Rise of Reason: Intellectual history of 19th-century Maharashtra 9781138929722, 9781315680965

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Rise of Reason

This book offers one of the first critical evaluations and in-depth analysis of the intellectual movement in Maharashtra in the nineteenth century. Arguing against the prevalent view that Indian rationality was imported from Europe through the colonial agency, it traces the rational roots of the movement to indigenous intellectual traditions and history. It also questions the centrality assigned to the ‘Bengal Renaissance’ as being the representative of the contemporary intellectual movement in the country. Strongly grounded in primary research, this volume brings forth many new facts and facets into the scholarly discourse on topics such as the idea of ‘Drain’ and the rise of Indian nationalism, so far seen as a predominantly political process divorced from its cultural dimensions. It re-examines the view that cultural consciousness that preceded political agitation was a separate sphere of activity and suggests that both were integral stages of anti-colonialism in the country. The author maintains that rationalism and nationalism were closely connected as a means-and-end continuum. He also provides a new and substantially different understanding of the nineteenth-century intellectuals Mahatma Jotirao Phule and Pandita Ramabai among others. Lucid, accessible and thought-provoking, this book will interest scholars and researchers of modern Indian history, Indian political thought, sociology, philosophy and Marathi literature. Hulas Singh is a senior civil servant with the Ministry of Railways, Government of India, a keen researcher and independent scholar. He specialises in the intellectual history of nineteenth-century Maharashtra. He completed his MPhil and PhD from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Presently he is working on a comparative study of Mahatma Jotirao Phule and Babasaheb Ambedkar to bring out aspects of convergence and contrast in their respective approach to society and culture.

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In memory of mai.

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Rise of Reason

Intellectual history of 19th-century Maharashtra

Hulas Singh

First published 2016 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2016 Hulas Singh The right of Hulas Singh to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record has been requested for this book. ISBN: 978-1-138-92972-2 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-68096-5 (ebk) Typeset in Galliard by Apex CoVantage, LLC

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Contents

Preface  1 Introduction   2 Social questioning

vii 1 88

  3 Reason and religion

168

  4 Rationalism and nationalism

198

  5 Idea of India to be

251

Conclusion

301

Bibliography 316 Index337

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Preface

This work is the outcome of my long-cherished wish which was given a positive shape in a chance meeting in the year 2008. We had gone to see Prof. Bipan Chandra who was recuperating in Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in Delhi. As luck would have it, Prof. Aditya Mukherjee and Prof. Mridula Mukherjee also happened to be there at the time. It was during the course of our discussion that the contours of this work were firmed up to a significantly meaningful extent. Intellectual history was not entirely a new field for me. But then challenges of one kind or the other tended to unfold themselves in the course of study. The task of study and analysis of ideas inevitably involved generalisation but there was hardly a generalisation that did not stumble upon some contrary evidence. Reconciliation of chronological sequence and thematic orientation of ideas was another big challenge glaring at my craft all along. As it is, study of ideas often militates against the confines of chronology. If one concentrates on chronology, the soul of thought tends to elude, even evaporate. But when chronology is ignored, historicity suffers. An attempt has, however, been made to match to the extent possible the thematic and chronological dimensions of thought in the context of nineteenth-century Maharashtra – the most taxing part of the project. In prosecution of this work, I have received help and guidance from a large number of people and institutions. Prof. Aditya Mukherjee, my teacher, has been a constant source of encouragement to me right from the beginning. It was he who discussed in detail the progress of this work at nearly every stage and helped me contextualise the study. I owe, indeed, a special debt to Prof. Mukherjee. I am also extremely thankful to Prof. Bipan Chandra and Prof. Mridula

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viii  Preface Mukherjee for their encouragement and care. Prof. Yogendra Singh was kind enough to go through the entire draft and he corrected some of the logical and conceptual inconsistencies which had inadvertently crept into the text. I shall remain grateful to him for his scholarly advice and guidance. One person, however, who has fundamentally shaped me both as an individual and a researcher is Prof. K. N. Panikkar, my guru emeritus. It was he who initiated me into the world of ideas and taught me the rigours of research. His personal care would ever remain my most prized possession. In particular, he promoted critical thinking. If I have dared to differ with him, it is because he trained me in critical thought. My friends Salil, Shashi Bhushan, Rakesh, Mayank and Mahalaxmi went through the draft and provided valuable suggestions, apart from correcting some of the awkward formulations. Salil was quite forthright in offering his ruthless comments which proved to be of immense value. His critique made me revisit some of the initial formulations which helped in nuancing my analysis of the subject. Mahalaxmi’s comments particularly on Phule were very incisive and helpful. I thank them all. My other friends who helped me in one way or the other are, to mention a few, Anand, Om Prakash, Raj Mangal, Rizwan, Gyanesh, Indiver, Medha, Anthony, Visha and Sucheta and I am extremely thankful to all of them. But for the support of Neerja, Namit and Mallika, however, I would not have been able to devote time the way I could to complete the work. The role of institutional support had been really inestimable. I would like to extend my warm regards to the library staff of the following institutions in particular for their help and cooperation: Nehru Memorial Museum, National Archives, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Central Library and Maharashtra Information Centre in Delhi; Bombay University, Bombay Archives, SNDT Women’s University and Asiatic Society of Bombay in Mumbai; and Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Fergusson College, Deccan College, Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, and Tilak Museum in Pune. These institutions contain mines of material on nineteenth-century Maharashtra. I alone am, however, responsible for the strength and weaknesses of the work. October 2014 New Delhi

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1 Introduction

Indian rationality attained a distinct personality in the nineteenth century, the period of an intense intellectual heightening in the country. Western India was one of the major loci of rationalist manifestation, although Bengal happened to be the forerunner of rationalist thinking in India during the period. Almost three decades later than in Bengal, Maharashtra in the nineteenth century witnessed the emergence of an enormous intellectual unrest resting on faith in reason as the ultimate arbiter of assessment, as the supreme touchstone of truth. The intellectual initiative was predominantly concerned with the social side of national reconstruction, despite the sensitivity to the imperative of an overall development being a fairly dominant sensibility in nineteenth-century Maharashtra. In other words, sociocultural reform formed the major plank of the intellectual initiative at that time point, although the consciousness touched upon the mega-structures of national life – social, religious, economic and political. The term ‘Maharashtra’ has been loosely used to suggest the region of Western India which was broadly Marathi speaking; it is not intended to necessarily indicate the wider areas covered by present-day Maharashtra. In actuality, Maharashtra did not constitute a single administrative unit during the whole of the nineteenth century. It was divided into Bombay Presidency, Hyderabad, Central Provinces and Berar. Poona (now Pune) and Bombay (now Mumbai) were the two main centres of intellectual fermentation during the period, and they, thus, prominently figure in the discourse. Maharashtra was destined to host three major events, or more precisely, movements of national importance during the nineteenth century: the intellectual awakening, the advent of Railways in 1853, and the formation of Indian National Congress in 1885. All these three

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2  Introduction forces unleashed progressive processes and played a significant role in India’s modernisation and nation-building. The study of interaction among these processes in facilitating the rise and growth of Indian nationalism may open new vistas in understanding the dynamics of India’s modernisation deeply embedded in the anti-colonial struggle of the time. Social regeneration and national invigoration constituted the central theme of nineteenth-century thought in Maharashtra, although the intellectual life was marked by a wide and varying range of ideas. Among our roster of nineteenth-century thinkers the following formed the main dramatis personae: Bal Shastri Gangadhar Jambhekar (1812–46), Dadoba Pandurang Tarkhadkar (1814–82), Bhaskar Pandurang Tarkhadkar (1816–47), Gopal Hari Deshmukh better known by his penname ‘Lokahitwadi’ (1823–92), Vishnu Bhikaji Gokhale, popularly known as Vishnubawa Brahmachari (1825–71), Vishnu Parashuram Shastri Pandit (1827–76), Jotirao Govindrao Phule (1827–90), Ramakrishna Gopal Bhandarkar (1837–1925), Narayan Mahadev Parmanand (1838–93), Mahadev Govind Ranade (1842–1901), Vishnushastri Chiplunkar (1850–82), Kashinath Trimbak Telang (1850–93), Beheramji Merwanji Malabari (1853–1912), Narayan Ganesh Chandavarkar (1855–1923), Gopal Ganesh Agarkar (1856–95), and Pandita Ramabai ‘Saraswati’ (1858–1922). The present work is an exercise to converse with the thoughts of these thinkers in the context of nineteenth-century colonial Maharashtra. The bulk of literature on the intellectual awakening in nineteenthcentury India primarily deals with the contemporaneous developments in Bengal often referred to as the ‘Bengal Renaissance’.1 The balance of historiographic propensity is tilted so much towards the Bengal phenomenon that the nineteenth-century intellectual movement in the country seems to be almost identified with the former. The virtual neglect or scant treatment of other contemporary consciousnesses in the country is quite conspicuous; a case in point is particularly that of Maharashtra. The historiographic treatment of the movement in Maharashtra appears to be quite inadequate in comparison to its counterpart in Bengal, despite the fact that the former was a real force to reckon with, and certainly no less powerful and prophetic than the latter in the then context. In fact, in a certain sense, the range and depth of thought in nineteenth-century Maharashtra marked a distinct advance over other contemporaneous consciousnesses in the country including the so-called Bengal

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Introduction  3 Renaissance. The asymmetry in historical delineation is attested to by the fact that the historiography on the movement in Maharashtra even now has largely remained confined to the level of biographies2 or is mostly in the form of biographical sketches or at best individual reformer-centric narratives, though intent is visible in some of the studies to delineate main contours of the consciousness in question.3 One of the prominent purposes of the present study is to push the historiography forward from the level of biographies and try to map the core content of the consciousness in question as a whole, right from its evolution from pre-British times to the shapes and shades as it obtained in nineteenth-century colonial Maharashtra. The use of ‘Renaissance’ analogue in the existing historiography is also more misleading than revealing. It overlooks the difference between the Indian and European experience not only in terms of the context but also in terms of their content and character. The European Renaissance, for example, represented not only the revival of humanistic thought but also the inception and conception of colonial concerns. Significantly, the phase of European Renaissance actually witnessed the onset of geographical discoveries and hunt for colonies, whereas the Indian initiative saw the germination of anti-colonial consciousness in the country. Implicit in the analogy is, moreover, the idea of European superiority, for what happened in nineteenth-century India had understandably already happened about three to four centuries earlier in Europe. This inevitably gives a distorted picture of the Indian reality which happens to be seen essentially as a sub-prototype of the European experience. There is, therefore, need to discard the rationale of ‘Renaissance’ analogue and instead study the nineteenth-century Indian phenomenon in its own right without searching for external anchorage, particularly when both tended to be significantly asymmetrical. The story is woven around the two key concepts employed in the study –‘reason’ and ‘intellectual’. The word ‘reason’ is manifold in its meaning and quite indeterminate in its application. It is largely used as a general term denoting a human faculty of critical thinking, even converging on patently pragmatic considerations to cope up with concrete human conditions often using logic as its inalienable weapon. ‘Rationality’, as W.T. Murphy states, is viewed as operationalisation of this critical faculty in the existential situations of humankind.4 Rationalism as a philosophic movement or standpoint, however, implied both metaphysical and epistemological presuppositions, that is, reality

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4  Introduction is rational and reason is the most reliable and valid source of knowledge in order to comprehend and command reality for human betterment. This was largely the thrust of the rhetoric of reason gaining currency in the course of the eighteenth-century European Enlightenment. The analytical category of ‘reason’ has, however, been used here in a somewhat more specific sense. Its classical connection with logic as the methodology and criteriology of knowledge has been subdued to signification of the challenge of science and critical stance to status-quoist thoughts. Precisely speaking, reason has not been taken to essentially imply the process of normal reasoning or rationalising. The rebellious role of reason has, on the other hand, been prominently focalised, connoting that it is essentially a revolt against justificatory rationalisation of orthodoxy or conformism. The rationale of reason, in this standpoint, lies in its ability and will to transcend the boundaries and limitations of status quo. This, in fact, constitutes its defining moment which actually sets it apart from conformism or status-quoism. Reason in this perspective is a process of intellection entailing cognition, contemplation, comprehension and discrimination. It is a discerning human faculty for the evaluation of reality entailing a critical examination of options and evidences, unaided or untainted by emotion, instinct, impulse, caprice, sentiment, authority and even intuition.5 It relies on inward, and not outward, authority and is decidedly opposed to impulse. As R.G. Mayor suggests, reason is thought which is aware of its own processes.6 It questions before it accepts; it ‘doubts’ before demonstrating ‘certainty’. A rational being freely selects among properly weighed alternatives, conscious choice being the kernel of rational thinking.7 Reason is a method by which objects of intellection are compared and weighed in reflection. According to George Santayana, it embodies the good8 and is not synonymous with utilitarianism. Utilitarianism emphasises the maximisation of personal happiness as the ultimate end of life and volition.9 It tends to encourage selfishness10 and self-laden optimisation of pleasure whereas rationalism is essentially an outlook of ‘goodness’ and altruism with progress as its perennial theme. It is conceptually incongruous to conceive of reason bereft of the notion of progress and reform. Reason principally stands for change, not continuity; it is cognitive reflection, not simply observation. It denotes socially purposive non-conformism and not mere criticism of society or irresponsible debunking of social norms. In the words of Howard Becker and Harry Elmer Barnes, a

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Introduction  5 rationalist stance at reconstruction of society relies on education and legislation as the main methods of ensuring social progress11; this is actually its instrumental domain. Reason denounces blind beliefs, superstitions, social obscurantism and religious bigotry, though not necessarily being antithetical to religion. Reason and religion can and do conveniently coexist, and they have so existed in history. Its ideals are justice, fairplay, equanimity and freedom.12 It has power of self-criticism and self-correction. It is often against any arrogation of authority and promotes merit as the basis of thought and conduct. This conception of reason traverses as well as transcends the heuristic template of Enlightenment rationality of eighteenth-century Europe. As a critical human faculty, reason has nothing to do with geography or genetics and is not specific to any region, history, nation or locale; it is a universal human attribute. Critical thought is an inalienable ingredient of humanity across the world. Rationalism as a socio-philosophic movement, however, did attain a specific connotation in European history, particularly during the heyday of the Enlightenment in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and the Enlightenment rationality has since become, for various reasons, the blueprint of universal referrality. It is one thing to accept it as a referral and an altogether another to take it as a model; and it is precisely in the sense of the latter that a sizeable section of the scholarship, both Indian and foreign, seems to be influenced with, though degrees differ, while tracing the process of the rise of reason in the Indian intellectual tradition. A negative fallout of the belief in the necessitarian import of rationality totally rooted in the European experience and value system has often meant negation or downplaying of rational reverberations experienced in non-European cultures or countries (e.g. India) if it does not appear to fit entirely into the near-deterministic template of European tradition and history or when it happens to be situated outside the ambit of its impact at a particular time point in history. The question is: can two or more historical experiences be replicable? A related question is: Are principles or values involved or the actual experience undergone in a particular context of history to be taken as the basis of comparison, if at all? Does specificity imply replicability for validity and can it necessarily correspond with universality? The Enlightenment experience, of course, belonged to Europe but not necessarily the Enlightenment values which could, in fact, be located across the human

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6  Introduction globe. We shall try to substantiate this assumption in the course of our discourse. ‘Intellectual’ is another allied category specifically used in the work. Though this is also a term of greater generality,13 all those who relied on intellectual reflection to critically cognise and comprehend the contemporary social and national life with a view to bringing about change and progress have been selected here for the purpose of study.14 Intellection is essentially a process of cognition through the prism of reason. Intellectuals by the very character of their calling are primarily concerned with the present state of affairs which they try to improve.15 Change, the core of intellectual concern, has to be brought about in the present, and not in the past. The past is to be used as an aid and not the aim of efforts. They are not silent spectators of the social scene; they are instead creators and custodians of critical and creative thinking about the problems of society in question. Aura and not authority is their hallmark; they exert influence, not power. There is a certain openness in their outlook to life and society. They are guided by ideals and not self-interest. Intellectuals, in fact, represent the efforts of men who tend to transcend the boundaries of primordialities, self-interest, experience and group or class loyalties in their conception of social change and progress they stand for. They have a perspective, a vision of society they seek to change, and they are aware of their special mission. Intellectual ideas are, as a matter of fact, an expression or articulation of social problems and perspectives. In fact, it is the social meaning and motive that accords an idea the status of ‘intellectuality’. Obviously this definition runs counter to and even goes beyond Gramsci’s concept of what he calls ‘organic intellectuals’ as the most likely empathetic interlocutors of the working class.16 It needs to be emphasised here that however revolutionary the Gramscian notion of the role for this substratum might have been in a specific context of history, it remains after all confined to the class framework of analysis and is, therefore, restrictive in its scope. Intellectuals for our purpose are to be distinguished from class ideologues and activists, which the Gramscian notion tends to conflate and even glorify. Conceptually, ‘intellectuality’ militates against any kind of primordiality or restrictiveness, be it class or group; its openness and open-endedness are its strength, not weakness. Intellect does not require itself to be bounden to a body or an ‘organ’ for its worth or intensity; its vehicle is ideology, not nativity.

Introduction  7

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Contours of consciousness The intellectuals in nineteenth-century Maharashtra were propelled by diverse orientations of ideas and it would be difficult to group them all together as a cohesive unit, despite there being a broad unity of purpose underlying all along. For the purpose of simple understanding, the movement during the period could be characterised as primarily representing the following four strands of thought: Change and Continuity: The mainstream movement in Maharashtra was marked by emphasis on both change and continuity. In cultural sphere it represented a break with the present and a link with the past for a better future. Jambhekar, Dadoba, Lokahitwadi, Vishnubawa Brahmachari, Pandit, Bhandarkar, Parmanand, Ranade, Telang, Malabari, Chandavarkar and even Agarkar were the main advocates of this strand of thought, although they did differ in degrees and emphasis. They by and large believed in the Vedic framework of social life as being better than the contemporary corruptions crept into the existing social system. Belief in British beneficence was another ideational hallmark of this genre of thought, although quite a few like Agarkar did not subscribe to the ‘divine dispensation’ theory. Moreover, nearly all of them laid emphasis on moderation and gradualism as the royal road to lasting social transformation, again except perhaps Agarkar who would not hesitate to have even a French Revolution in India to change corrupt customs. Education and legislation were highlighted as the most effective instrument of social change by the proponents of this school of thought. They did not advocate structural transformation; change was sought within the very structure without any sharp rupture. Radical Social Restructuring: Mahatma Phule represented a radical departure from the mainstream movement. He condemned caste with utter abomination single-mindedly and viewed the present predicament of the suppressed sections of society to be directly linked with the prejudices of the past. He outright rejected the Vedic framework of life and letters as humbug, the product of Brahmanic manipulations willfully orchestrated to exploit the oppressed classes, namely, the Shudras and Ati-Shudras. He was not satisfied with simply a social tinkering and advocated revolutionary transformation of social relations based on the principles of equality, liberty, humanism and dignity. Equality formed the bedrock of Phulean philosophy of social change. He castigated caste both as an ideology and

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8  Introduction as a structure, and stood for the end of caste-based discrimination. Phule’s thoughts are enshrined in his three major works – Gulamgiri (Slavery) published in 1873; Shetakaryacha Asud (The Cultivator’s Whipcord) and his posthumously published philosophical work, Sarvajanik Satyadharma Pustak (A Book of the True Religion for All). To carry out his work for upliftment of the depressed and downtrodden people, he founded the Satyashodhak Samaj in 1873. The Shudras and Ati-Shudras, peasants and women constituted under the Phulean framework of social diagnosis the most vulnerable sections of society, subjected to severe injustice and atrocities. They were all viewed to be more or less synonymous in extent and intensity of their social subjection and deprivation. Mahatma Phule was a man not merely of words but also of action. He provided not only a voice but also a venue for social salvation of the Shudras and Ati-Shudras. He actively engaged himself in emancipatory measures and brought forth the issue of untouchability in the forefront of national life. His admiration for the British rule knew no bounds. He often articulated his profound sense of debt for its role in creating a conducive climate for Shudras’ salvation from the centuries-old Brahmanical hold. He was one of those who rejoiced at the news of the defeat of the Revolt of 1857, as he dreaded in its success the return of the rule of the ‘Brahmins’ (Peshwas).17 He also distrusted the reform initiatives undertaken by ‘Brahmin’ reformers like Ranade and others so far as their salvational content and intent for Shudras were concerned.18 Phule found the Brahmo Samaj, the Prarthana Samaj, the Sarvajanik Sabha and the Indian National Congress suspect in their intent to serve the true interests of the Shudras and held them to be the agencies for hoodwinking them instead.19 He even had no love lost for the egalitarian espousals of the Bhakti saint-poets, particularly those belonging to the Brahmin caste, who, he held, basically sang socially futile and innocuous songs.20 From among the Indian intellectual traditions he idealised only Buddhism for its non-discriminatory doctrine. It would, however, be seen in the subsequent sections that even Mahatma Phule could not totally transcend the caste framework of analysis, and that he definitely did not advocate caste war or tension. Moreover, he, too, like other mainstream reformers, pinned his faith in the efficacy of education and legislation as key to lasting social transformation, along classical reformist traditions. Babasaheb Ambedkar regarded Mahatma Phule as one of his three ‘gurus’, along with Buddha and Kabir.21 There is, however,

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Introduction  9 a tendency particularly palpable among the current crop of ‘Dalit’ scholarship to downplay, even disown the Phulean legacy in the emergence and articulation of ‘Dalit’ ideology and politics in contemporary India.22 Nandu Ram, for instance, emphasises the ideational disjunction between Phule and Ambedkar. ‘Both Phule and Periyar had articulated the interests of non-Brahmins (not necessarily and compulsorily of the erstwhile Untouchables) . . . in the movements of Phule and Periyar the vital issues pertaining to the Untouchables were either ignored or relegated.’23 Similarly, Vivek Kumar traces the ideational ancestry of Dalit self-assertion in the Bhakti tradition, and views Gopal Baba Walangkar, a nineteenth-century retired army officer, ‘as the first social thinker, the first revolutionary and the first initiator of the Dalit movement in Maharashtra’,24 relegating Phule to either oblivion or insignificance in the reckoning. Other scholars such as S.S. Jodhka, Gopal Guru and Kancha Ilaiah are, however, not as dismissive of Phulean legacy, and in their studies there are reverberations of recognition of Phule’s contribution in the genesis and articulation of Dalit ideology and struggle.25 Hypersensitivity to the image of Babasaheb Ambedkar, however, remains the hallmark of ‘Dalit’ scholarship in general, though degrees differ. Anyone coming close to Babasaheb in terms of ideational ancestry or elevation, be it Phule or Periyar, must face oblivion or stand miniaturisation so as to magnify or safeguard the size of Ambedkar in Indian history. It is to be noted, however, that the stature of Ambedkar would not diminish by denial of Phulean legacy nor would his greatness get magnified by neglect of Phule and the like. In the ultimate analysis history is the judge, not historians and ideologues. In fact, both these stalwarts struggled amidst contextual constraints to provide voice and venue to those deprived of even basic human rights, the context of Phule being more harsh and hostile than that of Ambedkar. A separate study from a comparative standpoint would perhaps throw more light on the contributions of these two prominent ‘Dalit’ intellectuals of modern times. Critique of Gender-Relations: Pandita Ramabai, Tagore’s ‘White Lotus’, represented another significant strand of thought in nineteenth-century Maharashtra. In a major sense, she symbolised the inception and conception of gender consciousness in the country. What was Mahatma Phule to Shudras, Pandita Ramabai was to Indian womanhood, although both complemented each other

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10  Introduction in their respective emphasis on gender equality, and in their initiatives for upliftment of the status of Indian women. Like Mahatma Phule, she rejected the social prescriptions laid down by ancient law-givers, Manu in particular, which, she highlighted, sanctified women’s seclusion and provided scriptural sanction for denial of female freedom. Her disenchantment with Hinduism for its sanction to social discrimination was certainly to a significant extent responsible for her conversion to Christianity. She, like Phule and others, however, viewed education to be a royal road to gender liberation but, unlike him, was skeptical about the efficacy of legislation in ameliorating the plight of Indian widowhood. Her libertarian ideas are enshrined primarily in her two major works published in the nineteenth century – Stri Dharma Niti (1882) and The High-Caste Hindu Woman (1887), along with a letter written in 1883 ‘The Cry of Indian Women’. These writings represent the core of the critique of gender-relations in nineteenth-century India. Open Condemnation of Colonial Rule: Bhaskar Pandurang, younger brother of the celebrated Dadoba Pandurang, carved out a separate space for himself among the contemporary intellectual fraternity. His ideas ran counter to the mainstream current of thought in his singular condemnation of the colonial rule. He wrote eight letters, published in the Bombay Gazette in the year 1841, highlighting the exploitative character of British colonialism almost on the lines of Extremists’ thinking26 at a time point when nearly the entire intellectual fraternity was all admiration for the regenerative role of the Raj. He criticised nearly every possible aspect of British rule, even exposing the sham and duplicity in their much acclaimed claim to establishing the so-called rule of law. He was the first intellectual in the nineteenth century to eloquently articulate as early as 1841 the idea of Drain as a system of siphoning off India’s wealth and resources, although ‘Rammohan was conscious of the drain of wealth from India through salary remittances, savings from the professional incomes of English civilians as well as from the earnings of English merchants, agents and planters, and through Indian revenues expended in England.’27 Although Drain as an instrument of exploitation was subsequently elaborated and empirically substantiated by Dadabhai Naoroji on a much grander scale, Bhaskar’s view acquires significance for its historicity and fearless exposition. This lone voice,

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Introduction  11 however, remained largely lonely in the contemporary context, although some articles critical to the colonial rule, mostly pseudonymous, did appear in the very paper during the period. Such soundings failed to generate similar reverberations and could not be converted into a chorus in the then context. It was only much later that militant anti-colonialism found ardent articulation with the advent of Chiplunkar and Tilak in the late nineteenth century. Bhaskar Pandurang’s untimely demise in 1847 at a very young age of about thirty-one years deprived India of an incisive critic of colonialism.

In glorification of reason Rational reform of society and culture for nation-building constituted the core concern of the nineteenth-century intellectual consciousness in Maharashtra. Jambhekar, a polyglot and erudite scholar, was the pioneer of rationalist resurgence in Western India. It was, however, Dadoba Pandurang who first effectively articulated his faith in reason as the most trustworthy test of truth. In his Marathi book Dharma-Vivechan written in 1843 and published in 1868 under a pseudonym Ek Jagadwasi Arya28 he asserted: The final truth is that which stands the test of reason after a minute scrutiny especially that which contributes to the welfare of the people. Our attitude is the same towards the Vedas, the Koran, the Bible and other religious works. All these are creations of men. Unthinking people consider that these scriptures are written for us by God himself and sent from the heaven. But that is not so.29 All Puranas and Shastras are thus cheats. They have made mountains out of molehills and unnecessarily confused people instead of showing them the right path. This method of misguiding people is most despicable.30 He thus denounced the sanctity of scriptural authority as guide to thought and action and pinned faith in the authority of reason as the sole arbiter of people’s welfare. Similarly, Lokahitwadi of Poona admitted the efficacy of reason and conscience as superior means in matters of human conduct in quest of truth and social happiness. He emphasised that evil practices are ‘opposed to the principles of social happiness, benevolence and compassion’ and are ‘discordant

12  Introduction

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to reason and common sense’. In an essay entitled ‘Female Infanticide’ he thus wrote: When the power of reason is weak, frivolous notions are cherished and prejudices are fostered. The lights of conscience and reason are far superior to any, man can have for his direction. By enquiry men come to know what is evil and what is good. When subjects are freely and openly discussed, the fair side is always discovered and perception of the truth takes place. . . . It (argument in favour of infanticide and other similar crimes) is quite opposed to the principles of social happiness, benevolence and compassion in as much as it is discordant to reason and common sense. . . . People should take and adhere to such customs as are good and reasonable and those which they know are fraught with evil should be given up.31 He further argued that ‘whatever is not accepted by reason should be rejected’.32 He held that Hinduism, like all other religions, was man-made, subject to change in the light of new needs of the age; the religion that impeded social change had no claim to social adherence.33 Faith in reason was quite palpable in the thought contents of most of the intellectuals in Maharashtra in the nineteenth century. Mahatma Phule, ever acerbic on caste, reasoned in one of his Akhandas (poems): That the mantras and japs bring rain is nonsense; nor do they beget children. If mantras could produce children, no Brahman would die childless. Without mantras even widows give birth to children.34 Phule’s rationality contained Kabir-like pungency but without the matching sophistication of the medieval mystic. His rationality often manifested in the form of sarcasm suffused with robust-raw-rustic reasoning, blunt and biting to the core. In Gulamgiri he wrote: The theory propounded by Manu regarding the origin and creation of four Varnas seems to be totally wrong judged by the laws of natural operation (laws of nature). If the Brahmins were created from the mouth of Brahma, it becomes the womb of the

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Introduction  13 Brahmins. It must be subject to the physical law of menstruation. So, did Brahma segregate himself for four days every month? . . . If the four Varnas were created from the mouth, hands, thighs and feet respectively of the Brahma, then these four limbs may be termed as the respective vaginas – Thus Brahma would have to be segregated for sixteen days in a month. . . . If the Brahmin was conceived in the mouth of Brahma, where did the foetus grow (In which limb of Brahma did it grow?) for nine months? . . . Savitri was Brahma’s wife. Why then, did he take upon himself the cumbrous responsibility of carrying the foetus in his mouth for nine months, and also of giving birth to it and bringing it up – subsequently? It appears very strange indeed! . . . If Brahma, indeed, had four mouths, then he ought to have eight breasts, four navels, four urethras and four anuses. But nothing authentic is mentioned anywhere about this.35 Phule’s rational argumentation also reflected his deep anger and abomination at the claim to scriptural basis of Brahmanic superiority. He further argued: If we say that according to Darwin’s notion, the monkeys transformed into the different species of the new human beings, then this harms the notion that humans were created from the limbs of Brahma.36 Bhandarkar, an antiquarian and Indologist of exceptional erudition, emphasised the strengthening of the value of rational and moral principles for wholesome growth of the nation. He held ‘criticism and comparison are of use not only in enabling us to arrive at a knowledge of what is true but also of what is good and rational’.37 Notably, his rationalism was not just epistemological but prominently patriotic, ‘prompted solely by the love of our country’. In his presidential address at the Indian National Social Conference held in 1902 at Ahmedabad he stated: Social changes must not be left to work themselves out but should always be under the guidance of our reason and moral sense. . . . There must be discussion and decision and deliberate plans for the introduction of such changes only as are good and rational. . . . Under the guidance and control of reason, a spirit

14  Introduction

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of fair criticism prompted solely by the love of our country must be developed by us.38 Similarly, Parmanand, known as a political recluse, proclaimed, ‘We are bound to accept the teachings of all faculties alike, that is, of scientists as well as religious thinkers, saints and devotees, so far as they conform to reason and the moral sense.’39 Ranade, a towering leader of the time, remarked that reason was specific to mankind, forming the basis of socio-religious and political arrangements, and was ‘absent in the brute creation’: Self-conscious reason and free volition are distinguishing features of man and are absent in the brute creation, where responsibility for action does not exist as it does in man. . . . These distinguishing features furnish the bases of law and government, morals and manners, social and family arrangements, literary and scientific culture, and finally of religion and worship.40 His notion of reason was prominently couched in his conception of conscience and the role of divinity in the affairs of mankind. He held, ‘Higher reason is the sanction of God in man’s bosom.’41 He accorded supreme importance to conscience or what he called ‘Divine command in us’ as the ultimate arbiter of human conduct. In his address at the Eleventh Indian National Social Conference held in 1897 at Amaraoti he exhorted: One of the reasons for our helplessness is that we are always intended to remain children, to be subject to outside control, and never to rise to the dignity of self-control by making our conscience and our reason the supreme, if not the sole, guide to our conduct. . . . For long we have benumbed the faculty of conscience in us. . . . Revere all human authority, pay your respects to all prophets and revelations but subordinate that reverence to the Divine command in us.42 Even Chiplunkar who did not stand so much for change in the existing social arrangements and concentrated his ire instead principally on the question of political subjugation of the country, emphasised that superstitions should be distinguished from religious beliefs. Belief in ghosts and omens, he held, was baseless and

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Introduction  15 so were palmistry, astrology and horoscope reading.43 Telang, too, glorified reason, independent of authority, as the valid ground of assessment.44 Chandavarkar was another great champion of reason to be at the root of reform, though well regulated by and in complementarity with what he called the ‘social voice’. In his address on ‘Our Social Ideals’ given at the Presidency College, Madras, in 1896 he said: The social mind represents the centripetal force in society; it is its conservative power; but the centrifugal force which is necessary to make society move beyond its customs and traditions can only come from what is called, ‘the idealistic reason’ or ‘conscious intelligence’ of its individual members. . . . These two forces which exist in society are complementary of one another. The social force which resides in the social mind or its vox populi would, left to itself, promote despotism and lead to immobility. Whenever that force prevails, societies become stationary; on the other hand, where the social force is weak and the individual mind prevails, societies sink into anarchy and confusion. But where the two forces exist and are active, there it is that order rules and well graduated progress is the result.45 Emphasising the need for rational evaluation of social customs, in another lecture at the Social Reform Association at Mangalore in 1900 he further stated: Is a custom good or is it bad? That is and ought to be the question. Because a custom suited the past age, can it suit the present? To say that it can, is to say that a coat which fitted you when you were 20 years old, ought to fit you when you grow to be 30 years old. Let us not defy custom and the Shastras without discrimination and examination.46 The rationalist orientation of Ramabai is profusely palpable in her writings. She berated superstitions and highlighted the cultivation of scientific and rational outlook. In her Stri Dharma Niti she wrote: Women should firmly bear in mind that vows, amulets, charmed cords, or sacred ash given by holy men as blessings and such other remedies do not help at all.47

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In a letter dated 3 July 1885 addressed to Canon Butler she wrote, ‘God has given me independent conscience, not to accept everything slavishly that other people say, but hear and see for and by myself.’48 In her another letter dated 12 October 1885, addressed to Miss Dorothea Beale, founder Principal of Cheltenham Ladies’ College, she wrote: I regret to hear people say sometimes hard things against reason. Has not the same God given us our reason? Are we not right in making use of His gracious gift, the reason, as we make use of other gifts? And I believe revelation is not a store of gross absurdities that cannot stand the test of reason. If we had to give up reason even in the matter of faith we would be no better than some lower animals.49 It was, however, Agarkar in contemporary Indian history who raised reason to an unprecedentedly high intellectual pedestal. He stood almost single-handedly for its purity and universal efficacy. He dismissed the divine origin of laws as absurd and categorically pronounced that The law derives its power and sanction from the authority of people and not from the majesty of God. If there are immutable laws of religion governing the society, one need not be afraid to submit them to the test of reason. If they are not inimical to social interest, they may survive without any props from Manu or Parashar. Or else, they will perish in the intellectual ferment.50 He made reason the sheet anchor of reform and earnestly advocated its propagation among the people at large. Through the columns of Sudharak, an Anglo-Marathi weekly founded by him in 1888, he appealed to his contemporary compatriots: Let masses be educated on the idea of reform based on reason. Clarify their doubts and bring new customs in vogue depending upon their social utility. If situation demands, interpret the reasonableness of the shastras through newspapers, lectures or books.51 Reason was, in fact glorified to newer heights in Agarkar’s expositions, even to the extent of according it an aura of infallibility, and

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Introduction  17 he remained quite consistent in his adherence to ruthless rationality. Nineteenth century was the time when rational resonance permeated in almost the entire intellectual milieu of Maharashtra. Even though some thinkers did not or could not articulate in their expositions their reverence for reason the way others did, instrumental rationality was amply palpable in their thoughts and deeds. The intellectual milieu was marked by advocacy of faith in reason as the guiding principle of social change and conduct.

Origins of rational thinking: an overview Traditionally, as suggested earlier, Europe has been viewed to be the original locus of rationalist thinking in world history. It is widely held, Howard Becker and Harry Elmer Barnes note, that reason and reflective thinking in intellectual tradition came into vogue, if not into existence, in the Greek city-states.52 It is held the early Greeks, with an attitude essentially secular and rationalistic, glorified the spirit of free enquiry and made knowledge supreme over faith and belief.53 Socrates was perhaps the first to emphasise that a man must order his own life by the guidance of his own intellect, without regard for mandates of external authority or for impulses of emotion.54 He discouraged unreasoning and spontaneous loyalty and said that even an old man had no rational title to respect unless he was also wise.55 Plato insisted that reason was the noblest part of man, should be the ruling faculty, and that by thorough and discriminating application of intellect man can attain higher levels of experience and achieve the good. Aristotle also shared the same sense of glorification of reason.56 It is also emphasised that Greek philosophy was fundamentally scientific and materialistic, with conception of the world in physical terms.57 They worshipped the finite and the natural rather than the otherworldly or sublime. There was no subject they feared to investigate, or any question they regarded as beyond the province of reason. Mind was held to be supreme over faith, logic and science over superstitions.58 The modern rhetoric of reason had, however, obviously not attained currency at that time point in history. The tradition of rational rhetoric continued over the period, though degrees differed. The Hellenistic philosophy, exemplified by Stoicism and Epicureanism, also showed a fundamental regard for reason as a royal road to the solution of human problems.59 By the third century ad the rationalistic elements of Greek philosophy, however, suffered a setback and were fast being displaced by various

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18  Introduction mystic, magical or religious ideologies.60 The Middle Ages, moreover, witnessed the sway of ecclesiastical world view under the guidance and control of the Roman Papacy. The rationalistic trend in the European intellectual tradition, however, received a fillip during the days of the European Renaissance which, however, happened to be essentially a votary of the mystical and aesthetic, rather than avowedly scientific and rationalistic, attitude.61 ‘Humanism’ constituted the hallmark of the European Renaissance. It was exemplified by a belief that the charm of the classics resided essentially in their humanness, their humanity and that anyone who would recapture and hold the greatest charm in life must not prize the supernatural, the theological or the ascetical above the natural, the human and the sensual.62 It was emphasised that satisfaction was better than sacrifice and self-gratification than self-denial. This, in a nutshell, is the conventional historiographic genealogy of rational thought in the history of Europe prior to the emergence of the Enlightenment in the seventeenth and particularly eighteenth centuries. The rhetoric of reason, it is held, reached its peak in the eighteenth century, widely viewed as the age of Enlightenment in European history. This has, however, remained a much-debated and contested terrain in historiography till today. At one end of the spectrum there is a set of historiographic delineation which tends to magnify the image of European Enlightenment much beyond its actual shape and size.63 It is often viewed as representing the march of modernity resting on the twin pillars of rationality and secularity in the context of eighteenth-century Europe. It questioned, as C.J.H. Hayes states, the commonly accepted and popularly venerated dogmas of all existing churches and significantly shifted the intellectual attention from the supernatural to the natural, from theology to science, from church to state.64 It involved the assumption that the whole universe of matter and mind was guided and controlled by natural law, and not by supernatural interventions. It exalted and almost deified human reason as the authority endowed with competence to discover the laws of nature. It pinned its faith in the progress and ultimate perfectibility of human kind.65 Religious institutions and social constitutions and practices were ruthlessly reviewed by the ‘enlightened’ in order to discover if they were rational, if they were in harmony with natural law, if they promoted human progress, guaranteed individual rights and conferred immediate benefits on the world.66 As the results of science began to make possible a greater human power over nature, an even

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Introduction  19 greater confidence in the efficacy of reason, unaided by authority or faith, ensued to resolve its mysteries.67 The tendency to view Enlightenment in terms of the battle of reason with religion, free thought with bigotry, supremacy of secular modernity, even atheism and all that that can be termed ‘progressive’ and forward-looking is, however, but largely its idealised version, quite remote from actual reality. Recent researches have shown the unsustainability of reason-­versus-religion thesis in relation to the European Enlightenment. S.J. Barnett points out that the characterisation of the Enlightenment as the Age of Reason is unsustainable, as it represented a challenge to the Church, especially to the established churches of the day, rather than to belief in God, in whom almost all the ‘enlightened’ continued to believe in one form or the other.68 There was no automatic enmity between reason and religion as antithetical polarities, nor is atheism inevitably rationalistic. Rene Descartes (1596–1670), a French philosopher, was a curious combination of sincere practicing Catholic and original daring rationalist.69 His thought system, while affirming the existence of God and the human soul, however, left no room for the interposition of the supernatural in the natural.70 Baruch Spinoza (1632–77), also a believer in the power of human reason, believed in God and advocated pantheism, the doctrine of the oneness and identicality of God and nature, that is the universe.71 Wilhelm Leibnitz (1646–1716) put great emphasis on ‘pure reason’. He, however, believed in God and was a professing Protestant Christian; in place of physical atoms he introduced the concept of spiritual atoms which he called ‘monads’ as the constituent elements of the universe, thus spiritualising matter.72 Voltaire (1694–1778) defended reason and individual autonomy more forcefully than many others. To him, all priests were imposters, all miracles were illusions and all revelations were human inventions.73 He, however, believed in Deistic God and was a thorough-going believer.74 It would thus be wrong to say that the Enlightenment was inherently irreligious or anti-religious. But as it reposed immense faith in the supremacy and efficacy of human reason and intellectual autonomy of the individual, it was bound to result in some opposition to the Church and its authoritarian teachings.75 The view of the Enlightenment as being the harbinger of modernity is also, of late, being critically scrutinised. It is argued why the origins of modernity have to be predominantly intellectual, and why not instead look into the broad impact of the Industrial Revolution

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20  Introduction which certainly had long-term intellectual consequences?76 The Enlightenment battles were notably more about religious rights or class privileges rather than about secular enlightened ideals which some scholars have tried to locate therein in their hunt for the roots of modernity.77 The excessive idealisation of the Enlightenment further obfuscates the fact that its rationalistic seeds were actually sown within the Christian tradition itself. The recourse to the tool of reason was quite palpable in religious discourse and writings of Protestants and Jansenists, especially of England and France, in the seventeenth century.78 Thus it would be difficult to defend that development of reason as a critical tool was the outcome of the Enlightenment and that the Enlightenment ethos was inherently irreverent to religion. Moreover, the main impetus to religious toleration, one of the hallmarks of the Enlightenment, also came from committed Christians rather than from deists or other enemies of Christianity in France as well as in England.79 Historically, there was hardly any automatic antagonism or hiatus between scientific developments and religion or the Church. Science and religion in the lives of leading scientists such as Joseph Priestley (1733–1804) often went hand in hand throughout the eighteenth century.80 Locke the empiricist and Newton the scientist were devout Christians, and religion and science most often happily coexisted in the world of letters. Even in the sixteenth-century intellectual tradition superstition, quite paradoxically, coexisted with science. Kepler (1571–1630), a German scientist, made money by practicing magic and casting horoscopes.81 Most of the mathematicians and physicists of the age were credulous as well as inquisitive. Even bold sea captains seemed never to tire of reading horoscopes.82 Significantly, it was during the second half of the sixteenth century and the first half of the seventeenth century, the era of scientific development, that witchcraft haunted Europe as never before in the world history and the hunt for witches became endemic in Europe and the New World.83 There is no evidence to suggest that this was confined only to the ignorant masses and not to the literati. Thus the advent of science and reason even in Europe was after all not as smooth and surgical as it seems or is made out to be. Copernicus (1473–1543), the true founder of modern astronomy, who contributed in popularising the heliocentric theory, was a practising Polish priest.84 The idea of a tight compartmentalisation or opposition between reason and religion is thus largely idealised rather than real. This is primarily because the ‘instrumental’ rationality of science

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Introduction  21 and critical thought does not offer credible answers to many dilemmas of human existence and it is difficult to discard values that are deeply ingrained in subjective consciousness of the people including thinkers. It is true one of the fundamental propositions of the Enlightenment was of course to reduce the reliance of social and intellectual life upon religious thought. The Enlightenment rationalists did believe that it would be possible to renew society and impact the social process by eliminating superstition and clerical influence, which they viewed to be a key barrier to human progress. They wished to bring about a new rational, humane and progressive social order in which the faculty of reason would be free to work for the benefit of humanity.85 Yet, the vital role of the Church in maintaining the status quo was, paradoxically, recognised by most of the Enlightenment radicals including Voltaire who argued that religious observance was to be tolerated and supported among the masses in the interest of social stability, though not because of its value as legitimate divine worship.86 Though condemning the self-serving crafty and corrupt priests, the ‘enlightened’ including Voltaire also at times accepted the need for a ‘benign’ priestcraft and continuation of the established Churches in one form or the other for social good.87 The intellectual tradition in Europe thus could not cut itself off from the realm of religion even during the heyday of the Enlightenment. Moreover, reaction to reason became quite visible in European intellectual atmosphere in the eighteenth century itself. The limit to reason was being realised, and doubts developed as to its utility and competency to cover the entire gamut of human existence and aspirations. Even Rousseau and Hume tended to recognise from mid-eighteenth century the equally important role of the ‘passions’ in human conduct.88 There was a revolt particularly in Germany against the objectivity of reason, the challenge being posed by the modern cults of passion and genius, generally known as Romanticism.89 Statements such as ‘reason kills creativity’ were made. There were great advocacies in favour of poetry, a creative imagination, heralding the dawn of the age of sentiment in the very eighteenth century. The new attitude and orientation to nature and the revival of the primitive constituted the crux of the age of sentiment.90 Thus long before the end of the eighteenth century the revolt against reason and its limitations was fairly prominent. The manifestation of reason as a powerful intellectual advocacy in Europe, particularly during the days of the Enlightenment, has led

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22  Introduction many a scholar to believe in its European ancestry. It is also argued that rationality spread from the European hemisphere to most of the rest of the world primarily through commerce, colonisation and Christianity. C.J.H. Hayes’s conviction that it is from modern Europe that worldwide influences have radiated91 is a milder version of the supposition that reason is primarily a European legacy. In a similar vein, a large number of scholars of Indian intellectual history have by and large concluded that nineteenth-century Indian rationalism was, like many other importations from Europe, a European gift or grant.92 K.N. Panikkar goes a step further to stress: ‘Like modernity, rationality was also borrowed from the West through colonial agency and therefore had no roots of its own.’93 Ronald Inden represents the extreme version of this line of historiographic interpretation as he posits the very problematic in terms of Indian ‘imagination’ in contradistinction to European ‘reason’ as the defining ethos of these two respective intellectual and cultural traditions.94 It is not denied that Western thinkers did exert considerable influence on the nineteenth-century Indian intellectuals. The reformers were mostly English educated and the imprint of European ideas in their cognitive world could certainly not be insignificant. Their writings and speeches were replete with references and quotations derived from the Western philosophers and thinkers. There was also a realisation among the intellectuals themselves that the European influences particularly through the agency of English education had been quite critical to the growth of cognitive consciousness in India in the nineteenth century.95 Even the model of economic development which they had in mind was largely derived from the European one with emphasis on industrialisation and science-based modern education as the foundations of socio-economic advancement, largely on similar lines. This, however, does not explain much, and it raises more questions than it conclusively answers. After all, the West was not the sole formative influence on them. The intellectuals in Maharashtra, for instance, leaned heavily towards the indigenous intellectual tradition for inspiration and even identification. They consciously denied the relevance or utility of the Western cultural matrix and instead looked to indigenous moral moorings for cultural reinvigoration of the country. Even in the economic field the Western idea of laissez faire was rejected outright, by Ranade in particular. One has to explain why the Indian mind was ready to receive or ‘borrow’ only rationalism in the first place and not any other system of thought available in the European intellectual traditions. After all,

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Introduction  23 a plethora of ideas and ideologies were afloat in the European intellectual milieu, particularly in the nineteenth century, with empiricism, Freud’s irrationalism, romanticism, even communism and anarchism being fairly well-known world views during the period. It is hard to hold that reason could suddenly emerge as a hothouse growth in the nineteenth century in a situation of utter rationalistic vacuity in the indigenous intellectual traditions in the country. For all, the English educated were not rationalists nor were all those taught or trained in non-English system of education irrationalists, conservatives or obscurantists. In fact, the former were quite a few in number in comparison to the people educated in English. The majority of the English-educated did not lead a life of reason in revolt against the status quo. This realisation was no secret even in the nineteenth century, and remained an issue of lamentation among intellectuals in close circles as well as at the public fora. There are innumerable instances of the intellectuals expressing their resentment, even frustration at times, at the general apathy, the slow pace and the narrow social base of the reform. Bhandarkar vented his view in his presidential address at the second anniversary meeting of the Madras Hindu Social Reform Association held on 27 December 1894: ‘Everywhere among educated natives, there is lukewarmness about social reform. I declare that I am dissatisfied. The lamp has been lighted but the light is flickering.’96 Again, in his presidential address at the Ninth Indian National Social Conference held in 1895 at Poona he said: In Bengal, as pointed out by Mr. Justice Ranade the other day, social reform is now confined to Brahmos. The great body of educated Bengalees, who are not Brahmos, are indifferent and hostile. The late Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagara, who inaugurated reform about widow-marriage, and first ransacked our Smriti literature to be able to make out that it was sanctioned by the Sastras, and worked for a life-time to make it popular, was in his later days filled with despondency, and expressed his conviction to visitors from this side of the country that Hindus as Hindus would never accept Social Reform. We on this side have not come to this pass yet, though we have our full share of indifference and hostility. The aim of the reformers here has always been to reform our society – our nation.97 Chandavarkar expressed similar sentiments and stated, ‘It is, indeed, distressing to find many educated men not only refusing to

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24  Introduction raise their heads against some of the social evils, but eagerly defending them.’98 The journals of the time also highlighted the lack of ameliorative élan among the educated sections of the society. ‘The majority of our educated men are averse to any organized effort in furtherance of social reform.’99 ‘The apathetic, it is to be confessed to our humiliation, form an overwhelming majority, among those who have received the benefit of Western learning.’100 ‘A very large number of educated Indians are entirely apathetic about social matters. They do not even recognize the evils in the Hindu social systems.’101 It is also hard to hold that India, which witnessed emergence of a great civilisation in ancient times, could achieve enormous progress in the economic field including overseas trade even up to the eighteenth century basically on the strength of wooly ideas, in a socio-cognitive context devoid of rational principles and practices. As Aditya Mukherjee highlights, India was the largest economy of the world for entire thousand years of the first millennium, amounting for close to 30 per cent of the world’s GDP. Till as late as the beginning of the eighteenth century, India was still the largest economy with about 25 per cent of the world’s GDP, greater than that of entire Western Europe put together and more than eight times that of the United Kingdom.102 Interestingly, it is often presumed that the West could offer principally progressive ideas, taking for granted in the same breath that the conservative ones were inevitably to be India-born. There has hardly a study been made to see whether the reactionary ideologies of the West had any Indian takers during the period and the magnitude of the impact of such tendencies among educated Indians. The Eurocentric view of the origins of rational and secular modernity flowing from the Enlightenment to the rest of the world has been contested by some of the scholars, notably by Amartya Sen, Tadd Fernee and Aditya Mukherjee. Taking a cue from Amartya Sen, Tadd tries to locate the values of secular rationality in non-European traditions, particularly in India, Turkey and Iran, much before the onset of the much-acclaimed European Enlightenment.103 In par­ ticular, he tries to trace the elements of Enlightenment modernity in sixteenth-century India in the ideas of Mughal emperor Akbar and his ‘enlightened’ advisers, ‘significantly comparable to the later ideas of the West European Enlightenment: centring reason over inherited belief, freedom of thought as the condition of social-political

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Introduction  25 wellbeing . . . a valuing of secular ethics of general compassion over religious dogma, and the positing of an epistemic limit to human knowledge in the name of pluralism and non-violence’,104 attempting thus to deconstruct the myth that ‘the fountainhead of Enlightenment was grounded in European civilization and that it spread historically globally via colonialism’. Tadd compares Akbar with his contemporary Spain’s Philip II who viewed the state, in contrast, as an instrument of Providence, and regaled in authoritarianism.105 While not to underestimate his work, Tadd, it seems, has a tendency to be impressed by what S.J. Barnett terms ‘the headlines of history’, intended primarily to draw attention rather than presenting a portrayal of reality. One wonders, how do kingly comparisons help in understanding different intellectual traditions, that too on the strength of just a few examples which cannot be said to conclusively represent the trends of the time? A distinction has to be made between the ruler and the intellectual for whom aura and idealism, not authority or pragmatism or political considerations or compulsions are the moving force. Otherwise, Lord William Bentinck would appear taller than Rammohan in Indian history. Kingly compulsions or pragmatism cannot be equated or conflated with intellectual idealism. If at all, the in-depth study of Bhakti or Sufi tradition in relation to the later Enlightenment in Europe could have yielded a better understanding of these two intellectual traditions, particularly in view of the general assumption that describes the latter as the sheet anchor of reason while the former being dubbed as nothing but emotion and devotion. Further, if non-violence is taken as one of the Enlightenment values, why not then highlight Buddism or Jainism and the ideas of emperor Ashok as the nodes of comparison with European traditions? Aditya Mukherjee also questions the Eurocentric view of the origins and development of Enlightenment values, citing in tune with Tadd the Mughal emperor Akbar’s adherence to rationality, tolerance, rights of women and his penchant for promotion of a universal religion sulah kul. He emphasises that during the period of colonial contact the development of Europe and underdevelopment of Asia went almost hand in hand.106 He, however, primarily deals with economic and not intellectual history in his portrayal of the asymmetry in the East–West contact through colonialism. The value of such studies, however, lies in its demystification of modernity as having a single source of origin (i.e. Europe) ‘on the one hand, and highlighting the

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26  Introduction inherent paucity of modernising potential in colonial connection’ on the other. Significantly, the individuals who spearheaded the rational reform movement in Maharashtra in the nineteenth century themselves eloquently acknowledged their debt to the indigenous tradition of rational thought and ethos. Of course, they did acknowledge in the same breath the enlightening impact of Western ideas, too. In the next section an attempt has been made to study the elements of rational resonance in pre-British Indian intellectual traditions in order to locate and examine rational roots of nineteenth century reform within the overall context of pre-British Indian history. This may further highlight the nodes of convergence and contrariety between these two intellectual traditions.

Rational roots in Indian thoughts It is seen that the rhetoric in glorification of reason so prominently palpable in European intellectual traditions over almost all ages seemed quite subdued, or at least not as vociferous in the corresponding traditions in pre-British times in India, although broad rational principles appear to have been abundantly operational in the world of letters in the country. To be precise, rationalism as a viewpoint or system of thought emerged in Europe essentially as an independent epistemological tradition, particularly in the eighteenth century. Indian rationality, on the other hand, could not emerge since ancient times as a self-contained system of thought, as an independent epistemology. It remained deeply embedded in the overall holistic world view of life and cosmology.107 Reason in India had more of a practical rather than purely epistemological orientation. Holism and monism dominated the intellectual world view in pre-British times with spiritual salvation as the practical aim of human wish and efforts. In this world view, afterlife was prized more than this-life, at least at the ideational level. All the schools of Indian philosophy, orthodox as well as heterodox, with possibly the sole exception of the Charvakas, aimed at spiritual salvation as the ultimate end of life and volition, and intuition, experience, faith and reason were all geared as cognitive devices to the attainment of this ultimate aim. Indian rationality was thus intimately allied with spirituality, and it remained anchored in the overall Indian intellectual orientation of holism and monism. To put it differently, the ancient Indian intellectual tradition was marked

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Introduction  27 more by a monistic metaphysics and a holistic epistemology. Rational roots in Indian thoughts should, therefore, be studied within its overall holistic framework and not be searched in isolation as a separate tradition or independent orientation, on the lines of European experience without inviting the risk of misrepresentation. Rational resonance in pre-British India can be briefly studied in the context of four fundamental genres of the Indian thought systems: Shastraic, Sramanik, Bhakti and Sufism – almost all orthogenetic responses to the problems and predicaments of human existence. The Shastraic knowledge derived its inspiration and articulation from the authority of the Vedas and other related scriptures. Although it encouraged enquiry and debate in search of certitude and truth, it remained anchored within its ultimately transcendent purpose.108 Truth was largely equated with transcendence, and its attainment was emphasised as the ultimate purpose of life. The notion of this-worldly betterment of society or critical approach to status quo did not constitute the defining moment of this genre of thought. Rationality expressed itself often in the form of reasoning and logic to explain the riddle of metaphysical reality; it was mostly discursive and intuitive, not essentially purported to effect change in the status quo. In other words, the Shastraic knowledge moved more along its discursive and dialogical tradition with a tilt mainly towards metaphysical argumentation rather than epistemological search for certitude in this-worldly sense. The conception of life beyond dominated the cognitive consciousness in the Shastraic tradition more than the question of mundane matters, which were though not entirely neglected. Intuition rather than ratiocination seems to have formed the main source of knowledge quest at that time point. The Upanishads, an integral part of the Shastraic system, appears to have made a break with the early Vedic tradition and substituted knowledge for ritual and sacrifice as the source of spiritual salvation.109 Although it marked new grounds in critical thinking, it, however, sought after primarily spiritual rather than intellectual knowledge. The interpreters of the later Mimansa school undertook to make a rational examination (mimansa meaning rational examination) of the meaning of the Vedic (scriptural) statements. But even within Vedic Hinduism itself the search of a ‘rational’ basis for the apparently irrational practice of social inequality was on which resulted into an initiation of the Karma doctrine.110 Similarly, Nyaya was a highly developed school of enquiry and logic into the nature of

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28  Introduction philosophical categories and their intellectual validation, maintaining that clear thinking was essential preliminary to salvation.111 The character of Shastraic knowledge was thus somewhat different in design from that of this-worldly oriented rational thought as handed down by the Greek city-states. The three main Sramanic systems of Indian philosophy – the Lokayata, Buddhism and Jainism – developed as critical philosophical movements of orthogenetic impulses and responses. They rejected the authority of Vedic revelation as a valid source of knowledge and emphasised the testimony of human experience and reason.112 The Lokayata, essentially an empiricist and materialistic philosophy, voiced opposition, scepticism and criticism of the Vedic world view of life and cosmology dominated by transcendentalism, thus contributing to the ongoing trend of critical thought at work. In Buddhism Indian ‘rationality’ appears to have acquired a more palpable personality. There is a wide recognition among scholars to this effect.113 The law of causality constitutes the kernel of Buddhist philosophy. The Buddhist discovery of desire as the source of all human suffering and miseries, an essential element in its notion of causality, ‘claims to derive from rational arguments and examples’.114 It is also argued that the Buddhist mode of meditation involved not only intuition and silent contemplation but also observation and intellectual analysis. The Buddha employed rationalistic or intellectual approach to resolve the riddle of life – aging, disease and decay, and ultimately A Way Out, the Buddha’s Way – the Eightfold Path,115 despite intuition being the primary input. The Buddhist emphasis on the middle course consisting of Right Views, Right Resolve, Right Speech, Right Conduct, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Recollection and Right Meditation, a course between self-indulgence and extreme asceticism, leading to a moral and well-ordered life,116 was indeed rationalistic in orientation and purport. Similarly, the Buddhist emphasis on non-violence as a way of life which reached its climax in Jainism was rational in cognition and progressive in implication. The Buddha said that ‘cattle are our friends, just like parents and other relatives, for cultivation depends upon them. They give food, strength, freshness of complexion and happiness.’117 It seems with increase in the value of cattle in the context of the development of society and its shift from pastoral to agricultural economy, the advocacy for their safeguard could not be devoid of ‘instrumental’ rationalistic meaning.

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Introduction  29 Buddhism provided a full-fledged rational critique of the caste system. The Assalayana Sutta, the Buddhist literature, represents Buddha’s reasoning that all women, whether Brahmin or non-Brahmin, conceive and produce children in the same manner.118 Buddha further argued that fire produced by a person of the upper castes and a person from the lowest castes would still be the same.119 He emphasised merit and not birth as the index of a person’s status and concluded that birth did not determine the moral and spiritual attainments of men. He preached that ‘One does not become a Brahmana by birth. One does not become an outcast by birth. One becomes a Brahmana by act. One becomes an outcast by act.’120 The Vajrasuchi attributed to Ashwaghosa says, ‘Jati cannot confer Brahmanhood because otherwise even the sage Vyasa would cease to a Brahmana, nor can we ascertain the purity of anyone’s parental lineage. The body cannot be regarded as Brahmana for obvious reasons, otherwise, burning the dead Brahmana would lead to Brahmahatya.’121 Membership of the Buddhist order was not caste-constrained. Buddha further rejected sacrifice as the means of salvation which, in Buddhist philosophy, was attainable through knowledge and conduct. Non-conformism, tolerance, non-violence, emphasis on merit, knowledge and conduct, critique of caste and, above all, discovery of human causality can be seen as constituting the core elements of Buddhist ‘rationality’ in pre-British past. The Bhakti movement in medieval times represented the acme of alliance between spirituality and rationality in Indian history. Although mysticism, the predominant spirit in Bhakti, was quintessentially an anti-intellectual strand with a definite disdain for intellect122 and emphasis instead on emotion and devotion as the royal road to godly realisation, the social content of the Bhakti teachings was highly non-conformist, egalitarian, secular and rational. Maharashtra constituted a prominent theatre of Bhakti and bhatas in medieval times, though the movement was all-India in its spread. Monotheism, anti-idolatry, anti-priestcraft, propagation of the principles of equality and castigation of caste distinctions, emphasis on Hindu–Muslim unity, popularisation of the vernaculars as the vehicle of thought and communication and stress on devotion and meditation as the effective means of spiritual salvation were the major spirituo-rationalistic orientations of the Bhakti tradition during the period.123 It marked a break with Vedism, the centuries-old intellectual world view of India.

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The prevailing social evils such as the caste system, discrimination against lower castes and women, and religious bigotry were specifically portrayed pejoratively, and human brotherhood highlighted in place of caste or creed, thus sowing the seeds of secular modernity. Jnaneshwar argued: There is no high or low with God. All were alike to him. Never entertain the thought that I am high born and my neighbour is low by birth. The Ganges is not polluted, nor is the wind tainted, nor the earth rendered untouchable because the low born and high born bathe in the one, or breathe the other, or move on the back of the third.124 Similarly, Eknath held: They say that women and Sudras belong to low caste. But when you say that God dwells everywhere, then is He not in the heart of the Sudra? Has not a Sudra come from the same place as the Brahman? Is he not also composed of five elements? Has he no birth; has he no death? Eknath says: you are misguided when you say that a Sudra belongs to the lowest class.125 Tukaram taught that castes were irrelevant for the realisation of God. In one of his abhangas he stated: Pride of caste has never made any man holy. The untouchables have crossed the ocean of life by God-devotion, and the Puranas sing their praises. Gora, the potter, Rohildas, the shoe-maker, Kabira, the Muslim, Sena, the barber, Kanhoparta, the concubine, Chokhamela, the outcast, Janabai, the maid, have all become unified with God by their devotion. The Vedas and the Shastras have said that for the service of God, castes do not matter.126 He tended to even interpret the scriptures to argue against caste and denied the efficacy of birth as determinant of caste status and made devotion its sole criterion. ‘A Brahman who does not like the name of God, is not a Brahmin. An outcast who loves the name of God is verily a Brahmin.’127 Namdev said, ‘My mind is the yardstick, my tongue the scissors; what care I for caste?’128

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Introduction  31 The anti-caste consciousness was quite pervasive in medieval mysticism of India. Nanak proclaimed, ‘All sectarian and caste distinctions are worthless as dust.’129 He further declared, ‘The lowest among the low-caste; those still lower and condemned – Nanak is by their side.’130 Again, ‘Stop not to enquire about their caste; in the Hereafter there are no castes. Caste is a condemnable notion.’131 Furthermore, Nanak was perhaps the most eloquent among the bhaktas to emphasise the importance of women’s role in society. He said, ‘Why revile her of whom are born the great ones of the earth? From man is born woman, no human being without woman is born.’132 Kabir, decidedly the most heretical of the medieval mystics, castigated caste and highlighted its irrelevance for spiritual realisation. He said: It is needless to ask a Saint the caste to which he belongs; The barber has sought God, the Washerman and the carpenter, Even Raidas was a seeker after God. The Rishi Swapacha was a tanner by caste. Hindus and Muslims alike have achieved that End, where remains no mark of distinction.133 Kabir’s anti-caste articulations exhibit robust rationalistic tenor as noticeable in the various versions available, comparable to any contemporaneous rational tradition in the world. To illustrate: If birth from a Brahman mother makes you a Brahman, why did you not come by another way? If birth from a Turk makes you Turk, Why were you not circumcised in the womb? If you milk black and yellow cows together, Will you be able to distinguish their milk?134 Again, If by circumcision one becomes Turk, what then will be said of your woman?135 In lodgement in the womb exists neither family pride nor caste; All beings from the divine essence have been created. How are you Brahmins and we Sudras? How were we made of mere blood, and you of milk?136

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32  Introduction Chaitanya, the noted mystic of Bengal, preached Krishna cult based on love and devotion, and aimed at liberating Hinduism from Brahmanical stranglehold. He, too, denounced caste and emphasised equality and fraternity.137 It was, however, religious formalism, priestcraft, ritualism and idolatry that received the severest condemnation in the Bhakti tradition which singularly emphasised spirituality as the basis of relationship between man and God. This, indeed, was the core content of rational expression in the Bhakti tradition in pre-British past. Nanak and Kabir were extremely hard-hitting on ritualism and religious formalism. To quote a few from their numerous condemnations; Kabir, for instance, said: Were yoga by wandering about nude to be attained, All animals of the forest would then be liberated. Were yoga-accomplishment by shaving the head close to be attained – Know, no sheep has left the world in a state of liberation. Were one by mere continence to be liberated, Then why does not the hermaphrodite attain the highest state? Those that evening and morning take ritual baths Are only as frogs wallowing in water.138 In the context of Hinduism he categorically stated that ‘of little value is contemplation, austerity, self-discipline, fasting and ritual bathing’.139 Similarly in that of Islam he said, ‘Kazi, thou dost observe fasts, perform namaz and recite Kalima – Yet mayst not attain Paradise. True namaz is contemplation of justice.’140 Condemning sacrificial religion he asked, ‘Slaughter of animals you dub as religion. Then brother, what is irreligion?’141 Nanak expressed similar view against religious formalism and said, ‘One wearing bleached dhoti, fixing the paste-mark and wearing a rosary around the neck, yet bearing wrath within, recites scriptures as actor in theatre.’142 Namdeva was very emphatic in his denunciation of idolatrous practices. He argued: A stone god and an illusory devotee can never satisfy each other. Such gods have been broken to pieces by the Turks, or have been flung in water and yet they do not cry. Show me not such deities of iron.143

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He further argued: Is it not wonderful that people should give up the animate and hold the inanimate superior to it? They pluck a living Tulsi plant, and with it worship an inanimate stone. They pluck the leaves of Bela, and throw them in numbers upon a lingam of Siva. They kill a living ram, and say that they are performing the Soma Sacrifice. People worship a serpent made of mud but they take cudgels against a living serpent. All these pursuits are vain.144 Deprecating idol worship, Kabir said: If by worshipping stone one can find God, I shall worship the mountain; Better than these stones are the stones of the flour mill that grind men’s corn.145 Ramadasa was more direct in his denunciation of idolatry. He said: This fool who is under an illusion, does not know that the true God cannot be found in metals, in stones, in clay, in pictures, or in wood. These are all matters of imagination.146 The medieval mystics revised the conventional definition of religion with emphasis on monotheism without the need for any externals or intermediation. Ramadasa reasoned in favour of monotheism: People vainly worship deities in their household or go hunting after the gods in places of pilgrimage. There is neither place nor measure of the true God, and any external worship of Him is useless . . . People vainly follow the various deities, and they do not know the Supreme God.147 Speaking in favour of monotheistic religion Kabir highlighted, ‘Thou Mulla, raise the call to prayer and perform namaz in the mosque. One and the same is the Hindu’s and the Muslim’s Lord.’148 Guru Nanak emphasised equality and fellow feeling as the quintessence of religion. He said: Religion does not consist in patched coat, of yogi’s staff or ashes smeared on body. Religion does not consist in mere words. He

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who looks on all men as equal is religious. Religion does not consist in wandering to tombs or places of cremation or sitting in different postures of contemplation.149 The medieval mystics had even a touch of scientific temper in their approach to superstitions and blind beliefs. Eknath, for example, regarded eclipse as nothing but a natural phenomenon and ridiculed the popular representation of it as devouring of the Sun or of the Moon by ‘Rahu’. He exposed the fallacy underlying it by pointing out the impossibility of anything coming anywhere near the Sun without being reduced to ashes.150 Ramadas argued against blind faith and emphasised reason and experience as the true path to godly realisation. He said: We cannot call any being God which does not stand the test of thought. . . . Blind faith is mere ignorance. By ignorance we shall never be able to reach God . . . We should go by the path of spiritual meditation and first-hand experience.151 Egalitarianism was the hallmark of medieval mysticism in Maharashtra. Jnanadev emphasised that ‘The light of a Lamp is meant for all.’152 They preached and practised complete catholicism and communal concord. Tukaram’s trust in Allah was no less than his trust in Vithoba, the god of Pandharpur in Maharashtra. Standing for mystical alliance with the Almighty he stated: First among the great names is Allah, never forget to respect it. Allah is very one, the Prophet is verily one. There Thou art one, There Thou art one, There Thou art one: O friend, There is neither I nor thou.153 The Bhakti tradition represented a major break with Vedism. Devotion rather than sacrifice or scriptural knowledge or the backing of the Vedas was emphasised as the route to spiritual attainment. Eknath illustrated this pithily by an example of the milkmaids of Vraja: ‘Those ladies were manifestly ignorant of any scriptural knowledge. But by loving him (i.e. Krishna) and even acting against the injunctions of the Sastras, they realized their spiritual goal.’154 Kabir was particularly dismissive of scriptural authorities as necessary for spiritual realisation. He preached to teach people the futility of institutional knowledge systems, ‘Renounce the Vedas and the

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Introduction  35 Book (the Quran), O Pandit: all these are fictions of mind.’155 In view of such conclusive evidences it is difficult to accept Kenneth W. Jones’ interpretation that ‘Bhakti cannot be equated with dissent and protest.’156 A significant aspect of medieval mysticism in Maharashtra, as elsewhere in India, was the attempt to popularise vernaculars as the means of idea articulation and communication. Sanskrit ceased to be sought after; instead Marathi, scorned by the learned as the language of ‘the illiterate and the vulgar’, was glorified as the vehicle of expression in Maharashtra. Eknath asked very often, ‘If Sanskrit was made of God, was Prakrit (i.e. Marathi) born of thieves and knaves? Both are equally sacred when used for praising God. God is no partisan of tongue.’157 Asceticism was never a dominant strand of mysticism in Maharashtra. Most of the Maharashtrian mystics were devoted householders living within the ordinary framework of life and family. Jnanadeva emphasised, ‘We need not bid good-bye to a householder’s life nor need we bid good-bye to the actions that are consequent thereon.’158 Eknath represented a classic case of reconciliation of worldly and spiritual life.159 Tukaram similarly never became a recluse, and led a normal family life while devotedly pursuing the spiritual path and so did Namdev.160 In fact, there was no dichotomous division between spiritual orientation and social obligations,161 between sensuousness and spiritual serenity. The godly man was at the same time a worldly man, there being no polarity between service of God and service of society. Denouncing asceticism Tukaram said, ‘Some people tease their body uselessly for the sake of spiritual realisation. They wear brown clothes; but a dog is also brown. They bear matted hair; but a bear has also got matted hair. They live in caves; but even rats live in caves. These people tease their bodies for nothing.’162 Scholars have tried to see democratic tendencies in the Bhakti tradition163 that could well provide inspiration to the rationalists in the nineteenth century. The saint-poets, though themselves great devotees of the Deity, sang spiritual songs impregnated with ample secular suggestions towards egalitarianism and human brotherhood and betterment. They repudiated religious formalism and idolatrous thought associated with Brahamanic bigotry, priestcraft and ritualism. They shunned the Vedic framework of social division and discrimination. Non-formalistic devotional spirituality was emphasised and practised as the superior mode of God-seeking. They thus set the social tone of rationalistic temper in medieval times.

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36  Introduction Kabir, as suggested earlier, was the most iconoclastic among the medieval mystics. Denial of caste discriminations and the practice of untouchability, criticism of communal and sectarian distinctions, condemnation of idolatry, polytheism, mythology of divine incarnation, pilgrimage, asceticism, circumcision, prayer in a temple or mosque and all externals of religion – these constituted the cornerstone of Kabir’s iconoclasm.164 Emphasis on unity and equality, love, tolerance, compassion, truth, non-violence and belief in one God was what he preached and practised.165 Similarly, Sufism preached the value of love, humanity and brotherhood as the cornerstone of its ethical teachings.166 Remaining attached to the Sufi tradition the Mughal emperor Akbar’s emphasis on an ideological rendering of the regime towards a secular rationality encompassing varying Muslim, Hindu and other world views was entirely non-European in etymology.167 Can such a tradition having immense secular humanistic and modern messages be described as just emotional and not rational merely on the ground that it seemingly lacked the rhetoric of reason as seen in eighteenth-century Europe? These pre-British orthogenetic responses, in fact, represented the resilience of indigenous intellectual traditions to address the social situation by employing rational and egalitarian principles, much before the onset of colonial intervention in India. Values and not verbalisation should thus be made the yardstick to understand the nature of Indian intellectual orientation in pre-British past. All these indicate that the nineteenth-century intellectual unrest was not such a supremely solitary instance. Rational reform, the core of the nineteenth-century consciousness, was not entirely a new experience. There had been a long tradition of dissent and protest in Indian intellectual history during her pre-British past.168 Reform in the nineteenth century was, however, different from the earlier initiatives in a significant sense. Secular salvation, as distinct from sacred or transcendental salvation, was a new conception in Indian thought system. The Bhakti movement emphasised devotion as the main means of spiritual salvation; the nineteenth-century reform laid stress on education, legislation and industrialisation as the most effective instruments of social and national regeneration. There was a definite shift in emphasis from spiritual salvation to social salvation, from other-worldly to this-worldly orientation, from afterlife to this-life, in short, from soul to nation.169 It was precisely in the reorienting of the character of consciousness in the nineteenth century that the impact

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Introduction  37 of Western ideas during the colonial period could certainly be attributable to. But another proposition may be equally plausible to hold that the colonial intervention, possibly, obviated the possibility of maturation of indigenous rationalistic tendencies in their own right, and this surmise cannot just be dismissed simply on the ground that what happened in history could happen only the way it actually happened. Further research in this area may perhaps throw more conclusive light on the respective degree of endogenous and exogenous influences entailed in the process of evolution of Indian rationality. The rational reverberations in Maharashtra in the nineteenth century retained its specifically Indian imprint despite intense exogenous influences exerted under the aegis of English education. Rationality even in this new avatar could not completely shun spirituality in the intellectual reckoning as a basic and natural human urge and proclivity. Rational reform could not sever its link with the spiritual dimensions of life. The intellectuals did employ reason to understand religion but they did not denounce the latter. What were denounced were religious perversions such as idolatry, polytheism and priestcraft. Emphasis on spiritual dimension of life sans religious formalism remained intact despite intellectual emphasis on this-worldly betterment during the period. If the emphasis ceased to be other-worldly-oriented, the intellectuals continued to look up to religion for maintaining morality and order in society. Theism still thrived in the thinking, with most of the reformers being almost avowed theists. They practiced prayers and emphasised the socio-psychological necessity of religion for the growth of individual and society. They remained almost immune to the notion of polarity between reason and faith, supposedly the hallmark of European Enlightenment as handed down to us by historians, and instead eloquently articulated in favour of the intimate alliance between the two. Ranade remarked, ‘The idea of God is given by reason and intuition.’170 The acceptance of the truth of natural science and reason in the nineteenth century thus did not lead to rejection of transcendentalism. To reiterate, there is no conclusive evidence to suggest to a weakening in the alliance between rationality and spirituality in Indian thought system under the impact of the West during the period. Reason as a cognitive device remained anchored as part of Indian holism even under the intense Western influences in the nineteenth century. The hold of holism seemed to militate against the possibility of any sharp separation between rationality

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38  Introduction and spirituality in Indian intellectual ethos. This aspect would be dealt with in detail in the subsequent section. It was only Agarkar who almost totally rejected religion as having anything to do with morality; perhaps, he singularly adhered to atheistic rationality and atheistic morality in the Indian intellectual tradition of the period. Agarkar, however, seems to be a solitary case of its kind in the entire history of nineteenth-century India. Indian rationalism, therefore, need better be studied and understood through a holistic framework and not through a particularistic prism entirely anchored in the exogenous source, that is the mythology of ‘pure’ Enlightenment rationality of Europe. European Enlightenment as being the sheet anchor of reason as opposed to religion is any case now being increasingly subjected to critical scrutiny by recent researches and many of its myths are being questioned, necessitating a relook.

Intellectuals’ perception of pre-British past Most of the thinkers in Maharashtra were conversant not only with the Western intellectual traditions but were equally, if not more, well grounded in India’s own social and philosophical thought systems. Interestingly, their familiarity with the Western philosophy was largely college curriculum-driven, whereas their learning of the Indian thought systems was primarily self-induced.171 As it was, there was a palpable sense of catholicism and openness to knowledge, irrespective of its source. Bhandarkar’s address at the anniversary function of the Prarthana Samaj in Bombay in 1883 represented a general catholic refrain in the nineteenth-century thought. ‘Let us like Tukaram exert ourselves to bring into practice the teachings of the old Rishis and learn from all the sources now available to us, indigenous as well as foreign.’172 He further reiterated, ‘Let us sit at the feet of English, French and German Rishis, imbibe the knowledge that they have to give, and at least keep pace with them, if not go beyond them. Let us learn, let us reform.’173 He highlighted the importance of diverse thoughts and ethos for progress, as no nation could ‘evolve all its civilization out of its own consciousness’.174 Ranade also affirmed his conviction in learning from different sources. He stated, ‘Instead of decrying the impact upon India of Western thought the true lover of India will rejoice in it.’175 Similarly, to Chandavarkar any source of knowledge, indigenous or foreign, was welcome if it was fitted to vitalise and enlighten them.

