Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0165/01656.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 34KB | 530 lines

$Unique_ID{COW01656}
$Pretitle{221}
$Title{India
Introduction}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Richard F. Nyrop}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{ch
government
india
indian
sikh
percent
gandhi
minister
union
states}
$Date{1985}
$Log{}
Country:     India
Book:        India, A Country Study
Author:      Richard F. Nyrop
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1985

Introduction

     The known history of the Indian subcontinent is punctuated by a series of
invasions and migrations from the northwest through what are now Afghanistan
and Pakistan; only the last of the major conquerors-the British-entered the
region from the sea. The words India, Hindu, Hindi, and Sind all stem from the
ancient Sanskrit word sindu, which is what the Aryan-speaking migrants of the
second millennium B.C. called the Indus River. Over a period of perhaps 1,000
years these Aryan-speaking tribes wandered and eventually settled throughout
most of the subcontinent. In the process they merged with the earlier
inhabitants, most of whom were Dravidian speakers (see Languages of India, ch.
4).

     Between about 1500 B.C. and the beginning of what is known in the West as
the Christian Era, Hinduism and its two major reform offshoots-Buddhism and
Jainism-took form (see Hinduism, ch. 3). Although Buddhism eventually almost
disappeared from the region and the adherents of Jainism declined to a
small-albeit influential-group, in the mid-1980s Hinduism remained the
religion of over 80 percent of the populace. Unlike the major monotheistic
religions-Judaism, Christianity, and Islam-Hinduism contains no single
obligatory and unifying creed or ritual. Rather, it is a vast socio-religious
system that embraces and encourages the harmonious coexistence of diverse
beliefs and customs. In theory, and to a large extent in practice, the Hindu
value system is based on the acceptance of an ordained order of the universe
and human society and the fulfillment of the obligations and duties of one's
age, sex, and status in the social hierarchy.

     Hinduism provides the religious rationale and sanction for the caste
system, which in turn forms the basis for the social system. Theoretically and
according to myth and legend, Hindu society was originally composed of five
main groups: four varnas and the untouchables, i.e., those outside caste. The
varnas were ranked in terms of ritual purity and occupation. The Brahmans, the
hereditary priestly caste, were positioned at the top. Ranked in descending
order below them were the Kshatriyas (warriors), the Vaishyas (traders), and
the Sudras (artisans). The untouchables were relegated to tasks that were
ritually polluting to caste members-tasks such as those performed by
butchers, tanners, sweepers, and midwives. Members of any group could till the
soil.

     The actual functioning of caste is vastly more subtle and complex. The
most basic aspect of the caste system is that each individual is born into an
endogamous kin group known as a jati-of which there are perhaps as many as
3,000-and remains a member of that jati and that jati only for the rest of his
or her life. The jati determines the individual's choice of a marriage
partner, place in the social hierarchy, and forms of religious observance; it
also greatly influences the person's occupation. Occasional individuals may
be able to achieve political power or economic success on their own, but for
the mass of Indians, social status and social mobility are determined by and
achieved through their jatis (see Caste in Operation, ch. 5). The basic
assumptions of the caste system and its hierarchical ordering of society are
so pervasive that even those religious communities that neither accept nor
sanction caste-Buddhists, Christians, Jains, Muslims, Parsis, and Sikhs-are
inevitably and inextricably involved in it.

     Indian society therefore remains a mosaic of myriad social groups that
are linked by numerous forms of accommodation yet are divided by intense
competition for goods, services, preferment, power and, for many, existence.
Distinctions of language, region, religion, and caste crosscut the society,
resulting in a multitude of discrete communities, each marked by varying
degrees of internal loyalty and cohesion. Groups may join forces on such
issues as linguistic or regional goals only to engage in violent strife
triggered by religious or caste disputes. Linguistic and regional allegiances
usually coincide, and a few small groups-such as the Punjabi-speaking
Sikhs-are united by distinct linguistic, regional, and religious loyalties
that are reinforced by a fear of domination or absorption by the Hindu
community.

     The adherents of Islam-about 11 percent of the population-not only are
the largest minority group but also constitute the fourth largest Muslim
community in the world, exceeded only by the communities in Indonesia,
Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Muslims entered the subcontinent within a century of
the death of the Prophet Muhammad in A.D. 632, but the major impact of Islam
began in the eleventh century with a series of raids and invasions from an
area in what is now Afghanistan. Muslim influence and power reached a zenith
during the Mughal Empire (1526-1857), and various aspects of Indian political
and cultural life stem from that period and earlier (see The Mughal Era,
ch. 1). Nevertheless, Muslims constitute a majority in only one of the
republic's 22 states (Jammu and Kashmir), and the dispersed national community
has been politically insignificant since independence (see Religion and
Politics, ch. 8).

     By the 1920s and 1930s many Muslims, who then totaled well over 20
percent of the population of British India and the princely states, had
concluded that their minority position would be untenable in a nation
dominated by Hindus. In March 1940 the All-India Muslim League declared as its
goal the creation of an independent Islamic state (see The Beginnings of
Muslim Separatism, ch. 1). By the time independence was achieved and British
India was partitioned into two states, communal clashes between Muslims and
Hindus and Muslims and Sikhs had become increasingly violent. During the
months immediately before and after independence, millions of Hindus, Muslims,
and Sikhs fled from areas in which they were a minority, and hundreds of
thousands were killed.

     India secured independence on August 15, 1947. The struggle for freedom,
for the most part conducted by and through the Indian National Congress (see
Glossary), was occasionally marred by violence but gained worldwide admiration
because of its use of massive, nonviolent, civil disobedience. This form of
political agitation, known in India as satyagraha, was instituted and led by
Mahatma Gandhi, one of the most famous and influential individuals of the
twentieth century.

     Gandhi was an English-trained lawyer,and in his sociopolitical activities
in South Africa and British India-what he termed his "experiments in truth"-he
made use of the many channels of protest available through constitutional and
English common law procedures. His most effective political tactics, however,
were based on religious and cultural traditions familiar to and revered by the
Indian populace. Gandhi incorporated various aspects of Judeo-Christian
beliefs in his personal philosophy, but his basic social and political tenets
and doctrines emerged from ancient traditions and concepts indigenous to the
subcontinent (see Gandhi, Noncooperation, and Mass Politics, ch. 1; Basic
Concepts of South Asian Religions, ch. 3).

     Throughout the early 1900s and until his death in 1931, Motilal Nehru was
a prominent and influential leader of Congress and the independence movement.
At independence his son, Jawaharlal Nehru, became prime minister and foreign
minister and retained those positions until his death in 1964. The younger
Nehru had been a protege of Gandhi but was in many important ways his
opposite. Gandhi envisaged a nonindustrial, traditional society, whereas Nehru
strove to cr