|  Modern day Indians have recorded history wherein its widely believed India has evolved over the years into a secular state because it has native Indians from different faiths – Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs and many others. This land accommodates many faiths, embraces it into its culture and evolves with them, is a popular statement. We have recorded history of India being invaded by Alexander the Great, the Afgans, the Lodhis, the Mohammedens, the French, the Dutch, the Portuguese and of course the British.
In time India remained and retained its originality and was inclusive to these foreigners and accommodated them into her culture and evolved itself into their culture. Co-existence in her soil is the most potent capability.
While all the above is true, not many of us would discuss that 1000s of years ago, India was invaded by the Aryans, who first landed on the banks of the Indus river, they were nomads who settled into the rich and prosperous north western part of India and Pakistan. The original sons of this land were caught unaware by this sudden invasion and they accommodated the more powerful Aryans. Those who did not accommodate the Aryans either perished or moved to the borders of this land, some of them moved south. India then had local civilizations in Indus, Ganges and the Kaveri river belts. The Aryans then moved to take over the ganges, but never really raided the south or did and failed – we would never know, because the Kaveri belt retained the original Indians – the Dravidians who still exist in the South of India. South India in time accommodated further Aryans who travelled by sea from the Mediterranean, some say.
The Aryans laid the rules and reformed the gods. The original Indians believed their lord Shiva lived in the Himalayas – beyond which they thought heavens existed. The Aryans introduced Vishnu and many other gods, which in time merged in co-existence with the original Indians and their Shiva. But the Aryans overruled the locals, they formed the rules and in time they evolved a system of co-existence but with greater preferences to their clan – the Brahmins (the learned), the kshatriyas (warriors), the vaishyas (merchants) predominantly belonged to their clan and the Sudras (workers) were predominantly the original Indians who gave into them.
The Original Indians who resisted these Aryans were pushed to the south, wherein their clan still remained and chose to resist the Aryans new way of life. In time, they fought this disparity but lost out to the more powerful Aryans or choose to live down south. The original Indians were dark in Colour and the Aryans were fair in complexion. Doesnt all this relate to the many god stories were we read since childhood in this soil – where the gods were fair and lovely and the asuras (the evil men) were dark! Still wondering who formed these stories for us to believe in time? While Vishnu, Bramha and other gods were fair, still wondering why Shiva was dark.
As time passed future Aryans were smart enough to land their messages, scriptures and dominance of their clan over the locals Sudras in the form of mega stories – the Ramayana, Mahabharata and zillions of other god stories. The Ramayana and Mahabharatha being the most popular of them all had great baits for the local Sudras to bite, the main character – Rama and Krishna were dark in complexion and the locals related to those images. Thus the Aryans landed their core messages of the caste system through these stories – wherein the Brahmins, Kshtriays and Vaishyas had their roles well defined and way above the working class, the sudras which formed the locals. They also ensured these stories revolved around the Good winning over Evil and all of the evil was represented by Asuras, wherein Rama and Krishna killed the Asuras, including Ravana who was dark, lived in Southern most land outside the peninsula and worshipped Shiva, no rocket science to find out who he actually was – probably the original son of this soil who simply resisted foreigners. Today we praise freedom fighters like Shivaji, Bhagat Singh, Jansi Rani and others and yet we call Ravana as the worst asura, who was probably a just king, a true Dravidian, a true son of this soil who refused the ways of Aryans and their injust caste system of sidelining the original sons of this soil as Sudras. Thats the power of these stories – wherein probably Ravana and many of those asuras were not evil but genuine freedom fighters of this land, against the Aryan invasion. The Aryans with their stories have made us believe otherwise and in time we probably have not raised to think through these aspects.
What I wrote above are just my logical assumptions and there are no factual data to support them, but they do sound logical and real to me. History and religions are what the powerful and influencial wanted the masses of the present and future to believe in, and we are the masses of that future which believes what others wanted us to believe in. India for all its inclusiveness and adoption, for all its democracy and secularism has not been able to shrug off its infectious caste systems, which is so intensely etched into its religious stories and retains human disparity.
India’s great wisdom belongs to its scriptures and the innumerable spiritually evolved yogis. Yet the common man, however educated or evolved intellectually continues to carry the caste and creed factors into his living. Its roots begin with the later generation Aryans, who choose to give the essence of these scriptures through myriad stories, wherein it kept constantly pounding the subtle variations of the caste system in its stories, amongst core spiritual messages. Thus the future kept receiving these discriminative caste systems as a norm. Even a Gandhi couldn’t remove it, history states – Buddha and Mahaveer succeeded but for a few hundred years only, and the Hindu caste system came back to power, that’s the power of this caste system that Aryans have left behind in India.
Narrating a story with a moral has an easier way of landing the message, but to evolve in retaining the message and leaving the story behind lies in the maturity of the individual. The day we evolve to take only the essence of the scriptures and leave behind its disparity in its stories, will be the true date of India being accommodative and inclusive, until then we are but an aspiration to that destination.
Writtten by The Bamboo
Posted on 04/03/2011 |
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