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Aug 18, 2002

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Indo - Native American Cultural Similarities - Dr. V.V Bedekar

At the outset, let me thank the organizers (International Center for Cultural Studies, Nagpur) for having given
me this opportunity to have a dialogue with this learned audience. I am fully aware of my limitations in terms
of academic qualifications and fieldwork to deal with this subject viz. Indo-Native American Cultural
Similarities. My love and concern for the subject, however, embolden me to stand before you.

As I have stated just now, I wish to establish a dialogue with you. Being a privileged speaker to deliver this
keynote address, the dialogue is going to be one sided - I am going to talk and you are going to listen. This,
however, is not literally true. Neither am I going to say something which you will not understand, nor are you
going to listen to a speaker whose words are incomprehensible. By this, I do not mean the language I am
going to employ, obviously English, but the set of rules of idiom and paradigm by which I will have to abide,
so as to make my talk meaningful to you. What do I mean by 'meaningful to you', or 'the said set of rules'?
There is a system, a method by which we try to understand the laws of nature, who we are, what our relation
with Nature is, from where we have come and to what destination we are proceeding. These are perennial
questions, and every civilization, during its course of existence, has tried to address and answer them. Up
to the 15th century the Greco-Roman, South American and Indian civilizations spoke in terms evolved by
their epistemologies based on their own perception, experience and cumulative wisdom handed down from
generation to generation. This development came about by a definite set of rules, which were employed by
the societies, to understand the complexities of Nature and human behavior. All these exercises are now
termed as the world views of those respective people. When human activity centers round these world
views, and proliferates in various fields, we arrive at the concept of their distinct cultures. Up to the 15th
century, the world view of the West was dominated by the influence of Ptolemy and Aristotle in pre-Christian
times and by Christianity later. In India, it was influenced by the thoughts and insights of Vedic seers,
Upanishadic sages and the founders of various systems of philosophy.

We call this culture-complex, civilization.

What are the criteria for calling a culture, a civilization? We ask some questions. Does it have a language
and grammar of it's own? Does it have it's own ethics, value system and beliefs popularly known as
religion? Does it have it's own social institutions? Does it have it's own architecture and town planning?
Does it have their revenue and judicial systems? Health system, fine and performing arts, style of costume,
and agricultural system? All these things have a distinctive stamp of their respective world views on the
civilization. The 15th century saw a turning point, which radically changed the perspective of looking at
Nature and Man. This led to the emergence of a system, which we understand now as the science of today.
This started with Copernicus, and was further developed by the efforts of Galileo, Bacon, Descartes and
Newton. It influenced the scientific thinking up to the 20th century, and there was again a major change with
the advent of Max Planck, Einstein, Heisenberg, Neil's Bohr. The earlier scientific development is known as
Classical or Newtonian Physics, and the latter as Quantum physics. The Newtonian Physics was
responsible for the Industrial revolution in the West, it gave birth to various inventions and discoveries. This
was a success story in physical science. The crux of Newtonian physics was essentialism, determinism and
reductionism. Every branch of knowledge, which wanted to qualify as a science, had to model itself on
physics. Those branches of knowledge like biology, sociology, psychology, anthropology and history, which
don't deal with inanimate matter, adopted the systems of physical science. They started believing that every
science is like any other science and laws of physics and mathematics could be adopted by them. In the
words of Ernst Mayr,

The classical philosophers of science tended to agree with the physicists that everything in the world of
living organisms obeys the same laws as those that apply to inert matter and that there are no other laws.[1]
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The physicists themselves realized the inadequacies of the classical physics and changed their approach
embracing the new insights, which Quantum Physics had given. However, humanities still cling to the earlier
view. The biggest casualty of this is the study of ancient civilizations

