DECOLONIZING RESEARCH METHODOLOGIES

Can Hindus study Hinduism critically or are they regarded as naive and non-critical because they see themselves as Hindus? These questions were the essence of a recent webinar discussion that focused on the persistent perception in the academia that Hindus cannot critically analyze and describe their own epistemology and hence intervention, followed by re-interpretation, by the Western academic scholars is needed. Western methods of “studying” Hinduism and other Dharmic cultures and traditions, are invariably based on the presumed notion of a primitive nature of their objects of study. This primitiveness has become an unquestionable first principle, through the ordering of cultures and civilizations on a scale of development, promoted by enlightenment era thinkers. Hinduism’s ‘ancientness’ cannot be disputed, and since ancientness connotes primitiveness automatically in the western paradigm, contemporary Hindus get automatically labelled, as ‘ancient’, ‘uncritical’ and ‘naïve’ i.e., they have not yet attained the so-called critical consciousness of the West. This was the argument of the colonial era, which justified systematic plunder of India, in the name of a civilizing mission.

This inherent bias entrenched in academia and the resulting adverse assessments and judgements cast on Hinduism from this research methodology have remained unquestioned for too long. The argument is also used to exclude Hindus from the domain of academic studies of Hinduism unless they too embrace the western paradigm of casting Hinduism as primitive. Ethnography, as a method of research, has too often been used, and continues to be used to portray ‘primitivity’ in its exotic and graphic detail. The question is, can this be changed? Can ethnography, which has been a formal subject area, itself be transformed so as to potentially rectify the issue at hand? Are there good ethnographic studies that can counter bad ethnographic studies and rectify the errors of the past? Or is the method of ethnography itself fundamentally flawed?

Webinar Recap

“The ways in which scientific research is implicated in the worst excesses of colonialism remains a powerful remembered history for many of the world’s colonized peoples. It is a history that still offends the deepest sense of our humanity.1”

In this webinar Decolonizing Research Methodologies, Dr. Indu Viswanathan and Kalyan Viswanathan discuss the problem of research methodologies practiced by most of the academia today in the west and in westernized institutions in Bharat. In this paradigm, Hindu researchers who are practicing members of their denomination somehow are presumed to not have the authority (i.e., adhikara) to study their own traditions and cultures due to the presumptive loss of subject-object distinction along with loss of objectivity. This provides an immense latitude for projection of an Etic perspective on the culture under investigation, and to place itself in a privileged vantage point that then describes the Hindu cosmology as primitive, stagnant, and hierarchical and oppressive. This outmoded form of research can trace its origins to colonial times, when the west was convinced about its unassailable superiority, culturally, economically, religiously, and militarily. But this method largely continues to be in play today.

Currently, all the disciplines of social sciences and humanities in the westernized universities are based on knowledge produced and epistemic privilege assumed by researchers from just five countries2: England, France, Germany, Italy and USA. The provincial ideas developed by this group on various subjects leading up to philosophy have been universalized to become the lens through which every other culture and tradition has been studied by them. This model has become pervasive and entrenched in academia over time. However, recent trends in studies in decolonization suggest that scholars from indigenous and non-dominant communities are beginning to question the validity of the prevailing methods and in fact, are starting to redefine the methods of research too. As an example of this perspective shift, Dr. Viswanathan pointed out even though Native Americans in the US are much smaller in number today, they have collectively made significant progress in their ability to articulate and advocate for changes to the ways their communities are studied and reported.

There is also a gap between the way practicing Hindus and the broader academia view our ancient texts. Hindus tend to revere the extensive body of knowledge and insights generated by its peoples and various sampradayas and these are incorporated in daily life in multitude forms. On the other hand, academia tends to view the same texts through the lens of ‘primitivity’ to downright irrelevance to modernity. The power of influence from current academia might seem formidable, but Dr. Viswanathan offered actionable suggestions for the Hindu community to consider.

