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The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c7.s16: The Geopolitics of Culture-Contact and Social Mobility

The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c7.s16

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The Geopolitics of Culture-Contact and Social Mobility

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Certain considerations of a general character bearing on what Tönnies, Richard, Simmel, Ross, von Wiese and Bouglé would call the doctrine of social relations or social processes⁴⁷ emerge from a bare chronology of the leading state-systems of India from the Mohenjo Daro period (c 3500 B.C.) down to 1818 A.C. The politics of the "Hindus," i.e., the so-called Dravidians, the so-called Aryans and the Aryo-Dravidians, were not the politics of the Hindus in isolation. "Culture-contact" was a leading formative force in the social metabolism operating through the evolution of Hindu states.⁴⁸

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⁴⁷ G. Richard: *La Sociologie générale et les lois sociologiques* (Paris 1912); Spykman: *The Social Theory of Georg Simmel* (Chicago 1925). On Tönnies and Simmel see B. K. Sarkar: *The Political Philosophies since 1905* (Madras 1928) pp. 95, 121, 273, 284. See also L. v. Wiese: *Systematic Sociology* (New York 1932).

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⁴⁸ "International India" in B. K. Sarkar: *The Futurism of Young Asia* (Berlin 1922).

(a) Mixture with Non-Indian Races

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International as well as inter-racial relations,—the politics of boundaries, the "geopolitics",—constituted the anatomy of India’s political history as that of Europe’s political history through the ages. These contacts between the races such as have contributed to the making of political India were of the most diverse character. No less heterogeneous than those in Europe were the contacts of the indigenous Indian tribes, races or nations with the non-Indian tribes, races or nations. These extra-Indian peoples may be somewhat chronologically enumerated as follows:

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(1) Assyro-Babylonian, (2) Iranian-Persian, (3) Hellenists, (4) Parthians, (5) Scythian-Yuechi-Sakas (Tartars), (6) Huns, (7) Tibetans, (8) Chinese, (9) Arabs (Islamized), (10) Turks (Islamized), (11) Moghuls (Islamized), (12) Europeans.

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In certain instances the Indian peoples had to submit to these non-Indian peoples (excepting perhaps the Chinese) as subject races. In other instances the independent Indian states had to carry on their activities in a system of *maṇḍala* or geopolitical “sphere”, which comprised both Indian and non-Indian states. This is an important consideration the value of which cannot be overlooked in a survey not only of political literature like the *Nītiśāstras* but of every Hindu *vidyā* and *kalā*, art and science, philosophy and religion. India’s debt to non-Indian races is no less an historic reality than her contributions to their progress.

(b) The Impact of the Lower Orders

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Our attention is invited by the chronology of the Indian state-systems to another set of “geopolitical” forces. We are led to witness the incessant dynastic expansions, contractions and dissolutions, the ups and downs in the fortunes of families as well as the constant activities of soldiers and generals on the go. During the five thousand years or so exhibited here the Indian peoples seemed all the time to carry out in life the *Aitareya-Brāhmaṇa* (VII. 15) ideal of being ever on the move, “*charaiveti*,” “*charaiveti*” (go on, march on etc.) and to function, so to say, as the living embodiments of “social mobility,” both horizontal and vertical.⁴⁹ All these movements from region to region and family to family could not but set in motion strong demographic convection-currents, leading very often to metabolistic re-arrangements in or transformations of social stratification, —the fall of the high and the elevation of the low.

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⁴⁹ P. Sorokin: *Social Mobility* (New York 1927), ch. VIII, ‘The Channels of Vertical Circulation.”

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It is an interesting fact that the origins of not only the Rajput dynasties but of many other ruling families in Indian history through the ages are somewhat dark, shady and shrouded in mystery. Another interesting item that we come across almost invariably in regard to the establishment of the Indian dynasties is, as the analysis of inscriptions leaves no doubt, that subsequent generations tried to get their forefathers or founders recognized either as Kṣatriyas or somehow related by blood to some well-known royal families. We are forced to suspect and to believe that the originators of many of the ruling dynasties in India were not born with blue blood in their veins but came from the ranks, and were often perhaps “natural-born.” Not all of them rose indeed from the very lowest of the low, but most probably many of them must have been born in the lower strata of society. From the "heroic ages" of the Vedic complex, the *Purāṇas* and the Epics down to the Mauryas, Pālas, Senas and the Rajputs of all grades the story of origins is more or less uniform in being indefinite and anything but clear.

