The Sacred in Modern India

Kesh B Malla
TKP


India is changing at a rapid pace. With a steady economic growth lasting many years, it is already on the verge of overtaking Japan to become the third largest economy in the world. But William Dalrymple, the award-winning Scottish writer, leaves aside congratulatory remarks on economic progress in his newest book on the country; rather he collects stories of people—all real—taking up a spiritual journey across India.

Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India, is a travelogue that includes remarkable accounts of ordinary people who have been displaced by political tragedies and religious fundamentalism. Tashi Passang, for instance, is a Tibetan monk who fled his homeland after the Chinese invasion and took up arms in the hopes of winning his land back. Living in exile in India now, he prints prayer flags seeking atonement for the violence he committed. Then there is Lal Peri, a Sufi saint. A young Muslim girl from Bihar, she had taken refuge in a Sufi shrine in Sindh, Pakistan, following the partition of India and Pakistan and then Bangladesh from Pakistan.

The author, through his account of Prasannamati Mataji, also tells of the hard rituals and practices of Jain nuns. While Buddhist monks shave, these nuns pluck their hair; they are not supposed to beg for food, and can eat only if offered. The ultimate aim of any nun is to perform Sallekhana, the self-imposed ritual fasting to the death, which they believe is a triumph over death. Prasannamati Mataji, though expected to be detached from all kinds of association is mourning the death of her friend, another nun, and is now choosing Sallekhana for herself.

Dalrymple also writes about the Devdasis, girls who are dedicated to Hindu temples by families wishing to please the gods. A group that also exists in Nepal in the far west—called Deukis and believed to be more than 30 thousand at present—this practice goes against the rights of women and children. Although laws have been passed here, not much has changed. And according to Dalrymple’s details, the situation of the Devdasis is equally grim in India, with majority of them becoming prostitutes.

Depiction of the dilemmas and struggle of modernity versus continuation of age-old traditions is carried out especially well in the book, particularly the story of Srikanda Stpathy, an idol maker devoted to his calling, concerned that his son—an aspiring computer engineer—will not want to continue the family legacy, as well as that of Mohan Bhopa, a village shaman who recites The Epic of Pabuji, a 600-year-old poem of heroism and honour, who worries that no one remains besides his family “to tell the tales of Pabuji.”

The final chapter is on the bauls of Bengal who “refuse to confirm to the conventions of caste-conscious Bengali society.” These poor minstrels travel from village to village, singing philosophical songs of desire, ecstasy and madness. Their touching accounts can also be applied to the caste bigotry prevalent within Nepali society.

In his introduction to the book, Dalrymple demonstrates his fascination and concern for wandering mystics and holy men, who he says, have been ‘banished from their families and castes, or destroyed by interreligious or political violence’, finding love and acceptance within their own particular groups. In Nine Lives—for which Dalrymple has already received the first Asia House Literary award—he has let the characters tell their own stories, keeping himself neatly tucked in the background, emerging only to give details about historical events and make certain analogies between the East and the West in terms of values and traditions.

For a western audience, the stories in the book would definitely be interesting in all their exoticness, but some are startling even for South Asian readers who are familiar with the cultural eccentricities of the sub-continent. Dalrymple has penetrated into, captured and beautifully presented the nuances of Indian society—many of which don’t even catch the attention of the popular media—to the readers, in the most poetic language, a feat even for an accomplished writer like himself.

Malla is a teacher of Social Work at Kadambari College, Kathmandu