India as Colony:
1850 to 1947

The British Crown took over direct control of India from the East India Company in 1858. Economic exploitation increased. A determined and mostly nonviolent freedom movement emerged and finally succeeded, resulting in the formation of modern India and Muslim Pakistan in 1947.

Note to Students, Parents and Teachers

This Educational Insight is the fourth chapter in our series on Hindu history intended for use in US primary and secondary schools. Like preceding chapters, it openly discusses topics that are neglected or covered only briefly in current American curricula. We summarize the political history of India between 1850 and 1947, then tell the story of two influential men: Swami Vivekananda, who presented to the Western world a view of Hinduism as a tolerant, sophisticated faith, and Mahatma Gandhi, who taught the world the power of nonviolent political action. Finally, we explore Hindu food, dress, rites of passage and initiations. Overall, the student is provided a glimpse into the beliefs, traditions, practices and refined culture that enabled Hinduism to survive the onslaught of conquest and colonialism. This lesson was written and designed by the editorial staff of HINDUISM TODAY in collaboration with Dr. Shiva Bajpai, Professor Emeritus of History, California State University, Northridge, Los Angeles.

Academic reviewers: Dr. Klaus Klostermaier, Professor of Religious Studies, University of Manitoba; Dr. Jeffrey D. Long, Chair, Department of Religious Studies, Elizabethtown College; Dr. Anantanand Rambachan, Professor of Religion, St. Olaf College; Dr. T.S. Rukmani, Professor and Chair in Hindu Studies, Concordia University; Dr. Michael K. Ward, Visiting Lecturer in History, California State University, Northridge. Educational Consultant: Justin Stein, Lecturer at Windward Community College, Hawaii, and former middle school teacher in New York.

British Rule’s Mixed Blessings

What You Will Learn...

Main Ideas

1. India became a British colony following the 1857 uprising.

2. Under British rule, India suffered poverty, famine and lack of freedom. These inspired the Indian independence movement.

3. Through mostly nonviolent means, India won independence after World War II, but Pakistan was divided off for Muslims.

The Big Idea

After ten centuries of alien occupation and a century of struggle, the Indian people regained their independence.

HINDUISM TODAY’S Teaching Standards

This column in each of the three sections presents our subject outline for India and Hinduism from 1850 to 1947.

1. Assess the impact of colonization, especially English education, on the people of India.

2. Explain how the uprising against the East India Company led to the establishment of the British Raj.

3. Describe the history of India’s movement for independence, including the role of Gandhi’s nonviolent campaigns.

If YOU lived then...

You are a Hindu sepoy in the Indian army in 1857. New rifle cartridges have been issued. To use them, you have to bite off the tip, which is smeared with beef fat. You have never eaten or even tasted meat, as killing animals, especially cows, goes against your religious beliefs. If you refuse, you will be arrested—and possibly executed. If you run away, you risk the same fate.

What do you do, and why?

BUILDING BACKGROUND: Nationalism or patriotism is love and devotion to one’s country. Before the 19th century, people felt loyalty to their regional ruler and culture. They were less concerned about the country they shared with others. Starting in the 19th century, people developed political sentiments for their country as a whole and promoted a national identity.

Understanding Colonialism

As we learned in the last lesson, the British East India Company came to dominate India through its clever use of political strategy, intrigue and military force. In 1858 India became a colony of the British Empire. Powerful nations, including England, Spain, Portugal, France and Holland, had used their financial and military power to establish colonies in Asia, Africa and the Americas. Many colonies, such as in North America and in Australia, were created by military conquest. The conquerors drove out or killed the native peoples, whom they regarded as subhuman. They then settled the land with immigrants from their own countries. Other colonies, such as India, were first opened through trade and commerce which eventually led to their foreign economic domination and political control. England’s colonies included India, Burma, Ceylon, Malaysia, Singapore and hundreds of other territories large and small worldwide. The English defended their conquests by claiming that they were a superior race with a noble mission: to spread Western civilization. This sounds very racist today. But it was then a firm belief of most Englishmen.

While England profited from its colonies, the colonies suffered oppression and disease. In the 19th century, the British did bring notable advances of the Industrial Revolution to India. But a century of British rule drove a wealthy and vital India into poverty and weakness.