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A statistical analysis of the stories regarding the origins of Indian ruling dynasties through the ages, as derived from literature as well as from inscriptions, ought to be valuable as the subject of a monograph. It is likely to throw light not only on race-intermixture and caste-fusion but also on the importance of the *viṣ*, the "folk" and the demos in societal remaking and perhaps likewise on the place of bastards in the establishment of royal and aristocratic families in India. Among the manufacturers of states and the makers of epochs the rôle of "low origin" and illegitimate birth may be found to be not negligible.

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It is the personal qualifications,—the proficiency in the use of arms as well as the diplomatic handling of situations,—that accounted for the ascendency of many lowly individuals to the position of generals and premiers and finally to kingship. The demand for military skill and diplomatic tact was perennial in the Indian society here and there and everywhere. In India as elsewhere the army has functioned as a great "ladder." And as the dynasties were changing and the boundaries of states were moving in season and out of season the adventurers from every nook and corner were in a position to exploit the conditions and build up their social, economic and political fortunes.⁵⁰ Individuals of lower castes could thereby get themselves admitted as Kṣatriyas, Brāhmaṇas and what not. The Indian aristocracies of all denominations were very often the instances of social mobility of the vertical type. This aspect of “geopolitics” was as common in India as in Europe.

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⁵⁰ "Caste System and Military History" in B. K. Sarkar: *Chinese Religion Through Hindu Eyes* (Shanghai, 1916).

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For, the world submits inevitably to the man, who, whatever be his origin, is audacious enough to take up the ambitious messages of the *Atharva Veda* as the guiding principles of life and actually venture upon carrying them out. In this *Veda* (XII, i, 54) *Puruṣa* (man) is made to declare to the Earth as follows:

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*Aham asmi sahamāna*
*Uttaro nāma bhumyām*
*Abhiṣādasmi viśvāṣād*
*Āśām āśām viṣāsahi*

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“Mighty am I, Superior by name, upon the earth, conquering am I, all-conquering, completely conquering every region.”

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The respect for personality and individual valour, the Buddhist *viriya*, the *parākrama* of the Gupta inscriptions that finds expression in this and similar passages of the *Atharva Veda* and other Vedic texts furnished the atmosphere of energists and enabled them to look for chances wherever there was a muddle. And in the sphere of energism and individualism the *Sūdra* and the *Vrātya* found the world as wide for themselves as the *Ārya*.

(c) Vrātya and Varṇa-saṅkara

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And here we encounter a new form of race-contacts in political evolution. These consisted in blood-fusion between the diverse tribes, races or nations within the boundaries of India herself. These contacts were engendered as much by migrations as by military marches, conquests and settlements, and by economic necessity. The alleged inferior, despicable, “fallen”, depressed and similar orders of the Indian population found in these stirs and turmoils the chances for self-assertion. Another class of people likewise got opportunities of elevation in this kind of dynamic unrest. These were all those groups or communities which somehow or other did not happen to belong to but rested outside the groups representing the culture, wealth or political influence of the region. A very common name for both these classes,—the “fallen” and the “outsiders”—was *Vrātya* in certain periods.⁵¹

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⁵¹ J. W. Hauer: *Der Vrātya* Vol. I. (Stuttgart 1927), pp. 223-240, 334-335.

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But because of this kind of mobilization the *Vrātya* and others of the same standing came to acquire or conquer for themselves positions of dignity in the social structure. The demographic make-up of the state-systems of five thousand years or so in diverse regions of India was marked by *varṇa-saṅkara*, miscegenation, confusion of castes, elevation of the fallen, Aryanization of the non-Aryan, Hinduization of the non-Hindu. The rôle of the *Vrātya* as a creative factor in Indian demography is fundamental. Equally fundamental is the place of *varṇa-saṅkara* (caste-mixture) as well as *anuloma* and *pratiloma* marriage (union of the “higher” with the lower castes) in the social system of the Hindus.

