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Ayothee Dasa Pandithar’s Buddhism
Ayothee Dasa’s Buddhism is not a neo-Buddhism. He prominently uses two
words Purathanam and Noothanam (II, 117), meaning ancient-original and
new-mysterious, and claims that his Buddhism is the original or
Purathanic. He has his words of condemnation against the Noothana
Buddhism or neo-Buddhism. Pandithar is very much traditional and his
Buddhism is mostly constructed from the ancient Tamil and Pali texts.
Pandithar had learnt the Pali language and he was able to read and write
Pali. His masterly Buddhist work, Adhi Vedham, (G. Aloysius (ed.) 1999:
II, 185-420) contains many Pali quotes, their Tamil translations and
the Tamil equals from Thirukkural and other Tamil works. He quotes a lot
from various Tamil manuscripts available only to the traditional
scholars, often only to him. Modern day scholars miserably fail to
identify many of the ancient Tamil texts (possibly manuscripts in palm
leaves) quoted by Ayothee Dasa Pandithar. Consequently, the Buddhism
Pandithar represents is very much away from the known versions of
Buddhism in English or in Sanskrit. Pandithar even criticizes those who
construct Buddhism from English translated sources. One can find the
earliest post colonial critique of orientalist writings on Buddhism in
Ayothee Dasa Pandithar’s writings (II, 186). In this sense, Buddhism of
Pandithar is unique of its kind. From the Pali sources., Ayothee Dasa
tries to reach the most nearest original meaning of Buddhist philosophy.
For Ayothee Dasa Pandithar, Buddhism is the biggest and highly original
grand narrative of ancient Indian culture. Buddhism represents the
casteless and classless social culture and ethos of ancient India which
has determined the entire course of development of the religious culture
of the country. The latter religions of India had either inherited or
distorted the religious thought of Buddhism in the future course of
development. Ayothee Dasa intelligently gleans out the original message
of Buddhism even from the distorted texts of latter religions. He quotes
elaborately from Tamil Saivite and Siddha texts to dig out the latent
Buddhist message from those texts. Apart from this, he abundantly quotes
from the Jaina literary and ethical treatises of ancient Tamil erasing
the boundaries between Jainism and Buddhism, often calling them together
as the Shramana texts. At times, one feels that Ayothee Dasa Pandithar
is trying to construct a grand narrative of Buddhism that would include
not only Jainism but also the Saivite, Vaishnavite and Siddha thoughts
of Indian tradition, particularly the Tamil tradition.
Pandithar
enumerates the innumerable names of Buddha such as Buddha, Baghavan, God
(Kadavul and Andavan in Tamil), Vinayaka, Kumaraguru, Murugan, Mayon,
Brahman, Sivan, Dhakshanamurthy, Satthan, Gopalan, Govindhan, Sankaran,
Jagnnathan, Purushotthaman, Indiran etc (II, 17-18, II, 111, II, 121,
II, 67). As it may be guessed, many of the names attributed here to
Buddha came to be known as the names of Siva and Vishnu independently
afterwards. Some of the names are of the Tamil native Gods (II, 69).
However, Ayothee Dasa has his own justifications to attribute them to
Lord Buddha. Pandiithar argues that many religious symbols such as
Chakra or yogic postures have originally hailed from Buddhism latter to
be appropriated by Vaishnaviam and Saivism. The Tamil historians have
brought out innumerable episodes of Saivite and Vaishnavite
appropriation of Buddhist and Jain temples. The ancient name of the
country is Indira Desam and its God is Indira or Buddha himself and its
religion is Buddhism (II, 116-117), according to Pandithar. Many
so-called Hindu festivals such as Sankaranthi, Thirukarthikai,
Deepavali, Ayutha Puja etc find rational explanations in the hands of
Ayothee Dasa Pandithar and their foundations are said to be associated
with Buddhism (II, 53, 45, 47). The origin of Tamil language too and
composition of its grammar and standardization etc again are related to
Buddhism, asserts Ayothee Dasa. Pandithar wisely associates his thoughts
on Buddhism with the traditional classification of Tamil landscapes
into Kurinji, Mullai, Marutham, Neythal and Palai (II, 383-388). And
finally, sociologically, the ancient Buddhists were casteless
Dravidians. Pandithar appealed to the British Government to register the
Dalits of the region as casteless Dravidians in their census records.
Ayothee Dasa’s construction of Buddhism contains a strong moment of
inclusivism in the sense that Buddhism is foundational to all religious
thought of ancient India and even comprises many of the concepts and
practices attributed afterwards to Saivism and Vaishnavism. The
inclusive approach of Pandithar is comparable to the Vedantic or Vedic
exclusivism constructed by Brahma Samaj and Arya Samaj intellectuals of
the same period. The Vedic thinkers tried to emulate the monism of
western philosophies or the monotheism of Christian theology and
attempted to show, above all, the western world that their philosophies
are in no way less abstract and rational in comparison to the western
ways of doing philosophy. Internally, willingly or unwillingly, they
tried to focus the Brahmanic thought as the most ancient, native and
developed form of Indian thought. At the social level, it meant that the
Brahmins are the elite of India. In their attempts of such an
exclusiveness, they utterly neglected and disregarded the Buddhist
religion and philosophy that are widespread among many Asian countries
and were having the most developed conceptual and logical apparatus.
