THE HINDU RENAISSANCE ... 1

THE HINDU RENAISSANCE ... 1

WELCOME CRITICISM

The Hindu scriptures must be allowed critical interpretation which must not be construed as being part of a dastardly design to undermine them. Rather, such study from an objective, modern and critical perspective ought to spur on more people to read them and give their own creative interpretations.

LORD MEGHNAD DESAI'S CRITICISM

Stereotyping the scriptures and giving them a fixed cast will only stifle Indian creativity. Let people criticise the Bhagavad Geeta rationally like Lord Meghnad Desai has done in his book 'Who wrote the Bhagavad Geeta'. This must not be interpreted as being a malicious design to demean the Geeta but must be welcomed as an honest appraisal and as yet another triggering cause for more people worldwide to study the Geeta. Such critical analysis throws fresh light on timeless classics such as the Geeta and draws more people into its orbit of influence.

THE TREND OF THE TIMES

The current propensity to be overly sensitive to such criticism stems from a lack of appreciation of the rational discourse necessary for intellectual activity to flourish even in the spiritual dimension related to sacred scriptures. If secularists attack them from their modern perspectives, that would be the most welcome development for orthodoxy to respond to in an equally creative defence of the sanctity and relevance of the scriptures. Overall, there must be a think tank within the polity sufficiently large and erudite enough to take up such challenges in an appropriate and adequate manner and under no circumstances should such criticisms be viewed as being damaging to the Hindu civilisational cause which has through millenia thrived on such counter propositions and come up with fresh scriptural texts in the form of commentaries and subtexts by way of response.

THE TIME-TESTED TRADITION

Openness and freedom of thought and expression have always been the fundamental features of the Sanatan Dharma and this is what has given it such a range of texts of varied philosophical persuasions owing allegiance to the basic Word of the Veda, almost to the point of being a forest of philosophy whose entangled mass Swami Vivekananda faced a herculean task to simplify and synthesise before he placed its essential features at the Chicago World Parliament of Religions in his celebrated 'Paper on Hinduism' delivered on 19 September, 1893. This has been the Hindu intellectual tradition and it has paid thus far rich dividends.

WHY FEAR ?

Let nothing stand in the way of honest or dishonest criticism of our sacred texts for nothing can shake the eternal foundations of the Vedas as history bears ample testimony to. Rather, attacks on our culture will lend better solidarity to the motley mass we otherwise are.

End of Part 1

To be serialised ...

Written by Sugata Bose