Last night, one of the biggest festivals in the Hindu calendar was commemorated – Maha Shivratri – the great night of Shiva. My family stayed up to offer the prescribed oblations to the “Shiva Lingam” (literally the “sign of Shiva”), which signifies his formless existence pervades the countless universes. And which, after billions of years, will eventually subside into his being until all is projected into another round of creation, sustenance and dissolution.
But what occupied my mind between the four sets of oblations (“praharas”) was how little Hindus know about the significance of their practices. But this is not mere happenstance: it is a consequence of Britain’s colonisation of India, from where we were brought. Our “Sanataan Dharma” – or “Eternal Way of Life” – was not only categorised by them as a “religion”, but an “ism”, signifying a mere ideology: “Hinduism”.
Its “Dharmic” practices, teaching that actions upholding and maintaining a harmonious society and balance with nature are prescribed, were appraised from the standpoint of Christianity. This was the emblematic “Religion” that defined “normal” religious beliefs and practices. That Hindus had hundreds of sacred texts, countless male and female gods, with eight incarnations of the Divine’s sustaining aspect etc, made “Hinduism” self-evidently nonsensical. As conquerors of India, the British had the wherewithal to create a “regime of truth” – with its specific language, symbols, modes of reasoning, and conclusions to determine not only whether examined statements were true or false but also whether they had any meaning at all! Performatively, these instruments or techniques as a mechanism of control can be seen as “disciplines” giving effect to the analyses of the lives of people – both the ruled and the rulers.
We are now in a position to appreciate why, for instance, between 1838 and 1957, the authorities in British Guiana prohibited the Hindu practice of cremating their dead. Their belief that the human body had no permanent nexus with an eternal soul and could thus be hygienically and inexpensively burnt was obviously “madness” since it was self-evident that there was going to be a day when all bodies would be resurrected to be reunited with their souls. Cremation, unlike burial (never mind the ensuing decay) would evidently hinder the latter process. The law prohibiting cremation was enacted and enforced and burial was compelled: the indentured imitated the “normal” funerary patterns of the Christianised Creoles down to the institution of the “wake”.
The Dutch and British, who had brought Africans as slaves since the 17th century, had taken the hegemonization process to its inhuman conclusion, where the latter were brutally punished if they engaged in what was dismissed as “obeah”. The Christian Church – which had justified slavery with their story of Ham – was placed in charge of the “education” of the eventually freed Africans, and taught to valorise the practices of the rulers and deride theirs. Hindus entered this “educational” milieu and had to convert to be employed by the state.
While for the strategic reason of “divide and rule” their “religious practices” were derided but permitted, the plantation regime produced other changes in their “way of life”. The immigrant was given one day a week off, Sunday, to facilitate Christian Church attendance. In India, the immigrant knew temples could be visited on any occasion to make offerings to the deities. Special observances might necessitate a visit to the local mandir but more likely were conducted in front of a makeshift shrine in the home.
In Guyana, the six-day workweek and the dawn to dusk workday– not to mention the lack of privacy in the logees – impacted all of that. Hindus eventually started to construct Mandirs – initially shrines, such as the Shivalas they had in village India – where individual worship could be performed but very soon these were converted to larger structures for Sunday “congregational” worship – a la Christianity. The Purohit, who would have gone to the home of the devotee to conduct the periodic rituals (pujas), because each Hindu had his/her unique conception of the Divine, now became a “priest” or “Pandit” who led congregations on Sunday “services”. The philosophy behind the Dharmic practices such as Shivratri was gradually degutted. For instance, one of the Shiv Ratri stories of a hunter who inadvertently offers oblations to a Shiva Linga and achieves salvation teaches that it is not one’s belief that saves, but one’s actions.
In Guyana, we must all interrogate our imposed Eurocentric biases and valorise suitable alternative traditional practices that empower us.
