“Hindu Renaissance” in Bengal

    

    Tantrism has been neglected till quite recently. It was Sir John Woodroffe’s work at the beginning of this century that helped to make it respectable, despite which, however, serious Tantric studies are still only beginning. In this chapter, I propose to examine social attitudes to Tantrism vis-à-vis the “Hindu Renaissance” in Bengal.

    The main heuristic tool I have used here is Agehananda Bharati’s novel use of the term “Hindu Renaissance”, which is “in conscious contrast to earlier uses” of it, as he puts it. In the usual usage, the term refers to the revival of interest among Indians in their traditional culture, which was sparked by the interest in Indian culture evinced by European Indologists and which stimulated the English-educated intelligentsia, especially in Bengal.

    Bharati uses the term, however, to refer to the brand of Hinduism espoused by the alienated urbanite, which is quite different from traditional Hinduism. His usage refers to the “totality of puritanical, ascetical-antiesthetical pattern of modem Hindu ideas.” According to him, this revival began in the early days of the British Raj, and peaked around the time of Indian Independence.4 Bharati’s usage provides us a method to get at the attitudes towards Tantrism of the Bengali intelligentsia during this colonial period. 

    Let us now look more closely at Bharati’s description of his term “Hindu Renaissance”: it is based on the simplistic teachings of Vivekananda and other gurus and leaders. He feels that these teachings were derived from the Christian missionaries who taught them English. This led to a kind of “Christianized Hinduism”, which is highly puritanical, and which resulted in modem Hindus being alienated from the more matter-of-fact attitude of the grassroots Hindu tradition towards the male-female relationship. For example, the Victorian attitudes of the British missionaries and administrators, such as their notions about obscenity, were directly transferred to reformers like Rammohan Roy, Keshab Sen, Swami Vivekananda, and to politicians like Mohandas Gandhi. Thus, we have already seen that Gandhi wished that he had the power to pull down the erotica on the walls of the temples of Khajuraho !

    Let us then turn to the situation in Bengal. Throughout the nineteenth and the early twentieth century, it led the rest of the country. It was the biggest and most populated province of British India. Being the first area to come under British rule, it was ahead of the other regions in English education. It had the most newspapers and periodicals, for instance. Calcutta was developing in this period into one of the world’s important seaports. This revitalization of Bengali life has often been called the “Bengal Renaissance”.

    The high-caste elite entered the professions and government, besides being most often the largest landowners. In 1931, they formed only about six per cent of the population of Bengal, but almost thirty-one per cent of that of Calcutta. It may also be pointed out here that most of them were Shaktas.

    Gradually, with every passing generation, this Bengali intelligentsia experienced an “ambivalence of religious identity”, which grew more and more intense. This ambivalence was visible as early as 1800. Reformers like Ram Ram Basu (an intimate of William Carey’s) attacked the social and religious evils of Hinduism with “an evangelical indignation”, which has a strange middle-class tone to it. The “Christian-inspired puritanical attacks on the twin evils of moral laxity and idolatry” were later institutionalized by Rammohan Roy and Debendranath Tagore in the Brahmo movement. In Ram Ram Basu, we see the first stage in the “invention” of a monotheistic tradition in Hinduism.

    In Ram Ram’s existential situation we can recognize the personality structures of many members of the Bengali intelligentsia of the nineteenth century. Of all these, Rammohan Roy seems to be Ram Ram’s real successor. These Bengalis invited the contempt of the traditionalists for their reformist activities, and experienced a growing cultural alienation and marginality. As Gunderson puts it, “Nineteenth century Bengali culture had many Victorian characteristics, and not a few of its deficiencies. There was a lack of interest in things if they were not immediately useful.”

     Of all the leaders of the Bengal Renaissance, Rammohan Roy is the most famous. He has been “thoroughly integrated into the cultural self-image of the (Bengali) people”. His charisma has so influenced historians that the beginning of the Indian Ranaissance has often been dated from the year 1815, when he settled in Calcutta. According to Kopf, he contributed powerfully to the “puritanization” of the Hindu tradition in Bengal.