TRADITION
AND MODERNITY IN
INDEPENDENT INDIA
K. Srinivas
India as a nation became independent fifty
years ago “Swaraj” or self-rule was the main plank of the freedom fighters
against the British hegemony. Indians never wanted the rule of foreigners on their
soil. It was the greatest moment for every patriot and nationalist when their
motherland became free from the British rule. Since then the Indians
experienced several ups and downs in the social and the political spheres under
the self-rule. In this paper an attempt is made to highlight the significant
developments during the last fifty years of the self-rule which contributed,
directly or indirectly, to the national progress and vice-versa. Also, it is
the aim of this paper to look into the role of tradition and modernity in
Independent India.
There is no doubt that there is a tremendous progress in scientific,
technological, and social spheres in India. Consequently, India achieved self
sustenance in many areas. This is certainly a laudable achievement by all
standards. However, India is facing some serious social and political problems.
Some of these problems, I believe, are the creation of our political leaders to
serve their vested interests; and others are created by anti-nationalists, and
divisive forces. Either way the victims are innocent people. There is no
security to human life. Terrorism is gradually spreading its tentacles. Peace has become a rare
commodity. Hence it should be the first and foremost concern of every peace
living individual to oppose all forms of casteist and regional tendencies,
religious fundamentalism and anti-nationalist policies. The all around progress
of any country is possible only through unity and integration. One should not
lose sight of the spirit behind the unity. Similarly, national integration
should mean the integration of our outlook towards human life and its values.
Self-rule is a legitimate claim of every nationalist. But self-rule without
sincerity, honesty, accountability, and commitment is as good as despotism.
Self-criticism is the first step towards success under self-rule. Our present
day national leaders lack these qualities. In other words, they are indifferent
to such ideals. Now the country is experiencing a peculiar trend of thespians
turning into politicians. There is absolutely no correspondence between their
avowed principles and real life.
India is one of the largest democracies in
the world today. But Indian democracy suffers from the myopic vision of our
leaders. There are still millions of people living below poverty line. Our
memories fade away very quickly. We are oblivious of the way in which our
freedom fighters suffered and lived under the British rule. The tall claims of
our national leaders, and their unfulfilled poll promises frustrate and Indian
masses. People are gradually losing faith in our leaders. Corruption has become
a rule rather than an exception. It permeated to every aspect of our life.
Instead of addressing themselves to pressing social problems, our leaders are
indulging in recrimination, mudslinging and character assassination. It is the
need of the hour to see to it that people should not develop pessimistic
attitude towards life. There is no dearth of man power or natural resources in
India. Our political leaders put Md. Ghazni, and Md. Ghory to shame by
plundering the wealth of their own nation in the name of self-rule. For the
past three years we have come to know about many scams. Those who are allegedly
involved in the scams are left free for want of evidence. These very people
enlighten us on the evils of corruption. Therefore, I firmly believe that India
is not a poor country, but is made poor by our own leaders. The oath taking
ceremony by our leaders has become a meaningless ritual rather than a
conscientious act. This is one side of the coin.
On the other side, India produced great
scientists, spiritual leaders, and social reformers. The backbone of any
country is its philosophy; which guides its destiny. India has a rich
philosophical heritage. For my part I believe that tradition and modernity are
not opposed to each other; rather they are complementary to each other. One
cannot survive without the other. Tradition in general implies historically
shaped customs, rites, social precepts, ideas, values, and rules of conduct. It
is something handed down to us from generation to generation. Philosophy is
nothing but philosophy of life. The problems of philosophy are essentially the
problems of life. Therefore, the problems of philosophy and their possible
solutions concern every individual who cares for human life, because human
nature is same everywhere. It is the same spirit that binds everyone of us.
That is the highest metaphysical principle that is found in our tradition. What
is needed at this juncture is to invite new ways of thinking, new standards of
morality, and new forms of administration to make our philosophical tradition
more meaningful and pragmatic. This is what is done by the philosophers of
Indian renaissance. In order to fully satisfy the demands of human life, a
philosophy not only must provide us with a basic principle, which enables us to
arrive at a particular conception of the world, but also provide us with
sciences that are incidental for social activity.
Inspite of the rich philosophical heritage,
why is it that tradition in India is often neglected? It may be due to the
fact that our tradition “is not able to cope with the complexity of the present
situation (which) as shown by the indifference with which it is treated by men
in public life”. In this respect we have to be self-critical. This self-criticism
in the form of reflection enables us to reorient our thinking and
interpretation of our philosophical literature in tune with the present needs
of the society. Our ancient philosophers
following the tradition, handed over to us the best that can be thought of in
the form of philosophy. It certainly served the needs of our ancestors
centuries ago. Now the situation is quite different. The disciplines like
ethics, politics, and other social sciences must be developed by making our
metaphysics as their foundation because our social life demands new dimensions
in our thought and action to suit the modern situations. According to our
traditional metaphysics, the indwelling spirit in everyone is one and the same.
Therefore, the essential nature of all the humans is the same. Similarly,
Mimamsa as a philosophy of activism provided us with the notion of dharma
without which the human life becomes miserable. The great philosophical
tradition handed down to us by our ancient philosophers in the form of
metaphysics and dharma must be applied to social life to make our life more
meaningful on the earth.