1. Question Etic scholarship about its research efforts – methods, motives, reporting formats and use of research findings.
2. Investigate and question how data has been used in particular ways to develop a narrative and explore ways to reclaim the data and its meanings.
3. Dedicate time and effort in understanding what it means to be a member of the indigenous (minority) community. Liberate oneself from the clutches of perceived metrics of success and re-cast them in innovative and more meaningful ways.
4. Establish a review body consisting of interested and Emic individuals that can develop parameters for acceptable data collection protocols that are lawful, transparent, and respectful of the subjects. This review body should also have the authority to call out work standard violations committed by scholars.

Dr. Viswanathan advocated for increases in scholarship endeavor encompassing research and publication activities across disciplines such as education, ethnography, and media. When skillfully done, the authentic Emic based work will help, over time, drive tangible changes to the current colonial era-based perceptions to a more authentic, truthful representation of the Hindu cosmology.

Herein lies a great opportunity provided by the HUA platform, that is being developed by a solid group of scholars who have demonstrated their originality of thought and deep commitment to high-quality academic work. Is it not time, for the Hindu community to not just recognize this problem and provide an Emic perspective within the framework of academic research, but pave the pathway for reclaiming both their agency and their narrative, about themselves and their culture.

The webinar recording can be found here: Webinar Replay.

For more information about HUA, visit https://hua.edu.

References

1. Linda Tuhiwai Smith (2021), Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples (Zed Books, Kindle edition), Introduction.

2. Grosfoguel, Ramón (2013) “The Structure of Knowledge in Westernized Universities: Epistemic Racism/Sexism and the Four Genocides/Epistemicides of the Long 16th Century,” Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge: Vol. 11: Iss. 1, Article 8. Available at: http://scholarworks.umb.edu/humanarchitecture/vol11/iss1/8.

The post Decolonizing Research Methodologies appeared first on Hindu University of America.

The Aryan Invasion Theory (AIT), which subsequently morphed into the Aryan Migration Theory (AMT) due to compelling evidence negating the invasion hypothesis has also run against factual headwinds (Danino 2016). These developments, however, have not prevented the misinterpretation and eventual misuse in political discourse of a convenient narrative for the supposedly marginalized groups to rise up, and reject the invaders and their ideologies in order to establish a secular society free from “Aryan influences.” This is also the prevailing leftist and Marxist-influenced academic view and it remains a dominant narrative in Indian schools even today: “As such, it has long been used to neatly divide India into dichotomous categories such as North and South Indians, Aryans and Dravidians, the fair-skinned and the dark-skinned, ‘high castes’ and ‘Dalits’, all of these binaries representing the classic division between the privileged and the oppressed.” (Chavda 2017).

However, evidence-based reinterpretations are increasingly providing an alternative and increasingly authentic version of Indian or Hindu history, and more importantly, a new narrative on South India or Tamil Nadu itself. There is a compelling body of archaeological, epigraphy, and literary evidence that instead suggests a concurrent, not separate, development of the South Indian/Tamil culture along with the original and indigenous Vedic culture. The notion of ‘Aryan vs. Dravidian’ is now becoming “speculative at best and resides in the domain of conjecture.” (TCP 2016).

Pioneering work by Dr. Ramachandran Nagaswamy, a historian, epigraphist who has specialized in deciphering and interpreting inscriptions in Tamil and Sanskrit from artifacts throughout Tamil Nadu, has helped amplify this relatively recent revision of history (TAA 2020). His lifelong work has led to the creation of verifiable data and supporting evidence that distills a realistic and credible version of history that questions and even negates the prevailing views about Tamil Nadu, its history, and its culture. This article attempts to provide a brief summary of Dr. Nagaswamy’s book (Nagaswamy 2016) based on published reviews as well as video materials available online (Nagaswamy 2020).