Pandithar’s construction of a Buddhist grand narrative is also
comparable to Arumuga Navalar’s way of dealing with Saivism. As it has
been mentioned above, Navalar’s Saivism is orthodox and narrow. It
excluded so many components that were available in the practice of
Saivism at the actual level. Pandithar travels in the opposite
direction. He responded to the general condition of the times that
demanded expansion of identity or merging of identities. In the case of
Ramalinga, we noticed that the idea of Sanmargam was inclusive and
expanding to casteless, religionless and genderless sphere. Although
Ayothee Dasa’s attempt was different, however, he moves towards an
inclusive realm where caste does not make a mark. His concept of
‘casteless Dravidians’ itself is an expansion of identity with a social
demand. Ayothee Dasa appealed to the British census authorities that the
dalits should be registered in the census records as casteless
Dravidians. His stress upon the Buddhist ideas of compassion, dependent
origination etc are characteristic of his inclusive approach. The most
interesting part of Ayothee Dasa’s thought is that his inclusive
approach is not weakening him from the critical spirit he above all
representing. Pandithar was able to travel comfortably both with his
inclusive and uncompromisingly critical approaches.
Ayothee Dasa
is intensely critical of the institutionalized religions of the country
for their distortion of the sociological, ethical and cultural message
of the original thought of ancient India. It is the pseudo-Brahmins who
above all disfigured the ancient wisdom of India. Hinduism came into
existence sociologically to introduce caste system and making
superstitious the festivals and other rituals of the ancient culture.
The Buddhist principles of Panchashila and Karma too were distorted
beyond recognition (II, 144). Pandithar prominently uses the word
“religious shop-keepers or religious shoppers” (II, 151, 140) who made
the religions into money making business and introduced income oriented
rituals (II, 132). The habit of paying the God, then paying the priests
and finally, paying for everything, have come into Hindu practice
corrupting the entire social life (II, 166). Ayothee Dasa develops a
wonderful argument that Buddhism being the most orthodox of Indian
thoughts has not disappeared from India but only exists distorted or
latent in Indian culture. It exists in Indian languages, grammars,
literary theories, in the cultural practices of the people, in the
native ethics of the people (II, 424). Ayothee Dasa sets himself to
revive the Buddhist spirit.
Ayothee Dasa Pandithar describes the
life and teachings of Lord Buddha in his monumental work “Adhi Vedham”
based on Pali and Tamil sources. The book is around 250 pages closely
printed in the recent edited volumes of G. Aloysious. There is a note of
the son of Ayothee Dasa that in the death bed (5th May 1914) of
Pandithar he maintained that it was his basic work on Buddhism that
should be followed by his cohorts after his demise (II, 784). The book
contains a wonderful description of the Buddhist philosophy mostly shown
as a rational religion or a reasonable culture. The idea of God is not
at all necessary to Ayothee Dasa to call a thought system as a religion.
Neither he has any contempt to the term God. It was an epithet
attributed to the liberated souls of Jainas and Buddhists, according to
Pandithar. In many places of his writings, he justifies the term god.
Ayothee Dasa does not use the western classifications such as ontology,
epistemology or axiology in his exposition of Buddhism. Rather he
prefers a comprehensive presentation of Buddhism as a culture, as an
ethos or as a way of life. He elucidates the four noble truths, the
ashtanga marga and other principles of Buddhism but not at all one
standing apart from the other. We get a complete and inclusive
exposition of Buddhism in Ayothee Dasa’s writings. The Buddhist concept
of Dependent Origination is elaborately explained to indicate the
fundamental interconnectedness of body, sensations, mind, desire,
craving, bondage, ego, thought and finally, the feelings of pleasure and
pain, suffering and rebirth. If this dependence is clockwise, it makes a
person more and more enter into the earthly life and its consequent
sufferings, and if the movement is in opposite direction or
anti-clockwise it makes a person released from the bondage one by one
and takes him/her to the state of Nirvana or Sunyata. These two
movements of entering more and more into Samsara and again moving
towards Nirvana are very elaborately explained by Ayothee Dasa
Pandithar. Pandithar’s understanding of Buddhism is very lucid and
sincere, and without any traces of scholasticism or dogmatism.
The principle of Anatma or Non-Self is vital to Ayothee Dasa. Anatma is
categorically against any individuation and the related evils of
individuation. Nirvana in consequence of deconstruction of the
individuation is the state of community living. It is a replica of the
ancient society that was without private property, classes or castes.
Ayothee Dasa’s description of Buddhism names it a society of equality,
compassion and one with nature. Pandithar goes to the age of
non-subjectivities or community-life, moving from atma to anatma, to
truth that is Nirvana (II, 268). The earlier state of entering more and
more into the Samsara is egoistic or a state of clash of subjectivities
every one basing on one’s ego and subjectivity. Ayothee Dasa is generous
to call the state of anatma and Nirvana as Brahman, or Siva. Once the
real meaning of the state is understood, there need not be any clash in
naming, that is the stand of Ayothee Dasa.
Ayothee Dasa’s
description of Buddhism is not world negative as usually ascetic
philosophies are portrayed. Through Buddhism, a human being returns to
the world with an ethical state. Body is not negated by Pandithar. He
clearly states that without a body, there is no sensation and there is
no mind and thought. They are all organically united or one depending
upon the other. It is not at all possible to find the dualism or
dichotomy of body and mind as they are used to be in western philosophy.
