Ethics and Culture: Some Contemporary Indian Reflections

By Aparajita Mukhopadhyay, Gargi Goswami, Atashee Chatterjee Sinha and 4 more

The present volume of Ethics and Culture contains six articles of renowned teachers of Philosophy who are also the members of the Value Group, Centre of Advanced Study in Philosophy, Jadavpur University. In all these articles authors have explored the contributions of the great thinkers of modern India regarding the value system of our country. Here the perspectives of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Dwijendranath Tagore, Tarabai Shinde, J.N. Mohanty and Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa have been discussed in detail as all of them have a distinct view and faith on the traditional cultural beliefs of India and also have taken a critical approach to judge the mundane, orthodox attitude of people.
The authors have explained the views of these great thinkers as their unique interpretations about Indian tradition can be used as a weapon against cultural encroachment and intolerance. The book, thus, helps to revive the true essence of our culture which is veiled by many socio-political factors of the present world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: D.K. Printworld
• Release date: Oct 19, 2022
• ISBN: 9788193607688

Book preview

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Ethics and Culture

Ethics and Culture

Some Contemporary Indian Reflections

Vol. 3

Edited by

Aparajita Mukhopadhyay

Gargi Goswami

Department of Philosophy

Jadavpur University

Kolkata

in collaboration with

Cataloging in Publication Data — DK

[Courtesy: D.K. Agencies (P) Ltd. ]

Ethics and culture : some contemporary Indian reflections /

edited by Aparajita Mukhopadhyay & Gargi Goswami.

volumes cm

Contributed articles.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 9788193607626 (vol. 3)

1. Ethics – India. 2. India – Intellectual life. I. Mukhopadhyay, Aparajita, editor. II. Goswami, Gargi, editor.

LCC BJ122.E84 2020 | DDC 170.954 23

ISBN: 978-81-936076-2-6 (HB)

ISBN: 978-81-936076-8-8 (E-Book)

First published in India in 2020

© Jadavpur University, Kolkata

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior written permission of both the copyright owner, indicated above, and the publisher.

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Preface

Ethics and Culture: Some Contemporary Indian Reflections, vol. 3, is an outcome of the group research project of Centre of Advanced Study, Department of Philosophy, Jadavpur University. The value group of the department brings out this third volume as a sequel to its publication series – Ethics and Culture. Like two other previous volumes, our aim here is to explore and analyse various ethical concepts, norms and values as these have surfaced through the writings of different scholars of contemporary India. We acknowledge our indebtedness to each and every author who has extended her help to see this volume the light of day. We thank all the contributors of this volume for their enormous timely effort to put forward our dream.

We express our thanks to the University Grants Commission, New Delhi for providing the financial support for publishing this volume. We convey our gratitude to Jadavpur University for providing all sorts of administrative assistance. We thank our referees, Professor Prabhat Mishra, Former Professor of Philosophy, Vidyasagar University and Professor Papiya Gupta, Department of Philosophy and the Life-World, Vidyasagar University for their kind advice and suggestions. We are also thankful to Mr Rajendra Agarwal of Suryodaya Books for bringing out this publication with utmost care and professionalism.

Aparajita Mukhopadhyay

Gargi Goswami

Kolkata

15 February 2020

Contents

Preface

Introduction

– Aparajita Mukhopadhyay

1. Svadharma of the Bhagavadgītā

– Madhumita Chattopadhyay

2. Bal Gangadhar Tilak’s Rationalization of Violence through the Interpretation of the Gītā

– Gargi Goswami

3. Dwijendranath’s Method for Ascertaining Values

– Ratna Dutta Sharma

4. Tarabai Shinde: Questioning Caste Hierarchy and Gender Bias in Nineteenth-century India

– Atashee Chatterjee Sinha

5. Mohanty on Religiosity

– Jhuma Chakraborty

6. Values in Sri Ramakrishna’s Message to the World

– Rubai Saha

Contributors

Index

Introduction

Aparajita Mukhopadhyay

Ethics

, as a discipline of critical thinking, guides people in both their private and public life. The major task of ethics is to map human behaviour through continuous orientation of his belief system. The source of our behaviour is the set of beliefs which we possess as a member of a society and of a cultural group. But these beliefs are not any permanent fixtures as new information, experiences of life, interpersonal and intrapersonal conversation insist us to restructure our beliefs for furtherance of our life prospect. Thus sometimes we reject our old moral beliefs, values, norms as dogma and entertain the newly-developed values as we consider them more suitable for the emerging social-political scenario. Again we also think to detain some of our old moral beliefs and reject the new ones as we consider old as good for social environment. Sometimes we modify both the old and new beliefs and try to fit them with each other to create a new set of beliefs. Thus our moral beliefs, concepts of good and right, principles and rules go through a continuous change according to the need of our moral and social life. A large number of philosophers are not ready to accept such redesigning of our moral belief structure as their goal is to establish objectivity in ethical thought. They do not accept changes in moral concepts on the ground of human needs. They are willing to depend on the rational faculty of man which provides arguments in favour of their actions only on the basis of objective truth. In their view, morality involves one or a few basic demands which are applicable to all and everyone ought to accept them as obligatory. Interference on the basis of subjective choice is strictly prohibited as that hampers the universality of ethical thought. In their view, universal principles and rules are helpful for making logical inference to justify our behaviour from an impersonal perspective.