The scientific and industrial changes along with material success in Europe, brought about radical changes
in the life-style of Europeans. This change was not a result of their religion it rather came in opposition to the
organized, church-based religion. The stories of Galileo and Bruno are too well known to need repetition:
Another transformation was also taking place in Europe. It is a curious coincidence of history that Vasco-
de-Gama reached Indian shores and Columbus wanting to reach there landed up at the American coast - a
coincidence that changed the course of global history. Britons in the 16t" century, and almost at the same
time, the Dutch and the French came to India and reached other parts of Asia and Africa. This European
expansion gave- rise to massive colonization of all the continents of the earth. Like India, Africa, America
and Australia also each had its own indigenous culture with it's own world view, language, customs and
beliefs. Asian civilizations survived this onslaught, but the civilizations in the other continents were totally
wiped out. Such massive destruction of culture was never witnessed during the last 2000 years, either by
natural calamities or internal warfare. The inspiration behind this unprecedented destruction was, by and
large, religious. This shows the insensitivity, intolerance and brutality of the culture then existing in Europe.
This insensitivity coupled with lust for power and pelf destroyed not only some living, vibrant cultures, but
have also endangered many a species of birds and animals and ecology in general. Scientific and
technological development in Europe was seen as a symbol of progress and enlightenment. This gave rise
to racial and cultural superiority complex. Non Western cultures were looked down upon as barbaric,
primitive, superstitious and irrational. Miss Mayo's 'Mother India' and Archer's 'JEU DESPRIT' are typical of
this supercilious attitude. James Mill's 6-volume 'History of British India' is another example of this arrogant
attitude that disparaged all non European cultures. H.H. Wilson, who edited the later edition has this to
say,".. .. as missionaries .. .. they see the errors and vices of a heathen people through a medium by which
they are exaggerated beyond their natural dimensions and assume an enormity which would not be
assigned to the very same defects in Christianity. "

The European superiority complex viewed the American Indian and Indian cultures as comparably barbaric.
The best example of this can be found in the writings of James Mill who argued that the conditions were
similar among these 'rude nations'. Hindu beliefs of the divinity reminded Mill of those held by the "rude
tribes of America wandering naked in the woods."

What a wonderful similarity in the eyes of the European !

Mill dismisses the European admirers of these civilizations by saying,

The nations of Europe became acquainted nearly about the same period, with the people of America, and
the people of Hindustan. Having contemplated in the one, a people without fixed habitations, without
political institutions, and with hardly any other arts than those indispensably necessary for the preservation
of existence, they hastily concluded, upon the sight of another people, inhabiting great cities, cultivating the
soil, connected together by an artificial system of subordination, exhibiting monuments of great antiquity,
cultivating a species of literature, exercising arts, and obeying a monarch whose sway was extensive, and
his court magnificent, that they had suddenly past from the one extreme of civilization to the other. The
Hindus were compared with the savages of America; the circumstances in which they differed from that
barbarous people, were the circumstances in which they corresponded with the most cultivated nations;
other circumstances were overlooked; and it seems to have been little suspected that conclusions too
favorable could possibly be drawn. [2]

In the footnote, he further says,

The account which Robertson gives of the causes which led to exaggerated conceptions in the mind of the
Spaniards, respecting the civilization of the Mexicans, applies in almost every particular to those of the
English and French, respecting the Hindus. The Spaniards, he says "when they first touched on the Mexican
coast, were so much struck with the appearance of attainments in policy and in the arts of life, far superior
to those of the rude tribes with which they were hitherto acquainted, that they fancied that they had at length
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discovered a civilized people in the New World. This comparison between the people of Mexico and their
uncultivated neighbors, they appear to have kept constantly in view, and observing with admiration many
things which marked the preeminence of the former, they employed, in describing their imperfect policy and
infant arts, such terms as are applicable to the institutions of men far beyond them in improvement. Both
these circumstances concur in detracting from the credit due to the descriptions of Mexican manners by the
Spanish writers. By drawing a parallel between them and those of people so much less civilized, they
raised their own ideas too high. By their mode of describing them, they conveyed ideas to others no less
exalted above truth. Later writers have adopted the style of the original historians, and improved upon it."
Hist. of America, iii 320. [3]

