Nationalism, Kingdoms and Kings: Looking at Shivaji and Rana Pratap

Ram Puniyani

The legend of some of the kings continues in different forms and is used by different political formations. These political formations draw their identity from the past and project it on the present. These sectarian streams have been using the names of different kings and glorifying them in various ways. There is a hidden message of a politics behind such efforts, as they eulogize the pre-colonial period for their political agenda. While the incidents and events are the same, the way they are looked at by different streams and different schools of historiography are very diverse.

Recently in Mumbai one play is making rounds, ‘Shivaji Underground in the Bhimnagar Mohalla’. (September 2012). Similarly in Rajasthan at various places the big hoardings of Maharana Pratap have appeared. These hoardings proclaim him as the first freedom fighter. This play on Shivaji seems to be a major contribution to the theater on Shivaji after the much hyped and publicized play on Shivaji, ‘Jaanta Raja’ (Enlightened King) by Babasaheb Purandare. Purandare’s Shivaji is an anti Muslim King, with a mission to establish Hindu kingdom, he the protector of Brahmins and Cows (gobrahmin pratipalak). This is a theme song of Hindu nationalism propounded by RSS-Shiv Sena, where Kings like Shivaji fighting against Muslim Kings were the brave warriors committed to the cause of Hindu nation. Here the anti Muslim stance and pro Brahmin stance merges and upholds Cow, the identity used by Hindu nationalist’s time and over again.

The play ‘Shivaji underground…’ takes a totally different stance. Here Shivaji is neither pro Cow Brahmin, nor an anti Muslim hero. It upholds the identity of dalits and targets the Brahmins. The struggle between Dalits on one side and Hindutva, upper caste, politics on the other has been manifesting in Maharashtra from quite some time. Many an events like attack on Bhandarkar Museum, banning of James Lanes book on Shivaji, which doubts the paternity of Shivaji, are few instances of this. The Braminic, Purandare version, of Shivaji gives all the credit to Dadaji Kond Dev, a Brahmin, who is supposed to have mentored Shivaji. The dalit version of Shivaji opposes this and it is due to this that the statue of Dadaji Kond Dev was desecrated recently in Maharashtra.

As such the interpretation of Shivaji goes far back in our history. Phule, the dalit icon of tall stature, called Shivaji as Raja of ryots (poor peasants). Tagore praises him as ‘king of kings’. It was Tilak who saw him as symbol of Nationalism and organized a festival in his name.  Purandare’s play has been made immensely popular and its popularity runs parallel to the rise of Hindu nationalist politics. The ‘Shivaji underground…’ play points out that Shivaji was not for Hindu rule in any way. He was not anti Muslim at all. The highlight of the play is its focusing that Brahmins were clerks in the courts of Muslim as well as of Hindu Kings. The play does give it a total anti Brahminic slant. This play is the first major attempt to challenge the current narration about Shivjai which is constructed around his being a great Hindu patriot. Nathuram Godse, from Hindutva; RSS-Hindu Mahasabha stable, in his book, ‘May it please your honor’, which is his statement of his defense of murdering Mahatma Gandhi in the court, states that Gandhi was a pigmy as for his nationalism was concerned. The real nationalists have been Shivaji, Rana Pratap and Guru Govind Singh. This is the line of thinking of RSS-Hindu nationalism.

In this ideological understanding of RSS, all the kings who fought against Muslim rulers are Hindu nationalists. It’s a total distortion of understanding of history as kings did not fight for religion; their fights were for power and wealth. And kings of same religion also had running battles with each other.