Britain introduced English education in 1835 to strengthen its power. Indians excelled in the new education system, with unintended results. They read, in English, how the American colonies banded together in 1776 to free themselves from Britain and establish a democracy. They learned how the French gained freedom by overthrowing their king in 1789. Indians rightly concluded that their ancient land—Bharat Mata, “Mother India”—had the same right as America and France to be free and independent. But it would take a century to achieve this goal.

The red areas were under direct British control. The yellow areas, called “Princely States,” had local Indian rulers who answered to the British.

The 1857 Revolt

The East India Company dominated India until the 1850s. A huge uprising in 1857 led to the direct and official takeover of India by the British government.

Many Indians were unhappy with the Company. It took over previously independent kingdoms within India. Its economic policies made most people poor. Its British-run police and law courts were inadequate or corrupt. Within their army, the British officers had little respect for their Indian soldiers or sepoys, and in some cases promoted their conversion to Christianity.

A relatively simple incident triggered the massive revolt. A new type of greased cartridge was issued for the sepoys’ Enfield rifles. Word spread that the grease was beef and pork fat. To load a cartridge, one had to bite off the greased tip. The sepoys refused to use them: the Hindus because they considered the cow sacred; the Muslims because they considered the pig unclean. The sepoys mutinied, attacking and killing their British officers.

The revolt spread across North India, as Hindus and Muslims, elites and commoners, joined forces against the British. Many landlords, left impoverished, joined the rebellion. Within a year, the British ruthlessly crushed the revolt, killing hundreds of thousands (some say millions) of soldiers and civilians.

Stories (some true, some false) of British women and children being killed by the rebels inflamed public opinion in England. Charles Dickens, author of A Christmas Carol and other famous stories, wrote that if he were commander-in-chief in India he would “strike that Oriental Race ...proceeding, with merciful swiftness of execution, to blot it out of mankind and raze it off the face of the Earth.” Although Dickens championed the poor in England and opposed slavery in America, he held a rabidly racist view of Indians.

The British were shocked by the uprising, which recalled the American Revolution. To protect their power, investment and income, they tightened their grip on the subcontinent by transferring rule from the East India Company to the British government.

The British Raj

The new government of India was called the Raj, a Sanskrit word meaning to reign or rule. Its first steps were to ensure that no future rebellion would take place. The ratio of English soldiers in the army was greatly increased. Sepoys of various castes, religions and regions were assigned to separate units to prevent possible conspiracy. The population was disarmed. Ownership of guns was allowed by license only. Generally, Indians had no rights and no voice in their own rule.

The Raj expanded the rail and road system which allowed duty-free British products to be sold all over India. This, unfortunately, caused the collapse of major native industries such as cotton textiles.

Tax revenues from agriculture and industry that should have benefitted India instead went to England. Between 1770 and 1857, mismanagement worsened the effects of twelve major famines and many minor ones. According to official figures, 28 million Indians starved to death between 1854 and 1901. India’s share of world income shrank from 22.6% in 1700 to 3.8% in 1952.

As early as the 1820s, many Indians wrote about the need to end British rule in India. The peaceful demand for freedom by nationalist political organizations continued decade after decade, at times turning into violent but unsuccessful uprisings.

The British improved India’s legal, justice and civil service systems, introduced better military training, built a few universities and created telegraph, postal, rail and road networks. They did so primarily for their own political and economic gain, not to benefit the Indian people.

The Road to Independence

Mohandas K. Gandhi, born in 1869, is honored in India as the “father of the nation.” After becoming a lawyer in England, he moved to South Africa. There he won political rights for Indian immigrants by nonviolent means. In 1915 he returned home to India and joined the freedom struggle.

On April 13, 1919, British General Dyer led an attack upon a peaceful political meeting of unarmed men, women and children at Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar. In ten minutes, 400 people were shot dead and 1,200 seriously injured. Instead of being punished for his crime, Dyer was honored as a hero.

The ruthless massacre in Amritsar convinced Gandhi that only a mass struggle against foreign rule would save India. From 1920 on, he led a national movement for freedom based on his philosophy of nonviolent resistance called satyagraha, “force of truth.” Indian nationalists stopped cooperating with the government, refused to pay taxes and burned English goods in public. Gandhi and his followers were repeatedly beaten and jailed.

During the freedom movement, Hindus and Muslims disagreed about the democratic government they hoped to build. Muslims did not want to be a permanent minority in India and demanded their own country, an idea that Gandhi opposed.

World War II began in 1939 as Germany and Japan sought to add countries to their empires by force, just as Britain had done a century earlier. The war put Britain in the awkward position of defending its own freedom and democracy against Germany while continuing to deprive India of hers.

