INDIA—A POTENTIALLY SPIRITUAL COUNTRY
Power of Spirituality
TOLERANCE is an integral part of India’s tradition. One can say that tolerance is India’s national identity. India has a long history of the culture of tolerance. India is a multi-religious society.
Followers of almost all the major religions live in India with total harmony. One can say that India has proved to be a peaceful haven for different religions and cultures. In this sense, one can say that India is like a peaceful garden in which all kinds of plants and trees flourish. This is the identity of India. India is a composite society. According to the 2011 census, the demographics of India’s population according to religion are: 79.80% Hindus, 14.23% Muslims, 2.30% Christians, 1.72% Sikhs, 0.70% Buddhists, 0.37% Jains, and 0.9% followers of other religions.
This composite nature of the Indian society is not by accident. It is attributed directly to the Indian way of thinking. According to the traditional way of thinking, India believes in plurality, or in the words of the great Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi, “the manyness of reality.” Hindus comprise the majority in Indian population. The Hindu religion is based on advaitvad, that is, monism. Monism means that divine reality is one, manifested in different ways. According to this religious philosophy, the Hindus believe that everything in the cosmos is an ansh, or part, of divinity. They believe in the concept of an indwelling god, that is, every human being has a content of divinity. Due to this concept, the Hindu mind accords equal position to every man and woman. This is the genesis of the culture of tolerance in India.
The Indian Constitution accords Muslims equal rights of citizenship in every aspect and there is no discrimination at all on the basis of religion.
The Bhagavad Gita is one of the holy books of Hinduism. It maintains that all paths lead to the same destination. It was this concept that was declared by the well-known Hindu thinker Swami Vivekananda (1863- 1902) at the Parliament of the World’s Religions in these words: “We believe not only in universal toleration but we accept all religions as true.” (Chicago, September 11, 1893). It is a fact that Hinduism believes in religious pluralism. Almost all scholars of Hinduism, for example, Sri Aurobindo Ghose, Rabindranath Tagore, C. Rajagopalachari, and S. Radhakrishnan, have confirmed this concept of Hindu philosophy.
A practical example of this culture is narrated by Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964) in his famous book The Discovery of India, in these words: “In Kashmir, a long-continued process of conversion to Islam had resulted in 95 per cent of the population becoming Moslems, though they retained many of their old Hindu customs. In the middle nineteenth century the Hindu raja (ruler) of the state found that very large numbers of these people were anxious or willing to return en bloc to Hinduism. He sent a deputation to the pundits of Benares, the religious centre of India, inquiring if this could be done. The pundits refused to countenance any such change of faith and there the matter ended.” According to the Hindu pundits, this kind of conversion was not objectionable.
Due to this mindset, the authorities of Hindu religion have accorded Islam a very honourable status. For example, Dr Bhagavan Das (1869- 1958) was a well-known scholar of Hindu religion. He authored a large number of learned works on philosophy and religion. He writes in his magnum opus, The Essential Unity of All Religions: “The word Islam has a profound and noble meaning which is, indeed, by itself, the very essence of religion. Derived from salm, peace, shanti, it means ‘peaceful acceptance’ of God; calm resignation, submission, surrender.”
If there are some problems faced by the Muslim community in India, they are due to the law of nature and not on account of any kind of discrimination.
The different religions of India have their own distinct history of how they reached this land. As far as the religion of Islam is concerned, it first reached India toward the end of the seventh century AD, that is, in the same period that is regarded among the three golden periods of Islam. This first group of Muslim Arabs came from Iraq by sea-route and settled in Kerala, a coastal state of India. Due to the above-mentioned Indian spirit, this group was hailed with respect. The Indians conferred on them the title of Mappila, which means a highly respectable person. Jawaharlal Nehru, in The Discovery of India, observes that when the Arabs came to India, they brought with them a brilliant culture.
Due to this reason, Islam found a very favourable atmosphere in India. In the beginning, Muslims were just a small group, but now they comprise about 14.23% of the 1.32 billion population of India. An eminent Indian scholar of ancient history and culture, Tara Chand, has documented the advent and influence of Islam in India. His major contribution to IndoIslamic culture and philosophy is his worthy book Influence of Islam on Indian Culture. The book, which was first published in 1922, has become a classic on this subject for researchers and historians. According to the Indian Constitution, which came into effect in January 1950, Muslims have equal rights of citizenship in every aspect and there is no discrimination at all on the basis of religion.
There are about one million Muslim masjids, madrasas (seminaries) and various Islamic organizations in India at present. All these institutions are flourishing and working smoothly. There are numerous schools, colleges and universities freely run by Muslims. Muslims have a distinctive presence in every field of Indian society such as the government, administration, business, industry, education and social institutions. The President of India holds the highest office in the country. He is the head of the state and the first citizen of India. In the history of independent India, four Muslims have, to this date, held the office of the president. These were: Dr Zakir Hussain (1967-1969), Mohammad Hidayatullah (July-August 1969), Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed (1974-1977) and Dr APJ Abdul Kalam (2002-2007). Mohammad Hamid Ansari served as 12th Vice-President of India. (2007-2017)
If there are some problems faced by the Muslim community in India, they are due to the law of nature and not on account of any kind of discrimination. Differences are a part of the law of nature. Thus, it is but natural that there are problems in every society, including a Muslim society. These kind of problems are normal and not worthy of any consideration. According to the law of nature, it is impossible to have a country which is totally problemfree, and certainly India is not an exception in this regard.