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In his lecture at the Social Reform Association at Mangalore in 1900 he stated: Social reformers are charged with seeking to introduce Western ideals in our society. Why should we be afraid of any ideal, if it is good and suited to our age and our needs, merely because it appears Western? Not isolation and exclusion – but co-operation and concord, that is the spirit of the age. The East and the West are all opened to us. . . . I am not afraid of Western or Eastern ideals so long as they are good, and so long as they are fitted to vitalize us. . . . Let us accept light whence-soever it comes; it will do us good.176 Agarkar, too, was open to the onset of ideas from any corner, whether from Shankaracharya or from the Western thinkers like Max Muller, Mill or Spencer.177 Ranade, however, though himself having an almost encyclopedic knowledge of Western thought, preferred to be inspired and guided by Indian gurus rather than by foreign philosophers.178 In his address at the Prarthana Samaj Mandir on the occasion of the anniversary meeting of the Samaj in 1895 in Bombay he dwelt upon the importance of ideational affinity of the nineteenth-century movement with the indigenous tradition of what he termed ‘Indian Protestantism’ or ‘Protestant Hinduism’. In his view, the roots of the nineteenth-century attempt at social renewal lay deep in Indian history and the Prarthana Samaj was ‘only a faint reflection and a humble off-shoot of the old Protestant Bhagawat Dharma, nurtured by our Saints and Prophets for over two thousand years’.179 He highlighted: These (referring to the Bhagawata Dharma and the Bhakti tradition) then are the points in which Indian Protestantism has done us service, and if we are true to our great ancestors, this is the work and these are the lines on which we should carry on the struggle. . . . It is not a movement started by a few English educated natives, and that its founder was this or that man in Bengal or the Punjab. The movement is older than modern India, and it is not confined to the English educated classes in the towns. Its roots lie deeper in our history and we must study it all along the line if we want to understand how we really stand and whither we have to go. . . . We must seek them (noble and good men of

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the past) as our guides. Our domestic guides in such matters are to be preferred to foreign guides, because the last have not been the flesh of our flesh, and the bone of our bone.180 Echoing similar understanding Chandavarkar stated that the nineteenth-century social reform movements were not ‘a fungus growth of the present times but had their root in the higher activities and ideals of the past and that therefore they could justly claim to be based on national lines’.181 Despite the influence of Western thought on intellectual formation in the nineteenth century, the attempt to relate oneself to Indian thought and ethos remained a high watermark of contemporary Maharashtra. The reformers looked for inspirational anchorage in the indigenous tradition and history to buttress the ideas of reform they all stood for. In his address at the anniversary meeting of the Prarthana Samaj in 1883 in Bombay Bhandarkar emphasised the imperative to learn from the indigenous thought systems useful lessons on religion and morality, while not at the same time neglecting other sources. He said: Let us learn . . . from the rise of Buddhism, that religion is not a privilege of a favoured class, and that without high moral feeling and action it is empty nothing; and from its failure, that mere morality will not exalt the spirit and satisfy the religious craving of the heart and cannot be attained; . . . from the Gita and the Bhakti School that man by his own efforts cannot effect his salvation, that God alone is our Father, Friend and Saviour. If in all humility we learn this, and learn whatever else is to be learnt from the other sources, we need not be afraid of our future.182 There was a definite tilt towards Indian history in ideational anxiety of the reformers. Though they acknowledged their sense of debt to European ideas and examples, they consciously tried to trace the roots of reason and revolt in the pre-British past. Bhandarkar in his presidential address at the second anniversary meeting of the Madras Hindu Social Reform Association held on 27 December 1894 said, ‘The Social Ideal was much higher and rational in ancient times than it is now.’183 He reiterated that ‘our social institutions and practices were healthy and rational in the olden times’.184 He held Buddhist teachings in high esteem for their invigorative and reformative

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Introduction  41 signification. In his presidential address at the Ninth Indian National Social Conference held in 1895 in Poona he further appealed, ‘Let us invigorate and elevate our souls by ever placing before our mind’s eye the precept of the Great Indian Reformer of the sixth century before Christ, Gautama.’185 The protection and happiness of all beings, ‘feeble or strong, small or large, seen or unseen, living far or near, born or to be born’ was, in Bhandarkar’s view, the Buddhist legacy worthy of emulation.186 Ranade looked to locate materialistic tradition in Indian philosophy, as against the general trend to view the West as the mother of materialism. In his address on ‘Philosophy of Indian Theism’ delivered on 17 September 1896 at Wilson College, Bombay, he said: In European thought materialist school has occupied a more prominent position during the last few centuries. But even in our land two of the six Darsanas are partially or wholly materialistic, that of the Sankhya system of Kapila and the atomic system of Kannada. As a corrective of extreme idealism, this philosophy has done good service.187 This was, in his view, over and above the Lokayata, an established materialistic philosophy in the Indian intellectual tradition. Chandavarkar continued the quest to locate rational resonance in the Indian thought systems. He held the ancient period as the rationalist age in India with emphasis on the unity of man underlying all class distinctions. He argued that Buddhism and Jainism further strengthened the rationalistic tradition, and translated the possibility of even non-Brahmins attaining Brahminhood into a reality. In his address at the Indian National Social Conference held in Madras on 30 December 1904 he stated: Whether in the times of Manu or of the Mahabharata the rules about interdining and intermarriage were not so strict as they are now. . . . Diversity did exist but the philosophers who may be called the reformers, were diligent in preaching the unity that underlay diversity. The unity of Godhead which found sublime expression in the words of the Rig Veda: – ‘Ekam Sad Viprah Bahudha Vadanti’, struck the keynote of unification in religion and philosophy. The same keynote was struck by the Mahabharata in these words: – ‘There is no distinction of castes; the whole

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42  Introduction world is created by God.’ This was in the rationalist age. Perhaps the earlier fourfold classification of society was a step in the direction of unification, not disruption. Anyhow the claims put forward by the Brahmins and not supported by their intrinsic merits drove the materialistic mind in ancient times to insist upon the unity of man underlying all class distinctions. The Sanatana philosophers taught it as in the Mahabharata. The Buddhists and Jainas emphasized it. We have instances of non-Brahmins raised to Brahminhood in ancient India. . . . It is true that as ages went on, in spite of the philosophical tenets and earlier traditions, self-multiplication of castes went on but side by side with that degenerating tendency, reformers also rose from time to time. . . . The history of Hinduism has been a history of perpetual reform.188 He further extolled the efforts of the Bhakti saint-poets for their denunciation of dogmas, religious formalism and caste tyranny.189 The uniqueness of nineteenth-century intellectual engagement in Maharashtra, however, lay in its deeper link with the Bhakti tradition of thought which was often eloquently acknowledged by the reformers as a fundamental frame of reference for inspiration, guidance and emulation. The intellectuals with perhaps the sole exception of Mahatma Phule who found Bhakti tradition deficient in espousing the cause of the Shudras and Ati-Shudras, were immensely impressed by the socially secular songs of the santas with emphasis on egalitarianism, anti-idolatry and anti-priestcraft. Bhandarkar in his Presidential address at the Ninth Indian National Social Conference held in 1895 in Poona stated, ‘The santas or saints of the middle ages had compassion for outcastes of Hindu society, and admitted their claims to religious instructions and a better treatment.’190 He also extolled the anti-idolatrous expositions of the medieval mystics. For instance, as Bhandarkar elucidates, Visoba Khecar, Namdev’s guru, gave the latter the following instruction: A stone-god never speaks. What possibility then of his removing the disease of mundane existence? A stone image is regarded as god but the true god is wholly different. If a stone-god fulfils desires, how is it he breaks when struck? Those who adore a god made of stone, lose everything through their folly. Those who say and hear that a god of stone speaks to his devotees are both of them fools.191

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Introduction  43 He highlighted that Namdev laid emphasis on ‘the inefficacy of the usual modes of purification and of the attainment of God, such as pilgrimages, vows, fasts or meditation on the absolute, and sacrifices’.192 Similarly, Kabir condemned idolatry and promulgated ‘a pure spiritual theism’.193 Chandavarkar was equally charmed by the egalitarian teachings of the medieval mystics. There are numerous references in his speeches and writings to Tukaram, Guru Nanak and others for their reformative role in Indian society and history.194 It was, however, Ranade who assigned a pivotal place to medieval mysticism for its relevance to the contemporary reform ideas and initiatives. He admired the Bhakti saint-poets for the secular dimensions of their devotional songs. He extolled them for their advocacy of egalitarianism and designated their non-conformism and protest against Brahmanic bigotry as ‘Protestant Hinduism’.195 He wrote: The religious movement, commencing with Dnyandev who lived in the fifteenth century, can be traced to the end of the eighteenth century. It gave us a literature of considerable value in the vernacular language of the country. It modified the strictness of the old spirit of caste exclusiveness. It raised the Shudra classes to a position of spiritual power and social importance almost equal to that of Brahmans. It gave sanctity to the family relations, and raised the status of woman. It made the nation more humane, at the same time more prone to hold together by mutual toleration. It suggested and partly carried out a plan of reconciliation with the Mahomedans. It subordinated the importance of rites and ceremonies, and of pilgrimages and fasts, and of learning and contemplation, to the higher excellence of worship by means of Love and Faith. It checked the excesses of polytheism. It tended in all these ways to raise the nation generally to a higher level of capacity both of thought and action.196 He highlighted in particular the seminal efforts of these santas towards lessening of caste and community considerations and distinctions. He wrote: It was against the monopoly of the Brahman caste and the exclusive spirit of this caste domination that the saints and prophets struggled most manfully to protest. Nearly half of them were of castes other than Brahmans, and some of them of very low

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44  Introduction castes indeed. . . . Malopant, a Brahman saint was married to a low-caste – Mahar. Jayaram Swami’s master, Krishnadas, was similarly married to a barber girl. Eknath made no secret of the little importance he attached to caste distinctions. He fed a Mahar at his house. Chokhamela said, ‘Never ask a man’s caste when he has in his heart faith in God, and love of men. God wants in his children love and devotion, and he does not care for his caste.’ There are many other saints of great renown who, like Kabir, Nanak and Manik Prabhu, are claimed both by Hindus and Mahomedans as belong to their respective communities and worshipped and reverenced as such by both. These examples will suffice to show how the lives of these men have tended to elevate the national conception of man’s spiritual nature, and shake the hold of caste intolerance. . . . There can be no doubt that the national ideal of spiritual excellence has been shaped by these models. The saints came into contact with a militant religion like Mahomedanism and conquered them. Several Mahomedans became converts to the Hindu Faith. Shaik Mahomed and Kabir may be cited as examples of this catholic spirit of recognition. On the other hand, Tukaram and Eknath were so influenced by their contact with Mahomedanism that they composed verses in Urdu of so catholic a character so as to be unobjectionable to the strict Mahomedan.197 Nanak’s watchword was that he was ‘neither a Hindu nor a Mahomedan, but he was a worshipper of the Nirankar, or the Formless’.198 Ranade tried to draw a parallel between the Reformation in Western Europe and the Bhakti movement in India, and struck striking similarities between the two.199 In a significant sense he found the Bhakti tradition as representing an advance in comparison to other examples in the world. In his own words, ‘No country in the world can present such a galaxy of pure and pious men born in humble circumstances, who struggled and strove for the cause, and won it not by their own strength, but by their humility.’200 ‘The inclusion of mahars and barbers, cobblers and butchers, the inclusion of women and Mahomedans among the saints, represented an enlargement of view to which you will scarcely find a parallel elsewhere.’201

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The wide-ranging social composition of the saint-poets as well as the depth and spread of their clientale constituted, in Ranade’s view, the high watermark of Indian catholicism. In his historic address ‘Hindu Protestantism’ at the Prarthana Mandir in 1895 in Bombay he said: Mahipati’s collection makes us acquainted with the history of one hundred saints and prophets, out of which about fifty are from Maharashtra and the rest from other parts of India. The saints and prophets include about ten women, and as many Mahomedans, and the rest, about eighty, comprise about an equal number of Brahmins and non-Brahmins, and among these lasts are representative men of all castes and creeds: butchers, spinners and weavers, goldsmiths, barbers and mahars, kings and farmers, bankers and soldiers. This is the most noteworthy feature of the leaders of the Protestant movement in India. . . . The genuinely natural character of the movement is attested by the fact that it spread to all classes and touched all hearts, both of men and women, and of Hindus and Mahomedans alike. . . . Jesus’ protest against the Pharsees and Sadducees was reproduced in the lives of every one of these men in their struggles with orthodoxy and Brahmanism.202 G.V. Joshi also admired the Protestant character of the Bhakti movement. He wrote, ‘The devotional movement represents the vein of what may be called the Hindu Protestant thought, a protest against tradition and ritual, and a recognition of the spirit as opposed to the letter of religious thinking.’203 Another inspiring trait of the Bhakti tradition which Ranade remarked with reverence was the rejection of asceticism as a way to godly realisation. There was, he highlighted, no dichotomy between devotion and domestic duties in medieval mysticism; spiritual orientation did not lead to denial of domestic life and its obligations. He wrote: Eknath all his life lived with his wife and children, and so did Tukaram and Namdev, though they were not blessed with sympathetic female relations. Bothale Bawa, Chokhamela, Damanjipant, Bhanudas, the two potter saints, and many others lived in the midst of their families. Dnyandev’s father who had become

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46  Introduction Sanyasi without obtaining the free consent of his wife, was directed by Ramanand (his guru) to return to his home, and live with his wife. Thus a very high conception of the sanctity of family-life was realized by these saints and prophets, and they did their best to correct the national weakness which shrinks from trouble and anxiety by retiring from the world’s conflict. . . . The sanctity of married and family life was nobly indicated by these saints and prophets, and this was a signal moral triumph over the past traditions of asceticism.204 He also eulogised the efforts of these saints to democratise and disseminate knowledge among all, high and low, and liberate it from the monopoly of Brahmins and supremacy of Sanskrit. He held the growth of the modern vernaculars owed to the efforts of these santas. In his address at the anniversary meeting of the Prarthana Samaj held in 1895 Ranade said: The saints and prophets addressed the people, both in speech and writing, in their own vernacular, and boldly opened the hitherto hidden treasures to all and sundry, men and women, Brahmans and Shudras, alike. . . . The saints and prophets laid Sanskrit aside as useless for their work, and spent all their energies in the cultivation and growth of their mother tongue. It may be safely said that the growth of the modern vernaculars in India is solely the result of the labours of these saints.205 They tried to impart their teaching through the vernaculars and thus were instrumental in enriching these languages which until then were completely neglected. The efforts of these saints and prophets can very well be compared to the efforts of Luther and others in getting the Bible translated into the various European languages.206 In Ranade’s opinion, however, the mystic movement in Maharashtra was certainly superior to similar pulsations in the rest of the country. In his own words: In Northern and Eastern India a similar movement manifested itself much about the same time. Nanak stirred up the Punjab to rise, and made a supreme effort to reconcile Hinduism with Mahomedanism. Chaitanya in the far East sought to bring men

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Introduction  47 back from the worship of Shakti and Kali to the faith of the Bhagwat; while Ramanand and Kabir, Tulsidas and Surdas, Jaidev and Rohidas, contributed each in his own way to the work of spiritual enlightenment. Their influence has no doubt been great and abiding, but it cannot be compared with the work done by the saints and prophets of Maharashtra. The names of Changdev and Dnyandev, Nivritti, and Sopan, Muktabai and Jani, Akabai and Venubai, Namdev and Eknath, Ramdas and Tukaram, Shaik Mahomed and Shanti Bahamani, Damaji and Udhav, Bhanudas and Kurmdas, Bodhe Bawa and Santoba Powar, Keshav Swami and Jairam Swami, Narsimha Saraswati and Rangnath Swami, Chokhamela and the two potters, Narhari Sonar and Savatia Mali, Bahiram Bhat and Ganesh Nath, Jonardan Pant and Malopant, and many others that may be cited, furnish an array which testifies to the superior efficacy of the movement in Maharashtra.207 There is also a noticeable slippage in his delineation as he at times tended to conflate the entity of region with that of nation, a blurring between the regional and national identities as if India consisted of different nations during the period. He wrote, for instance: It (the Bhakti movement) tended in all these ways to raise the nation generally to a higher level of capacity both of thought and action, and prepared it in a way no other nation in India was prepared to take the lead in re-establishing a united native power in the place of foreign domination.208 Mahatma Phule, however, had no love lost for the Bhakti tradition. He was not only critical but also quite condemnatory of the medieval mystics of Maharashtra. He found utter futility in compositions of these saint-poets who, in his view, chose not to take up avowedly anti-Brahmanical issues like social slavery and suppression and sang, instead, socially irrelevant songs. He wrote of them quite dismissively, Be it noted that not a single one of these (celebrated) authors had the courage to point an accusing finger at the dog-collar (the hallmark of slavery) hung around the necks of the Shudras (by their Bhat brethren). They dare not condemn and abjure the evil and wicked deeds perpetrated by the Brahmins. So they very shrewdly termed the evil practices (mentioned above) as the

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‘Path of Action’ and the Atheistic view as the ‘Path of Knowledge’. They further composed heaps of books full of empty verbiage in the vernacular language as to these two paths, and thus enabled their (selfish) brethren to exploit the ignorant (and helpless) Shudras.209 Ranade, however, remained steadfast in his intellectual quest for ideational affinity not only with medieval mysticism but also with the high points of cultural fusion in medieval India. He showered his encomia on Akbar, the Mughal emperor, who he hailed to be a symbol of Indian secularity in pre-British past. It was, in his view, the efforts of Bhaktas and Emperor Akbar that truly laid the solid foundations of composite culture and catholicism in the country. In his historic address at the Thirteenth Indian National Social Conference held in 1899 at Lucknow, he said: In a hundred ways the India of the eighteenth century, so far as the revived power of the native races was concerned, was a stronger and better constituted India than the first five centuries from 1000 and 1500. In Akbar’s time, this process of regenerate India first assumed a decided character. No student of Akbar’s reign will fail to notice that for the first time the conception was then realized of a united India in which the Hindus and Mahomedans were to take part in the building of an edifice rooted in the hearts of both by common interests and common ambitions. . . . A fusion of the two races was sought to be made firmer still by the establishment of a religion of the Din-i-Ilahi in which the best points of the Mahomedan, Hindu, and other faiths were sought to be incorporated. Invidious taxation and privileges were done away with, and toleration of all faiths became the universal law of the Empire. . . . Sati was virtually abolished by being placed under restraint. Remarriage was encouraged and marriage before puberty was prohibited. In these and a hundred ways the fusion of the races and of their many faiths was sought to be accomplished. This process of removing all causes of friction and establishing accord went on without interruption during the reigns of Akbar, Jahangir and Shahjahan. Shahjahan’s eldest son, Dara Sheko, was himself an author of no mean repute. He translated the Upanishads and wrote a work in which he sought to reconcile the Brahman

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religion with the Mahomedan faith. This period of a hundred years may be regarded as the halcyon period of Indian history when the Hindu and Mahomedan races acted in full accord. . . . Far from suffering from decay and corruption the native races gathered strength by reason of the Mahomedan rule when it was directed by a policy of toleration and equality.210 The cultural contribution of the Mughal period was another high point which Ranade highlighted with particular emphasis and encomium. He said: The Mahomedan domination helped to refine the tastes and manners of the Hindus. They brought in the use of gunpowder and artillery. . . . They introduced candles, paper, glass, household furniture and saddlery. They introduced the best specimens of architecture. They improved the knowledge of the people in music, instrumental and vocal, medicine and astronomy, and their example was followed by the Hindus in the perversions of both these later sciences into alchemy and astrology. . . . In all these respects, the civilization of the united Hindu and Moslem powers represented by the Moguls at Delhi, was a distinct advance beyond what was possible before the tenth century of the Christian era.211 He emphasised that ‘co-operation and conjoint action of all the communities’ was necessary for national progress. The unity between Hindus and Muslims constituted, in his view, the sheet-anchor of communal concord. ‘In this vast country no progress is possible unless both Hindus and Muslims join hands together.’212 He repeatedly cited the example of Akbar as the most emulative role model of communal harmony in the country. He made an earnest plea ‘to follow the lead of the men who flourished in Akbar’s time, and sedulously avoid the mistakes which were committed by his great-grandson Aurangzeb’.213 It is thus seen that there was hardly any dispute among the nineteenth-century intellectuals in Maharashtra as to the rootedness of secular rationality in pre-British Indian thought and ethos. The doubts and disputes in this respect are mostly among historians and scholars hunting for the roots of modernity solely in the ideas of the ‘enlightened’ in Europe. In the next section we will examine the

50  Introduction link between the rational reform and the nationalist awakening in the context of nineteenth-century colonial Maharashtra.

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Rational reform or national awakening The intellectual awakening in nineteenth-century Maharashtra essentially aimed at nation-building. Nation was, in fact, the raison d’etre of reform in the nineteenth century. It was not an isolated or separate project of culture change or social betterment, as many tend to hold, but a cultural expression of nascent Indian nationalism. Social reform was viewed as a means of national regeneration. Culture was seen largely as a conduit to the process of nation-making. Kenneth W. Jones’s treatment of the event in terms of its being essentially ‘acculturative’214 limits the ambit of the movement, besides obfuscating the distinction between the movement in Maharashtra and that in Bengal. It also overplays the role of ‘colonial milieu’ in its genesis and orientation. The central concern of the reformers was to steer India out of the social and moral morass which it had degenerated into and to see it strengthened and developed along modern lines so as to enable it to carve out a place for itself in the comity of nations. A modern and reinvigorated India was what they aspired and worked for. They thought rationally and they thought nationally as against ideas of parochialism and provincialism. Provincial pride did, however, seem to raise its head initially during the period, particularly in the ideas of Ranade, Chiplunkar and Tilak in Maharashtra. Ranade painted pre-British Maharashtrian political and religious upheavals in a much superior light compared to those in the rest of the country. Shivaji and his successors were viewed to have been far far-sighted and formidable native potentates engaged in the process of ‘nation-making’, in contrast to their counterparts in other parts of the country. He wrote: Unlike the Subhedarships of Bengal, Karnatik, Oudh and Hyderabad, the rise of the Maratha power was due to the first beginnings of what one may well call the process of nation-making. . . . It was a national movement or upheaval in which all classes cooperated. . . . The histories of Hyder and Tipu, and of the Mahomedan rulers of Hyderabad, Karnatik, Bengal and Oudh, present nothing parallel to it.215

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Similarly, he assigned the Bhakti movement in Maharashtra a superior status over other contemporaneous movements in different parts of the country. He wrote: Their influence (referring to non-Maharashtrian saints and poets) has no doubt been great and abiding, but it cannot be compared with the work done by the saints and poets of Maharashtra. The names of Changdev and Dnyandev . . . furnish an array which testifies to the superior efficacy of this movement in Maharashtra.216 He even drew a parallel between the Reformation in Europe and the struggle waged by the saints and prophets, particularly of Maharashtra in medieval times.217 He also at times tended to conflate Maratha region, kingdom or territory with ‘country’ or ‘nation’, like for other similar entities in the country, as if India consisted of different countries or nations – countries within country, nations within nation, so to say.218 In the Indian National Social Conference held in Lahore in 1893 he termed the Conference ‘the great gathering of the Indian Nations’.219 While delineating the enduring values of the Bhakti tradition in Maharashtra, he wrote: It tended in all these ways to raise the nation generally to a higher level of capacity both of thought and action and prepared it in a way no other nation in India was prepared to take the lead in re-establishing a united native power in the place of foreign domination.220 The use of the term ‘nation’ for two entities – region and country – was, however, not intended to suggest their mutual exclusiveness. Such terminological ambiguities were perhaps the tone of the time. It would be wrong to impute meanings into such expressions from the perspective of present times. Prachi Deshpande in her work Creative Pasts has highlighted this tendency in terms of ‘creation of a Marathi regional consciousness that clearly demarcated itself from the larger Indian nation’.221 She finds ‘slippages between region and nation’ quite ‘frequent’ in the nineteenth-century consciousness.222 Chiplunkar’s following passage from his Nibandhamala has been quoted as an example to question

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the nationalistic intent in his writings and to highlight his tilt towards ‘Maharashtrianism’: It is not even a hundred years since our country witnessed great warriors. We can still remember how even at the very end we dazzled all of Hindustan with our royal brilliance, even as the whole world watched, bewitched by our glory!223 Tilak’s invocation of Ganapati and Shivaji festivals, started in 1893 and 1895, respectively, it is implied, highlighted the efficacy of the Maratha legacy for anti-colonial agitation, as also the reaction against it for its being divisive in terms of region and religion.224 Such dimensions of thought in the context of nineteenth-century Maharashtra need not, however, be blown out of proportions without situating their actual say in the overall orientation of ideas during the period. No doubt, provincial pride did seem to assert itself at times in the nineteenth-century consciousness. The understanding of India as a larger national collectivity and the need for strengthening the process of nation building was, however, never in question. At no stage Maharashtrianism was counterposed to pan-Indianism as intellectual impulse or aspiration. The notion of India as a nation, a larger entity and a bigger frame of identity subsuming within itself different regions and aspirations to a common collective purpose, remained unsullied throughout in their thoughts and deeds during the period. Region was taken to be only a constituent element of national entity and not as an equal rival jostling for supremacy or for separate or independent identity. At no stage region was purported to be even placed on a similar footing of the nation. Almost all the intellectuals came to view India as a national collectivity, as distinct from diverse regional identities. The provincial pride derived its validity, if at all, as a frame of reference only in relation to other regions within the country; it was not in contradiction to pan-Indianism as the overarching frame of identity and objectification. The founding of the Indian National Social Conference in 1887 under the leadership of Ranade and the holding of its meetings at different locations ranging from Madras to Allahabad, to Bombay, to Calcutta, to Lucknow and to Lahore exemplified, apart from others, the efforts on the part of social reformers to socially weave the entire country into a similar social pulsation, thus laying

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the social foundations of Indian nationalism.225 Expressing satisfaction at the participation of reformers from Bengal, N.W. Provinces, Punjab, Madras and Bombay at the Second Indian National Social Conference held at Allahabad in 1888, Ranade remarked: We are in a sense as strictly national socially, as we are politically. Though the differences are great for purposes of immediate and practical reform, yet there is a background for common traditions, common religion, common laws and institutions and customs, and perversions of such customs, which make it possible for us to deliberate together in spite of our differences.226 Ranade further termed the social reform movement a ‘national awakening’ during his speech at the Fourth Indian National Social Conference held in 1890 in Calcutta.227 Even much earlier, the establishment of the Paramahansa Sabha in 1848 in Bombay by Dadoba Pandurang and later the opening of its branches at Calcutta, Madras and Varanasi exemplified national concern and pan-India sensitivity of the thinkers. Similarly, Chiplunkar never negated pan-Indianism as the leitmotif of his anti-foreignism. His famous essay ‘Amchya Deshachi Sthiti’ (Our Country’s Condition), published in eight issues of Nibandhamala and even other essays testify to his essentially all-India cry and concern. Many of his writings could be seen as fine pieces of nationalist literature of the time.228 It would be equally preposterous to obliquely question Tilak’s nationalism on the ground that he invoked certain symbols of Indian history which could appear partial to a particular region or community.229 Tilak’s flexibility in use of methodology should not be seen as a defect or deficit in his nationalist ideology. In his speech delivered at Allahabad in January 1901 he said, ‘English Government has been established for the benefit of Englishmen. They have not come for our salvation from over 12,000 miles.’230 In his speech at Calcutta the same year he stated, ‘The foreign rule has ruined our country. British rule has been established for this purpose that a foreign nation can rob us.’231 A fiery patriot, he stood and spoke for the entire country and not for a particular region or province. This aspect became clearer and clearer over a period, particularly during the twentieth century. In his speech delivered at Allahabad in January 1901 he

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54  Introduction said, ‘Shivaji was born at a time when darkness was overwhelming the whole country. I had hoped that in Bengal a leader will be born who by his own disinterested sacrifice will create a new life.’232 His depiction as a leader with a Hindu tilt also remains half-baked. Tilak wrote on 24 June 1905, ‘Shivaji was born in Maharashtra. But a future leader may be born anywhere in India and who knows, may even be a Mahomedan.’233 Tilak, in fact, tried tenaciously to use every possible means to promote Indian nationalism. He wrote on 24 June 1906, ‘The Shivaji festival is not celebrated to alienate or even to irritate the Mahomedans. The Mahomedans and the Hindus stand in the same boat or on the same platform as far as the political condition of the people is concerned . . . it matters little that Shivaji was born in Maharashtra. We are not against a festival being started in honour of Akbar or any other hero from old Indian history.’234 On Tilak’s demise Mahatma Gandhi paid a befitting tribute: ‘His patriotism was a passion with him. He knew no religion but love of his country. He was a born democrat. No man preached the gospel of Swaraj with the consistency and the insistence of Lokamanya’.235 Giving undue and uncontextualised credence to isolated instances of terminological ambiguities or occasional semantic ‘slippages’ may thus unjustifiably mar or minimise, even trivialise the merit of overall structure of consciousness of the period and people in question. Parimala V. Rao’s portrayal of Tilak as a representative of the elites and their interests, a promoter of Hindutva ideology and not quintessentially as an anti-colonial nationalist236 is another one-sided study of Tilak, selective not only in its sources but also in its premises. The idea of India as a national entity or collectivity is primarily the intellectual legacy of nineteenth-century thought. The medieval mystics had no conception of India as a nation. J.T.F. Jordens distinguishes the nineteenth-century reform movement from the pre-British Hindu reforms in terms of the former being closely wedded to a political movement with an all-India nationalist ramification.237 Nation became a subjective reality, apart from the ongoing process of objective knit-togetherness, in the literature and ‘orature’ for the first time in the nineteenth century. The question of national regeneration dominated their concern as profusely reflected in the writings and speeches of the intellectuals in Maharashtra. In his convocation address delivered as vice chancellor at

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the University of Bombay in 1894 Bhandarkar voiced his national concern. He said: If the people do not see the good that is there in foreigners, they are incapable of learning; if they do not see their own faults and defects and the evil that there is in their manners, customs and institutions, there can be no improvement, no progress; and the nation must lag behind while others are going on, and must suffer. He only is a true patriot who, with an unprejudiced mind, examines the manners, customs and institutions of the country and the character of the people, fearlessly exposes the abuses or evils he may find therein and earnestly calls upon to reform and improve even at the risk of offending them and being stoned by them.238 A year later in his presidential address at the Ninth Indian National Social Conference held in 1895 at Poona he said, ‘The aim of the reformers here has always been to reform our society – our nation.’239 Again, in his article entitled ‘Social History of India’ he wrote in 1901: A regard for national interest must grow up amongst us. . . . In our history as Hindus as a whole we have shown no concern for national or corporate interests, or were not actuated by the national spirit or sentiment and consequently allowed ourselves to be conquered by foreigners.240 . . . Hitherto India has lived an individual life and not a corporate or national life.241 The national concern found expression again in 1902 when in his presidential address at the Bombay Provincial Social Conference Bhandarkar reiterated: We cannot afford to be indifferent to our national and corporate interests. We are on all sides pushed by foreign nations seeking to profit themselves at the expense of our country. It is high time to set our houses in order, so that the energies of our people may have full scope, and all obstacles towards developments in all departments may be removed and this is the object of the social reform. The political agitation that has been going on for

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56  Introduction so many years has for its object the redress of certain grievances and the acquisition of new political powers. But the object of social reform – with which I also associate moral reform – is to render us fit for the exercise of these powers. The social reform movement therefore is of greater importance than the other in so far as it seeks to render the nation vigorous and free from social obstructions and restrictions.242 In his presidential address at the Indian National Social Conference held at Allahabad in 1902 he said, ‘Social Reform, a National Movement – This has been my creed since the year 1853.’243 Social reform was thus conceived in the context of the nation; it had no separate or exclusivist agenda or purpose of its own. In his another address given in 1915 Bhandarkar further emphasised the national perspective to the reform initiatives. He said: We have been thinking of the evils from which our nation is suffering. And endeavouring to remove them by the introduction of reforms, political, social, moral and religious. These constitute the national question and the elevation of the nation is what we have been seeking.244 Lokahitwadi also appealed to his countrymen to work for unity and welfare of the country. ‘Let there be unity among the people. Let knowledge be pursued and promoted and let everyone think of the welfare of the country.’245 Ranade in his speech at the Tenth Indian National Social Conference held in Calcutta articulated his aspiration: ‘Renovated India will take her proper rank among the nations of the world, and be the master of the situation and of her own destiny. This is the goal to be reached – this is the promised land.’246 Chandavarkar expressed nationalist thoughts on similar lines when in his address to the students at the Wilson College Library Society in 1886 he said in Bombay: A high ideal of Duty implies, firstly, cherishing the conviction that you are born, not for yourselves, but for your country; secondly, it implies rendering service to your country dispassionately; thirdly, rendering that service dispassionately in all matters, political, social and religious, on which the country’s welfare and progress essentially depend. Thus, then, I define a high ideal of Duty to consist in cherishing the conviction that each one of you

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is born to serve your country dispassionately so far as you can in political, social and religious matters so as to secure the country’s progress all along the line.247 Dwelling on the importance of essentially endogenous sources of inspiration for the idea of reform in the country while at the same time highlighting the value of exogenous influences he further stated in 1894: The lines (of reform) will be national in the sense that the inspirers will be our own prophets of the old, who denounced mechanical ways of living, and making Bhakti a sine qua non of religion, preached the religion of humanity. But the development of those lines must receive, as it has received, its impetus from the spirit of Christ too.248 Highlighting the national dimension of the Provincial Social Conference held at Karachi on 2 May 1896 he further emphasised that The moral and social effects alone of these annual gatherings, which bring home to us the fact that we are the natives of one country, bound together by a community of political interests, objects and aspirations, are enough to illustrate and emphasise the value of a Provincial Conference. In that respect this annual gathering may well be said to add to the remarkably useful service which the National Congress has rendered and is rendering by assisting the silent process going on among us of the unification of the different castes and creeds in India.249 Again, in his speech at the Bombay Provincial Social Conference held in 1901 he dwelt upon the role of the Indian National Social Conference in the process of national knit-togetherness. He said, ‘In the National Social Conference all castes, all races, all provinces, all causes are to meet and mingle in friendly rivalry in the pursuit of the social and moral progress of their common fatherland.’250 Further, speaking at the Theistic Conference held at Bombay on 8 January 1905 Chandavarkar on behalf of the Prarthana Samaj of Bombay exhorted to the delegates, ‘To you has been entrusted the task of tasks, i.e. the task of the regeneration of India.’251 Even Ramabai, who renounced Hinduism and embraced Christianity, clung to her country and worked for its amelioration. National strengthening and not

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58  Introduction provincial aggrandisement thus constituted the rationale of the intellectual awakening in the nineteenth century. The picture the intellectuals presented as also the interests and aspirations they represented was of all-India, and not solely of a particular province or region. Social reform was considered foundational and preconditional to overall national development; it was not intended for any regional or provincial ascendancy. Mahatma Phule’s notion of nation, however, went beyond the conception of nationality viewed primarily through the educated middle-class perspective. In his concept of nation unity and equality, education and emotional integration of the masses particularly the depressed and down-trodden sections of society constituted the defining moment. He argued: If the mass of the people are so riven and divided among themselves, they form a veritable hotch-potch. How can such a hotch-potch ever form a ‘Nation’? (be ever called a ‘Nation’?) There cannot be a ‘Nation’ worth the name until and unless all the people (nationals, inhabitants) of the land of King Bali – such as the Shudras and Ati-Shudras, Bhils (tribals) and fishers, etc. become fully educated, are able to think independently for themselves and are uniformly unified and emotionally integrated. If (a tiny section of the population like) the upstart Aryan Brahmins alone were to found the National Congress who will take notice of it?252 The nationalist ramification of nineteenth-century reform found further expression in a subtle but conscious distinction made between culture and civilisation by intellectuals in their approach to the West. This was a distinctive feature of Maharashtrian thought, there being a blurring between the two in the case of Bengal. The intellectuals in Maharashtra admired the material aspects of Western society, that is its advancement in science and technology, education and industrialisation. They opted for adaptation of Western civilisation for India’s development on modern lines. Right from Jambhekar onwards, nearly all stood for Westernisation in its civilisational sense. The ‘Prospectus’ of Sudharak authored by Agarkar exemplified this general refrain. To quote: Even countries like China have begun to realize the fact that if they want to hold their own in the universal struggle for survival,

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Introduction  59 they must adopt the essential principles as also the method of work, of European Civilization. After so many years of liberal education this sense should have been more awakened in us than any other Asiatic people. But unfortunately there has, of late, become visible a tendency not only to conceal or cover our national defects, but also to interpret and misinterpret even what is best in Western Civilization . . . in a modified adaptation of many of the essential elements of Western Civilization lies the real salvation of this country.253 In his first editorial in this weekly he stated, ‘If we accept in a proper way the new Western education and the new ideas which come along with it, do not cast away our basic heritage i.e. our Indian Aryan culture, then only we will progress happily.’254 Similarly, Chandavarkar stated that education must be related to our past national culture. In his own words: We get in our Colleges all of Kant and Hegel, Sedgwick and Martineau but little of our philosophers such as Shankaracharya, Ramanuja and Madhavacharya. The result is that what philosophy we learn does not touch the heart. Education, to evoke the formative elements in the pupil’s character, must be correlated with his past national culture and appeal not only to his intellect but also to his moral being.255 In cultural sphere, the emphasis was more on differentiation rather than integration, assimilation or identification between Indian and European ways of life. For cultural change the intellectuals in Maharashtra looked to indigenous tradition and history, and not Western cultural matrix.256 Almost everything Western including Western ways of life was, however, often an item of envy, adulation and even emulation among a sizeable section of reformers in Bengal.257 Anglicisation was not equated with modernisation in Maharashtra, unlike in Bengal where Anglicisation was by and large taken or rather mistaken for modernisation. There was a palpable sense of pride among Bengal intellectuals in trying to identify themselves with the English way of life in look, if not equally in outlook, by adopting the Anglicised cultural symbols such as dress, spoken language, food habits and style or mode of living over their own way of life. In Maharashtra, on the other hand, indigenous culture and ethos were greatly valued and venerated over colonial cultural trappings.

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60  Introduction Whenever this differentiation was attempted to be diluted and Indian ways of life and religion denigrated either by Western thinkers, colonial ideologues or the Christian missionaries through attack on Hinduism for the purpose of proselytisation or otherwise, the attempt was resisted and repulsed intellectually as well as theologically. Dadoba Pandurang, Brahmachari and Chiplunkar represented the combative Indian response to Christian and colonial onslaughts on Hindu religion and culture. After all, Hinduism was not just a religion, simply subject to theological interpretations; it constituted a distinctive world view and a cultural complex, symbolising Indian way of life and identity,258 as Christianity perceptibly did for the Europeans. The defence of Hindu religion therefore implied the defence of Indian identity and ethos, as against Christianity, the religion of the foreign masters. The attempt to repulse Western onslaughts against Hindu faith was, therefore, not purely a cultural or religious act.259 It was understandably allied with the notion of self-identity of emerging Indian nationhood. The so-called cultural defence was, therefore, quintessentially a national act, a national defence.260 Culture was defended not in a situation of nationalistic vacuity, in a primitive or tribalistic manner of cultural seclusion but in a nationalistic sense of safeguarding the identity of the indigenous ethos in relation to the foreign rulers in the face of the latter’s attempt towards cultural hegemonisation as part of colonisation. Culture was thus conceived in the context of the nation, and not independently of or separately from it. In sum, the reform movement in nineteenth-century Maharashtra was not an isolated event; it constituted an integral part of the emerging nationalist consciousness in the country almost as a means-andend continuum. National invigoration was its ultimate aim; social reform was one of the means of national self-strengthening, however seminal perceptibly in the then context. The Indian nationalist response to the colonial rule was, however, not a linear process. The way nationalism arose was, indeed, complex and tangled; it grew gradually, wave by wave. It found its initial expression as rational reform in certain aspects of society and culture. As it is, nationalism is not simply a process of political struggle261; it often undergoes a prolonged period of gestation in various realms of national life before its crystallisation into a potent political force. The rationalist resurgence in Maharashtra in the nineteenth century symbolised the incubation of a nationalist consciousness in the country and provided the

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Introduction  61 ideational infrastructure for the Moderates and even the later nationalist leadership to further build upon. It was an intellectual adumbration of India as a nation in the making, an inchoate manifestation of a nationalist awakening in the shaping, and thus it constituted the initial stage of the essentially four-phase phenomenon of India’s struggle for independence,262 for example the Rationalist or Early Nationalist, Moderate, Extremist and Gandhian phases.

Integration versus fragmentation The rise and growth of nationalist awakening in India was fundamentally a four-phase phenomenon for freedom. The Rationalist phase particularly in the context of Maharashtra was the initial expression of nationalist thinking in nineteenth-century India. It was a phase of national self-correction and self-strengthening. The Rationalists riveted their attention on the social side of national reconstruction. Social reform was viewed to be preconditional, even foundational to overall improvement. ‘A nation socially low cannot be politically great’ was the general intellectual refrain. ‘There can be no advancement politically without social and moral advancement.’263 ‘There is no hope of political elevation for as long as we live and apparently love to live, in such social degradation.’264 The balance of propensity in favour of the social reform was despite prominent intellectual sensitivity not being oblivious of the need and desirability for holistic change in the country. Most of the intellectuals were aware of the importance of all-round development. Jambhekar, the pioneer of intellectual movement in Maharashtra, emphasised the amelioration of intellectual, moral and political condition of the country.265 The issue of integration versus fragmentation between various spheres of national life became a subject of intense contestation between reformers and their opponents with Telang and Tilak coming on the intellectual scene in the 1880s. In his speech ‘Must Social Reform Precede Political Reform in India?’ given during a session of the Students’ Literary and Scientific Society in 1886, Telang argued in favour of a shift in emphasis from social to political reform at that time point of the nationalist positioning. Tilak’s patently political preference and his ostensible disdain for social reform further polarised the tenor of debate in the 1990s. In this hailstorm of argumentations the issue of integrality found finest articulations.

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Telang was, to start with, deeply sensitive to the need for structural change in the life of the nation. In his Preparatory Note on ‘Must Social Reform Precede Political Reform?’ he wrote: I consider religious, moral, social, and political reforms, and all other reforms whatever, to form one integral system. You may divide them for convenience sake. But in the ultimate analysis the divisions are mainly divisions of convenience. I strongly hold the view, that any really great advance made in any one direction must, to be permanent, be accompanied by more or less advance in the other directions.266 Ranade was also equally aware of the need for organic growth. In his address at the Sixth Indian National Social Conference held at Allahabad in December 1892 he said: Growth is structural and organic, and must take slow effect in all parts of the organism and cannot neglect any, and favour the rest.267 No development of the body politic is possible, unless the new heat animates all our powers, and gives life and warmth to all our activities.268 While delivering his lecture at Hindu Union Club in Bombay in 1895 he emphasised the importance of ‘an interdependence between the parts’ and stated the desirability of development in all departments of life: The liberation that has to be sought is not in one department of life, or in one sort of activity, or in one sphere of thought, but it is an all-round work in which you cannot dissociate one activity from another. . . . You cannot develop a chest without developing your other organs; you cannot starve yourselves and yet desire that your muscles shall grow and your nerves have the same elasticity as before. There is an interdependence between the parts, so that it is not possible to do justice to one without doing justice to the other also. . . . We fully realize that we have to work our own liberation and our own betterment, and that betterment not in one field or in one direction. Our muscles and sinews have to be hardened; our hearts have to be humanized to the sense of justice in all directions; and our intellect to be freed from prejudice and

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prepossessions; freed from the beliefs of superstitions which have been long dominating over us.269 Ranade most forcefully articulated his idea of integration between various spheres of national life in his inaugural address entitled ‘Liberate the Whole Man’ given in the First Bombay Provincial Social Conference held at Satara in 1900: You cannot have a good social system when you find yourself low in the scale of political rights, nor can you be fit to exercise political rights and privileges unless your social system is based on reason and justice. You cannot have a good economic system when your social arrangements are imperfect. If your religious ideas are low and grovelling, you cannot succeed in social, economic, or political spheres. This inter-dependence is not an accident but is the law of our nature. Like the members of our body you cannot have strength in the hands and the feet if your internal organs are in disorder. What applies to the human body holds good of the collective humanity we call the society or state. It is a mistaken view which divorces considerations political from social and economic, and no man can be said to realize his duty in one aspect who neglects his duties in the other directions. . . . There is no question which is purely political any more than social or economical, or even religious; and they make a fatal mistake who suppose that these are separate departments in our composite nature. . . . The same strenuous endeavours are needed in all the spheres of our activity. The whole man has to be developed and perfected. . . . You will see why the Congress and the Conference gatherings have been joined together. If I had the choice we should long since have added other spheres of work so as to make the national gathering really national in name and aims. The claims of some kind of work might be more absorbing than those of others, but each must have its time and place, and proportional attention devoted to it.270 This sensitivity was also shared by other intellectuals of the time. Malabari wrote in 1894, ‘It is difficult to understand why, in a certain narrow grove, the feeling prevails that the social reform must always stand apart from political progress, as a bad rival. Such violent divorce is undesirable in the interest of civilization.’271 Chandavarkar in his speech at the meeting of the Madras Hindu Social Reform

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Association held on 28 November 1896 at Madras emphasised that progress had no arbitrary laws and that there could be no rank of precedence among different departments of national life. He said: The controversy of ‘should social reform precede political reform?’ we do not hear much now-a-days, probably because we have come to perceive the sober truth, attested by the experience of every civilized nation that progress has no arbitrary laws and that there can be no rank of precedence among the different lines or departments of reform. . . . All activities, be they political, material, religious or social, have mutually interacting influence. The desire for progress in one direction does tell and must tell, though slowly and imperceptibly, by creating a desire for progress in the other directions as well. . . . Conscience awakened in one direction rarely fails to be awakened in other directions also.272 Similarly, Agarkar held that for national liberation and advancement, various aspects of reform – political, economic, social and religious – were inseparable and had to be pursued simultaneously.273 The idea of integrated approach to the question of nation-building, however, remained merely an ideational articulation, and could not be actualised till the onset of Gandhian era. The pre-Gandhian nationalist consciousness was marked as well as marred by the preeminence of what may be called a cognitive fragmentation of reality and thematic singularity of purpose. For national reconstruction the Rationalists, despite being sensitive to the significance of holism for wholesome growth, laid greater emphasis on socio-religious reforms compared to political questions. Social self-strengthening was perceived to be preconditional to development in other departments of national life. The British rule was initially viewed to be a potentially healthy influence in the regenerative process of social self-correction. The realisation of colonial connection essentially being corrosive was not quite sharp particularly during the first half of the nineteenth century, some instances of incisive understanding of the exploitative character of the colonial rule particularly by Bhaskar Pandurang notwithstanding. British rule was often hailed as a divine dispensation. The initial impression, however, gradually underwent revision over a period, particularly during the second half of the century when colonial content of the British connection came to sharper focus. Overt anti-colonialism was, however, not a dominant theme of thought at

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Introduction  65 the Rationalist phase for most of the time, despite incisive condem­ nation of colonial rule by Bhaskar Pandurang and its erudite criticism by Ranade in particular during the course of the nineteenth century. The Moderates concentrated their attention on the political side of national life, though they were sensitive and sympathetic to social issues, particularly the education of women. The Moderate phase succeeded and even coincided with that of the Rationalists. There was, however, no serious attempt made to integrate the two spheres of activity – social and political, despite the fact that some of the prominent leaders like Bhandarkar, Ranade and Chandavarkar were actively engaged with the Congress as well as the Conference. The nationalist consciousness came to be dominated by political questions during the Moderate phase in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and sociocultural reform as a method of national reconstruction seemed to be receding into the background, being increasingly overshadowed by the primacy of political process. An integrated approach in the nationalist endeavour was yet to see the light of the day in modern Indian history. The Moderate phase, moreover, marked a distinct advance in the evolution of nationalist consciousness in the country. Though inheriting the Rationalists’ belief in British beneficence and divine-dispensation theory,274 they advanced a new understanding that the colonial government was strong enough to suppress or even crush Indian precipitate action. The economic critique of the colonial rule has, however, been seen as the hallmark of Moderate nationalism in the country. No doubt, during the Moderate phase the exploitative nature of the colonial rule leading to the country’s pauperisation and industrial retardation was highlighted with intensity as never before in modern Indian history.275 But then they, too, viewed it primarily as administrative aberrations rather than as a structure of exploitation enjoying the sanction and support, tacit or otherwise, of British parliament and people.276 The Moderates in Maharashtra had an abiding faith in the fairness of British public opinion. Gokhale stated in 1889: I have the profoundest faith in the honour of the British Nation, and if only we keep it informed of all that passes here, I am persuaded all cause of complaint will sooner or later be removed. If, therefore, our protest against this reactionary change in the attitude of Government towards higher education (referring to proposed reduction of Government expenditure on higher

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education) does not meet with a favourable reception at the hands of the authorities here, let us take it up to the two Houses of Parliament; let us appeal to the British public opinion; our cause is just and we are sure to win, if only we plead it well.277 Political radicalism and social conservatism constituted the core of Extremism, with Tilak in the forefront in Maharashtra in the late nineteenth century. Integration of social reform as one of its planks was perhaps not possible within the logic of Extremist nationalism. The Extremists had hardly any patience for Moderates’ methods of politics through prayers and petitions and tried to expand the ambit of agitation through emphasis on involving the people at large. Concern for enlisting popular support militated against pursuit of social reform which had generated differing opinion among people on its desirability as well as on its methodology. Belief in British benevolence gave way to deep-seated disbelief in Extremist thinking, with strong suspicion on the regenerative role of the Raj. Freedom and foreignness were highlighted as basic contradictions inherent in the British connection, the idea first highlighted by Chiplunkar. The Extremists and their arch-advocate, Tilak, were patently political in aim and aspirations. Tilak in particular not only desired the exclusion of social reform from the pale of political agitation, wishing it to be left to the domain of ‘reform from within’, but also made it an object of staunch opposition, derision and even ridicule whenever occasion arose. During the Consent controversy in particular he launched a scathing attack on the reformers and their agenda of reform. The Mahratta, his English paper, is replete with writings penned by him as well as by others opposing social reform particularly through intervention of legislation as one of the legitimate means. Agarkar, his one-time friend who later fell out, alleged that Tilak’s conservatism was the result of calculation, not conviction,278 as it was easier to garner in this manner popular support for political agitation. Cognitive fragmentation of reality and thematic singularity of purpose was thus destined to be at its best or worst during the Extremist phase. It was only during the Gandhian era that cognition attained holism and thematic plurality in modern Indian history. Mahatma Gandhi exemplified in his world view as also in his conception of the individual and national life the height of Indian holism,279 and even transcendence in the twentieth century.

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Introduction  67 The Gandhian era incorporated within its fold almost the entire gamut of national life – social, economic, political, intellectual and ethical. The Constructive Programme of the Congress was substantively the social reflection of Gandhian holism. It involved the promotion of khadi, spinning, and village industries symbolising self-reliance, national education, Hindu–Muslim unity, the social upliftment of the Harijans and the tribal people, the struggle against untouchability, boycott of foreign cloth and liquour, etc.280 Emphasis on its implementation particularly during the so-called passive phases did not imply it to be eschewed during the ‘active’ ones. It was, in fact, meant to remain an abiding article of faith among the followers as part of their moral schooling for life; the emphasis was to instill its cultivation as a way of living much more than as a task to perform at a certain conjuncture of history. In addition, improvement in the position of women and their equal status with men, eradication of poverty and rural–urban divide, truth, non-violence and the nobility of both end and means also formed integral aspects of Mahatma Gandhi’s comprehensive paradigm of change. He denounced child marriage and enforced widowhood. He held women ‘could labour under no legal disability not suffered by men’.281 He highlighted that ‘to postpone social reform till after the attainment of Swaraj is not to understand the meaning of Swaraj’.282 His emphasis on integrated approach, be it in the life of an individual, society or nation brings him closer to pre-British Indian thought and ethos which was dominated by holism since ancient times. Mahatma Gandhi’s vision of independent India based on economic and political decentralisation with emphasis on village industries and panchayati raj further went beyond the hitherto accepted nineteenth-century intellectual framework of India’s development running along Western lines with industrialisation as the economic foundation of society. In Gandhian paradigm of development the Western model ceased to be a morally sustainable proposition. His emphasis on agrarian and handicraft economy, his rejection of blind bent to modern technology, his non-legitimation of private gain and profit, the emphasis on ideals of a moral society, decentralisation of political decision-making – all point to his basic rootedness in (pre-British) Indian thought, tradition and ethos,283 going beyond the nineteenth-century intellectuals’ framework of development inspired largely by the Western model. Though not intrinsically

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68  Introduction against industrialisation as such, he would not support it if it could lead to displacement of labour, a situation prominently reminiscent of the Western example. The West as a referral thus suffered a sizeable loss in Gandhian vision of future India. It was, indeed, a classic case of transcendence in modern Indian history. The particularistic predicament of pre-Gandhian nationalism was, however, not due to any endemic frailty of the individual intellect of the time; it appears to be largely context-determined. The possibility of any integration between social and political reform, particularly during the Rationalist and Extremist phases, was really remote, if not entirely infeasible. It appears that the context of the process of intellectual formation in modern India was largely responsible for the rise of particularistic intellectual stance during the pre-Gandhian period. British rule was, after all, not like any other foreign invasion or visitation. The British ruled India not solely through brute force which they, of course, did whenever they chose, but they also employed hegemonising means to capture not only the country but also the minds of the countrymen for the purpose of colonial consolidation. The introduction of modern education based on colonial curriculum with Western bias, the positioning as well as projection of Britain as representing the might of European modernity and technological superiority with image of the English as a people with belief in democratic and representative values in contrast to the indigenous social and political institutions still largely mired in medievalism, coupled with the British policy of caution and conciliation adopted for a considerable period, the introduction of modern means of communication, such as railways and telegraph, the establishment of rule of law, etc. helped create among the early generations of English-educated intelligentsia a feeling of well-being under colonial dispensation and a prospect for progress of the country on modern Western lines, especially during the first half of the nineteenth century. It was not unnatural for this early generation to view British rule as a welcome visitation, beneficial and modernising. The young generations of the intellectuals thus by and large failed to comprehend the colonial connection as inherently a structure of exploitation. It was, therefore, historically not feasible to combine social with political reform at this time point despite there being a definite sensitivity to its imperativeness, for the latter would mean going against or at least cornering the Raj, the very symbol of modernisation and regeneration in the

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Introduction  69 contemporary context. Overt anti-colonialism was thus destined to remain significantly subdued in the overall nationalist consciousness at the Rationalist stage, particularly during the early years of the nineteenth century. The prospect of integration between political agitation and social regeneration seemed to be virtually impossible under the Extremists under Tilak. Political radicalism presupposed expansion in the social base of the movement. It practically meant going beyond the confines of the educated middle class to the people at large. The social reform movement had generated a kind of polarisation in terms of supporters of reform on the one hand and its opponents on the other. Social reform did challenge established customs and traditions which were often objects of popular veneration as contemporary evidences suggest. The logic of Extremist politics aimed at expansion of the nationalist agitation could not afford social polarisation as it would weaken the emerging national movement. Tilak’s opposition to rational reform under the slogan of ‘reform from within’ was actually a way to enhance nationalist agitation by enlisting wider participation in the political process. An incident relating to his life is worth narrating here as it sharply reveals the role of context in the shaping of ideas and stances. When in a private conversation Tilak expressed his concurrence with the views of social reformers, his daughter immediately asked him the reason then for his opposition to them. Tilak replied that he was not prepared to go in the wilderness.284 He also observed, ‘If I adopt the heterodox ways, I would not be in a position to influence them (i.e. the people) to the same extent as I could do by keeping to my orthodox ways.’285 The Mahratta echoed, ‘Political reform is a common platform on which all can meet. Such is not the case, with obvious reasons, with our social reform.’286 Tilak was conscious of the fact that the mind of the majority sided with orthodoxy, and that echoing their concern would certainly help him garner popular support for political agitation. It was indeed easer to tap into traditions and enlist popular support. Conversely, it was harder to be progressive, to change thinking by challenging the popular pattern and yet manage to take people along.287 Tilak’s reaction, however, cannot be equated with that of conservatives like Dhakji Dadaji or even Mandlik; his opposition to social reform emanated essentially from his deep commitment to anti-colonial nationalism and the demand for expansion of its ambit in the context of nationalist positioning at that time point.

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70  Introduction Tilak’s use of religion for political purpose had also much to do with his contextual compulsions. So far religion in India was mostly confined to its social fold and function. It was Tilak who most singularly tried to transform it, and not without its share of success as well as negative fallout, into a potent political weapon for mobilisation and galvanisation of the people. He could see that the revival of religious symbols was more powerful than the course of rational discourse. If at all, there was a possibility of such integration only during the Moderate phase. An incipient reflection of this possibility was manifested in holding the annual gatherings of the Conference in the Congress pandal in which some of the Congress delegates also participated in the proceedings of the Conference. The Moderates were mostly socially progressive in their orientation. They at least did not have the disdain like the Extremists had in Maharashtra for social reform. The Moderates were also intellectually to an extent akin to the Rationalists in their political perception. They, like the latter, were in no hurry to hasten the process of British departure.288 The belief in the beneficial role of the Raj, despite their erudite understanding of the ongoing colonial exploitation of India still remained an article of faith among the Moderates. The colonial rule was criticised but its continuity was not seriously questioned. During this period the challenge to British rule largely remained confined to the educated middle class with little popular participation in the process. The compulsion which later the Extremists could feel in strategising their response to the colonial rule for enlisting popular support was thus not pressing during the Moderate phase. Despite the context being conducive or at least not adverse to merger between the two spheres of activity, they did not or could not adopt an integrated approach. They riveted their attention on political reform, to the virtual exclusion of the social. This, in retrospect, appears to be a major failure of the Moderates in modern Indian history. The cultural reform was thus checkmated from becoming part of the nationalist agenda and had to await the onset of Gandhism for actualisation of an integrated approach. It is not easy to explain this failure. For the Moderates were not a reactionary lot. They, in fact, represented a highly enlightened and progressive stratum of Indian intelligentsia. They advocated education of women and stood for liberalism and modernisation.

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Introduction  71 Telang in his lecture ‘Must Social Reform Precede Political Reform in India?’ tried to explain the choice in favour of the political reform on the ground that it exemplified ‘the line of least resistance’.289 He argued that political reform was a less difficult path compared to the social. ‘Secure first the reforms which you can with the least difficulty.’290 Moreover, unity among most of the members was easier; both the progressive and the orthodox could easily come together on commonly felt political questions. In social matters, on the contrary, unity could be potentially quite elusive. ‘We must act in concert . . . for one common purpose’291 which was perceived to be easier around a political question. The inevitable tussle between the forces of reform and the forces of reaction in the areas of social reform could, on the other hand, quite readily jeopardise the prospect of unity among people. This possibility, in Telang’s view, was minimal in the political field. Agarkar too held that ‘our political activities meet with less opposition only because they entail no self-sacrifice’.292 This is, however, only one aspect of the explanation. Telang himself put it more in the manner of argumentation than explanation. But then it would be wrong to view the failure of the Moderates entirely in terms of their personal failings or their choice of easier options even as a matter of strategy. It appears that the shift in emphasis to political questions had much to do with the process of intellectual formation in the nineteenth century and the unfolding of the nature of British colonialism over a period. The initial optimism could not last for long in the course of colonial operationalisation. As the degree of disillusionment with the British rule increased over time with its exploitative content and intent coupled with racial discrimination becoming more and more conspicuous, the patience to persist with the social reform tended to lose its sheen in the intellectual perception, and it tended to tilt the balance in favour of political agitation. The call for political education in this context appeared more meaningful and effective than advocacy for social self-denunciation. Social reform entailed demand largely on self, whereas political movement put demand on the extraneous agency, that is British rule, and the time had come, it was felt, to now concentrate on the latter. Political awakening was considered more pressing and urgent than the prolonged process of social reformation or what Telang termed ‘a lengthy

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72  Introduction and laborious operation’. Probably the Moderates’ tilt to political reform was also embedded in the predicament of primary emphasis having been given in the first place by the Rationalists to sociocultural questions. It was only Mahatma Gandhi who could transcend Tilak’s limitations and those of others in effecting integration between various spheres of national life. His personal magnetism and astute understanding of the pulse of the people apart, he had history on his side. Mahatma Gandhi did not start with a clean slate. The level of nationalist consciousness was quite evolved by the time he came on the national scene. The efforts of the Rationalists, the Moderates and the Extremists, apart from those of other groups and sections, had cumulatively laid the foundations of a successful experimentation and praxis of Gandhian holism. By the 1930s when holism had taken a definite shape, India was a transformed nation with much wider and deeper political pulsations and a certain level of social readiness to remedy social ills. The spread of education especially among women during pre-Gandhian times meant lessening of the traditional hold of orthodoxy in society. This was a gift of history to the Mahatma who used and elaborated it to achieve what others failed to do.

Notes  1  There is a fairly sizeable historiographic delineation of the Bengal phenomenon. To cite a select few: Atulchand Gupta (ed.), Studies in the Bengal Renaissance, Jadavpur, 1958; C.H. Heimsath, Indian Nationalism and Hindu Social Reform, Bombay, 1964; Gautam Chattopadhyay (ed.), Awakening in Bengal in Early Nineteenth Century, Calcutta, 1965; Amitabha Mukherjee, Reform and Regeneration in Bengal 1774–1823, Calcutta, 1968; David Kopf, British Orientalism and the Bengal Renaissance, Calcutta, 1969; Arabinda Poddar, Renaissance in Bengal: Quests and Confrontations, 1800–1860, Simla, 1970; Susobhan Sarkar, Bengal Renaissance and Other Essays, New Delhi, 1970; V.C. Joshi (ed.), Rammohan Roy and the Process of Modernization in India, Delhi, 1975; Asok Sen, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar and His Elusive Milestones, Calcutta, 1977. Besides, there exists a host of articles written by numerous scholars on the Bengal event for which the Bibliography in this volume may be referred to.  2 See, for instance, James Kellock, Mahadev Govind Ranade: Patriot and Social Servant, Calcutta, 1926; D.G. Karve, Ranade: The Prophet of Liberated India, Poona, 1942; P.J. Jagirdar, Studies in the Social

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Introduction  73 Thought of M.G. Ranade, Bombay, 1963; T.V. Parvate, Mahadev Govind Ranade: A Biography, Bombay, 1963; Dhanajay Keer, Mahatma Jotirao Phooley: Father of Our Social Revolution, 1968 (first publication 1964); H.A. Phadke, R.G. Bhandarkar, New Delhi, 1968; Vasant K. Kshire, Lokahitawadi’s Thought: A Critical Study, Poona, 1977; Y.D. Phadke, V.K. Chiploonkar, New Delhi, 1982; Rosalind O’ Hanlon, Caste, Conflict and Ideology: Mahatma Jotirao Phule and Low Caste Protest in Nineteenth Century Western India, Cambridge, 1985. Aravind Ganachari, Gopal Ganesh Agarkar: The Secular Rationalist Reformer, Mumbai, 2005 (hereafter referred to as G.G. Agarkar); Uma Chakravarti, Pandita Ramabai: A Life and a Time, New Delhi, 2007.  3 The main works of this genre are: N.R. Phatak et al., Rationalists of Maharashtra, Dehradun, 1962; Y.D. Phadke, Social Reformers of Maharashtra, New Delhi, 1975; B.R. Sunthankar, Nineteenth Century History of Maharashtra, Vol. I, 1818–57, Pune, 1988. J.V. Naik has written a good number of articles indicating overall orientation of the intellectual movement in nineteenth-century Maharashtra. He, too, however, has not been able to make a marked departure in this historiographic trend. For reference see Bibliography of this volume.   4 W.T. Murphy, ‘Foucault: Rationality against Reason and History’ in Philip Windsor (ed.), Reason and History: Or Only a History of Reason, Leicester, 1990, p. 127.   5 It is a debatable issue whether ‘intuition’ is a conscious cognition. H. Stuart Hughes views it to be a combination of rational and affective processes too minute to be identified. While reasoning is almost wholly conscious, intuition is only partially so. William James termed it the ‘fringe of consciousness.’ For a detailed conceptual delineation see H. Stuart Hughes, Consciousness and Society: The Reorientation of European Social Thought 1890–1930, New York, 1958, p. 30 (hereafter referred to as Consciousness and Society). Also see G.C. Pande, Foundations of Indian Culture: Spiritual Vision and Symbolic Forms in Ancient India, New Delhi, 1984, p. 242; (hereafter referred to as Spiritual Vision); Philip Windsor (ed.), Reason and History, p. 127; Ernest Gellner, Reason and Culture, Oxford, 1992, p. 56; Aravind Ganachari, G.G. Agarkar, p. 2. Jawaharlal Nehru also emphasises the importance of intuition in sensing truth and reality; it is necessary, in his view, ‘even for the purpose of science.’ See his The Discovery of India, Calcutta, 1945, p. 31.  6 R.G. Mayor, Reason and Common Sense: An Enquiry into Some Problems of Philosophy, London, 1951, p. 32.   7 H. Stuart Hughes, Consciousness and Society, p. 5.   8 For details see George Santayana, The Life of Reason or the Phases of Human Progress, London, 1954.  9 Robert C. Solomon and Kathleen M. Higgins, A Passion for Wisdom: A Brief History of Philosophy, New York, 1997, p. 104 (hereafter referred to as A Passion for Wisdom).

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74  Introduction 10 C.J.H. Hayes, A Political and Cultural History of Modern Europe, Vol. I, New York, 1933, p. 544. Howard Becker and Harry Elmer Barnes, Social Thought from 11  Lore to Science, Vol. II, New York, 1961 (first publication 1938), p. 527. 12 R.G. Mayor, Reason and Common Sense, p. 32. 13 See Raymond Aaron, The Opium of the Intellectuals, tr. T. Kilmartin, London, 1957; Edward Shils, The Intellectual Between Tradition and Modernity: The Indian Situation, The Hague, 1961 and The Intellectuals and the Powers and Other Essays, Chicago, 1972. 14  Scholars who attach specific connotation to the term ‘intellectual’, though differing in emphasis, are, to mention a few: K.N. Panikkar, ‘The Intellectual History of Colonial India: Some Historiographical and Conceptual Questions’ in S. Bhattacharya and Romila Thapar (eds.), Situating Indian History, Delhi, 1986; Bipan Chandra, The Rise and Growth of Economic Nationalism in India, New Delhi, 1977 (first publication 1966); S. Bhattacharya, ‘Notes on the Role of the Intellectuals in Colonial Society: India from Mid-Nineteenth Century’, Studies in History, Vol. 1, No. 1, Jan.–June 1979; Alvin W. Gouldner, The Future of Intellectuals and the Rise of the New Class, New York, 1979; Paul A. Baran, ‘The Commitment of the Intellectual’, Monthly Review, Vol. 13, No. 1, May 1961. Churchward defines ‘intelligentsia’ as educated and selfless non-careerist critics of their own society and culture. See L.G. Churchward, The Soviet Intelligentsia, London, 1973, p. 1. Notably, the word ‘intelligentsia’ in Russian intellectual history is actually used for what is implied by the term ‘intellectuals’ in other contexts and countries. 15 Howard Becker and Harry Elmer Barnes, Social Thought from Lore to Science, Vol. II, p. 487. 16 Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, (ed. and tr.) Quintin Hoare and Geoffrey Nowell Smith, Hyderabad, 2010 (reprint), pp. 3–14. 17 Jotirao Phule, Slavery, Collected Works, Vol. I, (ed. and tr.) P.G. Patil, Bombay, 1991, p. 59; Dhananjay Keer, Mahatma Jotirao Phooley, p. 77. 18 Jotirao Phule, ibid., Vol. I, ‘Life-Sketch’ by V.D. Phadke, p. xx; Also see Jotirao Phule, Selected Writings, (ed.) G.P. Deshpande, New Delhi, 2002, p. 156. 19 Jotirao Phule, Sarvajanik Satyadharma Pustak in P.G. Patil (ed. and tr.), Collected Works, Vol. II, p. 24. 20 Jotirao Phule, ibid., Vol. I, pp. 37–8. Phule wrote, ‘Dnyaneshwar and Ramdas – these and some other cunning and wicked Brahmin saints composed heaps and heaps of new religious books to augment the stocks of similar books written by equally cunning and wicked Rishis of yore. They took care not to expose the wicked stratagems of the Aryan Brahmins in having reduced the Shudras and Ati-Shudras to the degrading status of serfs.’ See ibid. Vol. II, p. 9.

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Introduction  75 21 Lata Murugkar, Dalit Panther Movement in Maharashtra: A Sociological Appraisal, Bombay, 1991, p. 2. 22 Nandu Ram, Beyond Ambedkar: Essays on Dalits in India, New Delhi, 1995; Caste System and Untouchability in South India, New Delhi, 2008; Nandu Ram (ed.), Dalits in Contemporary India, Vol. I, New Delhi, 2008. Also see Vivek Kumar, Dalit Leadership in India, Delhi, 2002; S.P. Punalekar, ‘Dalit Literature and Dalit Identity’ in Ghanshyam Shah (ed.), Dalit Identity and Politics, New Delhi, 2001. 23 See Foreword by Nandu Ram in Vivek Kumar, ibid., pp. 11–12. This, however, is not borne by facts so far as Phule is concerned. 24 Vivek Kumar, ibid., pp. 47–68. 25 S.S. Jodhka (ed.), Communities and Identities: Contemporary Discourses on Culture and Politics in India, New Delhi, 2001; Gopal Guru, ‘The Language of Dalit-Bahujan Political Discourse’ and ‘The Interface between Ambedkar and the Dalit Cultural Movement in Maharashtra’ in Ghanshyam Shah (ed.), Dalit Identity and Politics, Kancha Ilaiah, ‘Dalitism vs Brahmanism: The Epistemological Conflict in History’ in Ghanshyam Shah (ed.), ibid., and his Why I Am Not a Hindu: A Sudra Critique of Hindutva Philosophy, Culture and Political Economy, Calcutta, 2002 (reprint). 26 For a detailed delineation see J.V. Naik, ‘The First Open Letters of Revolt against the British Colonial Policy’, a reprint from N.R. Ray (ed.), Western Colonial Policy, Vol. I, Calcutta, 1981. 27 K.N. Pannikar, Culture, Ideology, Hegemony: Intellectuals and Social Consciousness in Colonial India, New Delhi, 1995, pp. 76–7. See N.H. Kulkarnee, ‘Hindu Religious Reform Movements 28  in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Maharashtra’ in S.P. Sen (ed.), Social and Religious Reform Movements in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Calcutta, 1979, p. 267; Aravind Ganachari, G.G. Agarkar, p. 17; J.V. Naik, ‘Early Anti-Caste Movement in Western India: The Paramahansa Sabha’, a reprint from The Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bombay, Vols. 449–50–51/ 1974–75–76 (New Series), 1979, p. 144. 29 J.V. Naik, ‘The Reformer and the Quest for Social Justice in Indian History’ (with Special Reference to Renascent Maharashtra), Indian History Congress, 67th Session, Kozhikode, March 2007, p. 29. 30 J.V. Naik, ‘Dharmavivechan: An Early 19th Century Rationalistic Reform Manifesto in Western India’ in V.D. Divekar (ed.), Social Reform Movements in India, Bombay, 1991, p. 64 (hereafter referred to as Dharmavivechan). Also see B.R. Sunthankar, Nineteenth Century History of Maharashtra, Vol. I, p. 217. 31  See Govardhan Parikh and Indumati Parikh (eds.), Lokahitwadi Samagra Vangmaya, Part I, Mumbai, 1988, pp. 596–606. 32 Letter No. 29, Shatapatre, as cited in B.R. Sunthankar, Nineteenth Century History of Maharashtra, Vol. I, p. 230. 33 K.N. Panikkar, ‘Socio-Religious Reforms and the National Awakening’ in Bipan Chandra et al., India’s Struggle for Independence, New

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76  Introduction Delhi, 1988, p. 86; Mahadev L. Apte, ‘Lokahitvadi and V.K. Chiplunkar: Spokesmen of Change in Nineteenth-Century Maharashtra’, Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 7, 2, 1973, p. 196. 34 See Dhananjay Keer, Mahatma Jotirao Phooley: Father of Our Social Revolution, p. 243. 35 Jotirao Phule, Slavery, Collected Works, Vol. I, p. 3. 36 Jotirao Phule, Selected Writings, p. 142. 37 R.G. Bhandarkar (Lecture at the Free Church College Literary Society of Bombay on 31 March 1888), Collected Works, Vol. I, (ed.) Narayan Bapuji Utgikar and Vasudev Gopal Paranjpe, Poona, 1933, p. 364. 38 Ibid., Collected Works, Vol. II, (ed.) Narayan Bapuji Utgikar, 1928, pp. 530–3. 39 N.M. Parmanand, Letters to an Indian Raja from a Political Recluse, Bombay, 1919, p. 16. 40 M.G. Ranade, Religious and Social Reform: A Collection of Essays and Speeches, (com.) M.B. Kolasker, Bombay, 1902, p. 20. Also cited in T.V. Parvate, Mahadev Govind Ranade: A Biography, p. 59. 41 T.N. Jagadisan (ed.), The Wisdom of a Modern Rishi: Writings and Speeches of Mahadev Govind Ranade, Madras (n.d.), p. 116; M.G. Ranade, Religious and Social Reform, p. 101. 42 Ibid., pp. 2, 51–52. Also see M.G. Ranade, Miscellaneous Writings, (com.) Ramabai Ranade, New Delhi, 1992 (first publication 1915), pp. 193–94. 43 Y.D. Phadke, V.K.Chiploonkar, p. 27. 44 K.T. Telang, Selected Writings and Speeches, Vol. I, Bombay, 1916, p. 271. 45 N.G. Chandavarkar, The Speeches and Writings, (ed.) L.V. Kaikini, Bombay, 1911, pp. 198–9. 46 Ibid., p. 90. 47 Meera Kosambi (ed.), Pandita Ramabai through Her Own Words: Selected Works, New Delhi, 2000, p. 93. 48 Pandita Ramabai, The Letters and Correspondence, (compiled) Sister Geraldine, (ed.) A.B. Shah, Bombay, 1977, p. 73. 49 Ibid., p. 141. 50 Sudharak, 8 December 1890 as cited in Aravind Ganachari, G.G. Agarkar, p. 183. 51 Sudharak, 21 November 1892 as cited in ibid., p. 169. 52 Howard Becker and Harry Elmer Barnes, Social Thought from Lore to Science, Vol. I, New York, 1961 (first publication 1938), p. 147. 53 Robert E. Lerner et al., Western Civilizations: Their History and Their Culture, Vol. I, New York, 1988 (first edition 1941), p. 105 (hereafter referred to as Western Civilizations). 54 Howard Becker and Harry Elmer Barnes, Social Thought from Lore to Science, Vol. I, p. 149. 55 Ibid. 56 Ibid., Vol. II, pp. 431–2.

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Introduction  77 57 Robert E. Lerner et al., Western Civilizations, Vol. I, p. 119. 58 Ibid., p. 140. 59 Ibid., pp. 157–8. 60 Howard Becker and Harry Elmer Barnes, Social Thought from Lore to Science, Vol. I, p. 164. 61 Ibid., p. 300. 62 C.J.H. Hayes, A Political and Cultural History of Modern Europe, Vol. I, p. 103. 63 For a critical appraisal of the Enlightenment historiography see S.J. Barnett, The Enlightenment and Religion: The Myths of Modernity, Manchester, 2003. 64 C.J.H. Hayes, A Political and Cultural History of Modern Europe, Vol. I, pp. 206–7. Ibid., p. 512; Howard Becker and Harry Elmer Barnes, Social 65  Thought from Lore to Science, Vol. II, pp. 487, 604; Harold H. Laski, The Rise of European Liberalism, London, 1971 (first publication 1936), p. 11. 66 C.J.H. Hayes, A Political and Cultural History of Modern Europe, Vol. I, p. 512. 67 Harold J. Laski, The Rise of European Liberalism, p. 50. 68 S.J. Barnett, The Enlightenment and Religion, p. 26. 69 C.J.H. Hayes, A Political and Cultural History of Modern Europe, Vol. I, p. 498; Robert C. Solomon and Kathleen M. Higgings, A Passion for Wisdom, p. 75. 70 C.J.H. Hayes, ibid., p.76. 71 Ibid., p. 509; Robert C. Solomon and Kathleen M. Higgins, A Passion for Wisdom, p. 78. 72 Ibid. 73 Ibid., p. 523; Solomon and Higgins, ibid., p. 84. 74 Howard Becker and Harry Elmer Barnes, Social Thought from Love to Science, Vol. I, p. 362. 75 Robert C. Solomon and Kathleen M. Higgins, A Passion for Wisdom, p. 80. 76 S.J. Barnett, The Enlightenment and Religion, p. 2. 77 Ibid., p. 4. 78 Ibid., p. 1. 79 Ibid., p. 124. 80 Ibid., p. 52. 81 C.J.H. Hayes, A Political and Cultural History of Modern Europe, Vol. I, p. 134. 82 Ibid., p. 135. 83 Ibid. 84 Ibid., p. 123. 85 S.J. Barnett, The Enlightenment and Religion, p. 17. 86 Ibid. 87 Ibid., pp. 39–40. 88 Ibid., p. 1.

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78  Introduction   89 Robert C. Solomon and Kathleen M. Higgins, A Passion for Wisdom, p. 99.  90 David Ogg, Europe of the Ancient Regime 1715–1783, Great Britain, 1977 (first publication 1965), p. 330.  91 C.J.H. Hayes, A Political and Cultural History of Modern Europe, Vol. I, p. VII.  92  Some examples are cited below: ‘Rationalism and utilitarianism in the nineteenth century Indian intellectual thought was derived from the writings of Western thinkers such as Jeremy Bentham, James Mill. . . . Auguste Compte, Herbert Spencer, etc.’ Charles Heimsath, Indian Nationalism and Hindu Social Reform, pp. 47–9. ‘The reformers (in Maharashtra) were imbued with Western rationalism and humanism.’ J.V. Naik, ‘Social Reform Movements in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries in Maharashtra: A Critical Survey’ in S.P. Sen (ed.), Social Reform Movements in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, p. 287. ‘Western ideas of rationalism, liberalism and humanism came to India in the wake of the British rule which introduced a new educational policy.’ Aravind Ganachari, G.G. Agarkar, p. 12.  93  See K.N. Panikkar, ‘Was There a Renaissance?’, Frontline, March 11, 2011, p. 116. This seems to be his revised viewpoint, for one comes across a different view in his earlier writings where he argued, ‘The intellectual influences on Rammohan when he wrote Tuhafat were primarily Indian. . . . Rammohan’s rationalism as revealed in Tuhafat was primarily derived from the Indian intellectual tradition.’ See K.N. Panikkar, ‘Rationalism in the Religious Thought of Rammohan Roy’, PIHC, Vol. II, 34th Session, Chandigarh, 1973, p. 185.  94 Ronald Inden, Imagining India, Cambridge, 1990.   95 ‘With our minds enlightened by our contact with the Western nations, we cannot afford to be indifferent to our national and corporate interests.’ R.G. Bhandarkar, Collected Works, Vol. II, p. 520. ‘Hindu social reform under British rule commenced in this Presidency in the eighteen thirties soon after the introduction of English education.’ N.G. Chandavarkar, The Speeches and Writings, pp. 15, 93.   96 R.G. Bhandarkar, ibid., p. 516.   97 Ibid., p. 494.  98 N.G. Chandavarkar, The Speeches and Writings, p. 14.  99 The Indu-Prakash, 28 March 1887. 100 Sudharak, 16 October 1893. 101 The Christian Patriot, 1896, in Press Clippings, Gokhale Papers, MSS. 102 Aditya Mukherjee, ‘Empire: How Colonial India Made Modern Britain’, a reprint from Economic and Political Weekly, Vol., XLV, No. 50, 11 Dec, 2010, p. 75.

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Introduction  79 103 Tadd Fernee, Enlightenment and Violence: Modernity and Nation-Making in India, Turkey, Iran and Western Europe, a manuscript, under publication. 104 Ibid. 105 Ibid. 106 Aditya Mukherjee, ‘Empire: How Colonial India Made Modern Britain’, p. 74. Also see his ‘The Return of the Colonial in Indian Economic History: The Last Phase of Colonialism in India’, Presidential Address (Modern India), Indian History Congress, Sixty-Eighth Session, New Delhi, 28–30 December 2007. 107 See G.C. Pande, Spiritual Vision. pp. 208–22 (hereafter referred to as Spiritual Vision); Yogendra Singh, Modernization of Indian Tradition (A Systemic Study of Social Change), Jaipur, 1986 (reprint), p. 21; Robert C. Solomon and Cathleen M. Higgins, A Passion for Wisdom, p. 18. 108 G.C. Pande, ibid., pp. 221–2. 109 Ibid., pp. 44–7; A.L. Basham, The Wonder That Was India, Delhi, 1981 (first publication 1954), p. 255. 110 Bimal Krishna Matilal, Collected Essays: Ethics and Epics, Vol. II, (ed.) Jonardon Ganeri, New Delhi, 2002, p. 51. 111 S.N. Das Gupta, ‘Philosophy’ in A.L. Bhasham (ed.), A Cultural History of India, Oxford, 1975, p. 117; J.V. Naik, ‘Dharmavivechan’, p. 49. 112 G.C. Pande, Spiritual Vision, p. 239. 113 See Bimal Krishna Matilal, The Collected Works: Mind, Language and the World, Vol. I, (ed.) Jonardon Ganeri, New Delhi, 2002, p. 274; Robert C. Solomon and Kathleen M. Higgins, A Passion for Wisdom, p. 44; Romila Thapar, ‘Ethics, Religion and Social Protest in the First Millennium B.C. in Northern India’ in S.C. Malik (ed.), Dissent, Protest and Reform in Indian Civilization, Simla, 1977, pp. 8–123; G.C. Pande, Foundations of Indian Culture: Dimensions of Ancient Indian Social History, New Delhi, 1984, pp. 163–5 (hereafter referred to as Dimensions). 114 Romila Thapar, ibid., p. 123. 115 Bimal Krishna Matilal, The Collected Essays: Mind, Language and World, p. 274. 116 A.L. Basham, The Wonder That Was India, p. 271. 117 B.N. Mukherjee, ‘The Early Buddhism and its Social Contents’ in S.P. Sen (ed.), Social Contents of Indian Religious Reform Movements, p. 10. 118 G.C. Pande, Dimensions, p. 163. 119 Ibid. 120 B.N. Mukherjee, ‘The Early Buddhism and its Social Contents’ in S.P. Sen (ed.), Social Contents of Indian Religious Reform Movements, p. 9. 121 G.C. Pande, Dimensions, p. 165.

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80  Introduction 122 Nanak said, ‘Man may read cartloads of books; boastful of books, books filling cellars he may read; with God only one deed, contemplation of the Name, shall be approved. All the rest is effort wasted in egoism.’ See Sri Guru Granth Sahib, Vol. II, (English translation) Gurbachan Singh Talib, Patiala, 1995, p. 991 (hereafter referred to as Guru Granth Sahib). Similarly Kabir stated, ‘What good reading and listening to Vedas and Puranas, unless realization of God be attained?’ Ibid., p. 1374. See R.D. Ranade, Mysticism in Maharashtra: Indian Mysticism, 123  New Delhi, 2003; G.C. Bhate, History of Modern Marathi Literature, 1800–1938, Poona, 1939; A.L. Basham, The Wonder That Was India, pp. 145–52; Kusumawati Deshpande and M.V. Rajadhyaksha, A History of Marathi Literature, New Delhi, 1988; P.N. Paranjpe and Nishikant Mirajkar, Marathi Literature: An Outline, New Delhi (n.d.); K.L. Khandelwal, ‘Kabir Panth and Its Social Contents’ in S.P. Sen (ed.), Social Contents of Indian Religious Reform Movements, pp. 75–83. 124 J.V. Naik, ‘The Reformer and the Quest for Social Justice in Indian History (with special reference to Renascent Maharashtra)’, General President’s Address, Indian History Congress, 67th Session, Kozhikode, 10–12 March 2007, p. 16. 125 J.V. Naik, ibid., p. 17; V.B. Kulkarni, India and Pakistan – A Historical Survey of Hindu-Muslim Relations, Bombay, 1973, p. 83. 126 Abhanga – 3241 as cited in R.D. Ranade, Mysticism in Maharashtra, p. 326. 127 Abhangas – 706 and 707 as cited in ibid., p. 327. 128 Guru Granth Sahib, Vol. II, p. 1031. 129 Ibid., p. 751. 130 Ibid., Vol. I, 1988, p. 37. 131 Ibid., p. LXXXII. 132 Ibid., Vol. II, p. 1004. 133 See K.L. Khandelwal, ‘Kabir Panth and Its Social Contents’ in S.P. Sen (ed.), Social Contents of Indian Religious Reform Movements, pp. 80–1; J.V. Naik, ‘The Reformer and the Quest for Social Justice in Indian History’, p. 17. 134 Baidyanath Saraswati, ‘Notes on Kabir: A Non-literate Intellectual’ in S.C. Malik (ed.), Dissent, Protest and Reform in Indian Civilization, p. 171. 135 Ibid., p. 170. 136 Guru Granth Sahib, Vol. I, p. 679. 137 V.B. Kulkarni, India and Pakistan, p. 86. 138 Guru Granth Sahib, Vol. I, p. 678. 139 Ibid., p. 707. 140 Ibid., Vol. II, p. 1019. 141 Ibid., Vol. III, 1987, pp. 2241–2. 142 Ibid., Vol. III, 1987, p. 1720. 143 Abhanga – 94 as cited in R.D. Ranade, Mysticism in Maharashtra, pp. 196–7.

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Introduction  81 144 Abhanga – 95 as cited in ibid., p. 197. 145 Baidyanath Saraswati, ‘Notes on Kabir: A Non-Literate Intellectual’ in S.C. Malik (ed.), Dissent, Protest and Reform in Indian Civilization, p. 169. 146 R.D. Ranade, Mysticism in Maharashtra, p. 380. 147 Ibid., p. 381. 148 Guru Granth Sahib, Ibid., Vol. IV, 1990, p. 2346. 149 J.V. Naik, ‘The Reformer and the Quest for Social Justice in Indian History’, p. 16. Also see Ganda Singh, ‘Guru Nanak and Sikhism’ in S.P. Sen (ed.), Social Contents of Indian Religious Reform Movements, p. 102. 150 S. Kulkarni, Eknath, New Delhi, 1966, p. 21. 151 R.D. Ranade, Mysticism in Maharashtra, p. 381. 152 Ibid., p. 141. 153 J.V. Naik, ‘The Reformer and the Quest for Social Justice in Indian History’, p. 18; V.B. Kulkarni, India and Pakistan – A Historical Survey of Hindu-Muslim Relations, p. 83. 154 R.D. Ranade, Mysticism in Maharashtra, p. 252. 155 Baidyanath Saraswati, ‘Notes on Kabir: A Non-Literate Intellectual’ in S.C. Malik (ed.), Dissent, Protest and Reform in Indian Civilization, p. 172. 156 See Kenneth W. Jones, Socio-Religious Reform Movements in British India, Cambridge, 1994, p. 14. 157 R.D. Ranade, Mysticism in Maharashtra, pp. 221, 258; P.N. Paranjpe and Nishikant Mirajkar, Marathi Literature : An Outline, p. 9; N.K. Kulkarnee, ‘Social Implications of Religious Movements in Medieval Maharashtra’ in S.P. Sen (ed.), Social Contents of Indian Religious Reform Movements, pp. 178–9. 158 Abhanga – 11 as cited in R.D. Ranade, ibid., p. 168. 159 R.D. Ranade, Mysticism in Maharashtra, p. 20; P.N. Paranjpe and Nishikant Mirajkar, Marathi Literature: An Outline, p. 9. 160 N.G. Chandavarkar, The Speeches and Writings, p. 557; R.D. Ranade, ibid., p. 256; G.C. Bhate, History of Modern Marathi Literature, p. 28. 161 Dnyanadev is said to have held, ‘A man apart from society is an abstraction. The society has a claim on him. It is a man’s obligation to do his social duty.’ As cited in S.V. Dandekar, Dnyanadeo, New Delhi, 1969, pp. 62–3. 162 Abhanga – 2982 as cited in R.D. Ranade, Mysticism in Maharashtra, p. 315. 163 Wilbur Stone Deming, Eknath: A Maratha Bhakta, Bombay, 1931, p. 16. Also see Tadd Fernee, Enlightenment and Violence. 164 Baidyanath Saraswari, ‘Notes on Kabir: A Non-Literate Intellectual’ in S.C. Malik (ed.), Dissent, Protest and Reform in Indian Civilization, p. 179. 165 Ibid. 166 Abdus Subhan, ‘Sufi Movement’ in S.P. Sen (ed.), Social Contents of Indian Religious Reform Movements, pp. 124–35.

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82  Introduction 167 For elucidation see Tadd Fernee, Enlightenment and Violence. 168  See K.  N. Panikkar, ‘Was There a Renaissance?’, Frontline, March 11, 2011, p. III. He, however, aptly qualifies that it ‘did not serve as ideological inspiration for breaking away from the feudal ethos. See ibid. 169 K.N. Panikkar has highlighted the difference between the two: ‘The religious protest and reform movements during the pre-colonial period were invariably concerned with the ways and means of salvation. In contrast, religious reform in colonial India was almost indifferent to the earlier preoccupation. On the other hand, a definite shift in emphasis from other worldliness and supernaturalism to problems of existence was quite evident.’ See K.N. Panikkar, Culture and Consciousness in Modern India: A Historical Perspective, New Delhi, 1990, p. 9. Also see his Culture, Ideology, Hegemony, p. 97. 170 M.G. Ranade, Religious and Social Reform, p. 262. 171 Chandavarkar stated, ‘We get in our College all of Kant and Hegel, Sedgwick and Martineau but little of our own philosophers, such as Shankaracharya, Ramanuja and Madhavacharya.’ See N.G. Chandavarkar, The Speeches and Writings, p. 238. 172 R.G. Bhandarkar, Collected Works, Vol. II, p. 615. Also see H.A. Phadke, R.G. Bhandarkar, New Delhi, 1968, p. 83. 173 Ibid., Collected Works, Vol. I, p. 393. 174 Ibid., p. 466. 175 James Kellock, Mahadev Govind Ranade: Patriot and Social Servant, Calcutta, 1926, p. 13. 176 N.G. Chandavarkar, The Speeches and Writings, pp. 90–1. 177 Aravind Ganachari, G.G. Agarkar, p. 206. 178 P.J. Jagirdar, however, too hastily concludes, ‘Ranade’s mind drew its nourishment entirely from Western learning.’ See P.J. Jagirdar, ‘Western Elements in the Social Thought of Mahadev Govind Ranade’, The Indian Journal of Political Science, Vol. XXIII, Nos. 1–4, Jan.–Dec. 1962, p. 179. 179 The Indu-Prakash, 6 May 1895; T.N. Jagadisan (ed.), The Wisdom of a Modern Rishi: Writings and Speeches of Mahadev Govind Ranade, Madras (n.d.), p. 80. Ranade in his address at the Wilson College in 1896 defined Indian Theism as the Bhagawata Dharma. See M.G. Ranade, Religious and Social Reform, p. 22. 180 M.G. Ranade, Religious and Social Reform, p. 205; T.N. Jagadisan (ed.), The Wisdom of a Modern Rishi, p. 86. Also see Sudharak, 15 April 1895 and The Indu-Prakash, 6 May 1895 (emphasis added). 181 N.G. Chandavarkar, Address at the Indian National Social Conference held in Madras in 1904, The Speeches and Writings, p. 128. 182 R.G. Bhandarkar, Collected Works, Vol. II, p. 616. 183 Ibid., p. 504. 184 Ibid., p. 512. 185 Ibid., p. 502. 186 Ibid.