Dr. Nagaswamy’s book, Tamil Nadu, the Land of the Vedas, is a scholarly work presented in twenty chapters covering Vedic life, devotional, philosophical, and worldly literature, inscriptions, shastras, and records of kings and their administrations. It establishes that Tamil is one of the oldest classical and regional languages of India with a history that can be traced to the 2nd or 3rd century BCE. Subsequent to that period, Tamil has continued its development along dialectical and cultural lines.

Dr. Nagaswamy shows how the Vedas served as the principal basis for the administrations of the various rulers and kings in Tamil Nadu. Placing emphasis on native knowledge and daily life, the administrators blended both Tamil and Sanskritic values and traditions. This perspective, verifiable by available documents, challenges the prevailing myth that Tamil Nadu developed independently from the rest of India.

The book uses a wide variety of evidence such as written records from administrations under the Ceraņ, Cōḻaņ, Pallavā, and Pāṇḍya kings. The author establishes that these rulers traced their genealogies to well-known names in the Mahābhārata and Rāmāyaṇa. The Cerās considered themselves descendants of the Yādavas (to which Śrī Kṛṣṇa belongs), the Cholās descendants of Rāma, Pallavās descendants of Droṇa, and Pāṇḍyās descendants of Arjuna. This line of associations suggests linkages to the concurrent lives of the South Indian rulers to the Mahābhārata protagonists who were based in the northern part of the land.

Of particular importance is that Dr. Nagaswamy relies on records from the Sangam period, which is considered to be between the 3rd century BCE and the 3rd century CE. It has been named after the Sangam academies which flourished during that era under the royal patronage of the Pāṇḍya kings of Madurai. At these sangams, scholars gathered to discuss and debate literary works. Major contributions to Tamil literature from this period include Tolkāppiyam, Eṭṭuttokai, Pattuppāṭṭu, Patiṉeṇkīḻkaṇakku, Cilappatiāram and Maṇimekalai (Dikshitar 1941).

Dr. Nagaswamy’s book further explains that the kings under the four dynasties mentioned above not only studied the Vedas and the Dharmaśātras but also performed sacrifices and rituals as prescribed in the Vedas (presumably the Yajur Veda) and made generous contributions for the upholding of Vedic and Dharmic values. Records contain references to specific yagnas such as Hiraṇya-garbha, Tulābhāra, Gosahasra, Bahusuvarṇa, Rājasūya, and Aśvamedha.

In addition, the society under the South Indian dynasties was organized according to the principles of Vedic dharma. The Brahmaṇas helped the kings in judicial and financial administrations. The Vanigas (Vaiśyas) oversaw trade, and the vellalas developed agriculture and were the principal government revenue administrators. Interestingly, the Brahmanas, Kṣatriyas, Vanigas, vellalas studied the Vedas and nearly 80% of the population studied the functional/practical aspects of the Vedas. In other words, South Indian people lived a life based on Vedic frameworks. The Patiṟṟuppattu poems point out that the ancient Tamil kings studied Vedas, Vedāṅga, and performed daily Vedic rites mentioned as Pañcamahāyagña in Vedic tradition. Avvaiyār, the greatest poet of the Sangam age, praises the three crowned Tamil kings for performing Vedic sacrifices. In birth, marriage, and death rites, the ancient Tamils followed Vedic injunctions. The kings appointed Vedic scholars as their chief ministers and presented them with lands called “Brahmadeyas.” Trade, both internal and international, was conducted by the Vanigas and there are several references in the records from the kingdoms about transactions with the Romans. The Cholās recognized that the country was mainly based on a rural economy and therefore entrusted the revenue administration of the village to the Muvendavelars—the officers who belonged to the agrarian family of the Vellalas. The Cholā kings established several Nallur as exclusive cultivators’ villages in addition to Brahmadeyas of Vedic Brāhmaṇas. It is also seen that it was the duty of the Brāhmaṇas to interpret the law for the benefit of the villagers (Nagaswamy 2016, 2020).