A nation armed with the spiritual power of its individuals is in a position to inculcate spirituality in international life.
Swami Vivekananda is one of the most admired religious leaders of India. He was a great believer in Hindu-Muslim unity. Once he stated his concept in these words: “I see in my mind’s eye the future perfect India rising out of this chaos and strife, glorious and invincible, with Vedanta brain and Islam body.” (Letter dated June 10, 1898, Letters of Swami Vivekananda)
Due to this spirit of tolerance and mutual acceptance, Islam and Muslims found a very favourable soil in India. For example, the Sufis generally came from Central Asia and settled in various Indian cities. They established khanqahs (a place for spiritual retreat) and tried to peacefully disseminate the message of Islam. The above historical references explain how it was possible that the different groups of religion and culture have been living in harmony in India since long.
How the people of a nation had so many religious beliefs and how they could live together from the past to the present with this diversity, without conflict? It was not due to any coincidence. But, it was due to the deep-rooted traditions of the Indian culture. The theoretical explanations of this phenomenon can be different, but, it is a fact that this kind of tolerance is a great strength of India. It gives India a special place on the world map. The well-known Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi is the greatest name in pacifism. In its article on pacifism, the fifteenth edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica has this to say about Gandhi: “The most massive, comprehensive, and historically effective example of nonviolent activism is that of the movements unchained and organized by Mahatma Gandhi.” The case of Mahatma Gandhi is not an individual case, in fact, he was only a manifestation of India’s spirit of peace and tolerance.
In the pre-WWII era, certain countries adopted a social model that was based on uniculturalism. Some examples of these countries are Canada, the USA and Australia. However, this model completely failed to work. Then in the post-WWII period, they adopted a new model which was based on multiculturalism. It is interesting to note that India had adopted the model of multiculturalism since the beginning of its history and up to the present day. It is this model that provides the pace of development to both the Muslim community as well as the non-Muslim communities.
Another wonderful aspect of India is that it is a potential spiritual superpower. A case in point is of Mother Teresa who was born in Europe but upon her visit to India she was so fascinated with this land of spirituality that she decided to settle here. She dedicated her entire life to social upliftment. In recognition of her services, she was awarded the prestigious Nobel Prize. On this occasion, she was invited to the USA to address an American audience there. She began her address with these historic words: “I have come from a rich country to a poor country.” She was indeed referring to the spiritual wealth of this country. It is a fact that India has a long tradition of spirituality and moral values. In other words, potentially, India is a spiritual hub. This is the true spirit of India. We only need to revive ancient Indian traditions in our lives, for India to emerge as a spiritual superpower in the world. It will be able to conquer the world with its spirituality. But turning this Indian potential into reality would need a long and sincere effort. It is a struggle involving many phases, consisting of purely peaceful methods.
First of all, we have to re-build good traditions in individual minds. We have to bring about a change in people’s thinking, so that we may build a society based on sound ethical principles. This again requires a nonviolent struggle, in the complete sense of the phrase. Then, we need to build a nation reinforced by these principles—a nation, which knows the difference between peace and violence, a nation that knows the difference between the spiritual and the nonspiritual. Individuals are the social constituents that make a nation. And a nation armed with the spiritual power of its individuals, is in a position to inculcate spirituality in international life. India, by revitalizing, can change the whole world. Let us work for this noble cause.
Why is India a spiritual power? This is traceable to its long spiritual tradition. Where the western world was engaged in technical activities in previous centuries; India, throughout those same centuries was engaged in spiritual activities. While the western world was producing material experts in the form of physical scientists, India was producing spiritual scientists, in the form of Swamis and Sufis. It is this factor, which has been mainly responsible for the difference between India and the western world. India might be a developing country, in the material sense, but it is a developed country, in the spiritual sense.
In an age wrecked by violence, the entire world craves peace. It is here that India has a chance to play an important role. India can show the world the path to peace and spirituality and thus emerge as a spiritual superpower.
India can show the world the path to peace and spirituality and thus emerge as a spiritual superpower.
Swami Vivekanand was a great soul of India. He was quite right in predicting that, after independence, India would emerge as spiritual leader of the world. In spite of all the material progress that has been made, the world is in search of spirituality. Indeed, spirituality—a national asset of India—is the real identity of our country. For centuries, the lofty Himalayas have served as an abode of spirituality. Its message flows eternally in the water of the Ganges and the Jamuna, while tall green trees provide spiritual solace, and beautiful birds warble the songs of peace. This rare combination of spiritual greatness is to be found only in India. This is what makes it a spiritual superpower. It is in this sense India is potentially a superpower. It should be our aim to bring about a spiritual renaissance in the second decade of the 21st century.