The Quit India movement was launched in 1942. Soon afterwards, Gandhi and other leaders were arrested. The movement became violent at some places, with hundreds shot and killed by police.

Britain’s military force in India was composed of Indian soldiers and sailors commanded by British officers. By the 1940s, the loyalty of these hired servicemen to their foreign masters diminished as the demand for freedom swept over India. A 1946 mutiny by Indian sailors of the Royal Indian Navy convinced the British that it was only a matter of time before the entire military might revolt.

Crippled by World War II and nearly bankrupt, Britain gave up India and other colonies, including Burma and Ceylon. India’s transition to freedom on August 15, 1947, brought with it a terrible tragedy. Pakistan was partitioned from India on the basis of religion. A huge relocation followed as 7.5 million Muslims moved to Pakistan from India and an equal number of Hindus and Sikhs fled Pakistan. A million died from hardship, attacks and riots. On January 30, 1948, a Hindu, enraged over the partition, assassinated Mahatma Gandhi.

REVIEWING IDEAS, TERMS AND PEOPLE

1. Identify: How did England justify its colonial empire? How did India fare as a British colony?

2. Report: What sparked the uprisings of 1857?

3. Describe: What changes did England impose as a result of these uprisings?

4. Explain: Why were there so many huge famines in India under the Raj?

5. Analyze: How did Gandhi and his followers fight for independence? Why did he choose to use nonviolent means?

ACADEMIC VOCABULARY

intrigue

secret planning to harm another

mutiny

a revolt by soldiers or sailors against their officers

inflame

to cause strong emotions

raze

to destroy completely

rabid

extreme or fanatical support of a belief

conspiracy

secret plotting by a group

duty free

being exempt from import and other taxes

famine

extreme shortage of food

ruthless

cruel; lacking pity for other’s suffering

partition

to set off or divide from

The Challenge of Ideas

What You Will Learn...

Main Ideas

1. Missionaries and colonists believe that their culture is superior to all other cultures.

2. Swami Vivekananda popularized the Hindu belief that all religions are valid paths to God.

3. Gandhi’s satyagraha campaign brought independence to India and inspired nonviolent movements for freedom and civil rights around the world.

The Big Idea

Hindu ideals of nonviolence and religious tolerance have helped shape today’s world.

Key Terms

satyagraha,

colonized mind,

HINDUISM TODAY’S Teaching Standards

5. Describe the conflict of ideas between prominent Hindus, including Vivekananda and Gandhi, and British missionaries and colonists.

6. Identify the influence of Swami Vivekananda on modern ideas of religious tolerance.

7. Explain how the Hindu principles behind satyagraha have improved the lives of people around the world.

If YOU lived then...

It is May 4, 1963, Birmingham, Alabama, USA. A thousand students from the city’s all-black high school join the nonviolent freedom protest led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to desegregate the city. Police knock them down using high-powered fire hoses and arrest hundreds. Your 17-year-old daughter is arrested and jailed for three days.

What do you say to her when she returns home?

BUILDING BACKGROUND: Dr. King went to India in 1959 to study Gandhi’s methods. He adopted satyagraha, calling it “nonviolent direct action.” King said it should so “dramatize an issue that it can no longer be ignored.” Gandhi translated satyagraha as “truth force” or “soul force.” Satyagraha, he taught, forbids inflicting violence on one’s opponent.

Understanding the Power of Ideas

In the 19th century, India was fighting the British in a war of ideas. One battle was over religion: Christian missionaries believed it was their sacred duty to convert all Indians. Another was over colonialism: the British were ruling India by military force, supported by the idea that they were a superior race. Many thinkers and activists, key among them Swami Vivekananda and Mahatma Gandhi, challenged these ideas. Today nearly all colonies have been freed. Few countries, if any, would claim a moral right to colonize another. But religious conflict remains a crucial issue. Vivekananda’s teaching of equal respect for all religions is more relevant today than ever before.

A Young Monk with a Message of Tolerance

The story of Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902) starts with a temple priest named Sri Ramakrishna (1836-1886) who lived near Calcutta. He was a mystic, a person who had visions of God and many profound spiritual experiences. Though not formally educated, he attracted followers from the city’s prominent families. One was an 18-year-old college student named Narendranath Dutta.