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Introduction  83 187 M.G. Ranade, Religious and Social Reform, pp. 7–8. Also see The Mahratta, 20 September 1896. 188 N.G. Chandavarkar, The Speeches and Writings, pp. 128–9. 189 Ibid., p. 144. 190 R.G. Bhandarkar, Collected Works, Vol. II, p. 491. 191 Ibid., Collected Works, Vol. IV, pp. 127–8. 192 Ibid., p. 129. 193 Ibid., p. 104. 194 N.G. Chandavarkar, The Speeches and Writings, pp. 587–9. 195 M.G. Ranade, Religious and Social Reform, p. 199; T.N. Jagadisan (ed.), The Wisdom of a Modern Rishi, p. 81. 196 Ibid., pp. 227–8; T.N. Jagadisan (ed.), ibid., pp. 83–5. Also see the essay entitled ‘The Saints and Prophets of Maharashtra’ by Ranade, published in The Quarterly Journal of the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha, Vol. XVII, No. 4, April 1895, pp. 1–19 (author’s name not indicated). It was later included as a chapter in his work Rise of the Maratha Power, New Delhi, 1974 (first publication 1900), pp. 3–4. 197 Ibid., Religious and Social Reform, pp. 210–27. 198 T.N. Jagadisan, The Wisdom of a Modern Rishi, pp. 4, 160. 199 Ibid., pp. 199–217. Also see The Indu-Prakash, 6 May 1895. 200 Ibid., p. 201. Also see The Indu-Prakash, 6 May 1895. 201 Ibid., p. 204. 202 Ibid., pp. 201–4. 203 The Journal of Poona Sarvajanik Sabha, October 1881, in G.V. Joshi, Writings and Speeches, Poona, 1912, p. 1011. 204 M.G. Ranade, Religious and Social Reform, pp. 216–7; T.N. Jagadisan, The Wisdom of a Modern Rishi, p. 97. 205 Ibid., pp. 218–9; T.N. Jagadisan (ed.), ibid., p. 99. Bhandarkar also vented similar views. See R.G. Bhandarkar, Collected Works, Vol. IV, p. 144. 206 As reported in The Indu-Prakash, 6 May 1895. 207 M.G. Ranade, Religious and Social Reform, p. 208. 208 Ibid., p. 228. 209 Jotirao Phule, Slavery, Collected Works, Vol. I, pp. 37–8. 210 M.G. Ranade, Religious and Social Reform, pp. 231–41; M.G. Ranade, Miscellaneous Writings, pp. 220–2; T.N. Jagadisan (ed.), The Wisdom of a Modern Rishi, pp. 2–13. 211 Ibid., pp. 241–2; ibid., pp. 223–4; ibid., pp. 12–13. 212 Miscellaneous Writings, p. 226; The Wisdom of a Modern Rishi, p. 14. 213 Miscellaneous Writings; ibid., pp. 14–15. 214 See Kenneth W. Jones, Socio-Religious Reform Movements in British India, pp. 1–14, 135–51. 215 See M.G. Ranade, ‘The Saints and Prophets of Maharashtra’, The Quarterly Journal of the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha, Vol. XVII, No. 4, April 1895, pp. 1–19.

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84  Introduction 216 Ibid., Rise of the Maratha Power, pp. 65–6. 217 Ibid., pp. 66–76. 218 Ibid., pp. 6, 7, 8, 52, 79, 86. 219 The Indu-Prakash, 4 June 1894. 220 M.G. Ranade, Rise of the Maratha Power, p. 76. 221 Prachi Deshpande, Creative Pasts: Historical Memory and Identity in Western India 1700–1960, Ranikhet, 2007, p. 127. 222 Ibid. 223 Ibid. 224 Ibid., pp. 138–43. Also see Stanley A. Wolpert, Tilak and Gokhale: Revolution and Reform in the Making of Modern India, California, 1962, pp. 134–7. 225 See M.G. Ranade, Miscellaneous Writings; M.G. Ranade, Religious and Social Reform. 226 Ibid., Miscellaneous Writings, p. 89. 227 Ibid., p. 101. 228 See Vishnushastri Chiplunkar, Nibandhamala, Vol. II, Pune, 1993, pp. 1205–74; M.G. Buddhisagar (ed.), Chiplunkar Lekha-Sangraha, New Delhi, 1963, pp. 246–88. 229  For details on Tilak’s nationalist ideas see Samagra Lokamanya Tilak, Vol. 7, Poona, 1975; M.D. Vidwans (ed.), Letters of Lokamanya Tilak, Poona, 1966. 230 Ravindra Kumar (ed.), Selected Documents of Lokamanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Vol. I, New Delhi, 1992, p. 11. 231 Ibid., p. 13. 232 Ibid., p. 11. 233 B.G. Tilak, His Writings and Speeches, Ganesh and Co., Madras (n.d.), p. 32. 234 The Mahratta dated 24 June 1906 as in Ravindra Kumar (ed.), Selected Documents of Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Vol. IV, p. 27. 235 Ibid., p. 21. 236 Parimala V. Rao, Foundations of Tilak’s Nationalism: Discrimination, Education and Hindutva, Hyderabad, 2010, pp. 281–321. 237 J.T.F. Jordens, ‘Hindu Religious and Social Reform in British India’ in A.L. Basham (ed.), A Cultural History of India, Oxford, 1975, pp. 365–66. 238 R.G. Bhandarkar, Collected Works, Vol. I, p. 446. 239 Ibid., Vol. II, p. 494. 240 Ibid., p. 534. 241 Bhandarkar’s Presidential address at the Bombay Provincial Social Conference held in 1902 as reported in Dnyan Prakash of Poona, dated 30 October 1902 in ibid., p. 518. 242 Ibid., pp. 518–20. 243 Ibid., pp. 528–9. 244 Ibid., p. 479. 245 Y.D. Phadke, Social Reformers of Maharashtra, p. 9. 246 M.G. Ranade, Miscellaneous Writings, p. 179.

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Introduction  85 247 N.G. Chandavarkar, The Speeches and Writings, p. 178. 248 Ibid., pp. 44–5. 249 Ibid., p. 279. 250 Ibid., p. 96. Also see Ganesh L. Chandavarkar, A Wrestling Soul: Story of the Life of Sir Narayan Chandavarkar, Bombay, 1955, p. 83. 251 Ibid., p. 572. 252 Jotirao Phule, Collected Works, Vol. II, pp. 28–9. 253 Aravind Ganachari, G.G. Agarkar, pp. 216–7. 254 ‘Foreword’ by Y.D. Phadke, ibid., p. xi. 255 N.G. Chandavarkar, The Speeches and Writings, p. 238. 256 K.N. Pannikar writes, ‘Despite the historical antecedent of a bourgeois society in the west, the social transformation envisaged in India was not a replication of the western model, divorced from the cultural specificity of the Indian civilisation.’ See his Culture, Ideology, Hegemony, p. 101. 257 B.R. Nanda writes, ‘Unlike some of their counterparts in Bengal, the educated classes of Maharashtra did not ape western dress, food or mode of life.’ See B.R. Nanda, Gokhale: The Indian Moderates and the British Raj, New Delhi, 1977, p. 20. 258 Singh, Yogendra, Modernization of Indian Tradition, p. 30. 259 K.N. Panikkar also views the attempt of the Tattvabodhini Sabha of Bengal to defend indigenous culture and institutions against onslaughts as ‘part of a subjugated people’s effort to regain their cultural personality.’ See K.N. Panikkar, ‘Intellectual History of Colonial India – Introduction’, Studies in History, Vol. 3, No. 1, Jan.–June 1987 (Special Issue), p. 3. However, he tends to view the attempt at ‘cultural defence’ in a solely cultural sense and not in nationalistic terms. See K.N. Pannikar, Culture, Ideology, Hegemony, pp. 84–5. 260  Also see Arundhati Mukhopadhyay, ‘Attitudes towards Religion and Culture in Nineteenth Century Bengal: Tattvabodhini Sabha, 1839–59’, Studies in History, ibid., p. 28. 261  K.N. Panikkar, ‘Roots of Cultural Backwardness’, Mainstream, 7 November 1981, p. 18. 262  K.N. Panikkar, however, holds that ‘the cultural–intellectual “renaissance” did not necessarily merge with nationalism, nor was the latter a logical outcome of the former. Yet, the social consciousness generated by intellectual–cultural endeavours was integral to the process of the nation in the making.’ See K.N. Panikkar, Culture, Ideology, Hegemony, p. VII (Preface). It is seen in the context of Maharashtra, however, that there was hardly any ideational break between Rationalists and Moderates except that they concentrated their attention on the social and political side of national reconstruction respectively. Moreover, the political question was not entirely outside the pale of rationalist thought in Maharashtra during the period.

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86  Introduction 263 R.G. Bhandarkar, Collected Works, Vol. I, p. 451. Also see Sudharak, 16 October 1893 for similar views. 264 As articulated by Malabari in Jogendra Singh, B.M. Malabari: Rambles with the Pilgrim Reformer, London, 1914, p. 120. 265 The Bombay Durpun, 6 January 1832 and 24 August 1832 in Bal Shastri Jambhekar, Memoirs and Writings, Vol. I, 1950, pp. 10, 46. 266 K.T. Telang, Selected Writings and Speeches, Vol. I, p. 260. Also see The Mahratta, August 31, 1890. 267 M.G. Ranade, Miscellaneous Writings, pp. 116–8. 268 As reported in Sudharak, 23 October 1893. 269 M.G. Ranade, Religious and Social Reform, pp. 149–54. Also see T.N. Jagadisan (ed.), The Wisdom of a Modern Rishi, pp. 31–5. 270  Ibid., pp. 282; (ed.) T.N. Jagadisan, ibid., pp. 149–50; M.G. Ranade, Miscellaneous Writings, pp. 232–4. 271 Supplement (from the Indian Spectator, 4 and 11 November 1894 in B.M. Malabari, India in 1897 in Essays on Indian Problem, London, 1898, p.e. 272 N.G. Chandavarkar, The Speeches and Writings, pp. 56–8. 273 Aravind Ganachari, G.G. Agarkar, p. 219. 274 The chapter entitled ‘Rationalism and Nationalism’ deals with this aspect in detail. 275 For details see Bipan Chandra, The Rise and Growth of Economic Nationalism. 276 See Dadabhai Naoroji, Poverty and Un-British Rule in India. 277 Stanley A. Wolpert, Tilak and Gokhale, p. 44. 278 B.R. Nanda, Gokhale, p. 246. 279 K.N. Panikkar locates the possibility of integration between cultural reform and political agitation in the Gandhian approach. But then he views Mahatma Gandhi’s efforts in terms of alternatives (to be followed alternatively) and not actual integration as such. See K.N. Panikkar, ‘Roots of Cultural Backwardness’, Mainstream, 7 November, 1981, p. 17 and Culture and Consciousness in Modern India, p. 31. Rakesh Batabyal on the other hand hints at a cohesive amalgamation of the social and the political becoming a reality with the arrival of Mahatma Gandhi on the national scene. See Rakesh Batabyal (ed.), The Penguin Book of Modern Indian Speeches, 1877 to the Present, New Delhi, 2007, pp. XXVII–XXXVIII. 280 Bipan Chandra, Indian National Movement: The Long Term Dynamics, pp. 17–56. 281 Kumud Pore, ‘Women and Social Reform Movements in India’ in V.D. Divekar (ed.), Social Reform Movements in India, p. 109. 282 Ibid. 283 Singh, Yogendra, Modernization of Indian Tradition, p. 45. 284 Dhananjay Keer, Lokamanya Tilak: Father of Indian freedom Struggle, Bombay, 1969, p. 68. 285 Ibid. 286 The Mahratta, 31 August 1890.

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Introduction  87 287 Mass appeal seen in the saintly traditions such as Bhakti and Sufi movements despite their rejection of popular patterns could not be replicated in the intellectual tradition, as saintly tradition happens to be the tradition of renouncers, having a different aura and appeal, unlike the intellectual one. 288 See Chapter 4 ‘Rationalism and Nationalism’, for elucidation. 289 K.T. Telang, Selected Writings and Speeches, Vol. I, p. 286. 290 Ibid. Also see The Indu-Prakash, 1 March 1886. 291 Ibid., p. 292. 292 Sudharak, 16 October 1893.

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2 Social questioning

Nineteenth-century India witnessed intellectual fermentation in different parts of the country, with Bengal and Maharashtra constituting the two powerful nodes of ideational unrest during the period. Historians have generally termed the phenomenon the ‘Indian R ­ enaissance’, a reflection of the cultural and aesthetic movement of Europe, spanning the period roughly from the fourteenth to the seventeenth century, though this categorisation remains a questionable proposition. Bengal heralded the beginning of intellectual unrest in the nineteenth century with a religio-philosophical note. The Tuhafat-­ulMuwahhiddin, the first extant work of ­Rammohan Roy, the pioneer of ‘Indian Renaissance’, is fundamentally a philosophico-theological treatise, resting on rational approach to religions which he viewed to be the products of historically conditioned social realities, as human inventions and not as divine interventions or revelations.1 Using reason as the yardstick he denounced polytheism, idolatry and religious intermediation and made an earnest plea in favour of monotheism. The Tuhafat tends to teach that the worth of a religion is to be evaluated in terms of ‘reason’ and ‘social good’ that it intends to hold and uphold. Although not against any particular world-belief system, it contains adequate cautions against the hypocrisy and deceit associated with religious intermediation at large. There is a near unanimity among scholars that the idioms used in the Tuhafat are predominantly Islamic; the imprint of Western ideas is at best negligible, if not totally non-existent.2 Subsequently, the intellectual consciousness in Bengal acquired sizable proportions and served to inspire similar pulsations in other parts of the country, although the latter did not necessarily constitute the logical extensions of the Bengal phenomenon.

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Social questioning  89 In Maharashtra one does not come across the soundings of philosophy in intellectual articulations as seen in Bengal. Jambhekar, widely acclaimed as the first intellectual in nineteenth-century Western India, addressed strictly social issues from the very beginning in the 1830s when his ideas came to represent the advent of the intellectual awakening in modern Maharashtra. Unlike Rammohan, he was not a man of philosophical speculation, but a person solely concerned with social issues confronting the country at that time point. This is amply reflected in his writings churned out through the columns of the Bombay Durpun, which he founded in 1832 in Bombay. Even other reformers who came to the fore in subsequent years also seemed to have a long-lasting penchant for society, not so much for philosophy or theology. Dwelling upon the difference with the Bengal experience Ranade in his speech at the Ninth Indian National Social Conference held at Poona in 1895 stated, ‘The great weakness that I attribute to the Brahmo Samajists is that they are so absorbed with the religious side of their creed that they fail to feel warm interest in other matters which concern the people in the same way as reformers elsewhere feel. . . . We do not proceed on the religious basis exclusively as in Bengal. . . . There are no social reform associations in Bengal.’3 A host of socio-religious customs and practices such as caste, condition of women, child marriage, polygamy, enforced widowhood and disfigurement of widows, idolatry, polytheism, priesthood, ritualism and other superstitions prevalent in the country were brought under intense intellectual scrutiny and criticism in Maharashtra. Ranade termed blind adherence to such practices the ‘narcotic influence of custom and usage’.4 For social renewal they advocated the elimination of caste distinctions, upliftment of the position of women, marriage only after the attainment of puberty, monogamy, widow marriage, monotheism, end of religious intermediation and emphasis on spiritual worship. They pitted themselves against, in fact, the entire religious bigotry and social obscurantism prevalent in the country. This is, however, not to suggest that the movement in Maharashtra was delinked from that in Bengal. Far from it. There was, in fact, a great sense of reverence in Maharashtra for the Bengal reformers, in particular Rammohan Roy, Keshab Chandra Sen and Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar for their reform ideas and endeavours. Ranade and Chandavarkar had immense admiration for Rammohan for leading the light of reform against sati, idolatry, polytheism and polygamy.5

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90  Social questioning Ranade said, ‘Rammohan denounced idolatry at sixteen. We might well compare notes as to what we did at sixteen with such a record. Were any of us lighted up with the fire that burnt in his heart?’6 The relationship was further firmed up by occasional interaction among them. Keshab Chandra Sen visited Bombay on more than one occasion and influenced the formation of the Prarthana Samaj in 1867 in Bombay.7 The interaction was similarly quite close with the reformers of Madras, and also with Dayanand Saraswati. The fact, however, remains that the movement in Maharashtra was started with the highlighting of primarily social issues in the nineteenth century. In this chapter an attempt has been made to study major social questions around the two most prominent intellectual concerns – caste and condition of women.

Caste The condemnation of caste constituted one of the major highlights of nineteenth century thought in Maharasthra. During the first half of the century Jambhekar, Dadoba and Lokahitwadi were in the forefront of anti-caste stir in the region, joined by others in subsequent years, leading to initiation, particularly under Mahatma Phule, of a major movement against caste in Western India. Dadoba evaluated the caste question in the context of the nation and viewed it as being inimical to the notion of national unity. In his Marathi book Dharmavivechan he stated, ‘The natural unity which should have developed among people on account of their common religion or single nationality was itself nipped in the bud, when castes came into being.’8 He repudiated the theory of divine origin of caste. To quote: The understanding of all men who have been followers of the Vedic religion has been that God has created these differences of Varna and Ashram. This is sheer ignorance on their part. The merciful God who is the father of the universe, desires unity throughout the world and mutual love. To accuse him of causing dissensions among men by creating the differences of caste is indeed a great sin.9 Lokahitwadi was another great critic of caste. He published a series of letters, actually 108 in number, between 1848 and 1850

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Social questioning  91 in Prabhakar, a Marathi weekly edited by Govind Vitthal Kunte alias Bhau Mahajan, the collection of which is published as Shatapatre.10 The target of his most scathing criticism was the Brahmin caste which he found to be obstinately resistant to change and progress.11 Through these letters he castigated caste and blamed Brahmanism for the prevalent social discrimination consciously crafted by them for their own selfish purposes. He held that caste distinctions and ‘the hostility generated in the process weakens the society and destroys its unity’.12 Caste, however, came under concerted attack only during the second half of the nineteenth century. Bhandarkar vented at various fora his ire against caste as inherently divisive and discriminatory. In his convocation address in 1894 as the Vice-Chancellor, University of Bombay, he said: National independence you can have only when there is a nation and it has the capacity of governing itself. But when the inhabitants of a country are divided into a number of separate communities or castes hostile to each other, national independence can only mean the possession by one community or caste of power over others which it must, of course, use for its own benefits and to the detriment of others.13 In his speech as President of the second anniversary meeting of the Madras Hindu Social Reform Association held on 27 December 1894 he said: The four original castes have grown into four thousand, and there are no inter-marriages or inter-dining between any two of these. The evil results of such a system on the social, religious and political condition of the country cannot be overstated.14 Denouncing its divisiveness and potential to ‘prevent the formation of homogeneous nationality’ he further said: Caste is the greatest monster we have to kill. Even education and intercourse as regards food does not destroy it. Even when we have broken through the restraints imposed by caste as regards eating and drinking, the feeling that we belong to a certain caste, will ever keep us apart from each other and prevent the formation of homogeneous nationality. A pledge not to be guided by caste

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considerations in the disposal of patronage, if one is placed in a position of influence, is a more effective pledge.15 Again, in his Presidential address at the Ninth Indian National Social Conference held at Poona in 1895 he tried to hammer home the demerits of caste and its regressive role in national life. ‘Caste has corroded the vitals of this country.’16 Speaking against ‘special privileges and special restrictions’ which caste necessarily entails, he said: The rigid system of castes, which prevails among us, will ever act as a heavy drag on our race towards a brighter future. . . . Special privileges enjoyed by certain castes must keep the members of others in a disadvantageous position in the rivalry and competition of life. In order that a nation as a whole must put forth all its power, it is necessary that there should be no special privileges and special restrictions. . . . Instead of there being a feeling of sympathy between different castes, there is often a feeling of antipathy. For the future of our country, something must be done to induce a feeling of unity among these different communities and to convert active antipathy into active sympathy.17 He thus hit at hierarchy, the very basis of caste distinction and discrimination. Caste remained a thematic thread of Bhandarkar’s intellectual life all along. In a paper entitled ‘Social History of India’ published in 1901 by C. Y. Chintamani he dealt in detail with the question of caste and its detrimental effects on Indian society. He wrote, ‘We have been subjected to a three-fold tyranny: political tyranny (i.e. pre-British political system), priestly tyranny and a social tyranny or tyranny of the caste.’18 He expressed his concern particularly at the depressed condition of the lower castes subjected in India to the bane of untouchability. In his Presidential address at the Indian National Social Conference held at Ahmedabad in 1902 Bhandarkar said, ‘The lower castes are in a very depressed condition; no education is available to them. Even their touch is considered abomination and to improve their social condition they often change their religion and become Christians.’19 Significantly, the notion of nation lay at the root of Bhandarkar’s condemnation of caste; national unity, in his view, was under threat in caste-dominated social relations. Notably, it was he who first most forcefully voiced in Western India the idea of inter-caste marriage, citing old scriptures in support of this, as a way to deal with this social menace. He was aware

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that inter-dining might not go a long way in weakening caste bonds, and wrote: We must set ourselves to destroy caste consciously, for the consolidation of the nation by openly dining together. But this open dining may come to prevail and the caste remain strong. For this purpose it is necessary that there should be inter-marriages between the different castes. Such inter-marriages are allowed by the old Hindu Law.20 He was, however, aware of the enormity of the problem and its tenacious tendency to persist. In his Presidential address at the Bombay Provincial Social Conference held in 1902 he thus lamented, ‘It appears as if the germs of castes formed an essential ingredient of our blood. To eradicate them is perhaps as hopeless as drying up the Indian Ocean.’21 V. K. Gokhale, a saintly figure, better known as Vishnubawa Brahmachari for remaining a life-long bachelor, asserted that qualities rather than birth should determine caste.22 Parmanand, another saintly figure of exceptional erudition among the intellectual fraternity in Maharashtra, specified the traditional Indian village system as the sheet-anchor of social stillness and national stagnation, accentuated further by the caste system in question. He wrote: The village system combined in itself all the blighting elements of temporal tyranny and sacerdotal despotism, and embodied their essence in the baneful maxim so eminently calculated to repress all originality of thought, of moral vigour and independence and force of character, to arrest progress, and to pave the way to national weakness and degradation. The maxim viz: ‘A course, even if correct in itself, which is opposed to the popular view should never be accepted or followed’, effectually crushed out all life and produced in the name of order the stillness of dormancy, if not death, in which the country has long stagnated – a result to which the modern system of caste has silently contributed its due share, as it is, while tolerating abuses still checking all conscious and real progress.23 Ranade in his address at the Eleventh Indian National Social Conference held in 1897 at Amravati highlighted the isolationist and exclusivist nature of caste.24 He dubbed it for being ‘defective in

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not recognizing the claims of justice and equality’. In his inaugural speech ‘Liberate the Whole Man’ delivered at the First Bombay Provincial Social Conference held in 1900 at Satara, Ranade remarked: Caste is the main blot on our social system. In the social sphere of our activities all castes and even creeds are defective in not recognizing the claims of justice and equality, and according the respect and freedom due to the female sex and cherishing the abuse claimed by men as men and by the members of one class of men to the disparagement of other castes.25 Even Chiplunkar who generally stood in support of the social system inherited from the Vedic past, and is known in history primarily for his anti-colonial stance, in his last essay published in the Kesari in February–March 1882 admitted that the caste system was also responsible for social division and the resultant lack of loyalty and love for the country.26 Malabari realised that caste was an overpowering factor in social relations, ‘more potent in its secret persecution than was the Inquisition of Spain’.27 To Chandavarkar, caste was a pernicious social system, inimical to reform and social concord.28 He found Brahmanism to be at the root of the degrading social situation. ‘A great deal of present social degradation is undoubtedly due to the narrowness and bigotry of Brahmanism.’29 In particular, he condemned the curse of untouchability. ‘Those we despise and refuse to touch are verily the salt of the earth! . . . So long as we have the untouchables amongst us, we shall bring to ourselves the contamination of untouchableness. He who tries to lower and degrade others and treat them as castaways, ends, in the long run, by lowering and degrading himself.’30 He cited a classic case of Brahmanic bigotry from the annals of the early nineteenth century. Gangadhar Dixit Phadke, a Brahmin, had come to Bombay from Poona in 1821. When in 1827 he returned to Poona, he was immediately excommunicated by his caste, merely because he had travelled as far as Bombay and crossed the sea.31 Debunking the logic of the orthodox against the crossing of the sea on the ground of Shastraic injunctions, Chandavarkar contended: I do not consider that a trip to England is sinful. . . . The Shastras are invoked in support of the theory that going to England is sinful; but the Shastras knew nothing of England when they were written or ‘revealed’ and all that the Shastras say is that it

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is sinful to cross the sea. But what caste has escaped this sin of crossing the sea in these days without going to England?32 He, however, sounded apprehensive about the possibility of the extinction of caste due to its interweaving into the very Hindu thought and ethos.33 Moreover, he could offer, to begin with, only inter-dining among sub-castes as a means of ‘caste-amalgamation’.34 Agarkar provided a comprehensive critique of caste, surpassed perhaps in intensity only by Mahatma Phule. He castigated the caste system for its all-round debilitating impact: its role in retarding, to mention a few, progress, patriotism, fellow feeling, humanism and even the growth of trade and commerce. He stated: It (caste system) has narrowed our sense of patriotism; stagnated our knowledge, arts and sciences; resulted into internal strife, hatred and persecution; discouraged inland and foreign trade; retarded progress through isolation of foreigners and other religionists; narrowed our sense of brotherhood, compassion, piety, generosity, morality and altruism; and restricted our vision in general.35 He advocated a total purge of the kind of ‘the French Revolution of 1789’ to eliminate this scourge from the social map of the country. He wrote in November 1891: Our caste system, with its rigidity and its injustice, discourages all sympathy of one caste with another caste and inculcates the pernicious doctrine that some human beings are hereditarily impure and accursed and that their very touch ought to be avoided as contaminating. The most woeful part of the matter is that these ‘impure’ and accursed creatures have been so far enslaved that they are contented with their own lot and have no idea of ever trying to assert their equality as human beings with members of higher castes. Our present agitation about social reform . . . concerns the brahmins and quasi-brahmins only. It is idle to expect that India will ever be able to take her rank among the great nations of the world, if the hundreds of millions of her children continue to be steeped in their present ignorance, poverty and mental degradation and if they fail to realize their dignity as men. Every true lover of this country ought to abhor a system

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96  Social questioning of national existence which keeps more than ninety percent of the population in phenomenal ignorance, and which enables a handful of men arrogating to themselves a monopoly of learning and things sacred and great, to exercise a despotic sway over the hearts of their less fortunate brethren. The whole edifice of Hindu society is in this respect rotten from top to bottom; and only a huge effort like the French Revolution of 1789 can pull it down and sweep away its ruins, leaving the ground clear for a social structure that would aim at uniting in itself all that is great and good in every society, including our own. . . .36 Agarkar rejected birth as the basis of social status and declared merit to be its sole determinant. He, however, exhibited optimism in inevitability of the march of merit ultimately and the weakening of ascription of status by caste. He wrote: So long as foolish ideas such as impurity and purity govern the society . . . such beliefs would eliminate true knowledge and further mechanical recitations, separate the association of reason with ethics, make everything depend on outward rituals. This unlimited despotism of irrationality is not going to be tolerated anymore. Superiority will be decided by intellectual might alone and any claims to higher social status by virtue of birth would be considered foolish. Nobody will be able to stem the tide of these ideas by raising thoughtless barriers.37 Though, like Mahatma Phule, he dismissed the idea of divine origin of caste as irrational,38 he differed from Phule’s understanding of caste as being purely the product of Brahmanic manipulation and deceit and viewed the origin of caste as part of the process of Indian social evolution. Exploration of the ways and means to combat caste formed an integral aspect of anti-caste consciousness in Maharashtra. The solution sought, however, appeared to be mostly symptomatic rather than salutary. Inter-dining as a way out constituted a significant facet of this symptomatic solution. Chandavarkar in a meeting in 1896 said, ‘And what is our programme about caste? . . . There again, recognizing the insuperable difficulty, and the necessity of moving gradually by stages we propose, to begin with, the amalgamation of sub-castes as far as inter-dining is concerned.’39 Even Mahatma Phule

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accepted its efficacy as a way to combat caste rigidities. We shall see more of him in the subsequent section. It was, however, Bhandarkar who emphasised inter-caste marriages as one of the best conceivable ways to minimise the menace of caste hierarchy and discrimination. In his paper written in 1901, which he reiterated in an address in 1915 in Bombay, he stated: We must set ourselves to destroy caste consciously, for the consolidation of the nation by openly dining together. But even this open dining may come to prevail and the caste remain strong. For this purpose it is necessary that there should be inter-marriages between the different castes. Such inter-marriages are allowed by the Hindu Law, and it is only Pratiloma marriages that are prohibited. But the law of the land at present as shaped by our English courts, is that even Anuloma marriages are illegal. We should all join in a protest against this, and seek the re-enactment of the old Hindu Law. We have seen that mixed marriages (between different castes) were frequent in the olden times. . . . The despised Mahar possesses a good deal of natural intelligence and is capable of being heavily educated. So that to continue to keep him in ignorance, is to deprive the country of an appreciable amount of intellectual resources.40 As part of salutary solution, however, the emphasis on education as a lasting remedy to nearly all the social ills confronting the country including caste rigidities and discrimination found favour with most of the reformers of Maharashtra in the nineteenth century. Mahatma Phule remained a very vocal votary of spread of education among the masses to be the most effective instrument of salvation of the socially suppressed sections of society. Caste was confronted not only theoretically but also at the practical level through individual and organisational efforts. Jambhekar hit at the rigidity of caste by spearheading the initiative for readmission of a Hindu Christian convert, Shripat Sheshadri Paralikar, originally a Brahmin.41 The success came, however, at a cost. He was forced to undergo a purificatory rite imposed by Hindu orthodoxy led by Dhakji Dadaji for performing the expiatory ceremony of readmission for Shripat and Jambhekar had to escort him to Benaras for the second part of his purification. It was, however, Dadoba Pandurang who tried to pose an organised challenge to the system of

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caste during the first half of the nineteenth century, though in secrecy and not in open defiance. He along with Durgaram Mancharam, a school teacher, founded the Manavdharma Sabha (the ‘Association for Human Religion’) in Surat on 22 June 1844,42 though keeping its existence a secret for fear of facing the wrath of orthodoxy.43 Its main tenets44 were as follows 1. There is one God of all the world. 2. Mankind is all of the same caste. 3. Among men, who is great and who is inferior is decided by ­virtue, and not by birth. 4. Men should act according to their reason. 5. Men should worship God, and this is an obligation. Its tenuity was, however, imbedded in its philosophy of secrecy, and thus its sustainability remained questionable right from the beginning. On Dadoba Pandurang’s transfer from Surat to Bombay in 1846 and Durgaram’s to Rajkot in 1852, the Sabha ceased to exist.45 Durgaram was even attacked by the Hindu orthodox elements who burnt the records of the Sabha and the school building.46 The crusade against caste, however, continued. In 184847 Dadoba Pandurang founded a reform organisation called the Paramahansa Sabha in Bombay with the principal objective to demolish all caste distinctions.48 The members used to hold weekly meetings in secrecy to avoid caste persecutions. Bhandarkar as he himself admits joined the Sabha in 1853 when he went to Bombay for prosecution of his studies.49 Each new recruit to the Sabha had to undergo an initiation ceremony, taking a pledge in prayer not to observe any caste distinction. He had also to eat a slice of bread baked by a Christian and drink water at the hands of a Muslim.50 ‘Once a year, perhaps oftener, all the members who belonged to different castes dined together within closed doors.’51 Members were taught not to observe caste distinctions, not to worship idols but to support widow marriage and spread education among women and lower castes.52 The Sabha established its branches at Poona, Satara, Nagpur, Belgaum, Dharwar, Ahmednagar, Ratnagiri and also at Calcutta, Madras and Varanasi.53 The Paramahansa Sabha was a secret society; its members clung to seclusiveness and lacked ‘the courage of their conviction to give up caste publicly’.54 The meetings of the Sabha were conducted in

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Social questioning  99 strictest secrecy for fear of facing the wrath of the orthodox and the consequent caste persecutions. The organisational challenge to the caste system and other related social evils thus remained a highly internal and secret affair confined only to its members. No wonder, the orthodoxy as a group remained largely oblivious to the Sabha’s activities for quite some time. The activities of the Sabha went on till 1860 when some member stole the book in which the names of the members were listed. As recalled by Bhandarkar, ‘Everybody was afraid that he would be exposed to caste persecutions and the society naturally broke up as most of the members withdrew from the organisation and the caste question was transferred to another sphere.’55 At last the Paramahansa collapsed. The seclusiveness and secrecy of the Sabha, in fact, contained the seeds of its fragility from its very start. A few enlightened and elevated felt that ‘the way to reform the country was not by merely denouncing caste, and that the only way to regenerate the country was to regenerate its hearts, to purify it by means of God, humanity and religion’.56 The lessons learnt from the collapse of the Paramhansa Sabha formed the guiding principles of the Prarthana Samaj founded in Bombay in 1867, laying greater emphasis on social reform through religious route. Brahmachari was another great opponent of the caste system, and he too tried to confront it in practice in open defiance of the prevailing social norm. He employed a Muslim cook and ate food served by anyone,57 a radical step in the then context. The most aggressive onslaught on caste in the nineteenth century was, however, launched and spearheaded by Mahatma Phule who deserves an exclusive delineation given the sweep, intensity and revolutionary elan of his ideas and endeavours.

Mahatma Phule Mahatma Phule represented the height of anti-caste consciousness in Western India in the nineteenth century. So far caste was condemned essentially from a reformist standpoint. It was Mahatma Phule who gave anti-caste articulations a radical orientation and stood for a revolutionary transformation of almost the entire gamut of social relations. His anti-caste ire was, however, directed primarily against Brahmanism which, he held, lay at the root of caste origination, domination and discrimination. The Shudras, peasants and women were identified as the

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100  Social questioning worst victims of Brahmanism, bearing the brunt of Brahmanic bigotry, manipulation and exploitation. His anti-Brahmanism was, however, not against Brahmins as individual members of the caste in question58; it actually signified an intellectual revolt against Brahmanism as an ideology, an attitude and as a socio-economic structure. His was not simply a social questioning about one caste; it was essentially an ideological fight, the fight of a philosophy, a world view, a perspective in favour of those who formed the lowest rung of society, downtrodden and despised. His ideology of anti-Brahmanism was, in fact, embedded in his deep humanism, the fountainhead of Phulean idealism. The crux of Mahatma Phule’s idea of social restructuring is contained in his famous dialogical treatise Gulamgiri (Slavery) published in 1873. Coupled with his Shetakaryacha Asud (Cultivator’s Whipcord), largely a collection of his speeches delivered to Satyashodhak audiences, it contains much of what Phule fundamentally stood for. His other major works Brahmanache Kasab (Priestcraft Exposed) published in 1869 and Sarvajanik Satyadharma Pustak (Book on Universal Religion of Truth) completed by 1889 but published posthumously in 1891, complete the main corpus of the Phulean literature. Gulamagiri is extremely intense in its anti-Brahmanical articulations. In essence it constitutes a militant manifesto of the Phulean philosophy of social change. It is a scathing attack on caste and an eloquent cry for social equality and salvation of the Shudras and Ati-Shudras from the thraldom of Brahmanic bigotry, domination and discrimination. Phule spelt out the objective of writing this book as follows: Since the advent of the rule of Brahmins for centuries (in India), the Shudras and Ati-Shudras are suffering hardships and are leading miserable lives. To draw people’s attention to this, and that they should think over their misfortune, and that they should eventually set themselves free from the tyranny of the Bhats (Brahmins) perpetrated on them – is the main aim of (writing) this book.59 The same object of enabling the Shudra farmers ‘to protect themselves from the above-mentioned Brahmanic domination and exploitation’ also influenced Phule to publish his next major work Shetakaryacha Asud.

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Social questioning  101 Mahatma Phule portrayed a vivid and all-encompassing account of the Brahmanical exploitation of the Shudras and Ati-Shudras from the time immemorial. Their condition was deplorable: ‘they were regarded with supreme hatred and contempt, and the commonest rights of humanity were denied them. Their touch, nay even their shadow, is deemed a pollution. They are considered as mere chattels and their life is of no more value than that of the meanest reptile.’60 ‘They (the Ati-Shudras) are totally ruined: they are regarded as “untouchables”. They are forbidden to engage in any trade, and nobody employs them (even as menials).’61 He compared the condition of the Shudras to that of the slaves of America and found the former to be suffering from greater suppression than the latter. The system of slavery, to which the Brahmins reduced the lower classes is in no respects inferior to that which obtained a few years ago in America.62 The hardships heaped upon the slaves in America were also suffered by the depressed and downtrodden people in India at the hands of the Bhats, Nay, even more.63 The condition of even the Africans who were forced into slavery in America was better (than that of the Shudra farmers).64 Phule’s fulmination against Brahmanism almost verged on anger and abomination, venom and vitriol. He wrote: These ungrateful, fattened idle bull-like bullies (vagrant bulls) force their ignorant Shudra benefactors to wash their (dirty) feet and drink the water (as holy), beguiling their ignorant minds with deceitful tales of their religion which is but a medley of black magic and witch-craft.65 How strange it is that these Brahmins consider themselves as pure (elevated and enobled) when they eat the droppings and drink the urine of beasts (cows). . ., but refuse to drink the water of a fountain from the hands of a Shudra!66 He gave a graphic description of the exploitation of peasants who were mostly Shudras. They were subjected to trickery and deception at each stage of life right from its conception till its extinction and even beyond. The ritual exploitation of the peasants in the form of dakshina or gifts at every possible stage of life such as garbhadhan (conception of human life), birth, marriage, house-warming, death,

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102  Social questioning shraadh, etc., their social discrimination based on the notion of purity and pollution, prevention from learning and social deprivation from positions of influence or authority, led to their unprecedented misery, marginalisation and beastly existence.67 The atrocities inflicted on the poor peasants were manifold and by a myriad of agencies such as the Brahmin bureaucracy, the local police and administration, moneylenders and the judicial system. It was exploitation at each door. The moneylenders, mostly of Brahmin caste, exploited them by means of exorbitant interest on loan, eventually usurping their land through orchestrated litigation, management and manipulation of the judicial system and even through bribery.68 He further described: He (the peasant) would lose his farm, his cattle, his well and the irrigated field therein, resulting in his total impoverishment. So great was his harassment and mental torture that he would be driven even to suicide. There Brahmin moneylenders had the temerity to destroy the poor farmer totally, even after recovering the full amount of the debt (principal) along with the interest thereon. If they could inflict such an injustice on the poor farmer under the benevolent rule of the English Government, any readers can just imagine how they must have harassed the helpless peasant, during the Peshwas’ rule.69 He noted the Brahmins exercised not only spiritual but also temporal powers. Their hold in village and local administration facilitated them to carry out their mischief with ease. In his own words: The Brahmin despoils the Shudra not only in his capacity of a priest, but does so in a variety of other ways. In the most insignificant village as in the large town, the Brahmin is the all in all; the be-all and the end-all of the Ryot. He is the master, the ruler. The Patel of a village, the headman, is in fact a nonentity. The Koolkurnee, the hereditary Brahmin village accountant, moulds the Patel according to his wishes. He is the temporal and spiritual advisor of the Ryot, the Soucar in his necessities and the general reference in all matters. In most circumstances he plans active mischief by advising opposing parties differently, so that he may feather his own nest well.70 He described Kulkarnis as ‘pen-wielding butchers’.

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Social questioning  103 The Shudras were thus duped, maltreated and cheated by Brahmin bureaucracy often at the helm of affairs right from the village level upwards. Their hold in all branches of administration precluded the Shudras from the possibility of getting a fair treatment. Their dominance was above defiance as ‘the English officers have delegated (abdicated) their authority and responsibility to the Brahmin bureaucracy’.71 Further even ‘European officers generally view men and things through Brahmin spectacles and hence the deplorable ignorance they often exhibit in forming a correct estimate of them.’72 Mahatma Phule highlighted the subject of Shudra suppression under the Brahmin-dominated caste system so much that it repeatedly echoed in almost all his works. In one of his other writings entitled The Untouchables’ Apologia he further highlighted the issue of oppression of the untouchables under the ‘pernicious caste system’.73 He propounded a counter-ideology of anti-Brahmanism based on equality and dignity as against the prevailing notions of holiness and hierarchy. Presenting a picture based on part history, part mythology and part imagination he evolved a typically Phulean interpretation of caste etymology, with its origin in Iran and its amplification in India. In his search for historicity of caste origination and Brahmin domination, on the one hand, and subjugation and subjection of the Shudras, on the other hand, Mahatma Phule tried to establish the foreignness of the Brahmins and Indianness of the Shudras possibly with a view to invoke and channelise popular sympathy in a particular direction. He wrote: Originally human beings were not divided into castes. There is no such differentiation among birds. Why would it be there among human beings? It is said that the Arya Brahma has created the four castes (meaning Varnas). He would have done so for the animals as well. Can you tell me then who are the Brahmans among the donkeys, crows, etc.?74 Recent researches have demonstrated beyond a shadow of doubt that the Brahmins were not the aborigines of India. At some remote period of antiquity, probably more than 3000 years ago, the Aryan progenitors of the present Brahmin Race descended upon the plains of Hindoostan from regions lying beyond the Indus, the Hindoo Koosh and other adjoining tracks. . . . They appear to have been a race imbued with very high notions of self, extremely cunning, arrogant and bigoted.75

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104  Social questioning The Kshatriyas of India (the land of Baliraja) that is the original masters of the land here were known as Astiks, Pishachas, Rakshasas, Kolis, Mangs and Mahars etc. They were valiant warriors. . . . The land of King Bali was literally flowing with milk and honey. Just then the Aryans i.e. the Iranians discovered the useful and novel art of archery. So some adventurous, violent, covetous and ever avaricious Iranian Brahmins, Iranian Kshatriyas and Iranian Vaishyas banded together and successfully invaded this land of King Bali, actuated by their greed of gold. They persecuted them (the aborigines) and converted them into hereditary slaves, serfs or helots. Finally the Aryans created a fourth category (class) comprising all the Shudras in the land of Baliraja and assimilated them among the Iranian Brahmins, the Iranian Kshatriyas, and the Iranian Vaishyas.76 In another of his works, Priestcraft Exposed, Phule tried to thus explain the origin of Shudras: The Aryan Brahmins came to India from Iran as maraunders and they fought with the original inhabitants of this land and subjugated them. The Aryans overpowered some of the native chiefs, imprisoned a few others and reduced multitudes to the status of vassals (thralls). They villainously gave the pejorative name of ‘Shudras’ to all those whom they subjugated.77 In one of his poems he again dealt with the origin of the term and tried to explain it somewhat similarly. In this version he emphasised that the Aryans conquered and enslaved the Kshatriyas, and gave the pejorative name of ‘Kshutra’ (insignificant) which later gained currency in the corrupted form as ‘Shudra’.78 Phule’s critique of caste was indeed rational but his understanding of history was not. At times he ceased to talk like an intellectual and uttered as a vainglorious illiterate mistaking make-believe for knowledge or wisdom. It would, however, be wrong to read history into Phule’s formulation of the supposed conflict between the mythological figure of Baliraja79 and the invading Aryans. To do so would be to conflate symbolism with description, be it historical or fictional. It appears Mahatma Phule wanted to paint Brahmins’ past in bad light in order to hit at the halo of their proclaimed holiness, to highlight their bloody and greedy advent in India in order to falsify their claim

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Social questioning  105 to sanctity and superiority. Further, he tried to establish the falsity of the caste system by falsifying its very ideological basis that is the scriptures that gave it divine ordination. He argued that the Brahmins concocted the caste system and scripted special scriptures in order to maintain their hold and higher rank in the social hierarchy for their own self-serving purposes, and that there was no divinity involved in this concoction. In his own words: In order to overpower them (the original inhabitants) and to keep them in thraldom for ages, they (the Aryans) produced many spurious religious tracts and claimed to have received them directly from God as revelations. The poor ignorant people were persuaded to swallow this lie. They further concocted many legends in their (divine) books to the effect that the conquered people should serve the usurpers faithfully so that God would be pleased, and that the main object of creating the depressed people was to serve the usurpers faithfully.80 To be able to indulge in a life of gross indulgence and luxury ensured by the sweat of the Shudras’ brows . . . the Bhats invented the pernicious fiction of the caste system, compiled (learned) treatises, to serve their own self-interest and indoctrinated the pliable minds of the ignorant Shudras (masses) accordingly.81 In order to keep a better hold of the people they devised that weird system of mythology, the ordination of caste, and the code of cruel and inhuman laws, to which we can find no parallel amongst other nations. They founded a system of priestcraft so galling in its tendency and operation, the likes of which we can hardly find anywhere.82 Mahatma Phule’s anti-Brahmanic articulations were laced with biting vituperation. No doubt, he lacked erudition of the kind seen copiously in the contemporary literature of the period. His expressions often remind one of being endowed with basically raw, rustic and robust reasoning sans sophistication. His strength, however, lay not so much in the linguistic ‘sophistry’ of his articulations but in the intensity of his ideas, and moral idealism which he projected and represented in words, deeds and spirit. He totally rejected the role of divinity in the design of social divisions and ridiculed the theory of divine origin of caste as being blatantly ludicrous, irrational and unnatural. In his Introduction to the ballad on Shivaji he wrote:

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106  Social questioning The Brahmin authors recorded shamelessly in their scriptures the further fiction that the Shudras were sprung from the feet of this Brahma dev. To endow the feet of Brahma-dev with the miraculous capacity to give birth to the Shudra sons is, I dare say, a truly astounding fiction indeed! It is a well-known fact that it is the privilege of a woman to give birth to a child. To posit the possibility of the birth of a child from the feet of the pure Brahma-dev runs counter to the operation of the Laws of Nature. The normal function of feet is to walk, and we are asked to believe that the Shudra son was born of Brahmadev’s feet. We are also asked to believe that the Brahmin was born of the mouth of Brahma-dev. If we were to accept this (ludicrous) hypothesis (theory), then the credulous disciples of Brahma-dev (the Brahmins) will have to accept the equally ludicrous hypothesis (theory) that the mouth of Brahma-dev was performing a wholly novel function – viz. that of a female uterus where a child is normally conceived. This proves conclusively that such arguments are as ridiculous as the game of make-believe.83 He declared that the scriptures like ‘Bhagwat etc. are rank fiction and humbug’.84 By exposing the perceived sham and deception in the origin of the scriptures he tried to highlight the hollowness of their history, thus hitting at the very ideological basis of Brahmanical arrogation of authority and claim to supremacy. As against the Brahmanical ideologues of Manu and Parashuram he counterposed the symbolic figures of Baliraja and Shakyamuni (Buddha) as Shudra saviours, the champions of the oppressed and marginalised. He wrote: Parashuram started the practice of calling the valiant Maha-ari Kshatriyas by such names as Atishudras, Mahars, Pariahs, Mangs and Chandals, and persecuted them in the most inhuman way, unparalleled anywhere in the world. Baliraja, the champion of the oppressed, undertook the great mission of emancipating his depressed, oppressed and weak brethren from the trammels of the treacherous, wicked and cunning ensnarers – the Bhats (Brahmins) – and strove to establish the ‘Kingdom of God’ in this land of ours. . . . Then Shakyamuni (Buddha) and other saintly characters defeated the machinations of the Brahmins who were pretending to be ‘possessed’ (by the

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Social questioning  107 divine spirit) and who ‘hummed’ and ‘hawed’, who used to massacre dumb animals on the occasion of religious fairs and festivals, and who fattened themselves on beef, who were over-weeningly proud, hypocritical, cunning, licentious, who were in fact embodiment of all evils. He also exposed the frauds and tricks with which their spurious scriptures were teeming, recalled them (the Brahmins) to the path of sanity and humanity, and persuaded them to become his followers.85 Further, Anyone, who feels disposed to look a little more into the laws and ordinances as embodied in the Manawa Dharma Shastra and other works of the same class, would undoubtedly be impressed with the deep cunning underlying them all. Their main object in fabricating these falsehoods (instances of Brahmin superiority or excellence) was to dupe the minds of the ignorant and rivet firmly on them the chains of perpetual bondage and slavery which their selfishness and cunning had forged. Anyone who will consider well the whole history of Brahmin domination in India, and the thraldom under which it has retained the people even up to the present day, will agree with us in thinking that no language would be too harsh by which to characterize the selfish heartlessness and the consummate cunning of the Brahmin tyranny by which India has been so long governed.86 Mahatma Phule attributed Indian stagnation and backwardness to Brahmanic bigotry and held that prosperity was not possible in a situation of Shudra suppression. To quote, ‘To this system of selfish superstition and bigotry we are to attribute the stagnation and all the evils under which India has been groaning for many centuries past. . . . As long as this state of matters continues, the condition of Shudra will remain unaltered and India will never advance in greatness and prosperity.’87 He was convinced that the Brahmins on their own would not leave the elevated turf and descend on an equal footing with the lowly without a struggle.88 ‘The Brahmin’s natural (instinctive) temperament is mischievous and cantankerous, and it is so inveterate that it can never be eradicated.’89

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Mahatma Phule did not view caste as part of the evolutionary process of Indian society but as the product of Brahmanic trickery, mischief and manipulations. He, therefore, made an earnest plea to the British Government, . . . to take the glory into their own hands of emancipating my Shudra brethren from the trammels of bondage which the Brahmins have woven around them like the coils of a serpent. . . . Let there be schools for the Shudras in every village; but away with all Brahmin school-masters! The Shudras are the life and sinews of the country, and it is to them alone and not to the Brahmins that the government must ever look to tide them over their difficulties, financial as well as political. If the hearts and minds of the Shudras are made happy and contented, the British government need have no fear for their loyalty in the future.90 He took the educated Shudras in particular to task for their lack of conviction in themselves and that of courage to liberate themselves from the trammels of servility, often instead feeling rather contented and even elated at seeking favours from Brahmin bureaucracy in furtherance of their own careers.91 The educated from among the Shudras had greater responsibility in the liberation struggle. He commented, ‘It is no less the duty of such of my Shudra brethren as have received any education to place before government the true state of their fellowmen and endeavour to the best of their power to emancipate themselves from Brahmin thralldom.’92 Mahatma Phule was undoubtedly in the forefront of anti-caste stir in the nineteenth century. He did not, however, advocate caste war. His was not a war like the one on a tribal turf; his anti-casteism was more fundamental and philosophical than ethno-sociologically inspired. Though he fiercely and vituperatively denounced Brahmanism as a social attitude and structure, he was not against Brahmins as individual members of the caste in question. Sadashiv Ballal Govande, a Brahmin, remained his close friend throughout his life.93 He even adopted a Brahmin widow’s son as his own. Moreover, the doors of Satyashodhak Samaj founded by Phule in 1873 were open to all with Brahmins also as its members.94 He even proposed the possibility of reconciliation and pardon provided the Brahmins could genuinely repent for their deeds of discrimination, ‘if they sincerely try to follow the path of Truth, if they discard their spurious, wicked, bogus Scriptures’.95

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Social questioning  109 He conceived of a silent social revolution to be brought about essentially through education and supplemented by governmental support and intervention. Education, in his view, was key to enlightenment and liberation of the lower castes and thus ‘they would be inspired to extirpate the pernicious caste system and its resultant evils’.96 He made a plea to the government to play their equitable role in narrowing the upper-caste monopoly-of-merit syndrome and ‘to allow a sprinkling of the other castes to get into the public services. Perhaps some might be inclined to say that it is not feasible in the present state of education. Our only reply is that if government looks a little less after higher education, and more towards the education of the masses, the former being able to take care of itself, there would be no difficulty in training up a body of men every way qualified and perhaps far better in morals and manners.’97 Further, he appealed to the government to allow in government service persons from all communities in proportion to their respective population, in order to end the monopoly of a single caste in the services.98 He emphasised, ‘Until the farmers’ children become able enough to manage positions in government, not more than the proportionate number of brahmans should be employed in government jobs, and the remaining posts should be given to Mussalman or Hindu or Britons.’99 The ideational roots of ‘reservation’ in India’s post-independence history could thus be traced to the Phulean wish and appeal to the government in the nineteenth century for proportionate representation of castes and communities in government services. Mahatma Phule was a votary of peace, equity and harmony and did not advocate any social or caste tension. He pleaded: All of us should enjoy (share) the property (good things of life) in an equitable manner, should live in peace and amity, and should never resort to quarrels. Human beings should not observe any distinctions or discriminations on the score of religion or administration (nationality) and should always behave truthfully, as desired by the Creator.100 He emphasised social unity and equality as being preconditional to national progress. He wrote: If the learned Arya bhat brahmans really wish to unite the people of this country and take the nation ahead, then they must first drown their cruel religion, and they, publicly and clearly, must

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cease using any artifice in their relationship with the Shudras, who have been demeaned by that religion, and trample on inequality and the Vedanta opinion, and till a true unity is established, there will be no progress in this country.101 Mahatma Phule’s condemnation of caste as a system of discrimination and deprivation stemmed significantly from his love for human rights, based on the twin pillars of freedom and equality. He held that there was an intimate linkage between human rights and human happiness. He wrote: The Creator of this world Who is also Omnipresent, has conferred some precious human rights upon all mankind (all men and women). But the selfish and cunning Brahmins have kept the people in the dark about their human rights. A truly liberated man will never hesitate to demand these human rights from his oppressors for himself. Due rights confer happiness on people.102 He held freedom to be an imperative to humankind. ‘When man is free, he is able to express his innermost thoughts orally or in writing to others. Even beneficial thoughts cannot be communicated to others for want of freedom (of expression) and thus they evaporate in course of time.’103 It was, therefore, in his view, the duty of the haves to bestow this freedom on the have-nots. Similarly, ‘All human beings on our planet are equipped with similar physical and intellectual facilities. How can some of them be ‘sacred’ generation after generation? Are they not born and die like everyone else, and do they not have qualities good and bad like everyone else?’104 Equality, according to him, was God’s dispensation, inequality the outcome of human usurpation and deception; it was not naturally ordained. He stated: God has granted freedom to all people (including the depressed and downtrodden) to enjoy equitably all things created on this earth (animate and inanimate). But the Bhat authors have concocted spurious tracts in the name of God, and assumed a pre-eminent place (in the hierarchy of society) for themselves. . . . The depressed and downtrodden who were kept ignorant by the Bhats, being caught in their shrewd trap, were deceived and were made to believe in the spurious religious books, stating loudly

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that they were in their best interests. The Bhats are deceiving the ignorant folks even now.105 The hegemonic hold of Brahmanism was so complete that Phule found it to be a major hurdle in advancing the cause of the oppressed. The sufferers themselves were ready to even oppose those who were opposed to their oppressors and were ‘trying to free the shackles imposed on them by the Bhats’. To dehegemonise this hold was, therefore, one of the core concerns of the Satyashodhak Samaj launched by him to carry on the struggle for social transformation. The members of the Samaj were expected to treat all human beings equally as children of God and worship Him directly without any priestly intermediation. Phule lamented: The Bhats in order to feather their own nests tender advice to the ignorant downtrodden people from time to time. That is why the poor people begin to respect the (so-called) Bhats. . . . So deep has been impress of the deceitful teachings of the Bhats on the minds of the Shudras that they were prepared to oppose (fight) the very people who were trying to free the shackles imposed on them by the Bhats. (This is exactly the way the Negroes in America reacted to those kind souls who tried to free them from the bonds of slavery).106 In his assessment, ignorance imposed on the people was instrumental in effecting the hegemonic hold of the Brahmins. ‘The original inhabitants were kept in perpetual darkness by being deprived of (the light of) knowledge by the Brahmins. That is why the poor people could not understand their conqueror’s wiles and guiles.’107 He was fully conscious of the role of religious scriptures in cementing this hold. He was, therefore, particularly condemnatory of the ancient Indian sacred texts. In his own words: I hereby strongly condemn all those main religious books of the Brahmins which declare us to be their vassals or any other similar religious books propounding a similar obnoxious theory. I venerate those books which propound that human beings are entitled to enjoy human rights in equal measure. These books may have been written by thinkers of any country or any religion (in the world).108

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112  Social questioning He also tried to counter the contention that merit was caste-­specific. The monopoly of merit, he argued, was based on manipulation and not on birth-based determination. ‘Qualities are not hereditary. To argue that a shoe-maker’s bright son, even when trained properly, cannot compare with a Brahman Shankaracharya flies in the face of all natural justice.’109 There is an aura of attraction and mystique about the persona of Mahatma Phule in Indian history. He is often hailed as a combative anti-caste intellectual. His militancy in expression is also mistaken for his warrior-like role in the history of anti-Brahmanism in Western India in the nineteenth century. This is, however, not what Phule fundamentally stood for. Deep down in his cognitive world he remained a pacifist throughout his life. He was a votary of peace and amity and did not advocate conflict or social tension as a libertarian method for Shudra emancipation. Instead, he pinned his faith in the spread of education and need-based legislation as key to salvation of the Shudras. Phule’s social iconoclasm quite closely corresponds with that of Kabir, the renowned heretical mystic of medieval India, though the elements of anger and abomination, venom and vitriol against Brahmanism were more specific to the thought contents of Phule, unlike Kabir’s. Phule’s radicalism was, however, not entirely uncompromising. There was, in fact, an element of willingness on his part for adjustment in the framework of change envisaged. He, for example, proposed the possibility of reconciliation and pardon provided the Brahmins could genuinely repent for their deeds of discrimination, ‘if they sincerely try to follow the path of Truth, if they discard their spurious, wicked, bogus Scriptures’. He did not deny the efficacy of inter-dining either as an answer to the caste question. In a letter to Laxman Jaganath, the Diwan of Baroda, he wrote: Let us strive by day and dream by night for the all-round progress and prosperity of our mother-land. Let us try and foster a living unity between the Bhats (Brahmins) and the Mangs, and let us encourage them to inter-dine collectively.110 Furthermore, though Phule condemned caste, he could not totally transcend the caste framework of analysis. He proceeded to trace the historicity of social divisions with the premise that the invading Aryans were already divided into Brahmin, Kshatriya and Vaishya castes in

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Social questioning  113 their original Iranian avatar, before they embarked upon their Indian invasion. He also held that the Shudras and Ati-Shudras were originally indigenous Kshatriyas before being conquered and enslaved by the victorious Aryans. However, he gave a secular interpretation to the supposedly Kshatriya background of the Shudras as ‘the lords of a given area, kshetra’,111 as against the Brahmanic interpretation of their origin being from the limbs of Brahma. Despite his anti-caste attack being bitter and hard-hitting, the framework of Varna differentiation, the very basis of caste, remained intact in his attack. Phule, in fact, did not advocate a caste-less society; what he pressed for was the democratisation of social relations and demolition or at least diminution of Brahmanical dominance and discrimination. His paradigm of change, however, hit at birth-based hierarchy, the source of social differentiation in the caste system, which, in his view, was to be radically altered on the principles of humanism, equality, merit, freedom and dignity. The fundamental values of equality, freedom and dignity formed the bedrock of Phule’s philosophy and activism. Though not endowed with the erudition which many of his contemporary reformers possessed, his strength lay in his robust faith in a fearless humanity and tenacity to the principles of equality and liberty. He was a man of words and represented a fine example of words honoured in action. He was very high on ethics and could claim intellectual ancestry to Mahatma Gandhi who later exemplified on a much larger scale the pure necessity of the end and the means both being noble and ethical. He made a distinctive mark in the contemporary intellectual circle by his courage, candour and conviction. Chiplunkar, however, was highly critical of Phule particularly for the latter’s attack on Brahmanism and Vedic traditions which, the former held, did not deserve such condemnation. He dismissively called Phule ‘the sorriest scribbler with just the clothing of humanity on him’.112 Chiplunkar’s view of British rule to be at the root of India’s woes and miseries also ran counter to Phule’s fulsome admiration of it. Criticism notwithstanding, independence of mind, fearlessness, tenacity of purpose and high moral idealism characterised Phule’s approach to the idea of change based on the notion of freedom, equality, humanism and dignity. He was decidedly the foremost in firmly laying the foundations of an enduring struggle for social justice in nineteenth-century India.

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Women The condition of women received special attention in the nineteenth century. Almost all the intellectuals were concerned with the women’s question. Their backwardness was linked with human and national degradation, and their amelioration with progress. The existing practices of child marriage, enforced widowhood and disfigurement, polygamy, infanticide, female seclusion, gender discrimination, etc. were viewed as evils of monstrous magnitude. The illiteracy among women was identified as the root of their pitiable predicament. It was by itself considered a social evil of the worst kind, leading to the wastage of moral and intellectual resources of the country. Chandavarkar in his address on ‘Our Social Ideals’ given at the Presidency College in 1896 at Madras articulated quite pithily the general intellectual concern when he said, ‘Progress must remain hampered so long as we do not raise as far as we can and ought to raise the social status of our women. The question of the social elevation of our women is not a question of mere sentiment but one of practical importance. . . . As long as woman who practically presides at home is left ignorant, it is impossible to expect that the social or other history of our society will be a history of progress worthy of the name. . . . We may say with perfect truth that the more ancient ideal of Hindu womanhood was of a more enlightened and elevated character than the one by which Hindu society finds now dominated.’113 Bhandarkar vented similar concern in his presidential address at the Indian National Social Conference held at Allahabad in 1902: ‘The women of the country are, as a rule, not educated, and thus leading to, what may be called, a waste of half the moral and intellectual resources of the country, a waste for which there can be no compensation anywhere.’114 Phule equated the condition of women to that of the Shudras in misery and marginalisation. Ramabai was single-mindedly concerned with the issue of women’s upliftment and she equated their ignorance and dependence with national degradation.115 The reformers thus approached this issue not only in humanistic but also in nationalistic terms. In the following section an attempt has been made to deal with some of the seminal thought currents on various aspects surrounding the question of women in India.

Child marriage Jambhekar was the first intellectual in Maharashtra to rise against infant marriage. He viewed this practice to be responsible for human

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misery and unhappiness, leading to the genesis of a helpless and hapless class called ‘child widows’. In his own words, Marriage should be celebrated when a girl may attain the age of womanhood. If there is no holiness in it, at least there is no sin. . . . Girls should not be married until they become twelve years of age. Though by doing this a man may not attain virtue deserved for the giving of his daughter, he may have that which is derived from her happiness. Under this reformation in the present practice, there would remain no such class of unhappy women as are now termed ‘Child Widows’.116 The issue of child marriage, however, became a burning topic of debate and discussions among the educated in the 1880s and early 1890s after Malabari’s Notes on Infant Marriages and Enforced Widowhood in India were circulated in 1884, leading to intense intellectual fermentation on the issue of the Age of Consent Bill which was ultimately passed in 1891. Bhandarkar and Ranade highlighted that infant marriage would lead to physical debility not only of the progeny but also of the parents. To quote: The early marriage of boys and girls undermines the strength of both, and brings forth a progeny of weak children. The growth of the parents themselves, intellectual as well as physical, is stunted.117 With a view to prevent early completion of marriages, which leads to the impairment of physical health of both husband and wife, and to the growth of a weakly progeny, cohabitation before the wife is twelve years old should be punishable as a criminal offence.118 The age of twelve years for wife to be fit for cohabitation was the minimum age which Ranade could permit or rather tolerate; it was not the acceptable age of alliance between husband and wife. In fact, he was in favour of higher age for consummation of marriage for girls. He asked for education of public opinion and awakening of people’s conscience to the necessity of ‘postponing the completion of marriage till the age of 14 at least, as being in accordance with the dictates of our ancient medical works and modern science, and

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116  Social questioning countenanced by the approved sentiment and practice of the country’.119 Malabari viewed infant marriage to be ‘an economic as well as a social evil’, leading to ‘physical and moral degradation of the race’.120 He argued that it had nothing to do with the religious system of the Hindus; that it had no roots in religions, being ‘an irreligious innovation’.121 Chandavarkar also advocated doing away with this baneful practice to see that the future progeny is not a progeny born of babies.122 From the point of view of practicability, however, he proposed to fix the limit of marriage at eleven years of age for girls, to be gradually raised to twelve and onwards in the course of time.123 He was particularly perturbed at the instances of alliance, not uncommon, between an old man and a tender-aged girl. In his address at the Indian National Social Conference held on 30 December 1905 at Benares he said, ‘An old dotard with one foot in the grave, who has sons, is not ashamed when he marries a babe of a girl.’124 Telang found the practice of infant marriage ‘mischievous enough in all conscience’.125 Agarkar denounced child marriage and held it to be in some respects worse than sati, and argued that only legislation could help checkmate this curse.126 Pandita Ramabai was very hardhitting at this obnoxious custom. In her famous book The High-Caste Hindu Woman published in 1887, she scorned at the utter ridiculousness of this inhuman practice. ‘It must be remembered that she is herself a girl scarcely out of her babyhood, when she becomes a mother.’127 Child marriage was denounced as despicable, being the source of other evils such as early widowhood and the horrors of life associated with it. Supporting Malabari’s Note on ‘Infant Marriage’ Ranade highlighted at length the attendant evils emanating from this baneful practice. He stated: Early marriage leads to early consummation, and thence to the physical deterioration of the race, that it sits as a heavy weight on our rising generation, enchains their aspirations, denies them the romance and freedom of youth, cools their love of study, checks enterprise, and generally dwarfs their growth, and fills the country with pauperism, bred of over-population by weaklings and sickly people, and lastly that it leads in many cases to all the horrors of early widowhood.128 He also sought scriptural support in favour of mature marriages and wrote, ‘The majority of the texts favour the age of twelve or the

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Social questioning  117 age of puberty as the marriageable age for girls. . . . Marriage at the twelfth year and consummation at the sixteenth appear thus to be the normal and authoritative ages for girls.’129 Ranade further argued that ‘we would, to start with, fix twelve and eighteen as the minimum ages for girls and boys’.130 The practice of child marriage, it is seen, was opposed on humanist, rational, scientific, social as well as national grounds.

Enforced widowhood The issue of enforced widowhood and disfigurement of widows generated intense intellectual fermentation in nineteenth-century Maharashtra. It was severely condemned by nearly all the intellectual fraternity of the time. The plight of child widows and childless widows was particularly pitiable in the nineteenth century. As years rolled on, the condemnation caught greater fire, leading to even hostile polarity between the reformers and the reactionaries in the 1880s and 1890s. Malabari was the torchbearer of this heightened contestation. The issue was, however, taken up initially in a mild manner. Jambhekar took up the question in his characteristic modest manner when he wrote, ‘Women of more mature age (when widowed) can pass their lives in chastity in exercise of domestic and religious duties.’131 He did not outright advocate widow marriage as a way to undo the unjust but rather emphasised the prevention of child marriage in order to preclude the possibility of infant widowhood. A life of chastity rather than second connection for the widows of mature age was the preferred proposition in his idea of practicable social reform.132 It was Lokahitwadi who possibly first raised the contestation on to an entirely different pedestal. He linked the issue of enforced widowhood with the question of injustice and widow remarriage with equality and human happiness. He held men and women were the same in the eyes of God who gave them equal rights; preventing a widow to remarry was, therefore, unjust. He set aside even the Shastras if they went against this reform. He forthrightly stated: If the Hindu Shastras do not support widow-remarriage, they should be replaced by new laws as we do repeal undesirable laws regulating the behaviour of human beings in other fields. Laws governing marriage in any society should aim at promoting happiness of individuals. If any custom causes unhappiness

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or injustice, it should be brushed aside because rules regarding marriage do not constitute the essence of religion.133 Vishnu Shastri Pandit, editor of Indu Prakash, a leading Anglo-Marathi journal, was a staunch advocate of widow marriage in Western India; he devoted his entire life in its advocacy and propagation. He translated into Marathi Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar’s book on widow remarriage. It was primarily under his leadership and guidance that the Hindu Widow Marriage Association (‘the Vidhava Vivahottejak Mandal’) was formed in 1865 with the support of Parmanand, Ranade and Telang134 with the sole objective to promote such marriages and to create a favourable public opinion. He also organised the first widow marriage in Poona on 15 June 1869,135 first recorded such marriage in Western India. This led to heightened opposition from the Brahmins of Poona, the centre of orthodoxy in Western India. Ultimately, both the proponents and opponents of widow marriage agreed to discuss and debate the question and its sanctity from the Shastraic point of view under the presidentship of the Shankaracharya of Sankeshwar, Narayanacharya Gajendragadkar, the religious head of the majority of the Deccanis.136 The meeting took place in March 1870 in Poona for nine days.137 The Shankaracharya was assisted by ten learned pundits nominated as assessors by either party in equal numbers. Vishnu Shastri, assisted by Bhandarkar and Ranade, was the principal defender on the side of the reformers. In this historic contestation the orthodox viewpoint emerged victorious as only three assessors were in favour of widow marriage as against seven against it.138 The reformers were no losers either; the cause and the campaign obtained wider attention and publicity in the process, in press as well as on other platforms.139 Pandit set an example by marrying a widow in 1874 when he became a widower, but did not survive long, and died in 1876.140 The second half of the nineteenth century, particularly the 1880s and 1890s, witnessed more concerted campaigns against the custom of enforced widowhood and disfigurement of widows. Malabari emerged as the arch-enemy of this evil social practice. While Mahatma Phule found it ‘abominable’, ‘barbarous’, ‘degrading’ and ‘tyrannical’, Bhandarkar viewed it as ‘dehumanising’ and ‘beastly’. To Ranade it was ‘morally heinous’, ‘a great blot which has disfigured the social condition of India’. Chandavarkar termed

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Social questioning  119 the practice ‘monstrous’; to Agarkar it was the ‘greatest insult to humanity’. Ramabai dubbed it as ‘cruel’ and devoted her life in the service of helpless widows and worked tirelessly to provide them a life of dignity and independence through education and empowerment. Both Mahatma Phule and Pandita Ramabai sketched a graphic description of the condition of Indian widowhood in the caste-dominated patriarchal structure of society. In response to and in support of Malabari’s Note on Enforced Widowhood Phule fumed at the Brahmanical barbarity: She (the widow) is stripped of her ornaments; she is forcibly shaved by her near relatives; she is not well fed; she is not properly clothed; she is not allowed to join pleasure parties, marriages or religious ceremonies. In fact, she is bereaved of all the worldly enjoyments, nay, she is considered lower than a culprit or a mean beast. Moreover, the Aryan institution enjoins Brahmin males to marry even the lower class girls during the life-time of his first wife; but his real sister is prohibited to remarry, after the demise of her first husband. . . . How abominable and degrading is the system of Aryan Institution, which compels Brahmin widows to drag their lives in so miserable and shameless ways that even modesty shrinks back to enter into particular details. In conclusion, I most respectfully crave the favour of your enlightened English Government to remove the tyranny of enforced widowhood exercised upon the helpless women, by the relentless system of Aryan religious institution. I therefore propose that no barbers should be allowed to shave the unfortunate Brahmin widows.141 In a similar vein Pandita Ramabai highlighted the woes and tribulations of Indian widowhood. To quote: Throughout India, except in the Northwestern Provinces, women are put to the severest trial imaginable after the husband’s death. They are deprived of every gold and silver ornament, of the bright-colored garments, and of all the things they love to have about or on their persons. The cruelty of social customs does not stop here. Among the Brahmins of Deccan

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120  Social questioning the heads of all widows must be shaved regularly every fortnight. Some of the lower castes, too, have adopted this custom of shaving widows’ heads. A man or woman thinks it unlucky to behold of widow’s face before seeing any other object in the morning. The purpose of disfiguring her by shaving her head, by not allowing her to put ornaments or bright, beautiful garments on her person, is to render her less attractive to a man’s eye. Not allowing her to eat more than once a day, and compelling her to abstain from food altogether on sacred days, is a part of the discipline by which to mortify her youthful nature and desire.142 She cited an article contributed to the Nineteenth Century by a Hindu gentleman to further highlight the degree of dependence of Indian widows on the male members of the family. To quote a passage thereof: Among Hindus, women cannot inherit any parental property, and if a widow is left any property by her husband she cannot call it her own. All her wealth belongs to her son, if she has any, and if she has nobody to inherit it she is made to adopt an heir, and give him all her property directly (when) he comes of age, and herself live on a bare allowance granted by him.143 Speaking at the Third Indian National Social Conference held in December 1889 in Bombay she said, ‘The widow when of age must be left to choose for herself how she will live. . . . How many of the gentlemen before her would consent to shave their heads on the death of their wives?’144 The liberty of choice for the widow to live her life as she pleased was what Ramabai emphasised as an answer to this cruelty. This was a novel and bold idea towards female freedom and emancipation in the context of the nineteenth century marked or indeed marred by excessive and oppressive patriarchy. Other reformers also took up the issue in right earnest. Contemporary intellectual literature is replete with the ameliorative ideas and endeavours put in defence of Indian widowhood. Bhandarkar was vehemently against enforced widowhood and extremely condemnatory of ill-assorted marriages; he viewed it to be symptomatic

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of civilisational deficiency. In his presidential address at the Ninth Indian National Social Conference held in 1895 in Poona he said: The society which allows men to marry any number of times, even up to the age of sixty, while it strongly forbids even girls of seven or eight to have another husband after one is dead – which gives liberty to a man of 50 or 60 to marry a girl of eleven or twelve, which has no word of condemnation for the man who marries another wife within fifteen days after the death of the first, is a society which sets very little value upon the life of a female human being, and places women on the same level with cattle and is thus in an unsound condition, disqualifying it for a successful competition with societies with a more healthy constitution. The marriages between aged husbands and tender-aged wives can be characterized only as cases of human sacrifice. They should marry grown up women – widows, if unmarried ones are not to be had. Ill-assorted marriages in which an old man of even fifty or sixty marries a girl of even ten or twelve deserves greater condemnation.145 Ranade discerned cold-blooded criminality in cases of enforced widowhood and disfigurement, inflicting lifelong misery on the victims without any punishment to the offenders of such acts. For him, ‘the widows are the wards of nation’s humanity’.146 In his article ‘State Legislation in Social Matters’ penned in the context of Malabari’s Note on Enforced Widowhood circulated in 1884 along with his Note on Infant Marriages, which generated unprecedented controversy, Ranade wrote: In most cases enforced widowhood and disfigurement, the destruction of home sanctity by polygamous connections, the stupidity of baby marriages, are not impulsive acts, they are done in cold blood, and they inflict lifelong and undeserved misery on helpless victims, while the offenders suffer but little. So far as their moral heinousness is concerned, they are inflictions of injustice without any redeeming features, and the criminal responsibility of the nation is beyond all reprieve.147

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122  Social questioning The child widow in particular struck a strong sympathetic chord in Ranade, and he would not permit their disfigurement except after they attained twenty-five years of age when they could be in a position to exercise their choice deliberately in favour of a celibate course of life. He also strongly argued against the forfeiture of her husband’s property as a consequence of the second marriage of the widow. In his own words: As to the child widows, we would on no account permit the disfigurement except after twenty-five years, when the widow may be presumed to be able to realize the circumstances of her position, and can choose deliberately the celibate course of life. Under no circumstances should one wife be superseded by a second connection, except under the safeguards recognized by Manu and the other writers. The widow’s forfeiture of her husband’s estate as a consequence of her second marriage should be done away with, and her life interest in her husband’s inheritance should remain intact, whatever her choice of life might be. The marriage of a widower above fifty with girls below fourteen should be strictly prohibited as being opposed to the most approved Smriti texts.148 Ranade had immense faith in the efficacy of education and its spread particularly among women as the most effective instrument to tackle the problem of enforced widowhood. He wrote: A better time is dawning upon our horizon, when with the advance of female education and a better appreciation of the necessity of female emancipation, this great blot (enforced widowhood) which has disfigured the social condition of India for the past thousand years or more, will be removed, and this country restored to the purity and elevation of its ancient grandeur.149 He was highly appreciative of the efforts made by Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar of Bengal to promote women’s emancipation from this cruel custom.150 Similarly, he praised Vireshalingam Pantalu for his work in Madras in this field.151 Chandavarkar, a renowned reformer of Western India, repeatedly raised the issue of widow marriage at various fora. In his address at the fourth anniversary meeting of the Madras Hindu Social Reform

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Social questioning  123 Association held on 28 November 1896 in Madras he said, ‘Widow remarriage is also one of the reforms which we deem essential. Let us not sacrifice at its altar girls who lose their husbands at tender ages, while we allow men even near their graves to marry.’152 Again in his address on ‘Hindu Social Reform’ delivered in a meeting of the National Indian Association held on 28 May 1902 in London he said, ‘In a country where you allow infant marriages – the marriage of girls of ten or eleven – then if the husband dies, to say that the girl should be condemned to the life of a widow, is monstrous.’153 Of course, the advocacy was not for compulsory widow marriage; the purpose was ‘to remove the obstacle enforced by custom, not to compel every widow to marry, but to allow a feeling to grow in society that it is permissible to a widow to marry if she chooses’.154 Telang, though a votary of reform from within, was also a social reformer of repute at the time. He expressed in 1888 his utmost exasperation at the practice of enforced widowhood and disfigurement: For men who allow themselves the luxury of many wives in succession or even simultaneously, if they so please – for them to glorify an old custom (enforced widowhood) in this fashion appears to me to be adding insult to injury. As regards the prevention of the disfigurement of child-widows, I may fairly decline to say a single word. The inhumanity and iniquity of the operation cannot be made more clear by anything that I can say. The only consolation there is in regard to this matter is to be found in the fact that this barbarous custom is gradually dying out.155 Agarkar was equally strong against this cruel practice. In particular he found the disfigurement of widows extremely inhuman. In a letter dated 15 February 1895 to a close relative he wrote, ‘I am as strong as you are about the disfigurement of widows. I am not a person to allow external influence or even parental affection to happen under my roof what we consider to be the greatest insult to humanity.’156 A ruthless rationalist as he was, he would not allow any let-up in the campaign against the inhuman irrational social practices including the custom of enforced widowhood and disfigurement. The foregoing clearly establishes that the nineteenth-century intellectual milieu was surcharged with the issue of enforced widowhood and disfigurement of widows. It received almost universal

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124  Social questioning condemnation in Maharashtra during the period, though degrees differed in emphasis. Jambhekar, for instance, did not outright advocate widow marriage as a way to remedy the situation; he would remain content if widows in mature age led a life of chastity. Lokahitwadi, however, raised the debate on to a different level, linking it up with the issue of equality and human happiness. He prescribed revolutionary suggestions for making or even breaking laws including the ancient scriptures to promote widow remarriage for ‘happiness of individuals’. This was, indeed, a fine example of Lokahitwadi’s social iconoclasm. Other reformers that followed, particularly those belonging to the mainstream school of thought, such as Ranade, Bhandarkar, Vishnu Shastri and others sought scriptural support to strengthen their advocacy for widow remarriage. For Agarkar, however, scriptural prop was unnecessary, reason being the most effective instrument of assessment. The notion of equality and freedom formed the core of the female question in the ideas of Mahatma Phule and Ramabai who viewed the Shastras, on the contrary, to be the source of not only social but also gender discrimination in the country. Although the Indian Government had legalised the marriage of Hindu widows by an Act of 1856 passed by the Legislative Council, it could not make much progress on account of the popular opinion running against the reform. As late as about 1870 ‘in all India over three hundred marriages (of widows) have thus been celebrated’. Ramabai was, therefore, quite wary of the custom of widow marriage becoming a socially approved practice for a considerable period of time. She wrote ‘widow-marriage will not for a long time become an approved custom. . . . Re-marriage, therefore, is not available, nor would it be at times desirable, as a mitigation of the sufferer’s lot.’157 Malabari, however, was not as pessimistic as Ramabai in this respect; he waged a consistent battle for rationalisation of law to give it adequate teeth in order to make it workable and effective.

Polygamy Polygamy was another inhuman practice that came to be condemned in the nineteenth century. It was viewed to be one of the major factors in lowering the self and social estimation of women in the country. The reformers highlighted its ill effects not only on the women but also on family and social life at large. Child marriage was seen as

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Social questioning  125 the main source that often promoted polygamy. Mahatma Phule in particular found ‘marrying off children without the children’s consent at a young age’ responsible for the rise of related problems of polygamy or ‘polygamistic’ alliances like keeping keeps, abandonment and neglect of old wives of early alliances, etc.158 Ranade ruled out polygamous alliance ‘except under the safeguards recognized by Manu and the other writers’.159 Malabari equally favoured monogamy for both the sexes as the most acceptable mode of alliance.160 Parmanand dealt with the issue at length in his third letter to an Indian Raja, and termed it ‘the source of moral as well as physical evil, a relic of barbarism and primeval necessity’.161 Polygamy, he held, promoted many evils which could mar not only domestic but also social sanity. He wrote: Many evils result from the existence of a plurality of wives and sons born of different mothers. . . . It has its drawback in jealousy, disputes and enmities which are peculiarly developed under polygamy, and these evils show themselves virulently under circumstances which are calculated to produce alienations of feeling, and in which natural affection and love are replaced by bitterness, ill-will, and inextinguishable rivalries tending to destroy all harmony and neutralize and mar what to distant spectators might appear to be enviable and unfailing means of happiness.162 Monogamy in his view was the sane and sovereign remedy to all the trials and tribulations associated with polygamy. To quote: Against these domestic troubles and dangers which defy the resources and darken the days of even a strong mind, the one sovereign remedy is strict monogamy. . . . Monogamy is nature’s own sacred law, and therefore, its violation is invariably visited with distressing evils as its consequences. A holy and undivided partnership in mutual trust and love is possible only in monogamy which dissociates from the sacred union that marriage in the real sense of the term implies, all idea of sensuality, banishes jealousy and distraction from the family, and produces instead a healthy moral tone in the household and tends to the preservation of the mental and bodily vigour so much needed for a due discharge of the public duties.163

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Infanticide The practice of female infanticide prevalent among certain castes and tribes remained a matter of concern of particularly the early intellectuals. Despite being banned by the East India Company much before Maharashtra came under its sway in 1818, its elimination still appeared elusive. This attracted intellectual attention to this cruel custom. Jambhekar lamented the prevalence of the practice among Rajputs and other castes.164 Lokahitwadi called this custom ‘a curse to the people and a disgrace to humanity’.165 He wrote: The difficulty of abolishing the female infanticide, as it is practised by the Jariya and other Rajpoot tribes in the province of Goozrath, Katiwar, Katch arises from the secrecy observed in these cases. It is therefore necessary that a moral change should be introduced and the people made sensible of the mischief they do to their fellow creatures. . . . It is our bounden duty to preserve children since we have begotten them. It makes no difference whether male or female.166

Nautch girls It was Jambhekar from among the reformers who first revolted against the prevalence of the system of nautch girls in Western India. He dubbed it as most revolting and pernicious. He equated it with a form of slavery, emanating from sites of poverty and destitution as the fertile source of its sustenance. In his recently started journal, the Bombay Durpun of 14 September 1832 he launched a scathing and forceful attack on this baneful practice. He wrote: There is one form of slavery in India which strikes us as more revolting to every feeling of a well-regulated mind, more pernicious than any other to Society in general. We condemn in very strong terms the system of nautch girls. . . . The practices by which these Establishments are maintained, are justly characterized as most revolting and pernicious. They produce all the evils which attend Slavery in any shape. It furnishes a lamentable proof of the laxity of public morals. There is no one so ignorant as not to know that the supply is kept up mostly by the purchase of

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Social questioning  127 female children, from a class of persons whose occupation it is to search out the abode of poverty or misfortune, tempt the starving wretch, or destitute widow, with offers too strong even for the ties of parental affection. Kidnapping is sometimes resorted to by the persons concerned. . . . It is not the vigilance of the Magistrate that can put an end to the slavery we have been noticing . . . it seems vain to expect it can be eradicated otherwise than through education, and the force of example in high and influential quarters.167 Chandavarkar also condemned this custom and had all abhorrence for it. When he was offered in the twentieth century the post of Chief Ministership of the State of Indore, before accepting the assignment he put the condition to the Maharaja that he should have the authority to stay away from the ‘Nautch’ parties, to which the Maharaja agreed. In the words of Chandavarkar himself, ‘I have all along been on principle opposed to “Nautch” parties, and have both publicly and privately condemned them. . . . If your Highness is of opinion that a long established usage cannot be abolished at once, I should have the liberty to stay away from such parties.’168 The identification and correction of certain social evils was not the end of the agitation for social self-correction in nineteenth-century Maharashtra. Change in outward manners and customs was not enough; the emphasis was laid on the change of inner being of man, on ‘reform of the heart and the mind’. Ranade had been consistently hammering home this basic thrust of reform endeavours. In his address at the Tenth Indian National Social Conference held in Calcutta (now Kolkata) in 1896 he categorically stated, ‘This or that particular reform . . . is not and should not be the end and aim of the agitation to improve our social condition. The end is to renovate, to purify and also to perfect the whole man by liberating his intellect, elevating his standard of duty, and perfecting all his powers.’169 Again, in his address at the Eleventh Indian National Social Conference held at Amravati in 1897, he emphasised, ‘It is not the outward form but the inward form, the thought and the idea which determines the outward form, that has to be changed, if real reformation is desired.’170 In his speech at the Twelfth Indian National Social Conference held at Madras in 1898 he further reiterated, ‘The main issue is not this or that particular reform about which people have so much controversy, but the general spirit of purity, justice, equality,

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temperance, and mercy which should be infused into our minds and which should illuminate our hearts.’171 He elaborated: Reforms in the matter of infant marriage and enforced widowhood, in the matter of temperance and purity, intermarriages between castes, the elevation of the low castes, and the readmission of converts are reforms, only so far and no further, as they check the influence of the old ideas and promote the growth of the new tendencies. The reformer . . . must have his family, village, tribe, and nation, recast in other and new moulds.172 Similarly, Chandavarkar echoed on the lines of Ranade that before any particular reform there must be the reform of the heart and the mind.173 The delineation of certain social practices in the foregoing does not, therefore, define the boundaries of intellectual endeavours in the nineteenth century; the movement was much bigger in its depth.

