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TRADITION AND MODERNITY IN
INDEPENDENT INDIA

India as a nation became independent fifty years ago “Swaraj� or self-rule was the main plank of the freedom fighters against the British hegemony. Indians never wanted the rule of foreigners on their soil. It was the greatest moment for every patriot and nationalist when their motherland became free from the British rule. Since then the Indians experienced several ups and downs in the social and the political spheres under the self-rule. In this paper an attempt is made to highlight the significant developments during the last fifty years of the self-rule which contributed, directly or indirectly, to the national progress and vice-­versa. Also, it is the aim of this paper to look into the role of tradition and modernity in Independent India.

There is no doubt that there is a tremendous progress in scientific, technological, and social spheres in India. Consequently, India achieved self sustenance in many areas. This is certainly a laudable achievement by all standards. However, India is facing some serious social and political problems. Some of these problems, I believe, are the creation of our political leaders to serve their vested interests; and others are created by anti-nationalists, and divisive forces. Either way the victims are innocent people. There is no security to human life. Terrorism is gradually spreading its tentacles. Peace has become a rare commodity. Hence it should be the first and foremost concern of every peace living individual to oppose all forms of casteist and regional tendencies, religious fundamentalism and anti-nationalist policies. The all around progress of any country is possible only through unity and integration. One should not lose sight of the spirit behind the unity. Similarly, national integration should mean the integration of our outlook towards human life and its values. Self-rule is a legitimate claim of every nationalist. But self-rule without sincerity, honesty, accountability, and commitment is as good as despotism. Self­-criticism is the first step towards success under self-rule. Our present day national leaders lack these qualities. In other words, they are indifferent to such ideals. Now the country is experiencing a peculiar trend of thespians turning into politicians. There is absolutely no correspondence between their avowed principles and real life.

India is one of the largest democracies in the world today. But Indian democracy suffers from the myopic vision of our leaders. There are still millions of people living below poverty line. Our memories fade away very quickly. We are oblivious of the way in which our freedom fighters suffered and lived under the British rule. The tall claims of our national leaders, and their unfulfilled poll promises frustrate and Indian masses. People are gradually losing faith in our leaders. Corruption has become a rule rather than an exception. It permeated to every aspect of our life. Instead of addressing themselves to pressing social problems, our leaders are indulging in recrimination, mudslinging and character assassination. It is the need of the hour to see to it that people should not develop pessimistic attitude towards life. There is no dearth of man power or natural resources in India. Our political leaders put Md. Ghazni, and Md. Ghory to shame by plundering the wealth of their own nation in the name of self-rule. For the past three years we have come to know about many scams. Those who are allegedly involved in the scams are left free for want of evidence. These very people enlighten us on the evils of corruption. Therefore, I firmly believe that India is not a poor country, but is made poor by our own leaders. The oath taking ceremony by our leaders has become a meaningless ritual rather than a conscientious act. This is one side of the coin.

On the other side, India produced great scientists, spiritual leaders, and social reformers. The bone of any country is its philosophy; which guides its destiny. India has a rich philosophical heritage. For my part I believe that tradition and modernity are not opposed to each other; rather they are complementary to each other. One cannot survive without the other. Tradition in general implies historically shaped customs, rites, social precepts, ideas, values, and rules of conduct. It is something handed down to us from generation to generation. Philosophy is nothing but philosophy of life. The problems of philosophy are essentially the problems of life. Therefore, the problems of philosophy and their possible solutions concern every individual who cares for human life, because human nature is same everywhere. It is the same spirit that binds everyone of us. That is the highest metaphysical principle that is found in our tradition. What is needed at this juncture is to invite new ways of thinking, new standards of morality, and new forms of administration to make our philosophical tradition more meaningful and pragmatic. This is what is done by the philosophers of Indian renaissance. In order to fully satisfy the demands of human life, a philosophy not only must provide us with a basic principle, which enables us to arrive at a particular conception of the world, but also provide us with sciences that are incidental for social activity.

Inspite of the rich philosophical heritage, why is it that tradition in India is often neglected? It may be due tothe fact that our tradition “is not able to cope with the complexity of the present situation (which) as shown by the indifference with which it is treated by men in public life�. In this respect we have to be self-critical. This self-­criticism in the form of reflection enables us to reorient our thinking and interpretation of our philosophical literature in tune with the present needs of the society. Our ancient philosophers following the tradition, handed over to us the best that can be thought of in the form of philosophy. It certainly served the needs of our ancestors centuries ago. Now the situation is quite different. The disciplines like ethics, politics, and other social sciences must be developed by making our metaphysics as their foundation because our social life demands new dimensions in our thought and action to suit the modern situations. According to our traditional metaphysics, the indwelling spirit in everyone is one and the same. Therefore, the essential nature of all the humans is the same. Similarly, Mimamsa as a philosophy of activism provided us with the notion of dharma without which the human life becomes miserable. The great philosophical tradition handed down to us by our ancient philosophers in the form of metaphysics and dharma must be applied to social life to make our life more meaningful on the earth.