Rana Pratap, being projected as the First Freedom fighter by communal forces is against the truth. The kings before the British rule were fighting to expand or protect their empires.  The era of Kingdoms is not comparable with freedom movement. Just fighting against Muslim King is not being a freedom fighter. Freedom struggle was against British rule, when India was coming to become ‘a nation in the making’ due to industrial, educational and social changes. The era of Kingdoms and logic of Kings can in no way be compared with the Indians coming together to fight the British Empire. Even these kings be it Shivaji or Rana Pratap were neither ruling for religion not for Hindus. Their administration was having both Hindus and Muslims. Their armies were also mixed ones with Hindu and Muslim Generals both, with Hindu and Muslim soldiers both. Rana Pratap had Hakim Khan Sur on his side and Shivaji was having Siddi Sambal and Rustam-e-Jamaan amongst others. Shivaji’s confidential secretary was Maulana Haider Ali.  Shivaji had reverence and respect for the holy people like Hazrat Baba and Ambrose Pinto.

Rana Paratp’s battle against Akbar was not for religion. It was on the issue of Mansabdari (status in the administration). Rana Pratap was asking for a Das hazari, (ten Thousand) Mansab) while Akbar was offering only Panch Hazari. (Five thousand). Interestingly Akbar never came to Haldi ghati where the battle took place. It was Akbar’s commander in Chief Raja Mansingh, assisted by Shahjada Salim, who fought against Rana Pratap. By no stretch of imagination it is anywhere close to a Hindu Muslim battle or a struggle for nationalism. As a matter of fact Tilak and the later genre of Hindu nationalists associating Shivaji with nationalism are totally off the mark as the term nationalism is a recent one coming up with the rise of nation states. The confusion between Kingdoms and nation states opens the window for communalism to infiltrate in a big way.

In Shivaji’s case now a new frontier of presentation has been opened up. This is that of Dalit-OBC on one side and Brahmins on the other. This is an interesting aspect reflecting the current struggle between these two social groups. The play, ‘Shivaji underground…’ is veering more around this theme while equally powerfully quashing the communal interpretation of Shivaji. One observes that dalit bahujan version and Brahminic versions are polar opposites. Dalit The role of Brahmins against Shivaji is particularly worth its mention. One does recall that the local Brahmins had refused to coronate Shivaji on the grounds that Shivaji is a Shudra. It was the priest from Kashi, Gaga Bhatt, who coroneted him with the little toe of his left foot, the organ in the body which is lowest in the hierarchy, as per Braminic norms.  This play highlights the role of Krishnaji Bhaskar Kulkarni, an official with Afzal Khan. But again it is not a question of this or that religion; Brahmins were working for most of the kings, irrespective of their religion. So while Shivaji and Rana Pratap have to be seen in the proper light, as kings with valor, the other interpretations of nationalism, freedom fighters, anti Muslim Kings are all constructs emerging from the communal historiography and need to be dumped. Also what needs to be brought in the arena of the history is the pain and pleasure of average women and the men. What needs to be projected is the interaction of cultures which were the foundation of human progress, cutting across religions.

It is India’s arrested transition to a democratic society due to which the Kings are being brought to glory and identified with. Whatever the virtue of king of any religion, in current times we need icons who were part of India’s freedom movement, a struggle running parallel to the struggle for caste and gender equality. While projecting the kings as heroes, we do need to remember that it was the system of peasants’ exploitation, which was the base of kingdoms. Surely kingdoms are no systems to emulate today and so need to rethink this iconization of Kings!

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Science versus Miracles: Demonstrating Psychic Powers with Playing Cards

B Premanand

The psychic gives a pack of cards to a volunteer for shuffling, and after shuffling he takes it back. After spreading the cards in his hands, he asks the volunteer to pick a card, remember what card it is, and then put it back in the pack. He is then asked to shuffle it again and return it. With the card pack m his hands the psychic gazes into the eyes of the volunteer and through his telepathic power knows which card he has selected. Then he need not go through the pack of cards to take out the card. He holds the card pack near the ears, shuffles it and brings out a card. It is the selected card.

Experiment: 108

Effect:  Picking the card which you have selected with X-ray powers.

Props:  Stripper card pack.

