Critique of the West in Indic literature and society

[pslvax!sadhu at UCSD.EDU]

/ FROM:  Lars Martin Fosse <easteur-orient.uio.no!l.m.fosse at ucsd.UUCP>, Aug 15 17:24 1995
| ABOUT: Critique of the West in Indic literature and society
|
| On behalf of a colleague, I am looking for information (literature) on
| Indic critique of Western culture and values, preferably of a more
| sophisticated type than the trite criticism of lack of sprirituality etc,
| but anything is of interest.
| 
| Best regards,
| 
| Lars Martin Fosse
.........

The following editorial, though not specifically a critique of the
West, has some interesting thoughts about the Western values of
wealth.  But you have to read it to the end.  I hope it may help you.

ciao,
sadhu





Title: Editorial  (from Hindism Today, Jan 1994)

Head: If India's so Great, why is she so poor?

Text:

That heckler's challenge has an answer, and-impassioned
evangelical exhortations aside-it's not because God is punishing
the heathens.  In fact, some think He may have it in for the
rich.  Those who know them well describe the really rich as a
lonely, fear-bound breed, defensively walled away from the
less-endowed world, seldom profoundly spiritual, rarely free to
do as they please, more captives of their shekels than captains
of their ship.  Sure, there are exceptions, important ones.  But
they just prove the rule.  The British author who offered this
acerbic assessment was probably not in a high tax bracket: "If
you would look at what the Lord God thinks of money, you have
only to look at those to whom He gives it."

India's material shortcomings were tangentially brushed against
in Washington DC, at the August Global Vision 2000 gathering of
10,000 Hindus, reported fully in this issue.  But in those
sessions no real answer was forthcoming, just some muttering
about how Indians are too mild and meek.  We need better answers
to this recurring criticism of India's poverty.  Three are
provided below, and readers will have three hundred more.

The wealth of nations has moved, not unlike a contagious virus,
from host to host down through the centuries.  This month's
health column on AIDS has provoked this paradigm, and if you
find the model awkward, just remember that, like AIDS, wealth is
frequently acquired by sleeping with someone who has it.

Three thousand years ago the Egyptians had a severe case of
opulence.  It bought them lots of trouble in the form of
plunderers under whose invasions the empire succumbed.  One by
one other victims fell to the fatal fortunes of affluence.
Between 2800 and 200 bce, wealth infected Mesopotamia, Assyria,
Greece, Persia and Rome.  All dead today, for wealth and power
attract looters as naturally as carrion attracts vultures.  The
deadly bounty moved on to India and China, who suffered but
managed to survive, due to another kind of richness of which we
will speak later.

Mexico and the Mayan empires arose in the early centuries of the
Christian era, then fell as Arabian and European citadels were
erected.  In recent times the youthful US has enjoyed the lion's
share of global provisions, and Japan and Korea are just sitting
down at the table.  The hyaenas and jackles are circling
cautiously, nervously awaiting any opportunity to exploit the
exploiters.  And so it goes.  Which brings us back to our
question: If India is so great, why is she so poor?

Answer #1: The first response, drawn from the history just
recounted, is painfully simple.  India was plundered.  Not once.
Not even ten times.  But continually and relentlessly for
centuries.  Before invasions began, India thrived on the varied
resources that grace her hills and valleys.  Water and good
land, abundant flora and fauna made the subcontinent among the
richest nations on earth.  Then, as now, wealth did not go
unnoticed.  Hearing reports of a land filled with spices and
silks, art and agriculture, cupiditous kings sent forth their
armies.  The Muslims came in 712 and dominated India between
1200 and 1750.  The Portuguese, backed by superior sea power,
came in the early 1500s, and set up shop in the East.  Spain
came next, superceded by the Dutch.  In 1600 the British took
their turn in the spice trade, starting with Bengal, then the
richest province.  The French could not resist coming to the
party-staying a short time in the mid-1700s.  European military
superiority thus assembled in India quickly drove the Muslims
aside, leaving the nation ultimately under British rule until
1947.  Thus we have our answer.  India's wealth was taken,
violently and otherwise, and she has had less than fifty years
to recover.  She is no more to be blamed for material want than
an innocent pedestrian is to be blamed for being mugged on the
streets.  Rather, sympathy should be shown, and blame placed
with the thieves, not the victim or the victim's gentle manner.

Answer #2: Our second answer is that India is not as poor as the
pundits have been preaching.  The International Monetary Fund
just recently ranked India the sixth wealthiest country in the
world, based on Gross Domestic Product, adjusted for the
currency's purchasing power inside the country.  India is rich
enough that Coca Cola has just won a battle to enter the market,
after sixteen years of exile, and France's Peugeot is setting up
to make 60,000 cars each year.  India has the world's fourth
largest standing army, complete with nuclear capability (not
cheap, that one).  She makes more sweet candied goodies than the
rest of the world combined (now that's rich), and flaunts a
film-making industry that desperately needs to go on a diet.

Sure, there are lots of people in India, and each one's share is
far less than many places.  But have you ever seen a simple
village woman, frail and stooped with her years of carrying
bricks in a basket on her head?  Her clothes were tattered; her
hair tussled and untied.  Remember those two massive solid gold
earrings, each the size of a plump pomegranate, dangling
precariously on lobes stretched thin by the weight?  Did you
notice her proud carriage, her quick smile, her five children
frolicking nearby?  She lives in poverty, but can you really
call her poor?

Answer #3: Our third answer is that, in the things that really
matter, India is not poor at all, but as rich as any country and
richer than most.  Money can't buy you wealth.  When the Vedas
speak of wealth, artha, there is no mention of money, of stock
portfolios, BMWs or beachfront property.  Wealth, to the old
sages, was a fat, lactating cow grazing in the compound, not
lucre languishing abstractly in a bank's computer.  Wealth, in
their eyes, was ample rains and crops.  Wealth is good water,
clean air and food plucked from your own garden.  Wealth is a
sound body and mind.  Wealth is cultural and social richness.
Wealth is the extravagant beauties of art and architecture.
Wealth is music and storytelling, and the time to listen to
both.  Wealth is having enough to help others, even a little.
Wealth is hospitality and leisurely hours spent with family.
Wealth is help from friends in times of need.  Wealth is lack of
debt and freedom from onerous obligations which burden senses
and soul.  Wealth is the right to participate in social
processes and to be protected by just laws.  Wealth is a job
that supports the family without requiring wretched hours.
Wealth is a home filled with happy kin, toiling together on
things that matter to them.  Wealth is living close to whatever
one calls the Divine, being filled and thrilled with That more
than with mundane matters.  It is festival days off and
celebrations of happy dance and abundant feasting.  In all of
the above, India is anything but poor.

Of course, money is another kind of wealth, not to be
underestimated, and in this space in the months ahead we will
explore some very Indian ways of getting (and staying) rich.
Money can keep you warm in winter and well fed in all seasons.
It can get you into politics or the country club and fulfill a
desire for things, but it can never fill the human heart.  It
can't help you sleep at night.  It can't make your grandma well.
It can't give you knowledge or insight, or make you unselfish.
It won't enlarge your ability to love.  And it will never deepen
your communion with the Divine or help you understand the
mundane one iota better.  So if you have money, don't count
yourself rich too readily.  And if you don't have it, look
around-maybe you are more wealthy than you, or your banker, ever
thought.





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