According to a book review published in The Hindu newspaper, “[w]ars in ancient Tamil country were fought according to tenets of the Dharma Śāstra, where battles with armies happened only as a last resort when individual combat failed. Moving to bhakti literature, the chapters look in detail as to how the inner message of the Shaivite and Vaishnavaite hymns is consonant with the message of the Upanishads that self-realization in thought and deed is the ultimate form of reaching freedom from this endless cycle of births and deaths” (Hindu 2017).

From a performing arts perspective, Tamil literature includes music and dance traditions that are based on Bharata’s Nāṭya Śāstra. It is also suggested that the Tamil grammar work Tolkāppiyam is a derivative of Nāṭya Śāstra. One of the most important of all Tamil works, the Tirukkuṟaḷ composed by Thiruvalluvar, has been assigned to the 1st century BCE period. This pioneering work is virtually a reflection of Dharmaśāstras. In a separate book (Nagaswamy 2017), Dr. Nagaswamy demonstrates that Thirukkural is derived from the Hindu Vedic tradition: the former imitates the latter’s śāstras as well as its fundamental outlook of Dharmic life including artha, kāma, dharma, and mokṣaa. Thiruvalluvar also talks about the pañcamahāyajña—the five daily offerings every human must make—that are also mentioned in the Dharmaśāstras. Reverence to ancestors through worship was also very popular and the various rituals and practices were performed according to Vedic principles.

In a separate and concurrent work by David Shulman (Shulman 2016), the Tamil language and the associated culture has been found to have had deep roots in south India and certainly the case before the AIT narratives were proposed. Recounting a story about the great sage Agastyar, who is the author of the first formal text on Tamil grammar, Agattiyam, that served the early poets in the Sangam period, Śiva himself endowed Agastyar with knowledge of Tamil grammar before he was sent southward to balance the earth.

Dr. Nagaswamy’s extensive findings fundamentally challenge the prevailing but increasingly questionable framework that asserts the development of an independent non-Bhāratīya Dravidian culture in Tamil Nadu. Dr. Nagaswamy has presented compelling evidence based on the epigraphical wealth of Tamil Nadu to show that the region has always been the Land of the Vedas. With this type of deep research and re-interpretation possible today, it is high time Hindu historical research evolves to re-interpret our collective history first and then re-educate the world based on evidence.

This article is an adaptation of a term paper submitted for the course “Reconstructing Hindu History: The Omissions,” taught by Dr. Raj Vedam.

References

Chavda, Abhijit., The Aryan Invasion Myth: How 21st Century Science Debunks 19th Century Indology. https://indianinterest.com/history/the-aryan-invasion-myth-how-21st-century-science-debunks-19th-century-indology/debunks-19th-century-indology/. Accessed May 2017.

Danino, M., Aryans and the Indus Civilization. In A Companion to South Asia in the Past (eds G.R. Schug and S.R. Walimbe). https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119055280.ch13. 2016

Dikshitar, V. R. Ramachandra, and V. R. Ramchandra Dikshitar. “THE SANGAM AGE.” Proceedings of the Indian History Congress 5 (1941): 152–61. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44304708.

Nagaswamy, R., Tamil Nadu the Land of Vedas. Chennai: Tamil Arts Academy, 2016.

Nagaswamy, R., Tirukkural, An Abridgement of Sastras. Chennai: Tamil Arts Academy and Giri Trading Agency, 2017.

Nagaswamy, R., Tamil Nadu and the Vedas (By Padma Bhushan Dr. R. Nagaswami). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e49F52JOdwY. Accessed June 2020.

Shulman, David., Tamil. Cambridge, MA and London, England: Harvard University Press, 2016. https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674974678

Tamil Arts Academy (TAA). https://tamilartsacademy.com/aboutrn.html. Accessed January 2020.

