I wish every country on earth was secular and every person on earth practiced humanism.  Having said this, I have immediately sided with secularism and humanism.  “Human differences are what define us, not the humanity we share.” Michel Ignatieff.  Distancing oneself from other political system, religion, land and language usually give rise to prejudice and bigotry. Overcoming the barrier of individualism and recognizing other people the way they are is the first step towards inclusion politically and spiritually.  Inclusion does not mean praying or sleeping under the same roof it just means to listen to some one that you do not want to hear.  To illustrate my point I tried to comprehend two Canadian thinkers, Michel Ignatieff and Jean Vanier through their writings.

Since The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, the last half of the 19th century has been plagued by the struggle of various minorities of colour and women for full civil rights, the struggle of aboriginal people to achieve self-government and the struggle for countries to gain independence from colonial rule.  Even though the Berlin Wall came down the rights movement is still on its course; it has given right of equality to previously excluded groups. Also, It is designed to protect minorities from the power of elective majorities, to set limits as to what the majority

can do.  This is comparatively new in western liberal societies to make democracy work on conditions of total inclusion.  Everybody has the right to be heard therefore democracy belongs to everyone.  

Rights are not privileges given to us by the ruling government, they are either inherited from those who fought for it earlier or won through struggle.  Constitutions recognize and codify the rights we already have and provide means for their protection.  Inherent rights irrespective of any citizenship such as not to be tortured, abused, beaten or starved, are now collectively called human rights.  

Going beyond just individual rights-claim Canadians have forced into the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which passed into law in 1982 for collective rights such as language rights, women’s equality, multicultural heritage and aboriginal land claims.  As a result, Canada has become one of the most distinctive rights culture in the world.  On moral question like abortion, capital punishment and gay rights, our legal codes are notably liberal, secular, and pro-choice.  We share our way of life more closely to our southern neighbours but our mind on rights questions are very much our own.  American rights culture is individualistic hence historical disadvantaged group like African-Americans and women have run up against the belief that favouring certain groups discriminates against individuals in other groups.  Another example of group discrimination is in France where Muslims seeking rights to distinctive dress and religious observance have encountered more difficulty than they would have done in Canada.  To my surprise Britain being strongly individualistic and centralist recently extended legal protection and state assistance to language rights to the Welsh.

The term Recognition is another Canadian idea introduced by a Canadian Philosopher Charles Taylor.  To be recognized is to be seen and acknowledged for what you are.  Individuals and groups seeking recognition want their equality recognized and their differences acknowledged. 

Recognition also raises the question of approval.  Same-sex groups are seeking approval along with tolerance but approving same-sex life styles can be difficult for the majority from their moral prospective.  Even though homosexuals have secured equal rights, they still have to wait for recognition as moral equals.  

The political and social history of Western society is the story of all human groups struggling to gain inclusion.  We are living in the first human society that has actually attempted to create a political community on the assumption that everyone has the right to belong.  In place of societies built on rights, people in different parts of the world today are hacking out societies whose unity is based on blood and fantasies of common origin in other words involved in ethnic cleansing.  

Inclusion, I have been discussing so far has been a political process in mass format.  Jean Vanier brings down the same idea to an individual level through philosophy, and sums up in one sentence  “Fear is the root of all forms of exclusion, just as trust is at the root of all forms of inclusion” 

“Loneliness” and “Belonging” are also ideas developed by Jean Vanier and in a nutshell this is what it is.  Loneliness is something essential to human nature, it can only be covered over and it can never be shed off.  Loneliness is part of being human, because there is nothing in existence that can completely fulfill the needs of the human heart.  Many artists, poets, mystics, prophets used loneliness a source of creative energy to drive us down to new paths of creation or to seek truth and justice.  Loneliness is a feeling of being unworthy, of not being able to cope in the face of a universe that seems to work against us.  It is not the same as solitude; we can be alone yet happy, because we know that we are part of a family, a community, even the universe itself.

