For tens of thousands of years freedom of thoughts has prevailed in India. It is the very foundation on which the Sanatan civilisation stands. Challenging the status quo and the accepted wisdom is not only tolerated but welcomed. While most civilizations, cultures and societies have imposed on people whatever the current orthodoxy was, India has remained a place where freedom to live and think independently has remained sacrosanct.
Going back tens of thousands of years when the belief in God was universal there were scholars and thinkers who were passionately atheistic. Indeed, the Charvaka school of thought completely rejected the idea of a God. In fact the agnostics and atheists are included in the sacred scriptures.
The sexual tendencies of people who feel trapped in the wrong bodies has caused immense trauma in Western societies and the Abrahamic religions. However, in India, for thousands of years they have been accepted as part of the social fabric of life. They have not been thrown off the buildings or sent to gas chambers as happened in Germany under Hitler. Hitler too was deluded in thinking that his ideology would create a superior race of people. His wars led to millions of deaths and a genocide of the Jewish people.
Ever since the advent of Abrahamic religions, hundreds of millions of people have been killed in pursuit of a goal to turn everyone into believing a God that they thought was a true God. The Spanish conquistadors wiped out entire cultures and destroyed Mayan cities and temples. Books containing precious knowledge were destroyed. For the Spanish they were books of ‘heathens.’
This fundamentalism also meant that freedom of expression or freedom of being different did not exist. For centuries societies were stifled which in turn stifled any human progress or innovations. Italian poet and philosopher Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake by the Catholic Church in 1600 for supporting the Copernican theory that the Earth revolves around the Sun. The Church firmly believed that the Sun revolves round the Earth. Italian Scientist Galileo asserted that the Earth revolves round the Sun. The Roman Inquisition tried Galileo in 1633 and found him “vehemently suspect of heresy”, and sentenced him to house arrest where he remained until his death in 1642. Bruno and Galileo were punished for having ideas that were original and thoughtful – but inconsistent with those of the Church.
The only space of freedom left for people living under such repression was to claim to be more pure than their co-religionists, hence sects claiming to be holding the supreme truth emerged. The internecine bloodletting between them has impacted generations of people in Europe and the Middle East. In Christianity Protestants and Catholics have had huge battles over the centuries and in Islam, Shias and Sunnis have similar conflicts.
Because of freedom of thought in majority Hindu India the same Christians and Muslims there can practice their particular form of worship freely and without any persecution. In contrast there is no violence between sects in Hinduism. Everyone’s points of view are accepted even if there is no agreement on the fundamentals of Hindu faith.
The other nihilistic ideology which mercilessly destroyed millions of lives and created a hell on the Earth was Marxist/Leninist Communist ideology. In Russia, Stalin and Lenin killed millions of people who were considered the enemies of the state. In China, Chairman Mao killed 60 million fellow country men and women. Right up until the 1960s Communist ideology was considered as the most revolutionary ideology which would bring equality and end poverty forever. Indeed, in most universities in the UK there were a huge number of lecturers and professors who absolutely believed that Communism and Socialism would be the final solution to create equality in the world. Pitted against them was the Western Capitalist model. For a long time a nuclear war seemed imminent between these two ideologies.
The Chinese have been living under a so-called Communist regime for decades now. They have been stifled. They cannot do anything without the approval of the state. Over a billion Chinese have no freedom to live a life they would like to live. Those who talk about China as an unstoppable economic and military power do not understand the price the Chinese pay for it.
India too had its revolutionary Communist parties. The McCarthyites purge of suspected Communists in the US was a very dark period in a supposedly democratic country. Rather than not tolerating this ideology as happened in the US, in India they were allowed to take part in the elections. In India for decades Communists were in power in Bengal. Eventually the people saw that while Communism looked good on paper it did not work in practice and they were thrown out and are now a relic of the past.
On my recent visit to India I have observed at first-hand how Indians relish the freedoms they enjoy. This is a country where you will find a crowded street with cars, motorbikes, rikshaws cows and a family of four or five on a scooter all jostling for space.
To top it you may even see a Jain religious procession complete with a music band. Amongst all that chaos you may see an individual standing up and going flat on the ground and repeating this at every step. He is slowly making his way towards a Mandir where his favourite deity resides. No one bats an eyelid. He is on his own independent journey. Here is a country in which tens of thousands of naked Sadhus go about in their search of the ultimate truth. Ever since I was young I have seen young boys and girls selling ballons and other toys. The trade continues today. They stand with dignity and without any malice towards the very rich people whose children they hope to sell the toys to. This is a country where a girl walks on a rope to earn a few rupees under the gaze of her father. The building under which she is performing may house corporate bodies with world class technology. India today has women fighter pilots but there also women here who walk with a pot balancing on their heads.
The ancient knowledge of arts and crafts remain very much alive. The art of making beautiful sculpture by artisans have been passed down from generation to generation.
In an increasingly sanitised world the old treasures of knowledge is dying, but not in India. Looking around the world many countries are torn apart by fundamentalist ideologies. The aspirations of people are extinguished.
Indians really are lucky to live in a free, open society which is not engulfed in violence. In the seeming chaos of everyday life there is order.
This country will be organising the biggest religious gathering ever during the Kumbh Mela. Arrangements are being made for 100 million people who will come to this holy festival. They will be housed and fed three times a day. 1.3 billion Indians, a vast nation of around 28 states, numerous languages, cultures, many different ethnic groups, many religions, conflicting political ideologies -yet in spite of all of that Indians live freely and pursue their goals without fear.
There is a maze of layers after layers of Indian society. These layers compliment each other. Within its huge diversity is unity. Could it be that Indian’s are high achievers because of this freedom of thought?
India is a wonder of the world.