Short Essay social, political & economic reforms in South India in 19th Century

Sree Narayana Guru believed that all the ills that bedeviled the society, social, political, economic, and intellectual and religions, emanated from the one root cause-caste. By eradicating that evil, the social liberation and consequent political emancipation were possible to achieve. Through a process of self-purification, the lower caste-men would be ready for receiving the benefits of modernisation. The method he used was a process of sanskritization-raising the untouchables to the status of Brahmins.

It was in furtherance of this that he compelled his followers to do away with their crude, uncivilized customs and usages, to adopt worship of Aryan gods in the place of tribal deities like Chathan, Pidari, Chudala Madan and the like, to educate their children, to take to industry and other productive means so as to earn material wealth, and to organize themselves in order to get strong as a social and political force.

This was the practical programme of modernization he set for the weaker sections of Hindu society by following which they could raise themselves to the rank of the highest in the social order. Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam (SNDP Yogam) was the Sangha organized, like the Buddhist Sangha, for the propagation of his ideal of social reform.

It was in pursuance of this programme of sanskritization or modernization that he started constructing temples and consecrating Aryan gods like Siva and Subrahmanya, for the use of the untouchables who were denied access to Savarna temples. He even trained lower castemen to be well-versed in scriptures as tantris. They were first formally brahmanized by giving them instructions in the Vedic lore and tantric sastras.

Thus the Guru made the untouchables religiously self-reliant and regenerate. That was a striving towards religious self-rule. This revolutionary reform, the first of its kind in India, had far-reaching effects on the upper clusters of the Hindu society also. Major portion of the income of the savarna temples was derived from the offerings of the lower castes; sudden fall in that, as a result of the lower castes ceasing to request them, served to open the eyes of the orthodox to the necessity of removing caste restrictions on their temples.

The stress he put on education was again with a view to modernize the lower classes. It was ignorance and illiteracy that served to keep these millions mute and submissive for ages. The light of education would make them self-conscious of their dignity as human beings are aware of their destiny. Feeling of inferiority would be washed away by the wave of enlightened ideas. Following the lead of the Guru, Ezhavas and other lower caste men started agitating for the right of school-entry for their children which was denied to them in Travancore and Cochin till 1910.

Within two decades we find that the number of school- going children of Ezhava community exceeded the number of children of all other caste- Hindu communities. This was the result of an epic struggle that the Ezhavas carried on through their Sangha, SNDP Yogam. Eventually they became a great political force in Kerala; the Guru particularly encouraged them to take to English education. This was with a view to capture political power, by entering public services.

Acquisition of material wealth by just means, through industry, trade, agriculture and commerce, advocated by this spiritual leader, was again to make the weaker sections materially strong. He believed that only through a balanced growth in material and spiritual fields a people can make themselves a useful force in a nation it may look strange that a sage who is non-attached and a vedantin, advocates parigraha and material possessive- ness.

But we may not forget that Sree Narayana Guru’s was an applied philosophy. It is certainly not out of time with the Hindu Upanishadic philosophic tenets. What the Upanishads lay down in abstract terms, he diligently applied to die practical needs of a people. He stressed those tenets of Hindu scriptures which underscored besides others, the necessity for the enjoyment of the senses as a means of fulfillment of man’s objectives of life or purusharthams.

What a find in Sree Narayana is the fruition of the great Hindu cultural and philosophic tradition. The Hindu idealist philosophy is based mainly on the concept of purushartham. Man strives to attain the final goal, moksha, through the graded realization of dharma, artha and Kama. These are to be lived in this world. Dharma deals with the ethical norms of life. Through self-purification and education, the Guru tried to inculcate this ideal in the minds of his followers. Sree Narayana Dharma was an elaboration of this Upanishadic value structure.

Artha covers productive and professional activities, gainful occupation and the promotion of social welfare. Without artha man’s life will be meaningless, as material needs have to be satisfied before one can think of contemplative life. That was why the sage advised his disciple in the Taitareeyopanished; “Do not swerve from that which gives you prosperity; do not swerve from the path which will give you financial and worldly status.” This meaningful advice rightly points to the conviction of our ancient rishis that for a poor and starving people, the moral and spiritual tenets are of no use.

As Vivekananada remarked, “Yet, perhaps, some sort of materialism, toned down to our own requirements, would be a blessing to many of our brothers who are not yet ripe for the highest truths. This is the mistake made in every country and in every society, and it is a greatly regrettable thing that in India, where it was always understood, the same mistake of forcing the highest truths on people who are not ready for them has been made of late.

The mind is canceling forward, as it were, towards the senses, and that mind has to circle backwards; the Pravritti has to stop and the Nivritti has to begin. That is the ideal. But that ideal can only be realised after a certain amount of experience.