Method: Call for a volunteer from the audience, hand over the card pack to him and ask him to shuffle it and return it. Spread the cards on your hands with the broad part towards the volunteer and ask him to pick a card. After noting what that card is he puts it back in the pack. At the same time bring the cards together, bolding the cards with your left hand at the lowest end keeping the card pack facing the volunteer length wise. 99% of the people take the card the same way they have taken out and replace it in the pack. If they are replacing the same way, turn the other broad side towards the volunteer and let him insert it in the pack. Then ask him to shuffle the pack and return it. No one can know where the selected card is.

After the pack is returned to you explain to the audience that through your X-ray powers and telepathy you can know the card and pick it out without going through the pack. As you talk, search for the card side that is a little broader than the other cards. Keep the car pack near your ears, explain that you are finding where the card is through your X-ray powers, pass your right hand finger over the card pack, give a hit to the pack at the back, and pull out the protruding card with the thumb and the index finger and show it to the volunteer. It will be the same card which he had selected.

What are Stripper Cards?

A Stripper Deck (also known as a Tapered Deck, Wizard Deck, or Biseauté Deck) allows the magician to control the main location of a card or group of cards easily within the pack. Even after being shuffled into the deck by a spectator, the magician can cut to a selected card. Similarly, even after being lost in different parts of the deck, the magician can move multiple cards to the bottom or top of the deck with a few innocent shuffles.

Unlike the Invisible or Svengali Deck, the Stripper Deck can be handled by an audience member unfamiliar with the concept and can withstand a modest amount of scrutiny without exposing the secret; however, this deck is found in a number of beginners' magic kits, so the secret is well-known, even among non-magicians.

The cards of a Stripper Deck are slightly tapered, so that the sides no longer form a perfect rectangle. The change is slight enough to be undetected by visual inspection or even casual handling, but if a single card is rotated 180° so that it's tapered in the opposite direction from the rest of the deck, the card's broad end can easily be detected, by feel or even by sight, among the narrow ends of the rest of the deck. At this point the magician can select the target card through sleight of hand.

Many of the effects achieved with a Stripper Deck can also be accomplished with sleight of hand.

(Courtesy: Wikipedia - Accessed on 06 April 2013)

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Science versus Miracles: Curing the Lame, Blind, Deaf and Dumb

B Premanand

Pentecostals and some other Christian groups conduct meeting every year claiming to cure the blind, deaf, dumb and lame and also other incurable diseases. They get forms filled up by the people about their ailments and collect money in the guise of donations. The patients donate generously hoping for a cure by divine intervention.

At the prayer meeting, a blind person is brought to the stage and after prayer, the healer passes his hands over the eyes, and he gets sight. A dumb person is brought and after prayer, he starts speaking A deaf person is brought and he starts hearing. Like wise a lame person is cured of his lameness and he walks from the stage. 

Experiment: 107

Effect: Curing the Lame, Blind, Deaf and Dumb.

Props: 1” padding at the heels in one of the shoes.

Method:  The blind, the dumb and the deaf are acting. The lame one has a 1” padding in the heels of one shoe. After removing the shoe, the healer prays and massages the leg of the person and pulls it. Putting on the shoe (the padding is stealthily removed) he walks from the stage without limping.

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Myanmar Communal Violence- a Set back to Democratic Process

Ram Puniyani

Most of the countries of South Asia have faced the barbaric problem of violence targeted against religious minorities. The form of this may have been different, but the outcome has been similar, the brutality against religious minorities, violence against innocent human beings. The current times (Mid 2013) may be one of the worst when in the spate of short span of we are witness to violence in Pakistan, Bangla Desh, India and Myanmar, more or less running parallel. Many a times when talk about violence involving Muslims has been under discussion, some propagandists have tried to associate Islam with violence and so the strife. Similarly some others may say that Hinduism permits violence as in Gita or so and so is the problem. In popular perception Buddhism is the religion of peace. The truth is that while the religious precepts are for morality, the part of religion invoked for violence has more to do with contemporary political issues, which are given the garb of religion. While Lord Gautama Buddha is surely the major apostle of peace, one has seen violence by Buddhist monks in Sri Lanka, Thailand and now overtly in Myanmar (March 2013).