When they first met, Narendra asked Ramakrishna why he believed in God. Ramakrishna replied, “Because I see Him just as I see you here, only in a much more intense sense.” Narendra took Ramakrishna as his guru and was trained by him for the next five years.

SWAMI VIVEKANANDA’S ADDRESS TO THE PARLIAMENT OF THE WORLD’S RELIGIONS

On September 11, 1893, Swami Vivekananda began his address with the words, “sisters and brothers of America,” resulting in a two-minute standing ovation. He continued, “It fills my heart with joy unspeakable to rise in response to the warm and cordial welcome which you have given us. I thank you in the name of the millions and millions of Hindu people of all classes and sects.

“I am proud to belong to a religion which has taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance. We believe not only in universal toleration, but we accept all religions to be true. I am proud to belong to a nation which has sheltered the persecuted and the refugees of all religions and all nations of the earth.

“I will quote to you, brethren, a few lines from a hymn which I remember to have repeated from my earliest boyhood, which is every day repeated by millions of human beings: ‛As the different streams, having their sources in diff erent places, all mingle their water in the sea, O Lord, so the different paths which men take through diff erent tendencies, various though they appear, crooked or straight, all lead to Thee.’

“Sectarianism, bigotry and its horrible descendant, fanaticism, have possessed long this beautiful earth. It has filled the earth with violence, drenched it often with human blood, destroyed civilization and sent whole nations to despair. Had it not been for this horrible demon, human society would be far more advanced than it is now.

“But its time has come, and I fervently hope that the bell that tolled this morning in honor of this convention will be the deathknell to all persecutions with the sword or the pen, and to all uncharitable feelings between persons wending their way to the same goal.”

After Ramakrishna’s death, Narendra took vows as a Hindu monk, becoming Swami Vivekananda. He gave up his further education and instead set off on pilgrimage across India. He deeply impressed many people in Madras. They raised money door to door to pay for his travel to America for the 1893 Parliament of the World’s Religions.

At that interfaith congress in Chicago, the cultured and eloquent 30-year-old swami was well received. In his opening talk, he declared, “We believe not only in universal toleration, but we accept all religions to be true.” The popularity of this Hindu message of respect and tolerance alarmed some Christian participants who had hoped the Parliament would prove their religion superior to others.

The New York Herald reported at the time, “Vivekananda is undoubtedly the greatest figure in the Parliament of Religions. After hearing him, we feel how foolish it is to send missionaries to this learned nation.” Another reporter wrote, “The impertinence of sending half-educated theological students to instruct the wise and erudite Orientals was never brought home to an English-speaking audience more forcibly.”

Vivekananda returned to India a hero. He aroused a new pride among Hindus and kindled in India’s youth a nationalist spirit. Vivekananda founded the Ramakrishna Mission as a religious and educational institution to address India’s social problems. He died on July 4, 1902, at age 39. Freedom fighter Subhash Chandra Bose aptly called Swami “the maker of modern India.”

Vivekananda was not the first Indian religious and social reformer of the 19th century. Raja Ram Mohan Roy sought to counter the criticisms of Hinduism made by the British missionaries. He founded the Brahmo Samaj in 1828 as a new religion with Christian-style services. Swami Dayananda Saraswati was a Hindu traditionalist. He began the Arya Samaj in 1875 to revive Vedic society and religion. He believed Hinduism could be purified by a return to the teachings and practices of the Vedas. Both the Brahmo Samaj and Arya Samaj encouraged Indians to be egalitarian and do more social service for the poor.

Vivekananda, on the other hand, had a powerful impact both on India and the West. In particular, he introduced the Hindu idea that all religions deserve respect as valid paths to God, an idea now firmly established in America. In 2008, polls found that while 76% of Americans identify themselves as Christian, 65% believe that “many paths other than my own can lead to eternal life.” How different from Vivekananda’s time, when most Americans were staunch Christians who believed theirs was the only way to God!

Satyagraha: Fighting without Violence

Mahatma Gandhi was a devout Hindu, a skilled lawyer and a master politician. His strategy to gain India’s freedom was satyagraha, “truth force,” the application of righteous and moral force in politics. Satyagraha is based on Hindu principles, including nonviolence, the ultimate goodness of the soul and a belief in the existence of God everywhere and in everyone. Satyagraha requires a core group of self-sacrificing and disciplined activists. To be successful, it must have widespread publicity, generating national concern and international pressure.

Since Gandhi’s time, satyagraha has been used to win civil rights for blacks in America, improve conditions for California farm workers, end apartheid in South Africa and publicize human rights abuses in Myanmar.