We find a very positive attitude to life in Ayothee Dasa’s description
of Buddhist thought.
There was a Buddhist revival movement in
Tamil region during the period of Ayothee Dasa. Singaravelu, Lakshmi
Narasu, G. Appadurai and a few others were the active participants of
the Buddhist revival. Singaravelu was the founder of the Mahabodhi
Society in Chennai and had his close contacts with the Buddhists of
Srilanka. Lakshmi Narasu was the author of a famous book on Buddhism
“The Essentials of Buddhism” that attracted Dr. Ambedkar. Lakshmi Narasu
also wrote on Caste system in India. All the four activists referred
although had so many common initiatives, however, differed in their
understanding of Buddhism and society. Singaravelu’s understanding of
Buddhism overlapped with rationalism of western type and he became a
vigorous propagator of science and atheism in early 20th century.
Further he shifted his interests in the Self-Respect Movement of Periyar
E. V.R. and tried to turn Periyar into the leftist politics.
Singaravelu and Periyar had a plan to begin a political party by the
name Self-Respect Egalitarian Party (Suyamariyathai Samaththuvak katsi)
and resolutions on that account were passed in the Self-Respect
Conferences. However, the British and some members of the Justice Party
thwarted the plans and it did not get materialized. Lakshmi Narasu’s
understanding of Buddhism too was different from Ayothee Dasa’s that he
too derived Buddhism mostly from western sources. For him too, Buddhism
is humanism, rational and a progressive secular philosophy. Ayothee
Dasa’s Buddhism is peculiarly different from the earlier scholars that
he derived much of his Buddhist insights from the Tamil sources.
Buddhism for Pandithar was related to Tamil Language and its culture and
ethos. This way of a comprehensive cultural understanding Buddhism was
uniquely Ayothee Dasa’s. From his wide reading of sources of Buddhism,
he constructs a grand narrative of Buddhism. I call it a grand narrative
knowing the implications of that term in post modern writings. However,
my meaning of the term grand narrative is slightly different. I mean it
a grand narrative in the sense that Buddhism has been identified as the
master paradigm of Indian religions and culture. Ayothee Dasa himself
names Buddhism as the Aadhi Vedam or Purva Bauththam taking their
meaning to the term master paradigm.
Buddhism is maintained as
the master paradigm of Indian culture by Ayothee Dasa for too many
reasons. To enumerate them, first of all, Ayothee Dasa holds the view
that chronologically it is the oldest thought system of India. He
proposes the view that Buddhism was born in India along with the first
earliest languages of India. According to him, Buddhism is inscribed in
the linguistic patterns or grammar of Dravidian, Pali and Sanskrit
languages (He calls it the linguistic Lakshana). Buddhism, according to
Ayothee Dasa, is the philosophy that offered the Lakshana (another word
in Tamil, Ilakkanam meaning grammar) of these languages. In this sense,
Buddhism represents the orthodox or the original frame of Indian
culture. It is a philosophy, religion, culture and ethos of the ancient
peoples who populated the land. Sociologically, it represents also the
casteless and classless age of Indian past. It preaches, according to
Ayothee Dasa, the ancient community living, its organic values of
practical knowledge, egalitarian sharing and communal harmony (Viththai,
Bhuddhi, Eehai and Sanmargam). Viththai, a tamil word, renders the
meaning that the ancient people were not much interested in the abstract
conceptual knowledge but paid primary attention, as it is natural, to
the practical skill or craftsmanship of an occupation. Approximately,
the ancient Buddhist society stands similar to what the Marxists call
the primitive communism that was classless, stateless and without
private property. While the Marxists conceive the primitive communism
and other consecutive social systems in terms of economy and politics,
Ayothee Dasa Pandithar differs from the Marxists that the ethical values
or cultural binding in their community form occupies priority.
Once Buddhism is taken as the chronologically ancient thought system of
Indian culture, the entry of the Aryan Brahmanic culture is seen as the
intrusion and distortion of the ancient community ethos of the Indians.
Ayothee Dasa, on the basis of certain rare documents of his own,
constructs the history of how the Aryans by name Purusikars entered into
the ancient land of the Buddhists. The Aryan Brahmins, apart from
defeating the commune leaders by military means, seeing the popularity
of the Buddhists priests in ancient India, entered into the cultural
arena defeating them and occupying the priestly profession. Once the
Brahmin priests targeted the religion and culture, they introduced the
caste bound ideology and consolidated it with the help of rituals and
religious writings. The Purisika Aryans preferred to capture the culture
because mere economic and political domination may not, during those
days, serve their purpose of total domination. This is a period of
counter revolution or reaction in Indian history to use an Ambedkarian
or Marxian term. The Buddhist priests were gradually replaced by the
Brahmin priests. Along with that appeared the displacement of Buddhists
from the centre of social life into the peripheries or margins of
settled life in India and stigmatizing them as inferior and low in caste
order. Inferiorization or degradation of the native people in terms of
religion and culture has become the main instrument of political and
economic domination of the natives.