Troops are keeping a vigil, martial law has been declared to stop the communal rage which has lasted for three days in Meikhatila in Myanmar. This violence has involved the Buddhists and Muslims.  Here the official toll stands at 31 dead, while the unofficial figures are higher.  A state of emergency has been declared in this state. As usual a trivial incident involving the argument between the Buddhist couple and a Muslim owner of gold shop resulted in the triggering of simmering dislikes and discord between these two communities resulting in violence. While one Buddhist monk has also been killed the major victims of the violence are Muslims. This bring to our memory the communal clash of June -July (2012) in Rakhine State in western Myanmar. In that violence officially 110 people were killed and it left 120,000 people homeless. Those killed and left homeless were mostly stateless Rohingya Muslims.

Interestingly the communal strife was under the wraps during the preceding dictatorial regime. With the efforts to bring in democracy in some form these strife’s are coming to surface due to the diverse and plural nature of Myanmar society, which is majority Buddhist but has substantial number of Muslim minorities. Rohingiya Muslims are probably the most persecuted minority in the world. Being a substantial number in Myanmar, they are from Indo-Aryan group, who settled in this part over a period of last couple of centuries, during the British rule, primarily. While the majority Buddhists are of Sino-Tibetan stock.  Muslims live in the Western state of Rakhine state on country’s Western border.  They have been adversely affected by the 1982 citizenship law, which has deprived them of the citizenship; there is a total violation of their human rights due to this unjust law. They are subjected to forced labour and have to work for the Government without any pay.  The UNHCR has noted that since 1991 their freedom of movement is restricted. They are treated like second class citizens. Facing this adverse situation of gross violation of their rights many of them are trying to flee to Thailand, Malaysia and other places amongst others.

In 2012, June-July the violence between Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims was triggered by the rumour of rape of a Buddhist girl. As such it was a case of Muslim boy and Buddhist girl falling in love and eloping to get married. The boy was murdered and two of his friends who helped him to elope are facing death sentence.

Overall this reflects the unsolved problem of secularization and democracy in the region. The common factor in whole of South Asia is the migration of people for economic reasons, and with independence coming many of the dominating communities wanted to associate citizenship rights based on religion. Due to this some communities got deprived of citizenship formally or informally. Some were relegated to second class citizenship in practice. In Sri Lanka, the large number of Tamils who had gone there as plantation labour was denied equal rights and denied equality leading the extreme reaction in the form of formation of Liberation Tiger of Tamil Elam (LTTE).

In Myanmar 5% of the people are Muslims. Many of them had been the residents of this region from centuries. Denying them full citizenship defies all the logic of a modern democratic state. During the regime of military junta, which ruled the country for decades, a wrong precedent has been set, that of linking citizenship with religion. It requires deeper investigation as to why many a monks have an anti Islamic attitude. One knows similarly many a monks had played anti-Tamil role in Sri Lanka. There must be deeper societal processes which are at work and are usurping the democratic norms of equality of religions. One knows that democracy is coming up in Myanmar after long decades after long battles, but still the remnants of the communal divide are dogging this nascent democracy. In a way this is also the colonial legacy which subtly promoted the divisiveness in the society.

With this violence in Myanmar coming to the fore the whole South Asia has to wake up and come to the grips of the legacy of the colonial past, a legacy perpetuated due to economic and political policies of rulers, rulers who have in a short-sighted manner resorted to abuse of religious identity for their political goals. Some political tendencies have thrived on the identity of religions and spread the ‘Hate’ about ‘other’ community. It is retarding the process of development in each of South Asian countries and also putting strong brakes on the same. South Asia should have been striving towards the process of formation of South Asian Federation, which can expedite the processes leading to peace in the sub continent. Regional peace in turn is a prerequisite for development of the regions. We need to look beyond the narrow religious identities and promote the freedom of religion, equality of religions and dignity and honour for people of all the faiths for a better environment in those countries and a more congenial atmosphere for enhancement of human rights of weaker sections of society.