I personally believe that Mill's viewpoint and the finding of similarities between the cultures of Indians and
American Indians have a deeper meaning. Mill was a product of the contemporary Western philosophical,
religious, scientific environment and upbringing. I do not condemn Mill for this. He was honest to his
upbringing which led him to sincerely believe that European culture was by far the superior one, and all the
non-European cultures were primitive, inferior and barbarous. Mill was only a typical representative of the
European mind-set, world view and culture. The next inevitable step was an honest feeling of responsibility
to free the non-European barbarians of the primitiveness, and educate them. This feeling was strengthened
by their faith that Christianity of all denominations was a superior, a true religion which ultimately all mankind
must embrace. So, all the non European religions and cultures were categorized and labeled as pagan,
heathen etc. The practitioners of this culture became, in the eyes of the European, superstitious, irrational
devil-worshippers. So Warren Hastings, William Jones, Duff, Mill, Wilberforce, and that great intellectual
giant T.B.Macaulay - all shared this viewpoint, and tried to 'civilize' non European primitive cultures. The
famous speech of Macaulay in the House of Commons in 1833 speaks volumes in confirmation of what
have just now outlined, and needs no farther elaboration. Says Macaulay -
It may be the public mind of India may expand under our system till it has outgrown that system; that by good
Government we may educate our subjects into a capacity for better Government; that, having become
instructed in European knowledge, they may, in some future age, demand European institutions. Whether
such a day will ever come I know not. But never will I attempt to avert or retard it. Whenever it comes, it will
be the proudest day in English history. To have found a great people sunk in the lowest depths of slavery
and superstition, to have so ruled them as to have made them desirous and capable of all the privileges of
citizens, would indeed be a title to glory all our own. The sceptre may pass away from us. Unforeseen
accidents may derange our most profound schemes of policy. Victory may be inconstant to our arm. But
there are triumphs which are followed by no reverse. There is an empire exempt from all natural causes of
decay. Those triumphs are the pacific triumphs of reason over barbarism; that empire is the imperishable
empire of our arts and our morals, our literature and our laws [4]

Two other towering personalities that shaped and still shape European and Modern Indian public opinion
about India, are Max Muller and Vincent Smith. I sincerely respect their scholarship and devotion. They were
also the product of science and philosophy that had shaped the mind-set and viewpoint of looking at the
non-European cultures, like Macualay and Mill. With all their condescending appreciation of some aspects
of Indian and other non-European cultures, their task was to liberate them from their primitiveness!!
However every admirer of Max Muller, should become conversant with the mind-set and viewpoint of this
great scholar. Writings and publications of him are the visible outcomes of invisible motives and drives. We
must get at them.

Max Muller wrote to Chevalier Bunsen on 25th August 1856.

... After the last annexation (i.e. of Oudh) the territorial conquest of India ceases
What follows next is the struggle in the realm of religion and spirit ... India is much riper for Christianity than
Rome or Greece were at the time of St. Paul. The rotten tree has for some time had artificial supports
because its fall would have been inconvenient for the Government. But if the Englishman comes to see that
the tree must fall sooner or later, then the thing is done, and he will mind no sacrifice either of blood or of
land. For the good of this struggle, I should like to lay down my life .[5]

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Max Muller wrote to his wife on 9th December 1866. In the letter he says,

I hepe I shall finish that work, and I feel convinced, though I shall not live to see it, yet this edition of mine and
the translation of the Veda will hereafter tell to a great extent on the fate of India, and on the growth of
millions of souls in that country. It is the root of their religion, and to show them what that root is, is, I feel
sure, the only way of uprooting all that sprung from it during the last 3000 years ... [6]

Referring to the events of 1867, Max Muller's wife wrote,

... As max Muller was intimately acquainted later with Keshub Chunder Sen and Mozoomdar, leaders of the
Samaj and always took the deepest interest in the whole movement, as being, he felt, the real stepping-
stone to Christianity in India. ... [7]

Max Muller wrote a letter to Duke of Argyll, secretary of State for India, on 16th December 1868. In the letter
Max Muller said :

India has been conquered once but India must be conquered again and the second conquest should be the
conquest by education.[8]

Max Muller wrote to Mr. B. Malabari on 5th September 1884

... what would happen of India if there were a second mutiny and a successful one, it is fearful to
contemplate. You will have civil war, plunder, utter barbarism [9]

Max Muller wrote to Sir Henry Acland on 23rd November 1898

... I have not much faith in missionaries, medical or otherwise. If we get such men again in India as Ram
Mohan Roy or Keshub Chunder Sen, and if we get an Archbishop at Calcutta who knows what Christianity
really is, India will be Christianized in all that is essential in the twinkling of an eye. On this too we must be
hopeful, but not too sanguine ... [10]

The vision of Macualay and Max Muller comes true in the form of Anglicized, 'educated' Indians, brown in
the skin, but Western in their thinking processes and outlook. We 'educated' Indians honestly feel that but for
the divine intervention by our colonial masters we would have continued to live our 'primitive barbaric life'.
This perception, however, is far from truth. The non-Western cultures, especially those of the Indians and
American Indians which were dubbed as primitive and barbaric were in fact far better civilized, gentle and
tolerant than the so called superior culture and religion of the West.

There is a great similarity between the reception that the. 'barbaric' cultures of India and America gave to
the 'highly civilized' Europeans. And it is a tragic part of world history, what these superior Europeans,
Spanish conquistadors in South America and the Portuguese in Goa did to the local populations.