Age of consent controversy The Indian intellectual scene of the late nineteenth century was dominated by a series of debates and discussions between the proponents and opponents of reform on the issue of the desirability or otherwise of social legislation on the age of consent for consummation of marriage. Western India constituted the hotbed of ‘Consent’ controversy in the country during the period. It all began with the circulation in 1884 by the government of Malabari’s Notes on Infant Marriages and Enforced Widowhood in India, which he had submitted to the government, to a large number of Indian public figures.174 Malabari, as admitted by himself, also published many thousand copies in English of his memoranda depicting the horrors of early marriage and enforced widowhood and circulated them all over the country, which were further translated into the vernaculars.175 He along with others put pressure on the government to pass a social legislation raising the age of consent. As usual, the government, fearing people’s potential anger and reaction, was wary of getting involved in a domain which could prove to be counter-productive to the interests of the colonial rule. Exercising abundant precaution the government circulated his Notes in order to seek people’s opinion before daring to introduce a Bill for a

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Social questioning  129 raise in age. The government sent copies to the Provincial Administrations and the Native States, requesting them to submit their own opinions on the subject, and to obtain those of important Hindu representatives, both official and non-official, within their respective reach.176 This stirred up a hornet’s nest, as it were, and led to a sharp polarisation between its opponents and proponents. The polarity tended to turn into intense argumentation for and against and even bitterness, producing in the process some of the finest literature and oratory on the subject during the period. It was amidst the intensity of these debates that the famous phrases such as ‘reform from within’ as distinguished from ‘reform from without’ gained greater currency among the literati in the country. On the one hand were Mahatma Phule, Bhandarkar, Ranade, Chandavarkar, Agarkar and Pandita Ramabai who openly supported Malabari and his proposal for a social legislation on the subject. Mandalik, Tilak and even Telang, on the other hand, opposed any outside interference in social matters and wished reform to evolve from the internal dynamics of society through education, generation of conducive social climate through persuasion of public opinion and the like. Tilak was quite caustic in his criticism of Malabari’s campaign. He wrote in the editorial columns of The Mahratta, ‘We fear Mr. Malabari begins to suspect that early marriage is at the bottom of everything. A railway train goes slowly. To work the Malabari brain goes. The engine is driven by a European. No early marriage there. Ah! but there is the fireman. He is a native. He must have been married at an early age. With such a fireman how can the train go fast?’177 The Mahratta of the time published a large number of write-ups from various people opposing the proposal in favour of social legislation on one pretext or the other. Amidst the vast polarisation the government ultimately passed a resolution stating that though the cause was good, the level of public opinion was not up to the mark and that the reformers ought to go on educating the public opinion adequately before coming to government to step in.178 What was there in Malabari’s Notes that created such a furore during the period? Let us, to begin with, see the core contents of his Note on infant marriages: The British government put down Infanticide by law. That was a great gain to society. But we find infant marriage in practice a more serious evil than infanticide. For whereas the latter was

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130  Social questioning one short struggle, an ill-assorted infant marriage entails lifelong misery on either or both parties. Infant marriage is the cause of many of our social grievances, including enforced widowhood. The wife may outgrow the husband, or the husband may become fit for the grave when the wife becomes fit for his home. There may be total or partial absence of physical adaptability, or hopeless disparity of temperament. In any of these events the ‘married martyrs’, as they have been aptly described, are socially alienated from each other, though perhaps living under the same roof. These are some of the many dreadful contingencies. But let us take the union to turn out happy, as it no doubt turns out in a large number of cases. What follows? A too early consummation of the nuptial troth, the breaking down of constitutions, and the ushering in of disease; the giving up of the studies on the part of the boy husband, the birth of sickly children, the necessity of feeding too many mouths, poverty and dependence, a disorganized household – leading perhaps to sin. In short, it comes to a wreck of two lives grown old almost in youth, which might in favourable circumstances have attained to happy and respectable age. . . . I have never heard an argument in favour of infant marriage as a rational institution, except it is enjoined by the Shastras. But as far as I have been able to see, no Shastra enforces marriage proper on a girl under twelve years of age, when presumably the boy must be between 15 and 20.179 In his essay ‘An Appeal from the Daughters of India’ Malabari further wrote, ‘According to the Shastras, a girl is fit to be married after obtaining puberty; in fact, she is fit to be married only when she is fit to be a mother.’180 He held the practice of infant marriage to be the most fertile ground for many social miseries including early and prolonged widowhood. He traced the origin and woes of widows to the custom of child marriage almost as a cause-and-effect continuum. He wrote: In modern India, woman seems to have become, as if by common consent, the inferior man as a social unit. She is married in infancy. In the case of the early death of the husband she has perpetual widowhood before her. Even though still an infant, her life is a social failure. In most things she is at the mercy of others,

Social questioning  131 because the average Hindu widow is not able to appreciate and protect her rights as a member of society.181

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He castigated caste for imposing its writ of enforced widowhood under the threat of excommunication of the offending couple on remarriage. To quote: Is the Hindu woman reconciled to the evil? No. She is and has long been in revolt against this inhuman custom. Why then do they not shake off the evil? Because the Hindu is hard to move. Caste exercises overpowering influence. Caste is more potent in its secret persecution than was the Inquisition of Spain. Not only are the offending couple excommunicated, but their relations and friends, too, may become outcasts henceforth and for ever. The life which caste imposes on an unwilling widow (for Suttee) is a perpetual agony, a burning to death by slow fire, without any chastening or elevating effect on the sufferer, or any moral advantage to the community at large by way of compensation. Caste is no objection to the widower marrying again as often as he likes, and more women than one at a time, if he so wishes. Its cold-blooded philosophy is reserved only for the woman who has lost her husband, that is, her all in life.182 He was, however, not in favour of ‘violent interference by the State or for abrupt reforms from amongst the people themselves. We must move with the times, carrying the people with us. . . . All that now seems to be needed is the interposition of authority to a small extent.’183 He was not, however, the one to readily seek scriptural support to substantiate his idea of change. ‘Custom, usage, religion itself cannot serve as a cloak for what is palpably unjust and immoral.’184 He demanded: Let the government rule: (i) That no Hindu girl who has lost her husband or her betrothed, if she is a minor, shall be condemned to lifelong widowhood against her will. The existing provision of Act XV of 1856 which is practically a dead letter must be made known to the victims and enforced in her favour by all possible means.

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132  Social questioning (ii) Arrangements must be made in suspected cases to ascertain whether a widow has adopted perpetual seclusion voluntarily or whether it has been forced upon her. (iii) Every widow, of whatever age, shall have the right to complain to the authorities and that proper facilities shall be afforded her for the purpose. (iv) That the priest has no right to excommunicate the relations.185 In particular he emphasised that the Act of 1856 needed to be rationalised and streamlined. He held that the Act of 1856 was proving to be detrimental to the interests of the widows. For instance, by virtue of this Act in operation ‘a widow living in open shame can enjoy the property of her deceased husband and the consolation of her religion; an honest widow, who remarries under the Act, forfeits both the property and the religion. This is paying a premium on immorality. The least what they ought to do is to perfect the Act of 1856. . . . Amend the Act of 1856 as to the civil and property rights of a widow who remarries.’186 As to the consent question in particular and the related legal safeguards in general, Malabari concretised the proposal as summarised in his famous essay ‘An Appeal from the Daughters of India’ published in The Indian Spectator in 1890 and he urged the government to: (a) amend the Indian Penal Code, making 12, instead of 10, the age of consent; (b) amend the Code of Civil Procedure by enacting that a suit shall not lie for the restitution of conjugal rights or for the recovery of a wife; (c) amend the Marriage Law by enacting that persons married in infancy shall have the opportunity, when they come to years of discretion, of themselves, for ratifying the contract. It might be enacted that where a girl is married under 12, the marriage may, at any time before consummation, and after she attains the age of 12, be made void by a formal declaration on her part before a magistrate; and (d) pass a law enabling parents in India to defer the marriage of their children to any age they like, and recognising to a public offence or contempt of Court any overt act on the part of neighbours or caste-men against such parents.187

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Social questioning  133 The demands initially framed and also developed over time were not just confined to the Consent question and were quite comprehensive. There was, however, nothing so fundamentally different in Malabari’s Notes, which had not found intellectual articulation in the past, although the degrees and intensity could differ. It was Jambhekar who in Western India first raised the issue of child marriage in 1837 stating categorically that girls should not be married until they become twelve years of age. This was indeed more progressive than the campaign of Malabari who only argued against consummation before twelve years. Lokahitwadi in his Shatapatre raised the issues of child marriage and enforced widowhood several times and highlighted the heinousness and injustice embedded in these evil practices.188 What set Malabari apart was, however, the surgical precision with which he tried to reach finality, calling upon the government to intervene legislatively as well as administratively. He tried to turn his ideas into a movement, mobilising public opinion not only within the country but also abroad in Great Britain. This still, however, does not adequately explain as to why the Consent controversy became such a sensational issue in modern Indian history in the late nineteenth century. After all, the main issue in question was merely a raise in the age of consent from ten to twelve years which by itself was hardly that radical or blasphemous in the context of the early 1890s, given the fact that Jambhekar had raised this demand as early as the 1830s.189 Even the very idea of the age of consent was not new; it was introduced for the first time in 1860 when the Indian Penal Code fixed it at ten years.190 The demand for social legislation was not something new either; the government had passed more than one social legislation in the past.191 The heightened opposition to the proposed raise in the age of consent in the late nineteenth century seemed to have much to do with the unprecedented configuration of historical conjunctures in modern Indian history. It is widely accepted that the traditional stronghold of orthodoxy was on the wane. The gradual weakening of the hegemonic hold of Brahmanism and social conservatism under the impact of modern education and intellectual awakening was obviously an unwelcome development from the standpoint of social reaction. The challenges posed to the traditional power structure by Mahatma Phule and his Satyashodhak Samaj had further

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134  Social questioning contributed to the heightening of the insecurity on the part of the latter. Mahatma Phule organised a barbers’ strike against the inhuman custom of shaving off the heads of the widows.192 In 1885 he also exhorted that the lower castes should organise their ritualistic and religious activities themselves, so that the role of the Brahmin priest was rendered redundant.193 In this social situation of increasing insecurity, even a small jerk was potent enough to make social conservatism react rather disproportionately. And the Consent controversy was after all not all that small a spark. The period in question was also the period of the process of shift from social to political reform in intellectual cogitations. As popular sentiments generally seemed to be predominantly status-quoist, siding with social reaction was perceived to be a paying proposition in political terms. All along against outside interference in Indian social matters, Tilak could see what people wanted and what they would like to want. Possibly sensing the Consent controversy to be pregnant with political ramifications he seemed to have seized the opportunity and raised the tone of his rhetoric against the proposed legislation, despite not being averse to the idea of reform as such. In his editorial notes in The Mahratta he wrote: We require no Malabari to tell us these. They have long been recognized. The evils, we say, are recognized on all hands, but the majority deny the efficacy of the remedy proposed by Mr. Malabari. The real question at issue is not, evil or no evil, but legislation or no; and the community has declared itself against legislation. All recognize the evil but most people believe that it can only be removed gradually by educating the public, by keeping up the agitation, and the leaders forming themselves into private association, and having the courage to follow in practice the doctrines they preach. Legislation is superfluous if we are prepared for all this; if not, it is futile and mischievous.194 The torchbearer of Maharashtrian conservatism during the initial years was, however, Vishvanath Narayan Mandlik, a towering figure in his own right and a man of exceptional erudition. He strongly opposed any legislative interference in the social practices of infant marriage and enforced widowhood. He questioned the locus standi of Malabari, a ‘non-Hindu’, to pass prescriptions in matters pertaining to the people

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of Hindu faith. On receipt of Malabari’s Notes sent by government in December 1884 for his remarks, he wrote back to government on 3 April 1885: The Government would do well to refrain from interfering in matters which, even when viewed from the most advanced point of European thought, are quite outside the pale of government interference and which the Hindu community consider as peculiarly the province of their own religious constitution, the violation of which in the teeth of solemn state-guarantees would be regarded as an evil of vast magnitude. The writer of the above notes, Mr. Malabari, is not a Hindu. . . . No one but a Hindu can possess that intimate knowledge of the Hindu Shastras, and the daily observances enjoined therein, which is essential in any writer who attempts to prepare on the questions now placed before Government. As regards the second proposal a mere statement of it is enough to show its wild and chimerical character. How is Government to ascertain whether a widow has adopted perpetual seclusion or whether it has been forced upon her? . . . . There is a general belief among Hindu women that a second marriage by a widow imperils the future happiness of both her own and her deceased husband in heaven. . . . The widows of India are in excellent company and need no lecture from the present writer. In reference to the paper on early marriage Mr. Malabari has resigned himself too much to the guidance of an ungoverned imagination. . . . If evidence is of any value, I could cite at least ten times more cases of happy unions in early life, some even beyond the dreams of such writers. The ‘age of consent’ which is all that is required for marriages (where consent is necessary) is twelve for females and fourteen for males even in such advanced countries as the United States of America. I decline to believe in educational talismans which will work like the magician’s wand. Institutions must grow, and so must habits; they cannot be imported at the bidding of anybody and it would not speak much either for our advancing education or for our moral courage if the Hindus did not know how to regulate their own domestic economy.

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136  Social questioning Magisterial prosecutions will promote neither early marriage nor second marriage. . . The matters which Mr. Malabari brings before Government pertain to the social and religious life of the Hindus, any outside interference with which will be highly demoralizing and productive of most serious discontent. Hindu society is not what Mr. Malabari paints it, and as some might perhaps think it to be. If there are things amiss within its own sphere, there is life enough therein to correct them.195 Mandlik sarcastically dubbed Malabari and by implication other reformers of his genre as the ‘Luther of rose and lavender’, a metaphor for one not in sync with social reality but leading a life of luxury, leisure and lecture without oneself practising what one preached and thus being unable to set the example of self-sacrifice. Despite his opposition to the reform in question Mandlik, however, remained a respectable figure in the intellectual circles. Chandavarkar held him in high esteem and found his criticisms useful and educative for reformers’ self-introspection.196 He also applauded him for being one of those who sowed the seeds of female education in Western India.197 Tilak seemed to surpass Mandlik in his criticism of the Consent question. Both, however, differed in aim and orientation. Mandlik’s reaction stemmed from his conservative conviction; Tilak’s opposition emanated essentially from his nationalist political ambitions. Mandlik came to counter Malabari by defending the very social ills and wrote, ‘The widows of India are in excellent company and need no lecture from the present writer.’ To quote Mandlik again, ‘In reference to the paper on early marriage Mr. Malabari has resigned himself too much to the guidance of an ungoverned imagination . . . . If evidence is of any value, I could cite at least ten times more cases of happy unions in early life, some even beyond the dreams of such writers.’198 Tilak, on the other hand, did not come to the defence of evil practices; he, in fact, condemned customs as child marriage like any other intellectual of the time. He had issues with the method, not the cause. As early as 1881, much before Malabari’s Notes, Tilak wrote, ‘This baneful system (i.e. child marriage) having prevailed in our country for centuries together, has debilitated our nation – has made it physically weaker and weaker. . . . Every son of Aryavarta must toil hard to see this custom eradicated. . . . But it has no connection with the moral condition of people, if it does exist, an early marriage. We would not like that Government should have anything to do with

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Social questioning  137 regulating our social customs or ways of living, even supposing that the Act of Government will be a very beneficial and suitable measure.’199 He sensationalised the slogan of ‘reform from within’ and all along protested against any state intervention in the social and religious life of the people, irrespective of the social good it might entail. With this schema in approach Tilak targeted Malabari and his campaign for raise in the age of consent. He wrote: Malabari is in fact a Parsi, and therefore, should not have undertaken this work (of carrying out his crusade for raising the age of consent). If the community for which benefit the law is to be changed feels and thinks the change to be a scourge instead of a blessing, why force the community – without persuasion – to accept the supposed scourge as a supposed blessing to its confusion and shudder?200 He argued, ‘no extrinsic force, no law is required where love and reason combine and create a strong motive force from within’.201 Malabari, however, upped the ante by appealing not only to the Indian people but also the prominent personalities, ladies in particular, in England. He toured England and delivered numerous lectures to garner popular support. He also published a long essay ‘An Appeal from the Daughters of India’ targeting the British public in search of support. Tilak noted all this with anxiety and unease, as reflected in The Mahratta of the period. Malabari received immense support from the reformers in his campaign in favour of legislative intervention. Mahatma Phule was quite quick in his response to his Notes. Supporting Malabari’s laudable undertaking he suggested in December 1884 that ‘the Government should rule that boys under nineteen years of age and girls under eleven, should not be allowed to marry’.202 He further suggested that a tax should be levied on the parents violating the restrictions and the amount thus collected should be used in the education of the middle and lower classes.203 Ranade in his address at the Third Indian National Social Conference held in 1889 in Bombay proposed a resolution seeking a change of law by substituting twelve for ten years as the age of consent.204 He further stated: With a view to prevent early completion of marriages, which leads to the impairment of physical health of both husband and wife, and to the growth of a weakly progeny, cohabitation before

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138  Social questioning the wife is twelve years old should be punishable as a criminal offence. . . . Even the limit of 12 years is too low. . . . Of course, it is very desirable on medical grounds that every effort should be made to put off the connection at least till 14. . . . It further requires us all to put forth our best efforts to enlighten public conscience and in this way to raise the limit to 14.205 He further tried to substantiate his claim by citing the tradition of mature marriages in ancient Indian history. In his article ‘The Sutra and Smriti Texts (Dicta) on the Age of Hindu Marriage’ written in 1889 he particularly highlighted this aspect. To quote: The Aryan society of the Vedic, or more properly speaking, the Griha Sutra period presents an institution of marriage in a form which recognized female liberty and dignity of womanhood in full. . . . In the Kshatriya caste especially, liberty to choose her husband in the form of Swayambara marriage by free choice, so well illustrated in the stories of Sita, Damayanti, Rukmini and Draupadi, was allowed as a matter of course. Among the Brahmins, women given up to study and contemplation, refrained from marriage altogether, and lost none of their importance by this act of self-abnegation. Marriage took place in all castes at comparatively mature age, and the marriage of widows was not  . . . looked down upon as disrespectable. . . . Marriages took place after years of discretion, and were matters more of choice than of parental constraint. . . . Marriage is not compulsory for males. If a man desires to marry, the lowest permissible age according to the Smritis is sixteen and the highest is thirty.206 There was a tendency among reformers to seek scriptural support in favour of the proposal to raise the age of consent as also for changes in other aspects of sociocultural life. Ranade wrote, ‘The majority of the texts favour the age of twelve or the age of puberty as the marriageable age for girls. . . . Marriage at the twelfth year and consummation at the sixteenth appear thus to be the normal and authoritative ages for girls.’207 Bhandarkar in the heat of the raging controversy published a pamphlet ‘A Note on the Age of Marriage and Its Consummation According to Hindu Religious Law’ in early 1891 in support of the Age of Consent Bill, citing the sanction

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of ancient Indian scriptures for marriage after puberty and even the deferment of its consummation. He wrote: Marriages after puberty are allowable and not opposed to the Hindu religious law. . . . Marriage can according to Dharmasastras be deferred for three years after puberty. . . . The sacred writers seem to have their eye on the doctrine of medical science that a girl is not in a condition to give birth to a healthy child before the age of sixteen.208 To this Tilak retorted: Both these writers (i.e. Bhandarkar and Telang) have failed to grasp the real meaning of the Hindu Law texts.209 Mr Justice Telang and Dr. Bhandarkar are not called upon to invent but to find out what the Shastra is.210 Please do not try to misinterpret the ancient authors. Do not try to oppress them or oppress our Dharma. This is what we have to say to Mr. Telang, Bhandarkar and others. . . . If you do not know howto interpret the Shastras correctly, then at least try to remain silent.211 Tilak and Bhandarkar entered into a caustic contestation on the question of authenticity of Shastraic sanction on the subject. Tilak tried to controvert Bhandarkar and to show that the Shastras supported the consummation of marriage on the attainment of puberty itself, and that there was no room for deferment of its consummation.212 Bhandarkar responded, ‘Tilak wishes to destroy an opponent but cannot do so.’ He twists a passage in an old work so as to harmonise it with that practice, in spite of grammar and propriety. He thus belongs to the school of those who find the steam engine and the electric telegraph in the Vedas. . . . Mr. Tilak or the Mahratta sacrifices context, propriety, and all rules of scholarship in order to make a text mean what he wishes it to mean.213 In Agarkar’s view it was not relevant for reform to rely on the scriptural authority for its validity, reason being the sole authority for

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guidance.214 He, along with other reformers, lashed out at the sham inherent in the theory of ‘reform from within’. To quote: It is very well to say that reform must come from within. . . . What if there is no desire in community to reform? Is the Government to stand by folded arms and tolerate the perpetuation of barbarities, waiting for a time which may never come, when the benumbed sense of the victim would, be on its own accord, revolt against those barbarities? If the Government were to act on the doctrines such as these, it might as well abdicate its trust; for the only justification for their presence in India is their enlightenment. . . .215 The cacophony went even beyond the textual interpretations. When Poona reformers called a meeting before the final hearing of the bill in order to mobilise popular support in favour of the legislation, the meeting was disrupted before it began by a gang of toughs who even attacked the reformers. Tilak’s overt or covert role in this disruption was noted by some, Gokhale in particular, who wrote: Mr. Tilak is the leader of that section of the Poona people who have taken up an attitude of uncompromising hostility to the Scoble Bill . . . He should have noted that his presence in the Kindra Bhawan (venue of the meeting), even as a mere unsympathetic spectator of the meeting, was sure to encourage the mob in its unsympathetic attitude toward the meeting.216 Amidst an acute acrimonious atmosphere, however, the Age of Consent Bill raising the age of consent from ten to twelve for consummation of marriage for girls was introduced on 1 January 1891 in the Supreme Legislative Council and passed in March 1891, thus becoming a law. Tilak termed it ‘a case of misfortune and mischief’,217 ‘a signal to divide and the country was divided’.218The Indu-Prakash, among others, on the other hand, welcomed the measure.219 Tilak emerged as a staunch opponent of legislation as the method of social self-correction during the entire course of the Consent controversy. He pitted himself against almost the entire intellectual fraternity, and exemplified not only the differences of opinion but also hostile attitude at times. He came to be viewed as being quite uncharitable towards his contemporary compatriots who dared to differ. Agarkar, once a friend, now a foe of Tilak, described him as follows: ‘I know it

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Social questioning  141 is your way to denounce everybody who goes beyond you. You always desire that all should only go as far as you do, or possibly not even so far.’220 Tilak’s tenacity in upholding his way and the tendency to dismiss the views and sentiments of his colleagues and friends impacted his personal equations with most of the intellectual fraternity of the time and his relationship with them remained mostly marred by conflictual overtones.

Issues of equality and freedom Modern ideas of equality and freedom came to the fore prominently during the course of the intellectual discourse in India in the nineteenth century. The upliftment in the status of women, elimination or at least diminution of caste differentiation, spread of modern education and democratisation of gender and social relations were some of the significant questions that concerned the nineteenth-century mind in Maharashtra. Although these issues constituted the general intellectual refrain during the period, it was Mahatma Phule and Pandita Ramabai who made a seminal contribution in this sphere of thought. Lokahitwadi viewed gender inequality to be a social imposition; it was not germane to the gender relations between man and woman. He wrote: In the scale of creation male and female are the same as regards their temporal and spiritual rights. Women possess faculties and capacities equal to those of men. . . . Women are weak and entitled to protection from men. Their rights and privileges are co-equal with those of men.221 Similarly, Agarkar held, ‘All human beings are born equal with equal rights.’222 Mahatma Phule highlighted the issue of women as a social category almost on par with the Shudras suffering from similar social deprivation. The issue of equality between man and woman thus remained a recurring theme of his thought. He wrote: All human beings on our planet are equipped with similar physical and intellectual faculties. . . . Both men and women are equally qualified to enjoy all human rights in equal measure. . . . Men deprive women of education so as to prevent them from being conscious of their human rights and subject them

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142  Social questioning to oppression. The case of the Arya Brahman widowers is worse still, who even when advanced in age and in shattered physical condition marry young beautiful maidens and ruin their youth. At the same time they have laid down in their books that a young widow should not remarry. . . . How can anyone then have one standard for women and quite another for lustful, adventurous men.223 Responding to Malabari’s Note on Enforced Widowhood he stated, ‘It is evident from the partial Aryan institution that, when it prohibits the widows from remarrying, why the widowers should be allowed to remarry? If the favour is shown to the latter, then, the poor widows must of necessity be permitted to remarry.’224 In his characteristic dialogical style he even tried to establish the superiority of women typically on the traditional Indian lines of motherhood being venerated more than womanhood. To quote: Jotirao: Human beings are of two kinds: Woman and Man. Balwantrao:  Who is superior of these two? Jotirao: Woman . . . Don’t we have the proverb that one can repay all debts except the mother’s debt? Doubtless woman is superior to man.225 The advocacy for equality between man and woman was, however, not all-encompassing. The question of equal property rights to women did not receive adequate attention in Maharashtra. Rammohan Roy in Bengal, on the other hand, was quite sensitive to the need of property rights to women for amelioration of their condition. He wrote: How distressing it must be to the female community to observe daily that several daughters in a rich family can prefer no claim to any portion of the property, whether real or personal left by their deceased father, if a single brother be alive.226 In Maharashtra only Ranade contended that the widow should not be deprived of her husband’s property even if she opted for the second marriage. He also highlighted the inferior status of women to men in ancient India particularly in terms of property rights. Despite their equal ritual status and greater degree of autonomy

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in matrimonial matters, be it their choice to remain unmarried or exercising their power of choosing their husbands, etc., women in ancient India were, indeed, deprived of property rights.227 He stated: In the early Vedic times, the woman was, like the deformed or the sickly member of a family, devoid of rights, and being incapable of self-protection, was disentitled to share the inheritance. . . . The earlier Sutrakars, Bandhayana and Apastamba clearly reaffirmed this exclusion from inheritance and asserted the perpetual subjection of every woman to her father, her husband, and her son.228 Freedom was another allied aspect that received fervent attention in nineteenth-century Maharashtra. Mahatma Phule was foremost in his advocacy for equal measure of freedom to both men and women without any distinction, be it caste or group. Raising the issue of natural human rights to all he emphasised: When our Creator created all human beings on this earth, He created man as a free human being (endowed him with an independent judgement, with a ‘free will’). He has also ordained that all human beings are entitled to enjoy their ‘human rights’ freely (without any curbs or restrictions on their rights). . . . All men and women are by birth independent and are entitled to enjoy all due human rights. . . . Our Creator has graciously bestowed all human rights on all men and women, without any distinction. No particular man or a group (gang) of men has any right to oppress any human being.229 To Pandita Ramabai, Mary Rama on her conversion to Christianity, freedom was the prime necessity for women’s liberation. She herself was an extremely independent-minded person, and she commanded awe, attention and respect wherever she went. Even on her conversion to Christianity she tenaciously clung to her ‘free willism’, and resisted tooth and nail any cleric attempt towards curtailment of her freedom. She made it amply clear to her Christian colleagues and mentors in England that ‘I shall by no means let others lay hand on my liberty.’230 In her letter to Sister Geraldine dated 12 May 1885 she stated categorically:

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If it pleases you to call my word liberty as lawlessness you may do so. . . . I have just with great efforts freed myself from the yoke of the Indian priestly tribe, so I am not at present willing to place myself under another similar yoke by accepting everything which comes from the priests as authorized command of the most High.231 She struggled all along against the missionary might in order to maintain her individuality and she did to a great extent succeed in her defiance of dogma and authority. She was called upon by the Christian officialdom to believe rather than to define but she was intellectually inclined to define before she believed in. The degree of dependency of Indian women on male mentors and protectors was quite revolting to Ramabai’s rebellious nature. She discerned that seclusion, complete dependence and absolute ignorance of women were primarily responsible for their pitiable plight and inferior status.232 She tried to trace the genesis of Indian women’s subjection and lack of freedom to the distrust and low estimate of women’s character in India since about the sixth century bc, further intensified and tyrannised since the Muslim invasion.233 She cited passages after passages from the Manusmriti to highlight the skewed cultural orientation of Hindu society. Manu, the ancient law-giver, was viewed to be a villain of the piece in re-enforcing the custom of women’s seclusion. For example, he laid down: Her father protects her in childhood, her husband protects her in youth, and her son protects her in old age; a woman is never fit for independence.234 The milieu of mistrust, in Pandita’s view, further ideologically idiomised by Manu, lay at the root of women’s lack of freedom, seclusion, gender discrimination and domination in India. The entire social structure was accountable for ‘crushing her into nothingness’. Ramabai was not very optimistic of any significant transformation occurring under the impact of the British, for they would not dare to tinker with the Hindu law and custom due to their colonial compulsions. She came to the conclusion that only three fundamental remedies could bring about women’s liberation – self-reliance, education and native women-teachers,235 the last symbolising self-identity and empathy. She founded the Sharada Sadan in 1889 in Bombay, which

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Social questioning  145 was later shifted to Poona, for education and empowerment of Indian women and widows in order to enable them to live with freedom and dignity. The intellectual aura of Pandita and her libertarian initiatives were later marred by rumours as also reports of the Sadan surreptitiously serving as the centre of Christian conversion, and she could not come quite clean out of this controversy. Her reputation suffered an irreparable damage in the intellectual circles. Tilak who was initially very appreciative of her efforts236 was quite quick to criticise. In one of his editorial notes in Kesari in 1891 he wrote that the Sadan was ‘worse than a government or missionary school’, adding that ‘the government is neutral as regards religion and the missionaries say that after all they are here with the object of conversion. But in this lady’s school one finds a pretence of education while the real aim is that of conversion.’237 Many of the reformers either denounced her or distanced themselves from her as also from the affairs of the Sadan. Ranade and Bhandarkar, once her close associates, resigned from the Advisory Board of the Sadan in 1893 and publicly disowned all connection with the institution.238 Agarkar was a great admirer of Pandita’s work in the field of education for helpless widows and described the Sadan as ‘a model of discipline, charity, affection and industry’.239 Later on, however, he too became disenchanted at the exposure of its covert Christian aim, spirit and activities, while maintaining overtly its secular credentials and trappings. In a letter dated 24 August 1893 to a close relative he wrote, ‘proselytizing spirit prevails in the Sharada Sadan. Ramabai however is to be held responsible since she covers the actions of her friend from what motive it is difficult to say. After all, we all are here extremely sorry for the unfortunate turn the affairs of the Sadan have taken.’240 In another letter dated 27 September 1893, he further stated, ‘I am sorry Pandita Ramabai has abandoned her position of perfect religious neutrality or indifferentism and has allowed herself to be active propagandist to some extent.’241 He, however, did not condemn her as ruthlessly as others did. He, in fact, still found the Sadan useful for its ameliorative measures. ‘Not withstanding all that is said against her the Sadan is able to survive the furious attacks made against it and that many helpless widows revert to it for protection and education.’242 Agarkar’s considerations notwithstanding, certain evidences do point to proselytisation being

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146  Social questioning part of the covert design of the Sadan affairs. Ramabai’s insistence on keeping the doors open while she prayed did attract or motivate certain inmates to the new faith. Her letters further indicate that cases of conversion were not entirely unintended outcomes of the Sadan, which was itself founded primarily through missionary funding. Ramabai wrote to Sister Geraldine on 28 June 1893, ‘Fifteen of them (girls) have given their hearts to God and believed in Christ as their Saviour and are ready to confess Him before men at any time. But of course they need to be strengthened and thoroughly instructed in the Bible before they take a further step. . . . For you know well that it will go very hard against our school as soon as the people around us come to know that some of our pupils are converted to Christianity.’243 The secular cover of the Sadan was ultimately lifted in 1898 when the reconstituted Ramabai Association openly allowed conversion to take place freely provided no coercion was used in the process.244 In 1902 the Sharada Sadan was shifted to Kedgaon where Ramabai had founded the Mukti Sadan in September 1898. From now on Kedgaon worked like any other missionary institution working as a centre of proselytisation.245 Mahatma Phule was one of the few who remained steadfast in his support to Ramabai during all those stormy days. Angry at the iniquities inherent in the Brahmanical order he did not find anything incongruous or anachronistic in her Christian leanings and dealings. He himself was an ardent admirer of Christianity and viewed Jesus Christ to be the harbinger of equality. Religious particularism in any case had no room or relevance in Phulean cosmopolitanism which, in fact, seemed to be ultra-modern even by the present-day standards. He held, for instance: Men and women should not discriminate against one another (should treat others justly) irrespective of the consideration of the villages, or Provinces, or Countries or Continents or irrespective of the religious beliefs which they profess, but they should regard themselves as members of one world-wide family, should behave amicably and in unison, observing strictly the truthful doctrine (path). Only thus can they please their Creator and become his dear children. Only such (virtuous) persons should be designated as the votaries or followers of Truth. In that (ideal) family, the lady (of the house) may, if she likes, embrace Buddhism after studying the Buddhist religious

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Social questioning  147 scripture; her husband may embrace Christianity, if he likes (if he so chooses) after studying the Old and the New Testaments (of the Bible); their daughter may embrace Islam if she so chooses after studying the Quran; and their son may embrace the Universal Religion of Truth if he so chooses, after studying the ‘Universal Religion of Truth’ (by Mahatma Phule – 1891). All of these members of the family (the parents, the son and the daughter) should lead peaceful lives, should never envy or hate the other persons’ religion, and all of them should behave towards one another in a spirit of love and understanding, always bearing in their minds that they are the Creator’s children, and hence are the members (belonging to) the Creator’s own family. By following this righteous path, they will, indeed, be the blessed citizens of our Creator’s Kingdom.246 The cause of women espoused by Pandita was, moreover, equally close to Phule’s heart. In fact, they both complemented each other in this respect as two sides of the same coin. The balance in the case of Mahatma Phule tilted in favour of women’s equality in relation to men; in the case of Ramabai it was the question of freedom and dignity that critically determined the direction of her thought in this respect. Both Mahatma Phule and Pandita Ramabai were powerful personalities in the history of rational resurgence in Western India. Both were extremely tenacious and equally aggressive in pursuit of the goals they respectively set for themselves. Both strove to uplift the status of Indian womanhood and widowhood. Mahatma Phule opened schools for girls in 1848 for Shudratishudra girls and another in 1851, this time for girls of all castes, and an orphanage in 1863 for pregnant widows who, lacking social legitimacy, were often forced to abort or kill their children in infancy born during widowhood. He offered protection and care to both the widows and their children born during widowhood. He also advocated equal rights for women on par with men. Similarly, Rambai devoted her entire life to the cause of Indian women and widows and tried to free them from their centuries-old subjection. She moved heaven and earth to mobilise resources for founding a home to protect and educate helpless Indian women, especially the widows. But at the same time they differed in more ways than one. Mahatma Phule focused his attention on social emancipation of the Shudras and Ati-Shudras from Brahmanic bigotry and

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148  Social questioning discrimination. Ramabai riveted her endeavour on female freedom as the node of gender liberation from the clutches of Hindu hagiolatry. She exemplified ambition and ideological flexibility to attain her ends; Mahatma Phule represented dogged adherence to morality of means in order to achieve his ethically endorsed ends and was thus a genuine precursor to the Gandhian principle of the end and the means both being equally noble and pious. Phule pinned faith in education as the instrument of social transformation; Ramabai would not hesitate to resort to proselytisation as one of the ways to gender liberation. Poetically praised by Rabindranath Tagore as ‘a white lotus’,247 she represented a high brown and suave gender leadership, while Phule ever remained rooted in indigenous ethos and had a robust rustic sense of Indian reality, Indianness in look as well as in outlook. Phuleism was a movement of Indian social restructuring almost in its entirety. The Phulean gamut of change incorporated the entire matrix of marginalised groups and classes such as Shudras, women, peasants and tribes. Ramabai’s canvass in comparison was quite limited, confined to questions primarily pertaining to women who happened to be mostly from the upper castes. Despite her historic endeavours her libertarian measures tended to mainly veer round social welfareism. She was not a mass leader while there was definitely a mass touch in Phuleism. Significantly, her initial rebellious rationality became quite subdued later on and she came closer to her unquestioning conformity to Christian faith. Her rational journey ultimately ended in her religiosity; propagation of Christianity became the main article of faith of Mary Rama after many years of her baptism. Moreover, the issues she so fervently took up largely related to upper caste women who were the worst victims of the contemporary social structure based on patriarchy, unlike Phule. Mahatma Phule’s vision, moreover, kept on evolving, becoming broader and broader over time, and it ultimately culminated in his conception of religious cosmopolitanism with a total freedom of faith and autonomy in matters of individual choice. This was perhaps the acme of Phulean modernity and a masterly contribution of nineteenth-century Indian intellectual mind to modern thought systems. Ramabai, however, still remains more of a mystique in Indian historiography, which needs a special delineation to understand her place in Indian history. In the ensuing section an attempt has been made to clear the clouds surrounding the persona of the Pandita and the story that depicts her evolution as a feminist essentially under Western influences.

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Ramabai revisited Pandita Ramabai has generally been painted as a feminist par excellence in nineteenth-century India. Her famous work The High-Caste Hindu Woman is often highlighted as the high watermark of her feminist consciousness. It is seen as being highly denunciatory and little conciliatory to social customs and conventions, as against Stri Dharma Niti, her first work, which is defined, in contrast, as an advocacy for women’s compliance to rather than their defiance of domestic duties in the patriarchal social structure. Emphasis is laid on the disjunction between these two works as being indicative of a radical rupture in the evolution of her thought over time. Meera Kosambi, an acclaimed authority on the Pandita, for instance, finds her ‘anti-feminist and seemingly even anti-women ideological stance in Stri Dharma Niti’ completely metamorphosed into ‘a cohesive feminist perspective’ in The High-Caste Hindu Woman.248 She further elaborates that Ramabai’s ‘writings plot a trajectory involving a hundred and eighty degrees turn through three clearly contoured phases of cultural transition, starting with an orthodox Hindu world-view which gradually imbricates with a Christian world-view, only to be completely edged out in a final rupture’.249 She also holds, ‘The major influence that shaped the evolution of Ramabai’s feminist consciousness, as reflected in The High-Caste Hindu Woman, was her exposure to the more progressive and less asymmetrical gender relations that prevailed in England and America . . . the women’s movement in the West, especially in America.’250 It is, however, seen that Stri Dharma Niti is neither a reflection of ‘Ramabai’s anti-feminist, anti-women, orthodox Hindu world-view’ nor does The High-Caste Hindu Woman mark a radical departure from her earlier writings. There is, in fact, hardly any major landmark of thought in her intellectual stance in The High-Caste Hindu Woman which is glaring by its absence in Stri Dharma Niti. On closer scrutiny it is seen that continuity in the current of her thought is more conspicuous than break. Similarly, the primacy of exogenous influences on the evolution of Ramabai’s feminist consciousness is not free from doubt either and is highly debatable. Let us highlight her evolution as an intellectual and clear the clouds engulfing the persona of the Pandita and thus unchain history from hyperbole in the process. Stri Dharma Niti and The Cry of Indian Women can be safely said to be the product of Ramabai’s pre-Western intellectual phase. They were written at a time point when her intimate interaction with the

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150  Social questioning West had not yet begun. The latest of the two The Cry of Indian Women was penned only within a few days of her arrival in England, and thus it cannot be said to seminally represent Western influences on her intellectual stance. For a proper understanding, her writings on gender relations may be analysed at two levels – diagnostic and remedial. Discussing the condition of Indian women Ramabai in The High-Caste Hindu Woman published in 1887 while she was in America, highlights their low and inferior status in relation to men, their seclusion, lack of independence and freedom, their absolute ignorance and their perpetual subordination to male members of the society, whether in the capacity of a daughter, wife or mother.251 To quote a passage, for example: Closely confined to the four walls of their house, deprived throughout their lives of the opportunity to breathe healthy, fresh air or to drink in the wholesome sunshine, they become weaker and weaker from generation to generation, their physical statures dwarfed, their spirits crushed under the weight of social prejudices and superstitions and their minds starved from absolute lack of literary food and of opportunity to observe the world. . . . The seclusion, complete dependence and the absolute ignorance forced upon the mothers of our nation have been gradually and fatally telling upon the mental and physical health of the men.252 It may, however, be seen that the diagnosis done in Stri Dharma Niti, during her pre-Western phase, is almost similar, and in a certain sense even more pungent and progressive, and it thus appears to be ideationally ancestral to the one cited above rather than representing any ideational break. To illustrate: The present condition of women in our unfortunate country is too sad for words and will undoubtedly make every thoughtful person’s heart melt with grief. . . . Women have been reduced to a state of animal-like ignorance and undeserved slavery by the wrong deeds of the selfish, short-sighted men of this country. Most men in this country believe that women should not be allowed to have any kind of knowledge; if they become knowledgeable, they will prevent the licentious behaviour of the men who will then lose their superiority. With this in mind, they have written the dharma-shastras, which favour the self-interest of men, which state that, ‘Women are not entitled to study the

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Social questioning  151 shastras; they should live with their husbands as servants; only service to the husband gives them salvation.’ In this country, men’s minds are always filled with inferior feelings about women. Men, with a feeling of superiority, exercise power over women as they like. Women themselves, oppressed by such behaviour, do not possess good minds. Due to their permanently servile condition and ignorance, their minds are unclear, dull, lacklustre and untruthful.253 Similarly, in The Cry of Indian Women Ramabai reiterates: The condition of women in India is not better than that of animals in hell. The Indian people seem to think that no one ought to have a female child born to him. Though this belief is not universal, yet it is general. The Indian people do not take the same amount of care for the education of their girls as they (do) of their boys.254 In all these writings there is a striking similarity in terms of delineation of social evils such as caste, polygamy, child marriage and widowhood, although infanticide figures prominently only in The High-Caste Hindu Woman.255 The consequences of child marriage such as loss of freedom, deprivation from education, birth of weaklings and the resultant deterioration of health, distress and discord in conjugal life, polygamy, etc. discussed in these works bear almost equal intensity in exposition in comparison to that in The High-Caste Hindu Women.256 Moreover, marriage on maturity only with consent so ardently advocated by Pandita all along257 was first fervently formulated in Stri Dharma Niti itself. To quote: Even animals have the freedom to establish male-female relationship according to their own wishes; why then should human beings not have this freedom?258 It is, however, widowhood and its true social meaning for the widow that is most graphically depicted in The High-Caste Hindu Woman. To illustrate: Widowhood is the worst and most dreaded period of a high-caste woman’s life. But it is the child-widow or a childless young widow upon whom in an especial manner falls the abuse and

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152  Social questioning hatred of the community as the greatest criminal upon whom Heaven’s judgement has been pronounced. A widow is called an ‘inauspicious’. The name ‘rand’ by which she is generally known is the same thing that is borne by a Nautch girl or a harlot. The purpose of disfiguring her by shaving her head, by not allowing her to put ornaments or bright garments on her person, is to render her less attractive to a man’s eye. Not allowing her to eat more than once a day and compelling her to abstain from food altogether on sacred days, is a part of the discipline by which to mortify her youthful nature and desire. Her life then, destitute as it is of the least literary knowledge, void of all hope, empty of every pleasure and social advantage, becomes intolerable, a curse to herself and to society at large.259 Although widowhood has not been highlighted in Stri Dharma Niti, it figures prominently in The Cry of Indian Women written in 1883 when her interaction with the West was negligible or at least insignificant. There remains, notably, a deep ideational affinity between The High-Caste Hindu Woman and The Cry of Indian Women even on this count, despite the difference in the tone of expression. To quote from her The Cry of Indian Women: The indignities to which widows are subjected in India are indescribable. All people look on them with disgust. They believe to be inauspicious to see the face of a widow. Widows are allowed but one meal a day. A young widow is not allowed to marry again. These demons deprive the poor helpless widows of their natural ornament, the hair on their heads. After doing this cruel act, and feeding them only once a day, those people shut them up in the house, thus trying to enclose every chance of their satisfying their carnal desires. Widows are not considered as human beings.260 There was no male bashing in her approach to man–woman relationship at any stage of Ramabai’s intellectual evolution; she consistently highlighted the inherent interdependence between the two. To quote from Stri Dharma Niti: God has created the male and female categories among the creatures in this world. If the persons in these two categories do

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not support each other and live separately instead, God’s creation will never be complete. Man and woman are two sides of domestic life. It is God’s intention that man and woman should support each other, and depend upon each other.261 Echoing almost similar concern in The High-Caste Hindu Woman she admits, ‘Since men and women are indissolubly united by providence as members of the same body of human society, each must suffer when their fellow-members suffer’.262 It is, however, in the realm of remedial measures identified by Ramabai for women’s emancipation that the intimate affinity in her intellectual stance between her earlier and later writings is most prominent. The High-Caste Hindu Woman identified self-reliance, education and its imparting through Indian women teachers as the key to gender liberation.263 ‘It is idle to hope that the condition of my country-women will ever improve without individual self-reliance’,264 and ‘only education under God’s grace, can give us the needful strength to rise up from our degraded condition’.265 ‘The one thing needful, therefore, for the general diffusion of education among women in India is a body of persons from among themselves who shall make it their life-work to teach, by precept and example, their fellow countrywomen.’266 This was, it is to be noted, not a new realisation accruing under exogenous influences during her days in England and America; it formed the crux of her feminist consciousness in Stri Dharma Niti, too. Stri Dharma Niti, in fact, represented the ideational foundation of Ramabai’s overall edifice of feminist consciousness. She exhorted through this work, ‘My dear sisters, by happiness I do not mean eating and drinking. The chief means of happiness is complete independence.’267 Again: Now, if a remedy is to be employed for achieving the progress of our women, its foundation is self-reliance. Every woman should nurture and cherish it every moment, as if it were her own heart . . . let us now together exorcise the ghost of animal-like ignorance. And let us exert ourselves to attain the divine virtues which can be acquired through education. . . . Come, let us all unite and lay the strong foundation of our ‘house of happiness’ on the summit of the tall mountain of knowledge – a foundation so strong that it will never collapse and be destroyed. That foundation is called self-reliance, that is, depending on oneself. Now,

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we must not look to others for our advancement. Every woman must exert herself courageously for her own advancement relying, as much as possible on herself. . . . Therefore, you should acquire the everlasting and inexhaustible wealth of education, and wear ornaments of virtue.268 There are, however, certain expressions and exhortations in Stri Dharma Niti which, if read without contextualising them, may give the impression of Ramabai’s initial tilt towards conformism. To cite the following, for instance: Your conduct should be in conformity with your husband’s wishes. Never do anything contrary to his wishes. Never betray his trust. He is worthy of trust, venerable like a god, and as dear as your own life. Just as men achieve their fame through their fathers, women achieve fame through their husbands. . . . Domestic duties are the work of women. They should never neglect them. It is very difficult to earn the title ‘housewife’. Women with shallow minds will never attain it.269 She also rebuked women for being ‘foolish’ and ‘slothful’.270 Further, she extolled the mythological character of Sita as an embodiment of ideal womanhood for her unflinching devotion to her husband as being worthy of emulation.271 This advice was, however, given as a ‘magical device to charm one’s husband’ instead of resorting to other superstitious and futile means such as spells, incantations, amulets, etc. Moreover, it was not a call for compliance in all circumstances and against all odds. For ‘if your friend (husband) has acquired a bad habit, you should never hesitate to tell (him) the truth. The great poet Bharavi has said, “If your words or deeds, which conform to religion and lead to welfare, incur your husband’s displeasure, so be it. Indeed you should not fear the displeasure of the whole world, let alone that of your husband”.’272 The use of certain condemnatory expressions such as ‘foolish’ and ‘slothful’ for women is also general, and not in the nature of debunking. Moreover, it is not germane to Stri Dharma Niti only, for one comes across such condemnations even in The High-Caste Hindu Woman. For example, Ramabai wrote: Ignorant, unpatriotic, selfish and uncultivated, they drag the men down with them into the dark abyss where they dwell

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together without hope, without ambition to be something, or to do something in the world.273 Besides being a fine piece of feminist literature, Stri Dharma Niti is conceptually a didactic discourse, a kind of guidebook on morality, culture and conduct for practical use in a specific cultural setting by Indian women who were mostly illiterate. How to maintain and enhance her freedom and individuality while performing her duties as a wife and mother is its underlying theme and focus. It contains lessons for housekeeping, hygiene, child-rearing and even as to how to behave with servants. It does not, however, preach conformism by any standards and is quintessentially a non-conformist treatise sans conflictual overtones. Advocacy of gender-based conflict was, however, not the ideational identity of Ramabai at any stage. To further emphasise, Stri Dharma Niti is ideationally a highly non-conformist treatise without being oblivious of the practicality of gender relations in India. Maturity in articulation and change in the tone and tenor of expression, no doubt, characterise The High-Caste Hindu Woman as an important treatise on feminist consciousness. Change in the tone of expression, however, must not be mistaken for change in the nature of thought itself. The difference in expression was seemingly grounded in different compositions of the constituency intended to be addressed rather than in her exogenous influences during her days abroad. Stri Dharma Niti was entirely addressed to Indian women, mostly illiterate and was, therefore, understandably couched in indigenous idioms. The High-Caste Hindu Woman, on the other hand, published in 1887 when she was in America, was meant for Western audience whose assistance, financial and otherwise, Ramabai intended to seek in order to realise her long-cherished dream of opening a home in India for widowed and helpless women, for their education and empowerment. Later she was able to start a charitable home, namely, the Sharada Sadan in 1889 in Bombay largely under foreign assistance. The difference in the tone of expression between these works seems to be greatly constrained by this varying contextuality. The role of Western influences could be attributable to more in the sharpening of her wits and understanding rather than in the shaping of her thoughts and world–view. The social surroundings in which Ramabai was born and bred had much to do with her evolution as a sensitive, self-confident and freedom-loving individual. Her unconventional upbringing under the care of her progressive

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156  Social questioning parents, mother in particular, the hardships she encountered in life, along with her interactions with Brahmo leaders in Bengal and rationalists in Maharashtra later on – all these seem to have exerted in varying degrees formative influences on her evolution as an incisive intellectual. She, being herself a Brahmin, married at a mature age with her own consent Bipin Bihari Das Madhavi, a Shudra by caste, much before her close contact with the West had begun. This step, indeed, was a radical break with the contemporary context, a direct defiance of the orthodox Hindu view as well as world–view. Further, her decision to go to England which involved the crossing of the sea was another instance of her open rejection of the proclaimed Hindu stance on the issue before the West could really be in a position to significantly exert a formative influence on her intellectual development. Pandita Ramabai went abroad not as a novice but as a mature and intellectually evolved individual with firmly formed notions of life and her mission. Her conversion to Christianity was no knee-jerk reaction either but an outcome of her consistent contemplation even while in India. The Indu-Prakash reported that she had long been preparing herself for the acceptance of the Christian faith.274 She had ever been extremely passionate about her personal freedom and independence. Even within the Christian fold on her conversion, the clash between her love of liberty and the insistence of the contemporary clergy on her unquestioning conformity often came to the fore during her days in England, and Sister Geraldine, her spiritual mother, was often at her wits’ end as to how to tame this free bird, how to reorient this new recruit.275 To conclude, Pandita Ramabai was essentially an indigenously born and bred intellectual whose thought had largely evolved in Indian environment, much before her Western exposure. Her ideas and wits were, however, certainly sharpened over time, during her days in England and America under Western influences. Her love for the country, however, remained entirely intact and she strove all along for the liberation of women and widows of India. Her conversion to Christianity and evolution of her religiosity over a period did come under criticism in certain circles but her indefatigable will remained unshaken till her death in 1922. In the next chapter we will examine the perception of reformers of the role of religion in the furtherance of rational reform in the nineteenth century.

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Notes  1 See Tuhafat-ul-Muwahhiddin (or A Gift to Deists), tr. M. O. El Obaide, Calcutta, 1975.   2 K. N. Panikkar, ‘Rationalism in the Religious Thought of Rammohan Roy’, p. 184; Sumit Sarkar, ‘Rammohun Roy and the Break with the Past’ in V. C. Joshi (ed.), Rammohun Roy and the Process of Modernization in India, p. 52.  3 M. G. Ranade, Miscellaneous Writings, pp. 156–64. Chandavarkar also pointed out the religious side of reform being central to Rammohan’s reformative thought. See N. G. Chandavarkar, The Speeches and Writings, p. 399.  4 The Indu-Prakash, 4 June 1894; Ranade’s speech at the Seventh Indian National Social Conference held at Lahore in 1893 in Ramabai Ranade, Miscellaneous Writings, p. 124.  5  Ramabai Ranade, ibid., pp. 125–8; M. G. Ranade, Religious and Social Reform, pp. 124–32; N. G. Chandavarkar, The Speeches and Writings, p. 563; Y. D. Phadke, V.K. Chiploonkar, p. 29.  6 M. G. Ranade, Religious and Social Reform, p. 124.  7 N. G. Chandavarkar, The Speeches and Writings, pp. 402–4; Y. D. Phadke, Social Reformers of Maharashtra, p. 22.  8  Quoted in J. V. Naik, ‘Dharmavivechan’, p. 66; J. V. Naik, ‘The Reformer and the Quest for Social Justice in Indian History’, p. 30.  9 Ibid., ‘Dharmavivechan’. 10 See Gopal Hari Deshmukh, Lokahitvadinchi Shatapatre, (ed.) P. G. Sahasrabudhe, Pune, 1972; Lokahitvadinchi Shatapatre, (ed.) N. R. Inamdar, Pune, 1960 (first publication 1940); Lokahitwadinchi Shatapatre, (ed.) S. R. Tikekar, Aundh (Satara), 1940. 11 Mahadev L. Apte, ‘Lokahitavadi and V.K. Chiplunkar’, p. 196. 12 Y.  D. Phadke, Social Reformers of Maharashtra, p. 8. 13 R.  G. Bhandarkar, Collected Works, Vol. I, p. 445. 14 Ibid., Vol. II, p. 512. 15 Ibid., p. 515. 16 Ibid., p. 499. 17 Ibid., pp. 492–3. 18 Ibid., p. 469. 19 Ibid., p. 528. 20 Ibid., p. 483. 21 Ibid., pp. 522–3. 22 J. V. Naik, ‘Bhau Mahajan and His Prabhakar, Dhumketu and Dnyan Darshan: A Study in Maharashtrian Response to British Rule’ in N. K. Wagle (ed.), Writers, Editors and Reformers: Social and Political Transformations of Maharashtra, 1830–1930 New Delhi, 1999, p. 76. 23  Narayan Mahadev Parmanand, Letters to an Indian Raja from a Political Recluse, Letter No. IX, Bombay, 1919, p. 81. Also see The Indian Spectator, 23 February 1890. 24 M.  G. Ranade, Miscellaneous Writings, p. 193.

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158  Social questioning 25 Ibid., pp. 232–7; T. N. Jagadisan (ed.), The Wisdom of a Modern Rishi, p. 155; M. G. Ranade, Religious and Social Reform, p. 290. 26 Y.  D. Phadke, V.K. Chiploonkar, p. 70. 27 Jogendra Singh, B.M. Malabari, p. 117. 28 N.  G. Chandavarkar, The Speeches and Writings, p. 113. 29 Ibid., p. 145. 30 Ibid., pp. 145–9. 31 Ibid., pp. 8–9. 32 Ibid., pp. 72–4. 33 Ibid., p. 112. 34 Ibid., p. 72. 35 Aravind Ganachari, G.G. Agarkar, p. 145. 36 Sudharak, 9 November 1891 as cited in ibid., p. 147. 37 Sudharak, 6 February 1893 as in ibid. 38 Aravind Ganachari, G.G. Agarkar, p. 145. 39  Chandavarkar’s speech at the fourth anniversary meeting of the Madras Hindu Social Reform Association on 28 November 1896 in N. G. Chandavarkar, The Speeches and Writings, p. 72. 40 R.  G. Bhandarkar, Collected Works, Vol. II, pp. 483–92. Repetition is unavoidable in the interest of idea explication. 41 ‘A Bibliographical Sketch’ by G. G. Jambhekar in Bal Shastri Jambhekar, Memoirs and Writings, Vol. I, pp. 72–3; N. G. Chandavarkar, The Writings and Speeches, p. 94. 42 Aravind Ganachari, G.G. Agarkar, p. 17; J. V. Naik, ‘The Reformer and the Quest for Social Justice in Indian History’, p. 30. (J. V. Naik, however, has stated elsewhere that it was founded in 1843. See J. V. Naik, ‘The Prarthana Samaj’ in S. P. Sen (ed.), Social Contents of Indian Religious Reform Movements, p. 301); Rosalind O’Hanlon, Caste, Conflict and Ideology: Mahatma Jotirao Phule and Low Caste Protest in Nineteenth Century Western India, Cambridge, 1985, p. 98. 43 Rosalind O’ Hanlon, ibid., p. 98; B. R. Sunthankar, however, holds that it was an open body. See B. R. Sunthankar, Nineteenth Century History of Maharashtra, Vol. I, p. 215. 44 Ibid.; ibid., p. 214. 45 B. R. Sunthankar, ibid. 46 Ibid. 47 Dhananjay Keer, Mahatma Jotirao Phooley, p. 28. There is a controversy as to the year of its birth. Some hold that it was founded in 1849. See B. R. Sunthankar, Nineteenth Century History of Maharashtra, Vol. I, p. 215 and Rosalind O’Hanlon, Caste, Conflict and Ideology, p. 98. Others hold that it was in 1840. See James Kellock, Mahadev Govind Ranade, p. 18; Stanley A. Wolpert, Tilak and Gokhale, p. 6. Aravind Ganachari holds it was formed in 1847. See Aravind Ganachari, G.G. Agarkar, p. 17. J. V. Naik argues that Dadoba founded it before he left the Education Department in 1849 for the post of Assistant Commissioner in the Customs Department. See J. V. Naik, ‘The Prarthana Samaj’ in S. P. Sen (ed.),

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Social questioning  159 Social Contents of Indian Religious Reform Movements, p. 301. Also see his ‘Early Anti-Caste Movement in Western India: The Paramhansa Sabha’, pp. 136–7. 48 R.  G. Bhandarkar, Collected Works, Vol. II, pp. 479–80; N. G. Chandavarkar, The Speeches and Writings, p. 401; Y. D. Phadke, V.K. ­Chiploonkar, p. 6. J. V. Naik has made a detailed study of the Sabha. See his ‘Early Anti-Caste Movement in Western India’, ibid. 49 R. G. Bhandarkar, p. 480. 50 Ibid., pp. 401–2; N. G. Chandavarkar, ibid; Vasant D. Rao, ‘The Paramhansa Sabha’ in S. P. Sen (ed.), Social Contents of Indian Religious Reform Movements, p. 395. 51 Ibid., p. 479; B. R. Sunthankar, Nineteenth Century History of Maharashtra, Vol. I, p. 215. 52 T.  V. Parvate, Mahadev Govind Ranade, p. 46; Rosalind O’Hanlon, Caste, Conflict and Ideology, p. 100. 53 Rosalind O’Hanlon, ibid; Dhananjay Keer, Mahatma Jotirao Phooley, p. 57, B. R. Sunthankar, Nineteenth Century History of Maharashtra, Vol. I, p. 216. 54 N.  G. Chandavarkar, The Speeches and Writings, p. 401; Y. D. Phadke, V.K. Chiploonkar, p. 6. 55 R.  G. Bhandarkar, Collected Works, Vol. II, pp. 480, 522; ‘Everybody began to fear that he was going to be exposed.’ Also see N. G. Chandavarkar, The Speeches and Writings, p. 402; Y. D. Phadke, V.K. Chiploonkar, p. 6. 56 N. G. Chandavarkar, ibid. 57 T.  V. Parvate, Mahadev Govind Ranade, p. 40. 58 See p. 108 of this chapter for elucidation. 59 Jotirao Phule, Slavery in Collected Works, Vol. I, p. xli (Introduction). 60 Ibid., p. xxxii (Preface). 61 Ibid., Priestcraft Exposed in Collected Works, Vol. II, p. 65. 62 Ibid., Slavery in Collected Works, Vol. I, p. xxxiv (Preface). 63 Ibid., p. xlv (Introduction). 64 Jotirao Phule, Cultivator’s Whipcord in Selected Writings, p. 150. 65 Jotirao Phule, Slavery in Collected Works, Vol. I, p. 44. 66 Ibid., p. 59. 67 Jotirao Phule, Cultivator’s Whipcord in Selected Writings, pp. 113–30. 68 Ibid., pp. 131–8; Jotirao Phule, ‘A Warning’ in Collected Works, Vol. II, pp. 58–62. 69 Jotirao Phule, ‘A Warning’ in ibid., p. 61. 70 Ibid., Slavery, Vol. I, p. xxxv (Preface). 71 Ibid., Priestcraft Exposed, Vol. II, p. 66. 72 Ibid., Slavery, Vol. I, p. xxxvi (Preface). 73 Ibid., Vol. II, pp. 86–90. 74 Jotirao Phule, Sarvajanik Satya Dharma Pustak in Selected Writings, p. 233. Its dialogical form has been somewhat altered for concision. 75 Jotirao Phule, Slavery, Vol. I, pp. xxix–xxx (Preface). 76 Ibid., Sarvajanik Satyadharma Pustak in Collected Works, Vol. II, p. 8.

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160  Social questioning   77 Ibid., p. 9; Priestcraft Exposed in ibid., pp. 67, 72.  78 Ibid., Collected Works, Vol. II, p. 132.  79 Baliraja was a mythological figure, supposedly a Shudra ruler, who was vanquished through the conspiracy of Vamanavtara. See Kancha Ilaiah, ‘Dalitism vs Brahmanism’ in Ghanshyam Shah (ed.), Dalit Identity and Politics, p. 128.  80 Ibid., Slavery, Vol. I, p. xli (Introduction).   81 Ibid., p. l.   82 Ibid., pp. xxxi–xxxii (Preface).  83 Ibid., ‘Introduction (to the Ballad on Chhatrapati Shivaji)’, Collected Works, Vol. II, p. 78.  84 Ibid., Slavery, Vol. I, p. 20.   85 Ibid., pp. 28–37.   86 Ibid., pp. xxxii–xxiv (Preface).   87 Ibid., pp. xxxiv–xxxvii (Preface).   88 Ibid., p. xxxvi (Preface).  89 Ibid., Priestcraft Exposed, Vol. II, p. 73.  90 Ibid., Slavery, Vol. p. xxxix (Preface); Jotirao Phule, Selected Writings, p. 105.  91 Ibid., Cultivator’s Whipcord, Vol. II, p. 106.  92 Ibid., Slavery, Vol. I, p. xxxix (Preface).   93 See ‘Life-Sketch’ by Y. D. Phadke in ibid., p. xvi.   94 Y. D. Phadke, ‘The Satyastiodhak Samaj and Non-Brahman Movement’ in V. D. Divekar (ed.), Social Reform Movements in India, p. 74; J. C. Masselos, Towards Nationalism: Group Affiliations and the Politics of Public Associations in Nineteenth Century Western India, Bombay, 1974, p. 176.  95 Jotirao Phule, Sarvajanik Satyadharma Pustak, Vol. II, p. 32.   96 Ibid., ‘The Untouchables’ Apologia’ in ibid., p. 90.  97 Ibid., Slavery, Vol. I, p. xxxviii (Preface); Jotirao Phule, Selected Writings, p. 104.  98 Ibid., Slavery, Vol. I, p. 79. Further, ‘I allocate the blame (for all these wrongs) at your door, for recruiting bureaucrats from one community only (the Brahmins) and for excluding all others (Shudra and Ati-Shudras).’ Ibid.  99 See ibid., Cultivator’s Whipcord in Selected Writings, p. 179. 100 Ibid., Sarvajanik Satyadharma Pustak, Vol. II, p. 138. 101 Ibid., Cultivator’s Whipcord in Selected Writings, p. 178. 102 Ibid., Slavery, Vol. I, p. xliii (Introduction). 103 Ibid. 104 Ibid., Sarvajanik Satya dharma Pustak in Selected Writings, p. 230. 105 Ibid., Slavery, Vol. I, p. xlii (Introduction). 106 Ibid., p. xliii. 107 Ibid., p. xli. 108 Ibid., Slavery, Vol. I, p. 72. 109 Ibid., Sarvajanik Satya dharma Pustak in Selected Writings, p. 235. 110 Ibid., Collected Works, Vol. II, p. 83.

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Social questioning  161 111 Ibid. 112 Y.  D. Phadke, V.K. Chiploonkar, p. 44. 113 N.  G. Chandavarkar, The Speeches and Writings, p. 209. 114 R.  G. Bhandarkar, Collected Works, Vol. II, p. 528. 115 Pandita Ramabai Saraswati, The High-Caste Hindu Woman, New York, 1887, p. 119. 116 The Bombay Durpun, 15 September 1837 in Bal Shastri Jambhekar, Memoirs and Writings, Vol. II, p. 135. 117 R. G. Bhandarkar, Presidential Address at the Ninth Indian National Social Conference in 1895 at Poona, Collected Works, Vol. II, p. 494. B. M. Malabari also stated that ‘the children in such cases are weak and puny’. See ‘An Appeal from the Daughters of India’, The Indian Spectator, 5 October 1890. 118 M. G. Ranade, Address at the Third Indian National Social Conference in 1889 at Bombay in Miscellaneous Writings, p. 92. 119 Ibid., p. 97. B. M. Malabari, ‘An Appeal from the Daughters of India’, The 120  Indian Spectator, 5 October 1890. 121 Ibid. 122 N. G. Chandavarkar, Address on ‘Social Reform’ delivered at the fourth anniversary meeting of the Madras Hindu Social Reform Association on 28 November 1896 in Madras in The Speeches and Writings, p. 71. 123 Ibid. 124 See Rakesh Batabyal (ed.), The Penguin Book of Modern Indian Speeches, p. 440. 125 Telang wrote in his reply to Malabari’s Note on Infant Marriage in India: ‘The Custom of celebrating what is called the ‘first marriage’ when the bride and bridegroom are of very tender years, is mischievous enough in all conscience. . . . And this reform will come by way of development from within.’ See K. T. Telang, Selected Writings and Speeches, Vol. I, pp. 239–41. 126 I.M.P. Raeside, ‘Agarkar, Apte, and the Kanitkars’ in N. K. Wagle (ed.), Writers, Editors and Reformers, p. 159. 127 Pandita Ramabai Saraswati, The High-Caste Hindu Woman, p. 124. 128 James Kellock, Mahadev Govind Ranade, p. 83. 129 M. G. Ranade, ‘The Sutra and Smriti Texts on the Age of Hindu Marriage’ in Religious and Social Reform, pp. 41–9. 130 Ibid., Religious and Social Reform, p. 112. 131 The Bombay Durpun, 8 September 1837 in Bal Shastri Jambhekar, Memoirs and Writings, Vol. II, p. 134. 132 G. G. Jambhekar has written that Bal Shastri pleaded for the remarriage of young widows. See ‘A Biographical Sketch’ in ibid., Memoirs and Writings, p. 69. However, an explicit advocacy to this effect by Bal Shastri could not be seen in his original writings available. 133 Y.  D. Phadke, Social Reformers of Maharashtra, p. 8. Also see Pratibha Bhattacharya, ‘An Overview of the Reformist Movement in

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162  Social questioning Maharashtra with Special Reference to Lokahitvadi and Gopal Ganesh Agarkar’ in N. K. Wagle (ed.), Writers, Editors and Reformers, p. 169. 134 J. V. Naik, ‘Social Reform Movements in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries – A Critical Survey’ in S. P. Sen (ed.), Social and Religious Reform Movements, p. 288. Some scholars have, however, taken 1866 to be the year of its formation. See Christine Dobbin, Urban Leadership in Western India: Politics and Communities in Bombat City 1840–1885, London, 1972, p. 72; James Kellock, Mahadev Govind Ranade, p. 21; J. C. Masselos, Towards Nationalism, p. 89. 135 Y.  D. Phadke, Social Reformers of Maharashtra, p. 28; G. C. Bhate, History of Modern Marathi Literature 1800–1938, p. 121; R. G. Bhandarkar, Collected Works, Vol. II, p. 521. J. C. Masselos holds that it was solemnised in Bombay city. See Towards Nationalism, p. 90. 136 G. C. Bhate, ibid; ‘Introduction’ by M. B. Kolasker in M. G. Ranade, Religious and Social Reform, p. xviii; T. V. Parvate, Mahadev Govind Ranade, p. 50. 137 J.  C. Masselos, Towards Nationalism, p. 91. 138 G.  C. Bhate, History of Modern Marathi Literature 1800–1938, p. 121; ‘Introduction’ by M. B. Kolasker in M. G. Ranade, Religious and Social Reform, p. xviii. 139 See note 136. 140 G. C. Bhate, ibid.; Y. D. Phadke, V.K. Chiploonkar, p. 7; T. V. Parvate, Mahadev Govind Ranade, p. 47. 141 Jotirao Phule, ‘His Opinion on Note No. II of B. M. Malabari’ in Selected Writings, pp. 195–7. Also see Jotirao Phule, Collected Works, Vol. II, pp. 117–8. Pandita Ramabai Saraswati, The High-Caste Hindu Woman, 142  pp. 107–10. 143 Ibid., p. 114. 144 As cited in Padmini Sengupta, Pandita Ramabai Saraswati: Her Life and Work, Bombay, 1970, p. 194. 145 R.  G. Bhandarkar, Collected Works, Vol. II, pp. 489–90. 146 M.  G. Ranade, Religious and Social Reform, p. 104; T. N. Jagadisan (ed.), The Wisdom of a Modern Rishi, p. 118. 147 Ibid., Religious and Social Reform, p. 111. 148 Ibid., p. 113; T. N. Jagadisan (ed.), The Wisdom of a Modern Rishi, p. 127. 149 Ibid., ‘The Sutra and Smriti Texts on the Age of Hindu Marriage’ in Religious and Social Reform, p. 52. 150  Ibid., ‘Vedic Authorities for Widow Marriage’ in Religious and Social Reform, p. 79. 151 Ibid., ‘Address at the Indian National Social Conference at Amraoti in 1897’ in Religious and Social Reform, p. 160. 152 N.  G. Chandavarkar, The Speeches and Writings, p. 72. 153 Ibid.

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Social questioning  163 154 Ibid., p. 72; Rakesh Batabyal (ed.), The Penguin Book of Modern Indian Speeches, p. 114. 155 The Proceedings of the Second Indian National Social Conference held at Allahabad on 30 December 1888 in K. T. Telang, Selected Writings and Speeches, Vol. I, pp. 303–4. 156 See Agarkar Papers, MSS. Pandita Ramabai Saraswati, The High-Caste Hindu Woman, 157  pp. 116–8. 158 Jotirao Phule, Cultivator’s Whipcord in Selected Writings, p. 171. 159 M.  G. Ranade, Religious and Social Reform, p. 113; Also see T. N. Jagadisan (ed.), The Wisdom of a Modern Rishi, p. 127. 160 Dayaram Gidumal, Behramji M. Malabari: A Biographical Sketch, London, 1888, p. 195. 161 Narayan Mahadev Parmanand, Letters to an Indian Raja from a Political Recluse, Letter No. III, p. 25. Also see The Indian Spectator, 8 December 1889. 162 Ibid., pp. 24–5; The Indian Spectator, ibid. 163 Ibid., p. 26; ibid. 164 See The Bombay Durpun, 27 March 1835 in Bal Shastri Jambhekar, Memoirs and Writings, Vol. II, p. 120. 165 Gopal Hari Deshmukh, ‘An Essay on Female Infanticide’ in Govardhan Parikh and Indumati Parikh (ed.), Lokahitvadi Samagra Vangmaya, Part-1, p. 597. 166 Ibid., pp. 597–601. 167 The Bombay Durpun, 14 September 1832 in Bal Shastri Jambhekar, Memoirs and Writings, Vol. II, pp. 56–60. 168 Ganesh L. Chandavarkar, A Wrestling Soul, p. 128. 169 M. G. Ranade, Miscellaneous Writings, p. 179. 170 M.  G. Ranade, Religious and Social Reform, p. 172; T. N. Jagadisan (ed.), The Wisdom of a Modern Rishi, p. 49. 171 Ramabai Ranade, Miscellaneous Writings, p. 212. 172 M.  G. Ranade, Religious and Social Reform, pp. 177–8; T. N. Jagadisan (ed.), The Wisdom of a Modern Rishi, pp. 54–5. 173 N.  G. Chandavarkar, The Speeches and Writings, p. 130. 174 Sudharak, 24 November 1884. 175  B. M. Malabari, ‘An Appeal from the Daughters of India’, The Indian Spectator, 28 September 1890. This long essay was serially published in this paper in its editions of 28 September, 5, 12 and 19 October 1890. 176 Ibid. 177 The Mahratta, 25 April 1886. 178  B. M. Malabari, ‘An Appeal from the Daughters of India’, The Indian Spectator, 28 September 1890. 179 Jogendra Singh, B.M. Malabari, pp. 113–5. Also see The Mahratta, 24 August 1884 and 21 September 1884. 180 See The Indian Spectator, 5 October 1890. 181 Jogendra Singh, ibid., p. 116.

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164  Social questioning 182 Ibid., p. 117. 183 Ibid., p. 118. Also see The Mahratta, 31 August 1884. B. M. Malabari, ‘An Appeal from the Daughters of India’, The 184  Indian Spectator, 12 October 1890. 185 Jogendra Singh, B.M. Malabari, pp. 117–9. Also see The Mahratta, 31 August 1884. B. M. Malabari, ‘An Appeal from the Daughters of India’, The 186  Indian Spectator, 12 and 19 October 1890. 187 Ibid., 19 October 1890. 188 See Gopal Hari Deshmukh, Lokahitvadinchi Shatapatre, (ed.), P. G. Sahasrabudhe, pp. 202, 231; Lokahitvadinchi Shatapatre, (ed.) N. R. Inamdar, pp. 213–8. 189 See The Bombay Durpun, 5 September 1837 in Bal Shastri Jambhekar, Memoirs and Writings, Vol. II, p. 135. 190 A Review of Education in Bombay State 1855–1955, Poona, 1958, p. 393. 191 Laws passed by the British Government to ban sati (1829), infanticide (1832), thugee (1836) and to legalise the marriage of Hindu widows (1856) were some of the significant social legislations already in force. See Ganesh L. Chandavarkar, A Wrestling Soul, p. 23. 192 Jotirao Phule, Selected Writings, ‘Introduction’ by G. P. Deshpande, p. 15. 193 Ibid., p. 5. 194 The Mahratta, 29 August 1886, p. 5. Also see The Mahratta, 15 August 1886. As early as 1881 Tilak wrote, ‘This baneful system (i.e. child marriage) having prevailed in our country for centuries together, has debilitated our nation – has made it physically weaker and weaker. . . . Every son of Aryavarta must toil hard to see this custom eradicated. . . . But it has no connection with the moral condition of people, if it does exist, an early marriage. We would not like that Government should have anything to do with regulating our social customs or ways of living. We would certainly not like to be so ridiculed that our very customs should be regulated by the Legislature. Let our people, therefore, themselves manfully come forward, form associations, frame rules and restraints, for themselves, and do all they can to check the evils of this evil custom, before they think of calling in the aid of Government.’ The Mahratta, 29 May 29 1881. The Mahratta’s opposition to State action in social matters remained consistent. See The Mahratta, 14 December 1884 and 21 December 1884. 195 Vishvanath Narayan Mandlik, Writings and Speeches, (ed.) Narayan Vishvanath Mandlik, Bombay, 1896, pp. 169–81. 196 N.  G. Chandavarkar, The Speeches and Writings, p. 36. 197 Ibid., p. 32. 198 See p. 135 of this chapter. 199 The Mahratta, 29 May 1881. 200 Kesari, 12 August 1890. Also see The Mahratta, 31 August 1890.

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Social questioning  165 201 The Mahratta, ibid. 202 Jotirao Phule, Selected Writings, p. 194. 203 Ibid. 204 See M. G. Ranade, Miscellaneous Writings, pp. 92–4. 205 Ibid. 206 The Quarterly Journal of the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha, Vol. XI, No. 3 and 4, January and April 1889, pp. 1–20; M. G. Ranade, Religious and Social Reform, pp. 29–37, 96–7; T. N. Jagadisan (ed.), The Wisdom of a Modern Rishi, pp. 111–3. 207 M.  G. Ranade, Religious and Social Reform, p. 49. 208 R. G. Bhandarkar, ‘A Note on the Age of Marriage and its Consummation According to Hindu Religious Law’, Poona, 1891, p. 23; Collected Works, Vol. II, pp. 538–83. Also see Stanley A. Wolpert, Tilak and Gokhale, p. 55. 209 The Mahratta, 29 January 1891 in Samagra Lokamanya Tilak, Vol. 7, p. 971. 210 The Times of India, 12 February 1891 in ibid., pp. 974–5. 211 Kesari, 17 February 1891 in Stanley A. Wolpert, Tilak and Gokhale, p. 56. 212 See The Mahratta, 29 January, 1891, 27 February 1981 in Samagra Lokamanya Tilak, Vol. 7, pp. 971–86. 213 R. G. Bhandarkar, ‘A Note on the Age of Marriage and its Consummation According to Hindu Religious Law’, pp. 37–41. 214 Aravind Ganachari, G.G. Agarkar, p. 132. 215 Ibid., p. 131. 216 Sudharak, 2 March 1891 in Stanley A. Wolpert, Tilak and Gokhale, p. 56. 217 The Mahratta, 29 March 1891, p. 3. 218 The Mahratta, 26 April 1891, p. 2. 219 The Indu-Prakash, 23 March 1891. 220 Agarkar to Tilak, Letter dated 22–24 December 1888 in M. D. Vidwans (ed.), Letters of Lokamanya Tilak, p. 242. 221 Gopal Hari Deshmukh, ‘An Essay on Female Infanticide’ in Lokahitvadi Samagra Vangmaya, Part-I, (ed.) Govardhan Parikh and Indumati Parikh, pp. 602–3. Also see Letters No. 64 and 70 of Shatapatre as cited in B. R. Sunthankar, Nineteenth Century History of Maharashtra, Vol. I, p. 230. 222 Aravind Ganachari, G.G. Agarkar, p. 107. 223 Jotirao Phule, Sarvajanik Satya dharma Pustak, Selected Writings, pp. 230–3. 224 Ibid., Phule’s Opinion on Note II of B. M. Malabari on Enforced Widowhood, Selected Writings, p. 197. 225 Ibid., Sarvajanik Satya dharma Pustak, p. 231. 226  Rammohan Roy, ‘Brief Remarks Regarding Modern Encroachments on the Ancient Rights of Females’ (first published in Calcutta in 1822) in Bruce Carlisle Robertson (ed.), The Essential Writings of Raja Rammohan Roy, Delhi, 1999, pp. 153–4.

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166  Social questioning 227 M.  G. Ranade, Religious and Social Reform, pp. 96–7; T.  N. Jagadisan (ed.), The Wisdom of a Modern Rishi, pp. 111–3. A. L. Basham, however, argues that ‘the right of a wife to inherit if no sons were living was accepted by the Mitaksara School, which was chiefly based on Vajnavalkya . . . . Most schools of law allowed a woman some personal property (stridhana) in the form of jewellery and clothing. Thus the property rights of women, limited though they were, were greater than in many other early civilizations.’ See A. L. Basham, The Wonder That Was India, pp. 159–79. 228 M. G. Ranade, ibid.; T. N. Jagadisan (ed.), ibid. 229 Jotirao Phule, Sarvajanik Satyadharm Pustak, Collected Works, Vol. II, pp. 22–34. 230 Letter to Sister Geraldine dated 8 May 1885 in Pandita Ramabai, The Letters and Correspondence, p. 50. 231 Letter to Sister Geraldine dated 12 May 1885 in ibid., p. 59. 232  Pandita Ramabai Saraswati, The High-Caste Hindu Woman, pp. 120–3. 233 Ibid., p. 80. 234 Ibid. 235 Ibid., pp. 124–5. 236 In his Editorial Note Tilak wrote: ‘Pandita Ramabai is as indefatigable as ever. We are glad that the learned lady is endeavouring to resuscitate the cause of female education.’ The Mahratta, 18 March 1883. A doubt is raised as to its authorship. The fact, however, remains that Tilak’s hold on The Mahratta was almost total, irrespective of whether he was in or out of office at any stage in the nineteenth century, and at no stage the paper seemed to shed the imprint of his shadow. 237 ‘Introduction’ by A. B. Shah in Pandita Ramabai, The Letters and Correspondence, p. xxiii. 238 James Kellock, Mahadev Govind Ranade, p. 159. 239 Letter dated 2 September 1891 in Agarkar Papers, MSS. 240 Letter dated 24 August 1893 in ibid. 241 Letter dated 27 September 1893 in ibid. 242 Ibid. 243 Pandita Ramabai’s letter dated 28 June 1893 to Sister Geraldine in The Letters and Correspondence, pp. 302–7. 244 Introduction by A. B. Shah in ibid., pp. xxv–xvi. 245 Ibid., p. xxvii. 246 Jotirao Phule, Sarvajanik Satyadharma Pustak, Collected Works, pp. 39–40. 247 Meera Kosambi, ‘Pundita Ramabai and Social Reform in Maharashtra’ in N. K. Wagle (ed.), Writers, Editors and Reformers, p. 190. 248 See Meera Kosambi (compiled and edited, with translations), Pandita Ramabai through Her Own Words, pp. VII, 17. 249 Ibid., p. 3.

