Indian Society: an interesting interplay of Religion with Culture!

Alain de Botton, one of the best known intellectuals of Britain, suggests that in modern world, culture should have upper hand over religion. Ultimately, he prescribes that the former should replace the latter in the longer run of the evolution of post-modern society. It’s fascinating to see how far Alain’s ideas can go in an oriental society like India. Recently, I visited my native district, Deoghar, situated in Jharkhand to celebrate Durga-puja. What surprised me was not the scale with which the festivity was celebrated there, but with the degree of strictness that people still follow the religious rituals. Hardly one can identify any change in the methodology of worship over these years. Even, the animal sacrifices within the premise of goddess’ temple still happen uninterruptedly. It made me think how strongly religion governs culture in our society. In other words, I saw Alain de Botton’s thesis failing in that small district of Jharkhand.  

Has too much of dependence on religion made India a stiff and non-reformist society? Or rather have we as a society missed to apply religion in a wiser way so that it could guide us to lead a progressive life?

Religion is not about engaging in any philosophical pondering over the existence or non-existence of a divine agency which people commonly refer as ‘God’; but, it’s about an extremely powerful institution that has been shaping up the society through its manifestation in culture for ages and ages.

A structured religion is generally composed of three components: teaching, symbol and rituals. Through these three elements it encompasses the entire psyche of human mind. Teaching guides rational; symbol influences physicality of a concept without which a human being can’t remain committed to a belief for a longer time; and, the daily repetitive rituals discipline our activities thus our behavior. It means religion provides a complete recipe to influence life. It, therefore, is a staunch creator and manager of society.

Socio-political events that unfold in a country decide as to which one of those three elements will surpass others in course of time. In far eastern society, especially in Japan, South Korea, the Buddhist teachings have been remain central than the rituals that led them to become a society that is not unevenly guided by greed. In India, rituals and symbols remained vital in lighting the notion of religion (especially Brahmanism), and its teaching portion received very less attention. A possible reason can be that for masses it’s always easy to get attracted towards a less complicated option that can entertain them, and also provide them an identifying mark with psychological cushion. Symbols and rituals supplied them both entertainment, identification (vis-à-vis another religious community).

For instance, it’s easy for a Hindu to go to a temple, and to empty a jug of holy water of Ganges over ‘Shiva Linga’ (iconography of Lord Shiva) than bothering to understand the essence of ‘Karma-yoga’ of ‘Bhagwat-Geeta’. Majority of masses look for instant entertainment. It’s simple to understand Chetan Bhagat’s pulp fiction than political fiction of Rushdie or Hilary Mantel.

People are neither farsighted, nor well-informed enough to decide as to what way they’ve to go. They need to be guided by the leaders of that era be it head of state, public intellectuals or spiritual gurus. Unfortunately, during the British era, the entire intellectual energy was exhausted in attaining political freedom than thinking about cultural renaissance which was equally important. Since the post-independence time, the Nehruvian socialist thought encouraged us to drop religion as an important analytical tool while considering the much needed reform in society. One can observe easily that the Indian thought culture remained subservient to western intellectual tradition.

This’s also true that for certain socio-political adjustments, Indian religion must be applauded.  India practices democracy since the inception of its republic and pursuits the free market economy as well since 1991. Both ideas are solely based on individualism. How surprising that these value systems coming from the land of individualism find a solid base in India that has hardly ever been an individualistic society. It, indeed, suggests that tolerant nature of Indian religion, especially Hinduism (the religion of the majority of population) must have prepared the ground for an acceptance of foreign grown ideas like democracy and neo-liberal economics.

For a complicated society like India, it’s important to direct the masses towards the core teaching than letting them carried away with the external embellishment of worship methodology. Spiritual gurus need to play a more pro-active role in educating the masses on how to humanize religion; how to integrate the real essence of all the Indian religions for our societal progress.

In absence of such spiritual awakening, today mostly Indians are blindly following the western mode of consumerism which is not sustainable for a long term. As it invites you to spend beyond your means, and seduces you to succumb to instant gratification. Hence, a rational regulation of market is required for a sustainable growth in a society like India.  

(The article was originally published on the news portal, “The Indian Republic”: http://www.theindianrepublic.com/author/ajitabh-das )