But recent trend in ethics reflects a different view as contemporary thinkers suggest that at the time of providing normative standard philosophers should be more cautious about the psychology of mankind. They cannot prescribe such a standard which is impossible for human beings to achieve. According to Owen Flanagan make sure when constructing a moral theory or projecting a moral ideal that the character, decision processing, and behaviours prescribed are possible … for creatures like us (Liszka 1999: 4). Contemporary thinkers deny this objectivity and rigidity of normative standard and take the initiative to make ethics much more user friendly. In their view, ethics must give emphasis on the well-being and freedom of the agent. It is not the task of ethics to make us ethical. Man becomes ethical by his own choice. So he must have the freedom to choose the standard according to his own well-being. The reason which the agent provides to justify his action, i.e. the normative reason of the agent must spring from the orientation of the agent. Philosophers think that overconcentration on objectivity may create a barrier in front of our motivation to attain that value. If motivation is decoupled from agent’s own justification then human being will feel lonely, as if he is living in a state of schizophrenia (Stocker 1997: 120). A moral demand can be accepted as a moral demand when the agent has the reason to follow that. Acceptance of moral demands depends on the social customs, practices, conventions, values and principles that are accepted in the society to which the agent belongs. Moral principles cannot be followed impersonally as we believe in moral development of the agent.

When a child acts morally, he just follows the teachings of his parents and teachers. At that stage of his life he accepts the subordination of some authority. He is acting morally not by his choice, but he obeys the order of the authority blindly either for the fear of punishment or for the sake of some rewards. In the next stage of his life the agent follows moral path as he realizes that it will be beneficial to him. He acts rightly as his right attitude helps him to get benefits from other people as his right actions bring benevolence to others also. This is a fair agreement among the egoist people as all are conscious about their own benefits. After that stage people realize the value of socially accepted virtues, character traits, social rules and principles which are present as the cause of these actions. From this stage people start to think critically as they start to justify the prevailing beliefs, norms and values. At this stage people may accept or discard the existing values from his own point of view. At this level agent is morally developed and not following moral principles only because that is uttered by some authority. He considers himself as a member of moral community who is responsible for his own moral actions. A person can be considered as responsible only when he can provide justification in favour of his action. Here other members of the society are not treated as mere party of the agreement, but the agent finds an emotional bonding with them.

Gradual development of agent’s moral sense cannot be possible if morality concentrates only on the objective validity of the actions. When the agent learns to respect other members of the society, he finds justification to follow principles. It means, moral principles cannot be considered as applicable to all. An agent ought to follow a moral principle only if he finds it justified. Here lies the difference between a law and a moral principle. Law is applicable to all the members of the society and all are bound to follow the law without questioning it. But, Harman (1976: 431-63) thinks, the moral principles which a person accepts are treated as valid to that person only in the sense that they are the source of that person’s moral reasons to do things. The agent accepts a moral principle only if it harmonizes with his own moral reasons.

It means an agent considers to do x for the reason p if his own rational deliberation recommends doing x as more justified by comparing all the available alternatives. A moral principle is applicable or obligatory to someone means that a person has sufficient moral reasons to follow that. Though deliberation indicates a rational process, it does not lead to determinism. Deliberation here means not to point out the well-known end on the basis of available explanatory reasons only, but to find out new ends suitable for life. By the act of deliberation we also decide the means to achieve that goal, to fit all the ends of life in a systematic order, to harmonize particular goals with the final goal of life. By deliberation we also arrange the ends according to their priority in life, if they cannot coexist. Bernard Williams (1995) thinks that deliberation not only involves knowledge, experience and intelligence; rather it takes the help of imagination which makes the process of deliberation indeterminate. Thus the agent justifies his action, but there is no guarantee that his justification is considered as universally valid. So values cannot be absolute and self-evident. Values are relative, though based on justification. As providing justification in favour of moral beliefs is essential, philosophers think that morality presupposes at least a social hegemony and so values cannot be entirely subjective. We follow the path of morality as we try to fulfil our social roles due to our sense of sociability. There is a unity among the goals of human beings. All human beings have some common goals, for example, to live a good life or happy life, which can be satisfied by this moral way of life. So values of one person cannot fully contradict with the values of another person always, especially if they belong to an identical social atmosphere and possess similar character traits.