Ayothee Dasa’s Buddhist
master paradigm is justifiable on another account too. If we carefully
look at the conceptual structure of various school of Indian philosophy,
we can notice that the Buddhist basics of Dukkha and Dukkha Nivarana
really make the master paradigm for many religions of ancient India. The
Dukkha is elaborated by Buddhism as the sufferings caused by death,
ageing and disease that are somehow related with human birth itself.
Consequently, some of the philosophies of ancient India formulated the
philosophical paradigm as escape or release from birth. The Buddhist
Wheel represents the cycle of existence in its dependent origination
which when circles clock-wise makes the humans involved in selfish
earthly life more and more whereas when circled anti-clockwise releases
the humans from the tangles of self and earthly sufferings. It is at
this juncture, a few philosophies added the concept of Atman at the one
end and the concept of Brahman or God at the other end, keeping the
problem of Dukkha or suffering at the middle, thus constructing their
philosophies in theistic form which is thoroughly alien to Buddhism.
When the concepts of atman and Brahman were introduced into the
philosophy of ancient Indians, it meant a drastic distortion because
atman came to mark the appearance of individualism, socially meaning the
appearance of private property, relations of power and caste system.
The Philosophy of Buddhism is the philosophy of anatman, or
selflessness, celebrating the community. The ways and means of atman to
reach Brahman or God were also distorted in such a manner to include the
caste oppressive ideology wherever it was needed. The relations between
Atman and Brahman were modeled in terms of domination and submission
that reflected the then appearing slavery or feudal caste relations.
With the stable establishment of feudal caste relations, the themes of
atman (or Jiva) and God were made more prominent than the initial
paradigm of Dukkha and Dukkha Nivaran. This way of understanding Indian
philosophy would inform us that Buddhism has laid the master paradigm of
Indian philosophy and in the course of history, as the needs arose for
caste ideology, its theoreticians have only distorted the Buddhist
paradigm as per their needs. According to Ayothee Dasa, by defeating
Buddhism and introducing the caste system, the caste ideologues have
distorted and falsified the linguistic lakshanas of the ancient
languages. Ayothee Dasa allocates a lot of pages to explain the initial
meaning of Buddhist thought with a sociological reading of that
philosophy.
Now we understand why Ayothee Dasa revived Buddhism
in modern times. The once defeated or distorted Buddhism has brought to
the focus by Ayothee Dasa in order to replay and reenact the ancient
struggle of Buddhism, a philosophy of casteless community life against
the caste philosophy of atman and Brahman (or God). This re-enactment of
conflict becomes a pertinent need to Ayothee Dasa Pandithar in the
struggle for the annihilation of caste in modern times.
Ayothee Dasa’s Critique of the Ethos of Suyappirayosanam
Now we pass over to the modern dimension of Ayothee Dasa’s
reconstruction of Buddhism. Although Ayothee Dasa’s construction of
Indian history can be seen from the point of view of appearance of caste
system in Indian history, his appreciation of the community life of
Buddhism could also be understood as a reactive response to certain
western values that were spreading across the country under colonial
conditions.
Ayothee Dasa enters into the debate of modern
Brahmins and non-brahmin upper castes appropriating modern English
education. He brings to focus the upper castes consciously assimilating
the western education and trying to enter government jobs of revenue
collection, local administration etc. Ayothee Dasa indicates that the
upper caste interest in education and bureaucratic jobs is related not
with any genuine interest in education or knowledge, but it is related
with their attempts to make use of the opportunities rendered by the
British for the reconsolidation of their upper caste position existing
from previous ages. Ayothee Dasa uses a phrase that says that it is
nothing but an attempt to unite their caste position with government
position (combining the “jati” power and “raajaanga” power) (G. Aloysius
1999: I, 357). The feudal castes try to combine their erstwhile upper
caste position with the newly acquired government position. Their
knowledge, education and government positions are not going to be
benefited to the depressed communities, says Ayothee Dasa. On the other
hand, they are all directed exclusively towards their self interest.
Ayothee Dasa coins a term “suyappirayosanam” that marks the self
interest of these upper caste elite (G. Aloysius, 1999: I, 43, 44). The
term “Suyappirayosanam” appears very prominently in the writings of
Ayothee Dasa to mean the change of value that is occurring among the
local elite under colonial conditions. Suyappirayosanam literally means
self interest, self centeredness, selfishness and self use. In modern
European meaning, it would mean individualism. Further its meaning may
also include such features as utilitarianism, consumerism, pragmatism
etc. However, we have to make out the meaning of the term not
necessarily from the European sources and Ayothee Dasa himself reaches
the term from his own understanding of Indian history and Buddhism.
Ayothee Dasa argues that the feudal castes have long back alienated and
estranged from the land, labour and practical skills of agricultural
works. This alienation occurred with the introduction of caste relations
into agriculture. The hard working agricultural labourers were degraded
by the lazy owners of land as inferior and low castes. Along with the
alienation from land and introduction of caste discriminations, the
feudal castes have become lost all community ethos and values such as
Viththai, Buddhi, Eehai and Sanmargam. The law of Suyappirayosanam has
started working from the moment caste values were introduced into the
community life of the ancient Indians (G. Aloysius 1999: I, 55, 66, 67).