Tamizh Cultural Portal (TCP). Tolkappiyar, Ilango, and Bharata. https://tamizhportal.org/2016/03/tolkappiyar-ilango-and-bharata-part-1-sivam-illaiyendral-sakthi-illai-sakthi-illaiyendral-sivam-illai/. Accessed March 2016.

The Hindu, Vedic route to the past. https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-fridayreview/Vedic-route-to-the-past/article14397341.ece1. fridayreview/Vedic-route-to-the-past/article14397341.ece1. May 2017.

The post Tamil Nadu – Intertwined with Vedic History appeared first on Hindu University of America.

A personal reflection of a born-Hindu, who rediscovered his roots after drifting away; and is now determined to learn more and spread the knowledge.

A Story of Personal Learning

Introduction

The tension between the insider-outsider narratives and the ubiquity of the default paradigm (as I have understood from Kalyan’s lectures) have profoundly impacted me. It has catalyzed a re-ordering of my personal priorities, opened up my thinking, and is enabling me to better understand my formative years. It is prodding me to define a road map for a re-discovery of my own culture and history, and I feel a surprisingly strong calling to utilize whatever worldly skills I have developed for a greater cause.

In September 2019, I joined HUA’s email distribution list. The periodicity of the emails informing me of webinars and learning opportunities worked as subliminal ticklers to “wake up” and look deeper. For almost a year this was the case, until I was galvanized by the announcement of Dr. Kannikeswaran’s course on comparative study of Indian/Western music traditions. As a graduate student in the early 1990s, I had known Dr. Kannikeswaran in Cincinnati. Upon learning about his 3-quarter HUA course, coupled with my superficial but sticky interest in śāstriya sangīt, I enrolled in it and joined the HUA network. After the very first session, I felt a deep sense of mental relief, hope and curiosity, which I will now explain.

Retrospective

I hail from a typical middle-class, south Indian brahmin family, with deep connections to Sanskrit. My paternal grandfather (born in 1898) became a lawyer, served in the Madras High Court under the British, and subsequent to independence, developed and maintained an exalted status among his peers and clients. My grandparents were pious Hindu brahmins, very orthodox, bound by rules, traditions, and exhausting discipline in life matters. Their first child, my father (born in 1928), became proficient in math and took up insurance as his profession. He spent a few initial years of his career outside India, and took a liking to many Western ideals. Until his last few years, I have little recollection of talking about the greatness of Hinduism with both my parents; my mother was a bit more vocal about our heritage. I cannot claim associated memories of my grandparents talking about the greatness of Hindu traditions and philosophies either, but only recollect watching our joint family weighed down by rules and formalities that did not mean much to me. As a teenager with friends from varied backgrounds, I do remember feeling rebellious as I could neither understand topics such as heritage and culture, nor did I possess the wits to generate deep conversations to understand Hinduism. Perhaps the default paradigm constrained an open and honest exploration of our true history and culture?

Even though we were insiders, the glory of our heritage was not evident in my conversations with family elders. There were almost no discussions about the destructive period of history when Europe hoarded India’s treasures—both material and intellectual—but only heard about the atrocities committed by the Muslim invaders. I internalized very little of the Hindu world view as this topic was not part of family conversations. I never felt proud as a Hindu, did not take pride in speaking in my mother tongue (Tamil), and had the view that learning Sanskrit was a waste of time, as it would not help with my future. I rejected most things Indian and became eager to discover a new world, as I was not aware of a compelling vision of a Hindu life. It was all going to be the western way of life. Looking back and analyzing my past, I can only conclude that my family was perhaps under the spell of colonial aftershocks; and interestingly, no one appeared to be bothered by it. I wonder whether my ancestors felt a loss of Hindu adhikāratvam, and could not articulate or respond to any of the causal factors responsible for this sense of loss. As Mahatma Gandhi wrote, “The English have not taken India; we have given it to them”; this is no understatement it seems.

