Anti-Hindutva rant and indigenous knowledge
By Kapa Madhulika Reddy
“If you had known about monsoons as early as the existence of earth, why not assist IMD?” — a social media comment read. (Historical evidence shows that monsoon prediction was known as early as the time of Satavahanas and Cholas in the peninsular India)
Recently, I have come across several posts, comments, articles, memes on social media platforms and sometimes in print media publications where I have witnessed a lot of mockery against cultural and ancient knowledge that many communities in Indian society still carry with them. Many of these trolls carry anti-Hindutva tags and they draw parallels between Hinduism and cultural knowledge, mostly synchronising both.
Indian society carries a heavy cultural baggage with a lot of indigenous knowledge in it. Several sections of the society starting from the tribal communities to the priestly communities possess valuable knowledge in medicinal science, agriculture, arts etc. The most ridiculed of this being the knowledge carried by the priestly communities through some religious and non-religious texts. Many of these texts speak in direct contact with the nature and from the direct experience of many with the environment around them. They speak on environmental management, natural disasters, man and environmental relationship etc. Historical evidence says that a lot of folklore has been imbibed into many ancient writings. While a lot of this knowledge may not have been given modern scientific vigour, they can’t be reduced to a mere item of mockery.
There is truth to the fact that certain castes and classes have kept valuable knowledge inaccessible to others for generations. The modernity should help us fight this but instead of making an effort to make this knowledge accessible to everyone, mere mockery of this heritage wouldn’t yield anything and above all, destroy such knowledge without even knowing the value of it. It is a new standard in the discourse of enlightened middle-class’s critical thinking to make fun of anything considered as ancient knowledge and this goes beyond caste and class. Dalit critics consider Hinduism synonymous to anything ancient in India and upper castes can’t keep themselves away from the social desirability factor. Through all this, a key link is cut down in flow of the knowledge.
Looking at indigenous knowledge with some scientific temper is necessary but simple appreciation of the philosophy we carried so far shouldn’t leave us politically divided. When Anti-Hindutva slogans mock the indigenous knowledge, we lose an important way to connect back to the environment. We create a rift by denying the younger generations access to knowledge that’s been carried for centuries. There is a need to look behind politics for science and history. Isn’t belittling indigenous knowledge similar to overemphasising mythical stories by Hindutva radicals?
