By Dr. Sawraj Singh
Elitism of any kind proves harmful to a society because it polarizes people, and instead of uniting them, widens and deepens divisions among them. Many people have condemned the economic polarization of society. We hear a lot of criticism of globalization for widening the gap between the rich and the poor countries, and between the rich and the poor in any country. Karl Marx expounded his theory about the fall of capitalism, based upon the concept that capitalism creates an economic elite which gets divorced from the proletariat, who finally dethrone it and take over the state.
Intellectual elitism is a phenomenon which was almost endemic to India. No other society has been intellectually polarized to the extent that the Indian society has been divided. I feel the main reason for emergence of intellectual elitism in India is the relatively milder climate, plentiful growth of vegetation, and availability of food in the wild. The natural conditions made it possible for people to fully devote their lives to acquisition of knowledge and not worry about food, clothing and house (Roti, Kaprha and Makan); the three basic elements needed to survive. These full-timers were able to create and accumulate spiritual wealth to the extent which no other society could match.
Spiritual wealth became a bigger asset in Indian society than material wealth to the extent that even some kings renunciated their kingdoms in search of spiritual wealth. No other society, at least to my knowledge, put intellectuals above the kings. The Brahmins, who were intellectuals, were put above the Kashatrias, who were the kings. We can take this phenomenon positively and say that the respect given to the intellectuals and the teachers was unique to Indian society because it is very difficult to find something like this in any other society. However, this phenomenon also led to a tendency towards monopolizing knowledge and the emergence of intellectual elitism.
I feel that Buddha and Mahavir Jain, who hailed from the Kashatri caste, tried to challenge the monopoly of the Brahmins over knowledge and intellectual elitism. However, their influence was primarily confined to their own caste. This phenomenon can help to explain the fact that while Buddhism spread to many Asian countries, it could not sustain as the leading spiritual entity in India very long.
It was the Bhakti movement which really transcended caste barriers in the field of knowledge. The Bhagats came from all castes, including the so-called lower castes. Bhagat Kabir and Bhagat Ravi Dass became very popular and respected even though they came from such castes. The Bhakti movement in a way, can be considered a challenge to intellectual elitism and monopolizing knowledge.
Guru Nanak was unique in challenging the monopoly over knowledge and intellectual elitism. He was able to build a broad-based consensus in Indian society that knowledge should reach all sections of society and should be made available to the masses. For this purpose, he elaborated the concept of a Dialogue (Sanwad) in the place of a Debate (Vivad), which was prevalent before him. The intellectuals used to engage in intellectual duels in which a winner and a loser were determined. The objective of these intellectual wrestling matches was to provide an opportunity to show off your knowledge and humiliate your opponents, rather than engaging in an effort to reach a consensus which could benefit society. Guru Nanak particularly tried to reach the downtrodden and the oppressed segments of society and to make them partners in the efforts for betterment of society.
Guru Nanak engaged in a dialogue the leading Hindu intellectuals in Banaras, the leading Muslim scholars in Baghdad and the leaders of the spiritual sect the Sidhas. He preached to all of them that the knowledge which is divorced from social practice does not serve any useful purpose. The real purpose of knowledge should be to transform society and make it better for all. The intellectuals should not be detached from society, but should be concerned about what is wrong in society. Universal concern and universal welfare are the two fundamental components of Guru Nanak’s message. Instead of the economic and intellectual elite, Guru Nanak wanted to associate with ordinary people, the oppressed and the victims of discrimination and exploitation.
Globalization has merged the economic elite and the intellectual elite to form the most elitist society. The intellectual elite, instead of struggling against economic elitism, is actually supporting it. The result is that society has heavily tilted toward the material aspect of life. The spiritual aspect of life, for all practical purposes, has disappeared. Intellectuals should work to correct this imbalance by emphasizing the spiritual aspect of life. They should promote the concept that the essence of human existence is not physical, but is spiritual. India being the land where most of the spiritual concepts were developed, should take the lead in the movement to revive spirituality.
Instead of playing this role, India seems to be reinforcing the elitism of globalization. Instead of trying to promote the sound concepts of Indian spirituality, many Indian intellectuals want to engage in academic exercises only. Some of them are even trying to equate spirituality with mythology. Some are even trying to pass mythology as history. Mythology can be used to reinforce spirituality, but it cannot replace spirituality. There are many examples of mythology being used to illustrate and reinforce the spiritual concepts in Sri Guru Granth Sahib. Guru Gobind Singh imparted new meanings to Indian mythology to make it relevant in the contemporary world. However, when we try to change mythology into history, we end up weakening its potential to reinforce spirituality.
The Indian intellectuals should try to break with the tendency of intellectual elitism and subservience to the West. Instead, they should focus on what is healthy and relevant in their heritage. Let us struggle against and not join elitism of globalization. Elitism has done a lot of damage to India in the past and is still doing it. Ironically, in spite of all of the infrastructural development going on in India, we have moved a notch lower in the human development index. Let knowledge and development serve all people instead of the selected few.
Dr. Sawraj Singh, MD F.I.C.S. is the Chairman of the Washington State Network for Human Rights and Chairman of the Central Washington Coalition for Social Justice. He can be reached at [email protected].