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The “legal fiction” or “pious wish” of caste “restrictions” was positively broken in upon by the *Real-* *politik* of race-mixture and inter-caste marriage, i.e *varṇa-saṅkara*. The purity of stocks was thus as much a myth in India as in Europe. The intermingling between castes or races implied a veritable democratization of Indian society and culture. The *Vrātya* and the *varṇa-saṅkara* were thus some of the "folk elements" which served to enrich and strengthen the foundations of Hindu civilization.⁵²

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⁵² B. K. Sarkar: *The Folk-Element in Hindu Culture* (London 1917); cf. in this connection the analysis of problems in the relations between the higher and the lower classes in P. Sorokin: *Social Mobility* (New York 1927) chs. x, xi, xii; and *Contemporary Sociological Theories* (New York 1928) pp. 547-551.

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The impact of the *Vrātya* and *varṇa-saṅkara* on Indian culture has had important bearings on the origin and character of the *Nītiśāstras* as of all the other theoretical disciplines and practical arts and crafts. Not the least important feature of this aspect of Indian as of European "geopolitics" consists in the fact that castes and races might rise and fall or disappear but that civilization advanced almost invariably from precedent to precedent,—nay, perhaps more liberalized and more democratized.⁵³

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⁵³ In regard to the question of alleged "superior" and "inferior" races see F. Hankins: *The Racial Basis of Civilization* (New York 1924) which critically examines the doctrines embodied in Aryanism, Anglo-Saxonism, Nordicism etc.

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The normal data of Indian political history yield then the following results. Culture-contact as an element in social mobility, or social mobility as an element in culture-contact was responsible in India as elsewhere for "internationalism" as understood in the sense of impacts of the geographically extra-Indian peoples on the Indian and *vice versa*. Then there arose transformations in economic, social and political stratification within the Indian boundaries in every region as well as every age. Thirdly, the mingling of races, Indian as well as extra-Indian, in flesh and blood was a constant determinant in the entire process of family, community or society-making through the ages. The fusion of castes may be taken for certain purposes as but an aspect of the mingling of races. In other respects also inter-caste marital alliances constituted the basic factors in the social organization. And last but not least, the alleged “lower” races or castes and the alleged “outsiders,” i.e. non-Aryans, non-Hindus and what not were getting access to the “upper ten thousands” in blood, ritual, wealth and political power. In the *Sāstras* on law, politics and social mores one will have to read the influence of all these aspects of “sociations,” “social interactions,” “social processes,” “social relations,” or *Beziehungen* as discussed in contemporary sociology.⁵⁴

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⁵⁴ F. Tönnies: *Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft* (Leipzig 1887), G. Tarde: *Les Lois de l'Imitation* (Paris 1890), *L'Opposition Universelle* (Paris 1898), *Les Lois Sociales* (Paris 1898), E. Durkheim: *De la Division du Travail Social* (Paris 1893), E. A. Ross: *Principles of Sociology* (New York 1923); E. S. Bogardus: *Fundamentals of Social Psychology* (New York 1924); J. J. von Schmid: “Les Rapports entre la Collectivité et l'Individu dans l'Evolution de la Pensée sociologique” (*Revue de l'Institut de Sociologie*, Brussels, 1936, no. 2).

(d) The Paretian Doctrine of the Circulation of Élites Modified

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Here the facts of Hindu culture and politics find themselves in general agreement with the doctrines of the Italian sosiologist, Pareto, in *Les Systèmes Socialistes* (1902) and *Trattato di Sociologia Generale* (1916). No society has ever existed without dominant classes, the “*élites*,” says he. The distinction between the upper and the lower socio-economic orders furnishes the fundamental basis of all societal organizations. But the *élites*, says Pareto, have a tendency to degenerate, decay and disappear. The dissolution of the upper classes is not only moral but physical as well. They are ultimately replaced by new dominant classes such as emerge out of the people. Sociologically, Pareto never detects the government of societies in a democratic manner. The course is from aristocracy to aristocracy. Only, the aristocracies rise, have their day, cease to be, and give place to new aristocracies. In his doctrine of the “circulation of the *élites*” there is much that Indian history as the history of other countries can offer as corroborative data.

