There’s no such thing as Hinduism
Hinduism is too large to be a single religion, assert the Kakars
Sudhir Kakar is a psychologist and Katharina is a scholar of comparative religions. So it’s not surprising that their book is a study of religious psychology. For them Indian-ness, and they are confident that for all the diversity of India there is such a thing, is “about similarities produced by an Indic, pre-eminently Hindu civilisation”. What’s more, they maintain “Indic civilisation, as separate from though related to Hinduism as a religion, is the common patrimony of all Indians, irrespective of their professed faith.” That’s a courageous statement with sensitive secularists equating even the mention of Hinduism with communalism, and scholars arguing that there is no such thing as Hinduism because the multitude of beliefs bundled together under its umbrella is far too diverse to represent a single religion or culture. But the Kakars argue the opposite convincingly, quoting Nirad Chaudhuri as an authority for their case but don’t take his dismal view of Hinduism.
This is a book which should be read by all Indian executives. In the first place if there really is such a thing as Indian-ness then managers should think of an Indian style of management. They should not be content to rely on the teaching in American Business Schools, notorious for exalting their so called management science and decrying experience. Managers should pay particular attention to what the Kakars have to say about the ‘Hierarchical Indian’. They suggest that that Indians prefer authoritative leaders. But there is a catch — the leader has to be “strict, demanding, but also caring and nurturing.” But to a modern executive, believing that hiring and firing is the best way to deal with staff, it smacks of hopelessly old fashioned paternalism.
Modern executives tend to dismiss metaphysics as irrelevant but the Kakars accept the commonly held assumption that Indians, including corporate Indians, are inclined to spirituality. One aspect of the Indian spirituality they stress is relevant to all of us in all our lives. They say ‘there is a profound ethical relativism which has become entrenched in the Hindu way of thinking.” This relativism, they maintain “supports tradition and modernity, innovation and conformity”. So Indians should find it possible to resist the modern mania for change without going to the opposite extreme and blindly following tradition. It is alleged that Hindu relativism implies Hinduism has no moral code. The Kakar’s argue that is not so. But they will take the contexts of violations of that code into account. They won’t follow the spirit rather than the letter of the law. In contrast to that, moral relativism is one of modernity’s greatest sins, according to the present Pope.
Inevitably the Kakars have to deal with caste, which they note is not confined to Hinduism in India. They say it is not as harsh in other religions but I wonder whether a Dalit Christian would agree. They don’t judge caste, apart from condemning untouchability outright.
Hindu relativism as described by the Kakars seems to me a course which can be steered between the rock of modernism with all its certainties and the whirlpool of postmodernism with all its uncertainties. It stresses that there are no absolute, and final answers. That’s why the Kakars think the RSS championing of a homogenous Hinduism is in fact contrary to the spirit of the religion it underpins. We can take this relativism to the wider word beyond religion. If there are always uncertainties there can be no final universalism. That surely means we should question the universality of the market capitalism sweeping the world. We should ask questions about market capitalism — see its benefits but not lose sight of traditions which would urge some caution on us.
