By: Pankaj Jain
pj2017@columbia.edu
May 12, 2004

We are living in a modern society today. At least, we prefer to believe that we are! We would shun anything non-modern or so called orthodox. We would like to stay in touch with contemporary rather than traditional, be it home furniture or our way of thinking or our way of dressing or the way we perceive spirituality. If we were modern, we would follow Yoga or meditation or at least claim so but reject any traditional custom or ritual, which does not fit, in our accepted definition of modernity. 

In this essay, let us explore what exactly is modernity and how does it affect our way of thinking. Does modernity achieve what it sets out to do so? And how does Indian culture and traditions fit into this. Where does Indian traditions stop and modern values begin? The main argument presented here is that so-called modern values were already imbibed in our culture.

What is Modernity? 

Modernity can be defined as connecting to the new and contemporary, rejecting the old. According to The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: The word modern was, first recorded in 1585 in the sense "of present or recent times". In Latin modernus, "modern," which is derived from Latin modo in the sense "just now," the English word modern (first recorded at the beginning of the 16th century) was not originally concerned with anything that could later be considered old-fashioned. Obviously, modernity often is used interpreted in rejecting the old-fashioned ideas and traditions. In the cultural and social contexts, modernity is also interlinked with the values of equality, freedom, feminism and democracy. It is generally assumed that the modernity in 19^th and 20^th century unleashed the power of scientific and industrial progress, which led to social equality, freedom of downtrodden sections of the society, freedom to women. Democracy is also thought to be a modern concept of governance as against rulers and kings of ancient times. Modernity is also thought of as increasing the role of rationality in the public sphere and reducing the role of religion. Lets take these modern values one by one and explore them more.

Modern Values 

·         Social Equality: One of the popular assumptions is that modernity provided equal status to downtrodden sections of the masses. Before the advent of modernity, people in weaker section of the society were controlled and oppressed by the landlords and the religious leaders. With the modernity, all the sections of the society have equal rights.  However, according to Religion Professor Arvind Sharma[i] at McGill University, equality before law did exist in ancient India, especially in the sphere of criminal law. The Pali texts, however, clearly allude to it,[ii] and the Nibandhas – legal digests of the twelfth century onwards – specifically eliminate unequal punishments.[iii] King Ashoka also tried to enforce it.[iv] The Nepala-Mahatmya (13.46) of the Skanhapurana also seems to recommend such egalitarianism.[v] Moreover, even today in the 21^st century, global spiritual movement Swadhyaya rooted in Indian cultural values has devised many innovative experiments and projects to ensure social equality in thousands of Indian villages. One of the novel Swadhyaya concepts is Amrutalayam meaning house of immortality. This is similar to a village temple but its priest come from different castes of the village and every evening the entire village gathers here as a social/economical/spiritual family. Just a small example to show how social equality can be achieved by cultural values. 

·         Democracy: Another popular assumption is that modernity gave rise to democracy ending centuries of autocracy and therefore the governments for the masses, of the masses and by the masses was installed in many parts of the world. This gave tremendous power to masses in choosing their own rulers and removing the ones they don’t like in the elections.  

But contrary to this presumption, India in ancient time did have its own form of democracy and republics. The inscriptions on the walls of the Sundaravarada temple in Uttiramerur, near Kanchipuram, show how  democracy was practised 1,000 years ago.[vi] History Professor Steve Muhlberger at Nipissing University has painstakingly shown several evidences of republic form of government in ancient India.[vii] And according to Prof Arvind Sharma, republicanism was as prominent a form of government as monarchy in the sixth century B.C.E. in India.[viii] It is true that the Magadha empire rose at the expense of such republics, but when Alexander invaded India in the fourth century B.C.E., he had to fight against as many republics as kingdoms on his way to the Punjab.[ix] Brahmana, kshatriya, vaishya and shudra[x] republics are attested to by Panini, the famous grammarian assigned to the fourth century B.C. if not earlier and Alexander had to defeat both a brahmana and a shudra republic in the course of his conquest.[xi] Not only did republicanism in the form of the operation of guild-laws, common law, regional practices, etc. survive throughout countenanced by the kings, the Rajatarangini, a historical narrative of Kashmir, informs us of cases in which the king's decisions were blocked and even reversed by the king's council. Rudradaman (c.150 C.E.) had to spend money from his privy purse to carry out repairs at Lake Sudarshana in Saurashtra because his council would not let him use public funds for the purpose.[xii] The Buddhist republic Vajjian was a loose confederation consisting of such republics as the Licchavis, Videhas and Mallas. 

In addition, it is also often believed that modernity ended the centuries of theocracy. But, at least within Indian culture, the theocracy was shunned millenia ago when Brahmins and Kshatriyas were assigned separate roles as religious and political leaders. We don’t have a single incidence from Indian political history where a religious leader was made king or vice versa. 