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Social questioning  167 250 Ibid., p. 18. In her earlier work, however, Meera Kosambi’s portrayal of the Pandita runs as follows, ‘Thus her awareness of the need for the uplift of women predated her exposure to Western ideas and resulted from the internal dynamics of Hindu society. This exemplifies “orthogenetic” social change, or change from within, in contrast to “heterogenetic” change arising through contact with alien cultural influences, as in the case of other social reformers (e.g. Lokahitvadi, Phule, Bhandarkar, Ranade, Agarkar and Karve) who were products of Western education.’ See her ‘Pundita Ramabai and Social Reform in Maharashtra’ in N. K. Wagle (ed.), Writers, Editors and Reformers, p. 196. 251 Ibid., pp. 135–71. Ramabai, however, finds the status of mother much higher. ‘The honour bestowed upon the mother is without any parallel in any other country. Although the woman is looked upon as an inferior being, the mother is nevertheless the chief person and worthy to receive all honour from the son.’ See ibid., p. 150. 252 Ibid., pp. 170–1. 253 Ibid., pp. 90–1. 254 Ibid., pp. 106–7. 255 Ibid., pp. 58–165. 256 Ibid., pp. 65–171. 257 Ibid., pp. 108–49. 258 Ibid., p. 66. 259 Ibid., pp. 159–65. 260 Ibid., pp. 109–10. 261 Ibid., p. 65. 262 Ibid., p. 170. 263  Ibid., p. 171. 264  Ibid., p. 172. 265 Ibid., p. 174. 266 Ibid. 267 Ibid., p. 44. 268 Ibid., pp. 44–51. 269 Ibid., pp. 71–7. 270 Ibid., pp. 76–7. 271 Ibid., p. 73. 272 Ibid., p. 75. 273 Ibid., p. 173. 274 It even reported that ‘she accepted the faith of those, who started by providing her just with what she most desired – the means to go to and reside in England.’ See The Indu-Prakash, 5 November 1883. Although this may appear a bit harsh, there is no ground to outright dismiss it as being baseless. 275 See Pandita Ramabai, The Letters and Correspondence.

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3 Reason and religion

Indian intellectual tradition as seen earlier was largely characterised by its holistic and monistic orientation, particularly in its pre-British phase. There was no conflict between a rational approach and a spiritual quest, coexistence being the law of living and not an aberration. Reason and faith often worked in unison, and not in contradiction, there being no dichotomous division between sacred and secular, between rational and spiritual, between reality and ideality. Rationality manifested primarily in the form of a critique of status quo and conformism, a break with the existential tradition of religious bigotry and formalism, superstitions and social obscurantism and in that of emphasis on spirituality, religious tolerance, egalitarianism, human brotherhood, lessening of social restrictions, catholicism, compassion and non-violence. We have seen ample elements of rational resonance in pre-British past, both in the orthodox and heterodox systems of thought, culminating in the Bhakti tradition and ideas of Akbar which prominently influenced the thinking of the nineteenth-century thinkers in Maharashtra. The tension between reason and religion as projected by historians for the Enlightenment ‘rationality’ of Europe was not similarly enacted in India even in the nineteenth century, the period of intense ideational influence of the West on Indian mind, possibly because of predominant hold of holism in the indigenous intellectual tradition. Acceptance of scientific truth by a nineteenth-century thinker here could not necessarily jeopardise the tradition of his or her spiritual pursuit in any sense.1 True to its indigenous tradition, Indian rationality remained amicably allied with spirituality even at this time point of intellectual turmoil under the aegis of English education. Though the aim of rational resurgence became this-worldly in the nineteenth century, spirituality was not sundered apart from rationality as an

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Reason and religion  169 integral part of the body of thought. The belief in the validity of faith was reinforced by primarily three core considerations: (a) an intellectual insight into the inherently religious nature of mankind, (b) the utilitarian value of religion in effecting supposedly wholesome growth for man and society and (c) the excessive interlinkage between social and religious issues in India as perceived by the thinkers of the time. We shall examine here their religious ideas within this broad framework. Many of the reformers believed that religious belief was natural to humankind, that there was an integral relation between religion and human existence. At the anniversary meeting of the Prarthana Samaj held in 1883 in Bombay Bhandarkar highlighted the inseparability of the two. He said: Religion is inseparable from humanity. Man has always believed in some Invisible Power from which all that is visible has sprung, in something Infinite on which all that is finite rests, in a Power on which he is dependent and which is beneficial and has felt reverence for that Power and worshipped it.2 Echoing similar sentiments Lokahitwadi held that God created human souls ‘which animate the earthly flames and He endows them with those faculties and powers which are distinguishing characteristics of men’.3 To Parmanand, religious belief was so much ingrained in human psyche that it could not be shaken by progress of physical science or the theory of evolution.4 ‘Independent of any theory of creation, the very aspect of the universe fills the mind of man with a divine presence.’5 To him religion was a rational influence on human mind. He wrote: The foundations of religion lie too deep in the intellectual and moral constitution of man to be shaken by theories such as these. The foundation of society is essentially bound up with man’s religious belief. . . . Religion is the source and comfort to the afflicted heart and of hope to the despondent spirit. . . . The love of God, active trust in Him in all the affairs of life, is the most rational, satisfying and powerful influence that can act on the mind.6 He held, ‘Without religion man is but the creature of a moment; with it he is the child of eternity.’7

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170  Reason and religion Ranade also emphasised the prevalence of a spiritual element in human nature. Himself a proponent of theism he did not see any dichotomy between reason and religion and argued that ‘the idea of God is given by reason and intuition, and as such is natural’.8 He reasoned, ‘The awe the mystery of the Infinite inspires is the seed of all religion.’9 Highlighting the integrality between reason and faith, Ranade in his essay ‘A Theist’s Confession of Faith’ wrote: The Theist believes that there is a religious or spiritual element in our human nature. . . . The existence of this religious faculty is proved by the fact that in all times and countries and in all races of men, religious worship has prevailed, as also from the inner spontaneous moral consciousness which each one of us feels that man is a helpless dependent being, dependent upon a power beyond and over him, mysterious and sublime. The central idea of Theism is the existence of one God. . . . The Theist believes that our sense of helplessness and dependence implies an absolute God on whom this dependence rests. . . . The Theist acknowledges no distinction between the province of Reason and the province of Faith in matters of religion. Faith is practical and earnest reason. It is to be revered and not lightly questioned, but beyond this the immunity does not extend to prohibit the use of reason in matters of Faith (emphasis added)10 He highlighted the importance and essentiality of religion, as it ‘occupies intermediate position between Ethics and Metaphysics, in that it is concerned with both the practical and speculative faculties of our nature’.11 Chandavarkar held the world to be ‘the garment of God’, and emphasised spiritual faculty to be innate in humanity. He said, ‘The spiritual faculty is innate in us and the sense of the Supreme Soul cannot disappear merely because the education we are given is secular.’12 Even Agarkar, known for his ruthless rationality, held that the religious idea in man was a natural instinct.13 The majority of the reformers believed in God. Jambhekar was a thoroughly devout and God-fearing Hindu and he performed his Sandhya and daily bhajan regularly.14 Ranade began his day with religious devotion and prayers. He declared that ‘I am a sincere searcher after religious truth.’15 Lokahitwadi was similarly a devoted religious person. Parmanand, a saintly figure, was widely revered for his deep spirituality. Telang used to read religiously a chapter of the Bhagawad Gita every day.16 They, however, had a distinctive conception of religion in accordance with their view of God and

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Reason and religion  171 world view of life. Agarkar was perhaps the sole exception to the general theistic trend in nineteenth-century thought and conduct in Maharashtra. The intellectual life in the nineteenth century was quintessentially marked by spiritual rather than religious orientation. Bhandarkar advocated that the mechanical modes of worship needed to be cast away and substituted by the spiritual mode to bring about the muchneeded moral reformation of the country.17 Chandavarkar viewed religion to be the locus of love, of heart and of devotion, not ‘merely the observance of formal ceremonies . . . not of forms, of lip-service or hatred’.18 He stood for catholicism and tolerance in religious thought and conduct. He stated, ‘Religion consists as much in drawing inspiration from your national books as in keeping your mind open to receive truths contained in other religions in a tolerant spirit and with an eye to progress.’19 Mahatma Phule seems to have rather secularised the concept of religion which he held to be embedded in the notion of ‘Truth, the first Cause of Creation . . ., the foundation or corner-stone of all religions.’20 ‘Truth is the foundation of all human happiness.’21 Truth, he said, was nothing but fraternal love and repudiation of religious dogmas and practices.22 Arguing in favour of religious universalism he stated in one of his Akhandas: There should not be different religions for different human beings as our Creator is one. There should be only one religion for all human beings and they should always follow the path of Truth. Let all human beings follow the Universal Religion of Truth.23 In another of his poems he wrote: The one and the only religion of the Creator is the Truth. There is no other religion but the Truth in this world. The true humanitarian religion consists in truthful conduct. The Brahmin does not know this talisman.24 He exhorted his Shudra followers to ‘Always speak the Truth’. To him truth was the highest value as opposed to falsehood which, in his view, characterised Brahmanism as a belief system. He highlighted the potency of truth not only as a value but also as a world view in his struggle against the Brahmanical structure of caste. Mahatma

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172  Reason and religion Gandhi, however, enlarged its meaning to include right speech, right thought and right deeds even in the daily existential living of human beings. He further broadened its moral and philosophic base and strategised it as a political weapon for use at the national level in the anti-colonial freedom struggle. The relevance of this Phulean legacy to determine the degree of Mahatma Gandhi’s intellectual indebtedness to Phule in particular and to Indian thought systems in general in this dimension of moral philosophy seems to be a potential subject worthy of deeper exploration. Freedom of faith was fundamental to the Phulean philosophy of social change. He envisioned a stage of development when it could be possible for different members of a family to profess different faiths of their individual choice while at the same time and within the same set-up living peacefully together with love and understanding without any ill will, hatred or animosity.25 The wife, in this utopia, could embrace Buddhism, the husband could profess Christianity, the daughter Islam and the son could totally transcend religious particularity and embrace the Universal Religion of Truth.26 Mahatma Phule had a positive view of other religions such as Buddhism, Islam and Christianity in contrast to Hinduism or Brahmanism which was dubbed as abominably discriminatory, inhuman, unjust, unequal and exploitative.27 Ramabai was equally emphatic in upholding the pristine purity of religion shorn of religious formalism and outward ceremonies. She wrote: All days of a week are as much holy in God’s sight as the first or the last day of a week. Is the Sabbath for God or for man? It is I suppose for man that the Sabbath was created, and not for God. So it is the prayers. An honest and contrite heart and true words are acceptable to God, and not outward ceremonies. . . . I am not prepared to accept an essential doctrine which I shall not find in the Bible.28 I cannot believe in the Trinity or the deity of Jesus Christ.29 The Church is not infallible, much less are so the clergy who have been brought up to look upon the fermented wine and beer as a necessity of life.30 To reiterate, it was mostly the spiritual aspect that found favours with the reformers in Maharashtra, and not the formal and ceremonial side of religion. Bhandarkar said, ‘the truth sought by

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Reason and religion  173 the Rishis of the Upanishads still remains neglected, and the ceremonial practices have usurped the place of spiritual worship’.31 He exhorted, ‘The existing mechanical modes of worship must be entirely thrown away and the spiritual mode substituted to bring about the moral reformation of the country which is so urgently needed.’32 This was prominently in line with the Bhakti tradition of thought which marked a break with religious formalism and established the supremacy of spirituality as the most effective mode of communion between man and his maker. Religion commanded respect in the nineteenth-century thought not only because of its perceptibly being a psychological necessity for mankind but also, quite significantly, for its utilitarian value for the development of individual and society. It was seen to be a healthy influence on human conduct and morality. Dadoba Pandurang reasoned, ‘Without doubt the core of all religions in this world is to behave morally in this life.’33 At the anniversary meetings of the Prarthana Samaj in 1883 and in 1903 Bhandarkar said: Man can attain to the fullest measure of his capabilities only through the instrumentality of religious belief. Without it he will be a superior kind of beast with aims and aspirations low and stunted. . . . The function of religious belief in the development of man is higher than that of physical knowledge. The use of this last is to satisfy the wants of his bodily nature to enable him to live comfortably. But purity of heart, the elevation of the feelings, the depth of the soul, a firm adherence to truth without regard to practical effects, equanimity in the midst of the severest troubles of life – these and such other virtues it is religion alone that can induce. . . . Even from the beginning a sort of morality becomes connected with religion. . . . In the course of man’s history certain religions came to be deliberately founded with the object of bringing about a moral revolution such as Buddhism and Christianity.34 Parmanand attached greatest value to the virtues of faith without which social life would be ‘on the road to ruin’. ‘Nor can men and women do without that morality, which is so intimately allied to religion, and derives its highest sanction from it.’35 Religion was seen to have set up the lofty standard of duty and virtue before man from the earliest times when philosophic work in the modern sense was

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unknown, ‘just as the worship of Good has followed in the wake of the worship of God’.36 Highlighting the moral and ennobling attributes of religion he further stated: Without moral strength and guidance which religion imparts, government would be a curse, society would be on the road to ruin, the arts and amenities of life, which add to happiness or mitigate suffering, sweeten fellow-feeling and ennoble our nature in spite of its many aberrations under misguided influences or views of religion, would cease to exist.37 Ranade, a staunch advocate and practitioner of theism, remained consistent in his advocacy against agnosticism or atheism being promoted by some of the reformers, Agarkar in particular. He laid emphasis on ‘faith in God, and in conscience’ for its utility as ‘strengthening influence’ in the life of an individual. Religion was, therefore, emphasised for its inculcation of moral values. Ranade placed a high premium on the call of conscience along with faith in God.38 He observed, ‘as religious element compared to intellectual is more strongly and deeply rooted in human nature, it has great influence in forming the moral type or ideal, and lands its sanction in securing the practical observance of morality’.39 He was particularly concerned with the students in their impressionistic age in need of right values and right teachings. Keeping them in mind he contended: Hindu students especially need the strengthening influence which faith in God, and in Conscience as His voice in the human heart, alone can give. The national mind cannot rest in agnosticism. . . . The failure of Buddhism is a warning that such teaching can have no hold on the national thought.40 Chandavarkar emphasised the utilitarian and practical aspect of religion to be its raison d’etre. He stated categorically that: Religion does not mean merely the observance of formal ceremonies. That is religion which makes us feel that we are responsible beings, which influences our actions and character, makes us truthful and honest, and impresses us with the necessity of seriousness of character, for it is seriousness of character which stands at the top of everything in life and is required to be shown in every department of life.41

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Reason and religion  175 Highlighting the connection between religion and practical conduct of the people he further stated that ‘Religion is that which affects practical life, which has the highest ideal of conduct . . ., which influences not only our thought but also our conduct and becomes part and parcel of both individual or social life or national life.’42 The very genesis of religion in his view was rooted in the practical need of civic virtues. He highlighted the social and moral beneficence which belief in the Almighty was capable of bringing about. He observed: Religion was meant by our Prophets as by the prophet of Israel to be the practical civic virtues – truth-telling, honesty between citizens, tenderness to the poor, inflexible justice in high places.43 Delivering his famous lecture to the students under the auspices of the Wilson College Library Association in 1886 in Bombay he emphasised that ‘nations fail when their religious notions become debased’. He further stated: No nation can live without faith in God – without that sense of responsibility which comes of a belief in the Almighty. It may have excellent political and social institutions, but if these are not based on and supported by a pure and enlightened religious faith, they will fall down and the nation will live in chaos. Men will know that they are brothers and are bound to work for one another only when they realize that they are the children of one God who watches their action and shapes their destinies. Nations fail when their religious notions become debased; and skepticism and agnosticism have never led to national greatness – ay, to national existence.44 The link between belief in religion and nationalism was, in this view, in order; lack of the link could, in turn, lead to chaos. Agarkar, however, held that morality was independent of and even precedent to religion45; it had its own autonomy from the province of Providence. He stood for an atheistic rationality and an atheistic morality, a sharp departure in this respect from the predominant stream of thought in the nineteenth century. He declared that ‘strength is frittered away by religious discussion; religion is no essential part of culture’.46 Although spiritual orientation was held to be a universal human phenomenon, India as a nation was viewed to be especially endowed

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with spirituality so much so that it even defined its identity. In Ranade’s view, India was famous for faith and other-worldly orientation. He stated: This is the land of religion. Be it for good or for evil, we cannot do without religion. Religious thoughts are in our blood. If we try to flee from it, it will pursue us.47 We Hindus love Dharma more than our lives; and whatever be the value of the opinions of Mill and Spencer to England, for India they are of no use. . . . The religion of the Hindus, unlike that of the Christians, does not ask them to pray for bread; our religion tells us that we are sent by God in this world, not for enjoyment of pleasures of this world, but to prepare for a life beyond.48 This understanding became more pronounced particularly during the second half of the nineteenth century. Chandavarkar, speaking along similar lines, said, ‘The Hindus are a race with a strong tendency to spiritual thoughts. . . . Reform must be based on the spiritual sense of the community; it must deal with the spiritual instincts of the Hindu race, and I do not therefore think that we can proceed upon secular lines.’49 Religion and society in India had been traditionally so much intermeshed with each other that it was practically impossible to heuristically compartmentalise them. Marriage, a social event, for example, was essentially a religious sacrament. Caste, patently a social phenomenon, sought its sanctity and validity in the religious scriptures. This interlinkage was sharply recognised by both reformers and conservatives alike. The issue of widow marriage therefore led to the invocation of scriptural authority by both its supporters and the opponents.50 Lokahitwadi in one of his letters of Shatapatre remarked, ‘All social customs and practices are identified with religion, devotion to God is religion and wearing clothes was also religion.’51 Mandlik corroborated, ‘the right of marriage among the Hindus is intimately connected with their religion’.52 It was in this backdrop that the battle of social reform was largely fought through its religious route. The reformers realised that the road to social reform lay in a reformation of religion, the sanctioning authority of social change. This realisation became more pronounced during the second half of the nineteenth century. Bhandarkar emphasised that religious reform was ‘calculated to invigorate the conscience, and social

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Reason and religion  177 reform will then become an imperative duty’.53 Chandavarkar assigned centrality to religious reform as it impinged, in his view, even on the question of political elevation of the country. He held that politics to be healthy and sound must draw its inspirations from questions of intellectual, moral and religious reform.54 Religious reform was even seen as a means of supporting the national movement. In his lecture in 1886 in Bombay under the auspices of the Wilson College Library Association he said: Let not the principle of elevation which we try to infuse into our people by means of our political activities and National Congress be allowed to be counteracted by the principle of fatalism, which our present social arrangements and our present religious beliefs teach them. Let us reform and correct the latter, so that our political activities may be helped and supported, instead of being opposed by them.55 The link of the nineteenth-century reform with other dimensions of national life including the ensuing political process was consciously on the agenda of the reformers; its separation from politics need not, therefore, be given undue credence. Again in 1894 Chandavarkar emphasised that ‘the question of religious reform is at the bottom of all questions. Religious reform is necessary condition of social progress’.56 Further, in his lecture on ‘Our Social Ideals’ given in 1896 at the Presidency College in Madras he stated, ‘The first and most important of our social ideal is religion. The character of a people, the nature and tendency of their social and political institutions, are best found in the faith they follow.’57 In his address at a meeting of the National Indian Association held in England in 1902 he reiterated that the reform must be based on the spiritual sense of the Hindu community which had a strong tendency to spiritual thoughts; it must reckon with their spiritual instincts and we would not therefore proceed entirely upon secular lines.58 For a reform of this kind he, however, advocated a return to the indigenous past, and not a resort in an outside belief system or cultural matrix. He clearly stated: It is true to say of our people that while their social progress can but come through their religious reform, their religious reform must come from their own ‘essential’ past. ‘Nothing’, said Geothe, ‘is good for a people, unless it spring up from its own kernel’.59

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Social contents of religious thought The focalisation on religious reform as being foundational to other reforms as underlined in the nineteenth-century thought essentially emanated from an awareness of the integrality between religion and society in the contextual setting of the time. Religion was not seen in isolation, independent of society, but as part of cultural component of social life and existence. It was deemed important principally for its social meaning. In fact, the roots of moral and social malaise were perceived to first lie in the existing religious practices of the people. The prevalence of ritualism, priestly intermediation, polytheism and idolatry was identified to be responsible for social degradation. Jambhekar was of a firm belief that social reform could not endure without religious reform, and that the best way to break down caste and priestcraft was to begin by slowly purifying the religious practices of the people.60 Dadoba Pandurang, the famous Marathi grammarian and elder brother of Bhaskar Pandurang, held Brahmin priests accountable for corrupting the Hindu belief system. It was they who, for their sheer self-interests, manipulated and twisted the true teachings of the Hindu faith. In his own words, ‘The Vedas have been turned and twisted in the hands of the Brahmin priests into all sorts of contortions and deformities . . . the genuine truth of Hinduism is thus hidden from the people. The self-interests of the intermediaries have robbed this religion of its pristine glory.’61 Mahatma Phule was extremely condemnatory of Brahmanism in general and priestcraft in particular. He was the most articulate in his abomination against priestly intermediation in the matters between man and God. He exhorted that there was no need for intermediaries or brokers for spiritual communion; the quintessence of religion was direct surrender to one and omnipresent God.62 He also voiced his views against idol worship particularly in his Marathi play Tritiya Ratna.63 Parmanand was particularly condemnatory of religious perversions. He highlighted that religion had been discredited not so much by the progress of science but by its surrender to senseless ceremonies performed by priests. He wrote: Religion has been brought into discredit far less by the advance of scientific knowledge than its own surrender of its spiritual functions, replacing them by dead and senseless ceremonies conducted mechanically and performed by priests more ignorant

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and less advanced than many of the laity, and thus rendered incapable of imparting to them little or no moral strength and no intelligent and elevating support amidst their sufferings or trials in their struggle with the world.64 Ranade singled out the degrading practice of idolatry which he held to be responsible for the brutalisation of religious sensibilities of the people. He commented: The practice of idolatry is strictly speaking a degrading rite. The associations of idol worship humanize, or rather brutalize our conceptions of God. The myths which soon gather about it, representing as they often do the worst license that obtains in human society, complete the destruction of all existing faith, by blunting the conscience and deadening the intellect.65 He denounced the growth of vested interests in perpetuating beliefs among the people, as exemplified by the growing dominance of a priestly class in matters of religious dispensation.66 He adorned the Bhakti saint-poets with the appellation of ‘Indian Protestant reformers’ for their protest against image worship and saint worship even to an iconoclastic extent. ‘They did not worship stacks and stones’.67 He was particular in his praise for Tukaram and Ramdas for their sparing no words to denounce ‘these aboriginal and village gods, and their frightful rites and sacrifices’.68 He also argued that idolatry was not part of ancient Indian ethos. It did not exist in Vedic times and came into vogue with the acceptance of the incarnation theory.69 Ranade further praised the Bhaktas for their condemnation of polytheism, and practice and propagation of monotheism, ‘the supremacy of one God. One without a second was their first article of the creed’.70 He wrote: Each of them had his own favourite form of divine incarnation, and this worship of one favourite form left no room for allegiance to other gods. Ramdas, for instance, worshipped God under the name Rama, Eknath and Jayaram Swami worshipped Him under the name of Krishna, Tukaram, Chokhamela and Namdev under the name of Vithoba; Narhari Sonar and Nagnath under the name of Shiva; Janardhan Swami and Narasimha Saraswati under the name of Dattatraya; Morya Gosavi and Ganeshnath under the name of Ganapati and so on for the rest.71

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180  Reason and religion Despite different names given to the Supreme Lord to whom the bhaktas single-mindedly surrendered themselves for spiritual communion, the Bhakti movement was quintessentially a monotheistic movement. The entity of God remained one and the same, despite different names. These saint-poets were also extolled for bringing into prominence the loving and benevolent nature of God more than the orthodox Brahmanical conception.72 The impact of indigenous belief systems rather than that of Western ideas on religion appeared to be more palpable in the religious thought of the nineteenth-century thinkers. As against deism of the West, theism thrived in the thinking in Maharashtra. Bhandarkar very succinctly delineated the demarcation between these two different religious conceptions. The deistic notion, he held, implied that the world was constructed like a machine and set in motion by God who, however, himself remained apart from it.73 He highlighted that Indian theism was distinct from deism, as the former emphasised on the other hand the immanence of God in the external world and in the heart of man as its essential doctrine.74 ‘There is also transcendency, that is His being distinct from the world and man, and above them influencing, controlling and protecting them.’75 Ranade echoed the same understanding of Indian theism as being distinct from deism which conceived God as ‘a fashioner or mechanician setting the watch on motion from outside’.76 He said: Order means reason, conscious mind or personal will. God’s immanence is seen in the order and the purpose which animates nature. . . . Indian Theism is called the Bhagavata Dharma. Then came the Buddhists who strengthened the moral side of our nature, and substituted for the old animal sacrifices the sacrifice of the animal in man, as the highest form of worship and the only road to salvation.77 To reiterate, the religious thought of reformers in the nineteenth century was greatly influenced and inspired by the indigenous belief systems. The influence of Western ideas was minimal or insignificant in this domain of intellectual life during the period. The intellectuals’ adherence to traditional Indian views on religion represented in a significant sense the rejection of Western religious world view. There was, for instance, hardly any taker of Deism in nineteenth-century Maharashtra. The acceptance of the notion of God as being both immanent and transcendent at the same time was not germane to

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Reason and religion  181 the Christian or Western notion of faith. This conception of God was a typically Indian contribution to theology and social philosophy in history. The notion of Godly immanence and transcendence, in contrast, was conspicuous by its absence in the Western world which, on the other hand, emphasised the separateness of God from man and his mundane matters. The idea of Godly inherence in the universe was quite foreign to its philosophy and theology.

In defence of Hindu religion Agarkar had little or scant emotional regard for religion. The rational reform in the nineteenth century was, however, not an atheistic movement in Maharashtra. Most of the reformers emphasised the necessity of religion not simply for psychic satiation and succour but quite significantly for value-oriented growth of the individual and society. What they stood against was not religion but religious perversions and accretions sapping social and national life. Their attack on the existing religious practices was, however, diametrically different from the attack of the missionaries on the Hindu faith. In fact, both were basically at cross-purposes. The reformers denounced idolatry, ritualism, priesthood and polytheism for the purpose of reformation; the missionaries denigrated Hinduism essentially for that of proselytisation. In other words, the reformers’ criticisms of the existing malpractices were denunciatory, and not denigratory of the missionaries’ ilk. This was a major difference in their respective approaches. Whenever Hinduism was subjected to criticism or denigration either by the Christian missionaries or colonial ideologues, the reformers stood united in its defence, though otherwise themselves being quite critical of it. This defensive stance often took two forms – the defence of Hindu faith on the ground of its doctrinaire consistency, and adoption of an offensive posture against the postulates of Christianity and the methods of missionaries. The spread of Christian influence was perceived to be a threat to the indigenous culture and religion. Although the Christian presence in India predated colonial conquest, Christianity as it manifested in the nineteenth century was identified with the conqueror’s religion and culture. Dadoba Pandurang’s work A Hindu Gentleman’s Reflections on the Writings of Swedenborg, published in 1878, symbolised Indian intellectual attempt to counteract the influence and spread of Christianity as religion of the foreign masters. Others also joined the fray to defend Hinduism from outside onslaughts.

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182  Reason and religion The East India Company avowedly followed the principle of religious neutrality and refused to have any truck with missionary schools. No grant-in-aid was given to mission schools in the state during the first half of the nineteenth century.78 However, in 1830 John Malcolm, the governor of Bombay, removed restrictions on Christian propaganda imposed by Mountstuart Elphinstone earlier.79 Other officials also, as for instance, Mr. Fisher, acting Governor of Bombay (1841), did actively help the missionaries in their activities.80 The missionaries tried to spread their influence by various means in order to proselytise people. This could not go unnoticed by the emerging educated middle class, particularly its intellectual stratum. Jambhekar had a very balanced approach to the issue of conversion of Indians into Christianity. He held that conversions resorted to on a mature understanding of different belief systems after the study, comparison and analysis of their respective merits and demerits would and should hardly invite objections.81 Dadoba Pandurang, however, tried to expose the contradictions inherent in the Christian faith in order to undermine the missionary move for effecting conversions in India. He wrote: The Christian doctrine of Holy Trinity does not reconcile with the Unity of God, which all the Christian missionaries so promptly proclaim to the heathens in India and other countries, trying in the same breath to dissuade them from the polytheistic notions which they employ in the worship of many gods and goddesses. I could no more believe in the mystery of a Trinity in Unity or of a Tri-personal God, as it is called, than I could believe in three dollars being in one dollar, or three apples in one apple, the very notion being paradoxical on the face of it.82 The tradition of Trinitarianism was highlighted as the most glaring contradiction within the Christian faith. Dadoba Pandurang found the concept of Hindu Tinmurti more explicable than the Christian doctrine of Trinity. To quote: The eloquence employed by the missionaries to explain this phenomenon (contradiction) appears to be after all a long cobweb of stultiloquence. . . . I could more easily believe in the Hindu Tinmurti of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva – personalities of the three qualities in the energy of one God – than I could believe in

Reason and religion  183

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the existence of three distant persons in the one Godhead, as is taught in the ordinary Christian doctrine of Trinity.83 He equated Christian missionaries to Brahmin priests in maiming their respective religions. In order to further their own narrow self-interests these intermediaries brought about distortions inimical to the true teachings. He wrote: Christianity with all those numerous modifications of its forms and phrases has frequently been the victim of various manipulations in the hands of missionaries and priests, no less violent than those of the Brahmins in the case of Hinduism. The truth of Christianity is manipulated and deformed into various forms, not unfrequently (sic) grotesque. The cause is one and the same – the self-interests of the intermediaries.84 Dadoba jeered at the missionary attempt to project Christ as the whole and sole embodiment of Divinity, and contended that Christ represented ‘a personal manifestation of only a very small drop of the great unbounden ocean of the divine essence’.85 It was, however, Vishnu Bhikaji Gokhale popularly known as Vishnubawa Brahmachari for his remaining a lifelong bachelor, who posed the greatest challenge to Christian influence in Maharashtra. He made it a mission of his life to save Hinduism from the onslaughts of Christian missionaries. He gave weekly lectures (in all fifty) at the Prabhu Seminary, the first private school in Bombay, established in 1848 by members of the Pathare Prabhu caste, about the superiority of the Hindu religion, the first being on 28 September 1856.86 He also used to give lectures on the sands of the Chaupati beach of Bombay, throwing open challenge to the missionaries for a debate. The famous public debate was held with Dr John Wilson, a Scottish missionary who on his arrival in Bombay in 1829 posed a serious challenge to the Hindu faith on account of his skill in polemics.87 He further highlighted in his articles the shortcomings and contradictions within the Christian faith, and acted as an intellectual bulwark against missionary proselytisation.88 Brahmachari published his magnum opus, Vidokta Dharmaprakash in 1859 in which he made a most forceful defence of the Vedas as the fount of the genius of Hinduism.89 The intellectual assertion of self-identity in Indian culture and religion seen in their articulations was marked by pride and

184  Reason and religion

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patriotism for things Indian. Any outside assault on this identity, particularly from the self-serving foreigners, was resented and resisted. Chandavarkar very aptly commented on the national mood of the moment. He remarked: We have now found that like other people we must be proud of ourselves, our country, our religion, our society, and our everything. We feel offended when we are told that we must go to other revelations than our own in search of religious truth; when we are reminded that we must adopt foreign customs if we are to become great like foreigners. This feeling of pride and patriotism is perhaps natural under the circumstances.90 Agarkar was quite critical of the intellectual tendency to very often unreasonably gloat in India’s past glories. The immediate provocation was Ranade’s speech at the Deccan College, Poona, where he showered excessive praise on ancient ancestors for having developed the best belief system, while at the same time being disrespectful of Christianity.91 Agarkar retorted: It is excusable for the satisfaction of the emotional part of man’s nature, that a degraded and a fallen nation, with all its political, social and intellectual environments in the most unsatisfactory condition to recollect with pride the past achievement of its forefathers whenever they have the least resemblance of greatness and from such proud recollections to derive some comfort and encouragement without which life may become unsupportable. But when the point is referred to reason and when we have to base our practical conduct on its soundness or otherwise, we believe we should try as far as possible to escape from such morbid illusions.92 He was, however, totally against the idea of religious conversion, and commented, ‘Christianity has been subjected to criticism on the continent of Europe, and appears to have failed to satisfy scientific and thoughtful minds there. . . .’ ‘It is kept up by the aid of the State and the superstitions of the lower classes. . . .’ This is ‘sufficient proofs of its unsoundness as a religious system’.93 ‘The skeptical inquiries by the advanced Europeans have not led them to change their religion’,94 he further commented.

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Mahatma Phule was, however, not in agreement with the general intellectual stance to view Christianity with suspicion and oppose Christian onslaughts on Hinduism. He gleaned the possibility of Shudra emancipation in Christian presence and spread in India. He wrote: The English, Scottish and American (missionaries) . . . are performing a noble task indeed – that of emancipating our ignorant and Shudra brethren from the inhuman slavery (thraldom) forced upon them by the Bhats.95 The European Padres though foreigners and Christians are far better (a thousand-fold) than these Bhats (Brahmins). In order to liberate these Shudras and Ati-Shudras from the tyranny and thraldom of the Brahmins, these Christian missionaries have opened schools in the Princes’ States for the children of their Shudra and Ati-Shudra subjects.96 When Ramabai came under mounted attack from the intellectual fraternity as well as the orthodoxy on the issue of the Sharada Sadan under her care and supervision seemingly serving as the centre of conversion of its inmates to Christianity, Mahatma Phule openly came to her defence. Despite his total disenchantment with the Brahmanical belief system, he, however, did not attempt to promote Christian conversion. He admired Christianity as a better religion than Hinduism for its stress on equality and humanitarian measures. But then he also preferred Buddhism and Islam to Hinduism on almost similar grounds. He was clear in his mind that the real salvation of the Shudras lay in education, not conversion. He fought for the democratisation of social relations by being within the Hindu fold, and not through change of his religion. The defence of Hindu religion and culture was quite deep and wide. There was a mushrooming of newspapers, mostly anti-Christian, in Western India during the period.97 From January 1844 a monthly magazine called the Upadesh-Chandrika was started with Pandit Morabhat Dandekar as its editor, in order to defend Hinduism against the attacks of Christian missionaries.98 The defensive posture, however, became more vociferous and virulent against the missionaries under the trio: Mandlik, Chiplunkar and Tilak. They tried to counteract any attack on Indian religion and culture from any quarter, whether from within or from outside. Significantly, there was a convergence of concern

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186  Reason and religion between advocates and opponents of reform on the question of safeguarding Hindu religion and culture against foreign encroachments. This differentiation was more marked in Maharashtra than in Bengal. Ram Mohan did not perceive any cultural threat from Christian missionaries. In fact, he viewed their presence and proliferation to be conducive to cultural enrichment of Indians. In a letter to John Digby in 1817 he wrote, ‘The consequence of my long and uninterrupted researches into religious truth has been that I have found the doctrine of Christ more conducive to moral principles, and better adapted for the use of rational beings, than any other which have come to my knowledge.’99 In the year 1820 he again wrote: From what I have already stated, I hope no one will infer that I feel ill disposed towards the Missionary establishments in the country. This is far from being the case. I pray for their augmentation, that their members may remain in the happy enjoyment of life in a climate so generally inimical to European constitution; for in proportion to the increase of their number, sobriety, moderations, temperance, and good behaviour have been diffused among their neighbours as the necessary consequence of their company, conversation, and good example.100 He wrote in February 1824, ‘I presume to think that Christianity, if properly inculcated, has a greater tendency to improve the moral, social, and political state of mankind than any other known religious system.’101 In a private letter written on 18 January 1828 he further stated, ‘There is nothing so sublime as the precepts taught by Christ, and there is nothing equal to the simple doctrines he inculcated.’102 Adulation of Western culture was almost endemic in Bengal. Keshab Chandra Sen admitted that he was ‘overwhelmed by the charms of English family life’.103 Even a passionate patriot like Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay proclaimed that the Bengalis’ salvation lay in the imitation of all that was good in English culture.104 In contrast, Western culture was not an item of envy in Maharashtra; it was, on the contrary, perceived to be a potent threat to indigenous culture. The reformers here were, therefore, aggressively possessive and protective of Indian way of life. Bengal sought cultural enrichment by assimilation of Western ways. Maharashtra emphasised cultural distinction and sought cultural rejuvenation fundamentally in the indigenous ethos and history. The Indian cultural matrix remained the primary referral in the intellectual orientation of reformers in Maharashtra.

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Reason and religion  187 This also exemplified that the sense of pride in Indian identity was more pronounced in Maharashtra than in contemporary Bengal. The missionary onslaughts on Hinduism were, therefore, more combatively counteracted in Western India than in the Eastern. The defense of Hindu religion and culture was taken up essentially as a patriotic project in nineteenth-century Maharashtra. Even Mahatma Phule who denounced Vedism as ‘humbug’ and extolled missionary efforts was not enamoured of Western culture; he remained quintessentially rooted in the Indian way of life and living. Unlike the Brahmos, the members of the Prarthana Samaj founded in 1867 remained within the mainstream of Hindu thought and ethos.105

Search for scriptural sanction There was a tendency to seek scriptural support for the reforms advocated. This tendency became more marked in the second half of the nineteenth century, and it reached its crescendo during the Consent controversy. Jambhekar argued in favour of marriage after the attainment of puberty, adding in the same breath that ‘This would be no violation of the spirit of the Shastras, for we find in Manoo, that a man of 30 years should marry a girl of twelve.’106 He held that reform must grow gradually on evolutionary lines, conforming as far as possible to the best thought of the Hindu Shastras and traditions.107 Lokahitwadi copiously cited scriptural authorities in support of his argument against the practice of female infanticide.108 Ranade in his article ‘The Sutra and Smriti Texts (Dicta) on the Age of Hindu Marriage’ written in 1889 quoted religious texts profusely in support of the reform in question.109 Bhandarkar brought out a detailed essay in 1891 published in a pamphlet form in favour of the Age of Consent Bill, quoting innumerable ancient Indian scriptures supporting late marriages.110 Even Malabari who did not claim to have much familiarity with ancient religious laws, invoked scriptures to buttress his demand for late marriages. He wrote, ‘No Shastra enforces marriage proper on a girl under twelve years of age, when presumably the boy must be between 15 and 20.’111 It was only Mahatma Phule who totally condemned ancient Indian scriptures to be the handiwork of self-seeking Brahmins who in order to justify the caste division and domination concocted these texts and bestowed divinity on them. Ramabai was also very critical of the ancient Indian law-givers for their instrumental role in denial of female freedom. For Agarkar, on the other hand, there was no need

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188  Reason and religion for any external sanction for reform; reason was sufficient to serve as a guiding principle for progress, without any need for such anchorage or prop. Did search for scriptural sanction prominently palpable in the late nineteenth century denote dilution of rationality? The answer is not simple. It is imperative to know whether the scriptures served as the guiding principle for the very initiation of the reforms advocated, or they were used as the supportive tools for the changes proposed. Whether inward authority, that is reason was supreme or the supremacy lay in the external authority, that is scriptures. It appears the reformers went from reason to scriptures and not from scriptures to reason. Curiously, the scriptures were reinterpreted both by the reformers and the orthodoxy in support of the intended reform or reaction as the case might be. The autonomy, therefore, lay in the human mind and not in the texts cited. Ranade wrote, ‘There is not a custom, however absurd, which cannot be defended by some strong text of ancient law.’112 The reformers made the scriptures speak the language of reform they intended to effect and not let the reform be dictated by the language and line of scriptures. Their approach towards ancient texts was highly selective and not blind. Thus rationality, not textuality, determined the orientation of thought in the nineteenth century; it was reason at work all along. Bhandarkar implicitly admitted that the Shastras were reinterpreted to concur with reformers’ viewpoints. In his presidential speech at the Bombay Provincial Social Conference held in 1902 he said: To interpret or rather misinterpret the Sastras so as to make them agree with our views is not a promising method. My view of our people is that the great Sastra or spiritual adviser whom they obey is custom and if the Guru or Sastra goes against this, they will be disobeyed and set aside. The feasible plan, therefore, appears to me to silently and sincerely introduce the reforms we advocate, so that in course of time, they may themselves become the prevailing customs.113 He was referring to the need for creating reformed customs, and not just to limit oneself to the search for scriptural support, in order to actualise the reform initiative, as people tended to cling to customs more than the scriptures in their daily observance. Chandavarkar, on the other hand, held that as religion had a great hold on human mind,

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Reason and religion  189 particularly of the Hindus, who professed to be largely guided by the Shastras, seeking scriptural support for change was not altogether a meaningless proposition.114 He, however, tried to redefine the role of scriptures as being essentially liberal, progressive and reformative, permitting deviations through creation of new customs, whenever deemed desirable on the demand of changing times. The Shastras, he held, had been an aid in the process of Indian social evolution, and not a hindrance to the process of change. In his speech at the fourth anniversary meeting of the Madras Hindu Social Reform Association held on 28 November 1896 he said: Our very Shastras have given us a free hand in changing with the times by pronouncing that custom or usage can supercede injunctions of the Shastras. The whole history of the Hindu society has been a history of tumultuous departure, whenever the departure was rendered necessary or expedient, from the laws laid down in the Shastras. Every custom marks the beginning of such a departure, and if the Shastras themselves say that we can make new customs, I do not see why the social reformer should confine himself to the Shastras alone. . . . The Shastras have been more liberal than we care to be, by giving us a free hand to deviate from them when necessary. The Shastras are a valuable means of showing that our history has been a history of change. There was a period when our women were not only educated but learned, when infant marriage did not prevail, widow marriages were not unusual, and caste distinctions did not exist in the exaggerated and absurd form in which they now exist. That period was followed by another and we have gone on changing. We made no doubt bad customs but we made customs nonetheless and got the Shastras to adapt themselves to those customs. Let us now reverse the process and make good customs, and call to our aid the Shastras when and where we can, and appeal to the liberty of making customs which they have given us where their injunctions are against us.115 He, however, made it categorically clear that the ‘Shastras have no locus standi where an act is purely injurious to individuals and society . . . . Are we to have our criminal laws framed in accordance with the antiquated, conflicting and barbarous injunctions of the Shastras?’116 Telang also advanced similar argument and said, ‘We have departed from the rule of our own old scriptures. They recognized only four

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190  Reason and religion castes at first. In our present circumstances, the number of castes in which the Hindu community is divided is four thousand more than four.’117 Thus on the one hand the intellectuals sought the sanction of the scriptures wherever desirable for the reforms they advocated, and on the other hand, they reinterpreted the very scriptures to justify deviations from them. There was absolutely no advocacy or emphasis or indiscriminate support for any or all scriptural utterances in determining the direction and do’s of contemporary corrections in the sociocultural practices. Theirs was a highly informed and reformed bent towards the Vedas, and not a blind belief in the ancient past. By historicising the contemporary usages they attempted to establish the inherently changing character of customs and the flexibility already available in the very Shastraic injunctions for adaptation and readjustment. The underlying purpose was to project that there was nothing unusual, unprecedented or scandalous in their advocating change in the already ‘changed’ customs. It was largely intended to counter the contention of the conservatives that the proposed reforms were violative of the scriptural injunctions and thus lacking legitimacy. As Shastras were held in high esteem by the people, Shastraic support could potentially strengthen the cause of reform which the reformers need not or could not ignore. This was no dilution of rationality but, in fact, rational use of scriptures. Reason as it manifested in the nineteenth-century thought in terms of rational project of rejuvenation of India remained supreme even in the search for scriptural support. It was not the reformers who spoke in the language of Shastras; it was, in fact, the Shastras that were made to speak in the language of reformers. Rational reform by its very definition has to rely on inward and not outward authority. Intellect does not require scriptural anchorage for advocating or promoting change. If rationality was the guiding principle of reform in the nineteenth century, why was then so much search and research for external support? Part of the explanation lay in the excessive intermeshing of religion and society in the then-Indian context. Secondly the intellectuals were engaged in the actual work of reform, and not luxuriating in the epistemological pursuit of philosophic or speculative reasoning. They had to contend with the opposition coming in the way of reform, particularly when the orthodox opposition was not an ordinary reaction in the manner of an uninformed laity; it was an extremely erudite opposition. Apart from the tenacious trio of Mandlik, Chiplunkar and Tilak opposing

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Reason and religion  191 reform from varying standpoints, there were numerous other ‘educated’ elements in the fray, trying to pin down the reformers and their reform initiatives. They posed a serious challenge, both socially and intellectually. One of the standard arguments forwarded was that the reform ran counter to the Shastraic injunctions and thus lacked religious legitimacy and was ipso facto unworthy of public attention and acceptance. It was, therefore, a pragmatic necessity to counter the contention of the conservatives on the very turf of their traditional strength. The intellectual erudition was employed to dig out the bases of support in the religious texts in support of reform in order not only to combat the conservatives but also to convince the people of the validity of reform initiatives even in the eyes of ancient scriptures. The battle of wits was at its best particularly during the Consent controversy which led to the production of copious scholarly literature on the subject during the period. In the name of the plea for ‘reform from within’ and ‘legislation versus education’ as the mode of change, the very idea of change suffered a setback and was marginalised in the schema of conservative opposition. There was a growing realisation especially during the second half of the nineteenth century about the futility of setting up the authority of reason as final in socio-religious matters. They realised that reason alone was too weak a weapon for effecting reform in a society impregnated with religious values and beliefs in a situation of lack or insignificant spread of education. Chandavarkar quite aptly remarked, ‘There must be persuasion and reasoning but it is not by logic alone that men’s hearts are roused to a consciousness of social evils.’118 This realisation became more acute particularly on review of progress of the movement. The attempt to eradicate social evils on the basis of primarily secular approach as exemplified by the efforts of the Paramhansa Sabha had miserably failed. The founding of the Prarthana Samaj in 1867 in Bombay by Atmaram Pandurang Tarkhadkar with its shift in methodology119 was largely the outcome of this realisation. The Samaj was conceived to be a harmonised body of theism and secularism, its guiding principle being the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of man.120 As Bhandarkar recalled in 1915 in Bombay, ‘Some of the members of the Paramahansa Society felt that social reform could not have a stable and healthy footing unless based on Religious Reform.’121 Even Mahatma Phule who founded the Satya Shodhak Samaj in 1873, a society with proclaimed secular aims,

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192  Reason and religion tried to infuse spiritual orientation to this body. All the members of the Satya Shodhak Samaj were expected to treat all human beings as children of God and worship the Creator without any intermediation.122 It was not diminution of conviction in reason but context-driven pragmatism that led them to build up argumentation also on scriptural grounds. The pragmatic orientation of Indian rationality was, in fact, at its best in the nineteenth century. Although Jambhekar had already raised the issue of importance of reform being in conformity with the scriptures, its pragmatic necessity became more perceptible only over time. Telang tried to somewhat contextualise the evolving intellectual stance on scriptures in the contemporary context. He wrote: It is not the ‘Reformers’ that are relying on the Shastras in the matter. They are merely answering what the opponents of the Age of Consent Bill have been arguing on the basis of the Shastras. The supporters of the Bill base their support on the claims of humanity, not on the Shastras at all, so that the argument that the reference to the Shastras is a mere afterthought which no doubt is, really recoils on those who urge it. The Shastraic argument is an afterthought of the opponents of the Bill, not its supporters.123 He highlighted that it was ‘the reactionaries and misguided patriots’ who brought the ‘significance of the Shastras into quarters where hitherto actual practice was governed not by the Shastras but by tradition’.124 In retrospect, it seems the tendency to invoke the scriptural authorities had also to do with the fact of spirituality being the inherent orientation of the Indian thought-systems which the intellectuals were well acquainted with. We have seen that there was an intimate alliance between rationality and spirituality in pre-British Indian intellectual tradition. Indian rationality was firmly rooted in spirituality as a holistic project, and the scriptures formed an integral aspect of this complex web. The search for scriptural support in the nineteenth century was, therefore, in consonance and not in dissonance with this holistic tradition. It would be, thus, too tenuous and unhistorical to view this search in terms of dilution or diminution of rationalism. Rationality in the Indian intellectual tradition

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Reason and religion  193 had hardly been a purely epistemological pursuit, entirely or even largely independent of its holistic social duty. It was, therefore, not ideationally anachronistic to approach spirituality as an essential ingredient in the very schema of reform even in the nineteenth century, the period of excessive ideational impact of the West, the example of Agarkar notwithstanding. The perceptible imprint of traditional Indian thought and ethos in the nineteenth-century reform ideas in Maharashtra was, moreover, not an unexpected outcome. It was in the logic of the emerging nationalist thinking to look for the roots of cultural rejuvenation of the country in indigenous ethos and history, as a response and answer to the ongoing colonial cultural hegemonisation. This is, however, not to deny or minimise the impact of Western thought in the evolution of nineteenth-century consciousness which was, above all, marked by catholicism and will to profit from all possible sources, indigenous as well as foreign. Rationalism put itself into the service of nationalism during the nineteenth century. In the next chapter we shall study in detail the role of rational reform in nation building and in the shaping of nationalist consciousness and aspirations in the country.

Notes  1 G. C. Pande, Spiritual Vision, p. 7.  2 R. G. Bhandarkar, Collected Works, Vol. II, pp. 605–6.   3 Gopal Hari Deshmukh, ‘An Essay on Female Infanticide’ in Govardhan Parikh and Indumati Parikh (eds), Lokahitwadi Samagra Vangmaya, Part-I p. 598.  4 N. M. Parmanand, Letters to an Indian Raja, p. 8.  5 Ibid.   6 Ibid., pp. 8–19.   7 Ibid., p. 23.  8 M. G. Ranade, Religious and Social Reform, p. 262.  9 T. N. Jagadisan, The Wisdom of a Modern Rishi, pp. 59–60. 10 Ibid., pp. 259–78. 11 M.  G. Ranade, Religious and Social Reform, p. 256. 12 N.  G. Chandavarkar, The Speeches and Writings, pp. 232, 435. 13 Aravind Ganachari, G.G. Agarkar, p. 196. 14 N. H. Kulkarnee, ‘Hindu Religious Reform Movements in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Maharashtra’ in S. P. Sen (ed.), Social and Religious Reform Movements, p. 256; ‘A Biographical Sketch’ by G. G. Jambhekar in Bal Shastri Jambhekar, Memoirs and Writings, Vol. I, pp. 69, 86.

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194  Reason and religion 15  T. N. Jagadisan (ed.), The Wisdom of a Modern Rishi, pp. 46–7; Ramabai Ranade, Miscellaneous Writings, p. 189. 16 K. T. Telang 1850–93, A Memoir, 1951, p. 16. 17 R.  G. Bhandarkar, Collected Works, Vol. II, p. 623. 18 N.  G. Chandavarkar, The Speeches and Writings, pp. 549–98. 19 Ibid., p. 547. 20 Jotirao Phule, Collected Works, Vol. II, pp. 131–6. 21 Ibid., p. 131. 22 Ibid., pp. 135–6. 23 Ibid., pp. 136–7. 24 Ibid., pp. 85–6. 25 Ibid., pp. 39–40. This has already been discussed in the previous sections of this work. 26 Ibid. 27 Jotirao Phule, Cultivator’s Whipcord, Selected Writings, p. 175. 28 Letter dated July 1885 to Canon William Butter in Pandita Ramabai, The Letters and Correspondence, p. 80. 29 Letter dated 22 September 1885 in ibid., p. 88. 30 Letter dated 27 August 1887 in ibid., p. 202. 31 R.  G. Bhandarkar, Collected Works, Vol. II, p. 615. 32 Ibid., p. 623. 33 J. V. Naik, ‘Dharmavivechan’, p. 65. 34 R.  G. Bhandarkar, Collected Works, Vol. II, pp. 605–19. 35 N.  M. Parmanand, Letters to an Indian Raja, p. 19; The Indian Spectator, 1 December 1889. 36 Ibid. 37 Ibid., pp. 23–4. 38 See M. G. Ranade’s article ‘Butler’s Method of Ethics’, Poona Sarvajanik Sabha Quarterly, Vol. IV, No. 3, January 1882 as cited in M. G. Ranade, Miscellaneous Writings, p. 69. 39 M.  G. Ranade, Religious and Social Reform, p. 261. 40 James Kellock, Mahadev Govind Ranade, p. 150. 41 N.  G. Chandavarkar, The Speeches and Writings, p. 549. 42 Ibid., p. 553. 43 Ibid., p. 45. 44 Ibid., pp. 175–6. 45 Aravind Ganachari, G.G. Agarkar, p. 24. 46 James Kellock, Mahadev Govind Ranade, p. 150. 47 Ibid., p. 145. 48 See P. J. Jagirdar, Studies in the Social Thought of M.G. Ranade, Bombay, 1963, p. 12. 49 N.  G. Chandavarkar, The Speeches and Writings, p. 111. 50 Tapan Raychaudhuri, Perceptions, Emotions, Sensibilities: Essays in India’s Colonial and Post-colonial Experiences, New Delhi, 1999, p. 17. 51 As cited in B. R. Sunthankar, Nineteenth Century History of Maharashtra, Vol. I, p. 12. 52 V.N. Mandlik, Writings and Speeches, p. 196. 53 R.  G. Bhandarkar, Collected Works, Vol. II, p. 526.

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Reason and religion  195 54 N.  G. Chandavarkar, The Speeches and Writings, p. 256. 55 Ibid., p. 177. 56 Ibid., p. 39. 57 Ibid., pp. 204–5. 58 ‘Secular’ was used here as counterposed to ‘sacred’ and not to ‘communal’. See ibid., p. 111. 59 Ibid., p. 40. 60 Bal Shastri Jambhekar, ‘Biographical Materials’ in Memoirs and Writings, Vol. III, p. 20. 61 Dadoba Pandurang Tarkhadkar, A Hindu Gentleman’s Reflections on the Writings of Swedenborg, London, 1878, p. 7. 62 Jotirao Phule, Slavery, Collected Works, Vol. I, p. 83. 63 Jotirao Phule, Selected Writings, p. 18. 64 N.  M. Parmanand, Letters to an Indian Raja, p. 22; The Indian Spectator, 1 December 1889. 65 M.  G. Ranade, Religious and Social Reform, p. 273. 66 Ibid., pp. 274–5. 67 Ibid., p. 221. 68 Ibid., p. 222. 69 Ibid., p. 221. 70 Ibid. 71 Ibid., p. 220. 72 Ibid., p. 223. 73 R.  G. Bhandarkar, Collected Works, Vol. IV, p. 224. 74 Ibid. 75 Ibid. 76 M.  G. Ranade, Religious and Social Reform, p. 18. 77 Ibid., pp. 18–23. A Review of Education in Bombay State 1855–1955, Poona, 1958, p. 7. 78  79 N. H. Kulkarnee, ‘Hindu Religious Reform Movements in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Maharashtra’ in S. P. Sen (ed.), Social and Religious Reform Movements, p. 253. 80 Source Material for a History of the Freedom Movement in India (Collected from Bombay Government Records), Vol. I, 1818–85, Bombay, 1957, p. 171. 81 The Bombay Durpun, 7 February 1840 in Bal Shastri Jambhekar, Memoirs and Writings, Vol. II, p. 142. 82 Dadoba Pandurang Tarkhadkar, A Hindu Gentleman’s Reflections on the Writings of Swedenborg, pp. 11–2. 83 Ibid. 84 Ibid., p. 7. 85 Ibid. 86 Vasanta D. Rao, ‘The Paramhansa Sabha’ in S. P. Sen (ed.), Social Contents of Indian Religious Reform Movements, pp. 394–7. 87 Ibid., p. 397; N. H. Kulkarnee, ‘Hindu Religious Reform Movements in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Maharashtra’ in S. P. Sen (ed.), Social and Religious Reform Movements, p. 253; T. V. Parvate, Mahadev Govind Ranade, p. 40; G. C. Bhate, History of Modern Marathi Literature, p. 105.

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196  Reason and religion   88 Vasant D. Rao, ibid.; N. H. Kulkarnee, ibid.; Source Material for a History of the Freedom Movement in India, p. 171; B. R. Sunthankar, ‘Social Reform Movement in the 19th Century Maharashtra’ in V. D. Divekar (ed.), Social Reform Movements in India, p. 48; Stanley A. Wolpert, Tilak and Gokhale, p. 8.   89 N. H. Kulkarnee, ibid., p. 258; J. V. Naik, ‘Bhau Mahajan and his Prabhakar, Dhumketu and Dnyan Prakash’, p. 75.   90 As reported in The Weekly Review, 5 December 1986, Press Clippings in Gokhale Papers, MSS.  91 Aravind Ganachari, G.G. Agarkar, p. 189.   92 Ibid., pp. 189–90.  93 The Mahratta, 25 February 1883 as cited in ibid., p. 189.  94 Kesari, 5 June 1883 as cited in ibid.  95 Jotirao Phule, Slavery, Collected Works, Vol. I, p. 45.   96 Ibid., Vol. II, p. 106.  97 J. C. Masselos, Towards Nationalism, p. 34.  98 ‘A Biographical Sketch’ by G. G. Jambhekar in Bal Shastri Jambhekar, Memoirs and Writings, p. 68. Also see J. V. Naik, ‘Bhau Mahajan and his Prabhakar, Dhumketu and Dnyan Prakash, p. 72.  99 Sophia Dobson Collet, The Life and Letters of Raja Ram Mohan Roy, (ed.) Dilip Kumar Biswas and Prabhat Ganguli, Calcutta, 1962 (first publication 1900), pp. 71, 109. 100 Ibid., pp. 117–8. 101 Ibid., p. 151. 102 Ibid., p. 213. 103 Tapan Raychaudhuri, Perceptions, Emotions, Sensibilities, p. 81. 104 Ibid. 105 J.  C. Masselos, Towards Nationalism, p. 83. 106 Bal Shastri Jambhekar, Memoirs and Writings, Vol. I, p. 134. 107 Ibid., p. 69. 108 Gopal Hari Deshmukh, ‘An Essay on Female Infanticide’ in Govardhan Parikh and Indumati Parikh (eds.), Lokahitwadi Samagra Vangmaya, Part 1, pp. 594–611. 109 M.  G. Ranade, Religious and Social Reform, pp. 29–49, 96–7. 110 R.  G. Bhandarkar, Collected Works, Vol. II, pp. 538–83. 111 Jogendra Singh, B.M. Malabari, p. 115. 112 T. N. Jagadisan (ed.), The Wisdom of a Modern Rishi, p. 183. 113 R.  G. Bhandarkar, Collected Works, Vol. II, p. 525. 114 N.  G. Chandavarkar, The Speeches and Writings, p. 65. 115 Ibid., pp. 65–6. Also see Ganesh L. Chandavarkar, A Wrestling Soul, p. 77. 116 Ibid., pp. 323, 327–8. 117 See Proceedings of the Second Indian National Social Conference held at Allahabad on 30 December 1888 in K. T. Telang, Selected Writings and Speeches, Vol. I, p. 305. 118 N.  G. Chandavarkar, The Speeches and Writings, p. 88.

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Reason and religion  197 119 Ibid., p. 399; Christine Dobbin, Urban Leadership in Western India: Politics and Communities in Bombay City 1840–1885, pp. 250–1; B. R. Sunthankar, Nineteenth Century History of Maharashtra, Vol. I, p. 216. 120 R.  G. Bhandarkar, Collected Works, Vol. II, p. 480. Also see N. G. Chandavarkar, ibid., p. 404. 121 R. G. Bhandarkar, ibid. 122 Jotirao Phule, ‘Life-Sketch’ by N. R. Phadke in Collected Works, Vol. I, p. xix. 123 K.  T. Telang, Select Writings and Speeches, Vol. II, p. 472. 124 Ibid., p. 463.

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4 Rationalism and nationalism

The rise of Indian nationalism in the nineteenth century is often viewed as a political phenomenon, linking its initiation primarily with the emerging political consciousness to the virtual exclusion of its cultural dimension. Cultural consciousness that preceded political agitation is generally seen as a separate sphere of activity or at best epiphenomenal to the emerging political process. Historically speaking, however, it was in the realm of culture that nationalism in India found its initial expression in the nineteenth century. When ‘nation’, as distinct from region or province, became the fundamental frame of reference, identity and aspirations of the reformer-intellectuals in nineteenth-century Maharashtra, as perhaps elsewhere in India, intellectual nationalism was decidedly born. It was during the era of rationalism in the nineteenth century that the ongoing objective process of nation-formation began to establish itself in the subjective consciousness of the intellectuals of the time, much before the political form of nationalist consciousness ensued in the country. In fact, the notion of India as a nation found articulation prominently in the literature and ‘orature’ for the first time in the nineteenth-century reform initiatives, apart from the ongoing process of India’s objective knit-togetherness. The example of Maharashtra shows that the rational reform was not a separate sphere of activity, delinked from the nationalist agenda; its aims and aspirations, in fact, invariably culminated in the idea of national regeneration. Society and nation were viewed almost synonymously, one as the aid and the other as the aim of efforts. Rationalism and nationalism, to put it differently, were closely connected almost as a means-and-end continuum. The Indian national movement that emerged subsequently incorporated and carried forward many of the lessons and legacies

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Rationalism and nationalism  199 of the rationalist phase. The Rationalists were in a sense the Early Nationalists in modern Indian history. The rise of nationalist consciousness was, however, not a smooth affair, well structured and well articulated from the beginning; it entailed initial optimism and a sense of well-being under the very British rule which it was quintessentially pitted against. In fact, the rationalist phase was marked more by optimism than criticism of the colonial connection. The anti-colonial intellectual cognition, in general, was at best oblique rather than overt at this time point. This was the time of germination of the idea of India as a nation, as one people, as different from others. It was the period of intellectual search for self-strengthening and self-realisation as a national collectivity, distinct from diverse regional identities and their traditional autonomies. This was a new frame of reference, a new identity and it represented new aspirations, unprecedented in Indian history. The nationalism of the period was in the first place reflected in this pan-Indian identity and aspirations. The political manifestation of this realisation and aspiration was a subsequent development which has already been well documented by historians of the Indian freedom struggle.

Admiration or collaboration Most of the intellectuals in Maharashtra were ardent admirers of British rule and had a firm faith in its regenerative role. They even viewed it as a divine dispensation, destined to civilise and modernise India on modern European lines. The intellectuals’ admiration of British rule remained quite strong even in the late nineteenth century. It is, therefore, not easy to demarcate any sharp break in their perception during the second half as distinct from the first half of the century in terms of the former being characterised by criticism as against the latter by admiration, despite criticism of the colonial rule tending to turn into a chorus over a period. In fact, during the whole of the nineteenth century criticism as well as admiration characterised the approach of the intellectuals to the colonial dispensation in India. Jambhekar, who heralded the beginning of intellectual awakening in Western India, was highly impressed by the efforts of the British government towards the country’s amelioration. In the very first issue of his Bombay Durpun, which he started in 1832, he wrote: Since the establishment of the British Government in these extensive realms, opportunities have been taken to improve the

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200  Rationalism and nationalism moral and intellectual condition of the inhabitants of India, and the philanthropic endeavours of its enlightened rulers have been attended with a success that could hardly have been expected in so short a time. It is only sixty or seventy years that the province of Bengal has been in the possession of the English, but the changes that have taken place in the general condition of its inhabitants are truly astonishing. When we behold the country which was but a century ago the scene of violence, oppression, and misrule, enjoying security and freedom; and observe its inhabitants acquiring a superior knowledge of the Arts and Sciences of Europe; a bright example is presented to our minds of what a good government can do, when willing to ameliorate the condition of obedient and docile Subjects.1 The establishment of law and order and the introduction of modern education were prized by him as golden British gifts to India. Lokahitwadi also, particularly in the beginning, held the British rule to be a divine dispensation.2 In one of his letters he argued that the British had been sent to India by God to awaken the Hindus to the evils of terrible customs such as sati and infanticide.3 It is reiterated that despite their disenchantment with British rule in certain aspects of administration becoming more visible over a period, most of the reformers remained ardent admirers of British rule in India even in the late nineteenth century. Criticism in most of the cases did not mean questioning the continuity of the colonial rule, with possibly the sole exception of Chiplunkar who viewed freedom and foreign rule to be a contradiction in terms. We have already seen that Bhaskar Pandurang presented a soul-searching critique of colonial rule as early as 1841. The general intellectual mood, however, remained mostly one of admiration and optimism during the period in question. Mahatma Phule surpassed all bounds in his admiration for the British. He saw in their advent the real prospect of Shudra emancipation. To quote: The All-merciful Providence took pity on the Shudras and brought about the British Raj to India by its divine dispensation which emancipated the Shudras from the physical (bodily) thraldom (slavery). We shall never forget their kindness to us. It was the British rulers that freed us from the centuries-old oppression of the Bhat and assured a hopeful future for our children. Had

Rationalism and nationalism  201

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the British not come on the scene (in India) (as our rulers) the Bhats would surely have crushed us in no time (long ago).4 He was not in favour of the eviction of the English from India.5 However, being sceptical about the permanence of the rule of the Raj, he wished that the Shudras should hasten the process of emancipation from the clutches of Brahmanism during the British rule itself. He recalled with a sense of relief the defeat of the Indian Revolt of 1857. ‘It was through Providential dispensation that the revolt engineered by Bhat Nana (Peshwa and his henchmen) was put down by the brave English rulers.’6 Besides, each member of the Satyashodhak Samaj (Society of Seekers of Truth) founded by Phule had to take a pledge of loyalty to the British Empire.7 His sense of indebtedness to British rule was also at a personal level. He listed out in 1883 three major formative influences on the evolution of his own critical consciousness: childhood interaction with Muslim friends and neighbours, the Scottish Mission in Poona and their work towards spread of education on human rights, and finally the British rule encouraging the freedom of expression.8 He would not tire of singing in gratitude the salvational content of colonial connection. He reiterated: After the advent of the British rule in India, some kind-hearted Englishmen and Americans . . . preferred a most valuable advice to us as follows: ‘Friends, we are all equal human beings. The Creator and Sustainer of us all is one. When you deserve to have (human rights) like us why do you deserve to have (spurious) authority of the Brahmins?’ They placed many different novel ideas before me. When, after deep reflection, I came to understand my due rights (and principles) I kicked open the main door of the vast false prison-house of Brahmin cunning and tyranny and emerged in the sunshine of freedom, and thanked our Creator from the bottom of my heart.9 In a booklet A Warning written in 1885 Phule was again fulsome in his praise for the colonial rule. He wrote, ‘By divine dispensation, the English rule (or supremacy or raj) came to be established here, a rule which was at once just, merciful, wholesome, beneficial and righteous – for the comfort and benefit of the long-suffering masses in India. May this regime last long! After the advent of the English raj here,

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202  Rationalism and nationalism the common people were freed, at long last, from the inhuman oppression and tyranny.’10 Mahatma Phule had more than one reason for his eloquent indebtedness to the English rule. First, the British rule in his view led to the freedom of the depressed and down-trodden masses in India from the physical slavery imposed by the Brahmanical order.11 Second, the British government provided educational opportunities to the children of all marginalised groups such as the Mangs and the Mahars, it being so far the privilege of the privileged few.12 Third, it promoted human rights and dignity13 and thus helped create a conducive climate for establishment of equality between man and man, man and woman. He, however, held the British government yet to be lackadaisical in the task of liberating the down-trodden people from their ‘mental slavery’ which, he highlighted, could be brought about only by providing mass education.14 Bhandarkar was so impressed by the evidence of British beneficence that he took pride in the fact of India being an integral part of England. In his own words, ‘We are the inhabitants of Great Britain, i.e. of the larger section of Britain, the smaller section of which is situated in North-Western Europe. . . . Therein lies our salvation.’15 He held the destiny of Indian nation was glued to the destiny of Great Britain. The establishment of political stability, the rule of law, the suppression of thugees, the introduction of modern means of communication such as railways, telegraph and postal services, and above all, of modern education were seen as living examples of the British intent to civilise India. In his convocation address as vice-chancellor of the University of Bombay delivered in 1894, he said: We ought to consider ourselves peculiarly fortunate in having fallen into the hands of a nation that has a conscience. England would be ashamed of herself if she held India solely for the purpose of her own aggrandisement. She has consciously undertaken the function of civilizing India, and this University is one of the many evidences available. She has given an orderly and stable government to the country; destroyed the Thugs, Pindharis and Dacoits; allowed to everyman the right to live and enjoy his earnings; and given us the benefits of the nineteenth century – railways, telegraphs, a highly organized post office, and so on. . . . Above all, the Englishman possesses immense powers of organization; his work is always methodical and systematic. For it was by these qualities that he succeeded

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Rationalism and nationalism  203 in establishing an empire in India, before he had steamships, railways, electric telegraphs, and powerful guns and other arms of precision. A wise Indian patriot, therefore, will take pride in the fact that this country forms a very important member of the Empire over which the sun never sets, and that India is one of the brightest jewels, if not the brightest, in the British Crown. . . . 16 Bhandarkar viewed even the rise of the reform movement to be the outcome of India’s interaction with the West mainly through the agency of English education.17 Ranade was equally optimistic of India’s improvement under providential English rule. To quote: We have hitherto written with a sense of gratitude towards the British Nation and the British Government under which we live and which has done so much for our country and which is destined, in the goodness of Providence, still more to raise us in the scale of nations and civilization . . . the only policy which the British Government of India should persistently follow should be one of progressive improvement. So help them God, Thou who art the Ruler and disposer of Nations!18 The sole rationale of British rule in India is its capacity and its providential purpose of fostering the political education of the country on the largest scale in civil and public activities.19 He held, ‘The English rule should be regarded as a fortunate occurrence for India, and not as a reason for refusing the preferred knowledge. . . . Instead of decrying the impact upon India of Western thought the true lover of India will rejoice in it.’20 Telang also represented the genre of thought which pinned faith in Indian progress under the guidance of Great Britain. Like many others he, too, nurtured the notion that the British would grant Indians ‘full political rights, when we show them that we deserve them and shall use them well’.21 Malabari was equally emphatic in propagating continuity of the colonial connection for progress of the country. He observed: We must have a longer contact with this creation (the English man), if we require to get on with, and improve upon, the political education we have already acquired. . . . It is from this contact mainly that we have derived our ideas of equality and freedom,

204  Rationalism and nationalism

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on which our hope of a nationality must rest. Anything that deprecates the contact points to retrogression, not progress.22 He was extremely critical of Tilak’s kind of nationalism which he held to be blinkered and bleared. To quote, ‘With some of our purblind ultra-radicals the ideal of “patriotism” seems to have been bleared. Patriotism is not a blatant denunciation of everything that emanates from others, nor an equally blatant exaltation of the emptiness of our own conceits.’23 He expected a sense of equanimity on both sides – India and Britain, and made his famous observation, ‘The best way for them (the official class) to curse the Congress is to bless it.’24 Further, ‘If the educated natives of India have to learn that, foreign or no foreign, the Government of their country is their own Government, the European officials have equal need of learning that they are the paid agents of the people of India, paid to carry out their legitimate wishes and to find scope for their legitimate aspirations.’25 Chandavarkar was another ardent admirer of the regenerative role of the Raj. He held the introduction of English education to be a remarkable watershed in the development of liberal ideas and environment in India.26 He argued in his write-up in The Times of India on 15 December 1886, ‘The spirit of enquiry is abroad. All this is due to the British influences, among which the influence of higher and primary education stands in this connection foremost.’27 In his lecture to the students in the Wilson College in Bombay the same year he proclaimed that there was a Providential design in placing India under the civilising care of England. In his own words, ‘Providence consigned it (India) to England’s more methodical and more civilized rule. . . . I perceive in that fact the finger of God working in inscrutable way to raise and to elevate my fallen country, and to once more make it with the aid of England, the help-mate of civilization and of progress.’28 Chandavarkar remained consistent in his eulogism of the British rule and the benefits flowing from this connection. In the meeting of the Madras Hindu Social Reform Association held in 1896 he further emphasised, ‘It is not merely the blessings of peace and order which the British administration has bought in its train . . . but the spirit of enquiry and of individuality which the genius of that administration has a tendency to foster in those brought within its dominion.’29 Again, in his speech at the National Indian Association in England in 1902 he said, ‘I consider it a piece of good fortune and the finger of God working in history that we in India have been brought into relationship with the people of this land of the

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Rationalism and nationalism  205 ancient Britons – energetic and fair minded. England and India, for better or for worse, are tied together . . . of this contact between the two countries I pray that it may prove permanently conducive to the well-being and good of both India and England.’30 The liberal milieu created by the British was seen to be conducive particularly to the growth of women in the country, in sharp contrast to the situation prevailing under the retrogressive regimes in medieval times.31 Admiration or even eulogism of the British rule, in short, constituted a dominant trait of the mainstream intellectual strand represented largely by Jambhekar, Lokahitwadi, Bhandarkar, Ranade, Telang, Malabari and Chandavarkar, despite devastating criticism of the colonial rule by Ranade, in particular, in the second half of the nineteenth century. Although Mahatma Phule did not belong to the genre of mainstream movement in Maharashtra, he was one with them, even far ahead, in holding British rule in very high esteem for its beneficial influences on India. Parmanand did not articulate his reverence for the Raj in terms of it being a divine dispensation; yet he seemed to be highly impressed by the perceived advantages flowing from the colonial connection. In particular he like many of his contemporary compatriots praised the British system of constitutionalism, rule of law, liberality of thought and education which he wished for transplantation on the Indian soil.32 Agarkar too did not believe in the doctrine of divine dispensation. He, however, held that British rule was more acceptable to ‘Muslim’ rule on account of its superior education and advanced social progress of the British.33 The intellectuals, in general, were highly optimistic of India’s progress under the British rule which they thought would lead to the country’s modernisation along modern European lines.34 There were, of course, moments of their serious annoyance at the Raj wherever it appeared to fall short of their expectations. Bipan Chandra in his The Rise and Growth of Economic Nationalism in India has vividly portrayed the economic critique of colonial rule by Moderate nationalists. But even in Moderate nationalism, the continuity of colonial rule was not seriously questioned. The emphasis remained confined to correcting what they perceived to be colonial aberrations which by implication as well as by their admission actually meant in their perception deviations from the inherently wholesome British polity. The aberrations were scarcely seen as being an integral to the very nature of colonialism as a system or structure of domination and exploitation. During the Rationalist phase, in general, the criticism of the colonial rule remained somewhat more subdued, despite incisive critique of

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206  Rationalism and nationalism British rule by Bhaskar Pandurang and Chiplunkar. In fact, the understanding of colonial rule essentially as a structure of exploitation in India remained by and large weak for most of the nineteenth-century intellectual cognition, Rationalist as well as Moderate. This does not mean that they were not as nationalistic as others who argued eloquently against the rationale of the Raj. Notably, these admirers of British rule stood for India and not England as the fundamental frame of reference, identity and aspirations. They primarily wished and worked for unity and development of India, not Great Britain. If England figured in reference it was only in terms of its being an aid or means to the ultimate aim of national rejuvenation and modernisation. Moreover, their belief in British beneficence was not blind; it was on occasions quite critical and qualified. As years rolled on and the seamy side of the colonial rule became more and more visible, these very believers of divine dispensation grew sceptical of the English rule. Eulogism turned into criticism whenever they found it faulting or wanting. Dadoba Pandurang did not subscribe to the view that the British rule was a divine dispensation.35 The degree of his disillusionment with the British government was, therefore, not that sharp, compared to Lokahitvadi and others who had been great proponents of this doctrine. Lokahitwadi, however, even in the 1840s, the phase of immense admiration for the English rule, had a prophetic insight into the coming course of the freedom struggle even before it was born politically. He stated: The English rule in India is not eternal; we shall also become wise by learning Western science and technology and we shall endeavour to excel and beat them on their own ground. In order to remove our discontent the British might part with some power. The more power they give the more will it whet our appetite for it and the British may begin to oppose our demands. If they do so, we may perhaps have to do what the Americans did when they drove away the English from their land.36 His insight into the coming course of the political agitation was, in retrospect, a significant anticipation of the Gandhian strategy of political action and mass mobilisation during the freedom struggle in the twentieth century. After 1857 Lokahitwadi became more disillusioned at the gradual discovery of the seamy side of the colonial

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Rationalism and nationalism  207 rule.37 He found the growing pauperisation of the rural peasantry under the British quite disturbing. He highlighted this aspect particularly in his book Gramrachna.38 Mahatma Phule, a staunch supporter of the British rule, also found the British government failing in providing education to the masses. He made a distinction between what he called ‘physical slavery’ and ‘mental slavery’; the British government, he held, had not yet taken up in right earnest the task of providing mass education in order to liberate the Shudras from their ‘mental slavery’. In his Introduction to Gulamgiri he wrote: We are sorry to state that the benevolent British Government have not addressed themselves to the important task of providing education to the said masses. That is why the Shudras continue to be ignorant, and hence, their ‘mental slavery’ regarding the spurious religious tracts of the Bhats continues unabated. They cannot even appeal to the Government for the redressal of their wrongs.39 He charged the British officials for remaining engrossed in luxury and leisure and neglecting the problems of the downtrodden in the process. ‘The lassitudinous luxury of the White’ was, he described, largely responsible for the ‘penurious and pitiable plight of the farmers’.40 The increasing tolls and taxes on the peasants, invasion of Indian market with British manufactured goods at cheaper rates, ‘deindustrialisation’ and pauperisation of the artisans were cited as some of the retrogressive aspects of the British rule in India.41 He wrote, ‘From the day the English started ruling this country, the educated and skilled craftsmen in England have started producing goods with machines and are selling these goods here at cheaper rates than those of goods produced by all the letter-less Mangs and iron-smiths and weavers here, thus forcing them into starvation.’42 Phule reasoned that there was a design in perpetuating ignorance among the people for their easy exploitation. He wrote: If the farmer does not get any relief, should he pay the tax with money borrowed from the Marwadi moneylender, or should he avoid it, and become a robber? What a just kingdom is this, wealthy in knowledge. . . . And now even though they speak sweetly to all the farmers, and collect money as they will, they avoid educating the farmer. The main

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208  Rationalism and nationalism reason behind this must be that they realize that the moment the farmer educates himself and acquires knowledge, he will carry his whip on his shoulder and he will bring the goddess of wealth back to his own home, and make her stay there happily. Because if this ever happens, the English will have to scream and yell, and travel to America, and somehow manage to fill their bellies by working hard day and night.43 The sense of disillusionment was not confined only to a few individuals; it was quite pervasive. Ranade’s understanding of self-serving nature of the British rule became very vociferous as years rolled on. Dwelling on the question of State Legislation in Social Matters he clearly stated, ‘In this case, however, the Rulers have no interest to move of their own accord. If they consulted their selfish interests only, they would let us remain as we are, disorganized and demoralized, stunted and deformed, with the curse of folly and wickedness paralyzing all the healthy activities and vital energies of our social body.’44 Telang indicated his disillusionment and wrote in 1879: For a long time, many of us were undoubtedly of the same opinion as Mr. Pedder as to the Reign of Law. But we must confess that . . . the old reference of the Reign of Law is gradually given the go-by; and the doctrines of personal Government are coming down in a deluge upon us. In recent years, there has been a most perceptible increase of a certain species of legislation, which is not only incompatible with a real Reign of Law but makes the Reign of Law in truth a sham and delusion.45 Ranade remarked in the context of the Ilbert Bill controversy in 1883 about the inevitability of transfer of power. His conception of India’s independence was, however, limited to self-rule or self-government in subordinate alliance with England. To quote: There can be no question that a nation of 250 millions can ever be permanently held down by sheer force and sooner or later in God’s Providence and under the encouragement of British example and discipline, the people of this country must rise to the status of a self-governed community and learn to control their own affairs in subordinate alliance with England. The transfer of power is inevitable.46

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Rationalism and nationalism  209 There was, however, no comprehension at the Rationalists’ stage of nationalist positioning about colonialism being innately a structure of exploitation and domination, particularly during the early years. Even Ranade who in the second half of the nineteenth century prominently brought into focus the exploitative character of the colonial rule, but had faith in the fairness of British polity. Instances of exploitation, arbitrariness and arrogation of authority by the British in their colonial management were seen mostly as local individual administrators oriented aberrations, lapses, deviations or excesses of its otherwise a fundamentally constitutional polity. Ranade reasoned, ‘The Government of India, both in India and in England, is a constitutional machine, its very aberrations and occasional lapses into absolutism are illustrations of its constitutional restraints.’47 Telang held a similar view, ‘the foreign domination is comparatively mild and is itself of a politically progressive character’.48 In the context of the Ilbert Bill controversy he made an appeal in a public meeting on 28 April 1883, ‘Let us take it before the House of Commons. Let us leave this matter to their judgment, in the full confidence that it will be there decided on considerations free from local passions and local prepossession.’49 Even Mandlik, the champion of social conservatism, was of the same view and wrote in 1866, ‘. . . the views and feelings of the natives of India are not properly made known to British statesmen in England, and hence fail to be appreciated’.50 He criticised the British doctrine of lapse as an instrument of annexation which he held to be morally and scripturally untenable.51 This understanding was germane not only to the mainstream rationalists but extended even to most of the Moderate leadership that ensued subsequently. Dadabhai Naoroji, for instance, did not view Drain to be inherently structural to the British colonial system but found it to be ‘one unnatural policy of the British rule’.52 Deliverance of justice from the British people and parliament was rather taken for granted by intellectuals at the time. Even Tilak was not totally untouched by this pervasive perception that final remedy lay with the British public and parliament. In a letter dated 6 December 1904 he wrote: I do maintain that without persistent work in England carried on by our own men, mere annual gathering in India would be of no avail. The annual session of the Congress is like the croaking of frogs in the rains, only a seasonal activity; we cannot hope to gain

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much by it unless our efforts are supplemented by a persistent agitation in England.53 Spreading awareness among the people and parliament in England about instances of aberrations in India was thus viewed to be an effective method of colonial correction in the nineteenth century. It would not be proper to view this innocent or even naïve optimism as the offshoot of an inherent frailty on the part of the intellectuals of the time. The reasons appear to be largely embedded in the entirety of the situation. Needless to say, the process of intellectual formation in nineteenth-century Maharashtra took place within the colonial context. The introduction of English education loaded with colonial curriculum having Western orientation, particularly in higher education, the projection of England as being the representative of emerging European modernity riding on technological superiority, image of evolution of Great Britain as a constitutional polity, coupled with the introduction in India of modern means of communication such as railways, telegraph, printing press, the new system of statecraft, law and jurisprudence, and the establishment of rule of law and law and order, etc. did help in formation of a positive image of British rule among the newly educated intelligentsia during the initial years of the nineteenth century. The British did not rule India entirely by brute force, employed hegemonising means and followed initially a policy of caution and conciliation in cultural sphere. This initial experience presented a conspicuous contrast with the pre-British Indian system still largely mired in medievalism. Technologically, economically and politically superior Britain could and did naturally influence the initial ideation of the first generation of the English-educated favourably. In fact, those who were more socially sensitive from among the emerging intelligentsia eventually took up the mantle of intellectuals engaged in the problems of society and culture. It was quite natural for that generation to eye to the West with awe and admiration. Dazzled by the achievements of the West and impressed by the modernising initiatives of the English in India, however limited and double edged, these early intellectuals came to nurture notions of rosy replication of modernisation of the country on modern Western lines. It was not easily possible for this generation to fully grasp in the beginning the real meaning of colonial modernisation which the British effected in India principally through the process and as a means of hegemonisation. It was only gradually that the colonial

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Rationalism and nationalism  211 content of the British rule could come to the fore over a period. Anti-colonial articulations seen in plenty in the second half of the nineteenth century, particularly during the Moderate phase and even beyond, could be the outcome of gradual maturation of intellectuals’ understanding of the colonial rule in the country. In a significant sense, there was a palpable affinity between Rationalists and Moderates in their approach to British rule. Both believed in the civilisational superiority of the modern West. Both admired British rule as a beneficial influence on India and clung to the doctrine of divine dispensation. Both criticised colonial rule, mainly meant for its correction and not for sapping of its continuity. They all stood for modernity and shunned medievalism as a frame of reference for the future. They advocated modernisation and industrialisation as key to India’s salvation which, they held, could be achieved by her continued association with England for a considerable period. In his self-composed preamble to the constitution of the Servants of India Society founded by Gokhale in 1905 he stated, ‘The members of the Servants of India Society (in Poona) frankly accept the British connection as ordained in the inscrutable dispensation of Providence, for India’s good. Self-government within the Empire for their country and a higher life generally for their countrymen is their goal.’54 In his address to the Deccan Sabha on 4 July 1909 he further stated: At the beginning of the last century, British rule appeared to the people over the greater part of India more as a deliverance from chronic disorder and misrule than as a foreign rule with its inevitable drawbacks.55 There is no alternative to British rule not only now but for a long time to come. . . . This rule, in spite of its inevitable drawbacks as a foreign rule, has been on the whole a great instrument of progress for our people. Its continuance means the continuance of that peace and order which it alone can maintain in the present circumstances of the country.56 Above all, both Rationalists and Moderates were nationalists in their aims and aspirations, and worked for India’s development and regeneration. The Moderates, however, differed from the Rationalists in more ways than one. For one, they were patently political in their aims and aspirations. They believed in political means and tried to wrest

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212  Rationalism and nationalism political concessions from the British government to the extent possible, unlike the Rationalists who emphasised social self-correction and self-strengthening as being primary and pre-conditional to national progress and reconstruction. The Moderates aimed to attain self-government within the Empire by constitutional means. Most of the Rationalists, on the other hand, did not insist on spelling out their political aim as the Moderates did. It was, however, Ranade who advocated the achievement of self-government as the national objective. But then his ambit was very broad and he represented both Rationalist and Moderate nationalism in the nineteenth century. The hallmark of Moderates’ cognition was the economic critique of the colonial rule,57 first formulated, however, during the Rationalist phase. Moreover, in the Moderates’ perception, the idea of independence was tempered by their fear of British backlash and repression. Gokhale articulated in 1909, ‘Towards ideas of independence the Government could adopt only one attitude – that of stern and relentless repression.’58 One does not come across such sensitivity in rationalist articulations in nineteenth century Maharashtra. In some ways, the phase of the Moderates was undoubtedly an advance in the evolution of nationalist consciousness in the country. The Rationalists, however, formed an integral thread of this complex web. There were many close overlaps between the Rationalist and Moderate positions in modern Indian history despite certain differences between the two.

