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| The
Hindu Phenomenon |
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THE
CIVILIZATIONAL PERSPECTIVE
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me, however, there is a third difference which is of critical
importance. This difference is that the British did not come to
India -- and did not rule over India - as part of a proselytizing
enterprise in the religious realm. Indeed, it was with great
reluctance that the authorities in Calcutta, acting on behalf of the
East India Company, yielded to the pressure from London to allow
Christian missionaries to enter India and engage in proselytization.
In the absence of backing by the state, however, the Christian
missionaries could achieve only a pretty limited measure of success
and, that too, largely among weaker sections of society, which could
be tempted and manipulated. This absence of a direct link between
the state and the Church offered great relief to Hindus and ensured
their survival in freedom, and, therefore, held out the prospect of
Hindu self-affirmation. It is my contention that a process of
self-affirmation, in fact, began with the establishment and
consolidation of British rule. I view Raja Rammohan Roy and other
reformers as much in that light as men such as Ramakrishna
Parmahansa, Swami Vivekanand, Sri Aurobindo and Maharishi Raman. |
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Civilizational Perspective |
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