Gandhi used the power of satyagraha to oppose the British salt tax to tighten its stranglehold on India’s economy. The Raj imposed strict controls on salt production and a stiff tax on its sale. People could be arrested for making or selling salt. This callous tax on a basic necessity of life especially burdened the poor. To Gandhi, the salt tax symbolized the tyranny of the Raj.

Gandhi’s dramatic revolt, the Salt March, began on March 12, 1930. Tens of thousands of people cheered as he walked 390 kilometers from his Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, to Dandi Beach. After morning prayers on April 6, he collected salt on the seashore and proclaimed, “With this, I am shaking the foundations of the British Empire.” Hearing this, people all across India freely collected and sold salt. Tens of thousands were arrested, including 18,000 women. The march was closely covered by the international press, making Gandhi famous in Europe and America.

Six weeks later, hundreds of marchers attempted to take over the Dharasana Saltworks, 300 kilometers north of Bombay. The ensuing clash was reported worldwide by Webb Miller of United Press International: “Police charged [the marchers], swinging their clubs and belaboring the raiders on all sides. The volunteers made no resistance. As the police swung hastily with their sticks, the natives simply dropped in their tracks. Less than 100 yards away I could hear the dull impact of clubs against bodies. The watching crowds gasped, or sometimes cheered, as the volunteers crumpled before the police without even raising their arms to ward off the blows.”

Professor Richard Johnson wrote, “It is widely believed that the Salt Campaign turned the tide in India. All the violence was committed by the British and their Indian soldiers. The legitimacy of the Raj was never reestablished for the majority of Indians and an ever increasing number of British subjects.” The independence struggle was now truly a mass movement.

In a similar way, in 1963 Martin Luther King forced the desegregation of Birmingham, Alabama. Civil rights activists were arrested by the hundreds as they attempted to peacefully integrate the city’s restaurants, shops and churches. Violent attacks by police on unarmed, nonresisting marchers attracted worldwide attention. The United States was shamed and embarrassed as a result. New laws were soon passed requiring equal rights for all.

The Colonized Mind

The nonviolent strategies of satyagraha helped Indians and black Americans attain freedom after centuries of domination. But decades later, they and their descendants still felt inferior to white people. This condition, called “the colonized mind,” can persist long after physical freedom is won.

Many of India’s colonized people, especially those educated in English schools, came to believe that everything about themselves was inferior to that of the British. Thus they considered English superior to any Indian language, English manners better than Indian manners, a suit and tie better than a kurta shirt and pants, and white skin better than brown skin.

Overcoming, or “decolonizing,” the colonized mind requires a multicultural education, self-examination and rejection of externally created ideas of inferiority. The colonized mind is the most lasting negative impact of colonialism.

REVIEWING IDEAS, TERMS AND PEOPLE

1. Describe: What did British missionaries and colonists believe about their culture compared to Indian culture?

2. Interpret: How did American journalists react to Swami Vivekananda’s speech at the 1893 Chicago Parliament?

3. Identify: Where has Gandhi’s strategy of satyagraha been used outside of India?

4. Explain: How did nonviolent protests “turn the tide” for Indian freedom and the American civil rights movement?

5. What Hindu ideals were promoted by Swami Vivekananda and Gandhi? How have they influenced today’s world?

In accepting the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize, President Obama said, “As someone who stands here as a direct consequence of Dr. King’s life work, I am living testimony to the moral force of non-violence. I know there’s nothing weak, nothing passive, nothing naive in the creed and lives of Gandhi and King.”

ACADEMIC VOCABULARY

desegregate

allow equal access to public places for all races

pilgrimage

to travel to a sacred place for worship

eloquent

pleasant, fluent, convincing in speech

impertinence

lack of respect, rudeness

theological

having to do with the study of religious concepts

erudite

scholarly; having great learning

egalitarian

the principle that all people deserve equal rights and opportunities

callous

lacking mercy

tyranny

cruel and unjust use of power or authority

belabor

to beat severely

civil rights

political and social freedom and equality

integrate

to end the separation of people by race

naive

innocent; lacking experience

Eating: Indian Style

The vegetarian meal at the right may look like a feast, but skilled ammas (mothers) prepare some variation of it every day for their families. This traditional South Indian spread is centered around rice. North Indians enjoy wheat-based flatbreads in place of or along with their rice, but the other dishes are similar. Lots of spices are used, including coriander, fenugreek, cumin, cayenne, cardamom, ginger, cloves, chili pepper, black pepper and cinnamon. Depending on the region, spicing may be mild to very hot.