We cannot teach the child the truth of renumation; the child is a born optimist, his whole life is in his senses; his whole life is one mass of sense-enjoyment. So there are child­like men in every society who require a certain amount of experience, of enjoyment, to see through the vanity of it, and then renunciation will come to them.

There is ample provision made for them in our Books; but unfortunately, in later times, there has been a tendency to bind everyone down by the same laws as those by which the Sanyasin is bound, and that is a great mistake. But for that a good deal of the poverty and the misery that you see in India need not have been. A poor man’s life is hemmed in and bound down by tremendous spiritual and ethical laws for which he has no use.

Hands off! Let the poor fellow enjoy himself a little, and then he will raise himself up, and renunciation will come to him of itself.” This idealistic philosophy was put to practical use by Sree Narayana Guru in a very simple and effective manner for the uplift of millions of down-graded people of Kerala.

More than any other modern social and religious reformer he realised the importance of artha in the scheme of life. Material advancement is necessarily the precondition for the attainment of spiritual progress. For a hungry man atmovidya is as useless as a bag of pebbles. We have the story of the sage Viswamitra who, struck by hunger during the great famine that marked the transition from Threta to Dwapara Yuga, was forced to filch rotten dog flesh from a Pariah hut and ate with satisfaction.

No wonder that our ancient philosophers and law givers gave prominence to acquisition of wealth. They had indeed, developed it into a mighty science itself. Sree Narayana preached this science for lay followers, thus obviating the fundamental mistake that Vivekananda had pointed out.

But few, if ever, have noticed the broad based social content of the Guru’s teaching and the fire-sureness of its technique. He never forced his philosophy on the ordinary masses, but they understood his mind and intent very well by watching his deeds and listening to his conversation. When he said that a particular custom was unnecessary or injurious to the welfare of the community at large, they obeyed him and put a stop to it, even though custom was the king who ruled their lives for centuries.

His words were more potent than sastric injuctions for millions of Ezhavas in Kerala. He had such charismatic power and influence in Kerala that he could prescribe deviation from customary practices and could even break, without demure, the idols of their crude deities which they worshipped for generations. In ordinary circumstances these were sufficient causes for strong popular reaction. He could also alter marriage and funeral rites and enact new forms and regulations.

These were things that Rammohun Roy could not do and surprisingly, even today, half a century after his demise, we find rules and rites prescribed by the Guru still govern the life of Ezhavas, throughout Kerala and outside, from birth to death. The prayers composed by him are sung in every Ezhava family today. The Guru symbol is and powerful factor in the life of these people today as it was during his life time. In the life of Hindus in India no sage or prophet exerts so much influence as does Sree Narayana in the daily life of few millions of individuals.

In conclusion we may say that it was the social revolution generated by Sree Narayana that made a bedlam that was Kerala at the dawn of this century to shake off its caste villainies and present a balanced societal relation by the 1930s. It also created a condition for upper castes to adjust themselves with minimum friction and sentimental dysfunction. The effects of this peaceful revolution left the government which was originally opposed to any sort of change in the customary practices free to change themselves in a quiet way and in their own right to become revolutionary.

Thus the Travancore Maharaja in 1936 took the most radical step in the field of social reform, by issuing the Temple Entry Proclamation, throwing open all Sirkar temples to Hindus of every denomination. About the great change that overtook the Savarna Hindus, at the time, Gandhiji said, it was “a mass conversion of the caste Hindu which no reformer or missionary could have wrought.”

This is because he was unaware of the stage setting done there by Sree Naryana Guru. Describing the Proclamation as “a charter of religious liberty for all the so-called Avarnas of Travancore”, Mahadev Desai remarked that it “made the Maharajah’s name universally acclaimed as ranking with King Ashoka and King Akbar.”

That may be rightly so; but it must be admitted that this epoch-making reform was only the culmination of the great moderniza­tion movement carried on for about three decades by Sree Narayana Guru and his followers. It will not be an exaggeration if we say that unlike Rammohun Roy’s renaissance myth, Sree Narayana’s influence in the social and religious life of Kerala is a living reality.

A reshaping of the Guru’s personality is neither possible nor warrantable, as his philo­sophical contribution is unmistakably original and his role as social reformer and modernizer has perceptibly formed part of the historical consciousness of Kerala. He has not gone down in history as a “tradition”, but lives as part of the personality of a character­istically changing and progress-oriented society. Only Prophets enjoy that supreme status in relation to a people, and Sree Narayana Guru was really the Prophet of true Dharma which was not contaminated by Varna and Jati.