·         Feminism: In the modern society, women are seen more liberated with their earning capacities and their role as career women rather than housewives or homemakers. It is believed that majority of Indian women committed Sati in ancient times and widow-marriage was not allowed. How far is this true? Most of the literature on the subject creates the impression of a general ban on widow-remarriage in Hinduism.

According to the 1901 census, however, only 10 percent of the Hindu communities observed it.[xiii] Professor Veena Oldenburg powerfully challenges even the usual portrayal of women being killed for dowry, which is linked with Indian culture.[xiv]  The British resolve to rationalize and modernize the revenue was particularly hard on women. From being co-partners in pre-colonial landholding arrangement, they found themselves denied all access to economic resources, turning them into dependents. In the event they faced martial problems, they were left with no legal entitlements whatsoever. 

It is true that Indian society always has been a patriarchic society with males being the head of the family but so is the case with all the other cultures eastern or western. But it is Indian culture that has the concept of Devi, goddess, which treats females also as divinely as male gods, or Devas. Devi exists in various forms and powers. Laxmi is worshipped as the power of wealth. Shakti or Durga is worshipped as the power to be invoked in war. Saraswati is worshipped as the power of knowledge. Even the power of illusion is given a female identity in the form of Maya. Also, it is only South Asian countries, which have no problem-accepting women as the head of their states in the form of presidents or prime ministers. There are other dozens of social and religious female leaders in India.  

Women who were given the sole responsibility to run a home are now being over-loaded to earn the money also. In the modern world of judging everything by financial and materialistic rewards, are we reducing our mothers and wives also into moneymaking machine? And that is the only criteria for their freedom?  

·         Science/Technology and Rationality: Modernity has negated the role of philosophical thinking and glorified the reason-based thinking. Modernity also launched the era of science and technology with thousands of new inventions and discoveries about outer world and human body.  

This popular notion is already challenged by the scholarly work by Joseph Needham, which highlights the ancient Chinese contribution in science and technology. Similarly many Arabic/Islamic scientific inventions are now accepted. Within India, we know that many scientific notions within the fields of Astronomy, Medicine, Mathematics, Metallurgy, Maritime, Linguistics were known to Indian thousands of years ago. There is a huge set of evidences about traditional knowledge systems as late as 18^th century just before the advent of British.  

It is true that modern science has added tremendous inventions for human society but to claim that tradition or culture was non-scientific will again be misleading. 

·         Environment protection: It is popular notion that modernity also led to the awareness about environment protection and animal rights.  

It is also true that modernity has also reduced the natural resources just for the exploitation by human beings. Whereas Indian culture has the reverential concepts to worship natural powers and animals, modernity while ridiculing such notions claims to champion the cause of ecology. It is sad that the cultural values to regards the rivers as mothers, land as mother, cow as mother, trees as divine are ridiculed or rejected today in the form of modernity. Didn’t these notions already combined eco-friendliness with the popular culture? In the times of one of the greatest Indian emperor Ashoka, the state had a responsibility not just to protect and promote the welfare of its people but also its wildlife. Hunting certain species of wild animals was banned, forest and wildlife reserves were established and cruelty to domestic and wild animals was prohibited. 

·         Freedom: Modernity also is seen to be liberating dozens of nations from centuries of colonial rule. However, it can be argued that we have certainly achieved political freedom from colonial powers but how free we are intellectually and culturally from those powers? Did modernity free us or bounded us in new ways? 

Conclusion  

In this essay, we have seen that so-called modern values were already present in ancient Indian cultural values. It is just that in medieval period of last few centuries, they were corrupted under colonial pressures. With the advent of modernity, the same ancient cultural values are being presented to human society in new western forms. We just need to apply our cultural contexts to them. Modernity devoid of cultural values will always be incomplete progress. 

Pankaj Jain

References:

1.       Arvind Sharma, Ten Misconceptions About India and Indic Traditions (Education About Asia, Vol. 6:3, Winter 2001)
2.       Jayaraj Acharya, The Nepala-Mahatmya in the Skanda-Purana (New Delhi: Nirala Publications, 1992), p. 151
3.       http://www.hindu.com/fr/2003/10/10/stories/2003101001421200.htm
4.       Steven Muhlberger, Democracy in Ancient India, http://www.nipissingu.ca/department/history/muhlberger/histdem/indiadem.htm
5.       Hemachandra Raychaudhuri, Political History of Ancient India (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1996), p. 85
6.       R. C. Majumdar, The Classical Accounts of India (Calcutta: Firma K.L.M. Private Ltd., 1981), pp. 5-92.
7.       V. S. Agrawala, India as Known to Panini (Varanasi: Prithvi Prakashan, 1963), p. 52.
8.       A. L. Basham, The Wonder That Was India (London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1967), p.99.
9.       Madhu Kishwar, "From Manusmriti to Madhusmriti: Flagellating a Mythical Enemy," Hinduism Today 23: 1:59 (January/February 2001)
10.   Veena Oldenburg, “Dowry Murder: The Imperial Origins of a Cultural Crime”, Oxford University Press, 2002