So, the already alienated upper castes are now using the opportunities
introduced by the colonial capitalists continuing their adherence to
their philosophy of Suyappirayosanam. It is astoundingly interesting to
understand how the genius of Ayothee Dasa could capture the commonness
between the caste exploitation of Indian history and modern capitalist
forms of exploitation under the term Suyappirayosanam.
For
Ayothee Dasa, Buddhism is the philosophy of non-self (anatmavada), it is
a philosophy of community and it is a philosophy of equality. The
philosophy of self-centeredness originated in India with its philosophy
of Atman, the distinguishing pure essence of self. The philosophy of
Atman, at times imitating the philosophy of Anatman in its ways of
purifying the mind, got distorted ultimately to become the philosophy of
the caste system. As this was the case of ancient India, presently
under colonial conditions, again the philosophy of Self has started to
reappear. Ayothee Dasa names the new philosophy as philosophy of
Suyappirayosanam. His way of placing the term “Suyam” or self as the
prefix of the word is wonderful. The new wave of individualism revived
under colonial capitalist conditions seems to be equated by Ayothee Dasa
to the origin condition of Buddhism in ancient India. As the philosophy
of Atman appeared as the philosophy of individualism and then caste
system in ancient India, the philosophy of Suyappirayosanam would
logically intensify the caste system in modern conditions. In Ayothee
Dasa’s understanding, which appears to us exact, the philosophies of
Suyappirayosanam, Atman-Self, Caste system, Capitalism and
Individualism, all stand to indicate the exploitative relations in
social life and Buddhism with its Anatman etc is categorically against
all of them.
Ayothee Dasa raises a very pertinent question, how
could the supporters of the Swedeshi movement engage themselves without
any hesitation in producing money crops or commercial crops that by
destroying traditional crops have caused so many famines in the Northern
districts of Tamilnadu? (G. Aloysius 1999: I, 42). It means that the
swedeshi supporters are interested only against the British rule but not
against the growth of capitalist relations in agriculture. It shows
that they are ready to support capitalism that helps their
suyappirayosanam or self interest but politically organize themselves
against the formal British rule, possibly to capture the political power
for continuing the same economics of suyappirayosanam. Ayothee Dasa
also indicates that the swedeshi workers are not interested in
conducting the local administrative works in mother tongues. Similarly,
they are not for publishing newspapers and journals in vernacular
languages. They openly advocate western ways wherever they are
beneficial to them but make outcries of swedeshi in a hypocritical way.
These self contradictions of the Swedeshi workers exhibit their
non-commitment to the development of social affairs at the interest of
the entire community. Ayothee Dasa comes to the conclusion that if
industry, agriculture, education, administration etc are developed at
the interests of the entire community, then Swarajya would logically
follow. On the other hand, the pseudo swedeshis keep their
suyappirayosanam intact and are just rattling swrajya (G. Aloysius 1999:
I, 46).
In a sense, Ayothee Dasa Pandithar’s priority to
Buddhism itself has been caused not just only by his commitment to the
caste question in Indian society but it was caused, as our discussions
go above, by the emerging threats of capitalist relations in Indian
soil. The Buddhist society that is without castes and capitalist
relations is his inspiration to enter into the future. Pandithar indeed
wants to transcend the varieties of social ethos in history that stand
for Suyappirayosanam. It means that in modern times one has to transcend
the consumer individualist ethos of capitalism.
Ayothee Dasa
uses the term “pseudo” (Vedadhari) widely in his writings. He calls the
Purusika Aryans who intruded into Buddhist India as pseudo-Brahmins. He
names the estranged landowners of the medieval period as pseudo
Vellalas. And he labels the swedeshis who do not go for real development
of the country as pseudo- swedeshis. Ayothee Dasa’s consistent usage of
the term reminds us the French thinker Michael Foucault who brought out
the inter space that appeared between words and things, words deviating
from and distorting the meaning of things. In the work titled in
English translation as “The Order of Things” (originally in French, it
had the title “Words and Things”) Foucault elaborately studied how from
the period of Renaissance, the European started distorting and
falsifying the meanings of words, words beginning to deviate from the
things. The cause or condition of words distorting and falsifying the
meaning, according to Foucault, is the exploitative social and power
relations. Reading Ayothee Dasa’s writings, one comes to a similar
conclusion that with the introduction of caste dominance and the
philosophy of Suyappirayosanam, the pseudo ethos destroying the
community ethos appeared in the society. Ayothee Dasa stands to
represent the revival of real or true community ethos of Viththai,
Buddhi, Eehai and Sanmargam for which it must have a two pronged
strategy of fighting back the caste system on the one hand and the
emerging capitalist relations on the other hand.
The term
suyappirayosanam has been used by Ayothee Dasa when the Madras upper
caste fellows advocated separate schools for children from untouchable
castes. Pandithar raises the question how could the caste adherence go
with the swedeshi ideology (G. Aloysius 1999: I, 66). It is nothing but
caste self centeredness that operates in the activities of swedeshis,
says Ayothee Dasa. He extends his criticism to some Christian religious
leaders who adhere to the caste ideology in some Christian schools.
Pandithar warns them that three fourth of Brahmanism and one fourth of
Christianity in their practice would spoil the entire thing. He says
that those caste Christians are trying to combine the Christian
interests on the one hand and the capitalist (economic) interest on the
other hand, which would never go together (Ibid, P.91-92).
