>HINDUS: Indians --Hindus esp were content in letting reading of
scrptures be the game of a small coterie -- the so-called brahmin
priests.... hence there was no thrust in >promoting faith by
educating followers to become literate so that they can read
scriptures.
This is correct, In fact the
Hindus were trying to keep the religion of the Vedas very much secret
from the public. Thus there was no incentive to evolve a writing method
to record the Vedas which was handed over orally for many centuries.
Even when writing was evolved, at the inspiration of the Buddhist, this
written knowledge of the Vedas was kept as much secret as possible.
First the Sudras and women were barred from raeding of the Vedas.
Against this Hindu
conservativenessm the Christians as well as the Buddhists attitude was
to propogate the Dharma to as many people as possible. Buddha's decree,
like that of Jesus, was:"Go and tell the people about the Dharma". Along
with Buddhism, and the Indian epic story Ramayana, the local languages
were developed in many countries besides India. The Vedas on the
other hand are still being recited in Sanskrit.
Rajen Barua
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Sunday, October 22, 2006
9:16 PM
Subject: [Assam] Guru
Granth.....casteism vs Bible, literacy & IndustrialRevolution;
development - Beyond discussions
Hi,
Today went to see the exhibit - first of its kind --very long
queue to enter--how the Bible (Christian religious book) evolved over
the first 1000 years of the religion's origin.
How from the time of Dead Sea Scrolls (rolled paper) the book
evolved into a modern style book form (evolving book technology)
....and how in the process of its propagation the missionaries
even created alphabets (like for Armenian and Georgian) and helped
define what books are today. Ofcourse, over time many new additions
were there and some like one refering to Jesus as a teacher
(Edgerton's book ?) were declared heresies.
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION:
Their preoccupation with the written word in book form as the
most potent means of religious expansion (from onwards 5th
century into Britain ..etc) perhaps helped build the western
preoccupation with books and learning ---since all were expected to
familiarize themselves with the text. Ofcourse it was mostly the
priests who did the reading and preaching but since they could be from
any class or tribe --ALL th society was energized towards book
reading, literacy and education-----resulting in knowledge gathering
and knowledge production later on----Industrial revolution since
1600s.
HINDUS: Indians --Hindus esp were content in letting reading of
scrptures be the game of a small coterie -- the so-called brahmin
priests.... hence there was no thrust in promoting faith by educating
followers to become literate so that they can read scriptures.
Muslims had in later days become content with reading Arabic only
--instead of translating the Quoran in other languages --so limited
literacy.
LITERACY:
Literacy provides religious communication and cohesion as well
-and perhaps thats whay Hindus are largely disconnected. They cannot
communicate with each other --most are functionally illiterate. (So
are most muslims in South Asia atleast.)
GURU & the teacher:
Yesterday I was invited by a student to go to th Sikh Gurudwara
to celebrate Diwali. My Malayalee landlord went along -his first . He
asked whom do Sikhs worship? Do they worship Krishna, Ram etc? I said
they worship the book --the Guru Granth (book) --which is their Guru .
The God they worship is the formless God (of the Yogis, Gnostics,
Buddhists etc). Surprisingly, I later realized it was the first
time I was in presence of the Guru - while my student was in the room.
A teacher in front of the Guru!!
Sikhs have a different reason for Diwali celebration -- you know
why?
Umesh
Umesh Sharma
5121 Lackawanna ST
College
Park,
(Washington D.C. Metro Region)
MD 20740
1-202-215-4328 [Cell Phone]
Ed.M. - International
Education Policy
Harvard Graduate School of Education,
Harvard
University,
Class of 2005
weblog:
http://jaipurschool.bihu.in/
website: www.gse.harvard.edu/iep
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