The evangelizing zeal of the early Christian missionaries and the spread of Western education which undermined the superstitions of Hinduism marked the beginning of a number of revivalistic movements within Hinduism.
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BRAHMO SAMAJ |
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ARYA SAMAJ |
Rammohan Roy, the founder of the Brahma Samaj, is often called “the Father of Modern India”. He was born in 1772 of a wealthy orthodox Brahmin Family near Calcutta. He was sent to school in Patna, where he studied Arabic and Persian and where he was deeply impressed by Muslim culture, especially the sufi ideas and practicies. For the rest of his life he wore Muslim dress and ate Muslim food; but this never meant that he ceased being a Hindu. As a result of his reading of the Qur’an, he became bitterly opposed to idolatry, and wrote at the age of sixteen a paper condemning the use of images of the gods in Hindu worship. The arguments with his father on the subject were so acrimonious that he was forced to leave home. In 1804 after the death of his father he published a pamphlet in Persian in which he protested against the superstitions of religious creeds and attempted in hiswords “to lay a common foundation of Universal Religion in the doctrine of the unity of the godhead”.
The turning point of the life of Rammohan Roy occurred in 1811 when he witnesed the Suttee of his sister-in-law. She had been persuaded by her relatives to immolate herself, but when the flames touched her body, she attempted to escape. However, her relatives held her down with long bamboo poles and drowned her screams with the beating of drums. The burning of windows at this time was common in north-east India. In Calcutta alone there 253 immolations in 1815, 298 in 1816, 442 in 1817, and 544 in 1818. Rammohan pressured the British Government to interfere with Hindu practices to make Suttee illegal, and as a result of his agitation it was so declared by British government on December 4, 1829.
Another social cause to which Rammohan devoted his energies was the improvement of the lot of the Hindu women. He worked for educational opportunities for girls, for the elimination of child marriage and polygamy, for removal of the stigma on widowhood, and for legal equality for women and men. He opposed the debaucheries which had crept into Vaishnavism, the sexuality of Tantrism, and the animal sacrifices in Kali worship. He spoke often in detence of the freedom of the press and advised improvements in the judicial system of India.
Rammohan Roy and a group of comrades formed the Brahmo Samaj (One God Society) in August, 1828, for the sole purpose of worship. It was intended as a place where believers of the One God might join in worship whether their background was Hindu, Christian, or Muslim but as matters turned out most of the worshippers were liberal Hindu theists. The orthodox Hindus of Calcutta were furious with the establishment of the Brahmo Samaj and tried to raise obstacles but in January 1830 Brahmo Samaj purchased its own building and dedicated the same for “the worship of the One eternal, Unsearchable and Immutable Being, who is the Author and preserver of the Universe, but not under or by any other name, designation or title”. There was also the stipulation that no image or picture would be allowed in worship. The intent, said Rammohan, was to revive monotheism in India.
After the death of Rammohan Roy in 1833, Devandranath Tagore was made his spiritual successor underhis leadership the Brahmo Samaj took one more of the trappings of a religious fraternity. He insisted that the Brahmos were “in need of the great Hindu community”, that they were Hindus and were to remain Hindus, although they would purify the customs, usages, rites and ceremonies of Hindu heritage and adopt themselves to the new situations of the 19th century. By 1847 the Brahmo Samaj was on the verge of a split between those who with Devandranath Tagore accepted vedic infallibility and those who with Akshoy Kumar Dutta were developing a rationalism which rejected the assumption of Vedic infallibility. By 1850 the doctrine of Vedic infallibility was given up and the doctrinal position of the Samaj was stated as : “In the beginning there was only the Supreme Spirit; there was nothing else; He created all this that is. He is infinite in wisdom and goodness. He is everlasting, all-knowing, one only without a second, Almighty, Self-Defendant and perfect; there is none like unto Him. Our welfare here and hereafter consists only in worshipping him. To love him and to do his bidding is to worship him”.
The Brahmo Samaj survives in India today, but it cannot be regarded as an active force. However, in the development of Hinduism Brahmoism made a definite contribution of rationalism, freedom of thought, the growth of nationalism, and the liberation of Hindus from many time-honoured customs.
The Arya Samaj (Society of Nobles) was founded by Dayananda Saraswathi (1824-1883) born into an orthodox Brahmin family of Gujarat. His first serious thoughts about Hinduism occurred when at the age of fourteen he spent the night with his father in vigil before an image of Shiva. He was disturbed that his father and the priest fell asleep during the vigil and that the mice ate the food set out before the image. “What sort of a god was it who could not prevent mice from eating his food?” he asked. Later he was trust into public view when he engaged in debates on religion with Hindu scholars at Benars, and he soon had a group of followers who were sympathetic to his views. He organised the Arya Samaj in Bombay in 1875, but it did not catch fire until it was transferred to Lahore in 1877. During the years of agitation for Indian independence, while the Brahmoism suffered from the stigmas of being pro-British and pro-Western, the Arya Samaj grew in strength because of its militant Hinduism and nationalism.
The outstanding feature of the Arya Samaj is its work of Shuddi, i.e., the reconversion of Hindus who have been converted to Islam or Christianity. The members of the Arya Samaj are often called “The aggressive Hindus” as they sought to bring back by coercion, threat and other means all those who had renounced Hinduism in favour of Islam or other religions. The Arya become a strong missionary movement. It not only sought the reconversion of those who had deserted Hinduism and embraced other faiths mostly Islam but also it invested hundreds of thousands of untouchables with the sacred thread – an act regarded with the utmost horror by the orthodoxy. The Varna distinctions are regarded as divisions based an character rather than birth; hence in the affairs of the Samaj there is no “Brahmin” nor “Outcaste” – There are only differences in intelligence and character. There is today in Delhi an International Aryan League which is the centre of the propaganda activities of the Arya Samaj.
Dayananda organized the Arya Samaj as a “Back to the Vedas” movement. He rejected all post-vedic developments in Hinduism, and would not shake hands with Brahmo leaders because they did not recognise the divine origin and infallibility of the Vedas. In place of Puja before idols he attempted to restore the ancient sacrificial rites of fire and oblation. The ceremonies were held in the open air during the Vedic period no temples were a part of Hinduism at this time. The incredible number of animals slaughtered in these ancient fire and blood sacrifices (yajnas) gave the appearance of a potlatch. The greater the number of animals slain, the more certain would be the attainment of desired results. Sacrifices dominated the life of the people during the early period of Hinduism. The leaders of the Brahmin priests must never have been empty, as part of their fee was the carcass of the animal. Vegetarian Hindus19 today often are silent about the ancient lavish meat eating priests of their religion, and all Hindus dislike admitting that human sacrifices were part of the yajnas!.
The Arya Samaj movement opposes monotheism as this is understood in Islam, and it is equally apposed to polytheism. God is an objective presider over the process of the transmigration and karma. A list of “Ten Principles” was formed by Dayananda in 1877 which became the statement of faith of all new members of the Samaj and is still so used. The fact that the “Ten Principles” (mostly relating to morality and social conduct) say nothing about the infallibility of the Vedas, the incarnation of souls, and the vegetarianism has been the occasion of controversy, and even splits, within the Samaj. The Arya Samaj was never been a large group within Hinduism but it has been in a way a purge both of Hinduism and Indian nationalism.