Ayothee Dasa’s clear vision is astounding. His Buddhism shows him the
way to criticize the caste ideology of Brahmanic Hinduism as well as the
growing individualism and self centeredness of colonial capitalism
based on raw consumer values. He represents a philosophy of community
and community values that ought to fight back Brahmanism and capitalism
as latter Dr. Ambedkar ordained. The two pronged strategy of Ayothee
Dasa Pandithar and Dr. Ambedkar makes their approach post colonial too.
Ayothee Dasa’s Strategies of Dalit Politics
Pandithar was adequately active in current politics. He
spent much of his times to install so many branches, around 28, of
Buddhist societies mostly in the northern districts of Tamilnadu
including in Kolar Gold mines, a few outside India, in South Africa,
among the migrant workers from north Tamilnadu. He organized Buddhist
ways of worshiping or meditating, taught his comrades to Buddhist
principles, structured Buddhist festivals and created a self-confident
set of people who would represent themselves as Buddhists. He called
upon the downtrodden people to get converted into Buddhism. He organized
Buddhist cremation grounds in Chennai. He appealed to the British
Government to give representation to the downtrodden people in local
administration, education and government jobs. Apart from the Buddhist
societies founded by him, the next most significant activity of
Pandithar was his founding of a journal by name “Tamilan”. The journal
was conducted by Pandithar with all his dedication till the end of his
life.
The Journal “Tamilan” came out with series of articles on
all aspects of Buddhist philosophy and religion written mostly by
Ayothee Dasa and by others. The journal also contained regular columns
of questions and answers on politics in Tamilnadu and activities of
Buddhist societies. The question-answer column included descriptions of
caste atrocities in and around Tamilnadu, appeals to government and
other legal authorities to address the problems of the Dalits, specific
discussions on caste discriminations reported by the readers,
controversies with other newspapers etc.
One finds the earliest
critical attitude of a Dalit intellectual towards the Congress-led
national movement in Ayothee Dasa’s writings. He exposes the hypocrisy
of congress demand of Swarajya while keeping silence about or even
advocating caste system in the social life of India. How does the
congress speak about the annihilation of British colonial rule while it
does not raise its voice about the annihilation of caste system in
Indian society that was, in reality, a form of internal colonialism
within Indian society for ages? Ayothee Dasa uses the terms “internal
colonialism” consciously all along in his writings. The controversy is
discussed in many of the articles of Pandithar in Tamilan, particularly
as polemics with congress newspapers published from Madras. Pandithar
argues that award of Swarajya in a country where caste dominates would
perpetuate the caste rule of the upper castes. Consequently, he prefers
the strategic continuance of British rule that modernizes the society
with education, science and industrialization. Pandithar informs that
the modernization projects of the British rule somehow enhances the
economic and material prospects of the downtrodden communities. How
could the Swarajya modernize Indian society when caste mode persists in
all its ramifications as a pre-modern institution? The congress idea of
nationalism, swarajya and modernization appears to be self contradictory
to Ayothee Dasa. Pandithar’s priority is for annihilation of the caste
system.
The theme of pre-modernity is very prominent in Ayothee
Dasa’s writings. “Pre-modern” is above all the caste reality of Indian
society, however thickly associated with the Hindu religion that
organically linked with the caste system. Ayothee Dasa is the first in
Tamil to assert explicitly the link between religion and caste in Indian
context. In a broad sense, Ayothee Dasa speaks of the inherent
relationship between caste, religion and the common sense of the Hindus
in favour of the caste system. Hinduism and caste system has created a
system of values discrediting and inferiorising the working masses
against the alienated land owners and the so-called upper castes.
Ayothee Dasa works with three historical constructs namely the
ancient-original, the pre-modern-falsification and the
futuristic-modern. This periodization somehow resembles the Marxist
classification of primitive communism, modes of production of class
societies and the future communism. Let us note here that Ayothee Dasa
comes to such a categorizing when there was complete absence of any
Marxist influence in this part of the country. The ancient-original
social structure, according to Pandithar, coincides with the Buddhist
casteless society that was ethically communitarian and egalitarian. The
ethical perception of such a society is unmistakably imperative to
Ayothee Dasa whom the ethical precepts are the axiological foundations
of any functioning society. The great distortion appeared with the entry
of the Purusika-Aryans that as a heterodox and un-indigenous phenomenon
started corrupting the communitarian value system of the Purva-Bauddhas
and introduced the caste system. The lazy Aryans degraded the hard
working masses and named them as of lower and inferior castes. The
premodern is founded upon a philosophy of Suyappirayosanam or
selfishness that had consolidated the caste system with all its
ramifications.