Belonging to a group that practices secularism and humanism is what I affirmed at the beginning of this article.  At birth I belonged to my parents.  My conception and birth was a call to my parents to grow in greater love, openness and offer of themselves, what is most precious in the human heart. Through this belonging I discovered who I am and realized what to become.  I had to hold their hands before I learned to walk. Since then I walked few different terrains each with a very different culture. Every state of belonging was a rediscovery of myself.  Each of us needs to belong, not just to one person but also to a family, friends, a group, and a culture.  We do not discover our self in a solitary state; we discover it through mutual dependency, in weakness and in learning through belonging.  For a child belonging can be painful at times.  If a child experiences abuse, control, possessive love and depression, anger and revolt will creep in.  Jean Vanier believes that this shadow area will govern and control future attitudes to belonging.  

Weakness to weakness is the journey every one of us is called to go through.  Beginning as a helpless little baby to frail old age.  Weakness is at the heart of each one of us.  Communion is the to-and-fro of love that bonds us together like child and parents, sick person and nurse, pupil nd teacher, wife and husband or friends.  If we deny our weakness, we deny a part of our being. To be humane is to accept who we are a blend of strength and weakness.

All of us are locked up in our cultures, in our habits, even in our friendships and places of belonging.  We are frightened of those who challenge our authority, our value system, above all we are frightened of change.  Fear of dissidents has created Stalin in Russia, Hitler in Germany, rulers in South Africa, Guatemala, Chile and many other countries in our time.  Christians were thrown to wild beasts in the Coliseum because the Romans saw this new strange religion as a threat to the existing order.  

The history of humanity is full of wars, oppression, slavery, and rejection.  Every society in time has created its own forms of exclusion.  There is an endless list of those excluded: the homeless, the sick, the dying, the young, the old, the weak, the disabled, the stranger, and the immigrant.

To give food to a beggar who knocks on the door can be quite an easy thing to do; but what if he keeps coming back with his friends we are frightened that the beggar is calling on us to change our lifestyle.  We are attracted to some people while we reject others.  If there is mutual attraction, friendship may take root.  Those we dislike, frighten us.  Ganging together in mutually exclusive groups or like-minded people and the love that we experience being in these groups is the most imperfect one as Jean Vanier identifies.  Like it or not we still belong to the same humanity. And yet fear of this difference is keeping us apart from cherishing our common humanity.  

Few ways that we can move from exclusion to inclusion as Jean Vanier reveals are through Forgiveness, Love of Enemies, Liberating ourselves from the power of hatred and fear.  These perennial philosophies have been around since the dawn of civilization.  Prevailing religions of today are considered to be the vehicles of promoting these philosophies.  History has provided no evidence of any religion with a book terrestrial or extraterrestrial that has changed any society to a tolerant one.  Instead we see individuals, like Mother Teresa in our time, preached the highest philosophy through practice.  Hopefully, a person opening up to someone who is different will benefit both lives is all I am going to wish for.

Now looking back to Canadian society, where I started, things are encouraging.  The essential target of national politics is to create a majority.  Politicians these days are finding it very hard to govern this country because the populations with different identities like ethnic, language, religion, race and sex are changing to anything but majority.  The majority community is asking, if this country has been fragmented by the successful fight for inclusion.  The new Canadian majority will have no common origin, only a commitment to common values.  We don’t simply recognize each other for what we are; we recognize what we can become together.  