We have talked about how the scientific revolution started in Europe in the 15th century, which was
responsible in shaping the tools of inquiry broadly termed as the scientific inquiry, till the beginning of the
20th century. Humanities like anthropology and historiography borrowed the framework of Physicals of the
Newtonian - Cartesian model, and continue to work within it even after Physics outgrew its own earlier
Physicalism. Humanities have proliferated in many branches but the 15th century viewpoint has hardly
changed.

The mindset behind this obstinacy can be illustrated by recent examples of treating almost as
subhuman, anything that is not white or European. The biological weapon development program during the
white regime in South Africa, medical experimentation's including radio active material on prison-inmates in
America in the early eighties, and forcible and stealthy sterilization in some Scandinavian countries are
shocking revelations. All the victims of these experimentation's were blacks or the mentally retarded. Can
we discern any change in the minds of the inheritors of the so-called superior culture?

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Let us turn back and go to the 15th century again. Similarity of treatment meted out to the South American
Indians by the Spaniards, and to the Hindu Population of Goa by the Inquisition instituted at the instance of
Xavier, is not a historical accident. The same mind-set was at work in both the cases. Columbus touched
the American shores in 1492, and the 'civilizing' mission started then. It will be quite instructive to read their
own justification and reasoning for this.

Our voyages to the New World were little more than extensions of the Crusades to free Jerusalem from the
scimitared hand of the Infidel. Moreover, His Excellency Pope Alexander VI gave us exclusive right to. bring
the New World into Christ's fold in a papal bull issued immediately after Columbus's return in 1493.
When our Christian brethren in Portugal confirmed our papal privilege in the Treaty of Tordesillas the
following year, we added the force of International law to the acknowledged right -- indeed duty - of all
civilized nations to convert and to reduce barbarous people to civility. It was incumbent upon us to wean the
West Indians from their shameless nakedness, lasciviousness, and cannibalism and the Aztecs from their
insufferably proud despots and their bloodthirsty priests, who cut out the beating hearts of thousands of
captives annually as offerings to their false gods and idols. In turn, we brought them the priceless blessings
of the one holy Catholic Church, the legal and military protection of the greatest empire on earth, and the
comforts of European technology, society and values.
We did all this with scrupulous regard for law. After an unfortunate initial period of social experimentation,
we abolished the enslavement of peaceful Indians, prohibited their cruel and unfair treatment in a series of
laws passed in 1512 and 1542, and established a hierarchy of judges and courts to oversee the colonies,
including a special court for Indian cases. Moreover, we prohibited our conquistadors from making unjust
war on the natives by requiring them to read to every Indian group encountered a brief history of the Catholic
Church and of the Spanish crown's rights to the New World and to offer them a dear choice between
stubborn resistance and peaceful acquiescence. If the natives resisted the gentle yoke of civilized law and
true religion, their wives and children would be enslaved, their property forfeit and just war waged against
them. Even a notary was required to witness the reading of the Requerimiento and to affix his signature and
the date to it. Who among our European imitators has paid as much attention to the protection and
incorporation of strange and unpredictable peoples? [11]

Millions were mercilessly massacred or enslaved simply because they were non-Europeans and non-
Christians. Vasco-de-Gama reached Indian shores in 1497. The same mindset was at work in Goa through
Inquisition, which was established for India in 1560. No less a personality than Xavier demanded the
establishment of this Inquisition in Goa. This was his letter addressed to D. Joao III, King of Portugal, written
on May 16, 1545.

The second necessity for the Christians is that your Majesty establish the Holy Inquisition, because there
are many who live according to the Jewish law, and according to the Mahomeden sect, without any fear of
God or shame of the world. And since there are many who are spread all over the fortresses, there is the
need of the Holy Inquisition and of many preachers. Your Majesty should provide such necessary things for
your loyal and faithful subjects in India .[12]

Something similar happened in Goa, A.K.Priolkar says in his introduction to his work "The Goa Inquisition".

'The Hindus living within the Portuguese dominion, were forbidden to observe their ancestral rite and
customs, even behind the closed doors, and subjected to many other discriminatory laws. The Inquisition
took a prominent part in enforcing these measures and the resulting harassment was so great that many of
the Hindus also emigrated to neighboring territories.' [13]

This led to massive conversions and those who resisted had to pay the price. Again, in the words of
Priolkar -

....the story of Inquisition is a dismal record of callousness and cruelty, tyranny and injustice, espionage and
blackmail, avarice and corruption, repression of thought and culture and promotion of obscurantism. [14]

Do we need any more elaboration of this European mindset, viewpoint, superiority complex in dealing with
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'other' cultures?