If needed, our tradition has to be reoriented
to suit the modern forms of life without losing sight of the basic metaphysical
principles of our tradition. The spiritual leaders like Swami Vivekananda, and
Sri Aurobindo, political leaders like Mahatma Gandhi and Balgangadhar Tilak,
and academic philosophers like Dr Radhakrishnan gave a proper reorientation to
our philosophy in terms of thought and action to suit our social needs. The
proper cultural growth of any nation is explained in terms of scientific and
social progress. In most of the educational institutions in India students are
not given much information about the Indian tradition. The natural consequence
of such an attitude is the devaluation of India tradition by our tradition.
India has reached the greatest of speculative heights. The life in the present
era is dominated by the so-called scientific temper. Scientism has become the
order of the day. This gradually infused in the minds of the present-day
generation a kind of distrust of our dharma, our tradition, and our philosophy
in general. Along with scientific temper one has to develop self-discipline
which is the cornerstone of the individual’s moral progress. Individuality is
another important factor which helps us in assessing the significance of any
tradition. It is a living force. It must aid our decision-making process to
retain the vital elements of our tradition, and assimilate new ideas that come
from outside from time to time. This is possible only when we understand the
real nature of our individuality.
Now it is the time for us to shift our
attention from God, matter and science to human individual as he cannot be left
out. Thus philosophy has become the philosophy of life of man. In spite of our
different outlooks and cultures, all men belong to the same species called
humanity. The common concern of every individual is to locate human values for
which men have been living and dying in different parts of the globe. A
tradition must provide us with a clue as regards the nature of human values,
which are of paramount importance to the mankind. Man as a historical being
might have expressed himself in a variety of ways in different races and
cultures. According to Radhakrishnan:
The fundamentals of human experience, which
are the data of philosophical reflection, are the same everywhere. The
transitoriness of all things, the play of chance, the emotions of love and
hate, fear and jealousy, the continual process of death, the anxiety to
overcome the corruptibility to things, to enjoy the fleeting moment - these have determined each man his life’s meaning and value.
All men basically share the same urges,
instincts, aspirations, and ideals. Man as a social and creative being is
capable of creating cultures, frame ideals, and transform them. Man can adapt
himself to the changing patterns of environment - social or natural. In all
these cases what is important here is the man behind the culture itself which
may progress or decay. The artificial segregations among men will disappear
only when mankind realises the highest universal ideals which are common to all
men. Only tradition can help us in this regard. The true human values form into
a tradition which is common to entire human race. In that case “the problems
and solutions of one culture will be the problems and solutions of all”.
Freedom is another important factor that
makes an individual a complete individual. Every individual must be allowed to
live his fullest life possible and to realise all the true human values. Every
individual must be given a free hand to enjoy all the human rights. Only then
the individuals will realize the problems faced by his fellow men, and look for
solution to the problems faced by them. For instance, the values such as
honesty, sympathy, charity, kindheartedness are important for a happy social
life. Humanism will be complete only with the spiritual values. If tradition
represents the internal development of man, modernity represents the external
development of man. In this sense, both tradition and modernity are the two
sides of the same coin. The development of science in terms of modernity may
give man more external comforts, but it is the internal development in the form
of human values that provides man utmost satisfaction. There should be proper
balance between these two realms, namely, external and internal. One should not
remain as mere spiritualist without caring for the society in which he lives;
at the same time one should not live a life of mere materialist comforts
without caring for the basic human values. Both these dimensions are to be
taken care of for the furtherance of human life.
It is through reflection and critical
evaluation that one can realise the basic human values, and the meaning and
purpose of human life. This is what is missing in our political -leaders at
present. Honesty, sincerity, and commitment to one’s own profession have taken a back seat. Men are no
more treated as ends in themselves, rather are treated as means to achieve
certain desired ends of other men. The meaning and purpose of human life can be realised only when man
inquires into his inner most being. Of course, there is no prescribed method as
to how to approach the innermost being. In fact, “the inward being of man has
remained a greater booming, buzzing confusion than the environment...”
Indian tradition has presented different
perception of truth, through the truth is one. The Upanishads are the main
source of our tradition. According to them, the essential nature in all men is
the same. This is the first step towards equality. The so-called differences
among men are based on certain external features. We treat the accidental or
adventitious features as primary, and the essential features as primary, and
the essential features as secondary or derivative.
All our social problems arise due to this
wrong priority given to set of accidental features. To a great extent our
contemporary philosophers are successful in revealing this fact. Our enthusiasm
to accept modernity at the cost of tradition led us to a mutilated and
degenerated value system. This trend has to be checked immediately.
One has to make a distinction between the
expressions “tradition” and “traditional”. Tradition in general is concerned
with the basic human values to
be upheld, and their promotion. We use the expression “traditional” as opposed
to modern ways of doing something. For example, we have traditional ways of
doing farming, and the modern ways. Unless one keeps this distinction in mind,
it is difficult to understand the role of tradition in social progress. The
basic human values cannot change from time to time; but the way in which they have
to be pursued may change in accordance with the changing situations in society.
We certainly need a philosophy which represents the fundamental tenets of our
tradition to guide our thinking and actions. It should touch our life. The
“ideals that it represents should not be poetical fictions, created by
rebellious heart defeated and turned within into the realm of fancy by the hard
concrete fact outside”, (P. T. Raju).
To conclude, man is a combination of both spiritual and material elements. We cannot ignore either of these elements. Over emphasis on spiritual element deprives man of his activistic tendency, which is supposed to be the arya dharma. Similarly, over-emphasis on the material element makes man selfish, brutish, and unkind to his fellow human beings. Such a state reduces man to beast. Therefore, tradition and modernity should go hand in hand. If they are treated as antithetical to each other, then the result is lopsided development of our society.