In one of the major cities of our country, Toronto, there are seventy languages that are spoken in homes.  Single common language is what we require to communicate and rights will hold us together not roots.  This historical process of all human groups to gain inclusion that began in the

A European war of religion in the sixteenth century is still running its course.  Recognition, Empathy and possibly reconciliation are expected of us.  Chief Justice Antonio Lamer, a French-Canadian delivering a judgment recognizing aboriginal title to land said “Let’s face it: we are all here to stay”

 KF

August 2002

On a breezy summer evening of 2000 in Toronto, a few of my friends got together around the renowned literary figure in Bengali literature today, Sri Sunil Gongopadhay.  We spent the early part of the evening on the deck, which extends right on to the bank of the Humber River, surrounded by trees.   About two hundred meters away is the other bank of the river visible over the cherry tree.  A small creek is all left on the bed of this mighty river since the last ice age receded ten thousand years ago.  The sun seems to hang over the western horizon in this part of the world until half past nine during summer solstice, that made the deck a perfect spot to kick start the evening with cheers and kebab in plentiful.  Kebab made out of beef and venison did not shy away Sri Gongopadhay a bit.  Rest of the crowed took every advantage being at the top of the food chain.   Discussion was mostly around Sri Gongopadhays personal experiences in his professional life.  Srimoty Gongopakhay joined her husband when we were keen to dig deep into their early days of court ship.  

Every pair of eyes was focused on Sri Gongopadhay so were all the queries.  No one had to scream or maneuver his or her arms to make a point.  As usual, politics and religion was not excluded from our conversation.  At one instance on religion, Sri Gongogadhay stated that the Deity Kali came to mainstream Hindu religion from Saontal tribe ritual.  I took these words literally until recently when I stumbled upon a verse or shloka from the Upanishad, which led to following findings.  

“Kali (black), Karali (terrific), Manogava (swift as thought), Sulohita (very red), Sudhumravarna (purple), Sphulingini (sparkling), and the brilliant Visvarupi (having all forms), all these playing about are called the seven tongues (of fire).” MUNDAKA-UPANISHAD, Book One, Part two, shloka 4, Upanishad, translated by Friedrich Max Müller. 

Above shloka in Bengali can be found on page 217, Shloka 13, of The Upanishads, January, 1994 edition, edited by by Atul Chandra Sen, Sitanath Tattwabhushan and Mahesh Chandra Ghosh.   

Kali is the first tongue or flame of Agni the Vedic god.  Agni is second to the god Indra in the Rig-Veda as per the number of hymns dedicated to these Vedic gods.  Agni is the one who is responsible for the delivery of sacrifices to the gods. Besides being just a courier, he is also portrayed as the devourer of the sacrifices.

These tongues are mentioned in the Rig-Veda as feminine in nature but the name Kali is not revealed.  Kali represents the darkness of Agni, the ashes and amber he produces.  She is the dark blue flame in which there is the greatest heat.  She is also in the mantra, which conveys the offerings to Agni.  Kali is clearly a personification of the feminine aspect of the fire sacrifice.  Her sacrificial nature is evident by the garland of skulls she wears and the cut-off head she holds.  She represents the highest Vedic sacrifice, the Self-sacrifice of Atma-yajna, wherein the ego is offered to the Divine.  The worship of Kali therefore is essentially the worship of the sacrifice, emphasizing its feminine side. 

God Shiva, similarly, is related to the bhasma or ashes of the sacred fire.  Where as Kali represents the tongue of the fire, that consumes the offering or the sacrificial victim, Shiva is the residue, the purified essence that comes forth through the sacrifice.  The worship of both Shiva and his consort is permeated with the symbols of the Vedic sacrifice and is intimately related from its very beginning with the worship of the sacred fire.

Though Deity Kali is known to all cultures in Indian Sub-Continent, it is particularly worshipped in Bengal. Her best-known temples are in Kalighat and Dakshineshvara. To the Tamils Kali is known as Kottavei.  

In fairness I had to inquire about Saontals. Without it I believe this discussion would be incomplete.  Before getting on to their way of living here are some specifics about Saontals.

• Image or idol worship is absent and there is no temple in Saontal society

• The Saontal have a casteless society

• By birth no person in a family, clan or sub clan is superior or inferior.

• Blood offering is prevalent in the community.

• Earlier practice of cow sacrifice is now restricted.