If needed, our tradition has to be reoriented to suit the modern forms of life without losing sight of the basic metaphysical principles of our tradition. The spiritual leaders like Swami Vivekananda, and Sri Aurobindo, political leaders like Mahatma Gandhi and Balgangadhar Tilak, and academic philosophers like Dr Radhakrishnan gave a proper reorientation to our philosophy in terms of thought and action to suit our social needs. The proper cultural growth of any nation is explained in terms of scientific and social progress. In most of the educational institutions in India students are not given much information about the Indian tradition. The natural consequence of such an attitude is the devaluation of India tradition by our tradition. India has reached the greatest of speculative heights. The life in the present era is dominated by the so-called scientific temper. Scientism has become the order of the day. This gradually infused in the minds of the present-day generation a kind of distrust of our dharma, our tradition, and our philosophy in general. Along with scientific temper one has to develop self-discipline which is the cornerstone of the individual’s moral progress. Individuality is another important factor which helps us in assessing the significance of any tradition. It is a living force. It must aid our decision-making process to retain the vital elements of our tradition, and assimilate new ideas that come from outside from time to time. This is possible only when we understand the real nature of our individuality.

Now it is the time for us to shift our attention from God, matter and science to human individual as he cannot be left out. Thus philosophy has become the philosophy of life of man. In spite of our different outlooks and cultures, all men belong to the same species called humanity. The common concern of every individual is to locate human values for which men have been living and dying in different parts of the globe. A tradition must provide us with a clue as regards the nature of human values, which are of paramount importance to the mankind. Man as a historical being might have expressed himself in a variety of ways in different races and cultures. According to Radhakrishnan:

The fundamentals of human experience, which are the data of philosophical reflection, are the same everywhere. The transitoriness of all things, the play of chance, the emotions of love and hate, fear and jealousy, the continual process of death, the anxiety to overcome the corruptibility to things, to enjoy the fleeting moment - these have determined each man his life’s meaning and value.

All men basically share the same urges, instincts, aspirations, and ideals. Man as a social and creative being is capable of creating cultures, frame ideals, and transform them. Man can adapt himself to the changing patterns of environment - social or natural. In all these cases what is important here is the man behind the culture itself which may progress or decay. The artificial segregations among men will disappear only when mankind realises the highest universal ideals which are common to all men. Only tradition can help us in this regard. The true human values form into a tradition which is common to entire human race. In that case “the problems and solutions of one culture will be the problems and solutions of all�.

Freedom is another important factor that makes an individual a complete individual. Every individual must be allowed to live his fullest life possible and to realise all the true human values. Every individual must be given a free hand to enjoy all the human rights. Only then the individuals will realize the problems faced by his fellow men, and look for solution to the problems faced by them. For instance, the values such as honesty, sympathy, charity, kindheartedness are important for a happy social life. Humanism will be complete only with the spiritual values. If tradition represents the internal development of man, modernity represents the external development of man. In this sense, both tradition and modernity are the two sides of the same coin. The development of science in terms of modernity may give man more external comforts, but it is the internal development in the form of human values that provides man utmost satisfaction. There should be proper balance between these two realms, namely, external and internal. One should not remain as mere spiritualist without caring for the society in which he lives; at the same time one should notlive a life of mere materialist comforts without caring for the basic human values. Both these dimensions are to be taken care of for the furtherance of human life.

It is through reflection and critical evaluation that one can realise the basic human values, and the meaning and purpose of human life. This is what is missing in our political -leaders at present. Honesty, sincerity, and commitment to one’s own profession have taken a seat. Men are no more treated as ends in themselves, rather are treated as means to achieve certain desired ends of other men. The meaning and purpose of human life can be realised only when man inquires into his inner most being. Of course, there is no prescribed method as to how to approach the innermost being. In fact, “the inward being of man has remained a greater booming, buzzing confusion than the environment...�

Indian tradition has presented different perception of truth, through the truth is one. The Upanishads are the main source of our tradition. According to them, the essential nature in all men is the same. This is the first step towards equality. The so-called differences among men are based on certain external features. We treat the accidental or adventitious features as primary, and the essential features as primary, and the essential features as secondary or derivative.

All our social problems arise due to this wrong priority given to set of accidental features. To a great extent our contemporary philosophers are successful in revealing this fact. Our enthusiasm to accept modernity at the cost of tradition led us to a mutilated and degenerated value system. This trend has to be checked immediately.

One has to make a distinction between the expressions “tradition� and “traditional�. Tradition in general is concerned with the basic human values to be upheld, and their promotion. We use the expression “traditional� as opposed to modern ways of doing something. For example, we have traditional ways of doing farming, and the modern ways. Unless one keeps this distinction in mind, it is difficult to understand the role of tradition in social progress. The basic human values cannot change from time to time; but the way in which they have to be pursued may change in accordance with the changing situations in society. We certainly need a philosophy which represents the fundamental tenets of our tradition to guide our thinking and actions. It should touch our life. The “ideals that it represents should not be poetical fictions, created by rebellious heart defeated and turned within into the realm of fancy by the hard concrete fact outside�, (P. T. Raju).

To conclude, man is a combination of both spiritual and material elements. We cannot ignore either of these elements. Over emphasis on spiritual element deprives man of his activistic tendency, which is supposed to be the arya dharma. Similarly, over-emphasis on the material element makes man selfish, brutish, and unkind to his fellow human beings. Such a state reduces man to beast. Therefore, tradition and modernity should go hand in hand. If they are treated as antithetical to each other, then the result is lopsided development of our society.