are a great source of entertainment as they are performed during family celebrations, festivals, and cultural events. There are also masked dance dramas, wooden doll puppet plays, and ballets depicting the Ramayana. The Indonesians have launched an annual opera based on Ramayana that includes a cast of hundreds of players. It is performed for tourists as a way to introduce them to an Indonesian cultural performance. The Ramayana story and its characters provide a store of names and images for modern use. There are streets, banks, and travel agencies, and other places of business which carry the names of characters from the Ramayana.

In Cambodia during the medieval centuries, several versions of literary texts entitled Ramaker were written based on the Ramayana. Today the Ramaker manifests itself in oral tales, visual, and performing arts, especially classical dance of the Cambodian court. Besides Ramaker`s instructional and religious importance, episodes from the Ramaker are often performed within villages for magical purposes. When there is a drought the people hope that the performance will produce rain. There is a monastery in Phnom Penh with approximately 193 paintings of the Ramayana.

Moving on from the Ramayana to science and technology, India, with its hugely abundant scientific and high-tech manpower (India has the third largest scientific and technical manpower in the world) is set to emerge as one of the world`s largest economies. India has penetrated into the industrial core of the United States, providing it with scientists and engineers, and drawing work away from American and European companies into India. Income from just one source - Outsourcing and Information Technology services - is expected to swell to an annual export industry of $57 billion by 2008. In the field of missile launch technology, India is among the five top nations of the world and regularly launches satellites into space, and, yes, India has nuclear weapons. More than 100 companies (Intel, Hewlett Packard, Microsoft, SAP, Motorola, IBM, Cisco, Sun Microsystems, Siemens, Novartis, Nokia, and GlaxoSmithKline to name only a few) around the world have set up their Research and Development centers in India or have entered into collaboration with Indian companies during the last five years.

India’s state owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has clinched a deal to sell Advanced Light Helicopters (ALH) to the U.S. Customs through it’s Israeli strategic marketing partner the Israeli Avionics Industries (IAI). HAL also plans to manufacture and roll out Russian designed Sukhoi-30 MKI warplanes in India, starting 2004. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has described the Sukhoi-30 as “among the fastest fighter jets in the world, competing with the EuroFighter and the U.S. F-22”. Russia is also wooing the Indian aerospace industry for jointly designing, developing, and producing a fifth generation stealth fighter aircraft for the global market. The proposed fifth generation fighter, to be first inducted into the Russian air force by 2010, is not only set to match the capabilities of the F-35 joint strike fighter, being developed by the U.S. based Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, but is expected to cost less.

The Indian community in the United States has been described as a role model for other minority communities. Many members of the Indian American community are highly qualified and work in critical sectors such as medicine, engineering, education, information technology, pharmaceuticals, bio technology, and finance and have contributed immensely in maintaining U.S. superiority as the most technologically advanced nation. The latest computer operating systems, the smallest microprocessors, the fastest chips, and the most advanced routers are being developed with the active participation of Indians, either in India, or abroad, or both. Indians are at the fore front of telematics technology and developed the first products on web services which have now become a $50 billion industry. The largest number of foreign students enrolled in U.S. universities come from India every year. Most of these Indian students pursue Master’s or Doctoral degrees and play a major role in the research and development that goes on in the American Universities.

Recently, Dr. Reddy`s Laboratories, an Indian drug company, won approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to market a version of one of Pfizer`s biggest drugs, the hypertension medication Norvasc, which had worldwide sales of $3.8 billion in 2002. Dr. Reddy`s Lab is using the same active chemical but a different salt stabilizer to make it’s own version of the drug. Pfizer has subsequently sued the agency over that approval and a legal battle is underway. Another Indian drug company, Ranbaxy Labs, has signed an agreement to buy RPG Aventis of France, the fourth largest generic drug maker in France. Ranbaxy Labs has also received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval to market anti-infective Cefaclor Tablets, the equivalent of the Ceclor drug that Eli Lilly and Company currently markets. Drugs with combined annual sales of $60 billion to $70 billion in the U.S. are expected to go off patent between now and 2010 and Indian drug companies are among the earliest to enter the market when patents expire. "A select group of Indian pharma companies are positioned to become global competitors, and are likely to become low-cost suppliers of bulk and formulations worldwide," says Viren Mehta, a principal of New York-based health-care research firm Mehta Partners.

The western media and intellectuals, more often than not, depict India as filled with pollution, elephants, snake charmers and poverty-stricken people, most of whom happen to be right wing Hindu fanatics preoccupied with worshipping cows and monkeys and when they are not worshipping cows and monkeys, they are busy oppressing the people of other minority religions. The attitude of some of these western journalists and intellectuals mirrors the attitude of the western drug makers in the 1980’s, who sneered at India’s drug entrepreneurs asking, “Who are these madcaps?” It is about time that these western journalists and intellectuals do a reality check so that they can wake up, and step outside their ivory towers and provide a more realistic, sensitive, and balanced picture of Hindus and India.

Abhijit Bagal

(About the author: Abhijit Bagal lives in New York State and works as an independent software consultant.)