Despite the environment, for reasons I am still discovering, I was drawn to the local Ramakrishna Mission, which I would visit frequently with my best friend. I also found myself attending lectures by Swami Dayananda Saraswati – I did not understand his teachings, but his discourses were captivating. I wonder whether those were the preparatory events for my current journey. On a parallel track, my mind was conjuring up the vision of a better life outside India, especially in the US, and it was further enforced by the broader community vision of a better life anywhere but India. I found myself in Cincinnati to pursue my graduate study in electrical engineering. I bet I am not the only one with this experience set. Interestingly, my interest in our roots only grew deeper, especially after my father’s passing, and several subsequent events have continued to push me further on a spiritual quest. 

Current Evolution

Fast forward to the present – at HUA, listening to Dr. Kannikeswaran’s weekly commentaries on not just śāstriya sangīt, but its evolution shaped by broader societal events, hearing speakers in the weekly webinars, and more recently absorbing Kalyan’s illuminating sessions on Hindu Studies, I find myself reinvigorated to re-explore the Hindu past. A simple question “Are you a Hindu?” that I encountered in the initial readings has made me realize the stunning hypocrisy of my early years. That is, even as a born insider, I had no conviction on Hinduism, but instead chose – willingly or otherwise – to remain confused about it – wanting to love and celebrate it but could not find support. Needless to say, my perspectives on the world and Hinduism specifically have morphed considerably over the years, and burning questions such as “how did all this happen, and why did the Hindu community collectively fall under the spell of the colonists?” take up more thought bandwidth. I feel ready to redefine myself and look at history as a beginner. 

The question now for me is what is next, and how do I go about it? I asked myself, is it just a select few these revelations come about to? What about my peers? To find out, I reached out to my college network and asked my friends about their views on the current narratives on India/Hinduism. Out of the 85+ whom I queried, just about 4 responded, and among them 3 suggested that while they agree we were not fully informed, revisiting our history would be futile. They would rather not engage in any discussion on this topic for fear of re-igniting passions. So, it was just one of my friends and I who are apparently feeling the need to re-learn the past correctly. I wonder whether the outsider narrative has established itself so deeply that changes within the educated group are near impossible? This remains an open question, but I also happen to believe that change begins from within. To the extent I put in the time to understand and equip myself to help drive the insider narrative to family and friends, and assuming others take a similar approach, perhaps there will be reason to hope for a better outcome? Additionally, perhaps we (insiders) now have enough structure in content and frameworks with critical mass to help even the cynics become receptive to the possibility of changes to the default paradigm? I see hope for a more open debate in the spirit of shraddhA.

My renewed mission is to re-learn our past and get closer to the truth – not just for intellectual curiosity, but for a fundamental desire to at least help open my children’s minds and anyone else’s who would care to listen to a “born-again” insider’s narratives. But before I embark on that journey, I need to equip myself with the right set of facts, the interconnectedness of them, understanding the truth, and an ability to discuss and debate using appropriate terminologies. For that, I look to HUA for guidance and counsel.

Closing Thoughts

I want to believe that our ancestors did what they could to preserve our heritage and it would be unfair to lay the blame on them for our current predicament. I am grateful to them for enabling us to at least have the conversation today about our collective past and debate about the future. Towards that, I understand that rewriting existing paradigms will take time – a few decades perhaps? To persuade cynical insiders, skeptical outsiders and everyone else in between to see the validity of our approaches will require sustained effort both in terms of intellectual firepower and strategy. I resolve to do my part in whatever way possible to help with this historic community endeavor.

I am so grateful to HUA and its affiliated platforms for their leadership and courage to help Hindus understand what is at stake here. I am humbled to be part of HUA and I now feel proud to label myself a Hindu! HUA, you have enabled this change in my perspective and for that I will be eternally thankful.

Let our sankalpā to revive the insider narrative be successful, offered to Dharma itself, and may the brilliance of India’s intellectual heritage be our guru.

Image Credit: Congerdesign from Pixabay

The post A Story of Personal Learning appeared first on Hindu University of America.