The modern, according to Ayothee Dasa, is the
present stage, the historical agent of which is the British. The British
with their exposure to modern European values become the unconscious
tools of introducing the values of annihilating the caste system. The
British are not thoroughly consistent in their efforts in this
direction. At times they are misdirected by the caste intellectuals of
this country regarding the caste superiority or ritual status of the
upper castes. Ayothee Dasa criticizes the missionaries that often they
are led by the upper caste converts into Christianity and who insist to
adhere the caste rules in Christian practices too. Consequently, many
Christians are Hindus in following the caste rules and Christians in
worshiping Jesus. Ayothee Dasa names them half Christians and half
Hindus. Ayothee Dasa wonders how much is Christian to categorise
somebody as Christian Chetty or Christian Nadar when Christianity does
not have any space for caste system. The British are misdirected also by
giving more opportunities to the Brahmins and other upper castes in
government jobs and in administration. Ayothee Dasa criticizes the
British for giving free hand to the landowning classes of rural India,
thus allowing them to ruthlessly exploit the poor peasants by imposing
heavy land taxes and even seizing the lands of the rural poor. It
appears that Ayothee Dasa was aware of the implications of the British
introduction of land acts that allowed the rural rich to register the
common village lands in their name. He repeatedly warns the British that
despite their good will towards the downtrodden(?), the upper caste
government officials are acting on their own will bending the state laws
in their own favour and cheating the illiterate common masses. Ayothee
Dasa warns the British not to allow the upper caste elite to combine the
state power with their traditional caste power.
Ayothee Dasa’s
idea of modernity surely is not limited with the British. He goes much
beyond them. It is in this context, he questions the credentials of the
Congress brand of nationalism or Swarajya. Possiblily, modernity
appeared in Europe with very clear stands against feudalism, religious
sectarianism and obscurantism, and for democracy, freedom, equality,
rationalism etc. But in Indian context, swarajya had a very reduced
sense of occupying the political power from the British. Nationalism
does not raise its voice against the Indian mode of feudalism that is
the caste system and it refuses to get rid of Hindu religion that stands
by the age old forms of oppressions. Nationalism of the Indians is
another brand of Selfish politics aimed only at the free hand usage of
political power. Ayothee Dasa distinctly goes beyond the
pseudo-nationalism of the congressists.
On the other hand,
Ayothee Dasa had a vivid idea of modernity in Indian context. Modernity
in Indian context is ruthless criticism of all the ramifications of the
caste system. Although it appears that Ayothee Dasa desires the revival
of the ancient Buddhist ethos, it is not really so. He goes to the
ancient past as only to a reference point. Ultimately, his designs are
towards the future. The premodern distortion must be removed. Along with
that, the common sense Hindu caste attitude must go away. The
communitarian ethos must come back to lead the future. People must be
respected as per their labour and in terms of the communitarian values
they share with others. The philosophy of Suyappirayosanam must die
away. The philosophy of Suyam or Self must recede. It is note worthy to
mention that Ayothee Dasa’s term Suyam or Self means the source of the
traditional caste system as well as the capitalist relations getting
vogue under the British rule. The future must belong to a selfless
community form. One can visualize a utopian communist perspective of
Ayothee Dasa in his idea of Non-self. He was not influenced by any
Marxism but was inspired by the Buddhist ideals of equality and
community.
Pandithar is equally suspicious of the non-Brahmin
movement comprised of non-brahmin upper castes and south Indian rich. He
raises the question: Are the non-brahmins casteless? Pandithar
understands that the non-brahmins just compete for Government posts with
the Brahmins who occupy them already. Both Brahmins and Non-brahmin
upper castes attempt to consolidate their erstwhile upper caste
domination with the help of the newly found state bureaucratic posts. It
is nothing but continuance of the traditional caste system by new
means. The traditional upper castes are at their own game under colonial
conditions. He, at times, is critical of the British accommodating the
upper castes in Government positions, thus allowing them to continue
exploiting and humiliating the humble social groups. One can find in the
writings of Ayothee Dasa a few wonderful evaluations about the caste
nexus in the formation and functioning of bureaucracy in Indian soil
under colonial conditions. The insights of Ayothee Dasa are significant
even today to understand the ways how the Indian bureaucracy functions
till date.
Ayothee Dasa leaves a few interesting remarks about
how Indian upper castes have appropriated the educational benefits
introduced by the British. He says that the Indian feudal castes have
long back got alienated from knowledge, agricultural labour and commerce
at the interests of society. It has become so selfish and has become
lazy in real efforts of acquiring knowledge and practicing it in terms
of social welfare and on the other hand is interested only in degrading
the toiling masses in terms of caste and social status. In other words,
the alienation of upper castes is the result of their selfishness and
inhumanness. Ayothee Dasa sees a moral degradation of the traditional
ruling classes set in well before the British occupied India. It has
only intensified after the British rule. Consequently, the upper caste
interest in education and state administrative positions is again
penetrated by selfishness and devoid of any public welfare. The moral
crisis of the Indian upper castes continues and intensifies, according
to Ayothee Dasa.
Ayothee Dasa associates the Dalit question with
the land question. He enumerates how low the agricultural workers are
paid for their labour in the rural areas of Tamilnadu. The selfish
spirit of the land owning classes continues in terms of humiliating and
insulting the labouring classes attributing the worst derogatory stigma
upon them. Although Ayothee Dasa mostly speaks in term of castes in
Tamil context, he often makes explicit the class ranking involved in the
caste order. He clearly marks the occupational specifics of the
downtrodden communities, particularly how are they related with land and
agricultural labour. To him, agriculture as an occupation in land is a
source of community life and common welfare. He does not treat
agricultural land and agricultural works as merely in economic terms.
There is something more in agricultural work. His attitude in this issue
is moral and community oriented.