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We need not however be hundred per cent Paretians and admit that the *élites* of one generation or culture-stage are *entirely* replaced by those of the next. The emergence of new elements from the lower orders is a reality. For one thing, the army, as we have indicated above, has been one of the greatest “social ladders.” These new elements have, because of military, political, economic, sexual and other circumstances, many chances of getting admitted into and fused or mixed up with the already existing dominant classes. It is these fusions and inter-mixtures that enable the transition from generation to generation of *élites* to appear not as an abrupt breach with the past or a total replacement of old by new, but as a generally steady although often revolutionary process of societal transformation. Thus considered, the historical movements, the social mobilities, the dynamic processes, the *charaiveti* ("move on") activities ought really to be described as the continuous democratizations of world-culture through the rise of the lower and their absorption into the *élites* rather than as marches from aristocracy to aristocracy.⁵⁵

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⁵⁵ *cf.* the section on "Social Forces in Mediaeval Indian Poetry," *Infra*. See the present author's *Les Races, les Classes et les Forces Transformatrices au point de vue du Metabolisme Social* (International Congress of Sociology, Brussels, August 1933), as well as some of the data in N. K. Bose: "Caste as a Social Phenomenon," "Caste through the Ages," and "The Contact of Culture" (*Calcutta Review*, August and September 1934, January-March 1935).

(e) The Race-Pessimism of Today Unjustifiable

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In recent years the name of thinkers who preach the doctrine of mankind's decline is legion. From Spengler, the German author's *Der Untergang des Abendlandes* people have got the formula that the West is now in for decay. Romain Rolland has popularized the notion that Western civilization is doomed. In the Italian demographist Gini's analysis of "the parabola of evolution" the European races are all exhibiting senescence with the solitary exception, perhaps, of the Italians. Even American sociologists have been attacked by this decline-cult, and many of them like Hankins are anxiously discussing the question as to the decline in the natural fertility of the Eur-American population.

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All through the ages there has been a type of mentality that is interested in viewing the things of the world from what may be described in general terms as a pessimistic angle of vision. And the pessimism of Jeremiads appeals more or less to every man and woman. The reasons are obvious. First, there is no possibility of denying the fact that there is a certain amount or kind of misery and suffering always present, no matter how well-placed the individual or the group. And in the second place, every honest intellectual can find in the sceptical attitudes and warnings or rather the "divine discontent" of the pessimists undoubtedly some very powerful aids to self-criticism and societal regeneration. Indeed, it is to pessimism that the world owes many of the energistic adventures in the "transvaluation of values" and upward trends in civilization. The value of pessimism as a constructive force cannot by any means be ignored.

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In these discussions as in all others bearing on social life there is generally no difficulty about agreeing as to the fact of "social metabolism" or transformation going on around us. But it is, as a rule, while appraising the value of the transformation that the diversity of schools arises, each with its own shibboleth based naturally on personal equations. One thinker is convinced in his own way that the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were more "creative" than the nineteenth and the twentieth; and another ignores the beneficial influence of social assurance and other modern legislation on the standard of living and welfare of the masses.

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But even those who admit that economic and cultural progress has been advancing from group to group and class to class fail very often to realize that a great deal of the transformations generally known as "class" or social revolutions are at bottom expressions of "racial"

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ups and downs. It is these replacements or absorptions of certain races by others that constitute the anatomical back-ground of world-culture. The eternal story of mankind is to be found in a nut-shell in the stone implements of the Palæolithic Ages, when the Mousterians had to give way to the Aurignacians and these latter were in their turn replaced by the Magdalenians and others. Migrations and race-contacts have always furnished the framework of organized societal existence.

