ATITHI DEVO BHAVA

ATITHI DEVO BHAVA

We have to make spaces in our society for fresh converts to the Sanatan Dharma. A water-tight Hindu 🕉 society cannot accommodate new entrants to its fold. Besides, the caste question has to be solved. To which varna, which jati will the convert belong? Expansion of Hindu society, its grand liberalisation, its levelling of inequalities seems to be the only way out.

There are willing members from other faiths who seek welcoming arms in the Hindu fold but are perplexed by the complexity of its social structure. These will have to be taken in, their concerns catered to, their apprehensions addressed, their doubts dispelled and their problems solved. That will be mammoth task in a rigid set-up. But with restrictions relaxed and social movements made more fluid, it should be possible to form a new caste of converts called 'Navagata' caste, say. With the multiplication of numbers in this caste of fresh converts marriages can be initiated among them leading to perfect social integration. Initially, though, some assistance in social terms needs to be given them to help them integrate in the vast body politic of the Hindus before they are able to fully form their own caste and thrive. We must remember, these are our guests seeking family affiliation. As such we must render them due reverence as enjoined in our shastras (scriptures) which is 'Atithi devo bhava.' (The guest is God.) Then all doubts will be dispelled, all knots of the heart cut asunder. (Bhidyatey hridayagranthi chhindanti sarvasangshayaa)

A radically different view, of course, is of many Hindutva stalwarts like Savarkar who had long back exhorted Hindus to give up caste distinctions and had deliberated to that effect with Gandhiji. The latter had dismissed the idea and, as it has duly turned out, caste remains even today with some of its distinctive qualities and many of its lingering ills. Should caste be practically abolished then from Hindu society to help integrate it? Will that be possible even today with mass mobility of industrial labour, rapid urbanisation and so forth? If it is virtually abolished, will it not help in absorbing the fresh converts to our fold within a vast, integrated body politic?

Written by Sugata Bose