Ayothee Dasa is not against the
industrialization of the country. But his idea of industrialization is
mostly an artisan like approach. He does not imagine the development of
industry at the cost of agriculture. On the other hand, he perceives it
as development of handicrafts and skillful handiworks. In his writings,
he appreciatively enumerates innumerable professions coming up like
printing, binding, metal works, building works, automobile works,
trains, telecommunications, transportations, textiles production etc. He
is not perceiving any radical break between traditional Indian
agriculture and emerging industrialization under the impact of the
colonial rule. He perceives them in organic unity.
Hailing from
an agricultural background, Ayothee Dasa Pandithar strongly commits
himself to the dignity of agricultural labour. He indicates that the
caste system prevalent in the country is above all based on humiliating
and insulting the agricultural labour and labourers. The alienated and
lazy landowner communities have discriminated the hard working people of
the land as inferior and low, and made them into a separate caste of
inferior rank. Religious and social rules were created to pursue the
above purpose and the people of labour were made to live in isolated
ghettos untouched and unattended.
What ultimately is the
programme Ayothee Dasa offers for the Dalits and the downtrodden of his
times? Can we say that he stood for a Dalit identity movement? The
answer may be “yes”. Ayothee Dasa is the first to organize an identity
movement for the dalits in South India, may be, in entire India. He
centered all his activities upon the interests of the Dalits. His entire
life was a tireless travel to construct a movement, an ideology, an
organizational framework for the dalits. His major effort was to locate
the interests of dalits away from the Congress nationalists, Brahma
Samajists, Arya Samajists, Hindu revivalists as well as from the
non-brahmin movement of Tamilnadu. It means that he was able to
visualize the interests of dalits distinct from all other movements that
were existing then.
Ayothee Dasa could able to look into the
entire existence from the point of view of the most downtrodden and the
most oppressed, namely the dalits. Social history, history of culture
and religions, literary history of the Tamils, history of languages,
philosophies of India, modern social and political movements –
everything was viewed from the point of view of the Dalits. Their
ancient past, their defeat and fall, the ways of redemption, their
organizational forms etc were thoroughly and consciously studied by
Ayothee Dasa. Never the Tamil thought had such a thinker of
comprehensive perception with a clear partisanship with the poorest of
the poor, the toiling masses of this country, the dalits. Ayothee Dasa
is the most powerful beginner of dalit thought and consciousness in
modern India.
Ayothee Dasa was the person who made prominent the
caste question. Not only the grievances of the Dalits were addressed by
him. The entire gamut of problems and issues emerging out of the caste
system of India was dealt in all accurateness by Ayothee Dasa. In broad
sense, the social question was brought into the discussions of modernity
by Ayothee Dasa. What is it a modernity if it does not address so
pertinent a question as that of caste system into its discussions? What
is modern India withut the social question? India in its history has
many times escaped the caste question unaddressed. It has evaded the
Bhakti movement, it has evaded so many reform movements. It tried its
best to avoid the nationalist movement too. It is all the ruling classes
that have all the time behind the attempts to evade and avoid the caste
question. At last, the question was made central by the Dalit thinkers
of all Indian modernity.
Ayothee Dasa does not look at the dalit
question as an isolated problem of the dalits alone. Such an approach
would pose the dalit grievances alone as the problem of the dalits and
would try to eradicate them by means appealing to the British or the
rulers. A narrow identity movement may opt such a path. Many such
movements were gaining momentum on those lines towards the beginning of
20th century. The spontaneity of identity was operative in such
movements. Brahmins for the interests of the Brahmins alone, non-brahmin
upper castes at the interests of themselves alone was the typical trend
of the period. Interestingly, the late 19th century was the period when
mushroom of caste associations and religious organizations appeared in
Indian soil. It was believed to be modernity and even democracy that
every single group organized itself to represent itself. Such a trend
continues to exist till date.
Ayothee Dasa opted a different
path. He linked the caste interests of his group with the entire caste
system of India. It was in a sense inevitable. He did not study his own
caste in isolation. But he located it in the system that encompasses the
entire social reality of the country. A structural approach, to use a
recent term, was the mode of thinking of Ayothee Dasa.
As it has
been noted already, Ayothee Dasa brought to attention the linkages
between the dalit question with the land question, to be exact with the
landless proletarians of rural India. He could identify the organic bond
between the caste question with the history of Indian religions. He was
able to present a comprehensive picture of the birth and development of
caste system in Indian history. He was sure that the caste question
could not be solved within the emerging capitalist framework. The
greatest intellectual achievement of Ayothee Dasa was that he was able
to dig out a casteless social layer in the historical past of the
country and make it stand as the reference point to all his discussions
on dalit liberation. The theme of liberation as it figures in Ayothee
Dasa is itself a universal theme of his times characteristic of
modernity, enlightenment and socialist movements. Ayothee Dasa very
consciously enters into that brand of thinkers and activists. The
objective of casteless society takes Ayothee Dasa immeasurably to the
heights of social emancipation of the most recent times. It may not be
pointless to suggest Ayothee Dasa as a predecessor of Communist movement
in South India.
References
Aloysius G., (Ed.), 1999, 2003, Ayothee Dasar Sinthanaikal in Three Volumes (in Tamil), Palayamkottai:FRRC
Omvedt, Gail, 2005, Buddhism in India: Challenging Brahmanism and Caste,
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