The meal is served in several courses on a banana leaf freshly cut and washed or, more commonly today, on a round metal plate. After washing your hands, you proceed to eat with the fingers of your right hand by taking a small amount of one or two of the vegetable items, mixing them with some rice and popping them in your mouth. Seconds are automatic. In fact, you can only get the host to stop serving more food by covering the leaf with your hands. Water or a cool beverage, such as lassi (a salted or fruit-juice-sweetened yogurt drink), may be served at the end. When finished, you fold your leaf in half, top to bottom. In the villages, the leaves, complete with leftovers, are fed to appreciative cows. Nothing goes to waste, and no plates to wash! After the meal, water is brought for cleaning your hands.

Fingers, Forks and Chopsticks

There are three methods of eating in the world: with forks, with fingers and with chopsticks. Forks predominate in Europe, Australia and North America. Chopsticks are used in East Asia. Fingers are the most widespread eating implement, prevailing in India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, the Middle East and much of Africa. Globally, fork-feeders are outnumbered more than two to one.

Chopsticks have a venerable history, dating back to 1200 BCE. Forks were introduced to Europe in the 11th century CE by a Byzantine princess who married an Italian. She outraged the Italians by refusing to eat with her hands. A Catholic priest pointed out that “God in his wisdom has provided man with natural forks—his fingers.” The rest of Europe was slow to adopt forks. Many royalty, including Queen Elizabeth I and Louis XIV, used their fingers.

1. Compare: After reading about a traditional South Indian lunch and looking at the images above, compare and contrast it with lunch in your own culture. How are your food and customs similar? How are they different?

2. Evaluate: How do you usually eat food: with fingers, chopsticks or forks? List some advantages and disadvantages of these different ways of eating.

Rites of Passage And Initiations

What You Will Learn...

Main Ideas

1. The power of Hindu philosophy and cultural tradition helped Hinduism survive centuries of foreign rule.

2. Samskaras are rites of passage marking important changes in one’s life.

3. Diksha or initiation brings a person into a deeper level of religious study and practice.

The Big Idea

Samskaras and diksha are key traditions in the lives of all Hindus.

Key Terms

samskara,

disksha,

Agni,

mantra,

HINDUISM TODAY’S Teaching Standards

8. Describe the important rites of passage for Hindus, including the samskaras of childhood, (especially for education) puberty and marriage and death.

9. Explain the importance of initiation for the religious practices of mantra recitation (japa) and monasticism.

If YOU lived then...

You are a Hindu American woman who just graduated from the university. Your parents’ marriage was arranged, but you swore you would find your own husband. Despite your objections, your parents have secretly found you the “perfect husband.” You meet him, and, surprise, he does seem ideal—except that your parents found him instead of you!

What do you tell your parents?

BUILDING BACKGROUND: In precolonial India, a bride brought wealth to her marriage, called stree dhana or “woman’s wealth.” Usually jewelry, this remained her personal property, to be passed on to her daughters. Dowry is a different custom in which the bride’s family gives money to the groom. Demand for dowry became common among the upper castes in British times because of changes in land and inheritance laws.

The Sustaining Power of Hindu Tradition

Hinduism survived the centuries of Muslim and British rule on the strength of its philosophy and traditions. We have examined a number of these already, including scriptures, festivals, pilgrimages, temples, puja worship, art, music and dance. Festivals, in particular, are central to the religious, social and cultural life of a Hindu.

In this section, we study two more traditions important to Hindu life: rites of passage and initiation. Rites of passage are the social and religious ceremonies marking important stages in a person’s life. These include naming a child, the attainment of puberty, marriage and funeral rites. In Hinduism, these rites are called samskaras, which means “to make perfect.” Initiations, or dikshas, are given by a priest, teacher or guru to bring a person into a new level of education, religious practice and spiritual awareness.

The Rites of Childhood

The samskaras of childhood begin before birth with home rituals to ensure the well-being of the mother and her unborn child. The name-giving ceremony is usually held at home on the eleventh day after birth. A pleasant sounding name with a religious or moral meaning is chosen and the father whispers it in the baby’s right ear.

