Imaginative,
constructive, relentless, structured contributor par excellence
Maravanpulavu
K. Sachithananthan
Siva Saenai
Vasgoda
Gama landed in Kozikode (Calicut) on 20th May 1498. That landing marked
the beginning of the next 450 years of direct western imperialism in Asia and
the subsequent continuation of the covert and indirect western hold on the ‘liberated’
nations of Asia.
However
300 years later, Asian nations woke up. An overt resistance to the western
imperialism through armed and other means was overtaking the subjugate approach
and the suppressed attitude in the Asian minds.
CHINA
In 1842 Wei Yuan (1794-1856), a scholar and
adviser to the government advocated self-strengthening of China; its principle
goal was to maintain the strong essence of Chinese civilization while adding
superior technology from abroad. Li
Hongzhang (1823-1901) Kang Youwei
(1858-1927), Liang Qichao
(1873-1929), and Tan Sitong
(1865-1898) were some of the other vocalists who encouraged Chinese to resist western
imperialism.
JAPAN
For Japan, the first contact with the imperialist west was in 1542 when
a Portuguese ship arrived there. However Japan kept its society out
of reach to the western world. Later it created the Institute for the
Investigation of Barbarian Books (meaning western literature) in 1811 which was
an office in charge of translating Western texts. Ultimately Japan opened its
trade with the west, by negotiating with Commodore Perry from the United States
of America in 1853. The ruling Shoguns did not allow westerners inside Japan
all along their history.
SOUTH ASIA
British East India Company, conscious of the disadvantages of unnecessarily
antagonizing its Indian subjects, excluded all Christian missionary activity from its territories in South Asia.
However evangelical Christian interests in the United Kingdom pressurised the
British parliament to eliminate these restrictions by the East India Company
during charter renewals of 1813 and 1833, towards opening South Asia to
missionary endeavour.
Charles Grant, the
evangelist, believed that South Asia was a backward place. Hindu beliefs and
practices were directly responsible for the stagnation of its growth and
development. Grant conceived that Hinduism was the ultimate source of South
Asia's many social evils. As early as the 1830's Christian intruders were
visiting towns in the remote corners of the countryside of South Asia.
As these
aggressive endeavours became increasingly visible and vigorous, the indigenous
popular antipathy and antagonism became vocal and verbose. Many Hindu revivalists were at the
forefront of meeting the challenge from these barbarians (as the Japanese
termed them).
Raja Rammohan Roy (1772-1833) was born
in a small village in Bengal. He was known as the “father of the Indian
Renaissance”.
Raja Rammohan
Roy was a staunch believer in the philosophy of Vedanta (Upanishads) and
vigorously defended the Hindu religion and Hindu philosophy from the attack of
the missionaries. He only wanted to mould Hinduism into a new cast to suit the
requirements of the age.
From
1819, Ram Mohan increasingly worked against the activities of William Carey, a
Baptist missionary settled in Serampore. He also targeted Serampore
missionaries to halt their evangelical work. He attacked Baptist "Trinitarian"
Christianity. He entered into theological debates with the Unitarian faction of
Christianity.
Raja
Rammohan Roy founded a new religious society known as Brahmo Samaj based on the
twin pillars of rationalism and the philosophy of the Vedas. The Brahmo Samaj
emphasised human dignity, criticised idolatry and denounced social evils like
sati. Raja Rammohan Roy represented the first glimmerings of the rise of
national consciousness in India.
Dayanand Saraswati (1824-1883) was an aggressive Hindu reformer, who directed his efforts
against the missionary faiths, Islam and Christianity. He founded the Arya
Samaj. He was born in Gujarat. He sought spiritual emancipation and became a
Sannyasi. In Punjab he saw with his the threat from Christianity to the other
three co-existing religions, Islam, Sikhism and Hinduism. He stressed the
importance of pristine purity in Vedic Hinduism.
He condemned
idol worship. He spoke against caste distinctions to launch a crusade against
untouchability. He advocated equality for women. He was described as human
dynamo towards Hindu renaissance and reformation.
Vishnu Bhikaji Gokhale (1825-1871) was a
Marathi polemicist against the Christian missionaries. He was the first to
launch a widely recognized defense of Hindu dharma. His counterattack on
Christian doctrines in fluent Marathi made him a popular orator.
He felt
that Hindus were ignorant of their own religion. So he wrote a treatise entitled
the Light of Vedic Religion or Vedoktadharmaprakasha. This work opens with a
simple question: "Dharma Mhange kay?" "What does dharma
mean?"
Through
this book and similar publications he became a popular writer. Through
appealing orations and verbose writings he was a defending warrior of the Hindus.
Arumuga Navalar (1822-1879) belonged
to this period of human history. It was a period which was to set the ball
rolling towards the end of the direct western imperialism in Asia. He was
staunch defender of Saivaism. He worked relentlessly against evangelical Christian
missionaries. He bore with pleasure their attacks and remained unscathed. He
attempted to reinvent meanings for Saiva texts. He also attempted to reform Saivism
itself. Hence he was called their Champion Reformer.
Asian renaissance
movements were spearheaded not by laymen. Scholarly thoughts were followed with
deeds. Whether it was China, Japan, Maratha, Punjab or Bengal, scholars were
behind the anti-imperialistic provocations to prevent intruding western civilization.
Arumuga
Navalar like his contemporaries elsewhere in Asia, viz. Raja Rammohan Roy
(1772-1833), Wei Yuan (1794-1856), Japanese Institute for the Investigation of
Barbarian Books (meaning western literature) of 1811, Li Hongzhang (1823-1901), Dayanand
Saraswati (1824-1883), Vishnu Bhikaji
Gokhale (1825-1871), Kang Youwei
(1858-1927), Tan Sitong (1865-1898) and Liang
Qichao (1873-1929) was a scholar par excellence.
Tamils are proud of his historical contribution to their political, linguistic,
cultural and spiritual emancipation.
History
of human civilization is an eventful record of such foresighted contributors.
Arumuga Navalar remains recorded in
history for his imaginative constructive, relentless, structured contribution,
not only to Saiva and Tamil emancipation, but also to human emancipation, like
his globalized contemporary field-loving fellow scholars.
ஆறுமுக நாவலர் தொடர்பான இசை உரை
நான்கு பாகங்களாக
நான்கு பாகங்களாக
பாகம் 1
பாகம் 2
பாகம் 3
பாகம் 4
வழங்கியவர் சசிரேகா