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In historic times the subversion of the Roman Empires in Europe and that of the Hindu and other Empires in Asia have spelt likewise the ascendancy of certain racial elements at the cost of certain others. So far as modern Eur-Asia is concerned, the same process of race-mixture, race-submergence and race-uplift has been going on until we find that anthropologically the modern Indian’s affinities with the ancients of his land are perhaps as problematic as those of the modern European with the ancients of his continent.

(f) Contemporary Vertical Mobilities

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The world-process in group “metabolism” is visible under our very eyes in Bengal.⁵⁶ In the social economy of Bengal there are some thirty tribes known as aboriginals, constituting a diversified group of a million and a quarter, and representing some 3 per cent of the total population. The big three of these primitives, namely, the Santals, the Oraons, and the Mundas, are responsible for nearly two-thirds of this number. But while the big three “higher” castes, the Kāyasthas, Brāhmaṇas and Vaidyas, numbering something over three millions, have during the last forty years grown 37 per cent the aboriginals have grown 219 per cent. The rate of growth is phenomenal, pointing, as it does, to extraordinary “differential fertility.”

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⁵⁶ *Census of India 1931*, Vol. V. *Bengal and Sikkim* Part I. (1933) pp. 441, 444, 454, 480-484, 490, 492, 497-499, 502-503.

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This numerical growth, important in itself as it is, acquires a fresh significance when one observes that the aboriginals are today more Hindu than “tribal” in religion. Nearly sixty-six per cent of the big three primitives is Hindu. As a transformation, the Hinduization of the aboriginals is further interesting in another regard. The Hinduized aboriginals form a part, nearly 12 per cent, of what are generally called the “depressed classes,”—say, the *Harijans* (God's children)—of the Hindu society. We understand, then, that the aboriginals of yesterday constitute the depressed classes of today. In other words, the societal transformation known as Hinduization hides the fact of, or prepares the way to, racial expansion, race-fusion and race-assimilation.

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Nor does the process stop here. Among the big three “higher” castes, the Kāyasthas were during the last four decades just below the Brāhmaṇas in number. But they were rising until today they have outnumbered the latter. In forty years while the Brāhmaṇa has grown 24 per cent, the Kāyastha has grown 58 per cent. What is this growth of Kāyasthas due to? Not all to fecundity or “natural increment”, i.e., the surplus of births over deaths. A great deal is to be accounted for by invasions from other castes whose upward trends have been manifest for some long time. The non-Kāyastha, perhaps, one of the depressed of yesterday, has grown into the Kāyastha, a higher caste of today. And in this, again, we have to register not only a social but a racial transformation as well. From the aboriginal to the high-caste Hindu the gap may be great, but the bridges are sure although slow, and quite solid. Social "stratification" is not rigid, as Ammon propagates in *Die Gesellschaftsordnung und ihre natürliche Grundlagen* (Social Order and its Natural Foundations), 1893.

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Altogether, the Bengali people is expanding although it is undergoing a radical change in class character and racial make-up.⁵⁷ The transformations that have been going on in Eur-America today on account of the pressure of the Slavs upon the other races should appear to belong almost to the same category as those in India. As for the "quality" of hybrids or their capacity for carrying forward the torch of civilization, eugencis is still discreetly silent or indefinite in its conclusion unless the exponent happens to have a conservative reform scheme on the anvil. But positive history announces that, notwithstanding the doctrine of Lapouge in *Les Sélections Sociales*, races may come and races may go but that civilization goes on for ever.

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⁵⁷ See the discussions on the "Aboriginals of West Bengal" led by Haridas Palit at the "Āntarjātik Banga" Parishat ("International Bengal" Institute), Calcutta (*Amrita Bazar Patrika*, Calcutta, 3 May 1934). Compare in this connection the facts of miscegenation in René Martial's *La Race Françaisie et la nouvelle Conception du Mot Race*, a paper for the International Congress of Population, Berlin 1935 (see *Bevölkerungsfragen* ed. by Harmsen and Lohse, Munich 1936, pp. 486-493).

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