Jignasa Journal Of History Of Ideas And Culture Part 02

Author(s): Vibha Upadhyaya and Others
Publisher: University of Rajasthan

Page 62

278 / Jijñāsā
Dayanand desired the creation of social order wherein people were engaged in doing well to others. Rejecting the conventional faith in ritualistic worship as a way to propitiate God and deities, Dayanand made a categorical assertion, "God is not pleased by worship and prayer... He is a just being... and if a person is engaged in righteous deeds then God is pleased with him even if he does not pray to him or worship him." This was indeed a radical reinterpretation of the prevailing form of religion and also an effort to link religion to righteousness and service. He asserted that if karma was righteous than there would be progress.
Dayanand severely condemned superstitious practices that came to be associated with religion. He firmly believed that adherence to such irrational practices had not only hindered social progress but had been responsible for the enslavement of Aryavarta (India). He denounced perpetuation of certain practices in the garb of tradition and religion. He refuted the widely held belief that one loses faith and purity by travelling abroad. He cited instances from ancient scriptures when rulers, scholars, traders and commoners visited foreign countries for purposes of trade, travel or political business. He found it extremely ridiculous that whilst people did not mind having sexual intercourse with a low despicable prostitute but considered it debasing to associate with good men of other countries. 14 He considered foreign travel as integral to a nation's progress. "What can you expect but misery and poverty when the people of a country trade only amongst themselves, whilst the foreigners control their trade and rule over them?" He was extremely articulate regarding the advantages Indians could derive through foreign travel. Similarly, he rejected commensal restrictions as anything to do with religion. He remarked that whosoever has consumed sugar, asafetida, butter, milk, flour, fruits and roots has in fact eaten what has been prepared by men of all sorts and castes. 16 He said that Indian soldiers had observed these senseless restrictions regarding food during wars that had led them to lose their independence, happiness, wealth and political power. He was deeply anguished that people had lost the essence of true religion and instead confused it with irrelevant practices. He remarked that it took longer to pluck a blade of grass than it takes a Hindu to loose his religion.17
Dayanand was aware of the appalling degradation of Hindu society and desired basic changes in the institutions of marriage and caste. The institution of marriage had great utilitarian value for Dayanand but he realized the necessity of wide-ranging reforms to revitalize the same. His perspective on issues like child marriages, unequal marriages, position of widows and restructuring of the caste system, apart from being motivated by his larger concern for the upliftment of the Aryan race, were aimed at redeeming the status and position of women. Dayanand laid great stress on compatibility between husband and wife as the basis of a happy conjugal life and reproduction of healthy children. He applied himself sincerely towards weeding out of evils that led to the widespread existence of illmatched marriages. One of the reasons that had led to the incidence of such marriages was the caste rules that rendered it obligatory for the parents to settle marriages of their daughters within the same sub-caste. These rules while strictly limiting the choice of the bridegrooms, precipitated an intense competition for matches within the same sub-caste resulted in child marriages and ill-marriages.
He embarked upon reform by prescribing certain basic changes in the caste structure of the Hindu society. While retaining the varnavyavastha or the classical division of society into four classesBrahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas and Śūdras- he stood for outright rejection of the innumerable castes and sub-castes. A more radical departure from the traditional caste-system was that the assignment of classes was not determined by ones birth, but solely depended on his guna or attributes; karma or actions; svabhava or temperament. Dayanand then prescribed marriages between individuals belonging to the same class, i.e., individuals corresponding with each other in guṇa, karma and svabhāva. 18