• Both burial and cremation are practiced.  Cremation is relatively new.

• Offering during worship is made without any pictorial.

Saontals are a tribal people of eastern India; their current population around the world is close to ten million.  Their greatest concentration is in the states of Bihar, West Bengal, Orissa, Tripura and Assam.  Some also live in Bangladesh and Nepal.  Though many of them are bilingual they have managed to retain their aboriginal language to this day.  Their language Santali belongs to the Austro-Asiatic group of language widely spoken in Vietnam and Cambodia.  Physically, they have been classified as Pre-Dravidian, Dravidians, Proto-Australoids, Austro-Asiatics even Mongoloid by various anthropologist.  

Their supreme God and the only God is Thakur.  Thakur is the creator and the sustainer of the universe.  No human being can see Thakur but Thakur sees us all.  Thakur is never worshipped.  Thakur is articulated when solemn oaths are taken and in different ritual chanting like, marriage, childbirth or death.   He is invoked in such calamities as droughts and famines with a white fowl sacrifice.  

The next stage in belief is of supernatural entities or spirits, Bongas in Saontali.  Saontals believe that Bongas live along side with them in the living and breathing world.  Saontal’s beliefs in these personal supernatural spirits and their relationship with them constitute their religion.  By communicating and entering into an alliance with Bongas has led the Saontals to personify and individualize their spirit.  Worshiping and invoking these Bongas secures the goodwill of the benevolent ones and keeping the malevolent ones at bay.  

Saontals have more festivals than number of months in a year.  All year round of festivities associated with the agricultural cycle keep them connected to their environment. Life-cycle rituals from birth, marriage and burial at death are communal in nature.  Unlike a single female dancer entertaining a crowd in feudal society, all men and women of the Saontal village dance and play music together.  Similarly, marriage as a social institution involves participation of all without any discrimination based on gender, age or class.  

Saontal religious worship is mainly congregational.  Fellowship with Bongas is maintained through sacrifices, offerings and libations made on behalf of a particular social unit, like a village, the sub clan or the household and through ceremonial eating and drinking.  Saontal worship centers are public in character; Jaherthan is a sacred grove usually on the out skirt of the village, Manjhithan is a raised mud platform at the center of which there is a post with a stone at its base, Bhitar is a small place separated from the rest of the main dwelling area by a low mud wall about four feet high in the house.  Bongas can inhabit along the village boundaries, mountains, water, tigers, and the forest. Here are some of the Bongas classified into different categories.

• Village Guardian Spirit: Maran Buru, Moreko Turuiko, Jaher Era, Gosae Era, Pargana Bonga and Manjhi Haram Bonga

• Sub clan Bonga:  Abge Bongas

• Household Spirit: Orak Bongas

• Spirit of the Ancestors: Hapramko Bongas

• Guardian of the Saontals: Saket Bongas

• Hindu Deities found in Saontal pantheon: Deku Bongas

• Spirits that are malevolent by nature: village boundary spirit (Sima Bongas), Hill and water spirit (Rongo Ruji and Baghut Bongas)

• Cause of Disease: Naihar, Kisar and Thapna Bongas

• Mischievous spirits: Curins, Bhuts, Ekagudias and Rakas Bongas

According to Saontal mythology the Village Guardian Spirit Maran Buru instructed the first man and the woman to have sex and taught them how to make rice beer.  Following this incident they had seven sons and seven daughters leading to the origin of the first seven clans.  These clans further subdivided into number of sub clans totaling to about 405 today.  A clan is traced through the male unit of the family.  They are scattered all over the Saontal territory and every Saontal village includes members of different clans.  Each of these sub clans have a distinctive myth regarding its origin.  Customs may vary from one another.  A Saontal cannot marry a member of his own clan; he is even prohibited from marrying a girl belonging to his mother’s sub clan.  