Solid food is given to the baby by its father six months after birth in the first-feeding ritual. Head-shaving, symbolizing purity, is performed for both boys and girls at a temple, usually at the end of the first year. At age four, a ceremony marking the beginning of education is done in which children write their first letter in a tray of rice. Ear-piercing, for health and wealth, is performed for girls and boys between the first and eighth year. Girls are adorned with gold earrings, bangles and anklets; boys receive earrings and a gold chain.

The upanayana, or sacred thread ceremony, is the final ceremony of childhood. It marks the formal beginning of student life. Students begin religious instruction and secular education appropriate to their intended occupation. In artisan communities, a similar ceremony is held for boys to formally accept them into their family craft tradition.

The Coming of Age Ceremony

The community celebrates a girl’s entrance into puberty with the ritu kala samskara, a home ceremony conducted by the family and close relatives. In the Tamil tradition of South India, for example, the girl bathes and then dresses in her first sari. The family invokes Goddess Lakshmi to bless the young woman with happiness and wealth. She is given many gifts, the first of which is always made of gold. Even today, this samskara is a major event for Hindu girls. It is a joyous time of gift-giving, yet serious as well. A vow of chastity until marriage may be taken at the same time.

The Rites of Marriage

Hindu weddings are conducted before a sacred fire. This practice dates back thousands of years to Vedic times. Agni, the God of Fire, is called to serve as divine witness to the marriage vows. Weddings are held in special halls. A Hindu wedding can be an elaborate affair spread out over several days attended by many hundreds of guests.

The wedding ceremony is performed by a priest, who invokes Agni by building a small fire in an open brick altar on the ground.

The elaborate rituals normally take hours. Close relatives are brought forward to participate and bless the couple. The groom puts sindur, red coloring, on the part in his bride’s hair, indicating her new status as a married woman.

The final moment comes when the bride and groom take seven steps together around the fire to symbolize the journey of life they will take together. The first step is for strength, the second for health, the third for wealth, the fourth for happiness, the fifth for children, the sixth for a long marriage and the seventh for loyalty and everlasting friendship. The bride and groom usually go to a temple for blessings after the wedding.

Death and Cremation

When a person is close to death, relatives gather around. They sit for hours with him or her, singing religious songs, reading scripture and chant prayers to create a spiritual environment and ease the loved-one’s departure.

After death, the body is bathed and wrapped in white cloth, then taken to the cremation grounds and placed on a wood pyre which is lit by the eldest son. The funeral ceremony also requires Agni, God of Fire. He is called upon to consume the body. Cremation swiftly releases the soul from this incarnation and frees it for the next. The following day, the family collects the ashes, to be scattered later in a sacred river or other chosen place.

Home rituals honor the departed soul on the 10th and 13th days after death and yearly thereafter during the two-week period dedicated to honoring one’s ancestors each fall. These rites help console loved ones and invite the soul to reincarnate back into the family in the future.

Religious Initiations

A mantra is a sacred word or phrase, usually in Sanskrit. Mantra diksha is the most common Hindu initiation. It authorizes the repetition of a mantra as a daily spiritual practice. “Aum Namo Narayanaya” is a mantra chanted in the Vaishnavite tradition. It means “Homage to Lord Vishnu.” “Aum Namah Sivaya” is of the Saivite tradition. At the high point of the sacred thread ceremony, students are initiated in a mantra prayer to the Sun God requesting Him to guide their thinking.

Japa is a form of meditation in which God is visualized while chanting a mantra, silently or aloud, 108 times. The repetitions are counted on a strand of sacred beads called a mala. Mantra initiation gives power to japa. One teacher explained, “Chanting a mantra without initiation is like writing a check without money in the bank.”

Mantra diksha may be given as early as age six or later in life when a guru is chosen. After initiation, the devotee is obligated to perform japa each day as an important part of spiritual practice, called sadhana.

Vishesha diksha is initiation into personal daily worship called puja. It requires learning the rites, including chanting the prayers in Sanskrit, knowing the meaning of each part of the ritual and vowing to perform it each day in one’s home shrine. This is a private worship, different from the public puja performed by priests in temples.

Sannyas diksha is the initiation that makes one a swami or sannyasin. A female swami is called a swamini. These monastics are spiritual leaders and examples for Hindus. This initiation is conducted by a guru after years of training and qualification.