Goal of ethics is to produce some good for the whole community and, for that coherent, a socially accepted cooperative measure should be followed. Values cannot differ in every sphere of life as values are not rootless. Moral beliefs and values are judged in terms of good life. To understand and define a good life we have to explain the social scenario of a particular society. For example, in a materialistic society good life means achieving material goods and to get the sensual pleasure. On the contrary, in Indian culture spirituality is embedded in all the avenues of life and material enjoyment is not considered as the ultimate end. Good life here means to know the true I by overcoming all the worldly attachments. This shows that ethical beliefs are culture bound. The notion of good and the accepted standard of an Indian society or a cultural group dismisses the subjective, self-centred, egoist, materialist way of life.

Our values are important because they help us to grow and develop. They help us to create the future we want to experience. Every individual and every organization is involved in making hundreds of decisions every day. The decisions we make are a reflection of our values and beliefs, and they are always directed towards a specific purpose. That purpose is the satisfaction of our individual as well as collective needs. As values differ from time to time, society to society, culture to culture, our aim in this anthology is to cope up the nature of the value system embedded in Indian society from nineteenth century to the present era. In this period India has witnessed revolutionary changes in its political, social, spiritual spheres. We consider it very important to explore the ethical outlooks of those great Indian thinkers who showed courage to restructure the ethical view of India. Authors have clarified here how social–political–economical turmoil of the country affected its value system as such conditions raised questions against our age-old concept of good living. In this anthology we have included thoughts of those thinkers also who are not popularly known as philosophers, rather known as social reformer, political leader, spiritual person and novelist. Here we have included the philosophical interpretations of various thinkers who belong to the different parts of India and are from different economic and cultural backgrounds. Authors have meticulously studied the ideas of these thinkers to understand the positive contributions made by them. Some names are quite renowned and some are not so much, but we are really grateful to those thinkers for bringing into light a novel way of looking into the so-called age-old value system of India. The field chosen here is that of modern India where the thinkers presented a reformulated account of ancient Indian value system through the lens of so-called modern Westernized outlook. We will see whether these new perspectives provide a better social condition or help to throw light on both positive and negative sides of our socio-ethical system.

Discussions about the thoughts of these great thinkers are important as in the period of nineteenth century India was passing through a tremendous cultural turmoil due to European enlightenment. A new attitude developed, especially in the young generation of India, to throw away all the old values and norms of Indian culture considering them as useless and contrary to progress. Great thinkers of that period realized the need to re-establish the true value of our traditional culture and to uncover it in front of the common people. But their approach was not similar to the orthodox Indian paṇḍits who were drowned in their dogmatic interpretation of scriptures. Rather these people were enlightened with modern education and adopted a path of rationality. Their way of convincing people was not to impose old values forcefully in the name of God; but they started to justify our scriptures rationally to find out the truth lying in these age-long literatures and in philosophical thoughts. Their aim to survey the literature was twofold – first, to incorporate the views which are rationally justified and utterly necessary to live a right life. This attempt justifies the relevance and utility of the scriptures. Second, to open the new allay to welcome newly developed knowledge relevant for present world scenario. For this purpose they started to interpret the scriptures in their own way. They realized that the fundamental essence of Indian culture is spiritualism and any attempt to understand it from the materialistic perspective of European world would go in vain. It is true that to continue our own entity cultural exchange is necessary, but rejection of everything in the name of modernity is not the right way. They believed that without understanding the scriptures properly we cannot consider them null and void.

Madhumita Chattopadhyay in her article Svadharma in the Bhagavadgītā: A New Interpretation deals with the outlook of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, an eminent litterateur of Bengal, on the issue of svadharma as found in the Bhagavadgītā. Because of his intention to safeguard Indian culture Bankim Chandra interpreted the Bhagavadgītā which is the fundamental text of Hindus and carries the essence of Upaniṣadic thought. The importance of the text lies in the fact that it is not a mere religious text of the Hindus, but upholds the Indian value system. To understand Indian culture, its socio-political-moral principles, the religious beliefs of Hindus, it is essential to understand the Bhagavadgītā. In spite of the presence of so many commentators on this text written by great thinkers like Śaṅkarācārya, Rāmānuja, Madhvācārya and the like, Bankim Chandra felt the need to compose a new interpretation of the text to make the essence of the Gītā clear to the young people of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, who had been trained up in Western education and Western thoughts. This book has a huge impact on Indian people. Its multi-faceted nature makes it relevant to different people because of