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Book Review: Carvaka Philosophy - A New Look

Subhendu Sarkar

The Carvaka/Lokayata has a special place in the history of Indian philosophy. Contending against the pro-Vedic Brahminical and the non-Vedic Buddhist and Jain schools, the Carvaka flouted the belief in after-life and afterworld and advocated an uncompromising materialist philosophy in ancient India. But as the most of the material relating to the Carvaka is lost, the reconstruction of the fundamental principles has been done on the basis of whatever little is found in the works of its opponents and the extracts quoted by them. The most recent addition to the list of systematic study on the Carvaka has been attempted by Ramkrishna Bhattacharya.*

Working on the various aspects of the Carvaka since 1995, Bhatta-charya has succeeded in improving on the findings of the earlier scholars. He has not only disproved certain popular notions about the Carvaka but also refuted some claims made by various scholars. Besides, Bhattacharya throws light on some entirely new areas.

The book is a collection of twenty three more or less self-complete articles dealing with different aspects of the Carvaka. Bhattacharya charts the history of pre-Carvaka materialist philosophy in India (in chapters II and III) by citing Ajit Kesakambalin, a senior contemporary of the Buddha and Mahavira, and other Buddhist, Jain and Brahminical sources. The five commentators (Aviddhar-karna, Bhavivikta Kambalasvatara, Purandara and Udbhatabhatta) of the Carvakasutra who flourished before the eighth century BCE and their works are discussed in some detail in chapter V. Moreover, Bhattacharya discards some of the Carvaka fragments offered by the earlier scholars and discovers some new aphorisms, verses and other fragments in chapter VI.

It has been a popular belief regarding the Carvaka-s that they considered sense-experience as the only means of right knowledge. Frauwallner thought that there had been a deviation from this ‘orthodoxy’ in the works of the later materialists like Purandara and others. Bhattacharya disagrees with Frauwallner on this point and shows in chapter IV that Purandara’s admittance of ‘inference as is well-known in the world’ is not a ‘revisionist’ approach but only an expiation on the original Carvaka view regarding the means of right knowledge. In fact, what is advocated is that the limited validity of inference is not doubted by the Carvaka-s. However, the Carvaka-s did not accept inferences that transgress the worldly way in order to prove the existence of the imperishable soul, its transmigration after the death of a person, God, heaven and hell, the omniscient being, etc.

As for the two common notions regarding the Carvaka-s that they preached sensual gratification as the summum bonum of life and that pleasure alone is the end of life, Bhattacharya shows that they are false charges leveled against the Carvaka-s by their opponents with an intention to make the doctrine appear morally reprehensible. In fact, this has been the most common practice against all materialists, past and present. Epicurus too had to suffer similar charges. The Carvaka-s did say that there is no pleasure beyond this world. But it does not necessarily mean that they were hedonists. Bhattacharya aptly demonstrates in chapter XIX how the verses were distorted and then attributed to the Carvaka-s. Bhattacharya does not only disprove certain verses ascribed to the Carvaka; he also examines, for the first time, several hitherto unexploited sources (for example, Perso-Arabic in chapter XXII) to study the references made to the Carvaka.

No doubt, Bhattacharya's book is an important contribution to the study of the relentless materialist philosophy of ancient India.

*Studies on the Carvaka/ Lokayata

Firenzie : Societa Editrice Fiorentina, 2009. pp. 251. 28 Pound. (Indian edition : New Delhi: Manohar Publishers and Distributors, 2010, Anthem Press India, 2012)

This review first appeared in Frontier, Vol.42, No.47, June 6-12, 2010, p.14-15

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