Condemnation of colonial rule Maharashtra in the nineteenth century constituted a unique stage of intellectual manifestation of rational resurgence and even nationalist militancy simultaneously. The dominant doctrine of divine dispensation faced its severest challenge and criticism during the course of the nineteenth century itself. The notion of British beneficence was hit hard first by Bhaskar Pandurang, younger brother of the illustrated Dadoba Pandurang. As early as 1841 he published eight letters in The Bombay Gazette, a leading English daily of those days, under the penname of ‘A Hindoo’,59 highlighting the corrosive aspects of British colonialism in India. He hit at nearly every aspect of British rule and took the halo out of it by exposing its exploitative and racial character. In his very first letter published on 30 July 1841 he blamed the

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British for ‘draining India of its wealth and reducing it to poverty’.60 In what may be called an anticipation of Naoroji’s drain theory, he wrote: If I were to give you credit for your having exempted us from Pindharees and Ramoshees, your trading system stands in the way which has indeed more effectively emptied our purses in a few years than the predatory excursions of these tribes could do in some five or six hundred years.61 You plunder us on all sides and pompously say that you have secured us from the depredations of Pindharees, Ramoshees, etc. What a duplicity is this?62 He elaborated his idea of drain in his fifth letter published on 20 August 1841. He identified the drain taking place largely in the form of large annual remittances to British colonies in America and Africa, the salary of British civil and military officialdom, the share of the East India Company, and above all, through trade. To quote: Large annual remittances are said to have been made to your colonies both in America and Africa to defray their expenses, while you take away millions of Rupees from hence in your capacities both as shareholders in the East India Stock and as Civil and Military Functionaries of the Company, – but above all nothing has drained India so much of its wealth as by your trade. All the raw materials produced in this country are sent to England for manufacturing them into articles and be brought back again here for sale. Were cotton cloth manufactured here, how much cheaper we could get it than we now do. Not, not only this, but you have, in order that your cloth may meet with an extensive sale throughout India, established a very high duty on the country cloth, and made your’s free of all charge! Is this honesty? Woe to you and your Government. We cannot look on your Government in any other light than that of the most bitter curse India has ever been visited with. The whole wealth of India has now been transported to Great Britain, and we have no employment left us. . . . India has been got hold of by a race of demons who would never be satisfied until they have despoiled her of all her precious things and reduced her sons and daughters to total beggary.63

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214  Rationalism and nationalism Dadabhai Naoroji delineated the subject of drain in detail subsequently and his theory of drain came to form the kernel of the Moderates’ economic critique of colonialism. It was, however, Bhaskar Pandurang who first highlighted the idea of India’s drain through trade as the real face of British rule, despite a certain degree of naivety and emotion noticeable in his expressions. Dadabhai’s theory of drain on the other hand exemplified masterly erudition and analysis and stood strongly substantiated by meticulous facts and figures. It was highly authoritative and rigorous in research in comparison to Bhaskar’s views which relied more on the sharpness of his observation and incisiveness. It is, however, the historicity of Bhaskar’s formulation that firmly establishes its signification and value in modern Indian history. He could see that the drain was instrumental in India’s poverty and pauperisation, thus falsifying the doctrine of divine dispensation at a time point when belief in British beneficence was a predominant perception in the country. Drain was a matter of concern also with other intellectuals in the nineteenth century. Malabari in particular criticised the colonial connection for annual drain of India’s wealth. He wrote: It is this exhausting drain – carrying off the life-blood of the nation in the shape of pay, pension, annuity, purchase money, profits of enormous business, and interest on still more gigantic loans – that has naturally riveted the attention of far-seeing critics. Is it not a grievous economic fallacy that India, the poorest country in the civilized world, should be administered on a scale of remuneration, too high even for the richest country. . . . It is a point worth noticing that under the worst of native rulers the wealth of the country remained generally in the country. . . . The annual drain of wealth from the country is appalling. It creates an emptiness which the fattest surplus possible to India cannot fill. To say that the drain is inevitable is an extenuation, not a justification of the evil. . . . The English are killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.64 Bhaskar Pandurang tried to expose the hollowness inherent in the British claim that they brought about prosperity, law and order, peace and security in India. He argued, ‘To say that a country taken possession of by a horde of foreign usurpers whose sole aim is to enrich themselves at the expense of its real masters, is prospering under them, is as absurd as to conclude that a town left at the tender

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mercies of a gang of robbers is enjoying all the advantages of peace and security in spite of their depredations and oppressions.’65 He also took the British to task for their racial arrogance and discrimination, and criticised the British system of law and justice for being biased and inequitable. He wrote: You keep yourself quite aloof also from your native brethren and conduct yourselves with such haughtiness and pride as if you were quite a distinct and superior order of beings. Your partiality to your countrymen is extreme and it is not very seldom that we witness your sacrificing your conscience and trampling under foot your law, and leaving aside every other consideration to preserve the life of your countrymen or lighten his punishment, however extremely heinous his crime may be and however deserved he may be to very harsh punishment. . . . If such be your justice and impartiality, we have gained nothing by being freed from the oppression and tyranny of the Mahomedan and other barbarous rulers of Hindoostan. All your formalities and sham trials are nothing but pure humbug.66 He also highlighted the conscious British policy to deny employment to Indians in higher offices of administration. ‘Can you point out a single instance of a Native who has embraced Christianity is nominated to a high civil appointment and is treated on equal terms with his white-skinned Brethren?’67 Criticising British monopoly of civil and military appointments and the denial to just claims of Indians he wrote, ‘You have also reserved to yourselves the monopoly of all civil and military appointments and trampled under foot our just rights and privileges. . . . You not only withhold from us high appointments, but you would not permit us to have a voice in your administration of our country.’68 Bhaskar Pandurang’s incisive understanding of British colonialism was too pungent for the age in which it was articulated. He tried to expose the British shrewdness in carrying out the colonial designs under the garb of legality in order to ‘give it the colour of justice and equity’. He stated: I admit that you do not exercise open tyranny such as the Mahomedan and other Barbarians did; but why should you do so, when all kinds of aggressions could be committed under the garb of law and justice – whenever you have to establish a new act of oppression your first precaution is to insert it in your

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Indian Code of laws and give it the colour of justice and equity. If constructions of roads, etc. are blessings on India, which if properly viewed are nothing but mere conveniences you have made for your own sake. . . . 69 This statement closely corresponds with Naoroji’s understanding of the methodology of British colonialism in the late nineteenth century. Bhaskar also exposed the sham and duplicity embedded in the ideational foundations of colonial rule and wrote: It is quite impossible for one man to enumerate all your misdeeds, which are of daily occurrences; your insincerity in politics and treachery in trade and your undue extortions from the Ryots, and your partiality in the distribution of justice, are topics of too vast an importance to the inhabitants of Hindoostan to be commented upon . . . Your Courts of Justice are only to confirm whatever oppressions or acts of cruelty you would visit them with, and your justice does not consist in any other thing but in injustice to themselves.70 Bhaskar thus found the British rule unwelcome from all possible standpoints – politically insincere, economically exploitative, racially discriminatory and essentially anti-Indian. J.  V. Naik’s comparison of Bhaskar’s letters with Lokakhitwadi’s Shatapatre,71 however, appears to be a bit far-fetched, as both belonged to two different intellectual strands. Moreover, Lokahitwadi’s canvass was much bigger and all-encompassing for national regeneration in comparison to Bhaskar’s views which were primarily anti-colonial criticisms sans concrete projects towards comprehensive national reconstruction. It would be also wrong to read too much into his militancy. In fact, Bhaskar’s letters derive their validity more on account of their historicity rather than being a template of militant nationalism of twentieth-century India which was characterised not only for its overt anti-colonialism but also for its strategy and expansion of the ambit of the movement and its social base, with demand for freedom as the rallying point. Moreover, like many of his intellectual successors, Bhaskar Pandurang did not view the misrule, oppression, discrimination and exploitation as being germane to the structure of colonialism but held them to be local aberrations effected without the knowledge and sanction of British people at large. He stated, ‘We would now no longer tamely bear your audacity. We would go to

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Rationalism and nationalism  217 England and open the eyes of the British public to the gross injustice India has received at their hands.’72 Bhaskar’s anti-colonial venting was, however, a lone voice in the contemporary context and could not turn into a chorus, despite certain outpourings of somewhat similar ilk that appeared in The Bombay Gazette contemporaneously. It resurfaced only after nearly four decades with greater pungency, tenacity and varying degrees of intensity with the arrival of Chiplunkar, Agarkar and Tilak on the intellectual scene in the nineteenth century. Chiplunkar wrote a long essay entitled ‘Amchya Deshachi Sthiti’ spread over in eight issues of the Nibandhamala in 1881. He bemoaned the loss of national freedom and raised the pitch of the outcry against economic exploitation of the country under British domination. He highlighted the subordination of Indian interests to those of the merchants of Manchester. He, however, concluded that the degradation of intellect and the allied loss of self-respect in the process was the greatest disadvantage and debilitation resulting from the colonial connection. To quote: Nothing can compensate a nation for the loss of freedom. In the last century the wealth, the power and the learning of the Hindus was a reality, but now the same words do not convey the same ideas. All the native princes in India, whether great or small, are mere puppets in the hands of their respective Political Agents. . . . The wealth of the Hindus is as little respected now as that possessed by courtesans. In points of learning the Hindus are nowhere now when compared with Western nations. The trades and industries are now things of the past. For every article of consumption the natives have to depend upon foreign importation. . . . The whole land is under the subjection of Englishmen, who first entered it by flattering the then rulers. These Englishmen impose taxation at their pleasure and spend the proceeds as they please. The condition of the natives is not better than that of the lower animals. . . . The loss of freedom comes in the way of the advancement of the natives at every turn. If new industries are started, a single circular from the Legislative Council is sufficient to nip them in the bud. The merchants of Manchester are the brethren of the rulers of India and their cries are sympathetically heard. . . . The greatest disadvantage, however, which has resulted from foreign domination, is the degradation of intellect. A man who is accustomed to servility loses by degrees self-respect, courage and shame and contracts various vices. Such is the deplorable

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condition of the natives. The spread of education has undoubtedly not produced any good result worth noticing.73 Chiplunkar was known for his acerbic and vitriolic tone and tenor. He championed the cause of India’s freedom through the columns of Nibandhamala, a Marathi magazine started by him in 1874. The British rule, in his view, was the root cause of India’s poverty, economic as well as intellectual. He highlighted that the country was prosperous before the advent of the British; even the tyranny of the Muslim rule was far better than the British rule.74 He criticised the Christian missionaries for their negative portrayal of the Indian social system and their denigration of indigenous traditions and customs.75 He also entered into controversy with Indian intellectuals, Mahatma Phule in particular, for their denunciation of Indian sociocultural practices. He, however, himself criticised the treatment meted out to widows and the prohibition of widow marriage.76 Though critical of Brahmin caste, he justified the supremacy of Brahmins and maintained that no matter what members of other castes might say or do, the supremacy of the Chitpavans would remain unchallenged.77 He cherished the value of intellectual autonomy and freedom of expression and contended: Just as Englishmen are not gods, neither are we animals or demons. Both of us have our virtues and vices and like the English writers, we, too, have a right to discuss them. The editor of the Dnyanodaya (the mouth-piece of the Christian missionaries) believes that the exercise of this right on our part amounts to ingratitude or sedition. We do not think so. . . . We will write impartially about whatever we consider as true regardless of other people’s likes and dislikes because we believe that truth is immortal.78 His nationalist militancy did not, however, make him entirely dismissive of the British. He praised them for their punctuality, industriousness, pride and patriotism and urged Indians to emulate them.79 He also made the famous statement that ‘the English language is like a tigress, and one who is brought up on her milk should never be a weakling’.80 His untimely demise in 1882 at a young age of thirty-two, however, checkmated the full flowering of his fiery patriotism. Agarkar too mercilessly criticised the colonial rule for thwarting the reform activities and for the reduction of India to total economic subordination and political slavery.81 Although in his view the British

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Rationalism and nationalism  219 rule represented an advance over the Muslim rule, he agreed that the native rule was far better than the British rule; ‘under the British rule India has been reduced to total economic dependency and political slavery’.82 He further exposed the hollowness of the British claim to have brought about prosperity in India and wrote, ‘We are groaning under most crushing taxes . . . an appearance of prosperity succeeded the demolition of native rule. But who cannot see that this is an appearance of prosperity and not prosperity itself; an illusion not reality!’83 The rationalist phase, in short, constituted the embryonic stage in the history of evolution of nationalist consciousness in India. It contained the ideational seeds of Indian nationalism which the Moderates and the Extremists could later build upon. Emphasis on cultural reformation of the country as a necessary prelude to the political process should not be seen as an evidence denoting lack of political sensitivity on the part of the rationalists. The movement was not confined to the cultural domain only but covered almost the entire gamut of nationalist concerns which found further articulations during the Moderate and Extremist phases. Their ideational influence on future leadership was also quite organic. Gokhale was akin to Ranade and Tilak to Chiplunkar; both greatly influenced the politics of the nation during the early years of the twentieth century. Gokhale emerged as an epitome of moderation and Tilak as an icon of extremism the story of which, however, lies outside the ambit of the present study.

Economic critique The anti-colonial current of the Rationalists, as suggested earlier, extended even to the economic field, although concern for culture predominated over that of economy in the overall rationalist thinking in the nineteenth century. It was, in fact, the Rationalists who first provided the economic critique of British rule in India. Jambhekar, despite being impressed by scientific and technological superiority of the West, was perhaps the first reformer in Western India to highlight the discriminatory taxation policy of the British to be responsible for India’s industrial and agricultural stultification. He observed: European goods are exempted and pass free, while native products, and thereby native industry, which ought to be protected and encouraged, are heavily taxed. The very grain the

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220  Rationalism and nationalism cultivator raises on land that pays a high rate of assessment, is burthened with land customs at various stages on the way to market. The articles manufactured by native artisans cannot be conveyed from one place to another for use or sale, without payment of everlasting transit customs. What, in our opinion, would contribute to the prosperity of the country, is the abolition of all inland duties, the amount or collection of which obstructs the internal traffic.84 He called upon the British government to provide encouragement to the ‘commerce of the country’ and not to stultify its economic growth. We have already seen that Bhaskar Pandurang defined Drain as the most potent instrument of British exploitation of India. Lokahitwadi, a great believer in the doctrine of divine dispensation, also highlighted the adverse economic impact on India of the British rule. In one of his letters of the Shatapatre published in Prabhakar during 1848–50 he linked the phenomenon of growing poverty in India to the ‘ruin of industry and commerce of the country’ under the foreign rule. The export of raw materials from India and import of manufactured goods played, according to him, an instrumental role in India’s impoverishment. He, therefore, strongly advocated the reversal of this negative trend. To quote: The poverty of the country is becoming acute and it is becoming increasingly difficult to get employment. The ruin of industry and commerce of this country appears to be the cause of this phenomenon. England and other Western countries supply goods to this country and the people buy them because they are cheap. Would these people resolve to buy only Indian goods to the exclusion of foreign goods, to use umbrellas locally made, the people of this country would get work and would be happy. Indians should sell only manufactured articles, refusing to part with raw materials. At present our people are buying foreign articles and starving our artisans. The English sell in our market glassware, cloth, cutlery, watches, machines, etc. Our artisans should learn to manufacture these articles and we should export what remains after home consumption. Our exports should go to countries, besides England. Thus we shall support our industries and multiply jobs for all.85 At present only foodgrains are not imported by us. Otherwise every commodity which is used by the people is manufactured in

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foreign countries. We get our clothes, umbrellas, watches, books and even match-boxes from abroad. Our country is becoming a country of beggars. All of us should decide to use only those things which are manufactured in our country.86 Lokahitwadi emphasised that industrialisation was crucial to India’s upliftment. He was undoubtedly one of the most incisive intellectuals of nineteenth-century India. It was he who first conceived the idea of swadeshi and boycott, much before it was made into a major plank of the nationalist agitation in the country. He emphasised that Indians should not only manufacture their own products but also use them, even if of poorer quality than the foreign items, and that they should boycott the imports.87 It was, however, Ganesh Vasudeo Joshi, popularly known as Sarvajanik Kaka, the founder of the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha on 2 April 1870 in order to represent the wants and wishes of the Indian people, who first took the vow of swadeshi to propagate its use. He had been practicing it since 1869.88 As already indicated, Mahatma Phule, despite his immense admiration for British rule, was highly critical of exploitation of the people under its aegis. He closely observed and criticised instances of increasing taxation of peasants, flooding of Indian market with foreign manufactured goods, deindustrialisation and pauperisation of the artisans.89 It was, however, Ranade from among the nineteenth-century intellectuals in India, apart from Naoroji, who most forcefully articulated the economic critique of British rule in India. In his inaugural lecture at the First Industrial Conference held in Poona in May 1890, he highlighted the grim fact of India’s acute poverty, malnutrition and even starvation.90 Again, in his lecture on the ‘Indian Political Economy’ at the Deccan College, Poona, in 1892 he stated, ‘Stagnation and dependence, depression and poverty – these are written in broad characters on the face of the land and its people. To these must be added the economic drain of wealth.’91 He, however, did not believe that India’s poverty emanated solely from the drain of wealth as Naoroji almost did. He made this quite clear in his address in Poona in 1890 itself. He said: We should husband our little resources to the best of our power, and not exhaust them by vain complaints against the drain of the Indian Tribute or by giving battle with Free Trade. . . . State help is after all a subordinate factor in the problem. Our own exertion

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and our own resolutions must conquer the difficulties, which are chiefly of our own creation.92 He did not single out the British rule for India’s entire woes and apportioned a sizeable blame for poverty to the indigenous weakness such as idleness, lack of enterprise, etc. On the other hand he exhorted Indians to learn and not spurn the advantages of the East-West contact through colonialism.93 The poverty of India ‘is a very old inheritance and not the result solely of foreign conquest and competition’, he observed. He held, however, that the colonial rule had led to the complete collapse of Indian preeminence in commerce and manufacturing. He stated: Political ascendancy is not the only particular vantage ground which we have lost. Commercial and manufacturing predominance naturally transfers Political ascendancy, and in this our collapse has been even far more complete.94 He was deeply disturbed at the deteriorating share of Indian enterprise in commercial activities of the country and the concentration of commercial and manufacturing hold in foreign hands. In his own words, ‘The increased trade and commerce of the country represents a steadily diminishing proportion of Native enterprise and skill engaged in it, and the monopoly of political power is made more invidious by monopoly of commercial wealth and manufacturing activity.’95 Ranade highlighted that Railways had, except in a few Presidency Towns, killed out Local Indigenous Industries, and made people more helpless than before, by increasing their dependence and pressure on Agriculture as their only resource.96 Railways in the nationalist perception thus played an important role in transforming India into a colonial economy marked by dependence, deindustrialisation and underdevelopment; its modernising face proved to be a mere façade. Ranade preferred the growth of manufacture to railway expansion, although he did realise the importance of the facilities of communication for modernisation of the country. In the first Industrial Conference held at Poona in 1890 he said: The construction of Railways can never be compared, in their educating influence, to the setting up of Mills or Steam or Water

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Power machinery for the production of Manufactured Produce in all parts of the country. A Railway runs from one end of the country to the other, and leaves no permanent impression upon the face of the country, at least none so durable and penetrating as that which surrounds a great Manufactory.97 He urged the government for a policy shift in favour of industrialisation. He argued that the government’s pampering of the private investors in the building up of Railways by guaranteeing or subsidising private efforts, till private enterprise could support itself, should be extended to the growth of manufacturing industries.98 He said, ‘It would be far better if the Government recognized this function of developing New Industries in the country, to be as legitimate a part of its duty as it now regards Railway Construction to be.’99 Almost on similar lines Gokhale also viewed railways more as an engine of exploitation than a vehicle of modernisation in the country’s colonial situation. He denounced officially guaranteed railway construction as recklessly expensive, and stated that ‘The Indian people feel that this construction is undertaken principally in the interests of English commercial and moneyed classes, and that it assists in further exploitation of our resources.’100 Ranade reasoned that the growth of modern means of communication such as Railways, etc. though desirable, was not enough; the need was to grow higher kinds of produce, and develop manufacturing and commercial activities.101 Reiterating his concern at the Industrial Conference held in 1893 in Poona, he said, ‘There can be no doubt that the permanent salvation of the country depends upon the growth of Indian manufactures and commerce, and other remedies can only be temporary palliatives.’102 The real bottleneck in the process was the want of readily available cheap capital for investment in such enterprises, for which he expected the colonial masters to come forward to supply the want as part of their obligation as rulers of the land. In his own words: The great want of India is cheap capital today ready for investment in large enterprises. The savings of the Indian population are but scanty. . . . Just as the land in India thirsts for water, so the industry of the country is parched up for want of capital. The evil is not of today, but is an old inheritance. Capital desirous of investment and content with low interest

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is a national want, and this want cannot be adequately supplied by any partial or local private efforts. . . . The want being national, the Nation has a right to expect their Rulers to supply the want.103 Here again, however, he did not pitch the entire responsibility on the British government. ‘After all, Government help can do but little, save pioneering work.’104 The acquisition of required spirit and skill, in his view, was more pertinent to industrial growth than the mustering of resources. He stated, ‘It is the spirit and the skill which conquered India long before Steam Power came into use, and this turned the balance of trade against India. If we but acquire the spirit and skill, the resources will be discovered in yet unexplored situations all over the country.’105 He highlighted the fact of growing ruralisation of Indian economy as a result of the working of British colonialism. ‘We have in recent times become more than ever dependent upon the single source of Agriculture, precarious and contingent as that resource is.’106 It was deindustrialisation, he held, that led to an unprecedented increase in the number of people on agriculture already overburdened. He stated: The co-ordination of industries, which establishes a healthy proportion between the rural and urban populations, had been displaced to a greater extent than ever it was before, and had increased the dependence of the multitudes on the soil exhausted by over-cultivation.107 The skewed orientation of Indian economy under colonial rule was testified further by the fact that Indian exports consisted largely of agricultural produce and import of manufactured goods. ‘Out of a total of 190 crores worth of exports, 75 crores are raw produce, and even of the remaining manufactured or half manufactured produce, 14 crores are the product of foreign skill and capital. The imports consist mostly of manufactured goods made of the raw produce sent by ourselves.’108 Again, in his address at the Industrial Conference held at Poona in 1893 he stated, ‘Our exports to foreign countries showed that eighty-five percent of them were represented by the bulky agricultural produce, which gave no employment to local skill and capital.’109

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In order to highlight the extremely exploitative character of the British rule he made its comparison with the Dutch Culture System in Indonesia. In his own words: The land revenue in British India shows a higher percentage, being nearly one rupee per head, while in Netherlands India (i.e. Java under the Dutch) it is about three-fourths of a Rupee per head. The salt Tax is in British India six Annas per head, while in Netherlands India it is three Annas per head. . . . It will be seen from this that the pressure of the Land Tax, Salt, Stamps, and Forests, is much heavier in British India than in the Netherlands India, whilst the Customs, Duties, and the Trade or Income Tax were much higher in Dutch East Indies than in British India.110 Drawing a further parallel he highlighted that ‘In Netherlands India efforts have been made not only to grow more raw produce of a high order, but to manufacture it.’111 This was visible in composition of the items of export. ‘While the proportion of Raw to Manufactured Produce exported from British India was four to one, the proportion in Netherlands was one to four.’112 British investment in Railways was much higher compared to Dutch investment in that in Indonesia. Ranade, therefore, viewed the evolution of Indian Railways essentially as a facilitator of colonial exploitation rather than as a vehicle of modernisation and development. He argued: The British Government in India has spent in Railways and Canals four to five times as much, but so far from helping the country to be more self-dependent in regard to its manufactures and commerce, it has only tended to increase our dependence on the single source of Agriculture to a much larger extent than before. The Railway Expenditure has only facilitated the conveyance of foreign goods, to an extent not otherwise possible.113 Agarkar was extremely dismayed at the economic ruination of the country under British rule. He, though himself an ardent advocate of social reform, even came to view the evil social practices to be more tolerable than the economic consequences of the colonial rule. He stated, ‘The disadvantages resulting from the existing evil social practices are much more tolerable than the economic ruin caused by the colonial administration and the absence of basic political rights.’114

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226  Rationalism and nationalism He held the predatory incursions of Mohammad of Ghazni, Changez Khan and Timur and the long Muslim rule were ‘never so economically ruinous as compared to the continuous bleeding of India’s wealth in the comparatively short rule of British masters’.115 He deplored the transition of India from a traditional economy to a colonial economy with her new role as a supplier of raw material and buyer of finished goods, in subservience to colonial interests.116 The economic critique of the British rule initiated by the Rationalists was further elaborated upon by the Moderates117 and made a major plank of their political propaganda and agitation. The issue of exclusion of Indians for appointments in administrative services in adequate numbers and partiality shown to Europeans in dispensation of justice were some of the other issues that agitated the minds of rationalists in the nineteenth century.118 Chandavarkar in particular advocated the expansion of the Legislative Council and for a representative government and growth of representative institutions in the country. Anti-colonial stance was further elaborated during the phase of the Moderate politics in India, which was further accentuated under Extremism. There was no ambiguity at any stage in Tilak’s perception of political reality. He viewed British rule all along as a predatory foreign encroachment rather than a blessing.119 It was a common anti-British understanding that brought about a coming-together of Tilak, Agarkar and Chiplunkar when they started the New English School on 1 January 1880 in order to infuse among the youth a sense of self-respect, patriotism and love for industry and enterprise and to prepare them for the service of the nation.120 Tilak and Agarkar founded two weeklies, Kesari in Marathi and The Mahratta in English in 1881, the former edited by Agarkar and the latter by Tilak. Significant writings on national and social issues flowed from the columns of these hyperactive newspapers during the period. It was a different matter that this friendship was not destined to last long. Agarkar and Tilak turned into bitter foes at the close of the 1880s. It all started with the issue of distribution of money given by Holkar of Indore in 1888. Out of the total sum of Rs. 700 meant for distribution among the ten other members of the Deccan Education Society, Tilak being one of them, Rs. 400 was meant for Agarkar alone in appreciation of his book titled Vakya Mimansa which he had just published on Marathi syntax.121 But Tilak did not want this

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Rationalism and nationalism  227 to happen and resorted to maneuverings so that the entire sum of Rs. 700 was equally distributed among all including Agarkar. Suffering from asthma and acute financial difficulties and in dire need of monetary help Agarkar was deeply offended, even wounded by Tilak’s behaviour and in disgust he gave up his rightful claim to this legitimately purported largest share of the purse. But not without a fight. Angry Agarkar wrote to Tilak on 24 December 1888 charging him to be ‘self-actuated by the most envious motives, betraying an incredible meanness of heart’.122 He further fumed: You with your health and with your paternal property are probably unable to understand my anxiety on this point. I know it is your way to denounce everybody who goes beyond you. . . . It was the meanness of the worst kind – a meanness of which you alone could be capable.123 Tilak tried to explain the position through his letter dated 24 December 1888 to which Agarkar shot back the very next day. He wrote, ‘Play what tricks you like with words and try to cover as much you like your mean, despotic and selfish conduct, under a cloak of Jesuitical cause and legal sophistry.’124 He even used the choicest epithets for Tilak such as ‘your perversity, obstinacy and mendacity’. He continued his barbs with utmost acerbity, ‘No amount of plain writing can set right a person whose one business all along has been self-glorification at the cost of honesty, unity, friendship, public duty, and several other social virtues.’125 The matter reached such a pass that they ultimately had to part ways. The rift, though it sparked off on a financial issue, was, however, too basic for repair. Agarkar and Tilak differed diametrically not only in their respective persona but also in their world views. Agarkar was a ruthless rationalist, while Tilak a known pragmatist. Social reform was central to the former’s agenda of national regeneration, while for the latter politics predominated over all other considerations. Agarkar advocated progressive ideas in sociocultural sphere; Tilak represented situational flexibility and could side with social reaction if it was to be a politically paying proposition. The former welcomed legislation in order to undo social wrongs; the latter was dead against any interference in social matters from without. In Wolpert’s view Tilak’s political philosophy was based on expediency as its ethic, and popularity as its aim.126 Though this assessment may be a bit harsh, Tilak was

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228  Rationalism and nationalism indeed open to pragmatic flexibility which did seem self-centred in certain situations and it was at least so perceived by others in the fray. The former stood for modernity, while Tilak was prone to provoking Hindu revivalism. Agarkar’s intellectual idealism was thus destined to ultimately come into conflict with Tilak’s pragmatism. Both had come together propelled by nationalist feelings, although tenuity was already embedded in their togetherness. Theirs was a temporary union with little possibility, on the onset of rupture, even remote, of reunion. They never came together after 1889 on parting of ways.

Culture versus civilisation Nationalistic orientation of the nineteenth-century rationalist thought in Maharashtra was also palpable in their approach to the West. They made a conscious choice in favour of adoption or adaptation of modern Western civilisation as against Western culture. This demarcation between culture and civilisation was more sharp and conspicuous in Maharashtra than in Bengal. There was decidedly a blurring between the two in the example of Eastern India. Before dealing with their ideas in this sphere of thought let us, however, first have a working understanding of these closely connected terms. Howard Becker and Harry Elmer Barnes define culture as a comprehensive matrix of society. It springs from the inner resources of man as man.127 According to Ronald Wright, it is a whole way of life of any society as reflected in its knowledge, beliefs and practices.128 ‘Culture is everything: from veganism to cannibalism, and all of technology from the split stone to the split atom.’129 Uniqueness is, however, its essential attribute. Unlike civilisation, it does not lend itself to the generalising methods of science,130 there being no universally valid standards of measurement of culture. Every culture is shaped and sustained by a unique attitude to life, a distinct ethos reflected in memories and mythologies germane to a specific group or people, ‘a unity of style’ in the whole culture, permeating religion, philosophy, art as well as the social and psychical realms. Civilisation, on the other hand, is characterised by the material, technological and instrumental arrangement of culture; it is its material manifestation and organisation. It is a definite stage in human development when governmental, economic and social institutions have developed sufficiently to manage the problems of order, security, and efficiency in a complex urban

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Rationalism and nationalism  229 set-up.131 Civilisation is a specific kind of culture, identifiable by its material progress. All civilisations are cultures, or conglomerates of cultures, but not all cultures are civilisations.132 When decisive innovations in social mentality take place, they are accompanied by corresponding shifts in the cultural style.133 The process of civilisation, on the other hand, is based on rationally communicable, theoretical and practical knowledge of nature and man, culminating in modern science.134 In sum, civilisation denotes human achievement which can easily be universally applied or shared. Culture as a way of life, on the other hand, is particularistic to a people or a group; it denotes their identity or shared values more than the acquisition or achievement in its material sense. Jambhekar accepted the superiority of the West in its civilisational sense. It was the ‘useful arts and sciences’ of the West that he aspired for in order to take care of ‘the necessities and wants of human life’. Material aspects of modern Western society were valued more than its normative order for India’s modernisation. He wrote: The advantages of knowledge have not been appreciated in this country in their proper light. Had the Asiatic philosophers bestowed the same attention on useful arts and sciences, as they have done on more abstruse and subtle branches of knowledge, such as Metaphysics and Logic, much more good might have been expected from their labours. But it appears that they regarded all knowledge as useful only in religion, or as a means of gaining victory in argument, and in no way connected with the common purposes of life. Hence the very little progress of the Hindoos and Mahometans in Mechanics, Geography, History, etc. The circumstances and order of things have, within the last twenty years, undergone a material change, which makes it daily more and more imperative upon the Natives to bestow their attention on the useful arts and sciences; their practical application to the common purposes of life; in short, to gain every acquisition, which has rendered European Nations superior to Asiatics, and from the want of which their country has so much suffered. The ancient learning of the country, whatever may have been the advantages of it in former days, must gradually lose its value in connection with the necessities and wants of human life.135

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230  Rationalism and nationalism He criticised caste prejudices and the allied notions of purity and pollution for dissuading high-caste Hindus from studying Anatomy, and urged Indians to study medicine along European lines.136 Bhandarkar was highly appreciative of Western advancement made in experimental sciences and other critical faculties. He lamented the fact of India lagging behind in this core component of civilisation. Self-criticism was, however, meant for neither self-denigration nor self-pity: ‘by a clear perception of our national defects we prepare the ground for healthy progress in the future.’137 In his lecture delivered on 31 March 1888 under the auspices of the Free Church College Library Society in Bombay he said: There is no use ignoring the fact that Europe is far ahead of us in all that constitutes civilization. Any knowledge is one of the elements of civilization. Experimental sciences and the sciences that depend on the critical, comparative and historical method have made very great progress in Europe. . . . The principle of progress is very strong in their civilization. . . . Why should we not move on side by side with Europeans, in the great fields of thought? Why should discoveries be made in France, Germany and England, and not in India?138 Agarkar also advocated adaptation of Western civilisation for India’s salvation. In an advertisement dated 1 August 1888 issued by him and Gokhale for launch of Sudharak, an Anglo-Marathi weekly, he wrote, ‘It is to point out our defects, and to impress upon the minds of our countrymen the idea that in a modified adoption of many of the essential elements of Western Civilization lies the real salvation of our country, that we are going to start this paper.’139 Similarly, Telang in his speech at the Third Indian National Social Conference held on 29 December 1889 in Bombay said: I have not the slightest desire to adopt bodily the whole of the European social economy for myself or for my community. But . . . it is my conviction that it is our duty to learn, correctly appreciate, and apply the real principles adopted by those who stand in the forefront of civilization as much in our social as in our political concerns.140 As it was, the intellectuals in nineteenth-century Maharashtra as elsewhere were confronted with the claims of Western civilisation as

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Rationalism and nationalism  231 well as those of Western culture, both more or less being outpoured in the country as part of the process of colonial hegemonisation. Reformers in Maharashtra opted for the former and rejected the latter which practically meant rejection of Anglicisation as a way of cultural colonisation. The material aspects of modern Western society, that is its advancement in science and technology, education and industrialisation were preferred to Western way of living, their religion, theology, mode of social interaction, etc. that largely denote existential cultural complex. In fact, Western culture was viewed to be potentially a threat to the indigenous way of life and religion. In this scheme of choice the advent of printing press, a product of Western civilisation, was highly hailed and valued but not the propagation of Christian ideas or mythology by any means including the very press. Anglicisation as a way of living could not penetrate in Maharashtra to the extent it did in Bengal. Maharashtra had historically been known for its pride and prejudice in its own identity, and had been the torchbearer of indigenous response to foreign onslaughts. The British attempt at cultural hegemonisation could not, therefore, be as successful in Western India. In fact, the phenomenon of cultural defence primarily in its nationalistic sense was more pronounced in Maharashtra than possibly elsewhere in the country during the period. Even Malabari, one of the most suave and Westernised Indian intellectuals of the time, was not at all enamoured of Western culture. He noted in his diary that he had stopped dining with his European friends because he was fed up with ‘the bowing and smiling to order, and the laughing over stale jokes, the feigning of pleasure over every dish and every glass’.141 ‘All this was too much for a heathen like myself’,142 he commented. Chandavarkar was also acutely aware of the importance of Indian cultural heritage in character formation of the youth in the country. In his convocation address as vice-chancellor of the University of Bombay in 1909 he said, ‘Education, to evoke the formative elements in the pupil’s character, must be correlated with his past national culture and appeal not only to his intellect but also to his moral being.’143 Similarly, Agarkar laid emphasis on continuity of Indian cultural tradition for wholesome growth. In his first editorial in Sudharak he wrote, ‘If we accept in a proper way the new Western education and the new ideas which come along with it, do not cast away our basic heritage i.e. our Indian Aryan culture, then will we progress happily.’144 Whenever there was a threat, real or perceived, to Indian religion and culture from outside, whether from the Christian missionaries for

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232  Rationalism and nationalism conversion or from the colonial masters or ideologues with a view to highlight the superiority of European and inferiority of Indian ways of life, the intellectuals tried to repulse such onslaughts, both directly and indirectly. Dadoba Pandurang, Brahmachari and Chiplunkar were most combative in their response to cultural onslaughts from outside. They defended Hinduism as a rational belief system and condemned Christianity as a religion beset with its own inner contradictions. Bhandarkar, Ranade, Chandavarkar and others with perhaps the sole exceptions of Mahatma Phule and Pandita Ramabai, registered their response not by condemning Christianity but indirectly by exercising their choice in favour of the indigenous tradition as a referral for renovation of Indian society and culture. The indigenous past constituted the cultural matrix for reference and reform in Maharashtra; there were hardly any adherents or advocates of Western culture on the scale and intensity of contemporary Bengal. A curious question arises why when the intellectuals themselves criticised the contemporary Indian culture and customs, they so vigorously tried to defend it when it came under attack from outside. The answer lies not in theology but in psychology of a nation under foreign subjugation. After all, it was not a matter of an impassioned approach from either side to theological dimensions of the two belief systems; they, in fact, represented respectively two distinct identities, one of the conquerors, the other of the conquered. The consciousness of being conquered and the attempt to overcome the national weaknesses that facilitated such conquest was a recurring realisation in nineteenth-century Maharashtra. One of the ways to assert self-identity was to take a conscious recourse to the indigenous thought and ethos and at times even gloat in its glory. Culture was the terrain where Indian identity could be reasserted and defended as indigenous possession against any outside encroachments. Self-criticism was motivated by reasons of reform; criticism by others, particularly the foreigners, was, therefore, taken as an affront to the notion of self-identity. Hinduism was not just a belief system but also a way of life, a world view, a cultural complex,145 representing a symbol of Indian identity as distinct from Christianity that was perceived to be representing the culture and identity of the Europeans. Despite the fact that the advent of Christian faith in India predated that of the British conquest, this distinction was not blurred primarily because of colonial contextuality of the contest. The so-called cultural defence in the nineteenth century was, therefore, actually a national defence driven by patriotic considerations, especially in the

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Rationalism and nationalism  233 context of Maharashtra. Almost the entire intellectual fraternity in Western India remained rooted in indigenous thought and ethos, both in look as well as in outlook, so to say, despite their intimate acquaintance with Western ideas and ways of life. This differentiation between Western civilisation and Western culture as far as the borrowing from the West was concerned was quite blurred in thought as well as conduct in contemporary Bengal. Their admiration for things Western often manifested in their fascination for ways Western including Western culture. Evidences indicate that there were a good number of cultural converts from among the Bengali intellectuals. Maharashtra presented a different picture. Ranade did not seek to imitate Europeans in appearance or other ways of living.146 Even Mahatma Phule who had a sympathetic chord towards the British and Christianity and a hostile attitude towards Vedism, remained outright Indian in look as well as outlook. Similarly, Malabari who apparently seemed to be greatly Westernised openly rejected European ways. Similarly, Telang, another intellectual said to be influenced by western ideas, remained eloquently anchored in Indian culture and ethos. The bhadralok in Bengal was uniquely charmed by Western culture. ‘There seems to have been an element of conscious, though blind copying of the British in matters of ideals and values, not to speak of such small matters as dress and behaviour in Bengal cultural awakening.’147 Even Rammohan was no exception to the pervasive cultural enchantment in Eastern India. When he settled in Calcutta in 1814 he purchased a house constructed in the European model and furnished in the European style.148 He was deeply influenced by the ethical doctrines of Christianity and had great reverence for the teachings of Jesus Christ.149 We have seen that he advocated the spread of Christianity for cultural enrichment of Indians. Akshay Kumar Datta suffered from a great sense of cultural inferiority150 and was immensely impressed by Western ways of living. Keshab Chandra Sen returned from Europe enchanted by the charms of English family life.151 Though he seemed to have stimulated the establishment of the Prarthana Samaj on 31 March 1867 in Bombay, his thoughts, therefore, ‘cast in a Christian mould’ and his attempts to court and value the sympathy of Christians did not receive approval and adherence in Western India.152 Even Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay who was known for his patriotism proclaimed that the salvation of Bengalis lay in the invitation of all that was good in English culture.153 The first generation of the students

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234  Rationalism and nationalism of Western learning particularly in Calcutta believed in almost a total rejection of indigenous tradition and an equally total adoption of Western ways of life.154 The radical students of the Hindu College established in 1817 who came to be called Young Bengal or Derozians were ardent advocates and adherents of Western culture.155 Anglicisation or adoption of Western ways became an index of identity and distinction of the Bengali bhadralok. It was an item of envy, adulation, emulation and even imitation. Imitative Westernisation became a hallmark of the English-educated intelligentsia in nineteenth-century Bengal. This kind of self-cultural oblivion of matching magnitude was perhaps not seen anywhere else in contemporary India. In a milieu marked by a palpable sense of pride in Indian identity, Maharashtra presented a contrast in which imitative Westernisation could not entrench itself and it left negligible footprints. B. Debroy has tried to explain this predicament in terms of ‘a crisis of identity’ in Bengal with its roots in the remote past. He argues, Bengal had by and large been outside the ambit of Indo-Aryan culture; it had very little in common with the Vedic normative order which remained alien to the Bengali social psyche.156 There had been very little cultural diffusion during the Muslim domination which was fundamentally regarded as the alien rule.157 The identification with the Hindu ethos was not pronounced either in Bengal as typified in the aspirations of the Marathas, the Maratha depredations being too fresh in Bengali memory.158 The lack of solidity of the indigenous normative order in Bengali consciousness and consequently the tenuity of its identification with the Indian tradition and ethos could thus easily facilitate and even accelerate the process of cultural conversion in Bengal during the colonial rule. This explanation, however, seems to be rather too harsh and dismissive as far as pre-British Bengali ethos was concerned. It does not account for the ease with which the social milieu was created which came to prize colonial culture more than the indigenous identity in Bengal particularly in the nineteenth century. Colonialism as a major factor impacting or distorting the psyche of the people under prolonged and severe subjection has not been given weightage in this analysis either. Undoubtedly, Bengal experienced the full blast of British colonialism for a prolonged period, much more than any other part of the country. The new middle class that emerged in Bengal during the period of colonial consolidation was dominated principally by the petty landed gentry,159 which owed its

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Rationalism and nationalism  235 origin almost entirely to the colonial connection. They were mostly parvenus who emerged and prospered as a direct consequence of the changes introduced by British administration. Their origin and existence remained largely dependent upon the health and strength of the British rule and this could greatly determine the degree of their indebtedness and proclivity, even vulnerability to the culture of the conquerors in the contemporary context. Colonialism as a structure was an overpowering influence. It could effectively sap the self-confidence and self-esteem of the subjugated people. As Sheldon Pollock explains, Britain set out to colonise Indian minds no less than Indian space in order for colonial consolidation in the country.160 No doubt, no region in India was exposed to such a prolonged and all-encompassing penetration of mental colonisation than Bengal. Imitative Westernisation was thus the cultural answer of the intellectuals to the reality of an all-encompassing colonial condition in Bengal. The bhadralok intelligentsia was thus prone and prepared for easy enchantment not only to the dazzling achievements of Western civilisation but also to the ostensible ‘sophistry’ of Western culture. In contrast, the middle class that emerged in Maharashtra was not entirely a new beginning. Even during the Peshwas they enjoyed a sizeable hold in administration and education.161 With the extension of British rule in Western India in 1818, this class did not suffer any devastating loss either. They were largely able to grab the new opportunities which the new administration and the introduction of English education presented, and they entered into large-scale employment in British government.162 A large number of the newly emerging educated middle class in Maharashtra were mostly drawn from traditional high-status castes and communities such as Brahmins, Pathare Prabhus and Parsis.163 They were not solely the children of colonial changes and they could thus avail of the new opportunities under British rule with a sense more of rightfulness than obligation. Maharashtra, moreover, did not bear the brunt of colonialism for as prolonged a period as Bengal did. As a result, it could not be able to sap the self-confidence of the people, particularly the middle class, to the extent it could do in Eastern India. The relative independence and autonomy of intellect in Maharashtra could, to an extent, certainly also be attributable to this fact. Historically, moreover, pride in their own past and identity had been a defining feature of Maharashtrian social psyche. The all-encompassing hold of Brahmanism in Maharashtra implied an abiding identification of the people with

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236  Rationalism and nationalism Vedic cultural ethos. The strong legacy of Bhakti tradition and the historical memories of Shivaji and his chivalry could further deepen their consciousness and confidence in their own destiny and identity. In this specific context colonial culture could not be that powerful an influence to subdue and submerge indigenous identity and culture in Western India. Further explorations, however, need be undertaken to throw more light on this aspect of the Indian intellectual history.

Congress and conference The post-1885 intellectual efforts in the nineteenth century centred around the activities of two major all-India organisations, that is the Indian National Congress and the Indian National Social Conference formed in 1885 and 1887, respectively. The period also witnessed polarisation among intellectuals primarily on the issue of whether social or political reform should be given precedence or primacy at that time point. The era of social self-correction seemed to be seriously challenged by the ascendancy of political process in the evolution of nationalist consciousness in the country. This was despite the fact there was hardly any difference of opinion as to the goal of nation building, which constituted the common thematic thread of these organisations. The Congress gave primacy to the political process while the Conference concentrated on social correction as a precondition to overall improvement including the political, both in their own way aiming at national unity and invigoration. The Rationalists were well aware of the need and importance of an integrated approach to social and political reform.164 An attempt was also made to effect mutual appreciation and reinforcement by holding the annual meetings of the Conference in the Congress pandal immediately after the end of the Congress session when some of the prominent figures participated in the deliberations of both the organisations. The context, however, militated against the idea of actual integration at that time point in Indian history.165 The polarisation between the votaries of social and political reform tended to grow sharper over time. With Tilak in the thick of things the process of polarisation became almost a fait accompli by 1895 when the Congress and the Conference had to hold their annual December meetings separately. Hereon mainly the activities of the Congress dominated the shaping of the nation’s destiny. Interestingly, it was Telang, quintessentially a social reformer, who first fanned the controversy of precedence of political reform over

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Rationalism and nationalism  237 the social in the late nineteenth century in his address entitled ‘Must Social Reform Precede Political Reform in India?’, given in 1886, during a session of the Students’ Literary and Scientific Society. As he argued, the advocates of social reform preceding the political put forth two main reasons in its favour: ‘Slavery at home is incompatible with political liberty’ and ‘A nation socially low cannot be politically great.’166 He contended that the first contention of the advocates of social reform ‘is an entire misnomer’. He argued that postponing the political process on the ground to first set our own house in order was unwarranted, as both could be taken together. To quote: And the sort of ‘household slavery’ that in truth prevails among us is by no means incompatible with political liberty. Here we have what may, for convenience, be treated as two spheres of our reforming activities. There is slavery in the one sphere, and there is slavery in the other, and we are endeavouring to shake off the slavery in one sphere as well as in the other.167 Even as to the second contention he held history did not afford any support. The glorious phase of the British history in political sphere, for example, was quite in contrast with the low social condition of the people, especially the women during the seventeenth century.168 Political progress could be achieved even in a situation of social evils remaining unremedied.169 Aware of the impossibility of any sharp line of demarcation between intricately intertwined political and social questions,170 he, however, contended that ‘more energy ought just now to be devoted to political than social reform’.171 Remember, I am not asking that our reforming energies should be confined to the political sphere. Far from it . . . . But this I do say, that political reform is entitled to a greater share of our energies than social, under the circumstances we have got to deal with.172 Tilak set aside the issue of integration altogether. His entire emphasis riveted on political reform, to the exclusion of the social until it sprang up from within. He viewed social reform imposed from without to be potentially divisive and thus an impediment to the process of political mobilisation and popular participation in the freedom struggle. Tilak, unlike Telang, had no love lost for the British rule. Telang, on the other hand, had faith in British government

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238  Rationalism and nationalism representing ‘a progressive nation which is the benign mother of free nations’.173 Telang was essentially a social reformer, unlike Tilak who sided with social conservatism in order to easily mobilise people around political questions. Telang’s preference to political reform was primarily the product of pragmatism, with little space to idealism in this option. Relying on what he called ‘prudence and common sense’ he suggested that the ‘reform ought to go along the line of least resistance. Secure first the reforms which you can secure with the least difficulty, and then turn your energies in the direction of those reforms where more difficulty has to be encountered.’174 The tenacity of tradition to persist in contrast to a greater degree of flexibility which permeates politics, the lack of social readiness for cultural reform coupled with the relatively greater strength of social conservatism and possibility of easier and wider unity on political questions were pragmatically viewed as valid grounds for tilting the balance in favour of political reform at that time point. Telang expressed his viewpoint on the issue both categorically and metaphorically. In his own words: On the one hand, we have a government by a progressive nation, which is the benign mother of free nations. . . . On the other hand, we have an ancient nation, subject to strong prejudices. As between these two groups, can there be any reasonable doubt how the line of least resistance runs? If we compare the government and the Hindu population to two forts facing the army of reform can there be any doubt that the wisest course for that army is to turn its energies first towards the fort represented by the government, where we have numerous and powerful friends among the garrison, and which is held against us only in order to test first whether we shall be able to properly use any larger powers that may be conceded to us there? The soldiers of the old garrison are not in the least ready to ‘give up’. Again, in politics, argument goes a long way; in social reform, it goes far very little, seeing that feeling and tradition are allowed in it to a very large extent indeed. In politics . . . logic is an instrument of power. But where feeling and tradition are the authorities appealed to, logic is almost impotent. . . . Science does not attack the weed of superstition directly, but renders the mental soil unfit for its cultivation. Once more, in political matters we can all unite at once. . . . The evils, or supposed evils are common. . . . In regard to social

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matters, the evils are not identical. The force of traditions and old memories are not equal all round.175 The issue of integration between social and political reform remained tenuous all along in Indian nationalist consciousness till the onset of Gandhism. Dadabhai Naoroji in his capacity as the president cleared the clouds by categorically stating in the second session of the Congress held in 1886 in Calcutta that the Congress should concentrate on political matters on which they were united and should not deal with social issues on which they were not united.176 The third session of the Congress in Madras in 1887 kept itself aloof from discussing social issues.177 The initial efforts to hold the annual meetings of the Conference in the Congress pandal thus did not symbolise the actual meeting of minds; it was driven more by the considerations of convenience than by the idea of integration. The deepening polarity between the forces of social conservatism spearheaded by Tilak and those of social reform represented by Ranade and others tended to further deepen during the Consent controversy and thereafter. The Rationalists, however, did try to dilute the difference by emphasising the commonality of concerns between the Congress and the Conference. In his address at the Fifth Indian National Social Conference held in 1891 at Nagpur, Ranade stated: The Conference and the Congress were so closely united that they could not help the one and discountenance the other; they were two sisters – the Congress and the Conference; and they must let them go hand-in-hand if they wish to make real progress. The cause of the Conference was the cause of the well-being of the people, even as the cause of the Congress was the cause of their country’s progress.178 In his address at the Sixth Social Conference held in December 1892 at Allahabad he further said, ‘The social evolution must take side by side, if it should not precede the political growth that we desire to achieve.’179 In the 1990s the going, however, became quite tough for social reform to maintain its momentum amidst the rising tide of political agitation. Ranade, in the circumstance, tried to go an extra mile and modify his earlier emphasis on social reform preceding political reform and was ready to accept simultaneity in pursuance of these two spheres of national life. He further said in this Conference:

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240  Rationalism and nationalism When we meet at these annual gatherings to seek our political elevation, we must not lose sight of the fact that our social emancipation should go along with it, if we desire to be an individual consistent whole, with a just balance of power in our all movements. In other words, the social evolution must take place side by side if it should not precede the political growth that we desire to achieve.180 I should be the last person to condemn the political aspirations that have been created in our minds as the result of British rule and liberal education.181 Emphasising the necessity of integrated approach Ranade in his address entitled ‘Congress and Conference’ given at the Provincial Social Conference at Satara in 1900 said: The distinction between the two spheres of our activity – political and social – is based on a radical mistake. The integrity of any human being cannot be broken up into separate spheres of activities. . . . The rose has its beauty and fragrance and you can no more separate the fragrance from the beauty. What is true of the individual is true of the collections of individuals whom we may call by any name, tribe, class, or community.182 Chandavarkar also highlighted the mutuality of influence among various spheres of activities as an inherent attribute of progress which had to be all sided. He, however, gave precedence to social reform in comparison to political.183 Agarkar, too, did not support separation between political and social reform, and emphasised all-sided regeneration. In his own words, ‘If our political aspirations and the Indian National Congress are the product of Western education, so are the social reform and the Indian National Conference. It is idle to talk one without the other.’184 He held the social, political and religious aspects to be integral as the three branches of the same tree, that is human action.185 He, however, tended to emphasise social salvation to be the precondition of political progress. ‘Political servility is the reflection of social conditions and the removal of social slavery is a pre-requisite for demanding political freedom’, he observed.186 ‘Reform of the society and removal of the evils are more urgently needed than political reform.’187 Tilak, however, had other plans. He had all along been consistent in his criticism of social reformers and their reform initiatives. He

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Rationalism and nationalism  241 was also instrumental in accentuating the polarisation between the Congress and the Conference. In the Congress session of 1890 in Calcutta, he apprised the Congress President, Phirozeshah Mehta, of a resolution passed by the Poona Shastris requesting the Congress President not to permit the use of the Congress pandal by the Social Conference for its session.188 Again, in 1895 he intensified his stance against social reformers. In the Poona session of the Congress that year Tilak vehemently opposed the usual practice of the Conference being held in the pandal first used by the Congress. He contested that ‘money collected for the National Congress will be spent only for the sake of the Congress’.189 Although in the end the Congress Committee granted permission for holding the Conference in the Congress pandal, Ranade was, however, so peeved at the unsavoury turn of events that he decided to hold the Conference elsewhere. The unruly situation was thus salvaged at Ranade’s apparent capitulation. A separate pavilion was raised on the ground of the Fergusson College. The Tilakite truculence was at its best or, precisely at its worst against the idea of integration in the nineteenth century. Extremely pained at this ugly unfolding of events, Ranade spoke in this Conference rather philosophically in anguish: Conservatism is a force which we cannot afford to forego or forget. . . . We have all to learn what it is to bear and forbear – to bear ridicule, insults, even personal injuries at times and forbear from returning abuse for abuse. In the words of the Prophet of Nazareth we have to take up the cross, not because it is pleasant to be persecuted, but because the pain and the injury are as nothing by the side of the principle for which they are endured.190 Ranade could bear and forbear with equanimity but all others were not of a similar bent of mind. The Indu-Prakash brought out an essay entitled ‘The Dictator of Poona’ dubbing Tilak as such for his opposition all along to the convention of Conference and Congress being held at the same venue castigating, ‘Mr Tilak is not expected to work loyally with a body which he joins. He proclaims and practises “Let me monopolise all powers or I shall throw you overboard”.’191 Malabari had all along been critical of Tilak’s way of political mobilisation and his obsession with the political question. He took a jibe at Tilak in 1897 by designating him ‘the implacable opponent of all-round progress, the Editor of the Mahratta and the Kesari’.192 In particular,

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he was against Tilak’s proclivity to use retrogressive ideas and to revive patently Hindu symbols in order to garner popular support, to utter neglect of the sentiments of other communities and thus weakening the edifice of Indian national unity in the process. He wrote: Tilak’s movement to revive the memory of Shivaji, though deserving sympathy from every generous heart so far as it aims at the unity of the Dekkan, is historically an anachronism. Shivaji could no more rise again in India than would Bruce Wallace rise once more to upset the balance of the British Union. Even if the founder of the Mahratta dynasty were to come back for a time to the scenes of his past glory, it is not unreasonable to assume that he would be content with the subahdarship of the Dekkan, with perhaps a seat on the Governor of Bombay’s Council or in the Supreme Legislature. Shivaji Maharaj was a much shrewder politician than some of his admiring co-religionists of the present time appear to think. Devoted but deficient in historical perspective, these latter forget that man is a creature of circumstances; that in this particular instance there is hardly one circumstance to justify a political revival, even with a mighty name to conjure with. In its most attractive features, the Shivaji tradition has now become localized: enlarge it for political purposes, and it will at once assume a sinister aspect for more than three-fourths of the Indian community. Mr. Tilak’s other movement, the Ganapati Mela (an annual demonstration in honour of the elephant-headed god), cuts away the very root of political unity, setting the lower orders of the Hindu population against the Mahomedan, between whom previously reigned an almost complete harmony of tastes and pursuits of public holidays. What folly, this, to be foisted on poor old Ganapati, the god of wisdom! The fact is, a vast amount of harm has been done in India by the misreading of the history, and by the construing of false analogies. . . . Poor Macaulay, for one, could hardly have foreseen the rise of a mongrel breed of law-mongers and make-bates, teaching perjury and forgery to a race whose innocence was once the only handle for ridicule wielded against them by foreign visitors. . . . Such conduct passes for ‘courage’ and ‘patriotism’ on the part of not a few of the cheapjacks of native journalism. . . . Such are some of our critics of public acts and events. Acts and events? No, no;

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their attention is solely confined to men. The more exalted the objects of their attack, and therefore the less inclined to notice the attack, the more reckless grows the stinging of this mosquito press. Is it wise to take too much notice of the petty carpers? Be it noted that our mosquito scribes seldom venture upon constructive criticism.193 Notably, the divisive dangers of Tilak’s strategy were seen even at that time. Malabari, however, admired Tilak for his sincerity of purpose, ‘joined to a rugged independence as against the meretricious refinement of many of the English-educated who the people might be getting sick of ’.194 To conclude, nation-building constituted the main theme of nineteenth-century thought in Maharashtra. The Rationalists were the initial exponents of this idea which the Moderates subsequently elaborated upon. The Rationalists emphasised on the social side of national reconstruction and the Moderates on its political side. The latter, no doubt, exemplified an advance in the nationalist thinking of which the Rationalists in Maharashtra formed an initial link in the chain. The Congress and the Conference represented two different ways to reach the common goal of national self-strengthening. Both were meant to be complementary to each other, there being no polarity in purpose. History, however, moulded them into their seemingly adversarial roles particularly with the advent of Extremism and its icon Tilak on the scene. Differences, however, did not denote the weakening or weakness of the nationalist awakening but rather its further deepening and maturation. Despite awareness of the importance of integration between social and political reform particularly among the Rationalists, especially during the close of the nineteenth century, the idea of integration remained elusive for a considerable time till at least the onset of the Gandhian era which actually effected the weaving-togetherness to a meaningful extent. This is, however, a different story outside the purview of the present study.

Notes  1 The Bombay Durpun, 6 January 1832 as cited in Bal Shastri Jambhekar, Memoirs and Writings, Vol. II, pp. 6, 8.  2 Y. D. Phadke, V.K. Chiploonkar, p. 3.   3 Stanley A. Wolpert, Tilak and Gokhale, p. 7.  4 Jotirao Phule, Slavery, Collected Works, Vol. I, p. xliv (Introduction).

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244  Rationalism and nationalism   5 ‘Who with heed the advice of such scholars to drive away the English from our land, the philanthropic English who had emancipated us from the slavery of the Brahmans? The English are but brief and transitory visitors to this ancient land of ours. They are here today and gone tomorrow! Who can guarantee that they will be (will us) for all eternity? Therefore, true wisdom dictates that all of us Shudras should try to emancipate ourselves from the hereditary thralldom of the Brahmins (imposed on us by them) with the utmost haste, and that too during the English rule (regime) in our country.’ Ibid., p. 59.  6 Ibid.   7 ‘Life-Sketch’ of Jotirao Phule by Y. D. Phadke in ibid., p. xix (Preface).  8 Jotirao Phule, Cultivator’s Whipcord, Selected Writings, p. 183.  9 Jotirao Phule, Slavery, Collected Works, Vol. I, p. 72. Earlier, in 1869 in his Introduction to the ballad on Chhatrapati Shivaji he wrote, ‘The Divine Creator of the universe is the controller and regulator of the universe and He has endowed all of us with the intellectual faculty. Taking pity on us Shudras (in India) He has brought the British rule (Raj) to India by His divine dispensation with the intention of emancipating us Kshatriyas from the stranglehold of the Brahmin demons.’ Collected Works, Vol. II, p. 76. 10 Ibid., Vol. II, p. 53. 11 Ibid., Vol. I, p. l (Introduction). 12 Ibid., Vol. II, p. 28. 13 Ibid., p. 31. 14 Ibid., Vol. I, p. l (Introduction). 15 R.  G. Bhandarkar, Collected Works, Vol. I, p. 448. 16 Ibid., p. 447. 17 Ibid., pp. 447–8. 18 M. G. Ranade, ‘The Native States of India and Their Armies’ (A Rejoinder to the London Times, Editor), published in Poona Sarvajajanik Sabha Quarterly, Vol. 1, 4 April 1879 in Select Writings on Indian States, (ed.) Vasudeo Waman Thakur, Indore, 1942, pp. 134–5. 19 Poona Sarvajanik Sabha Quarterly, Vol. VIII, No. 3, 1886 in James Kellock, Mahadev Govind Ranade, p. 120. 20 James Kellock, ibid., p.13. 21  K. T. Telang, ‘Must Social Reform Precede Political Reform’ in Selected Writings and Speeches, Vol. I, p. 288. 22 B.  M. Malabari, Essays on Indian Problem (Supplement from The Indian Spectator for 4, 11 November 1894), London, 1898, p. d. 23 Ibid., Essays on Indian Problem, p. 13. 24 Ibid., p. 11. 25 Ibid., p. 16. 26 N.  G. Chandavarkar, The Speeches and Writings, pp. 6–7. 27 Ibid., p. 17. 28 Ibid. 29 Ibid., p. 168.

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Rationalism and nationalism  245 30 Ibid., pp. 116–7. 31 Ibid., p. 24. 32 See N. M. Parmanand, Letters to an Indian Raja. 33 Sudharak, 18 September 1893 in Aravind Ganachari, G.G. Agarkar, p. 174. 34 See Bipan Chandra, ‘Colonial India: British versus Indian Views of Development’, Review, Vol. XIV, No. 1, 1991, p. 84. 35 J. V. Naik, ‘Dharmavivechan’, p. 63. See N. R. Phatak et al., Rationalists of Maharashtra, Dehradun, 36  1962, p. 9. Also see Source Material for a History of the Freedom Movement in India, Vol. I, p. VIII; Mahadev L. Apte, ‘Lokahitwadi and V. K. Chiplunkar: Spokesmen of Change in Nineteenth-Century Maharashtra’, Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 7, No. 2, 1973, p. 195; Dhananjay Keer, Lokamanya Tilak, p. 22. 37 Y.  D. Phadke, Social Reformers of Maharashtra, pp. 9–10. 38 Ibid. 39 Jotirao Phule, Slavery, Collected Works, Vol. I, pp. l–li (Introduction). 40 Jotirao Phule, Cultivator’s Whipcord, Selected Writings, pp. 149–67. 41 Ibid. 42 Ibid., p. 154. 43 Ibid., p. 169. 44 M.  G. Ranade, Religious and Social Reform, p. 106. 45 K. T. Telang, ‘The Reign of Law in the Bombay Presidency’ (Poona Sarvajanik Sabha Quarterly, October, 1879), Select Writings and Speeches, Vol. II, pp. 483–7. 46 As cited in T. V. Parvate, MahadevGovindRanade, p. 227. 47 M. G. Ranade, ‘A Constitution for Native (Indian) States, Poona Sarvajanik Sabha Quarterly, Vol. 2, 3, October 1880 as cited in Vasudeo Waman Thakur (ed.), Select Writings on Indian States, p. 181. 48 K.  T. Telang, Selected Writings and Speeches, Vol. I, p. 261. 49 Ibid., p. 201. 50 V.  N. Mandlik, Writings and Speeches, p. II. 51 Ibid., pp. II, 5–25. 52 Dadabhai Naoroji, Poverty and Un-British Rule in India, Publications Division, Delhi, 1962 (first publication 1901), p. 109. 53 See M. D. Vidwans (ed.), Letters of Lokamanya Tilak, p. 253. 54 Stanley A. Wolpert, Tilak and Gokhale, p. 160. 55 Indian People, Dated 11 July 1909 in Press Clippings, Gokhale Papers, MSS. 56 Ibid. Also see Madras Standard, Tuesday Evening, 13 July 1909 in ibid.; Stanley A. Wolpert, Tilak and Gokhale, p. 239. 57 This generalisation, however, needs to be qualified, for Bhaskar Pandurang, Lokahitwadi and, above all, Ranade were the prominent Rationalists whose critique of this aspect of colonial rule was as erudite as that of the Moderates, if not more. 58 Indian People, Dated 11 July 1909 in Press Clippings, Gokhale Papers, MSS.

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246  Rationalism and nationalism 59 The fact that these letters were written by Bhaskar Pandurang is based on indirect references and secondary sources as Bhaskar published them pseudonymously. See Ganesh L. Chandavaskar, A Wrestling Soul, p. 19; Y. D. Phadke and V. K. Chiploonkar, pp. 4–5. Dadoba Pandurang makes first mention of these letters in his autobiography-cum-biography published by A. K. Priolkar. Also see Aravind Ganachari, G.G. Agarkar, p. 16. 60 The Bombay Gazette, 30 July 1841. 61 Ibid. 62 Ibid., 10 August 1841. 63 Ibid. (emphasis added). 64 B.  M. Malabari, India in 1897: Essays on Indian Problem, pp. 7–26. 65 The Bombay Gazette, 10 August 1841. 66 Ibid., 30 July 1841. 67 Ibid., 10 August 1841. 68 Ibid., 20 August 1841. 69 Ibid., 10 August 1841. 70 Ibid., 27 October 1841. 71 See J. V. Naik, ‘The First Open Letters of Revolt against the British Colonial Policy’, A Reprint, 1981, p. 248. 72 The Bombay Gazette, 27 October 1841. 73 Newspaper Extracts in Source Material for a History of the Freedom Movement in India, Vol. I, pp. 375–6. Also see Vishnushastri Chiplunkar, Nibandhamala, Vol. II, pp. 1205–74; Y. D. Phadke, V.K. Chiploonkar, pp. 59–69. 74 Y. D. Phadke, ibid., p. 69. 75 Mahadev L. Apte, ‘Lokahitwadi and V. K. Chiplunkar’, Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 7, No. 2, 1973, p. 202. 76 Ibid., pp. 202–6. 77 Ibid., p. 206. 78 Y.  D. Phadke, V.K. Chiploonkar, p. 26. 79 Mahadev. L. Apte, ‘Lokahitwadi and V.K. Chiplunkar’, p. 203. 80 Ibid. 81 ‘The political and social reform activities of young India are at every step thwarted by the strenuous opposition it meets with from the rulers of the land and the orthodox members of the society respectively. . . . The old industries have died out without the substitution of new ones, and are dying out slowly but surely.’Sudharak, 4 September 1893. 82 Aravind Ganachari, G.G. Agarkar, p. 215. 83 The Mahratta, 30 January 1881 in ibid. 84 The Bombay Durpun, 23 November 1832 in Bal Shastri Jambhekar, Memoirs and Writings, Vol. II, pp. 82–4. 85 See Letter No. 25 of Shatapatre as cited in B. R. Sunthankar, Nineteenth Century History of Maharashtra, Vol. I, pp. 232–33. Also see Y. D. Phadke, Social Reformers of Maharashtra, pp. 8–10, and V.K. Chiploonkar, p. 5. 86 Y.  D. Phadke, Social Reformers of Maharashtra, p. 9. 87 Mahadev L. Apte, ‘Lokahitvadi and V.K.Chiplunkar’, p. 196.

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Rationalism and nationalism  247  88 Dhananjay Keer, Lokamanya Tilak, p. 18; N. G. Chandavarkar, Presidential Address at the Provincial Conference at Karachi, 2 May 1896, The Speeches and Writings, p. 280.  89 Jotirao Phule, Selected Writings, 154.  90 M. G. Ranade, Essays on Indian Economics: A Collection of Essays and Speeches, Bombay, 1898, p. 182. Also see The Indu-Prakash, 9 June 1890.   91 M. G. Ranade, ibid., p. 23.   92 Ibid., pp. 191–4.   93 Ibid., pp. 180–7.   94 Ibid., p. 186.   95 Ibid., p. 66.   96 Bipan Chandra, ‘Economic Nationalism and the Railway Debate’ in Roopa Srinivasan et al. (ed.), Our Indian Railways, p. 87.  97 M. G. Ranade, Essays on Indian Economics: p. 88.   98 Ibid., p. 89.   99 Ibid., pp. 96–7. 100 Bipan Chandra, ‘Economic Nationalism and the Railway Debate’ in Roopa Srinivasan et al. (ed.), Our Indian Railways, p. 77. Also see Stanley A. Wolpert, Tilak and Gokhale, p. 135. 101 M.  G. Ranade, Essays on Indian Economics, p. 88. 102 Ibid., pp. 121–2. 103 Ibid., pp. 91–2. 104 Ibid., p. 190. 105 Ibid., p. 187. 106 Ibid., p. 183. 107 Ibid., p. 66. 108 M. G. Ranade’s Address at the First Industrial Conference held in May 1890 as reported in The Indu-Prakash, 9 June 1890. 109 Ibid., p. 101. 110 Ibid., pp. 84–5. 111 Ibid., p. 86. 112 Ibid., p. 85. 113 Ibid., p. 86. 114 Sudharak, 7 December 1891 as cited in Aravind Ganachari, G. G. Agarkar, p. 245. 115 Sudharak, 4 May 1891 as cited in ibid., p. 244. 116 Aravind Ganachari, ibid., p. 241. 117 For details see Bipan Chandra, The Rise and Growth of Economic Nationalism. 118 N.  G. Chandavarkar, The Speeches and Writings, pp. 264–77. 119 Stanley A. Wolpert, Tilak and Gokhale, p. 297. 120 Dhananjay Keer, Lokamanya Tilak, p. 28. 121 Agarkar Papers, MSS. 122 Ibid. 123 Ibid. 124 Ibid. 125 Ibid. 126 Stanley A. Wolpert, Tilak and Gokhale, p. 31.

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248  Rationalism and nationalism 127 Howard Becker and Harry Elmer Barnes, Social Thought from Lore to Science, Vol. II, p. 776. 128 Ronald Wright, A Short History of Progress, Toronto, 1972 (third edition), p. 32. 129 Ibid., pp. 32–3. 130 Howard Backer and Harry Elmer Barnes, Social Thought from Lore to Science, Vol. II, p. 776. 131 Robert E. Lerner et al. Western Civilizations, Vol. I, p. 26. 132 Ronald Wright, A Short History of Progress, p. 33. 133 Howard Becker and Harry Elmer Barnes, Social Thought from Lore to Science, Vol. II, p. 773. 134 Ibid., p. 774. 135 The Bombay Durpun, 24 August 1832 in Bal Shastri Jambhekar, Memoirs and Writings, Vol. II, p. 52. 136 The Bombay Durpun, 9 January 1835 in ibid., p. 119. 137 R.  G. Bhandarkar, Collected Works, Vol. I, p. 392. 138 Ibid., pp. 390–1. 139  Gopal Ganesh Agarkar, Agarkar-Vangmaya, Part-I, (ed.) M. G. Natu and D. Y. Deshpande, Mumbai, 1984, pp. 3–4. 140 K.  T. Telang, Selected Writings and Speeches, Vol. I, pp. 309–10. 141 Tapan Raychaudhuri, Perceptions, Emotions, Sensibilities, p. 37. 142 Ibid. 143 N.  G. Chandavarkar, The Speeches and Writings, p.238. 144 Aravind Ganachari, G.G. Agarkar, p. XI. 145 Yogendra Singh, Modernization of Indian Tradition, p. 30. 146 James Kellock, Mahadev Govind Ranade, p. 143. 147 Dipesh Chakrabarty, ‘The Colonial Context of the Bengal Renaissance: A Note on Early Indian Thinking in Bengal’, IESHR, Vol. XI, No. 1, March 1974, pp. 101–2. 148 Baboo Kissory Chand Mitter, Rammohun Roy in Tuhafatul Muwahhiddin, pp. 14–5. 149 Tapan Raychaudhuri, Perceptions, Emotions, Sensibilities, p. 33. 150 Ibid., p. 59. 151 Ibid., pp. 7, 81. 152 Y.  D. Phadke, V.K. Chiploonkar, p. 6. 153 Tapan Raychaudhuri, Perceptions, Emotions, Sensibilities, p. 81. 154 Ibid., p. 10. 155 B. Debroy, ‘Social Reform and Social Reform Movements in Bengal in the 19th Century’ in V. D. Divekar (ed.), Social Reform Movements in India, p. 11. 156 Ibid., pp. 3–4. 157 Ibid., p. 4. 158 Ibid. 159 See Prashant Kidambi, The Making of an Indian Metropolis: Colonial Governance and Public Culture in Bombay, 1890–1920, Hampshire (England), 2007, p. 27. 160 Sheldon Pollock, ‘Is There an Indian Intellectual History? Introduction to Theory and Method in Indian Intellectual History’, Journal

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Rationalism and nationalism  249 of Indian Philosophy, Vol. 36, 2008, placed online, 5 August 2008, p. 538. 161 Ibid., pp. 27–8. 162 Ibid., Prachi Deshpande, Creative Pasts, p. 82; Gordon Johnson, ‘Chitapavan Brahmans and Politics in Western India’ in E. R. Leach and S. N. Mukherjee (eds.), Elites in South Asia, 1970, p. 105. ‘Brahmans averaged about 43 per cent of all college students in Bombay before 1885; Parsis, about 23 per cent; . . .’ See Ellen E. McDonald, ‘English Education and Social Reform in Late Nineteenth Century Bombay: A Case Study in the Transmission of a Cultural Ideal’, The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. XXV, Nos. 1–4: Nov. 1965–Aug. 1966, No. 5 (Bibliography): Sept. 1966, p. 454. 163 Prasant Kidambi, The Making of an Indian Metropolis, p. 28. 164 This aspect has been adequately dealt with in the Introduction. 165 For details see Introduction. 166 K.  T. Telang, Selected Writings and Speeches, Vol. I, pp. 272–4. 167 Ibid., p. 274. 168 Ibid., p. 281. 169 Ibid., p. 285. 170 ‘It is necessary to consider whether there is such a sharp line of demarcation between social and political matters. . . . Even those matters which are mainly and to a great extent social have most important political aspects and vice versa. Take education. It is an agency of vital importance alike for political and social purposes. . . . The question of infant marriage is a social one. But the modes suggested for remedying the evil raise great political issues, touching the province of legislation, and the true functions and limits of State activity. Therefore, it is clear, that these political and social questions are so intertwined one with the other, that a hard and fast line cannot in practice be drawn between them.’ Ibid., p. 272. 171 Ibid., p. 286. 172 Ibid., pp. 286–7. 173 Ibid., p. 287. 174 Ibid., p. 286. Also see The Indu-Prakash, 1 March 1886. Ibid., pp. 287–91. Chandavarkar said in 1893 that Telang had 175  explained to him that he had meant nothing more than an ordinary tendency among the individuals and societies to move forward, avoiding conflict and inconvenience as far as possible, and not to lay down ‘reform along the line of least resistance’ as a principle of action. See The Speeches and Writings, p. 27. 176 Dhananjay Keer, Lokamanya Tilak, p. 51. 177 Ibid., p. 52. 178 M.  G. Ranade, Miscellaneous Writings, pp. 113–4. 179 Ibid., p. 116. As reported in Sudharak, 23 October 1893. 180 Ibid., p. 116. 181 Ranade’s address at the Seventh Indian National Social Conference at Lahore in 1893 in ibid., p. 123. 182 M.  G. Ranade, Religious and Social Reform, 1902, p. 281.

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250  Rationalism and nationalism 183 Ganesh L. Chandavarkar, A Wrestling Soul, p. 82. 184 See Aravind Ganachari, G.G. Agarkar, p. 133. 185 Ibid. 186 Ibid. 187 Sudharak, 16 October 1893. 188 Dhananjay Keer, Lokamanya Tilak, p. 62. 189 Stanley A. Wolpert, Tilak and Gokhale, p. 71. 190 Ramabai Ranade, Miscellaneous Writings, p. 170; P. J. Jagirdar, Studies in the Social Thought of M.G. Ranade, p. 14. 191 The Indu-Prakash, 4 November 1895. 192 B.  M. Malabari, India in 1897: Essays on Indian Problem, p. 11. 193 Ibid., pp. 11–4. 194 Ibid., p. 17.

