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1. Victorian Colonial India
- State University of New York Press
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Victorian Colonial India The British colonial Indian environment preceding Gandhi’s birth was disturbing yet promising at the same time. The Indian Mutiny of 1857 against the oppressive British regime was suppressed; as a result, Indian spirit was crushed, their self-esteem wounded, the economy ruined, and the whole country submerged in deep despair. Although the British now had no choice but to relent their policies a little by granting special favors and Western educational opportunities to a few eligible Indian elite, their overall attitude to Indians remained that of a sahib to a servant—arrogant and overbearing or patronizing and scornful by turns. This problematic British attitude generated four major Indian responses to the British, which played a critical role in shaping Gandhi’s responses to the British and the British rule. Fourfold Indian Response to the British In his book Colonialism, Tradition and Reform (1989), Bhikhu Parekh suggests four broad categories of “Hindu Responses to British Rule” (between 1820–1920): modernism, traditionalism, critical modernism, and critical traditionalism. These responses provided the basic conceptual framework within which Gandhi formulated his own unique response. The modernists were convinced that modernity was incompatible with the old Indian civilization and culture; they suggested a clean break with all things traditional—its plural, rural, feudal governing system, orthodox 1 19 religious beliefs, sectarianism, caste barriers, and narrow parochialism. The younger Gandhi tended to be a modernist who emulated the British lifestyle and manners, as discussed later in this book. The modernists came under heavy fire, however, from the traditionalists , who called them traitors, copy-cats, sycophants, and even the brown sahibs. Convinced that India was in its present sorry state of affairs because of the English, Muslim, and other foreign invaders, the traditionalists denounced them all. They thought that compared to their glorious, ancient Indian civilization, the European civilization was barbaric, inferior, and morally bankrupt. Consisting largely of upper-caste orthodox Hindus, this group used the scriptures to justify and maintain caste barriers and unsociability . They even forbade anyone to cross the black seas to go to Europe for higher education; violators were ostracized. (Young Gandhi with his entire family was excommunicated for his daring to go to England for higher studies.) The third group of responders comprised critical modernists or syncretists . They advocated a judicious combination of Indian moral values and European political values, of the Western scientific spirit of rational inquiry and the Eastern mystical inquiry into the human spirit. They were great reformers, such as Raja Ram Mohun Roy, Keshab Chandra Sen, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, Gopal Krishna Gokhale and others, whom I shall discuss in more detail later. The fourth category of responses consisted of the critical traditionalists like Bankim Chandra Chatterjee (in later times), B. C. Pal, Shri Aurobindo, and Swami Vivekananda, of whom the latter had a profound influence on Gandhi. Unlike the critical modernists who advised borrowing the good from other cultures and rejecting the bad, the critical traditionalists suggested that each person first rethink and revise his or her own tradition from deep within and then get rid of whatever seemed to be irrational or obsolete. Unlike those New Age proponents who knowingly or unknowingly held the European civilization to be superior, the critical traditionalists upheld their own civilization, valued their culture, and suggested only to eliminate the diseased, dysfunctional, or dead parts. Gandhi as a Critical Traditionalist Although the younger Gandhi tended to be a modernist, we shall witness his gradual metamorphosis into a critical traditionalist later in the book. Gandhi’s role as a critical traditionalist needs special attention as most of his 20 Gandhi’s Pilgrimage of Faith [3.238.142.134] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 16:36 GMT) leadership style and ideals emanated from his deep, yet not blind devotion to his own Indian tradition. Gandhi loved Hinduism, but he was not an orthodox Hindu, or as Bhikhu Parekh (1989) put it, “though Gandhi valued tradition, he was not a traditionalist.” Unlike most other critical traditionalists , Gandhi diagnosed the disease of the Indian degeneration as a severe moral decline of the Hindu character. Whereas other critical traditionalists pointed the finger of blame at the British, Gandhi turned it toward his own countrymen who had lost their physical, intellectual, and moral courage, and therefore lacked character. Gandhi firmly believed that when the character of the people falls, the nation falls. As a critical traditionalist, he resembled his spiritual predecessor, Swami Vivekananda—the monk-disciple of the sage Ramakrishna of Calcutta—who regretted...