Typically the rites include the shaving of the head, discarding all possessions and thereafter dressing in simple orange robes. In order to be closer to God, the initiate lets go of all worldly things: family life, career, worldly desires and personal ambition. The monastic takes lifetime vows proclaiming his spiritual goal of God Realization. Now born anew, he receives a new name. In some traditions, the initiate symbolically conducts his own funeral ceremony before the sacred fire. This symbolizes the death of his past and personal ego.

Many Hindu monks live in spiritual communities called ashrams. Others wander alone throughout India, begging for their food and spending no more than three days in one place. There are dozens of monastic orders in India, some with hundreds of thousands of monks.

CHAPTER SUMMARY

The uprising of 1857 brought India under formal British imperial rule. Exploitation of the country continued. Mahatma Gandhi’s efforts, the threat of revolt and changes in world affairs forced the British to free India in 1947. Before leaving, the British divided Pakistan from India along religious lines. The nation was left impoverished, through a new middle class had come into existence. Traditional religious beliefs and social practices were little changed by colonial rule.

REVIEWING IDEAS, TERMS AND PEOPLE

1. Define: What is a rite of passage?

2. Analyze: Why do Hindus cremate their dead?

3. Explain: Why does an initiate to a monastic order perform his or her own funeral ceremony?

4. Identify: What Hindu ceremony must be performed before one can effectively practice japa?

5. Apply: How do you think these ceremonies helped Hinduism survive centuries of foreign rule?

In recent times demands for a costly dowry have led to violence and even murder of women in India

ACADEMIC VOCABULARY

adorn

to add beauty; decorate

chastity

sexual abstinence

pyre

a pile of wood for burning a dead body

monastic

a monk or nun under religious vows

Standards Assessment

DIRECTIONS: READ EACH QUESTION AND DETERMINE THE LETTER OF THE BEST RESPONSE

1. Countries justified colonies because they believed:

1. Their people were superior to the natives

2. They could offer a better civilization

3. The natives were subhuman

4. All of the above

2. What sparked the 1857 uprising?

1. Corruption in the British courts and police

2. Attempts to convert the sepoys to Islam

3. Commanding the sepoys to use cartridges lubricated with beef and pork fat

4. All of the above

3. From 1854 to 1901, how many Indians died in famines?

1. 6 million

2. 12 million

3. 28 million

4. 47 million

4. What happened to General Dyer?

1. He was court-martialed and put in jail

2. He was praised as a hero by the British

3. He committed suicide

4. He was quietly discharged from the army

5. Why did the Muslims want a separate country?

1. They felt they could be more prosperous

2. They did not want to be a minority in India

3. The British insisted they move out of India

4. World opinion favored the partition

6. What idea did Swami Vivekananda bring to the Parliament of the World’s Religions in 1893?

1. Only Hindus go to heaven

2. Hindu religion is the world’s only true faith

3. Hindus respect all religions

4. Hindus are seeking the respect of other faiths

7. How did Martin Luther King define satyagraha?

1. “Truth force”

2. “Passive resistance”

3. “Civil disobedience”

4. “Nonviolent direct action”

8. What was the main result of the Salt Satyagraha?

1. The independence struggle became a mass movement

2. The British police were punished

3. The Raj apologized for the brutality

4. All of the above

9. The term “colonized mind” refers to:

1. A colonized people’s sense of inferiority

2. A psychological assessment of intelligence

3. The advantages gained through English education

4. The thinking of British Raj officials

10. To refuse
more food during an Indian meal you should:

1. Politely tell your host you have had enough

2. Shake your head when approached with seconds

3. Cover the banana leaf with both hands

4. Quietly leave the dining area

11. A rite of passage is:

1. A shortcut between two Indian villages

2. A type of temple ritual held annually

3. A ceremony that marks an important stage of life

4. Arranging a marriage for a child

12. Mantra diksha is:

1. A ceremony performed during a funeral

2. An initiation to chant a particular mantra daily

3. A type of mantra for Vaishnavites

4. The daily performance of puja at home

13. At the ritu kala ceremony, a girl is given:

1. A bath

2. Her first sari

3. Gold jewelry

4. All of the above

14. At the initiation into sannyas, the monk

1. Is given simple, orange robes

2. Shaves his head and takes a new name

3. Gives up all possessions

4. All of the above

Internet Resources: Go to http://www.hinduismtoday.com/education/ for a PDF version of this chapter, as well as Chapters One, Two and Three with clickable links to resources. Also at the same URL are additional teaching resources and letters of endorsement from academics and community leaders. To order additional copies of this Educational Insight, go to http://www.minimela.com/booklets/.