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5 Idea of India to be

The intellectual movement in Maharashtra was guided by a vision which the reformers envisaged for future India. Their conception of India to be was, however, not a well-structured idea charted out systematically in categorical terms. It was largely embedded in their critique of the contemporary society, economy and polity, although they did define the direction of change which the country was to take. In this chapter an attempt has been made to glean out their seminal ideas of what they thought India should be. The emergence of India as a strong nation remained the main motto of intellectual concern in nineteenth-century Maharashtra. Almost all aspired for a strong, united and modern India, modernity occupying a preeminent place in their scheme of national reconstruction. Their notion of modernity was, however, not entirely rooted in European rationality historicised in the European experience. It was equally rooted in the pre-British Indian thought and ethos specially insofar as the normative domain of reform was concerned. They made a distinction between culture and civilisation to demarcate their choice for ‘borrowing’ from the West. It was the civilisational side of the modern West that appealed to them the most, and they earnestly aspired for its adoption or adaptation in India. However, there was hardly any taker of Western normative order for cultural change in the country. Instead, they advocated reformation of the contemporary sociocultural practices in the light of India’s own tradition and history. In other words, the intellectuals remained deeply rooted in indigenous cultural moorings to be the index or guiding principle of the country’s cultural rejuvenation. Morality constituted the cornerstone of the endogenous normative order, and the Maharashtrian intellectuals came very strong on

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252  Idea of India to be this question. They did not dream of a society based on some sort of a value-neutral rationality but insisted that social order must have a moral foundation to be viable. The moral morass in the contemporary social life was lamented and ethical elevation idealised. Jambhekar laid great emphasis on public probity among the Indians and expressed his anguish at the instances of corruption and bribery among them at a scale inimical to growth, welfare and happiness. He wrote: Of all the sins which a public servant can be guilty, the practice of bribery and corruption is, in its consequence, the most injurious to the community. . . . The corruption of the man incharge to dispense justice is an offence against Society, and every member of that Society should avoid him as an enemy. Yet such is the state of Native Society and so low the standard of morals among our countrymen, that the delinquent scarcely suffers in his social relations, and when he appears in public, the eye of scorn does not rest upon him. It cannot be denied that, amongst the natives dishonesty is not regarded with the detestation it deserves, nor does it cause the individual who has been guilty of it, to sink in public estimation. . . . It is the duty of our countrymen in every rank of life, more especially those employed in public service, to inculcate, and encourage amongst the rising generation, the knowledge and practice of those just principles of conduct, without which no man can prosper in his affairs, in a manner compatible with his peace of mind, or contribute to the welfare or happiness of his fellow creatures.1 To Dadoba Pandurang even knowledge devoid of morality was void and valueless.2 Likewise, Lokahitwadi emphasised the importance of ethical parameters: rationality, morality, equality and truth to be the foundational framework of society.3 Mahatma Phule exhorted his Shudra brethren to ‘Always speak the truth’. He held truth to be the foundation of all human happiness.4 He laid great emphasis on the necessity of end and means both being righteous, otherwise even ‘the good cause suffers’.5 To Bhandarkar social and moral advancement was preconditional to political advancement.6 ‘Moral rectitude here and elsewhere is the essential condition of progress all along the line.’7 Highlighting the value of morality in private as well as national

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  Idea of India to be  253 life he in his presidential address at the Ninth Indian National Social Conference held in 1895 at Poona said, ‘Moral Law governs the affairs of the world; its observance alone ensures national prosperity. The Moral Law seeks to purify private life and to effect social justice, and through these alone is the political well-being of a nation possible.’8 He, therefore, emphasised the new social order to be ‘moral, rational and just’. In his address as president of the second anniversary meeting of the Madras Hindu Social Reform Association held on 27 December 1984 he said: If we have to march on along with the progressive races of the West, with whom we are now indissolubly united, our social institutions must improve and become moral, rational and just. There can be no advancement politically, I firmly assert, without social and moral advancement.9 For, ‘social arrangements, manners and customs then only conduce to the happiness and prosperity of a nation, when they are based upon truth and justice’.10 Parmanand was perhaps the most articulate advocate of morality as being the most crucial component of all progress. He highlighted the importance of ethical elevation as the cornerstone of social, political and even economic advancement. To quote: Moral progress, again, is essential to all progress; there can be no advance in the provinces of politics, social organisation, and even commerce and industry, unless conscience has become keen and directs the actions of man in all these matters. . . . Righteousness exalteth a nation: so if a State is to be elevated among nations, its first ambition ought to be to aim at its own moral elevation. . . . Without the moral strength and guidance which religion imparts, government would be a curse, society would be on the road to ruin, the arts and amenities of life, which add to happiness or mitigate suffering, sweeten fellow-feeling and ennoble our nature in spite of its many aberrations under misguided influence or views of religion, would cease to exist.11 Morality, in his view, was not a meek asset or option; it entailed an aura of authority and was even an aesthetic necessity for enjoyment of political power and wisdom. In his own words, ‘What is

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254  Idea of India to be morally grotesque can hardly be politically wise or even expedient in the long run. . . . In the long run, power waits on moral attributes and far-sighted wisdom and similarly it decays with the decay of virtue in its possessors.’12 Moral elevation was thus central to Parmanand’s conception of progress whether in individual, social or national life. He, therefore, emphasised the ‘necessity of maintaining a high standard of public morality and ensuring sound moral progress among the people’.13 His stress was, however, not skewed; he stood for progress in all departments of national life, moral as well as material all ongoing together.14 But he did attach greater significance to what he called ‘the cultivation of the moral resources, the development of the mental and moral capacities of man’, as it ‘forms man’s crown on earth, and which is ultimately connected even with material progress’.15 Telang held that life without moral principles would be rudderless and directionless. ‘Once you cut off the moorings of principle, you know not where you may be benighted and tempest-tossed.’16 Similarly, Malabari emphasised the necessity of moral milieu and greater social responsibility for upliftment of the country. He wrote, ‘The country cannot rise unless its millions are lifted to a higher moral atmosphere and social responsibility. And this will not happen till we have a system of heart-education side by side with head-education.’17 The idea of ethical elevation constituted the core component of Chandavarkar’s conception of social reformation. A life of purity, virtue and openness, in his view, formed the foundation of all progress, both individual and social.18 The main thing was not whether a man was right but rather whether he was upright.19 Even ‘commerce will be a burden if not dominated by conscience’.20 Institutions were made for societies and not societies for institutions, and the latter should be wisely remodelled and reformed through earnest endeavours to suit changed conditions.21 High moral ground was also effective to silence social conservatism by force and aura of idealism.22 In his speech delivered at the fourth anniversary meeting of the Madras Hindu Social Reform Association on 28 November 1896 Chandavarkar further stressed: Enthusiasm in the cause of morality has unrivalled charm and power which does not fail sooner or later to assert itself. Our work of social reform must suffer so long as we do not preach and practice the gospel of godly life.23

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He, therefore, called upon the countrymen to have the courage of conviction ‘to speak the truth, act the truth and to live the truth’.24 ‘The man who is false himself will always suspect others of falsehood. All places become heaven to him who is himself heavenly.’25 Earnest individual reform was thus a stepping stone into national reform. In his own words: With your progress and reform must be the reform of your self. Reform yourself and you find that the country reforms itself. . . . You young men should have that purity of sentiment, then your life will be in perfect harmony with your inward life and also your public life.26 The notion of morality in the nineteenth century was almost inalienably linked with that of spirituality; it was religion that worked as the workshop of ethics. Agarkar, however, viewed morality as being independent of spirituality. He held, ‘morality as a science can exist without religion; a society of atheists can equally be ethical’.27 He was, however, one with the rest of the intellectual fraternity in upholding the value of ethical principles in the life of society and nation which they all wished to refashion on sound moral foundations. The Rationalists’ world view of ethics predominating over expediency came under strain with the advent of Tilak on the national scene. This has already been indicated in the preceding discussion. To reiterate, during the course of the nineteenth century Tilak symbolised in a way the supremacy of expediency over ethics and underplayed the necessity of the end and the means both being noble. The twentieth century witnessed a classic clash of world views as well as of wits between the two titans, Tilak and Mahatma Gandhi in 1920. Detailing his fundamental dissonance with Tilak’s politics, Mahatma Gandhi wrote: Tilak represents a definite school of thought of which he makes no secret. He considers everything is fair in politics. We have joined issue with him on that conception of political life. We consider that political life of the country will become thoroughly corrupt if we import Western tactics and methods. We believe that nothing but the strictest adherence to honesty, fairplay and charity can advance the true interests of the country.28

256  Idea of India to be

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Tilak answered with a comment in a letter dated 18 January 1920 but published on 28 January 1920 in Young India stating that ‘Politics is a game of worldly people and not of Sadhus (Saints) and instead of the maxim akrodhena jine krodham as preached by Buddha, I prefer to rely on the maxim of Shri Krishna – ye yatha man prapadyante tanstathaiva bhajamyaham,29; Mahatma Gandhi quickly responded: For me that is no conflict between the two texts quoted by the Lokmanya. The Buddhist text lays down an eternal principle. The text from the Bhagavadgita shows to me how the principle of conquering hate by love, untruth by truth, can and must be applied. . . . With deference to Lokmanya, I venture to say that it betrays mental laziness to think that the world is not for Sadhus. The epitome of all religions is to promote Purushartha, and Purushartha is nothing but a desperate attempt to become Sadhu, i.e. to become a gentleman in every sense of the term. Finally, when I wrote the sentence about ‘everything being fair in politics’, according to Lokmanya’s creed, I had in mind his oft-repeated quotation ‘Shattham prati Shatthyam’. To me it enunciates bad law. . . . I pit the experience of a third of a century against the doctrine underlying ‘shattham prati shatthyam’. The true law is ‘Shattham Prati Satyam’ (Even towards a villain, truth).30 Tilak was quick to realise that the Mahatma was not Ranade or Gokhale, and that it was perhaps not possible for him to coexist with this titan in national political life from a position of his usual strength. He tried, therefore, to carve out a place for himself by leaving the turf and founded a new political party, the Congress Democratic Party in 1920. The dissonance in nationalist leadership on the question of supremacy of ethics or expediency subsided with the death of Tilak in 1920 and with the reign of command firmly coming into Mahatma Gandhi’s grip. The intellectuals in the nineteenth century envisaged a society free from caste distinctions and social obscurantism. It was to be a rational social order in which women would have their legitimate voice and participation. Fellow-feeling and freedom would constitute the reigning ethos underlying social relations. End of untouchability would be the distinctive mark of the restructured order. Mahatma Phule highlighted equality and freedom to be the foundational

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framework of the new restructured order. He in particular conceived of religious cosmopolitanism to be the ideal state of human existence and coexistence. In his book, Sarvajanik Satyadharma Pustak, written in 1889 but published posthumously in 1891 he articulated the vision of future society: In that (ideal) family, the lady (of the house) may, if she likes, embrace Buddhism after studying the Buddhist religious scripture; her husband may embrace Christianity if he likes (if he so chooses) after studying the Old and the New Testaments (of the Bible); their daughter may embrace Islam if she so chooses after studying the Quran; and their son may embrace the Universal Religion of Truth, if he so chooses, after studying the ‘Universal Religion of Truth’ (by Mahatma Phule – 1891). And all these members of the family (the parents, the son and the daughter) should lead peaceful lives, should never envy or hate the other persons’ religion, and all of them should behave towards one another in a spirit of love and understanding, always bearing in their minds that they are the Creator’s children, and hence are the members of (belonging to) the Creator’s own family. By following this righteous path, they will, indeed, be the blessed citizens of our Creator’s Kingdom.31 He stood for peace and amity, and was against war or animosity among people, whether it was at the level of villages, presidencies, countries or continents, irrespective of their religious beliefs.32 ‘They should regard themselves as members of one world-wide family, should behave amicably and in unison, observing strictly the truthful doctrine (path). Only thus can they please their Creator and become His dear children.’33 In context of the country specifically he conceived of a social order devoid of discrimination and domination – a society in which the Shudras and Ati-Shudras, peasants, tribes and women would not be exploited, a society bereft of Brahmanic bigotry and dominance. Truth and human rights would constitute the guiding principles of the new social order. In short, the Phulean philosophy of social change rested on the notion of equality, liberty, humanism and dignity. Ranade also advocated that in the new social order ‘the tendency must be towards a general recognition of the essential equality between man and man’.34 He emphasised cooperation between all communities as a necessary condition for national

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258  Idea of India to be progress. In particular, he laid emphasis on Hindu–Muslim unity, as ‘in this vast country no progress is possible unless both Hindus and Muslims join hands together’.35 The social vision of the intellectuals in the nineteenth century was, however, not confined only to the normative order. Their wish list also included the Western civilisational structure as its inalienable part. It was a selective mix of ideality and materiality, a harmonisation of Indian culture and Western civilisation. Moral idealism was emphasised only as a normative framework enveloping within its ambit the equally important idea of India’s material progress along modern Western lines. Decidedly, they were all impressed by the might of European modernity with the sway of science and technology, modern education and industrialisation. They admired European superiority in craft and statecraft and the power it symbolised. Modernity as against medievalism was almost a uniform choice. Lokahitwadi, Ranade, Chandavarkar and Agarkar were most insistent on the modernisation of Indian economy and society. This was, however, to be implanted within the moral milieu of Indian normative order. In his speech at the Sixth Indian National Social Conference held in 1892 at Allahabad Ranade pithily presented the representative vision of nineteenth-century mind of Maharashtra. To quote: The change which we should all seek is thus a change from constraint to freedom, from credulity to faith, from status to contract, from authority to reason, from unorganized or organized life, from bigotry to toleration, from blind fatalism to a sense of human dignity. This is what I understand by social evolution, both for individuals and societies in this country.36 He held industrialisation to be the key to national salvation. In his own words, ‘There can be no doubt that the permanent salvation of the country depends upon the growth of Indian manufactures and commerce, and that all other remedies can only be temporary palliatives.’37 Individualism formed the main pillar of the new social order envisaged. It was viewed as a moving spring of society. The growth of individualism was, therefore, emphasised to be the necessary condition of social regeneration and progress. Ranade wrote: All progress in social liberation tends to be a change from the law of status to the law of contract, from the restraints of family

  Idea of India to be  259 and caste customs to the self-imposed restraint of the free will of the individual.38

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In his speech delivered at the Provincial Social Conference held in 1900 at Satara he further stated: I trust you will all join to bring about the practical well-being of our people in which the well-being of every individual is involved. The work is one in which we all can co-operate with advantage and in which no progress is possible without such co-operation.39 Chandavarkar was a great champion of the cause of individualism in the nineteenth century. He held, ‘Progress has been generally achieved through the insistence of the prophet of individualism – the law of social progress.’40 In his view, the individual was the most important unit of society, and any reform initiative must reckon with the efficacy of this unit. He specifically highlighted this aspect in his speech given at the fourth anniversary meeting of the Madras Hindu Social Reform Association held on 28 November 1896: ‘All reform must begin with the reform of the individual, and the reform of the individual begins when he lives a life of openness and virtue and makes that the basis of all progress, both individual and social.’41 ‘Social reform needs individual reform before it can succeed.’42 While Ranade emphasised cooperation to be the cornerstone of progress, Chandavarkar viewed all progress to be the consequence of conflict.43 The importance of individualism finds perhaps its most eloquent expression in the speech which Chandavarkar delivered at the Social Reform Association at Mangalore in 1900. He said: Society has no life except that imparted to it by each and every unit or individual member of it. Each individual has life, and it is that life which nourishes society. It is on that individual life that social organism itself depends. That, however, is but an incomplete view of the organism. Society is moral organism, but whence does the moral power come? Not from itself, until it comes from individual units. . . . Each of us has a head, which must think; each of us has a moral force, which must act before the society of which we are parts can think and act. . . . The social machine has to be repaired and reformed; but it cannot be repaired without the aid and initiative of personal equation.

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260  Idea of India to be That shows that the vitality and the progressive capacity of a society are dependent on the vitality of each individual, and each individual has to keep it up and nourish it. Not masses but men first. . . . When men tell you to wait till the whole of the society moves, you may wait till doomsday. . . . Power is not in numbers, so much as in personality. Develop personality; realize personal responsibility for a public cause and then you sow the seeds of social growth.44 The individual, in his view, represented a social microcosm by himself. ‘Every person is a society in himself. I typify in myself my society . . . and if every individual will do his part then the society will move on.’45 Chandavarkar’s emphasis on the growth of individualism for reform and development in the country largely emanated from his conception of social evolution which emphasised a healthy counter-balancing between the two. He stated that the social mind and the individual mind must work in unison for well-graduated growth.46 Agarkar, another great advocate of individualism, emphasised, ‘The welfare of the individual amounts to the welfare of its parts; the rules framed for the good of the individual are tantamount to the good of the society.’47 Mandlik and the like resisted the move of individual initiation of change and advocated reform to be only in response to the social call and readiness. Chandavarkar argued against this contention, emphasising that collective consciousness could not be the agent of change and reform. To quote, ‘Mandlik believed in time and institutions (to change), forgetting that the true reformation of societies as of individuals is from the centre to the circumference. . . . The greatest social changes begin in the creation of individual faith.’48 He highlighted the hollowness of the claim to collective will and consciousness to be the initiator of change particularly in his speech delivered at the fourth anniversary meeting of the Madras Hindu Social Reform Association on 28 November 1896 at Madras. He argued: The phrase ‘moving with the times’ is meaningless. Time is no agent; it is men and not time that are the moving springs of society. Society has naturally a tendency to cast its members in the iron mould of custom and superstition; and it is only those who are educated can give it the propelling force. To move with it is to move in the old way; it is only by moving ahead of it and showing it the way onwards that you can get it move on.49

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  Idea of India to be  261 Mahatma Phule pitched for individual autonomy to an unprecedented high in the contemporary intellectual tradition. Individual, and not collectivity, was the primary factor in the Phulean conception of the new social order. He conceived of an ideal family in which all the members would be free and entirely autonomous in their individual choice of religious predilections living together without any ill-will or animosity and remaining tied together inalienably by bonds of love and understanding.50 Thus in the nineteenth-century scheme of reform the individual was conceived to be not only the motor of change but also the pivot of progress. To be precise, concern for modernity constituted the core of nineteenth-century thought in Maharashtra, as against medievalism which received almost universal repudiation during the period. The notion of modernity was, however, not entirely modelled on the Western example; it was suffused with elements rooted in indigenous history and culture of human brotherhood and catholicism. This constituted the distinguishing feature of the intellectual initiative in Maharashtra for social renewal in the nineteenth century. The West did not figure as a referral in their selection of normative order; the choice was invariably in favour of indigenous traditions as the nodes of change. Even Western civilisation was to be adapted to Indian needs and not thoughtlessly imitated. ­Notably, there was no blind borrowing from the West, despite its proclaimed status as the mother of modernity. Selection of options was to be ­contextually governed by the changing needs of the emerging nation. – In short, the edifice of India’s material development on modern European lines was to rest on the roots of rejuvenated Indian culture. In this perspective the indigenous past formed an inalienable link which was often referred to for cultural modernisation of the country.

Link with the past As suggested earlier, the notion of reform in the nineteenth century had a strong normative link with the indigenous pre-British past. Indian history and culture remained a fundamental frame of reference in reform initiatives of reformers in Maharashtra and it served as a cultural taproot for the changes sought for a better future. For politico-economic transformation, however, modern West, and not ancient India, was cited as the source for adoption and adaptation. Advocacy of progressive changes proposed in the present social order

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were sought to be supported by citations of prevailing practices in the pre-British past. Bhandarkar held that the social ideal was much higher and more rational in ancient India than now.51 In his presidential address at the second anniversary meeting of the Madras Hindu Social Reform Association he stated that the status of women was much higher in ancient times. To quote, In the very olden times women were not debarred from the highest education. . . . In the epic poems girls are represented as going through a regular course of education of which dancing, drawing and music formed parts; they were represented as mixing freely with men and taking part in conversation on the highest subjects. Buddhist literature also represents women as actively assisting the reform which Buddha had inaugurated, discussing with him points about virtue, duty and ablution. Gradually, however, their importance lessened, but even so late as the eleventh century, women were not condemned to exclusion. The seclusion of women and their ignorance was, therefore, a custom that was introduced in later times, and the Mussalman domination contributed to render it very rigid. . . . Girls were married after they came of age. The practice of remarriage of women also prevailed in the olden times. The system of castes did not prevail and it seems to have developed at the end of the Vedic period.52 In his presidential address at the Ninth Indian National Social Conference held at Poona in 1895 he argued: Most of the reforms we advocate involve no break of continuity . . . what we propose is merely to go back to the more healthy condition in which our society once existed. In ancient times girls were married after they had attained maturity; widow marriage was in practice, women were often highly educated and taught music and dancing, now they are condemned to ignorance. The castes were only four in number, now they are innumerable. Inter-dining among these castes was not prohibited, now the numberless castes that prevail cannot have inter-communication of that nature.53 Ranade was another erudite exponent of cultural richness of India’s remote past. Like Bhandarkar he, too, held that the deformities that

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  Idea of India to be  263 crept into the social system were later excrescences, not found in the best traditions of ancient India. ‘The customs of our ancestors were not the customs we follow. We have had a glorious past and the burden is laid upon us to revive it and take part in the activities of the modern times.’54 While addressing the Second Indian National Social Conference held in 1888 at Allahabad he said, ‘Most of the social evils complained of in these days, were unknown in the days of our highest glory, and seeking their reform, we are not imitating any foreign models, but restoring its ancient freedom and dignity in place of subsequent corruptions.’55 He proudly alluded to that part of India’s past when not only great advances were made in the realm of philosophy, literature and sciences but also cultural dissemination was carried out even in foreign countries by ‘our illustrious ancestors’. Speaking at the Hindu Union Club in 1895 in Bombay he said: We represent a continuity of creed, of traditions, of literature, of philosophy, of modes of life and forms of thought, which are peculiar to this land, and which have been carried to other countries by our illustrious ancestors in the past from this land. . . It is not the immediate past of which we are to feel proud, but of the past of our great ancestors in whose time our philosophies were developed, our literature and sciences grew up, and our people went to foreign lands, far off to Java, to the East, and away beyond Mongolia to the North. . . . The more immediate past has brought us into the difficulties in which we find ourselves. . . . That immediate past has landed us into our debasement.56 Ranade further dwelt upon: The early celebration of child marriages, the forcible disfigurement of the widows and absolute prohibition of remarriage in the higher castes, the occasional and local practices of polyandry and polygamy, all are admittedly corruptions of recent growth unknown to the best days of our country’s history. . . . The writings of Manu and Vajnawalkya show, what the Puranas and Itihasas confirm that monogamy is the natural condition of Aryan life and that both polygamy and polyandry are disreputable excrescences.57

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264  Idea of India to be He held that with the coming of the Scythians and the Mongols the status of women shrank to a new low, which was further reinforced with the advent of the Muslims.58 Polygamy and illicit concubinage became once more fashionable, reducing the status of women. He argued that ‘polyandry has always been a normal institution of the non-Aryan or Scythian or Mongolian races. . . . Woman in these ruder races was bartered in marriage as a movable chattel or slave. With the coming of the Mahomedans the status of women further shrank. Polyandry and illicit concubinage became once more fashionable.’59 He sought ‘to restore the old healthy practices, rendered so dear by their association with our best days, and justified by that higher reason which is the sanction of God in man’s bosom’.60 He made an appeal ‘to lop off the diseased over-growth and excrescences, and to restore vitality and energy to the social organism’.61 To press for the acceptance of reform advocated he argued that ‘the change is sought not as an innovation, but as a return and restoration to the days of our past history’.62 Telang also echoed similar sentiments in favour of return to the old ways of life as actually a move towards modernisation. At the Second Indian National Social Conference held in 1888 at Allahabad he said: Let us revert to the condition of things in that earlier period, for which many of us are expressing so much gushing reverence in theory and talk. It is the comparatively modern period and the degenerations belonging to it, which we have to repudiate. The older condition of things will now be much more favourable to real progress.63 Malabari also contrasted ‘India’s glorious past with its present inglorious condition’.64 The intellectual link with the past in the nineteenth century was a matter more of a head than of a heart. It was based more on erudition than on emotion. It largely emanated from consciousness of the significance of historical continuity in the process of social evolution. Ranade said, ‘In human affairs it is not true that our past is always dead and burned. Nothing that we have done is really dead. It is a living force, which drags us upwards and downwards, and we have to choose between the two. Your present is not yours. It must accumulate, and overweigh the old records of your

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  Idea of India to be  265 forefather’s actions.’65 In his speech at the Ninth Indian National Social Conference held in 1895 at Poona he again remarked, ‘To say that it is possible to build up a new fabric on new lines without any help from the past is to say that I am self-born and my father and grand-father need not have troubled for me.’66 Underlining the importance of past he argued that ‘we could not break with the past if we would. We must not break with the past if we could’.67 He, however, did not hesitate to depict the deficiencies in the ancient Indian social system either. For example, he highlighted in the light of history the plight of women in early Vedic times, particularly in terms of denial of property rights to them. He categorically stated: In early Vedic times, the woman was, like the deformed or the sickly member of a family, devoid of rights, and, being incapable of self-protection, was disentitled to share the inheritance. The succession in a united family after the death of its chief went to the surviving male members.68 With equal intellectual integrity he also delineated the positive features of ancient Indian society such as equal participation of women with their husbands in religious rites, the freedom to choose husbands or to remain unmarried, marriage on maturity, monogamy, equality with men in literary and philosophical pursuits and the like. To quote: A chivalrous regard for women, and for their personal comfort and liberty, was asserted in other ways. The women took equal part with the husbands in solemn religious rites. They were permitted at their choice to remain single and unmarried, and neither the father nor the mother would interfere by exercising their power of choosing husbands for them. They were poets, philosophers, and Rishis, and composed hymns, wrote works and studied and argued with men on equal terms. Marriage was optional with man as with woman. The practice of Swayamwara in mature age, the liberty to be married again on the death, or absence, or incurable impotency, of the first husband, both before and after consummation, the strictness of the monogamous tie, all these privileges were conceded to women in the natural growth of things.69

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Chandavarkar was equally conscious of the utility of the indigenous past in shaping the future destiny of the people. He argued: While their social progress can but come through their religious reform, their religious reform must come from their own ‘essential’ past. Hence the necessity of teaching them what their own prophets and saints have said and preached . . .70 The assertion ‘I too venerate the past; for without it we could not have had the present’71 was essentially an intellectual assertion, and not an emotional outburst. Besides, combating an ‘enlightened’ conservatism was largely an intellectual challenge which the reformers had to contend with. The search for locating the role of indigenous past for change in the present was, however, not an intellectual affair entirely bereft of emotion and nativism; its taproot was, indeed, to an extent, passion and patriotism, too. Was nineteenth-century reverence for the past revivalist? This issue, alive then in intellectual thinking, is still debatable among scholars. Ranade tried to set this controversy at rest in 1897 when in his speech at the Eleventh Indian National Social Conference at Amravati he said: What shall we revive? Shall we revive the old habits of our people when the most sacred of our castes indulged in all the abominations, as we now understand them, of animal food and intoxicating drink, which exhausted every section of our country’s Zoology and Botany? . . . Shall we revive the twelve forms of sons, or eight forms of marriage, which included capture, and recognized mixed and illegitimate intercourse? Shall we revive the Niyoga system of propagating sons on our brother’s wives when widowed? . . . Shall we revive the hetacombs of animals sacrificed from year’s end to year’s end, in which even human beings were not spared as propitiatory offerings to God? . . . Shall we revive the Sati and infanticide customs? . . . Shall we revive the custom of many husbands to one wife or of many wives to one husband? . . . These instances will suffice to show that the plan of reviving the ancient usages and customs will not work our salvation, and is not practicable. . . . It seems to be forgotten that in a living organism, as society is, no revival is possible. The dead and the buried or burnt are dead, buried and burnt once

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for all, and the dead past cannot, therefore, be revived except by a reformation of the old materials into new organized beings. If revival is impossible, reformation is the only alternative open to sensible people.72 Chandavarkar also highlighted the futility of the very talk of revival by way of reproducing or replicating; its relevance resided only in its readjustment to the requirements of present times. He remarked in 1894: It is historically untrue that any reformer, or body of reformers in any sphere of life, religious, political, or social, can reproduce exactly the institutions of the past, and all the talk about what goes on by the name of ‘revival’ is mere moonshine. . . . The creed of the old is good because it contains the germs, out of which alone the reform of the future can come; but that creed has to adjust itself to the larger and ampler requirements of the modern times, and then alone can it expand.73 The past as a fixity had no relevance in Chandavarkar’s conception of change. ‘Mere metaphysics of the past will not do; and we must adapt ourselves to the new circumstances.’74 The relevance of the past was, therefore, in reference to its utility for the present and its potentiality for the future. In his speech delivered at the Presidency College in Madras in 1896 he said: The past has its utility, but since the present is not exactly like the past, and the future must differ from it even more, we have to confine our reverence for the past within reasonable limits, and what those limits are can only be determined by the wants, the needs and the spirit of the times in which we live, the environment by which we are surrounded and the circumstances by which we are dominated no less than by the knowledge that we have gained from the discoveries both of the present and of the past. . . . We are making it to live in the present.75 Only, the past we wish to revive must be such as can benefit us at present. There are pasts and pasts. And while we had a period in our history in which Indian women enjoyed many of the privileges enjoyed by women in Europe, there was also one in which they suffered great degradations. And if we are to copy

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our ancients, should we not copy those of them who were kind to their women rather than those who were cruel? The necessity for the choosing arises from our present conditions.76 He took a dig at the proponents of ‘revival’ and asked, ‘Here you are sitting with your hookah in your hand. Does the Veda justify this?’77 He, however, cautioned against insularity and advocated to derive inspiration not only from the indigenous tradition but also from outside. He held: No society has improved by drawing its light from its own antiquity and refusing to receive light from outside. . . . All societies that have advanced have advanced by more or less becoming plagiarists. . . . We must not be led away by that spirit of antiquity which breeds in us the spirit of patriotism that is exclusive. By all means let us not give up our past . . ., but at the same time let us not refuse to receive light from outside while we are receiving light from within; for our antiquity being our own mind, its ‘idealizing reason’ is apt to narrow our mental vision and mislead us unless it is strengthened by the ‘idealizing reason’ of the minds of foreign countries.78 His openness and catholicism in thought notwithstanding, Chandavarkar underlined the importance of indigenous ‘essential past’ for wholesome and abiding future growth.79 It was the vital past that was worthy of veneration and inspiration. He had no respect for that part of the past which was not fitted to enlighten and invigorate the present. In his speech at the Social Reform Association in 1900 at Mangalore he forcefully reiterated: Men there are who praise our past, and are eloquent over the glories of our ancestors. Now I too venerate the past; for without it we could not have had the present. . . . It is the vital past that we must care for and not break away from. But what is the vital past? Infant marriage, enforced widowhood, caste in the noxious form in which it rules, female ignorance – are these of the vital past? Nothing that is of the past has a right to live if it stunts our growth and kills our manhood, numbs our physical, mental and moral calibre. Let us not ignore the past, but the past has to be adapted to the present, so as to rise into a good and glorious future. We

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cannot break from the past if it is vital. . . . What is wanted is not a word for the past. Rather we have to put in a word for the present.80 Revival was no option; it was not even within the ken of nineteenth-century thought in Maharashtra. The intellectuals’ bent towards the Vedas was not blind; they were highly selective in their choice. That past had no sanctity if it was bereft of its utility to the needs of the present conditions. They had no hesitation to repudiate that part of the past which was unsuited to the demands of modern times. For example, they did not advocate the bringing back of the Vedic economy and polity resting on ruralism, pastoralism and tribalism. Even in the cultural domain they exercised discretion and discrimination; only those aspects of society were sought to be restored that had relevance for reformation of the present social order. Significantly, the reformers went from the present to the past for reformation of the present and not vice versa. In the past what they looked for was an ideal, not a model. ‘The past is useful only as a guide for our present and for our future growth.’81 Their going backward was thus actually a movement forward. The call for a return to the past was, in fact, a march towards modernity. Mahatma Phule and Pandita Ramabai had no reverence for India’s past. The former had strong abhorrence for Brahmanical ancient India that, he thought, relegated the Shudras and Ati-Shudras to the fringe of Aryan society, despised and degraded. He denounced the present social division and discrimination which he held to be anchored in the ideology of India’s past. Likewise, Ramabai traced the history of women’s subjection and lack of freedom to the milieu of mistrust prevailing in ancient India, further fanned by the ancient law-givers. Both marked different terrains and represented a different cognition, almost unique of its kind, in the nineteenth-century scale of thought. They all had, however, a definite notion as to the way to reach the desired goal.

Route to reform The idea of future India was realisable through certain modes to achieve the ends. Education, legislation, persuasion and representation were discovered to be the most potent instruments of action in the nineteenth century, although there was no watertight compartmentalisation between these options which could inevitably overlap. We shall try in

270  Idea of India to be this section to understand the seminal ideas of intellectuals regarding route to reform.

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Education The issue of education was actually a meeting of minds in Maharashtra. If there was any single subject on which the entire intellectual fraternity came to hold a common view, it was the necessity of education as the key to social and national salvation. On other issues differences did exist, and they existed in plenty both in terms of character of ideas and emphasis, but on the issue of education all came together and gave their ideas the concrete shape of a movement to reckon with. Even the conservatives were one with the reformers on the question of education being the most effective agent of change and a primary input in the process of what they called ‘reform from within’. Jambhekar was one of the first to underline the value of education in national life.82 He established the Bombay Durpun on 6 January 1832, the first Anglo-Marathi fortnightly which was converted into a weekly from 6 May 1832, with the avowed aim ‘to spread liberal sentiments in matters of religion and politics, that might promote the improvement of our countrymen’.83 Emphasising the importance of education for progress Dadoba Pandurang stated in his Marathi work Dharmavivechan, ‘Knowledge is the root of all progress; it is strength.’84 While highlighting the exploitative character of the colonial rule, his younger brother, Bhaskar Pandurang, wrote: However, we would have borne all the enormous calamities you (i.e. the British) have heaped upon our heads with courage and fortitude becoming our present situation, had you but undertaken education of the Natives on your hands and made them wiser and wiser every day, so that they might be freed from their religious prejudices and superstitious fears. Should you only draw money from them and not do the least thing for their good? The present little donations which your Government have subscribed for educating the Native youth is ridiculously trifling, and that too from no other motive but to keep up appearances; if you wished, you could have spread the blessings of education throughout the whole of India by this time and raised her unhappy children in the scale of knowledge and civilization.85

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Lokahitwadi held that ignorance was the fertile ground for growth of social evils and that the magic wand of knowledge could work wonders and change the character of countries. He wrote: Mankind . . . admits many customs and practices dissonant to reason and conscience and adheres to them with great enthusiasm till the people turn their attention to the culture of the mind and the acquisition of knowledge. The magic wand of knowledge works wonders and gives a different character to the nations in the world. If men were to reflect and consider for a moment, they would find that this practice (infanticide) has its seeds in ignorance. The mind of ignorant men is in a cramped state and like a dirty mirror, never receives reflection.86 To Mahatma Phule knowledge was a panacea for all ills. He pinned immense faith in the ‘healing balm of education, the elixir of life’ to end centuries-old suppression of the Shudras. Highlighting its value he wrote: Without knowledge, intelligence was lost, without intelligence morality was lost and without morality was lost all dynamism! Without dynamism money was lost and without money the Shudras sank. All this misery was caused by the lack of knowledge.87 Underlining its importance he further stated, ‘Everything except knowledge is common to men and other creatures. That is why the original condition of animals does not change even a bit.’88 Widely revered for his erudition Bhandarkar held, ‘Great is wisdom; infinite is the value of wisdom. It cannot be exaggerated, it is the highest achievement of man.’89 Parmanand accorded a high premium on knowledge. He wrote, ‘Ignorance is a curse and enlightenment a blessing in every rank and condition of life and of society.’90 ‘Knowledge is at once the manna and the medicine of our moral being.’91 While replying to Malabari’s Notes on Infant Marriages and Enforced Widowhood in India Telang wrote in 1884, ‘The progress of education must be, if not our sole, at least our principal lever in the eradication of existing evil customs.’92 To Agarkar, ‘education is the most efficient and peaceful means of bringing about intellectual, moral and

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272  Idea of India to be physical regeneration of a country.’93 In fact, education was the salvation of humanity.94 Similarly, Pandita Ramabai pinned her faith in education to achieve women’s emancipation; she held it to be the chief cause of progress.95 ‘Human existence without knowledge must be considered inferior to animal existence.’96 Further, ‘lack of knowledge breeds strange beliefs.’97 She found ignorance to be largely responsible for the slavery and inferior status of women.98 She highlighted that ‘only education under God’s grace, can give us the needful strength to rise up from our degraded condition.’99 She wrote: Education is indestructible wealth. He who possesses it is the happiest in this world. Like the Sun, education gives light to one who is drowning in the terrible darkness of ignorance and is unhappy. . . . If you have no education, you are blind even though you have a thousand eyes.100 She, therefore, appealed to Indian women: Let us now together exorcise the ghost of animal-like ignorance which has entered our bodies, with the help of the powerful incantation of diligence. And let us exert ourselves to attain the divine virtues which can be acquired through education. Then, we will shortly get out of our sorry state and achieve a happy state.101 Education was valued so universally in the nineteenth century that even Mandlik and Tilak who were in the forefront of conservative opposition to reform held it to be the sovereign remedy for national salvation.102 The spread of primary education received utmost focus in the educational scheme of reformers. Mahatma Phule was the most ardent advocate of spread of primary education. He was one of the few who stood against the Macaulayan theory of class education and favoured mass education to the hilt. In particular, he advocated and struggled for the education of all deprived and marginalised sections of society, that is the untouchables, peasants, artisans, tribals and women.103 He held lack of education to be the root cause of multiple maladies among these people further multiplied by their perennial poverty. In his letter to Maharaj Sayajirao Gaikwad, State of Baroda, Mahatma Phule wrote, ‘The Aryan Brahmins forbade the Shudras to take education which

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  Idea of India to be  273 was the root cause (foundation) of their wretched condition.’104 He, therefore, appealed that ‘the benevolent Queen should spend the huge amount of taxes that she levies compulsorily on the ignorant farmers (cultivators) in this land of King Bali on opening schools for the children of the Shudras and Ati-Shudras in our country’.105 In his Memorial to the Education Commission Mahatma Phule tried to highlight to the government the neglect of primary education. He wrote: There is little doubt that primary education among the masses in this Presidency has been very much neglected. Nearly nine-tenths of the villages in the Presidency or nearly 10 lakhs of children, it is said, are without any provision, whatever, for primary education.106 He decried the government’s tilt towards the education of higher classes as unjust and inequitable.107 He lashed out at the theory of Downward Filtration leading to ‘monopoly of merit’ by the higher classes and inevitable neglect of education among the backward classes.108 He asked, ‘upon what grounds is it asserted that the best way to advance the moral and intellectual welfare of the people is to raise the standard of instruction among the higher classes?’109 He argued: Perhaps the most glaring tendency of the Government system of high class education has been the virtual monopoly of all the higher offices under them by the Brahmins. If the welfare of the Ryot is at heart, if it is the duty of Government to check a host of abuses, it behoves them to narrow this monopoly, day by day, so as to allow a sprinkling of the other castes to get into the public services. Perhaps some might be inclined to say that it is not feasible in the present state of education. Our only reply is that if Government looks a little less after higher education, and more towards the education of the masses, the former being able to take care of itself, there would be no difficulty in training up a body of men every way qualified and perhaps far better in morals and manners.110 Phule found illiteracy among peasants and other deprived sections to lie at the root of poverty and instances of dropouts among ‘the cultivating classes’ as he so termed.111 ‘A good deal of their poverty, their

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274  Idea of India to be want of self-reliance, their entire dependence upon the learned and intelligent classes, is attributable to this deplorable state of education among the peasantry.’112 He proposed a plan of action for the spread of education among the people. Increase in the number of schools of good quality, compulsory primary education, special inducements such as scholarships and prizes for children belonging to poor and socially suppressed sections, separate schools for the untouchables manned by teachers from their own communities and not from those of the high castes, emphasis on practical and skill-based vocational education pertinent to their work and existence, constituted the core components of his scheme aimed at making meaningful mass education a viable proposition. In his own words: We should provide such useful education for them (the children of the Shudras) as would enable them to shape their own lives and careers (not mere elementary reading and writing). It should be a really good education . . . The Government is to blame for its apathy regarding the education of the Ati-Shudras. Just reflect, Dhondiba, over the urgent need of preparing trained teachers from the Shudra and Ati-Shudra communities. How do you expect our Brahmin teachers to impart true knowledge to the Shudra and Ati-Shudra children in the schools, which will inspire them to free themselves from their age-old enslavement to the Brahmins?113 Besides increase in the number of schools, special inducements in the shape of scholarships and a half-yearly or annual prizes to encourage them to send their children, and thus create in them a taste for learning, is most essential. I think primary education of the masses should be made compulsory up to a certain age, say at least 12 years. Mahars, Mangs and other lower classes, where their number is large enough, should have separate schools for them, as they are not allowed to attend other schools owing to caste prejudices. I think teachers for primary schools should be trained, as far as possible, out of the cultivating classes, who will be able to mix freely with them and understand their wants and wishes much better than a Brahmin teacher who generally holds himself aloof under religious prejudices. The course of training for them ought to include, besides the ordinary subjects, an elementary knowledge of agriculture and sanitation.114

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  Idea of India to be  275 He laid stress on revision of text-books in order to make them practical and existentially relevant. He proposed that ‘lessons on technical education and morality, sanitation and agriculture, and some useful arts, should be interspersed among them in progressive series’.115 He also pleaded for provision of food, clothes, books to the poor Shudra children free of cost, and even starting boarding schools for them,116 an idea which has practical resonance even till today. Mahatma Phule advocated the opening of separate schools for the children of not only Shudras but also artisans and the imparting of trade-related skill-based instruction. This in his view could prove to be complementary to the growth of agriculture in the country. He realised the importance of skilled workmanship and that of complementarity between agriculture and crafts for development of the economy. He wrote: In addition to the schools for the children of the cultivators in this land of King Bali, the benevolent English Government should open separate schools for the children of the artisans in our country – such as tin-smiths, iron-smiths, carpenters, shoe-makers, gold smiths, tinkers, weavers, tailors – (i.e. people who were known as ‘Balutdars’ and ‘Alutdars’ in villages) and expend money on providing instruction to them regarding their own trades and related skills. . . . They will then be trained artisans (skilled in different trades) and they will be able, like the European and American artisans, to produce many agricultural implements – for ploughing, sowing, turning the soil, weeding, reaping and harvesting etc. for the use of the agriculturists in our country.117 He pressed for compulsory attendance in such vocational centres of learning even ‘by enacting a special legislation’ for the purpose.118 A major thrust of the Phulean scheme of education was the dehegemonisation of the Shudras from the hegemonic hold of Brahmanism. He insisted, ‘until real education and knowledge is available, the strong imprint of the scheming Brahmans will not be erased from their minds’.119 He himself founded schools for Shudra children in Poona in 1852.120 He also established an evening school for the working people in 1855.121 Mahatma Phule was not alone in his advocacy for the spread of mass education. Bhandarkar emphasised spread of education among

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276  Idea of India to be the marginalised sections and argued, ‘The despised Mahar possesses a good deal of natural intelligence and is capable of being heavily educated. So that to continue to keep him in ignorance, is to deprive the country of an appreciable amount of intellectual resources.’122 Parmanand, another prominent figure of the time, emphasised the introduction of primary education among the masses not only for their skill enhancement but also for the development of a sense of independence among them as well as for their aesthetic appreciation of nature. He wrote: Nothing is more important to the welfare of the country than primary education among the masses. It will break the present pride of education, and will prevent the severance of the educated from the plough and the chisel. It will bring better skill, greater thrift, more independence, and the power of higher combination in the production of wealth. It will make them observe facts and phenomena which nature everyday presents before their eyes, to put them together, to draw inferences from them, and to utilize them.123 He emphasised in particular the education of the backward classes who had been excluded from the pale of learning due to centuries-old customary social prejudices and discrimination. It was he who no less emphatically than Mahatma Phule advocated the spread of compulsory and free primary education among the people. He wrote: Popular education must be taken in hand at the same time that the instruction of the higher classes is attended to; and it must be based on compulsory system of primary education among the masses. There is only one condition which must be observed, and this is to offer it free of cost; let free schools for primary education, therefore, be established in every town and village, and let them be thrown open to all, and attendance made compulsory, while periodic schools similarly exempt from any charge, are opened for the children of bonafide cultivators who cannot spare them from their work during the busy season.124 He stood for diversification and diffusion of knowledge among all castes as against the prevalent caste-based supremacy of hereditary

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  Idea of India to be  277 occupation and skills which, he held, not only induced stagnation but also made people incapable of competing with foreign competition.125 To uplift the condition of the backward classes in particular from the quagmire of ignorance, he proposed that ‘talent hunt’ should be carried out ‘to select the most promising of the boys belonging to those classes from each grade of schools for special rewards if they are well-to-do and support them entirely at the public expense, if they are poor, to prosecute their further studies in the lines most suited to their talents and natural bent of mind and thereby enable them to attain to “an equality of opportunity” and so to compete, as far as practicable, on equal terms with the rest of their brethren’.126 He lamentably remarked: No small loss has been incurred and no little advantage foregone because the natural fruitfulness is sadly marred by ‘a monotony and monopoly of occupation’ artificially inflicted on their possessors from generation to generation. . . . In all lines of life natural talent and aptitude do more for human advancement and prosperity than heredity of occupation.127 G. V. Joshi, the founder of the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha and popularly known as ‘Sarvajanik Kaka’, was also an ardent advocate of the spread of primary education. He saw it as a source of social salvation and a precondition of progress. In his presentation at the Poona Educational Conference on 30 September 1896 he said, ‘The widest possible diffusion of primary education is one of the first requirements as elsewhere – one of the first precedent conditions without which well-ordered even progress is hardly possible. It is further the only means by which the masses could be enfranchised from the degradation of ages, and their condition raised and improved.’128 Telang, too, stood in favour of education of the low castes, and also raised this question as a member of the Education Commission in his minute recorded on 25 September 1883.129 Agarkar saw in universal education a cure to the caste system.130 The nineteenth-century intellectuals, however, did not lose sight of higher education while focalising on primary education. Even Mahatma Phule, the main proponent of primary education, advocated the growth of higher education and its universal accessibility. Higher education which also included secondary school education, in his view, deserved equal fostering care of the government along

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with primary education. He made his viewpoint quite clear in his Memorial to the Education Commission. To quote: No well-wisher of the country would desire that Government should, at the present time, withdraw its aid from higher education. Education in India is still in its infancy. Any withdrawal of State aid from higher education can be injurious to the spread of education generally . . . Nor could any part of such education be entrusted to private agency. For a long time to come the entire educational machinery, both ministerial and executive, must be in the hands of Government. Both the higher and primary education require all the fostering care and attention which Government can bestow on it. . . . The higher education should be so arranged as to be within easy reach of all.131 Parmanand highlighted the fact that primary education and higher education were integral to each other. He stipulated that only on a strong foundation of the expanded primary education must be raised the edifice of higher education in all branches of knowledge, theoretical as well as practical, through the vernacular and English languages.132 Notably, he laid emphasis on carrying on original research in basic sciences with an eye to practical application. He wrote: Some provision should be made, and here private benefaction may well co-operate with the State, for carrying on original research and investigation into the physical and moral sciences in their application to this country. The necessity for such provision is indeed self-evident: without original researches and investigations all education must remain more or less a mechanical process, all knowledge, ancient or modern, inherited or acquired, a dead possession, unable to influence the national life materially, morally or socially below the surface or make any advance over what is taught and learnt at schools and colleges.133 (Emphasis added) Ranade was most vociferous in highlighting the British neglect of education in general and higher education in particular. The financial outlay spent on education exemplified the scant attention and priority accorded to it by the government. He wrote:

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  Idea of India to be  279 The British Indian Government raises from the people an yearly revenue of close upon 68 ½ millions sterling or 3 ½ Rs. per head, and spends on their education ¾ million or less than 8 pies per head per annum. This miserably small expenditure from the public revenues on national education is not very creditable to a civilized government. If the Indian Government is really anxious to carry out the scheme of a truly national education, as foreshadowed in the Despatch of 1854, it will best satisfy the world of its sincerity by allotting an increasing share of the public taxes to the support of education. This is its highest duty and its greatest safety.134 Out of this small allocation the expenditure on primary education was much more than that on higher education, more than 150 per cent greater than on collegiate, high and middle class institutions taken together.135 He demanded that higher education should be given adequate impetus for national development. The British government looked for ways and means to get rid of this responsibility and leave higher education in the hands of private players including the missionaries. Ranade resisted the move and argued: It becomes as much the duty of Government to help the middle classes to obtain higher education as to assist the lower to secure primary education. The withdrawal of state help from higher education could not be done without retarding the general progress of the people. Any precipitate action on the part of Government can only end in handing over the charge of higher education into the hands of the Protestant Missionary societies, whose chief end is the propagation of their faith. The political and religious effects of such a reactionary policy will be disastrous.136 The neglect of primary education was not acceptable to Ranade either; he stood for strengthening of both the streams simultaneously. In his own words, ‘Higher education is no doubt essential to the progress of the nation as a whole, but education of the masses should go hand in hand with the education of the higher classes. In fact, no nation can be said to be civilized, where the mass of the people are sunk in deep ignorance and superstition.’137 He was, however, aware that the question of the spread of mass education would

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remain elusive so long as poverty prevailed among the people and their material condition was not improved. He reasoned: The great mass of the people is extremely poor, and lives almost from hand to mouth. What it wants is not education, but work and employment. Almost all the native industries and trades have been killed by British commerce and British manufactures, and it looks like mockery on the part of Government to offer to the labouring classes education, when what they sadly want is food. Until the material condition of the people is improved, there will be no great demand for education.138 While Mahatma Phule and Parmanand proposed spread of mass education by making it free and compulsory, Ranade reasoned that without poverty alleviation and improvement in the material condition of the people, the campaign for mass education would not catch up. He wrote: As things at present stand, nearly 85 per cent of the Brahmins and other high caste boys receive the rudiments of education in the existing schools. The class that has now to be reached is the agricultural community forming the back-bone of the population. They require first to be better fed and clothed and housed before they can be asked with advantage to educate themselves. A knowledge of the rudiments of reading and writing sufficient for their daily life is all that can be expected at present, and this knowledge the indigenous system of schools provides satisfactorily and cheaply.139 Ranade’s idea of popular education seems to be more realistic than the grandiose schemes of his radical predecessors. He, too, however, stood for compulsory education, for ‘unless education is made compulsory in this country, there will too often be no scholars for the additional schools that may be opened by Government.’140 Telang was another articulate advocate of higher education. He held mere mass education could be hardly of any use without higher education. He emphasised the country could not achieve multi-dimensional progress without higher learning. He, too, wished it to move forward along with the progress, and not with neglect of

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popular education. In his Minute recorded on 25 September 1883 as a member of the Education Commission he wrote: Mass education must be put forward. On the other hand, I hold an equally strong opinion that, without the higher education, mass education cannot be of much avail, even if it can be secured. . . . The whole religious social, political and industrial advance of the country depends on the steady adhesion of that enlightened policy, as regards high education.141 The extremely restricted extent of female education was the bane of the whole of India in the nineteenth century. Western India was no exception to this general scenario. The Indu-Prakash reported that ‘the need for cultivating the minds of girls is not as vividly realized by the people as that of boys’.142 While in 1885–86 the percentage of male students to male population of school going age in the Bombay Presidency was 26.8, the female students to female population of school-going age was paltry 2.9.143 The picture of school education in general was not good either, though it was not worse than in other Provinces. The percentage of students to total population of school-going age was 15.2 in the Bombay Presidency, as compared to 9.8 in Madras Presidency and 13.2 in Bengal.144 The dismal extent of education among girls could be further gauged by the fact that out of a total of ten girl students who passed the matriculation examination in 1886 in the Bombay Presidency, seven were Europeans and three Parsis.145 Female education, therefore, received emphatic intellectual attention in nineteenth-century Maharashtra. The reformers placed a very high premium on female education as a catalyst to social change. The initial concern of Jambhekar to provide encouragement to female education146 was developed into a concerted campaign in its favour during the course of the nineteenth century. Mahatma Phule was in the forefront in this initiative. He established schools for Shudratishudra girls in 1848, followed by another school started in 1851 for girls of all castes.147 Amidst great financial strain he along with his wife carried out its prosecution mostly by their own sweat and resources. He faced immense social hurdles but his tenacity of purpose helped him transcend the limits of contextual constraints to give some shape to the idea of equality between man and woman, so close to Phulean idea of change.

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282  Idea of India to be Bhandarkar viewed female education to be an effective instrument of national progress. In his presidential address at the Ninth Indian National Social Conference held in 1895 at Poona he said, ‘Gentlemen, one half of the intellectual, moral and spiritual resources of our country is being wasted. If our women are educated as they ought to be, they would be a powerful instrument for advancing the general condition of our country.’148 Parmanand also held that national progress must remain incomplete, low and lop-sided where female education lagged behind, thus nullifying even the advance made in male education.149 Telang saw in female education the greatest potential for eradication of the existing social ills afflicting the nation.150 Chandavarkar highlighted female education to lie at the root of all reform. In his own words, ‘I do not think the Parsis would have been what they are – socially progressive – if their earlier leaders had not clearly perceived that female education is the root of all reform.’151 Agarkar argued that denial of education to women under any excuse implied a criminal waste of their mental faculties, reminiscent of ‘male despotism’.152 Self-reliance and education of women, particularly the helpless widows, constituted the cornerstone of Ramabai’s notion of gender liberation. Even Tilak would support female education sans Westernisation. Female education in the nineteenth century was, however, largely seen as an enabling provision to make them, ‘not only good house-wives but also good companions of life’ rather than as a vehicle for their autonomous growth in their own right. The ambivalence on the part of the intellectuals as to extension of higher education to women on par with men exemplified somewhat subordinate status accorded to the question of female education, reminiscent of the continuing hold of traditional male supremacy in the social arena which the intellectuals as a fraternity could not totally break with from. Bhandarkar opined: I think it still remains an open question whether our ideal for the education of women ought to be the same as that for the education of men, whether after they finish their High School education, they ought to be made to go through the whole University Course up to the M.A. Degree. Perhaps after finishing the High School education, if further progress is desired, there should be a selection of such subjects as are more calculated to develop the peculiar attitudes of womanly nature.153

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Parmanand, too, saw the necessity and significance of female education largely in terms of cultured companionship and intellectually elevating domesticity as its desirable outcomes. He wrote: National life must remain incomplete and at low and unprogressive level where the females from want of education, a recognized position, or from any other cause, are incapable of sharing the views or co-operating with the aims and objects of the males, and family life is a one-sided assortment in which highly cultivated and liberally educated men are joined in wedlock with ignorant and superstitious women, who however good and affectionate they may be, can never command from their spouses that intimate and continued respect and regard which one cultured mind inevitably feels for another and which is essential to complete the union of the hearts. Not only so, but in such circumstances even the knowledge and education which obtain among men will remain stationary or barren and incapable of creating an intellectual atmosphere. As has been well said, to educate a boy is to bring up an individual, but to educate a girl is to train a whole family.154 He was, however, sensitive to its efficacy for also elevating the status of women themselves, apart from effecting general social advancement. In his own words, ‘Female education and culture, therefore, are essential not only for the elevation of the sex and the felicity of domestic life but also for the proper training of children and enlightenment and progress of society itself.’155 But then while emphasising free primary and secondary education for girls on almost universal basis through introduction of incentives, he conveniently left their higher education in the hands of the higher classes to take the lead in this area of work. To quote: Nor, lastly, must the sacred cause of female education be neglected. Free schools for the primary and secondary instruction of girls should be opened, and though attendance on their part may be made compulsory as in the case of boys, much might be effected by rewards and encouragement; teachers throughout the State will act as a stimulus to its spread. Beyond this degree of progress, however, the development of higher education among women must be influenced from above; that

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is, in other words, here you yourself and your higher classes must lead the way.156 Refinement of domesticity also formed the prime purpose of Chandavarkar’s advocacy for female education. In his speech at the fourth anniversary meeting of the Madras Hindu Social Reform Association held on 28 November 1896 he clearly stated: Female education is the first item of reform in our list. It is our duty to educate our daughters or other female wards. . . . The education that is given is one which fits them to be the guardian angels of their homes – that is, we enable them to be not only good housewives but also good companions of life. There are branches of knowledge which must improve the minds of women as much as they improve the minds of men; but the art of domestic economy and housekeeping ought to form the special features of female education. . . . I am entirely with those who hold that such education as we impart to women must not unfit them for the duties and obligations which they have to fulfill as the presiding deities of our homes.157 It was Agarkar who, however, often tended to transcend the limitations of the mainstream intellectuals of the time. He was in favour of equal opportunity in education to both men and women for wholesome growth.158 He advocated higher education for women on par with men to enable them to take up independent vocations.159 He also advocated co-education which was deeply resented by the conservatives. V. N. Mandlik, the patriarch of contemporary conservatism, wrote, ‘I object to mixed schools, which are entirely unsuited to our community and its circumstances.’160 The nature and type of education envisaged to be implemented had a definite tilt towards its practical value and application. It was in this context that the emphasis on Western education became a recurring theme of thought in the nineteenth century. Jambhekar consistently emphasised that the royal road to political and material advancement of the country was the cultivation of science and useful Western arts. He wrote: It makes it daily more and more imperative upon the Natives to bestow their attention on the useful arts and sciences; their practical application to the common purpose of life; and in short,

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to gain every acquisition, which has rendered European Nations superior to Asiatics, and from the want of which their country has so much suffered.161 He also highlighted the futility of pursuing the traditional system of knowledge regaling largely in its repetitive, argumentative and interpretative mastering of Indian classics divorced from the realities of life and its existential necessities. In his own words: It is undeniable that the first light of knowledge dawned from the East on the West. . . . It therefore excites our surprise to observe the difference between the perfection to which the arts and sciences have attained in Europe, and the very little improvement which has been effected in them in Asia during such a long period. One of the causes is that the advantages of knowledge have not been appreciated in this country in their proper light. Had the Asiatic philosophers bestowed the same attention on useful arts and sciences, as they have done on more abstruse and subtle branches of knowledge, such as Metaphysics and Logic, much more good might have been expected from their labours. But it appears, that they regarded all knowledge as useful only in religion, or as a means of gaining victory in argument, and in no way connected with the common purposes of life. Hence the very little progress of the Hindoos and Mahometans in Mechanics, Geography, History etc. . . . The ancient learning of the country, whatever may have been the advantages of it in former days, must gradually lose its value in connection with the necessities and wants of human life.162 Jambhekar reiterated the need of technical education to take roots in the country for progress. He wrote, ‘scarcely has a single institution been as yet established to instruct the Indian youth in practical branches of mechanics, and the arts of making different manufactures, without which the knowledge of science can hardly raise the mass of the people in the scale of social happiness or political advancement.’163 Similar was the approach of Lokahitwadi in this respect. He wrote, ‘Man should learn to make machines.’164 In this context highlighting the significance and desirability of Western learning, he wrote in one of his letters of Shatapatre that ‘a single English scholar is worth one hundred Sanskrit pundits.’165

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Practical application of education also formed the core component of Parmanand’s thought. He highlighted the importance and imperative of original research into basic sciences for material benefits.166 Learning must be utilitarian and contextually relevant, he wrote. To quote: The knowledge and skill thus acquired must be applied to the development of the resources of the State (i.e. Native States), whether agricultural, mineral, manufacturing, or artistic, and they must be directed towards the production of articles of such quality and at such cost that they shall be enabled to hold their own against outside competition. . . . In these and in similar other ways must technical education and industrial enterprise be made fruitful of good and a source of prosperity to the people and to the State (i.e. Native States).167 It was in this context that G. V. Joshi underlined the importance of English education as the main means of Indian exposure to European learning. He argued, ‘By his acquaintance with English, he is in a position to know how Europe thinks, feels and acts.’168 Telang, too, held Western education in very high esteem.169 Even Chiplunkar whose admiration for the Indian tradition was well known realised the efficacy of learning in English. He stated, ‘The English language is like a tigress, and one who is brought up on her milk should never be a weakling.’170 They, however, did not repudiate the indigenous system of learning and instead wished for its coexistence along with the Western. Jambhekar explicitly stated: We would hail with joy the establishment of some plan by which the oriental and the western literature and science can be imparted together to the native mind. Then and then alone will all the benefits expected from education develop themselves; and it will prove a real blessing to the country by improving its political and moral condition.171 The opposition to the traditional knowledge, if at all, was directed basically against the limitations of that knowledge; it did not imply the rejection of indigenous education as such. In fact, emphasis on the imparting of knowledge through vernaculars was one of the major concerns of the nineteenth-century intellectuals.172 Ranade was one

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of the most ardent advocates of vernacularisation. He wanted young people to also study the works of their own ancient poets, especially the Bhakti saints, in their own mother tongue for emulation of indigenous ethos. He wrote in 1898: No more foreign graftings can ever thrive and flourish, unless the tender plant on which the grafting is to be made first germinates and sends its roots deep in its own indigenous soil. When the living tree is thus nourished and watered, the foreign manure may add flavour and beauty to it. Poets are born, and not made to order; they are growths, and not manipulations.173 He along with Chandavarkar and others tried to have the study of the vernaculars introduced even in the University curriculum.174 Emphasis on secular education was the hallmark of nineteenth-century thought in Maharashtra. Most of the reformers advocated State neutrality in religious education. Jambhekar pioneered the campaign against the engagement of government in propagation of any religions which, he held, must be left in the hands of religious bodies, and not political power. He wrote: The instructions of Government to the Native Education Society are positive on the subject of excluding religion from its schools and books, in violation of which instructions, the Society must lose the aid of Government, and must soon perish. It is a question whether Government should use any direct or indirect means for the propagation of any religion. Politically considered, such interference must be productive of serious evils. When power is in the hands of a bigot it must often end in the persecution of a portion of his subjects, and must ultimately conduce to civil wars and revolutions. The work of spreading religion will be more effectually accomplished by its humble ministers, than by the strong hand of power.175 Telang also laid emphasis on secular education and argued against its dilution by mixing it with religious instruction. In his Minute recorded as a member of the Education Commission he stated: I am quite clear, our institutions for secular instruction should not be embarrassed by any meddling with religious instruction, for such meddling among other mischiefs, will yield results

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which on the religious side will satisfy nobody, and on secular side will be distinctly retrograde.176 Even Mandlik contended against grant of state assistance to institutions imparting religious instruction. In his statement submitted to the Education Commission in 1882 he wrote, ‘Wherever instruction is systematically given in religious dogmas, Government should not assist – whatever may be the school – Hindu, Mahomedan or Christian.’177 Though he did fear that through this method missionaries could capture the educational institutions in the process178 for the purpose of proselytisation, there is no evidence to suggest that his advocacy for secular education was born out of this fear alone. There is need to look into the enlightened dimensions of contemporary Indian conservatism, which is often blindly viewed pejoratively and dismissively in scholarly discourses. There was an unprecedented mushrooming of journals and newspapers in the nineteenth century. Journalism was decidedly the most effective mode of dissemination of reform ideas and initiatives during the period. A good number of intellectuals started publications of periodicals and nearly all were associated with some press. At the beginning of 1880 there were approximately seventy-seven Indianowned newspapers in Bombay Presidency with a total circulation of 30,600, thus giving an effective readership of about three lakhs.179 By the end of 1885 the number of Indian-owned papers in the Presidency rose to 133 with a total circulation of 62,729 and an effective readership of over six lakhs.180 Jambhekar founded the Bombay Durpun, the first Anglo-Marathi weekly in Western India in 1832. He also started the Digdurshan, the first monthly Marathi magazine, in 1840.181 Prabhakar, a Marathi weekly, started in 1844 and edited by Bhau Mahajan, ran up to 1865.182 Lokahitwadi started the Dnyan Prakash in Poona in 1849, and founded The Indu-Prakash, an Anglo-Marathi weekly, in 1862 in Bombay.183 The Native Opinion, an English weekly, was started by Mandlik in 1864; this began to have a section in Marathi since 1866.184 The Subodh Patrika, organ of the Bombay Prarthana Samaj, was started on 4 May 1873.185 Chiplunkar started the Nibandhmala, a monthly Marathi magazine, in 1874. Mahatma Phule started the Deen Bandhu, the mouthpiece of Satyashodhak Samaj, in 1875. Tilak and Agarkar started the Kesari, a Marathi weekly, and The Mahratta, an English weekly, in January 1881. Due to deadly differences with

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  Idea of India to be  289 Tilak later on, Agarkar relinquished the editorship of Kesari, and started his own journal in 1888, the Sudharak, an Anglo-Marathi weekly. Educating people and creating public awareness about the problems confronting the country was the underlying idea behind their journalistic ventures. The founding of schools by some of them, in particular Mahatma Phule, Chiplunkar, Agarkar and Tilak was part of their educational endeavours towards national regeneration. In short, education of people through various means formed a major plank of the strategy for social self-correction and national invigoration in the nineteenth century.

Legislation Education as an instrument of change was valid in the eyes of all in all situations. Legislation as one of the methods of social correction was, however, not accepted by all, though it was advocated by most of the reformers. It was delegitimised particularly by those who were opposed to the movement for reform and renewal. The polarisation between the two also distinguished the progressives from the conservatives in the context of modern Maharashtra, although there were more than one defining moment for such demarcation during the course of the nineteenth century. The polarity became sharper and reached a crescendo in the wake of the circulation of Malabari’s Notes on Infant Marriages and Enforced Widowhood in India. The reformers such as Mahatma Phule, Bhandarkar, Ranade, Telang, Malabari, Chandavarkar and Agarkar advocated the need and desirability of social legislation as an efficacious and legitimate option to stop the ills. The conservatives led by Mandlik and supported by Tilak, on the other hand, would not tolerate any State intervention in social matters. Social legislation was not a new subject for reformers as well as reactionaries. Much before Malabari’s Notes it had been resorted to in India on more than one occasion. Even before Malabari, Mahatma Phule had raised the demand for legislation during his speeches to Satyashodhak audiences in 1882–83, when he asked: Unless laws are passed forbidding the farmer from marrying more than one woman and forbidding him from marrying his children at an early age, their offspring will not turn out strong. A law should be made which will ensure that children (of farmers) are

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sent to the schools run by such teachers (from their own castes, and not Brahmin teachers).186 But Malabari’s Notes and the consequent Consent controversy led the issue of social legislation to dominate the debate as never before during the period. Mandlik reacted strongly to the Notes and warned the government not to interfere in social matters ‘which the Hindu community consider as peculiarly the province of their own religious constitution’.187 Tilak also joined the fray and argued, ‘We agree with public opinion that Government should not interfere with our customs which have been carried on in our society from time immemorial.’188 The reformers rallied together to contest the conservative contestation and its retrograde reasoning. Although the importance of education as an instrument of change was not denied or downplayed, they were fully in favour of legislative intervention wherever deemed essential. Ranade emerged as the most erudite and vociferous voice on the subject. In his article ‘State Legislation in Social Matters’ he dealt with the issue in detail. He wrote, ‘Whenever there is a large amount of unredressed evil suffered by people who cannot adopt their own remedy, the State has a function to regulate and minimize the evil.’189 To the arguments of upholders of the status quo who held that ‘foreign rulers have no business to intervene in social matters’ and that ‘institutions, like constitutions, must grow and cannot be made to order’, he counter-argued that ‘in such matters, the distinction of foreign and domestic rulers is a distinction without difference’.190 He further contended that the logic of foreign interference could hold water only when the reform was at the behest of foreign initiation and not when the ‘initiation is to be our own’.191 He continued: The change is sought not as an innovation, but a return and restoration to the days of our past history. The history of the suppression of Infanticide and of Sati shows that these institutions, which had grown as excrescences upon the healthy system of ancient Hindu Society, were checked, and could be checked, only by the strong arm of Law, and once they were denounced as crimes, they disappeared from the face of the country. The diseased mal-formations of the body cannot, and should not be dealt with in the same way as its normal and healthy developments. The sharp surgical operation, and not the homeopathic infinitesimally small pill, is the proper remedy for the first class

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of disorders, and the analogy holds good in the diseases of the body politic, as also in dealing with the parasitical growth of social degeneration . . .192 He was, however, of the view that legislative measure was not the first option. He categorically stated, ‘No one desires legislative interference for its own sake and there is some force in the view that it is to be resorted to only after all other remedies have been tried and found wanting.’193 He reiterated in his speech at the Eighth Indian National Social Conference held at Madras in 1894 that ‘The work of social reform cannot be an act of a State. It is chiefly valuable when it is the work of the people.’194 But he was not in favour of postponement of reform for eternity till it was initiated by the people themselves. Although Telang did not support Malabari’s Notes and instead pitched for political reform in preference to social reform, he favoured State legislation to rectify the social wrong.195 Chandavarkar, too, stood for state action in matters of social and religious legislation. Almost on the lines adopted by Ranade he advocated the intervention of the strong arm of law to put down perversity crept into customs. In his own words, ‘Where a social custom is grossly of a perverse nature, opposed to all sense of decency and humanity, whether a majority wishes for a change in it or not, the State ought to put it down.’196 Agarkar and Ramabai strongly supported Malabari in his campaign for legislative interference with the practices of Infant marriage and enforced widowhood. Agarkar wrote in Sudharak: It is very well to say that reform must come from within . . . . What if there is no desire in the community to reform? Is the Government to stand by folded arms and tolerate the perpetuation of barbarities, waiting for a time which may never come, when the benumbed sense of the victim would be, on its own accord, revolt against those barbarities? If the Government were to act on the doctrines such as these, it might as well abdicate its trust; for the only justification for their presence in India is their enlightenment.197 During the course of the Consent agitation Malabari pleaded: Emancipate the women of India, Ye English rulers: restore to the widow her birth-right of which she is robbed by usurpers who owe no allegiance to God or to man. Give her back the exercise

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of freewill. . . . Education by itself has failed to secure influence in the country.198 The gravity of social injustice, in short, determined the stance of the intellectuals in favour of state intervention through legislation. They outright rejected the conservative contention which held that social legislation was not at all to be resorted to, whether it could lead to good or bad consequences.

Persuasion and representation Apart from education and legislation as the widely accepted methods of reform, persuasion and representation as methodology of bringing about change was also widely resorted to during the course of the nineteenth century. Public discourse and lecture formed the main mode of persuasion and reasoning, apart from private meetings and discussions. Vishnubawa Brahmachari would often sit on the sands of Chaupati in Bombay lecturing the audience on the contemporary issues to press his viewpoints on the basis of logic and reasoning, while at the same time inviting the opponents to enter into informed and enlightened debates. Vishnu Shastri Pandit led the reformers in the historic meeting that took place in 1870 in Poona under the Presidentship of the Shankaracharya of Sankeshwar to discuss and debate the question of sanctity of widow remarriage from the Shastraic point of view. Although the result was to be determined on the basis of majority decision which went here in favour of the orthodox viewpoint, the mode that was followed was a persuasive and argumentative path. A feeling, however, also prevailed about the limits of this method, and deeds were deemed more important than mere words. Action and examples were emphasised to be more eloquent means to convince the targeted clientale. Chandavarkar very pithily brought forth the efficacy of examples as more credible ways of conviction: There must be persuasion and reasoning but it is not by logic alone that men’s hearts are roused to a consciousness of social evils. Socrates reasoned very acutely, but it was not his reasoning but his example that drew disciples. You have to arouse the human in man, and that is roused more by deeds than by dialectics.199

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  Idea of India to be  293 When action or intervention was warranted on the part of government, the reformers resorted to the representation mode of idea articulation. Ranade, Telang and Malabari were the prominent figures who took recourse to this method more often than others. Ranade is said to have also resorted to ghost writing in political matters as he was in government service and had to work within the specified framework of his service conditions. It need, however, be emphasised that although various options were explored to actualise the vision they had in mind, education and legislation were deemed the dominant modes of change. Creating conducive social climate for receptivity of reform initiatives primarily through education formed a crucial component of the strategy for social amelioration in the nineteenth century. In his presidential address at the Bombay Provincial Social Conference held in 1902 Bhandarkar appealed, ‘We must, by means of lectures, pamphlets and leaflets, educate our public opinion of our people and bring them to perceive the justice and reasonableness of the reform we advocate.’200

Notes  1 The Bombay Durpun, 12 October 1832 in Bal Shastri Jambhekar, Memoirs and Writings, Vol. II, pp. 64–8.   2 Dadoba wrote in his Dharmavivechan, ‘Knowledge without morality is void, morality is the value of knowledge’, as cited in B. R. Sunthankar, Nineteenth Century History of Maharashtra, Vol. I, p. 216.   3 Ibid., p. 216.  4 Jotirao Phule, Collected Works, Vol. II, p. 131.   5 Phule wrote, ‘Dhondiba, I believe in the sanctity of means (Never use unrighteous means to achieve commendable ends), else, the good cause suffers’ in Jotirao Phule, Slavery, Collected Works, Vol. I, p. 65.  6 R. G. Bhandarkar, Collected Works, Vol. I, p. 451.   7 Ibid., Vol. II, p. 516.   8 Ibid., p. 499.   9 Ibid., p. 513. 10 Ibid., Vol. I, p. 451. 11 Narayan Mahadeo Parmanand, Letters to an Indian Raja from a Political Recluse, Letter No. II, pp. 18–24. Also see The Indian Spectator, 1 December 1889. 12 Ibid., Letters No. V and VII, pp. 48–67. He concluded that despite education and freedom being the essential elements of progress, ‘it is moral force which on a large view of things will be found to prevail and rule the world.’ See Letter No. XII, pp. 115–6. 13 Ibid., Letter No. II, p. 21.

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294  Idea of India to be 14 Ibid., Letter No. IX, p. 83 and Letter No. XI, p. 109. 15 Ibid., Letter No. XI, p. 109. 16 K. T. Telang, ‘The Reign of Law in the Bombay Presidency’ (Poona Sarvajanik Sabha Quarterly, October 1879) in Select Writings and Speeches, Vol. II, p. 492. 17 Dayaram Gidumal, Behramji M. Malabari, p. 195. 18 N.  G. Chandavarkar, The Speeches and Writings, p. 76. Also see Rakesh Batabyal (ed.), The Penguin Book of Modern Indian Speeches, p. 117. 19 Speech delivered by N. G. Chandavarkar on 5 January 1900 at the Canara High School, Mangalore as reported in The West Coast Spectator, 7 January 1900 in Press Clippings, Gokhale Papers. MSS. 20 The Indian Social Reformer, Bombay, 18 September 1910 in Press Clippings, Gokhale Papers, MSS. 21 Speech delivered by N. G. Chandavarkar on 5 January 1900 at the Canara High School, Mangalore as reported in The West Coast Spectator, 7 January 1900 in Press Clippings, Gokhale Papers, MSS. 22 Speech delivered by N. G. Chandavarkar at the fourth anniversary meeting of the Madras Hindu Social Reform Association on 28 November 1896 in Rakesh Batabyal (ed.), The Penguin Book of Modern Indian Speeches, p. 117. 23 Ibid.; N. G. Chandavarkar, The Speeches and Writings, p. 76. 24 N.  G. Chandavarkar, The Speeches and Writings with ibid., p. 587. 25 Ibid., p. 589. 26 Ibid., pp. 587–9. 27 Arvind Ganachari, G.G. Agarkar, p. 195. 28 Young India, 14 January 1920; Stanley A. Wolpert, Tilak and Gokhale, p. 291. 29 Young India, 28 January 1920; Stanley A. Wolpert, ibid.; M. D. Vidwans (ed.), Letters of Lokmanya Tilak, p. 284; Samagra Lokamanya Tilak, Vol. 7, p. 955. 30 Young India, ibid.; Stanley A. Wolpert, ibid., p. 292; M. D. Vidwans (ed.), ibid., pp. 284–5; Samagra Lokmanya Tilak, Vol.7, p. 956. 31 Jotirao Phule, Collected Works, Vol. II, pp. 39–40. 32 Ibid., p. 39. 33 Ibid. 34 Address delivered by Ranade at the Eleventh Indian National Social Conference held at Amravati in 1897 in M. G. Ranade, Miscellaneous Writings, p. 193. 35  M. G. Ranade, ibid., p. 226; M.G. Ranade, Religious and Social Reform, pp. 241–2. 36 Ibid., Miscellaneous Writings, ibid., pp. 116–7. Also see Sudharak, 23 October 1893. 37 See T. V. Parvate, Mahadev Govind Ranade, p. 175. 38 T. N. Jagadisan (ed.), The Wisdom of a Modern Rishi, p. 123; M. G. Ranade, Religious and Social Reform, p. 109. 39 M. G. Ranade, ibid., p. 294. 40 N.  G. Chandavarkar, The Speeches and Writings, p. 27. 41 Ibid., pp. 75–6; Rakesh Batabyal (ed.), The Penguin Book of Modern Indian Speeches, p. 117.

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  Idea of India to be  295 42 N. G. Chandavarkar, ibid., p. 91. 43 Ibid., p. 126. 44 Ibid., pp. 82–3. 45 Ibid., p. 116. 46 Ibid., pp. 198–9. 47 Aravind Ganachari, G.G. Agarkar, p. 105. 48  N.G. Chandavarkar, The Speeches and Writings, pp. 36–7. 49 Ibid., p. 69. 50 Jotirao Phule, Collected Works, Vol. II, pp. 39–40. 51 R.G. Bhandarkar, Collected Works, Vol. II, p. 504. 52 Ibid., pp. 446–7, 505–12. 53 Ibid., p. 497. In 1915 he reiterated: ‘In ancient times, the practice of widow remarriage did exist. The wife of the dead Agnihotri was raised from the funeral pile by a promise of remarriage.’ Ibid., pp. 466–7. 54 Ranade’s address at the Prarthana Samaj in March 1887 as reported in The Indu-Prakash, 28 March 1887. 55 M.  G. Ranade, Miscellaneous Writings, p. 89. In his speech at the Twelfth Indian National Social Conference held in 1898 in Madras he reiterated: ‘Our inclinations and aspirations have to be shifted from the more immediate past of our degradation to the most remote past of our glory. We need no foreign masters for this purpose . . . The work of liberation must be the work of our own hands.’ Ibid., p. 208. He again stated: ‘The usages which at present prevail among us were admittedly not those which obtained in the most glorious periods of our history.’ Ibid., p. 189. Also see T. N. Jagadisan (ed.), The Wisdom of a Modern Rishi, p. 46. 56 M.  G. Ranade, Religious and Social Reform, pp. 145–9. 57 Ibid., p. 94; T. N. Jagadisan (ed.), The Wisdom of a Modern Rishi, pp. 110–1. 58 M. G. Ranade, ibid., pp. 98–101. 59 Ibid., pp. 99–100. 60 Ibid., p. 101. 61 Ibid., p. 50. 62 Ibid. p. 107; T. N. Jagadisan (ed.), The Wisdom of a Modern Rishi, p. 121. 63 K.  T. Telang, Selected Writings and Speeches, Vol. I, pp. 305–6. 64 The Indian Spectator, 28 September 1893. 65 Sudharak, 20 November 1893. 66 M.  G. Ranade, Miscellaneous Writings, p. 158. 67 T.  V. Parvate, Mahadev Govind Ranade, p. 146. 68 M.  G. Ranade, Religious and Social Reform, p. 96; T. N. Jagadisan (ed.), The Wisdom of a Modern Rishi, p. 111. 69 Ibid., p. 97; ibid., pp. 112–3. 70 N.  G. Chandavarkar, The Speeches and Writings, p. 40. 71 Ibid., p. 89. 72 M.  G. Ranade, Religious and Social Reform, pp. 170–1; M.  G. Ranade, Miscellaneous Writings, pp. 190–1; T. N. Jagadisan (ed.), The Wisdom of a Modern Rishi, pp. 48–9. 73 N.  G. Chandavarkar, The Speeches and Writings, p. 42.

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296  Idea of India to be   74 Ibid., p. 116.   75 Ibid., p. 203.   76 As reported in The Weekly Review, 5 December 1896 in Press Clippings, Gokhale Papers, MSS.  77 N. G. Chandavarkar, The Speeches and Writings, p. 111.  78 N. G. Chandavarkar, The Speeches and Writings, pp. 203–4.   79 Ibid., p. 40.   80 Ibid., pp. 89–91.   81 Ibid., p. 201.  82 The Bombay Durpun, 17 March 1838, 26 June 1840 in Bal Gangadhar Shashtri Jambhekar, Memoirs and Writings, Vol. II, pp. 137–42.   83 See Bal Gangadhar Shastri Jambhekar, ibid., pp. 3, 142.   84 J. V. Naik, ‘The Reformer and the Quest for Social Justice in Indian History’, p. 30.  85 The Bombay Gazette, Letter No. V, 20 August 1841.   86 Gopal Hari Deshmukh, ‘An Essay on Indian Infanticide’ in Govardhan Parikh and Indumati Parikh (eds.), Lokahitvadi Samagra Vangmaya, Part I, p. 596.  87 Jotirao Phule, Cultivators’s Whipcord, Selected Writings, p. 117.   88 Ibid., p. 176.  89 R. G. Bhandarkar, Collected Works, Vo. I, p. 449.  90 N. M. Parmanand, Letters to an Indian Raja from a Political Recluse, Letter No. XI, p. 99.  91 The Indian Spectator, 1 June 1890.  92 K. T. Telang, Selected Writings and Speeches, Vol. I, p. 245.  93 Agarkar Papers, MSS.  94 Aravind Ganachari, G.G. Agarkar, p. 85.  95 Pandita Ramabai, The Condition of Women in the USA in Meera Kosambi (compiled and edited), Pandita Ramabai through Her Own Words, p. 201.   96 Pandita Ramabai in ibid., p. 65.  97 Pandita Ramabai, The Condition of Women in the USA in ibid., p. 213.   98 Ibid., p. 200.  99 Pandita Ramabai, The High-Caste Hindu Woman in ibid., p. 174. 100 Ibid., Stri Dharma Niti in ibid., p. 47. 101 Ibid., p. 45. 102 V.  N. Mandlik, Writings and Speeches, pp. 152–7; G. C. Bhate, History of Modern Marathi Literature, p. 267. 103 Jotirao Phule, Sarvajanik Satyadharma Pustak, Collected Works, Vol. II, pp. 41–7. 104 Jotirao Phule, Collected Works, Vol. II, p. 81. 105 Ibid., Sarvananik Satyadharma Pustak, p. 41. 106 Jotirao Phule, Memorial Addressed to the Education Commission, 19 October 1882 in Selected Writings, p. 105. 107 Ibid., p. 103. 108 Ibid., pp. 103–4; Jotirao Phule, Slavery, Collected Works, Vol. I, pp. XXXVII–VIII (Preface). Also see A Review of Education in Bombay State 1855–1955, pp. 409–10.

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  Idea of India to be  297 109 Ibid., G. P. Deshpande (ed.), p. 104; ibid., P. G. Patil (tr. and ed.). 110 Ibid., G. P. Deshpande (ed.), ibid., P. G. Patil (tr. and ed.). 111 Ibid., G. P. Deshpande (ed.), p. 106. In one of his other writings ‘The Untouchables’ Apologia’ he reiterated, ‘All this goes to prove that we have not got the economic competence to afford the luxury of education to our children.’ See ibid., P. G. Patil (tr. and ed.), Vol. II, p. 91. 112 Ibid., Selected Writings, p. 105. 113 Jotirao Phule, Slavery, Collected Works, Vol. I, pp. 66–70. 114 Jotirao Phule, Memorial Addressed to the Education Commission in Selected Writings, pp. 106–7. 115 Ibid., p. 108. 116 Jotirao Phule, Cultivator’s Whipcord in ibid., pp. 172–3. 117 Jotirao Phule, Sarvajanik Satyadharma Pustak, Collected Works, Vol. II, p. 42. 118 ‘If the ignorant cultivators and the artisans persist in refusing to send their children to these schools opened by the Government specially for them, then the Government will be well advised to compel them, so to do by enacting a special legislation, making attendance at such vocational schools compulsory by law.’ Ibid., p. 43. 119 Jotirao Phule, Cultivator’s Whipcord, Selected Writings, p. 173. 120 A Review of Education in Bombay State 1855–1955, p. 410. 121 Jotirao Phule, Introduction by G. P. Deshpande, Selected Writings, p. 3. 122 Bhandarkar’s Presidential address at the Ninth Indian National Social Conference in 1895 at Poona, Collected Works, Vol. II, pp. 491–2. 123 N.  M. Parmanand, Letters to an Indian Raja from a Political Recluse, p. 101; The Indian Spectator, 1 June 1890. 124 Ibid., pp. 100–1; ibid. 125 Ibid., p. 106. 126 Ibid. 127 Ibid., pp. 106–8. 128 G.  V. Joshi, Writings and Speeches, Poona, 1912, pp. 1097–8. 129 Report of the Indian Education Commission, 1882, Calcutta, 1883, p. 617. 130 Aravind Ganachari, G.G. Agarkar, p. 148. 131 Jotirao Phule, Memorial to Education Commission in Selected Writings, pp. 110–1. 132 N.  M. Parmanand, Letters to an Indian Raja from a Political Recluse, Letter No. XI, p. 102. 133 Ibid. 134 M. G. Ranade, ‘Higher Education – Its Claims on State Support’ (Poona Sarvajanik Sabha Quarterly, Vol. V, No. 1, July 1882) in M. G. Ranade, Miscellaneous Writings, p. 276. 135 M. G. Ranade, ‘Primary Education and Indigenous Schools’ (Poona Sarvajanik Sabha Quarterly, Vol. V, No. 1, July 1882) in ibid., p. 253. 136 Ibid., pp. 274–5. Also see Sudharak, 2 February 1890 and 12 September 1892 for an overview of the government’s attempt

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298  Idea of India to be to curtail grants to higher education for ostensibly making it self-supporting. 137 M. G. Ranade, ‘Higher Education – Its Claims on State Support’ in ibid., p. 288. 138 Ibid., p. 293. 139  M. G. Ranade, ‘Primary Education and Indigenous Schools’ in ibid., p. 266. 140 M. G. Ranade, ‘Higher Education – Its Claims on State Support’ in ibid., p. 292. 141 Appendix IV to Report of the Indian Education Commission, p. 609. 142 The Indu-Prakash, 25 February 1884. 143 Review of Education in India in 1886, Calcutta, 1888, p. 92. 144 Ibid. 145 Ibid., p. 285. 146 The Bombay Durpun, 8 September 1837 in Bal Gangadhar Shastri Jambhekar, Memoirs and Writings, Vol. II, p. 134. Report of the Indian Education Commission, p. 14; Jotirao Phule, 147  Memorial to Education Commission in Selected Writings, pp. 110–1; Introduction by G. P. Deshpande, Selected Writings, p. 3. 148 R.  G. Bhandarkar, Collected Works, Vol. II, p. 488. 149 N.  M. Parmanand, Letters to an Indian Raja from a Political Recluse, Letter No. XI, p. 103. 150 K.  T. Telang, Selected Writings and Speeches, Vol. I, pp. 251, 297. 151 The Indu-Prakash, 16 March 1885 in N. G. Chandavarkar, The Speeches and Writings, p. 155. 152 Aravind Ganachari, G.G. Agarkar, p. 143. 153 R.  G. Bhandarkar, Collected Works, Vol. II, p. 488. 154 N.  M. Parmanand, Letters to an Indian Raja from a Political Recluse, p. 103. 155 Ibid., p. 104. 156 Ibid., p. 102. 157 N.  G. Chandavarkar, The Speeches and Writings, p. 70; Rakesh Batabyal (ed.), Penguin Book of Modern Indian Speeches, p. 113. 158 Sudharak, 31 October 1892. 159 Aravind Ganachari, G.G. Agarkar, p. 142. 160 V.  N. Mandlik, Writings and Speeches, p. 142. 161 The Bombay Durpun, 24 August 1832 in Bal Gangadhar Shastri Jambhekar, Memoirs and Writings, Vol. II, pp. 50–2. Also see The Bombay Durpun, 6 January, 1832 and 13 July 1832 in ibid., pp. 8, 48. 162 The Bombay Durpun, 24 August 1832 in ibid. 163 The Bombay Durpun, 8 March 1839 in ibid., p. 139. 164 J. C. Masselos, ‘The Discourse from the Other Side: Perceptions of Science and Technology in Western India in the Nineteenth Century’ in N. K. Wagle (ed.), Writers, Editors and Reformers, p. 121. 165 Pratibha Bhattacharya, ‘An Overview of the Reformist Movement in Maharashtra with Special Reference to Lokahitvadi and Gopal G. Agarkar’ in N. K. Wagle (ed.), ibid., p. 169.

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  Idea of India to be  299 166 N.  M. Parmanand, Letters to an Indian Raja from a Political Recluse, Letter No. XI, p. 102. 167 Ibid., pp. 108–9. 168 G.  V. Joshi, Writings and Speeches, p. 1013. 169 G. C. Bannerjee, ‘Telang as an Educationist’ in K.T. Telang, a Memoir, p. 66. 170 Mahadev L. Apte, ‘Lokahitavadi and V.K. Chiplunkar’, p. 203. 171 The Bombay Durpun, 17 March 1838 in Bal Gangadhar Shastri Jambhekar, Memoirs and Writings, Vol. II, p. 137. 172 Ibid.; N. M. Parmanand, Letters to an Indian Raja from a Political Recluse, Letter No. XI, p. 102; R. G. Bhandarkar, Collected Works, Vol. I, p. 450; N. G. Chandavarkar, The Speeches and Writings, p. 70; G. V. Joshi, Writings and Speeches, p. 1014. 173 M. G. Ranade, ‘A Note on the Growth of Marathi Literature’ in M. G. Ranade, Miscellaneous Writings, pp. 26, 53. 174 Ibid., pp. 54–6. 175 The Bombay Durpun, 4 September 1835 in Bal Shastri Jambhekar, Memoirs and Writings, Vol. II, p. 121. 176 Appendix IV, Report of the Indian Education Commission, p. 614. 177 V.  N. Mandlik, Writings and Speeches, p. 157. 178 Mandlik wrote, ‘The Private agency of missionaries is not, in my opinion, suited for the purpose of carrying on the work of national instruction.’ See ibid., p. 146. 179 J.  C. Masselos, Towards Nationalism, pp. 229–30. 180 Ibid. 181 Bal Shastri Jambhekar, Memoirs and Writings, Vol. I, p. 6; Vol. II, p. 10. 182 P. N. Paranjpe and Nishikant Mirajkar, Marathi Literature: An Outline, p. 18. 183 J.  C. Masselos, Towards Nationalism, p. 88; G. L. Chandavarkar, A Wrestling Soul, p. 33. 184  P. N. Paranjape and Nishikant Mirajkar, Marathi Literature: An Outline, p. 18. 185 J. V. Naik, ‘The Prarthana Samaj’ in S. P. Sen (ed.), Social Contents of Indian Religious Reform Movements, p. 312. 186 Jotirao Phule, The Cultivator’s Whipcord, Selected Writings, p. 179. 187 V.  N. Mandlik, Writings and Speeches, pp. 169–70. 188 The Kesari, 7 June 1887 as cited in Stanley A. Wolpert, Tilak and Gokhale, p. 38. 189 M.  G. Ranade, Religious and Social Reform, p. 103; T. N. Jagadisan (ed.), The Wisdom of a Modern Rishi, p. 117. 190 Ibid., p. 107; ibid., p. 121. 191 Ibid., p. 105; ibid., p. 120. 192 Ibid., pp. 107–12; ibid., pp. 121–6. 193 Sudharak, 27 September 1886. 194 M.  G. Ranade, Miscellaneous Writings, p. 137. 195 K.  T. Telang, Select Writings and Speeches, Vol. II, p. 471. 196 G.  L. Chandavarkar, A Wrestling Soul, p. 42.

300  Idea of India to be

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197 Sudharak, 9 February 1891 as cited in Aravind Ganachari, G.G. Agarkar, pp. 131, 314. 198 Jogendra Singh, B.M. Malabari, pp. 118–9. Also see The Mahratta, 31 August 1884. 199 N.  G. Chandavarkar, The Speeches and Writings, p. 88. 200 R.  G. Bhandarkar, Collected Works, Vol. II, p. 525.