The Ojha (Medicine man) is the one that invokes Saket Bongas in an event of illness or misfortune in a household.  When a student Ojha is introduced to this practice, five Bongas are invoked by the Guru Ojha; Kamru Guru, Sin Bonga, Kali Mai, Durga Mai and Ganga Mai.  The Hindus as Goddesses worship Kali, Durga and Ganga.   Paul Olaf Bodding writes in his book “The Santals and Disease” that as Saontal Ojha resembles that of Hindu practice, they adopted the institution from the Hindus.  Kali, Durga and Mahadev are also honoured as Orak Bongas in certain household.  

By classification Deku Bongas are the ones that have borrowed their name from Hindu Deities.  Dekus in Saontali means an indifferent or hostile outsider who is to be shunned.  Hindu landlords and moneylenders were called Dekus.  In 1855 the material conditions of the Saontals were so depressed that they rebelled against their oppressors, but failed.  Although the uprising was unsuccessful to take off but this movement later came to be known as Kharwar movement lasted until the middle of the last century.  The defeat of the Saontal rebellion, however, shook their belief in the effectiveness of their Bongas.  This was the beginning of a drift towards Hinduism and Christianity.  Though Islam flourished in this area for the last five centuries it had no influence on the Saontals.  They consider Muslims to be tainted and corrupt.  While the missionaries preached Christianity to the Saontal, few Saontal individuals exploited the circumstances by introducing socio-religious practices of Hinduism into their society.  One such personality Bhagirath Manjhi who added the title of Babaji to his name, promised “New Saontal Raj” and urged the people to worship Ram the Hindu deity.  In May of 1930, 210 Saontals were endowed with sacred thread; those who wear this sacred thread regarded themselves as socially superior from the rest.   Despite the fact that some Saontals have converted to Hinduism, they did not severe the umbilical cord with their earlier religious conventions.  The adoption of a number of Hindu deities as Bongas like Lakshmi Mai, Mahadev, Parvati, Rama, Kali, Durga and Krishna, has not changed the basic character of their faith including festivals, customs and concepts.  In 1971 on-location doing research in the village of Pangro, Saontal Pargona, Bihar Dr. Joe Troisi came across Snil Murmu, who’s great-grandfather used to worship the Hindu goddess Kali in his house.  By the way I have cited books by Dr. Joe Troisi for a major portion of this article on Saontals.

According to Saontal traditions, they have always been wondering from one place to another.  In the process without losing their own identity they integrated elements from other cultures.  Few elements that are common to Hindu and Saontal culture are stated below.

• Festival of Moti Jharna to Shiv Ratri

• Festival of Baha to Holi

• Belief in Orak Bongas to Griha Lakshimi

• Jaherthan to Panca-Vati

• Sindradan applying vermilion on the brides forehead

• Ojhaism

• Ritualistic importance of such things as cow dung, turmeric, cowry shell and vermilion.

Anthropologists are divided on “who borrowed from whom” in this acculturation.   Some belief that Ojhaism was refined through exchanging hands between these two cultures.  Considering the importance of the red colour by Saontals and the fact that a Saontal boy can marry a Saontal girl by merely rubbing Sindur on her forehead anthropologist phrased this to be “diffusion and re-diffussion” between cultures.

Mythological source of the deity Kali has been traced back to the Vedic scriptures.  Chant that conveys the offerings to the God Agni today is the seamless continuity since the Vedic time of the deity Kali in different attribution.  Kali Mai in the Saontal pantheon belongs to Deku Bongas, which is by definition deities borrowed from the Hindu practice.  It is my belief beyond doubt that the deity Kali hasn’t change her origin ever since her conception by the Rishis.  

The poem “Tetteereesh Bochor Keo Kotha Rakhe Ni” written by Sri Sunil Gongopadhay and recited by the poet that evening was a special treat.  Before concluding I would like to take this opportunity to convey my sincere appreciation to the honourable friend and his family for hosting that gathering.  

Karim Fuad

September 2002

Toronto