Scholars have noticed many a point of similarity between Indian and Mayan-Aztec-Inca cultures. It is a well-
known fact that these cultures had existed for thousands of years and the most important similarity between
these two cultures is definitely their antiquity much beyond 2000 years i.e. the Christian era. Today neither
American Indians nor Indians want to adhere to their traditional calendars. Many scholars believe that the
American Indians had migrated from Asia. So it would be appropriate for anthropologists, historians,
sociologists to become conversant with Asian cultures, in order to understand the spirit and dimensions of
these South American civilizations, and vice versa. The Mahabharata war was a major event in human
history. The tradition believes that the momentous event took place somewhere around 3102 BC. It was
also the beginning of the Yugabda Era followed in Indian traditional calendars. It is said that after the war
took place there were massive migrations of populations. The Mayans are credited with a very elaborate
and precise calendar system. Scholars have concluded, as per the traditional belief of Mayans, that the
starting point of their calendar, when calculated according to modern reckoning, was August 12, 3113 BC
(the other conclusion is that it is October 4, 3373 BC). What a striking coincidence of two great events
recorded in world history! Archaeologists, anthropologists and historians put forward hypotheses as to
dates of past events on slender evidence of a piece of bone or pottery, with a highly refined creative
imagination. However, such a striking similarity deeply rooted and firmly believed by the two traditions goes
largely unnoticed, ignored and neglected, if at all it is pointed out by some scholar. Mayans are also
credited with mathematical ability in using the digit zero in compound numerals, even before Indians. There
are striking similarities in mathematics, astronomy, architecture, belief systems, and mythologies of the two
cultures. I am sure, the purpose of this conference is to throw light on many dark corners of the history of
these two cultures.

When I started my speech, I expressed my desire to establish a meaningful dialogue with you. My part of the
dialogue is over, it was verbal, now your response to it should start, which will be initially mental, and
perhaps translate itself into words in subsequent research papers and conferences of this type. I have
deliberately avoided detailing the similarities and material artifacts found by Archaeologists and historians.
I was more concerned about premises, philosophies and provenance's, which shaped their science and
religious beliefs, if they have any, from the 15th century up to the advent of the 20th century.

Biologists have realized the inadequacies of the physical model, so should the practitioners of Humanities.
The need becomes more imperative here, because the branches of knowledge deal with more complex
phenomena than mere life, like mind, belief systems, and most importantly, human interactions that give rise
to culture! So we have to go beyond and behind the material similarities, into the reasons and minds that
created and shaped them.

Do we want our antiquity to be showcased only in museums; or we want it to be acknowledged as a living

tradition, not as a charitable concession made by the so-called 'superior' culture, but on its own merits?

We hardly have learnt any lesson from history!

Thank you.

Reference

1. Mayr Ernst, How Biology Differs from the Physical Sciences, in Evolution at a Crossroads: The New
Biology and the New Philosophy of Science, David J. Depew, Bruce H. Weber, ed. A Bradford
Book, the MIT Press, p.45 <<Back
2. Mill James, 1858, The History Of British India, Vol. II, 6th Edition, London, p.113 <<Back
3. I bid. <<Back
4. Stokes Eric, 1959, The English Utilitarians and India, Delhi, Oxford University Press, p.45 <<Back
5. Godbole V.S., 1996, TajMahal and The Great British Conspiracy, Thane, Itihas Patrika Prakashan,
p.307 <<Back
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6. The life and Letter's of F Max Muller, 1902, edited by his wife, London, Longman Green & co, p.328
<<Back
7. Godbole V.S., op.cit., p.307 <<Back
8. Godbole V.S., op.cit., p.305 <<Back
9. Godbole V.S., op.cit., p.309 <<Back
10. The life and Letters of F Max Muller edited by his wife, Vol. II, P370 <<Back
11. Axtell. James, Moral Reflections on the Columbian Legacy, The History of Teacher, Vol. 25, Number
4, Aug 1992, p.408 & 409 <<Back
12. Priolkar A.K., 1961, The Goa Inquisition, Bombay, p.23 & 24. <<Back
13. Priolkar A.K., op.cit., Introduction, p.xii, <<Back
14. Priolkar A.K., op.cit., Introduction, p.I <<Back

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