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Conclusion

The intellectual consciousness in Maharashtra in the nineteenth century was essentially a rational reform movement. Reason formed the leitmotif of thought. It was not, however, a sudden emergence, entirely an inevitable outcome of the East–West contact through colonialism. Both endogenous and exogenous influences seemed to have gone into the shaping of Indian thought during the period. Notably, Indian rationality as Western India exemplified was deeply rooted in the indigenous tradition and history, although the impact of exogenous influences during the colonial connection did leave its sizeable mark on the content and character of the consciousness in question. The imprint of indigenous rational ethos, to put it differently, remained palpably strong in Maharashtra despite the impact of European ideas and influences on the process of intellectual formation in the country. The rational roots in Indian intellectual tradition could be located essentially in its socially reformist thought and conduct. To be precise, its manifestation was noticeable more in its socially purposive form than in its epistemological dimensions. Interestingly, this aspect of Indian rationalism, germane to reformist reverberations in pre-British past, remained the defining feature of Indian rationality even in the nineteenth century, the period of traumatic changes in the country’s social, economic, political and intellectual life under colonial rule. No doubt, a certain degree of catholicism was quite conspicuous in nineteenth-century cognition. The intellectuals were open to all sources of knowledge, indigenous as well as foreign ‘if they were fitted to vitalize us’. There was a basic understanding that no nation could evolve its entire civilisation out of its own consciousness in total exclusion of others. There was, however, a distinct tendency or preference in favour of the indigenous intellectual tradition instead of

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302  Conclusion foreign philosophies. Ranade aptly remarked, ‘We must seek our noble and good men of the past as our guides. Our domestic guides in such matters are to be preferred to foreign guides, because the last have not been the flesh of our flesh and the bone of our bone.’1 The emphasis on indigenous identification was not simply a matter of heart but also of head. They subscribed to the maxim, aptly stated by Goethe, ‘Nothing is good for a people unless it spring up from its own kernel.’2 Although the intellectuals profusely used foreign idioms and examples in their advocacy of reform, particularly for normative reordering, the indigenous cultural history formed the main locus of inspiration and identification in Maharashtra in the nineteenth century. Notably, rationality in Indian tradition was not a prototype of the European; it did not enjoy autonomy to the extent it did in the West. Indian rationality did not develop as an independent epistemology on the same scale; it remained, on the other hand, deeply embedded in its holistic orientation of life and cosmology. There was hardly any tension between the notion of secularity and religious devotion in Indian intellectual tradition. As Bhakti amply exemplified, the godly man could conveniently be a worldly man at the same time, there being no polarity between service of God and service of society. There was, in fact, an intimate alliance between rationality and spirituality in pre-British past. Spiritual salvation was emphasised as the ultimate end of life and volition amidst mundane human existence. Almost all the schools of Indian philosophy except the Lokayata riveted their attention on this fundamental pursuit, at least at the ideational level. Reason along with other cognitive devices such as intuition, experience and faith was at work in this common quest for spiritual realisation. This scenario, however, underwent change in the nineteenth century. The nineteenth century marked a distinct departure in the evolution of Indian rationality. There was a shift in emphasis from spiritual salvation to social salvation, from other-worldly to this-worldly orientation; in short, from soul to nation. The question of social regeneration and national invigoration became the main motto of nineteenth-century rational reform in Maharashtra. Remarkably, the spiritual orientation was, however, not entirely eschewed. Emphasis on spirituality remained quite strong in their conception of change, denoting the imprint of Indian thought and ethos and continuity of cultural tradition in nineteenth-century cognition. In fact, the meaning of ‘secular’ in India was not counterposed to religion as

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Conclusion  303 an adversarial rival. The secular dimensions of Indian thought were neither religion neutral nor opposed to religion. They opposed only the socio-religious perversions such as ritualism, idolatry, priestly intermediation, polytheism, caste discriminations and the like. The intellectuals, in fact, emphasised on the importance of religion for man and society not only for its utilitarian value but also as a psychic human and social necessity. It was only Agarkar from among perhaps the entire intellectual fraternity that could be said to be an exception. Ranade in his speech as reported in Dnyanodaya on 1 February 1894 summarised the mission of the reform movement as being to ‘Humanize, Equalize and Spiritualize’.3 The imprint of indigenous thought and ethos was also palpable in their conception of God who was upheld on the avowed line of Indian socio-philosophical tradition to be both immanent and transcendent at the same time. The concept of immanence as well as transcendence of the theistic God is typically an Indian contribution to theology and philosophy. In contrast, in the Western deistic notion, God remained an outsider after the cosmological creation, and everwatched from outside impersonally. Notably, deism did not find favours with reformers in nineteenth-century Maharashtra. There were primarily four strands of thought at work in the nineteenth century, broadly characterised by Change and Continuity, Radical Social Restructuring, Critique of Gender-Relations, and Open Condemnation of Colonial Rule, each differing with the other not only in terms of emphasis but also in a certain sense in character of consciousness. The mainstream intellectual movement in Maharashtra was represented by change and continuity as the core current of thought. Emphasis on gradual change without structural transformation, relevance of Vedic social life for contemporary corrections and belief in British beneficence were the salient features of this genre of thought. Jambhekar, Lokahitwadi, Bhandarkar, Ranade and Chandavarkar, among others, were the main proponents of this school. Mahatma Phule, on the other hand, represented a distinct departure from the mainstream movement and stood for radical restructuring of social relations. He outright rejected the Vedic framework of social life as humbug, the handiwork of self-serving Brahmanism as a discriminatory ideology and structure. Phule advocated radical transformation of social relations based on the principles of equality, liberty, humanism and dignity. Quite close to Phule in rejecting the social prescriptions laid down by ancient law-givers, Pandita Ramabai,

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304  Conclusion however, concentrated her efforts on women’s empowerment and liberation, and symbolised the critique of gender-relations in the country. Bhaskar Pandurang, on the other hand, openly condemned the colonial rule from nearly every standpoint at a time point when most of the intellectuals were all admiration for regenerative role of the Raj. The intellectual movement in Maharashtra was not a singular stream of thought; it was characterised by diverse hues and views. The reformers represented different concerns both in terms of emphasis and orientation. These thought currents were, however, not mutually exclusive nor was the relationship among them essentially one of antagonism. In fact, there was a broad unity of purpose which tied them together despite differences. Nearly all the intellectuals stood for end of social obscurantism and religious bigotry. Almost all emphasised on the unity of India as one people with common destiny, and nearly all aspired for national and social self-strengthening. Similarly all were primarily concerned with the social side of national reconstruction. Also, education was commonly acknowledged as the most effective weapon of self-correction, strengthening and development. In a specific sense, the intellectual endeavours in Maharashtra represented a tussle between modernity and medievalism, and not necessarily between tradition and modernity. Medievalism as a structure and value was almost universally repudiated and modernity not only admired but also invariably aspired for. The tenor of debate was not on modernity versus tradition but on modernity versus medievalism. As it is, the perception of polarity between tradition and modernity in scholarly discourses is essentially heuristic and remains tenuous as elements of both coalesce into the social processes and compartmentalisation often remains elusive. Modern times need not invariably mean modernity nor does tradition necessarily denote stagnation or retrogression. The tradition as a whole was, therefore, at no stage under attack in the nineteenth century. The social customs and practices were selectively denounced. The denunciation was, moreover, not on the ground that they were traditional but because they were perceived to be the corrosive realities of the present, retarding progress. It was not their ‘traditionality’ as such that was questionable; the question squarely related to the present practices being detrimental to development and unsuited to the contemporary needs of the country. It was, in short, their present forms that were criticised and condemned. They were viewed

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Conclusion  305 to be decadent, exploitative and irrational, denoting social and national degeneration. Alternatively, they were deemed irrelevant to the changing needs and requirements of the evolving nation and were thus perceived to be impediments to progress. They were thus denounced not because of their continuity from the past but because their present forms had become fetters to the path of progress and change. Modernity was used as a measure to determine the degree of desirability of the customs and practices in vogue. In fact, quite a few of the intellectuals argued that these traditions might well have served some useful purpose at the time of their creation, and that they had now become a burden in the context of the changes that had ensued in the present circumstances and conditions of national life. The part of tradition that proved to be impediment to progress and the process of modernisation was repudiated. In a similar vein that part of tradition that was healthy and wholesome was embraced and eulogised. The Vedic social life was seen to be supportive of cultural modernisation in contrast to that during the medieval period which was held to be largely responsible for contemporary corruptions. It was again the search for modernity that led them to view Britain with awe and admiration. The changes introduced by the British, the introduction of English education in particular, provided an occasion to the Indian intelligentsia for their exposure to Western ideas and achievements. This could sharpen the consciousness of contrasts between England and India, the former representing the might of European modernity and the latter appearing still steeped in the mire of medievalism. Rightfully impressed by the civilisational side of the modern West and its material advancement, the intellectuals of the time nurtured a notion of Indian development on similar lines during the colonial rule. The British in the beginning appeared to be partners in this process of modernisation, at least at the aspirational level of Indians, the educated section in particular. This perception was not intellectually vacuous; it was, on the other hand, largely context determined. The British rule was not a brute force, although brutalities were not entirely absent during the colonial dispensation. The hegemonising activities of the British did help form a faith among the intellectuals, particularly during the initial years, in the regenerative role of the Raj. The medievalism of the indigenous system helped further cement this understanding. The intellectual consciousness in modern Maharashtra thus represented

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306  Conclusion a rational realisation of the contradiction between the needs of modernity and the medieval fetters that seemed to impede progress along modern lines. Ranade defined his notion of modernity as ‘a change from constraint to freedom, from credulity to faith, from status to contract, from authority to reason, from unorganized to organized life, from bigotry to toleration, from blind fatalism to a sense of human dignity’.4 This was the goal set for attainment in the context of nineteenth-century India. The quest for modernity largely determined their stance on the need for social self-correction as being of prime necessity and they all, therefore, came to concentrate their attention on the social side of national reconstruction. Their denunciation of existing social obscurantism, religious bigotry and superstitions was part of the grand design of social self-correction for modernisation. It was in this context that social reform was perceived to be a necessary precondition, despite their sensitivity to the imperative of an overall development in the megastructures of society. The rationalist manifestation in Maharashtra was part of the process of nationalist incubation in the country. It was not an isolated or separate sphere of activity divorced from or epiphenomenal to the political process. It was for the first time in Indian history that India was viewed by Indians as a national entity, with common destiny. This was decidedly a new identity, a new frame of reference, although there did exist in the past the notion of India as a cultural unit. The medieval mystics had no conception of India as a nation. The conceptualisation of India as a nation in the nineteenth century was quite significant for the subsequent concretisation of nationalist consciousness in the country. Further, the emphasis on national reconstruction and bonding was patently a nationalist act of the Rationalists who could, in fainess, be called the Early Nationalists in modern Indian history. The rational reform, in fact, can be said to form the first stage of India’s struggle for independence. Maharashtra was traditionally known for its heightened provincial pride. The intellectuals in the nineteenth century, however, stood for the pan-Indian identity as an overarching and overbearing consciousness, as against provincialism as a frame of reference. Although their experiential arena largely remained localised, they tried to extend their vision to comprehend and address the problems of other regions and provinces with a sense of common brotherhood and belongingness as a national collectivity. The formation of Indian

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Conclusion  307 National Social Conference in 1887 was a reflection of the attempt to weave the entire country into a pan-Indian pulsation, thus laying the social foundations of Indian nationalism. The nationalist orientation of the Rationalists was also reflected in their choice of ‘borrowing’ from the West. They made a distinction between culture and civilisation in their inclination to Europe. The civilisational side of the modern West appealed the most. It was European modernity that was earnestly aspired for and made a thematic thread of nineteenth-century thought. Emphasis was laid on the adoption, more precisely, adaptation of Western science and technology, modern education and industrialisation. The Western modernity was, however, not acceptable in its entirety, and this was most conspicuous in the realm of culture. For cultural modernisation, the pre-British past came to be the proclaimed frame of reference. Cultural revitalisation was sought in the indigenous tradition and history, and not in the Western cultural matrix. Whenever Indian religion and culture came under threat from outside, either from the missionaries or colonial ideologues, it was resisted and repulsed. The distinctness of Indian culture was consciously safeguarded against onslaughts from outside. The defence of Indian culture was, however, not just a cultural question; it was allied with the notion of self-identity of a nation under subjugation. The search for self-identity led them to lay stress on differentiation rather than assimilation between Indian and Western ways of life. The Shastraic, Shramanic and Bhakti traditions as also the Mughal legacies left behind by Akbar in particular were seen as the rich resources from which to draw the essential ingredients for contemporary cultural rejuvenation. The distinction made between civilisation and culture in their choice for the purpose of ‘borrowing’ from the West was thus patently nationalistic in purport. The Vedic period of Indian history constituted the corner-stone of Indian cultural identity. The Mughal times, particularly the reign of Akbar, was also highlighted as another glorious phase in Indian history, with special reference to Akbar’s secularity and stress on Hindu–Muslim unity. Ranade immensely praised Akbar for creating the climate of secularity, composite culture and catholicism in the country. In his own words, ‘In Akbar’s time, this process of regenerate India first assumed a decided character. No student of Akbar’s reign will fail to notice that for the first time the conception was then realized of a united India in which the Hindus and Mahomedans

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308  Conclusion were to take part in the building of an edifice rooted in the hearts of both by common interests and common ambitions . . . . Far from suffering from decay and corruption the native races gathered strength by reason of the Mahomedan rule when it was directed by a policy of toleration and equality.’5 It was only the phase of the Scythians, Mongols and Muslims as distinguished from the Mughals that was dubbed retrograde, and held largely responsible for the contemporary cultural corruptions. Ranade was extremely critical of ‘the barbarous impact of Scythians, Mongols and Mahomedans’ particularly on the status of women.6 He further emphasised that ‘the predominance acquired by barbarous Scythian and Mahomedan conquerors, degraded the condition of the female sex, deprived them of their rights of inheritance and freedom and made woman dependent on man’s caprice, instead of being his equal and honoured helpmate’.7 Chandavarkar was also quite critical of the Muslim phase and stated, ‘The Maratha lady is living in the midst of British influences, and these are more congenial to her growth than the reactionary spirit induced by the Mahomedan power.’8 The perception of the Mughal phase was, on the contrary, mostly reverential for its contribution to the growth of secularity, cultural enrichment and catholicism in the country. The reverence for the indigenous past was, however, not revivalist. Nor was it due to inherently regenerative pull of the past. The return to the past was in the context of a break with the present with a futuristic purpose. It was the present that pushed them to the past and not vice–versa. What they looked for in the past was an ideal, not a model. The pre-British past constituted an intellectual as well as an emotional taproot and provided a cultural complex to fall back upon and identify with. This quest for demarcation of their self-identity as distinct from the foreigners and foreign rule denoted pride and even prejudice of a conquered people confronted with the reality of colonial cultural onslaughts, apart from the ongoing political and economic encroachments. The Rationalist phase was, however, not the period of direct nationalist opposition. It was, in fact, a phase marked by ample admiration for the British rule which was often hailed as a divine dispensation. The changes introduced by the British, in particular the introduction of modern education and modern means of communication such as railways, post and telegraph, establishment of the rule of law and of law and order, etc. strengthened the belief in the regenerative role of

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Conclusion  309 the Raj. The admiration was, however, not entirely unqualified and uncritical. The intellectuals did not remain oblivious to the seamy side of the colonial rule which gradually manifested itself over time, and they then freely vented their anguish or anger at excesses of the colonial dispensation. Significantly, it was at the Rationalist phase that the economic critique of British rule was first earnestly undertaken, to be further elaborated upon by the Moderates. Drain and deindustrialisation, poverty and pauperisation, exploitation of rural peasantry, stultification of Indian industries, racial discrimination and exclusion of Indians from positions of power and authority and subordination of the entire Indian economy and political aspirations to the needs and interests of English economy and polity were highlighted during the very period of rational resurgence as national concerns. The political edifice of Indian freedom struggle represented by the Moderates which coincided as well as followed could thus feed on the groundwork well laid down by the Rationalists. The emphasis on modern education and compulsory primary education, end of caste discrimination, abolition of untouchability and elevation of backward classes, improvement in the position of women and their education, stress on industrialisation and scientific development, moralism, secularism, Hindu–Muslim unity, individualism and constitutionalism were other important nationalist legacies of nineteenth-century rationalism. The political movement for independence was thus not an isolated and independent growth; it was a continuation of the significant efforts made in the direction of national unity and nation building during the Rationalist phase. It would thus be quite apt to describe the Rationalists as Early Nationalists in modern Indian history. The content and character of the nineteenth-century intellect was quintessentially reformist. Reform, and not revolution, was the central theme of thought. Changes were sought within the very structure without tending or even intending to eradicate or alter it root and branch. The intellectuals did not stand for sharp rupture in the social structure. Ranade in his speech at the Sixth Indian National Social Conference held at Allahabad in 1892 pithily defined the diameter of the intellectual initiatives. He said: The true reformer has not to write upon a clean state. His work is more often to complete the half-written sentence. He has to

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310  Conclusion produce the ideal out of the actual, and by the help of the actual. We have one continuous stream of life flowing past us . . . and seek to turn the stream with a gentle bend here, and a gentle bend there, to fructify the land; and we cannot afford to dam it up altogether, or force into a new channel. . . . We cannot break with the past altogether, for it is a rich inheritance, and we have no reason to be ashamed of it. . . . While respecting the past, we must ever seek to correct the parasitical growths that have encrusted it and sucked the life out of it.9 In the next meeting of the Indian National Social Conference held at Lahore in 1893, however, he expressed his impatience with mere tinkering in this sphere. He stated, ‘It is time now that we should take due care to set our houses in order, as no mere whitewashing and no plastering would remove these hidden sources of our weakness. The whole existence must be renovated.’10 Ranade’s ‘renovation’, however, did not imply revolutionary alteration and ever remained reformist in thought and deeds. For he eloquently spoke in the same breath in the same meeting in favour of ‘change for the better by slow absorption and assimilation – not by sudden convulsion and revolution’.11 Bhandarkar in his presidential speech at the Ninth Indian National Social Conference held at Poona in 1895 echoed similar sentiments in favour of reform as against revolution. He said: I am not an advocate of headlong action. The motive forces of reform should be powerful in our hearts, but they must be tempered in a manner not to lead us to cut ourselves from a vital connection with the past. We should not adopt the procedure of the French Revolution, but initiate the mode of action of the English people, whose pupils we are.12 He categorically stated that ‘no violent change whatever’.13 Malabari also disapproved of abrupt changes pressed against popular sentiments. Vindicating his stand he wrote, ‘I am not one of those who are for violent interference by the State or for abrupt reforms. We must move with the times, carrying the people with us. All that now seems to be needed is the interposition of authority to a small extent.’14

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Conclusion  311 Gradualism and moderation marked the hallmark of social reformism in the nineteenth century. Chandavarkar stated that ‘reform, like all growth intended to be life-giving and sustaining, must be gradual’.15 Telang similarly held that education of the people in social matters was bound to be a lengthy and laborious operation on account of the involvement of feeling and tradition.16 Sustainability of social reform could perceptibly get jeopardised in easy search for surgical solutions. Ranade defined the meaning and efficacy of moderation particularly in areas where change of habits was called upon. He stated: Moderation implies the condition of never vainly aspiring after the impossible or after too remote ideals but aspiring each day to take the next step in order of natural growth, by doing the work that lies nearest to the hand in a spirit of compromise and fairness. After all, political activities are chiefly of value, not for the particular results achieved, but for the process of political education which is secured by exciting interest in public matters and promoting the self-respect and self-reliance of citizenship. This is no doubt a slow process but all growth of new habits must be slow to be real.17 Mahatma Phule, however, represented a different strand in the context of nineteenth-century intellectual milieu. He was not satisfied with simply social tinkering or temporary repair and stood for radical restructuring of social relations based on the principles of equality, non-discrimination, freedom and human dignity. It was he who first brought into focus the issue of untouchability and set the agenda for Shudra emancipation in the nationalist politics in the ensuing years. He denounced the Vedas as humbug and thus questioned the very ideological basis of caste. He, however, pinned his faith in education and need-based legislation for end-of-caste domination and discrimination, along acclaimed reformist mode. Moreover, he did not advocate caste war as a libertarian method. He at times seemed to remain content with diminution of caste distinctions instead of its abolition. Further, he could not totally transcend caste as a framework of analysis in his conception of social change; it remained a frame of reference all along in the Phulean paradigm of social emancipation. Notably, Phule’s critique of caste

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312  Conclusion was rational but his understanding of its history was not. His idea of caste origination and evolution was based more on make-believe than a sense of history. He relied largely on mythology and imagination particularly in the treatment of its historicity, and his dialogical expressions at times appeared to emanate not so much from intellect as from an uninformed understanding. Phule’s radicalism is visible more in his diagnosis of the social disease which was refreshingly quite piercing and provocative rather than in his prescription for its cure. His anti-caste articulations suffused with unprecedented militancy ultimately veered around education, legislation and inter-dining as the main remedial measures. All these had, notably, all along been advocated by the rest of the intellectual fraternity in Maharashtra during the period. This is, however, not to suggest that Mahatma Phule was just one among the rest. He, on the contrary, represented a total break with Vedism or Brahmanism both as an ideology and as a structure, almost unprecedented in Indian intellectual history.18 He was the one who made a mission of his life to provide dignity to those depressed and deprived under the Brahmin-dominated social structure based essentially on hierarchy and holiness, division and discrimination, and advocated equality, liberty and fraternity. The assessment of the intellectual endeavours in the nineteenth century in terms of success or failure would be too simplistic a way to approach the issue. After all, the unrest was not an event but a current of thought which cannot be quantified. One cannot conclusively draw a direct line between the movement and the quantum of social change that ensued subsequently as a result thereof. It would be equally unfair to hold that it could not at all affect the process of social transformation on the lines envisaged by the reformers. Chandavarkar gave a very telling instance of the impact of the reform movement in lessening social rigidities. To quote: The influence of Widow Remarriage Association was so much felt among the orthodox Hindoos that, when in 1872, a Brahmin gentleman returned from England, the head priest of the Brahmin community received him into caste on administering penance to him, and when the orthodox priests and laymen, who re-admitted him, were asked why they had chosen to be so liberal, they said if they had not taken the gentleman back,

Conclusion  313

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there was the widow remarriage party to receive him into its fold.19 Immediacy of impact in any case is no sure test of efficacy or potency of an idea, particularly in the arena of cultural reform which depends on the totality of the context and the degree of social readiness for desired change. The lackadaisical approach of the British to the question of social reform in India for fear of popular reaction against colonial interests and their emphasis on colonial modernisation as key to consolidation of the colonial power could considerably contribute to its failure in the context of nineteenth-century India. The degree of receptivity to the reform ideas related squarely to that of social readiness which colonial rule did not create to its full potential during the period. The importance of the rationalist tradition of the time is, however, to be located in its contribution to the overall process of nation building and in propagating the idea of national unity in the country, and here rational reform formed a real watershed in modern Indian history. It laid firm foundations for the future nationalist leadership to further build upon. In this sense, the nineteenth-century reform formed a milestone in the evolution of Indian nationalist consciousness with secular and democratic orientation as its defining moments. The fact that the area forms the subject matter of numerous works and research still is one of the significant indices of its relevance even in the contemporary context. It by itself tells the saga of its success in Indian history. There were, however, certain instances of the intellectuals not living up to the idealism they preached in practice. There are numerous instances cited by the scholars in confirmation of this hiatus in the context of the nineteenth-century consciousness in Maharashtra. Bal Shastri Jambhekar, for instance, married, on the death of his first wife, a girl who was of less than ten years old. Although preaching against child marriage, Lokahitwadi married even his grand children at a very early age. He accepted Prayaschita for sending his son to England. Moreover, he remained an adherent of all orthodox ways including idolatry. Ranade at the age of thirty-two married, on the death of his first wife, a girl of eleven at the insistence of his father. Telang married his daughter at the tender age of eight years. This gap between theory and practice, in contrast, was hardly heard of in the case of medieval mystics. There was little hiatus between what

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314  Conclusion they said and what they did. Kabir, Nanak, Tukaram, Namdeo and many others represented the kind of men who lived their thought or in other words they expressed in their songs and discourses their actually undergone existential and mystical experiences. This was not the case in the nineteenth century. The reformers were at times found wanting in their courage of conviction as far as their own personal lives were concerned. They often oscillated between their ideational elevation and practical conformity or even occasional surrender to the might of orthodoxy. The medieval mystics, on the other hand, preached devotion, equality and fellow feeling and lived as such. This gap between the two sections of reformers has probably its basis in the nature of acquisition of knowledge. The medieval mystics acquired their visions of reform through undergoing a spiritual transformation of their existential being. They acquired charisma and exercised a measure of authority or legitimacy of a unique kind. The nineteenth-century reformers, on the other hand, were a class apart, a product of social changes which endowed them access to knowledge and a new consciousness as a social product. Hence in their case we often witness a divergence between thought and praxis, absent in the saintly tradition. Their immediate social surroundings often militated against the internalisation of the acquired knowledge. Intellectual acquisition sans internalisation could not thus turn into a value commanding tenacity or adherence at all costs and against all odds. Such individualised intellectualisation coupled with the absence of a conducive social climate thus remained weak in will, though not in thought, tenuous in tenacity, though not in philosophy. They were often one against many in an orthodox environment in which the power to punish lay with the majority. The policy of caution and conciliation followed by the British in cultural sphere did not help create a social climate conducive to at least tolerating change, thus further accentuating their tenuity in praxis. The occasional frailty seen in the morality of nineteenth-century intellectuals’ mind, suspect in the eyes of some then and even now, is, therefore, to be located primarily in the contextual limitations of the origin of intellectuals and of the contemporary social environment, and not in their individual shortcomings or failings. This, however, does not in any case diminish the merit of the reform movement. The merit or validity of an idea is neither enhanced nor reduced simply by the fact whether the proponent was a practitioner at the same time or

Conclusion  315 otherwise. The cause is not condemnable merely because of apparent unworthiness of its agents. Longevity of a thought is the real test of its worth.

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Notes   1 For details, see Introduction.  2 N. G. Chandavarkar, The Speeches and Writings, p. 40.   3 J. V. Naik, ‘Ramakrishna Gopal Bhandarkar: Man and His Mission’ in N. A. Nayeem et al. (eds.), Studies in History of the Deccan: Medieval and Modern, Delhi, 2002, p. 292.  4 Sudharak, 23 October 1883.  5 M. G. Ranade, Religious and Social Reform, pp. 231–41.   6 Ibid., pp. 98–100.   7 Ibid., pp. 100–1.  8 N. G. Chandavarkar, The Speeches and Writings.  9 M. G. Ranade, Miscellaneous Writings, p. 118; Sudharak, 23 October 1893. 10 Ibid., p. 125. Also see The Indu-Prakash, 11 June 1894. 11 The Indu-Prakash, 11 June 1894. 12 R.  G. Bhandarkar, Collected Works, Vol. II, p. 496. 13 Ibid., p. 497. 14 Jogendra Singh, B.M. Malabari, pp. 117–8. 15 N.  G. Chandavarkar, The Speeches and Writings, p. 69. 16 K.  T. Telang, Selected Writings and Speeches, Vol. I, pp. 289–90. 17 See James Kellock, M.G. Ranade, p. 164. Kabir’s iconoclasm still remains a high watermark of pre-British 18  Indian intellectual tradition. 19 N.  G. Chandavarkar, The Speeches and Writings, p. 13.

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Bibliography  317 Source Material for a History of the Freedom Movement in India (Collected from Bombay Government Records), Vol. I, 1818–85, Bombay, 1957. Survey of Indigenous Education in the Province of Bombay (1820–1830), (ed.) R. V. Parulekar, Bombay, 1945. Territories Conquered from the Paishwa: A Report by Mountstuart Elphinstone, Delhi, 1973.

B. Published Speeches and Writings Batabyal, Rakesh (ed.), The Penguin Book of Modern Indian Speeches, 1877 to the Present, New Delhi, 2007. Bhandarkar, R. G., Collected Works, 4 Vols., (ed.) Narayan Bapuji Utgikar and Vasudev Gopal Paranjpe, Poona, 1927–33. _________, Commemoration Volume, Delhi, 1976. _________, A Note on the Age of Marriage and its Consummation According to Hindu Religious Law, Poona, 1891. Bobde, P. V. (ed.), Garland of Divine Flowers: Selected Devotional Lyrics of Saint Jnanesvara, Delhi, 1987. Chandavarkar, Ganesh L., A Wrestling Soul: Story of the Life of Sir Narayan Chandavarkar, Bombay, 1955. Chandavarkar, N. G., Light for Life, 2 Parts, Madras, 1921. __________, The Speeches and Writings, (ed.) L. V. Kaikini, Bombay, 1911. Chintamani, C. Y. (ed.), Indian Social Reform, 4 Parts, Madras, 1901. Chitre, Dilip (tr.), Shri Jnandev’s Anubhavamrut: The Immortal Experience of Being, New Delhi, 1996. Collet, Sophia Dobson, The Life and Letters of Raja Rammohan Roy, (ed.) Dilip Kumar Biswas and Prabhat Chandra Ganguli, Calcutta, 1962 (first publication 1900). Gokhale, Gopal Krishna, The Select Gokhale, (compiled and edited) R. P. Patwardhan, Delhi, 1968. __________, Speeches, Madras, 1916 (first publication 1908). __________, Speeches and Writings, 2 Vols., (ed.) D. G. Karve and D. A. Ambedkar, Madras, 1916. __________, Speeches and Writings, (ed.) R. P. Patwardhan, Vol. II: Economic, Poona, 1962. __________, Speeches and Writings, (ed.) W. R. Mujawar, Delhi, 2009. Jagadisan, T. N. (ed.), The Wisdom of a Modern Rishi: Writings and Speeches of Mahadev Govind Ranade, Madras (n.d.). Jambhekar, Bal Gangadhar Shashtri, Memoirs and Writings, 3 Vols., (compiled and edited) G. G. Jambhekar, Poona, 1950. Joshi, G. V., Writings and Speeches, Poona, 1912.

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318  Bibliography Malabari, Behramji M., Essays on Indian Problem, London, 1898. ________, Gujarat and Gujaratis, London, 1882. ________, The Indian Eye on English Life or Rambles of a Pilgrim Reformer, Bombay, 1895. ________, The Indian Muse in English Garb, Bombay, 1876. Mandlik, V. N., Writings and Speeches, (ed.) N.  V. Mandlik, Bombay, 1896. Naoroji, Dadabhai, Poverty and Un-British Rule in India, Delhi, 1962 (first publication 1901). Parmanand, Narayan Mahadev, Letters to an Indian Raja from a Political Recluse, Bombay, 1919. Phule, Jotirao, Collected Works, 2 Vols., (ed. and tr.) P. G. Patil, Bombay, 1991. ________, Selected Writings, (ed.) G. P. Deshpande, New Delhi, 2002. ________, Slavery, a Reprint, New Delhi, 2008. Ramabai, Pandita, The High-Caste Hindu Woman, New York, 1887. _________, The Letters and Correspondence, (compiled) Sister Geraldine, (ed.) A. B. Shah, Bombay, 1977. _________, Pandita Ramabai through Her Own Words: Selected Works, (compiled, edited, with translations) Meera Kosambi, New Delhi, 2000. Ranade, M. G., Essays on Indian Economics: A Collection of Essays and Speeches, Bombay, 1898. _________, His Wife’s Reminiscences, (tr.) Kusumavati Deshpande from Ramabai Ranade’s Marathi original (Amchya Ayushatil Kahi Athavani published in 1910), New Delhi, 1963. _________, Miscellaneous Writings of M. G. Ranade, (compiled) Ramabai Ranade, New Delhi, 1992 (first publication 1915). _________, ‘A Note on the Decentralization of Provincial Finance’, Reprint from The Quarterly Journal of the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha, Poona, 1894. _________, Ranade’s Economic Writings, (ed.) Bipan Chandra, Bombay, 1990. _________, Religious and Social Reform: A Collection of Essays and Speeches, (collected and compiled) M. B. Kolasker, Bombay, 1902. _________, Rise of the Maratha Power, New Delhi, 1974 (first publication 1900). _________, Select Writings on Indian States, (ed.) V. W. Thakur, Indore, 1942. _________, The Wisdom of a Modern Rishi: Writings and Speeches of Mahadev Govind Ranade, (ed.) T. N. Jagadisan, Madras, (n.d.). Roy, Rammohan, The Essential Writings of Raja Rammohan Roy, (ed.) Bruce Carlisle Robertson, Delhi, 1999.

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Bibliography  319 _________, Rammohan Roy and Tuhafatul Muwahhiddin (Or A Gift to Deists), (tr.) Moulavi Obaidullah El Obaide, Calcutta, 1975. Singh, Jogendra, B. M. Malabari: Rambles with the Pilgrim Reformer, London, 1914. Sri Guru Granth Sahib, 4 Vols., (tr.) Gurbachan Singh Talib, Patiala, 1987–95. Tarkhadkar, Dadoba Pandurang, A Hindu Gentleman’s Reflections on the Writings of Swedenborg, London, 1878. Telang, K. T., A Memoir, Bombay, 1951. _________, Minute of Dissent on the Report of the Indian Education Commission, Calcutta, 1883. _________, Selected Writings and Speeches, 2 Vols., Bombay, 1916. _________, Telang’s Gleanings from Maratha Chronicles also published in The Quarterly Journal of the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha, Vol. XV, No. 2, October 1892. Tilak, B. G., The Artic Home in the Vedas, Pune, 2001. _________, His Letters and Speeches, Madras, 1919. _________, His Writings and Speeches, Ganesh and Co., Madras, (n.d.). ________, Letters of Lokmanya Tilak, (ed.) M. D. Vidwans, Poona, 1966. _________, Om-Tat-Sat Srimad Bhagvadgita Rahasya or Karma-YogaSastra, (tr.) A. S. Sunthankar, Poona, 2000. _________, The Orion or Researches into the Antiquity of the Vedas, Poona, 1999 (eighth edition). _________, Samagra Lokamanya Tilak, Vol. 7, Poona, 1975. _________, Selected Documents of Lokamanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak (1880–1920), 4 Vols., (ed.) Ravindra Kumar, New Delhi, 1992. C. Private Papers G.G. Agarkar Papers, MSS, NMML. Servants of India Society Papers (Gokhale Papers) MSS, NMML. D. Newspapers and Journals The Bombay Gazette. Dnyanodaya (microfilm). The Indian Spectator (microfilm). The Indu-Prakash (microfilm). The Kesari. The Mahratta. The Quarterly Journal of the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha. Sudharak (microfilm). Young India (microfilm).

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E. Marathi Sources Agarkar, Gopal Ganesh, Agarkar Lekhasangraha, (ed.) G. P. Pradhan, New Delhi, 2007. _________, Agarkar-Vangmaya, 3 Vols., (ed.) M. G. Natu and D. Y. Deshpande, Mumbai, 1984–1986. Chiplunkar, Vishnushastri, Chiplunkar-Lekha-Sangraha, (ed.) M.  G. Buddhisagar, New Delhi, 1963. ________, Nibandhamala, 2 Vols., Pune, 1993 (first publication 1881). Deshmukh, Gopal Hari, Gramrachna, (ed.) M.  P. Mangudkar, Pune, 1969. ________, Lokahitwadi Samagra Vangmaya, Part 1, (ed.) Govardhan Parikh and Indumati Parikh, Mumbai, 1988. ________, Lokahitwadinchi Shatapatre, (ed.) N. R. Inamdar, Pune, 1963. ________, Lokhitwadinchi Shatapatre, (ed.) P.  G. Sahasrabudhe, Pune, 1972. ________, Lokahitwadinchi Shatapatre, (ed.) S. R. Tikekar, Oundh (Satara), 1940. Jambhekar, Bal Shastri, Durpan-Sangraha, (ed.) V. K. Joshi and S. M. Sahastrabudhe, Bombay, 1946. Pandit, Vishnu P. Shastri, Stri-Punarvivah, Bombay, 1870. ________, Vidhavodvahaviveka, Bombay, 1869. Priolkar, A. K. (ed.), Rao Bahadur Dadoba Pandurang: Atmacharitra, Mumbai, 1950.

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Bibliography  321 Barnett, S. J., The Enlightenment and Religion: The Myths of Modernity, Manchester, 2003. Basham, A. L. (ed.), A Cultural History of India, Oxford, 1975. ________, History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas : A Vanished Indian Religion, Delhi, 1981 (first publication 1951). ________, The Wonder That Was India, Delhi, 1981 (first publication 1954). Baycroft, Timothy, and Henitson, Mark (eds.), What Is a Nation?, New York, 2006. Becker, Howard, and Barnes, Harry Elmer, Social Thought from Lore to Science, 2 Vols., New York, 1961 (first publication 1938). Behere, N. K., The Background of Maratha Renaissance in the 17th Century, 1946. Belsare, K. V., Tukaram, New Delhi, 1967. Berger, Peter L., Facing up to Modernity, New York, 1977. Beveridge, Henry A., A Comprehensive History of India, Vols. 3, New Delhi, 1862. Bhate, G. C., History of Modern Marathi Literature 1800–1938, Poona, 1939. Bhattacharya, Haridas (ed.), The Cultural Heritage of India, Vol. III, Calcutta, 1969 (reprint). Bhattacharya, Sabyasachi, Talking Back: The Idea of Civilization in the Indian Nationalist Discourse, New Delhi, 2011. Billington, James H., Mikhailovasky and Russian Populism, Oxford, 1958. Bose, Anima, Higher Education in the 19th Century – The American Involvement, 1883–1893, Calcutta, 1978. Bose, Sugata, and Jalal, Ayesha, Modern South Asia: History, Culture, Political Economy, New Delhi, 2004. Bottomore, T. B., Elites and Society, New York, 1979 (reprint). Brown, D. Mackenzie, The Nationalist Movement: Indian Political Thought from Ranade to Bhave, Berkeley, 1961. Brown, Judith M., Gandhi’s Rise to Power: Indian Politics 1915–1922, Cambridge, 1972. Brym, R. J., The Jewish Intelligentsia and Russian Marxism, London, 1978. Butler, Clementia, Pandita Ramabai Sarasvati, New York, 1922. Cabral, Amilcar, Return to the Source: Selected Speeches of Amilcar Cabral, London, 1973. ________, Unity and Struggle, London, 1980. Chakravarti, Uma, Pandita Ramabai: A Life and a Time, New Delhi, 2007. Champaklakshmi, R., and Gopal, S. (eds.), Tradition, Dissent and Ideology, New Delhi, 1996.

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322  Bibliography Chanchreek, K. L., Social Reform Movement and Jyotiba Phule, New Delhi, 2006. Chandra, Bipan, Essays on Indian Nationalism, New Delhi, 1993. ________, Indian National Movement: The Long-Term Dynamics, New Delhi, 2008. ________, Nationalism and Colonialism in Modern India, (Paperback) New Delhi, 1981. ________, The Rise and Growth of Economic Nationalism in India, New Delhi, 1977 (first publication 1966). Chandra, Bipan, et al., India’s Struggle for Independence 1857–1947, New Delhi, 1988. Chatterjee, Partha, The Nation and Its Fragments, Princeton, 1993. ________, Nationalist Thought and the Colonial World, Delhi, 1986. Chattopadhyay, Debiprasad, Indian Philosophy: A Popular Introduction, New Delhi, 1975. Chattopadhyay, Gautam (ed.), Awakening in Bengal in Early Nineteenth Century, Calcutta, 1965. ________ (ed.), Bengal: Early Nineteenth Century: Selected Documents, Calcutta, 1978. Choksey, R. D., Mount Stuart Elphinstone: The Indian Years 1796–1827, Bombay, 1971. Churchward, L. G., The Soviet Intelligentsia, London, 1973. Cohn, Bernard, Colonialism and Its Forms of Knowledge: The British in India, Princeton, 1996. Daftary, Farhad (ed.), Intellectual Traditions in Islam, London, 2000. Dandekar, R. N., Hinduism and Modern Culture, Poona, 1966. Dandekar, S. V., Dnyanadeo, New Delhi, 1969. Deming, Wilbur Stone, Eknath: A Maratha Bhakta, Bombay, 1931. Desai, A. R., Social Background of Indian Nationalism, Bombay, 1966 (first publication 1948). Desai, Sudha V., Social Life in Maharashtra under the Peshwas, Bombay, 1980. Deshpande, Kusumawati, and Rajadhyaksha, M. V., A History of Marathi Literature, New Delhi, 1988. Deshpande, Prachi, Creative Pasts: Historical Memory and Identity in Western India 1700–1960, Ranikhet, 2007. Dirks, Nichols B., Castes of Mind: Colonialism and the Making of Modern India, New Delhi, 2002. Divekar, V. D. (ed.), Social Reform Movements in India, Bombay, 1991. Dobbin, Christine, Urban Leadership in Western India: Politics and Communities in Bombay City, 1840–1885, London, 1972. Eisenstadt, S. N., Tradition, Change and Modernity, New York, 1973. Erasov, Boris, and Singh, Yogendra, The Sociology of Culture, Jaipur, 2006 (reprint).

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Bibliography  323 Farquhar, J. N., Modern Religious Movements in India, Delhi, 1967. Fernee, Tadd, Enlightenment and Violence: Modernity and Nation-Making in India, Turkey, Iran and Western Europe, a manuscript, under publication. Frykenborg, Robert Eric (ed.), Christians and Missionaries in India: Cross-Cultural Communication since 1500, London, 2003. Gallagher, John, et al., Locality, Province and Nation: Essays on Indian Politics 1870–1940, London, 1973. Ganachari, Aravind, Gopal Ganesh Agarkar: The Secular Rationalist Reformer, Mumbai, 2005. ________, Nationalism and Social Reform in a Colonial Situation, Delhi, 2005. Ganeri, Jonardon (ed.), Bimal Krishna Matilal: Epistemology, Logic and Grammar in Indian Philosophical Analysis, New Delhi, 2005. ________ (ed.), The Collected Essays of Bimal Krishna Matilal: Ethics and Epics, Vol. II, New Delhi, 2002. ________ (ed.), The Collected Essays of Bimal Krishna Matilal: Mind, Language and the World, Vol. I, New Delhi, 2002. Gellner, Ernest, Nations and Nationalism, Oxford, 1983. ________, Postmodernism, Reason and Religion, London, 1992. ________, Reason and Culture, Oxford, 1992. Giddens, Anthony, The Consequences of Modernity, Stanford, 1990. Goetz, Hermann, The Crisis of Indian Civilization in the Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries, London, 1938. Goldman, Alvin I., Epistemology and Cognition, Cambridge, 1986. Gopal, S., British Policy in India 1858–1905, New Delhi, 1975 (first publication 1965). Goulner, Alvin W., The Future of Intellectuals and the Rise of New Class, New York, 1979. Gramsci, Antonio, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, (ed. and tr.) Quintin Hoare and Geoffrey Nowell, Hyderabad, 2010 (reprint). Guha, Ranajit (ed.), Subaltern Studies III: Writings on South Asian History and Society, New Delhi, 1984. Gupta, Atulchand (ed.), Studies in the Bengal Renaissance, Jadavpur, 1958. Guru, Gopal (ed.), Humiliation: Claims and Context, New Delhi, 2009. Gusfield, Joseph R., Protest, Reform and Revolt, New York, 1970. Hayes, C.J.H., A Political and Cultural History of Modern Europe, Vol. I, New York, 1933. Heimsath, Charles H., Indian Nationalism and Hindu Social Reform, Princeton, 1964. Hobsbawm, Eric, On History, London, 2002 (reprint). Hughes, H. Stuart, Consciousness and Society: The Reorientation of European Social Thought 1890–1930, New York, 1958.

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324  Bibliography Hutchins, Francis G., The Illusion of Permanence, Princeton, 1967. Ilaiah, Kancha, Why I Am Not a Hindu: A Critique of Hindutva Philosophy, Culture and Political Economy, Calcutta, 2002 (reprint). Inden, Ronald, Imagining India, Cambridge, 1990. ________, Text and Practice: Essays on South Asian History, New Delhi, 2006. Jagirdar, P. J., Mahadeo Govind Ranade, Publications Division, 1971. ________, Studies in the Social Thought of M. G. Ranade, Bombay, 1963. Jenks, Chris, Culture, London, 1993. Jodhka, Surinder S., Caste, New Delhi, 2012. ________ (ed.), Communities and Identities: Contemporary Discourses on Culture and Politics in India, New Delhi, 2001. Jones, Kenneth W., Arya Dharm: Hindu Consciousness in 19th Century Punjab, Berkeley, 1976. ________, Socio-Religious Reform Movements in British India, Cambridge, 1994. Jordens, J.T.F., Dayanand Saraswati: His Life and Ideas, Delhi, 1978. Joshi, V. C. (ed.), Rammohan Roy and the Process of Modernization in India, Delhi, 1975. Kamat, A. R., Progress of Education in Rural Maharashtra, Poona, 1968. Kamble, J. R., Rise and Awakening of Depressed Classes in India, New Delhi, 1979. Karandikar, M. A., Namdev, New Delhi, 1970. Karkaria, R. P., India, Forty Years of Progress and Reform: Being a Sketch of the Life and Times of Behramji M. Malabari, London, 1896. _________, K. T. Telang and the Present Political Movement in India, Bombay, 1895. Karve, D. G., Ranade: The Prophet of Liberated India, Poona, 1942. Keer, Dhananjay, Lokamanya Tilak : Father of the Indian Freedom Struggle, Bombay, 1969. ________, Mahatma Jotirao Phooley: Father of Our Social Revolution, 1986 (first publication 1964). Kellock, James, Mahadev Govind Ranade: Patriot and Social Servant, Calcutta, 1926. Kerr, Ian J., Building the Railways of the Raj 1850–1900, New Delhi, 1997. ________, Engines of Change: The Railroads That Made India, Westport, 2007. ________ (ed.), Railways in Modern India, Delhi, 2001. ________ (ed.), 27 Down: New Departures in Indian Railway Studies, New Delhi, 2007. Kidambi, Prashant, The Making of an Indian Metropolis: Colonial Governance and Public Culture in Bombay, 1890–1920, H ­ ampshire, 2007.

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Bibliography  325 Kopf, David, (ed.), Bengal Regional Identity, Michigan, 1969. ________, The Brahmo Samaj and the Shaping of the Modern Indian Mind, Princeton, 1979. ________, British Orientalism and the Bengal Renaissance: The Dynamics of Indian Modernization, 1773–1835, Berkeley, 1969. Kosambi, Meera (ed.), Intersections: Socio-Cultural Trends in Maharashtra, New Delhi, 2000. Kshire, Vasant K., Lokahitawadi’s Thought: A Critical Study, Poona, 1977. Kulkarni, A. R., and Wagle, N. K. (eds.), Region, Nationality and Religion, Mumbai, 1999. Kulkarni, S., Eknath, New Delhi, 1966. Kulkarni, V. B., India and Pakistan: A Historical Survey of Hindu Muslim Relations, Bombay, 1973. Kumar, Ravinder, Essays in the Social History of Modern India, Delhi, 1983. ________, The Making of a Nation: Essays in Indian History and Politics, New Delhi, 1989. ________, Western India in the Nineteenth Century: A Study in the Social History of Maharashtra, London, 1968. Kumar, Vivek, Dalit Leadership in India, Delhi, 2002. Laski, Harold J., The Rise of European Liberalism, London, 1971 (first publication 1936). Lederle, Mathew, Philosophical Trends in Modern Maharashtra, Bombay, 1976. Lethbridge, Roper (ed.), A History of the Renaissance in Bengal, Calcutta, 1972. Majumdar, R. C. (ed.), British Paramountcy and Indian Renaissance, Part II, Bombay, 1965. Malik, S. C. (ed.). Dissent, Protest and Reform in Indian Civilization, Simla, 1977. Malik, Yogendra K. (ed.), South Asian Intellectuals and Social Change, New Delhi, 1982. Mankar, G. A., Of the Life and Works of M. G. Ranade, 2 Vols., Bombay, 1902. Marshman, J. C., The History of India, New Delhi, 1982 (Indian edition). McCully, B. T., English Education and the Origins of Indian Nationalism, New Delhi, 1966 (reprint). McDonald, Ellen, and Stark, Craig M., English Education, Nationalist Politics and Elite Groups in Maharashtra, 1885–1915, California, 1969. Marx, Karl, and Engels, Friederich, The German Ideology, Moscow, 1976.

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326  Bibliography Masselos, J. C., Towards Nationalism: Group Affiliations and the Politics of Public Associations in Nineteenth Century Western India, Bombay, 1974. Mayor, R. G., Reason and Common Sense: An Enquiry into Some Problems of Philosophy, London, 1951. Mehrotra, S. R., The Emergence of the Indian National Congress, Delhi, 1971. Mill, James, The History of British India, 3 Vols., London, 1817. Misra, B. B., The Indian Middle Classes: Their Growth in Modern Times, Oxford, 1961. Mukerji, D. P., Diversities, New Delhi, 1958. ________, Indian Culture: A Sociological Study, New Delhi, 2002 (first publication 1948). ________, Modern Indian Culture, Bombay, 1948. Mukherjee, Amitabha (ed.), Militant Nationalism in India 1876–1947, Calcutta, 1995. _________, Reform and Regeneration in Bengal, 1774–1823, Calcutta, 1968. Mukherjee, Ramakrishna, Society, Culture, Development, New Delhi, 1991. Murugkar, Lata, Dalit Panther Movement in Maharashtra: A Sociological Appraisal, Bombay, 1991. Nanda, B. R., Gokhale, The Indian Moderates and the British Raj, Delhi, 1977. ________, Mahatma Gandhi, Boston, 1958. Natarajan, S., Century of Social Reform in India, Bombay, 1959. Nayeem, N. A. et al. (eds.), Studies in the History of the Deccan: Medieval and Modern, Delhi, 2002. Nehru, Jawaharlal, The Discovery of India, Calcutta, 1945. Ogg, David, Europe of the Ancient Regime 1715–1783, Great Britain, 1977 (first publication 1965). O’Hanlon, Rosalind, Caste, Conflict and Ideology: Mahatma Jotirao Phule and Low Caste Protest in Nineteenth Century Western India, Cambridge, 1985. _________, A Comparison between Women and Men: Tarabai Shinde and the Critique of Gender Relations in India, 1994. O’Hanlon, Rosalind, and Washbrook, David (eds.), Religious Cultures in Early Modern India, New Delhi, 2011. Omvedt, Gail, Cultural Revolt in a Colonial Society: The Non Brahman Movement in Western India: 1873 to 1930, Bombay, 1976. ________, Dalits and the Democratic Revolution: Dr. Ambedkar and the Dalit Movement in Colonial India, New Delhi, 1994. ________, Jotirao Phule and the Ideology of Social Revolution in India, New Delhi, 2004.

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III. Articles Apte, Mahadev L., ‘Lokahitvadi and V. K. Chiplunkar: Spokesmen of Change in Nineteenth Century Maharashtra’, Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 7, No. 2, 1973. Baran, Paul A., ‘The Commitment of the Intellectual’, Monthly Review, Vol. 13, No. 1, May 1961. Bearce, George D., ‘Intellectual and Cultural Characteristics of India in a Changing Era, 1740–1800’, The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol., XXV, Nos. 1–4, Nov. 1965–Aug. 1966. Berlin, Isaiah, ‘A Marvellous Decade (I), 1838–48: The Birth of Russian Intelligentsia’, Encounter, Vol. IV, No. 6, June 1955. Bhattacharya, Pratibha, ‘An Overview of the Reformist Movement in Maharashtra with Special Reference to Lokahitvadi and Gopal G. Agarkar’ in N. K. Wagle (ed.), Writers, Editors and Reformers: Social and Political Transformations in Maharashtra, Delhi, 1999. Bhattacharya, Sabyasachi, ‘Notes on the Role of the Intelligentsia in Colonial Society: India from Mid-nineteenth Century’, Studies in History, Vol. 1, No. 1, Jan.–June 1979. Brower, Daniel R., ‘The Problem of Russian Intelligentsia’, Slavic Review, Vol. 26, No. 4, Dec. 1967. Chakrabarty, Dipesh, ‘The Colonial Context of the Bengal Renaissance: A Note on Early Railway Thinking in Bengal’, IESHR, Vol. XI, No. 1, Mar 1974. Chandra, Bipan, ‘Colonial India: British versus Indian Views of Development’, Review, Fernard Braudel Centre, Vol. XIV, No. 1, 1991. ________, ‘Economic Nationalism and the Railway Debate, circa 1880–1905’, in Roopa Srinivasan et al. (eds.), Our Indian Railways: Themes in India’s History, New Delhi, 2006. ________,‘Elements of Continuity and Change in Early Nationalist Activity’, Studies in History, Vol. 1, No. 1, Jan.–June 1979. Conlon, Frank F., ‘Vishnubawa Brahmachari: A Champion of Hinduism in Nineteenth Century Maharashtra’ in A. R. Kulkarni and N. K. Wagle (eds.), Region, Nationality and Religion, Mumbai, 1999. Dandekar, R. N., ‘Ramakrishna Gopal Bhandarkar and the Academic Renaissance in Maharashtra’ in N. K. Wagle (ed.), Writers, Editors and Reformers: Social and Political Transformations of Maharashtra, 1830–1930, New Delhi, 1999. Debroy, B., ‘Social Reform and Social Reform Movements in Bengal in the 19th Century’ in V. D. Divekar (ed.), Social Reform Movements in India, Bombay, 1991. Derbyshire, Ian, ‘The Building of India’s Railways: The Application of Western Technology in the Colonial Periphery 1850–1920’ in Ian J. Kerr (ed.), Railways in Modern India, Delhi, 2001.

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Bibliography  331 Dighe, V.  G., ‘The Renaissance in Maharashtra, First-Phase (1818–1970)’, Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bombay, (NS), Vols, 36–37, 1961–1962. Gordon, Peter E., ‘What Is Intellectual History?: A Frankly Partisan Introduction to a Frequently Misunderstood Field’, 30 August 2012 (downloaded from internet). Inamdar, N. R., ‘Political Thought of Balshastri Jambhekar (1812–1846), Pioneer of Renaissance in Maharashtra’, Indian Journal of Political Science, Vol. XXI, No. 4, Oct.–Dec. 1960. __________, ‘Political Thought of Vishnubuwa Brahmachari’, Journal of the Poona University: Humanities Section, No. 21, 1965. Iqbal, Iftekhar, ‘The Railway in Colonial India: Between Ideas and Impacts’ in Roopa Srinivasan et al. (eds.), Our Indian Railways: Themes in India’s History, New Delhi, 2006. Jagirdar, P. J., ‘Western Elements in the Social Thought of Mahadeo Govind Ranade, The Indian Journal of Political Science, Vol. XXIII, Nos. 1–4, Jan.–Dec., 1962. See Johnson, Gordon, ‘Chitpavan Brahmins and Politics in Western India in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century’ in Leach Edmund and Mukherjee, S. N. (ed.), Elites in South Asia, Cambridge, 1970. Jordens, J.T.F., ‘Hindu Religious and Social Reform in British India’, in A. L. Basham (eds.), A Cultural History of India, Oxford, 1975. Kosambi, Meera, ‘Pundita Ramabai and Social Reform in Maharashtra’ in N. K. Wagle (eds.), Writers, Editors and Reformers: Social and Political Transformations of Maharashtra, 1830–1930, New Delhi, 1999. Kulkarni, A. R., ‘The Drain Theory and Maratha Intellectuals of the Nineteenth Century’ in A. R. Kulkarni and N. K. Wagle (ed.), Region, Nationality and Religion, Mumbai, 1999. Kumar, Ravinder, ‘The Deccan Riots of 1875’, Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. XXIV, No. 4, Aug. 1965. Lele, Jayant K., ‘From Reformism to Interest Group Pluralism: The Relevance of Non-Brahman Movement for an Understanding of Contemporary Maharashtra’ in N. K. Wagle (ed.), Writers, Editors and Reformers: Social and Political Transformations of Maharashtra, 1830–1930, New Delhi, 1999. ________, ‘Gender-Consciousness in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Maharashtra’ in Anna Fieldhaus (ed.), Images of Women in Maharashtrian Society, Albany, 1998. Majumdar, Vina, ‘Social Reform Movement in India – From Ranade to Nehru’ in B. R. Nanda (ed.), Indian Women: From Purdah to Modernity, New Delhi, 1976. Marx, Karl, ‘The Future Results of British Rule in India’ (written in 1853) in Ian J. Kerr (ed.), Railways in Modern India, Delhi, 2001.

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332  Bibliography Masselos, J., ‘The Discourse is from the Other Side: Perceptions of Science and Technology in Western India in the Nineteenth Century, in N. K. Wagle (ed.), Writers, Editors and Reformers, : Social and Political Transformations of Maharashtra, 1830–1930, New Delhi, 1999. McDonald, Ellen E., ‘English Education and Social Reform in Late Nineteenth Century Bombay: A Case Study in the Transmission of a Cultural Ideal’, The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. XXV, No. 1–4, Nov. 1965–Aug. 1966. Menon, Visalakshi, and Mahajan, Sucheta, ‘Indian Nationalism and Railways’ in Roopa Srinivasan et al. (eds.), Our Indian Railways: Themes in India’s History, New Delhi, 2006. Mukerji, K., ‘The Renaissance in Bengali and Maharashtrian Thought from 1850 to 1920’ Poona, Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Reprint from Artha Vijnana, Vol. 4, No. 4, Dec. 1962. Mukherjee, Aditya, ‘Empire: How Colonial India Made Modern Britain’, a reprint from Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. XLV, No. 50, 11 Dec. 2010. _________, ‘Indian Capitalist Class and Foreign Capital’, Studies in History, Vol. I, No. 1, Jan.–June 1979. _________, ‘The Return of the Colonial in Indian Economic History: The Last Phase of Colonialism in India’, Presidential Address (Modern India), Indian History Congress, 68th Session, 28–30 Dec. 2007, New Delhi. Mukhopodhyay, Arundhati, ‘Attitude towards Religion and Culture in Nineteenth Century Bengal: Tattavabodhini Sabha, 1839–59’, Studies in History, Vol. 3 No. 1, Jan.–June 1987 (Special Issue). Murphy W. T., ‘Foucault: Rationality against Reason and History’ in Philip Windsor (ed.), Reason and History: Or Only a History of Reason, Leicester, 1990. Naik, J. V., ‘Bhau Mahajan and His Prabhakar, Dhumketu and Dnyan Darshan: A Study in Maharashtrian Response to British Rule’ in N. K. Wagle (ed.), Writers, Editors and Reformers: Social and Political Transformations of Maharashtra, 1830–1930, New Delhi, 1999. ________, ‘Dharmavivechan: An Early 19th Century Rationalistic Reform Manifesto in Western India’ in V. D. Divekar (ed.), Social Reform Movements in India, Bombay, 1991. ________, ‘Early Anti-Caste Movement in Western India: The Paramahansa Sabha’, A Reprint from The Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bombay, Vols. 49–5.0–51/1974–75–76 (New Series). ________, ‘An Early Appraisal of the British Colonial Policy’, Journal of the University of Bombay, Arts Numbers 44–5, 81–82, 1975–76. ________, ‘The First Open Letters of Revolt against the British Colonial Policy’, a reprint from N. R. Ray (ed.), Western Colonial Policy, Vol. I, Calcutta, 1981.

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Bibliography  333 ________, ‘Forerunners of Dadabhai Naoroji’s Drain Theory’, EPW, Vol. XXXVI, No. 46–47, 24–30 Nov. 2001. ________, ‘Influence of Junius on the Anti-British Writings of Militant Nationalists’ in A. R. Kullkarni et al. (eds.), Medieval Deccan History: Commemoration Volume, Bombay, 1996. ________, ‘Mahatma Jotirao Phule: Crusade for Social Justice’, Indian History Congress, 65th Session, Bareilly, 2004. ________, ‘The Prarthana Samaj’ in S. P. Sen (ed.), Social Contents of Indian Religious Reform Movements, Calcutta, 1978. ________, ‘Ramkrishna Gopal Bhandarkar (1837–1925): The Man and His Mission’ in M. A. Nayeem et al. (eds.), Studies in History of the Deccan – Medieval and Modern, Delhi, 2002. ________, ‘The Reformer and the Quest for Social Justice in Indian History (with Special Reference to Renascent Maharashtra)’, General President’s Address, Indian History Congress, 67th Session, Kozhikode, 10–12 Mar 2007. ________, ‘The Seed Period of Bombay’s Intellectual Life, 1822–1857’ in Sujata Patel and Alice Thorner (eds.), Bombay: Mosaic of Modern Culture, Bombay, 1995. ________, ‘Social Reform Movements in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries in Maharashtra: A Critical Survey’ in S. P. Sen (eds.), Social Reform Movements in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Calcutta, 1979. Natarajan, S., ‘Maratha Uprising: 1875’ in A. R. Desai (ed.), Peasant Struggles in India, Bombay, 1979. Pande, G. C., ‘Reflections on the Indian Renaissance, Occasional Paper on History and Society’, NMML, New Series (Mimeographed), No. 33, New Delhi, 1990. Panikkar, K.  N., ‘Creating a New Cultural Taste: Reading a Nineteenth-Century Malayalam Novel’ in R. Champakalakshmi and S. Gopal (eds.), Tradition, Dissent and Ideology, New Delhi, 1996. ________, ‘Culture, Nationalism and Communal Politics’ in K. N. Panikkar et al. (eds.), The Making of History, New Delhi, 2000. ________, ‘Intellectual History of Colonial India – Introduction’, Studies in History, Vol. 3, No. 1, Jan.–June 1987 (Special Issue). ________, ‘The Intellectual History of Colonial India: Some Historiographical and Conceptual Questions’ in Sabyasachi Bhattacharya and Romila Thapar (eds.), Situating Indian History, Delhi, 1986. _________, ‘Presidential Address’ (Section III: Modern India), PIHC, 36th Session, Aligarh, 1975. ________, ‘Rationalism in the Religious Thought of Rammohan Roy’, PIHC, Vol. II, 34th Session, Chandigarh, 1973. ________, ‘Roots of Cultural Backwardness’, Mainstream, 7 Nov.  1981.

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334  Bibliography ________, ‘Socio-Religious Reforms and the National Awakening’ in Bipan Chandra et al., India’s Struggle for Independence 1857–1947, New Delhi, 1988. ________, ‘Was There a Renaissance’, Frontline, 11 Mar. 2011. Parandiker, Surekha, ‘Pandita Ramabai Saraswati (1858–1922)’ in Sushila Nayar and Kamla Mankekar (eds.), Women Pioneers in India’s Renaissance, New Delhi, 2009 (reprint). Pollock, Sheldon, ‘Is There an Intellectual History? Introduction to “Theory and Method in Indian Intellectual History”,’ published online, 5 Aug. 2008. Puntambekar, S. V., ‘Vishnu Bawa Brahmachari (1825–1871): An Utopian Socialist’, Indian Journal of Political Science, Vol. VI, No. 3, Jan.–Mar, 1945). Raeside, I.M.P., ‘Agarkar, Apte, and the Kanitkars’ in N. K. Wagle (ed.), Writers, Editors and Reformers: Social and Political Transformations of Maharashtra, 1830–1930, New Delhi, 1999. Saraswati, Baidyanath, ‘Notes on Kabir: A Non-literate Intellectual’ in S. C. Malik (ed.), Dissent, Protest and Reform in Indian Civilization, Simla, 1977. Sarkar, Sumit, ‘The Complexities of Young Bengal’, Nineteenth Century Studies, No. 4, Oct. 1973. ________, ‘The Radicalism of Intellectuals in a Colonial Situation: A Case Study of Nineteenth Century Bengal’, The Calcutta Historical Journal, Vol. II, No. 1, July–Dec. 1977. ________, ‘Rammohan Roy and the Break with the Past’ in V. C. Joshi (ed.), Rammohan Roy and the Process of Modernization in India, Delhi, 1975. Sen, Amiya P., ‘The Idea of Social Reform and Its Critique among Hindus of Nineteenth Century India’ in Sabyasachi Bhattacharya (ed.), Development of Modern Indian Thought and the Social Sciences, History of Science, Philosophy and Culture in Indian Civilization, Vol. X, Part-5 (General Editor D. P. Chattopadhyay), PHISPC, New Delhi, 2007. Tangri, Shanti S., ‘Intellectuals and Society in Nineteenth Century India’, Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. 3, 1960–1961. Thapar, Romila, ‘Ethics, Religion and Social Protest in the First Millennium b.c. in Northern India’ in S. C. Malik (ed.), Dissent, Protest and Reform in Indian Civilization, Simla, 1977. _________, ‘Imagined Religious Communities? Ancient History and the Modern Search for a Hindu Identity’, Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 23, 1989. Thorner, Daniel, ‘The Pattern of Railway Development in India’ in Ian J. Kerr (ed.), Railways in Modern India, Delhi, 2001. Tucker, Richard P., ‘Hindu Traditionalism and Nationalist Ideologies in Nineteenth Century Maharashtra’, Modern Asian Studies, 10, No. 3, July 1976.

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Bibliography  335 Tully, Mark, ‘A View of the History of Indian Railways’ in Roopa Srinivasan et al. (eds.), Our Indian Railways: Themes in India’s History, New Delhi, 2006. Victor, P. George, ‘Is Indian Philosophy – A Philosophy or Theology’, Sandhan, Journal of Centre for Studies in Civilizations, Vol. III, No. 2, July–Dec. 2008. Wagoner, Phillip B., ‘Pre-Colonial Intellectuals and the Production of Colonial Knowledge’, Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. 45, No. 4, Oct. 2003. Yamazaki, Toshio, ‘Justice K. T. Telang’ in Meera Kosambi (ed.), Intersections: Socio-Cultural Trends in Maharashtra, New Delhi, 2000. Zelliot, Eleanor, ‘The Maharashtrian Intellectual and Social Change: An Historical View’ in Yogendra Malik (ed.), South Asian Intellectuals and Social Change, New Delhi, 1982.

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Index

aesthetic movement, Europe 88 Agarkar 16, 38, 175, 271–2, 277, 282, 284, 288; age of consent 139–40; British rule 205, 225; caste 95, 96; child marriage 116; colonial rule 218–9; economic critique 225–7; enforced widowhood 123; female education 282; Hinduism 184; issues of equality and freedom 143, 145; morality 175, 225; rationality 170; Sudharak 58–9; Western civilisation 230 Age of Consent Bill 115, 138–9 age of consent, controversy 128–41 Akhandas (Phule) 12, 171 all-India nationalist ramification 54 Ambedkar, Babasaheb 8 Amchya Deshachi Sthiti (Chiplunkar) 53, 217 An Appeal from the Daughters of India (Malabari) 130, 132, 137 anglicisation 59, 231, 234 anti-Brahmanical issues 47–8 anti-caste consciousness 31, 96, 99 anti-colonialism 11, 64, 69, 216 anti-foreignism 53

Aristotle 17 asceticism 28, 35–6, 45–6 The Assalayana Sutta 29 Ati-Shudras 7, 42, 113, 147–8, 185, 257, 269, 273; in school 274; social equality and salvation 100 Barnett, S.J. 19 Bengal Renaissance 2–3 Bhaktas 31, 48, 179–80 Bhakti tradition 168, 173, 236; Dalit self-assertion 9; democratic tendencies in 35; in Maharashtra 51; Phule 47; Ranade 44–5; spirituorationalistic orientations 29–30 Bhandarkar: Bombay Provincial Social Conference 55–6; British beneficence 202; national awakening 55; Prarthana Samaj 38–40; rationalism 13; religious belief 172–3; Shastras 187–90 Bombay Durpun (Jambhekar) 89, 126, 199, 288 Bombay Gazette (Pandurang) 10, 212, 217 Bombay Provincial Social Conference 55–7, 63, 93, 94, 188, 293 Brahmanical order 146, 202

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338  Index Brahmin caste 8, 91, 93–6, 218 Brahmin reformers 8 Brahmo Samaj 8, 89 British rule 200, 305; disenchantment with 200; economic critique 219–28; intellectuals’ admiration 199; Pandurang, Bhaskar 206; Pandurang, Dadoba 206–7; Phule, Mahatma 200–1, 205, 207–8; positive image 210; Ranade 203, 208; Rationalists and Moderates 211–2 Buddhism 8, 28–9, 40, 41, 146– 7, 172–4, 185, 257 caste: Arya Brahma 103; Bhandarkar’s condemnation 90–2, 97, 98; Brahmin caste 91, 93–6, 218; Chandavarkar 94; Eleventh Indian National Social Conference 127; French Revolution of 1789 95–6; ­inter-caste marriage 92–3, 97; lower 92; Madras Hindu Social Reform Association 91; Manavdharma Sabha 98; Ninth Indian National Social Conference 92; Paramahansa Sabha 98–9; Phule, Mahatma 90, 95, 96–9; Presidential address at the Indian National Social Conference 93; rigid system of 92; social questioning 90–9; in Western India 90 caste-amalgamation 95 catholicism 34, 38, 45, 48, 168, 171, 193, 261, 268, 301, 307 Chaitanya 32, 46 Chandavarkar: age of consent controversy 136; Bombay Provincial Social Conference 57; caste 93–6; condition of

women 114; Conference and the Congress 240; education 59; enforced widowhood 118– 9, 122; individualism 259–60; Madras Hindu Social Reform Association 204; nationalist thoughts 56–7; nautch girls 127; political reform 64; Provincial Social Conference 57; reform 188–9; religious belief 171, 174–5; religious reform 177; revival 267–8; selfidentity 184; Wilson College Library Society 56 child marriage: issue of 115; Malabari view of 115–6; social questioning 114–7 child widows 115 Chintamani, C.Y. 92 Chiplunkar 14; Amchya Deshachi Sthiti 217; anti-foreignism 53; British rule 113, 206; sole exception 200 Christianity 20–1, 183, 186; colonial onslaughts 60; influence in Maharashtra 183 civilisation: definition 228 Code of Civil Procedure 132 colonialism 10, 11, 25, 205, 209, 212, 214–6, 222, 234, 235 colonial rule 304; condemnation of 10–11, 212–9; Indian economy under 224; Malabari 216; Pandurang, Bhaskar 214– 6; soul-searching critique 200 Conference in the Congress 236–43 Congress, Conference in 236–43 Consent controversy 66 Creative Pasts (Deshpande) 51 The Cry of Indian Women (Ramabai) 10, 149–52

Index  339

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cultural defense 60 cultural fusion 48 cultural movement, Europe 88 cultural revitalisation 307 culture: definition 228; Western 228, 231–5 Dalit movement in Maharashtra 9 Dalit scholarship 9 Deccan Education Society 236 Deen Bandhu 286 Deism 180 Denunciation 304 Descartes, Rene 19 Deshpande, Prachi 51 Dharmavivechan 90 Dharma-Vivechan (Pandurang) 11 Digdurshan 288 Divine dispensation theory 7 Dnyan Prakash 288 Dutch Culture System 225 Early Nationalists in modern Indian history 306 East India Company 182 economic critique 219–28 economy of India 24 education: Ati-Shudra 274; for female 281; Lokahitwadi 271; Phule, Mahatma 272–7; Ramabai, Pandita 272; Shudra 274; technical 285 Egalitarianism 34 enforced widowhood: Chandavarkar’s view of 118–9, 122–3; Hindu Widow Marriage Association 118; issue of 117; life of chastity 117; Madras Hindu Social Reform Association 123; Phule, Mahatma 118, 124; polygamous connections 121; Ramabai, Pandita 116, 119,

124; social questioning 117–24; Third Indian National Social Conference 120 Enlightenment: European Enlightenment 4, 18–19, 24, 37, 38; non-violence 25; rationality 5 equality issues 141–8 Europe: aesthetic movement 88; cultural movement 88 European Enlightenment 4, 18–19, 24, 37, 38 European modernity 305 European Renaissance 3, 18 Extremists 10, 61, 66–8 female education 281; Agarkar 282; Parmanand 282–3 Female Infanticide (Lokahitwadi) 12 fragmentation: cognitive 64, 66; integration vs. 61–72 freedom issues 141–148 French Revolution of 1789 95–6 Gandhi, Mohandas Karamchand 67–8, 72; Tilak and 225–6 gender-relations, critique of 9–10 Gokhale, Vishnu Bhikaji 183 Gokhale, G.K. 93 Gramsci’s concept 6 Great Britain 133; admiration/ collaboration 203, 206, 210; evolution of 210; inhabitants 202 Greek philosophy 17 Gulamgiri (Phule) 8, 12–13, 100 Hellenistic philosophy 17 The High-Caste Hindu Woman (Ramabai) 10, 116, 149–55, 149 Hindu belief system 178

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340  Index A Hindu Gentleman’s Reflections on the Writings of Swedenborg (Pandurang) 181 Hindu Protestant 43 Hindu religion 60, 181–7 Hindu society 42, 96, 114, 136, 189 Hindu Widow Marriage Association 118 House of Commons 209 humanism 7, 18, 95, 100 human reason 18 Ilbert Bill 208, 209 ill-assorted marriages 120 immanence, concept of 303 Inden, Ronald 22 Indian culture: defense 307; matrix 177 Indian National Social Conference 13, 14, 48, 114; in Allahabad 53; formation of 306–7; in Lahore 51; in Madras 41 Indian Penal Code 132, 133 Indian philosophy 302 Indian Political Economy 221 Indian Protestant reformers 179 Indian rationality: evolution of 302; intellectual tradition 301– 2; real watershed 313; secular dimensions 303 Indian Renaissance 88 Indian Revolt of 1857 201 indigenous belief systems 180 indigenous pre-British past 261–2 individualism, Chandavarkar 259–60 The Indu-Prakash 281 infanticide, social questioning 126 integration vs. fragmentation 61–72 intellection 6

intellectual fermentation: in Bengal 88; in Maharashtra 88 Intellectual perception of preBritish past 38–50 inter-caste marriage 92, 97 Jambhekar, G.G 89, 288; child marriage 114–5; child marriage issue 133; economic critique 219–20; enforced widowhood 117, 124; female infanticide 126; nautch girls 126; rigidity of caste 97; technical education 285 Jnaneshwar 30 Jones, Kenneth W. 50 Jordens, J.T.F. 54 Kabir 30–2 Kesari 288 legislation 289–92; vs. education 191 Liberate the Whole Man 94 Lokahitwadi 56; education issue 271; religious belief 176 lower caste 92 Madras Hindu Social Reform Association 91, 122–3, 204 Maharashtra: anti-caste consciousness 93; caste in 90–9; child marriage 114–7; Dalit movement in 9; enforced widowhood 117–24; equality issues 141–8; freedom issues 141–8; infanticide 126; intellectual fermentation 89; intellectual fraternity 93; intellectual movement in 303, 304; movements of national

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Index  341 importance 1–2; nautch girls 127; rationalist manifestation in 305; reformers in 231 Mahomedanism 44 The Mahratta 66, 69, 129, 134, 288 Malabari: age of consent 128–41; An Appeal from the Daughters of India 130; colonial connection 203–4; colonial rule, condemnation 214; Mahratta, The 129; Notes 289–91; view of child marriage 116 Manavdharma Sabha 98 Mandlik, V.N. 260, 272 Marriage Law 132 medievalism 304; indigenous system 305 medieval mysticism 31, 34–5 mental slavery 202 Middle Ages 18 Moderate nationalism 205 Moderates in Maharashtra 65–6, 70–2 modern education 68 modernity 304; European 305; Ranade 306; Western 307 Monogamy 125 monotheism 179–80 morality 251–2; Agarkar 255 Mughal period, cultural contribution 49 mystic movement in Maharashtra 46–7 Nana, Bhat 201 Nanak, mystic movement 46 Naoroji’s drain theory 213 national awakening 50–61 National Indian Association in England 204

nationalism: admiration 199–212; anti-colonial articulations 211; collaboration 199–212; colonial rule, condemnation 212–9; Conference in Congress 236–243; economic critique 219–28; during Rationalist phase 205–6; rise of 198; see also rationalism The Native Opinion 288 nautch girls: Chandavarkar’s view of 127; social questioning 126–28 Nibandhamala (Chiplunkar) 51, 53, 217, 218, 288 nineteenth-century Maharashtra: change and continuity 7; colonial rule 10–11; enforced widowhood 117–24; fervent attention in 143; gender relations, critique 9–10; integration vs. fragmentation 61–72; intellectual awakening in 1–2; intellectual formation in 210, 231; national awakening 50–61; national invigoration 2; nationalist ramification 54; patriotic project in 187; radical social restructuring 7–9; rational principles 26–38; rational reform 50–61; rational reverberations in 37–8; rational thinking 17–26; realisation 232; reason, in glorification 11–17; reformers 303; reform in 36; social regeneration 2; social self-correction 127; Western intellectual traditions 38–50 non-violence 25 Notes (Malabari) 289–91 Notes on Infant Marriages and Enforced Widowhood in India

342  Index (Malabari) 115, 128, 271, 289

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Organic intellectuals 6 Pandurang, Bhaskar 200; anticolonial venting 216; British rule 206; colonial rule 10–11, 214–6 Pandurang, Dadoba 11; British rule 206; Hindu belief system 178 Pan-Indianism 52 Paramahansa Sabha 98 Parmanand 14; female education 283; religious belief 173–4; religious perversions 178–9 patriotism 184, 218 Periyar, Dalit scholarship 9 persuasion and representation 269–70 Phule, Mahatma 7, 90, 95, 303; anti-Brahmanical issues 47–8; Brahmanism 178; British rule 200–1, 205, 207; Chiplunkar’s view of British rule 113; critique of caste 311; earnest plea to British Government 108; economic critique 221; enforced widowhood 119, 124; equality 112; freedom issue 143, 146–8; fulmination against Brahmanism 101; gender-relations, critique 9; Gulamgiri 12–13, 100; human rights/happiness 110; inequality 112; issue of women 141; notion of nation 58; polygamy 125; Priestcraft Exposed 104–5; primary education 272–8; radicalism 112, 312;

radical social restructuring 7–8; religious belief 171–2; Satyashodhak Samaj 8, 108, 111; Shetakaryacha Asud 100; social questioning 99–113; social restructuring 99 Plato 17 political ascendancy 222 political radicalism 66 political reform: Chandavarkar 64; Moderates in Maharashtra 65–6, 70–2; pre-Gandhian nationalism 68; Ranade 62; Telang 61; Tilak 69 polygamy 263–4; enforced widowhood 114; Phule, Mahatma 125; social questioning 124–25 polytheism 178 Prabhakar 288 Prarthana Samaj 38–40, 46; in 1867 191–2; guiding principles 99 Pre-British past, intellectuals’ perception of 38–50 pre-Gandhian nationalism 68 Presidential address at the Bombay Provincial Social Conference 93 Presidential address at the Indian National Social Conference: at Allahabad 114; at Poona 92, 121 Presidential speech at the Ninth Indian National Social Conference 310 Priestcraft Exposed (Phule) 100, 104 primary education: Phule, Mahatma 272–3; Ranade 278 Protestant Hinduism 39, 43

Index  343

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Provincial Social Conference at Satara 240 radicalism, Phule, Mahatma 112 Ramabai, Pandita 9, 156; Cry of Indian Women, The 149–52; education issue 272; enforced widowhood 116, 119, 124; equality issues 141–8; freedom issues 141–8; High-Caste Hindu Woman, The (Ramabai) 116, 149–55; Hinduism 185; of Indian widowhood 119; rationalist orientation of 15; religious formalism 172; Stri Dharma Niti 149–56 Ramadasa 33 Ranade, M.G. 14; Bhaktas 179– 80; Bhakti tradition 44; blind adherence 89; British rule 203, 208; Conference and the Congress 239–41; cultural fusion 48; economic critique 221; efficacy of moderation 311; Eleventh Indian National Social Conference 89; enforced widowhood 121–2; first Bombay Provincial Social Conference 63; First Industrial Conference 221; Hindu Union Club 62; Indian National Social Conference 282; indigenous pre-British past 262–3; infant marriage 115–6; language of reform 188; modernity 306; Mughal period 49; mystic movement 45; national awakening 52; nautch girls 127; Ninth Indian National Social Conference 89, 93; political reform 62–3; polygamous alliance 125; primary education 278–79;

Provincial Social Conference at Satara 240; religious belief 174; religious sensibilities of people 179; revival 266; Sixth Indian National Social Conference 309; sixth Indian National Social Conference 62; Tenth Indian National Social Conference 127; theism 180–1; Theist 170; Third Indian National Social Conference 137; Twelfth Indian National Social Conference 127 rationalism 3–4, 192, 193; admiration 199–212; anticolonial articulations 211; in Bengal 1; Bhandarkar 13; collaboration 199–212; colonial rule, condemnation 212–9; Conference in Congress 236–243; culture vs. civilisation 228–36; economic critique 219–28; Enlightenment 4–5; in indian intellectual tradition 192–3; Indian tradition 286–7; in nineteenth century 1, 198; during Rationalist phase 205–6 Rationalist phase 61 rational principles: anti-caste consciousness 31–3; asceticism 35; Buddhism 28–9; medieval mysticism 31, 34–5; in preBritish India 26; secular modernity 30; Shastraic knowledge 27 rational reform 50–61 rational thinking: European Enlightenment 18–19; European Renaissance 18; Greek philosophy 17; Hellenistic philosophy 17

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344  Index reason: Agarkar 16–7; analytical category of 3–4; Chiplunkar 14; Female Infanticide 12; in glorification of 11–17; Gulamgiri 12–13; Ranade 14; and religion 5, 168–93; Sudharak 16 reform in nineteenth century 36 Reign of Law 208 religion: importance and essentiality of 170; in social reform 176; and society 176 religious: belief 169; formalism 172; practices of people 178; sensibilities of people 179; social contents of 178–81 remarriage 48 representation, persuasion and 269–70 Revolt of 1857 8 Rise and Growth of Economic Nationalism in India, The (Chandra) 205 Sarvajanik Satyadharma Pustak (Phule) 8 sati 48 Satyashodhak Samaj 8, 108, 111, 133–4, 201, 288 Scottish Mission in Poona 201 scriptural support for reforms 187–93 secular education: Mandlik 288; Telang 286–8 self-identity 183–4, 307 self-realisation 199 self-reliance 144 self-seeking Brahmins 187 self-strengthening 199 Sen, Keshab Chandra 186 sense of disillusionment 208 Servants of India Society 211

Shastraic injunctions 190 Shastraic knowledge 27 Shatapatre 91 Sheko, Dara 48 Shetakaryacha Asud (Phule) 8, 100 Shivaji 50 Shudras 7, 42, 113, 147–8, 185, 257, 269, 273; in school 274; social equality and salvation 100 social changes, product of 314 social conservatism 66 Social History of India (Chintamani) 92 social questioning 88; age of consent controversy 128–41; caste 90–9; child marriage 114–7; enforced widowhood 117–24; equality issues 141–8; freedom issues 141–8; infanticide 126; nautch girls 126–8; Phule, Mahatma 99–113; polygamy 124–5; Ramabai, Pandita 149–56; of women 114 social reform 23, 24, 39, 50, 53, 55, 56, 58, 61, 63, 66, 69–71, 225, 227, 237–41, 254, 259, 291, 311 Social Reform Association at Mangalore 15 social restructuring 100 Sociocultural reform 1 socio-religious perversions 303 Socrates 17 soul-searching critique 200 Spinoza, Baruch 19 spiritual salvation 302 State Legislation in Social Matters 208

Index  345

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Stri Dharma Niti (Ramabai) 10, 15, 149–50 The Subodh Patrika 288 Sudharak 289 Tagore: White Lotus 9 Telang 15, 230; admiration/ collaboration 203–4; British rule 237–8; political reform 61; reformers 192; secular education 287–8; sense of disillusionment 208; social reformer 236–7; votary of reform 123 theism 180 Theist 170 Tilak: and Gandhi 255; nationalism 53; political reform 61; rationalism and nationalism 204, 209, 217, 219, 226–8, 236–43; rational reform 69; social questioning 129, 134, 136, 137, 139, 140, 141, 145 Trinitarianism 182 Tritiya Ratna 178

Tuhafat-ul-Muwahhiddin (Rammohan Roy) 88 Tukaram, Egalitarianism 34 Untouchables’ Apologia, The (Phule) 103 Upadesh-Chandrika 185 Utilitarianism 4 The Vajrasuchi 29 Vedic social life 303, 305 Vedic times, women in 265 Vedic tradition 27 Vedism 187 Vidokta Dharmaprakash in 1859 183 A Warning (Phule) 201 Western culture 186–7, 231–235 Western modernity 307 White Lotus (Tagore) 9 widow marriage, in Poona 117 Widow Remarriage Association 312 women: social questioning of 114; in Vedic times 265