We usually bought the calendar somewhat after Diwali, around November when I was a kid. Purchase of a new calendar used to mark a small family gathering in the evening with the typical question of “When is Ganapati next year? And when is Diwali?”. My parents used to discuss the planning of leaves around the festivities considering any weekends that can be augmented. Remembering these discussions recently, suddenly struck me an oddity that I had never noticed before. You ask when is Ganapati this year, but every year it is always on the 4th of Bhadrapad; 1st fortnight. Similarly Dusshera is always on the 10th of Ashwin; 1st fortnight. It is on this very same day every year.
But then what exactly was sought with that question? Obviously what we mean with such questions is what is the date as per the Gregorian calendar these festivals are falling. Evidently this argument could be reversed to make the events that occur on fixed dates as per the Gregorian calendar appear to move erratically, such as the Independence day. For example, this year’s independence day is going to be on 11th of Shravan; 2nd fortnight. Last year it was Shravan Poornima and a year before it was on 5th of Shravan; 1st fortnight. In 1947, the year we got independence, it was 14th of Shravan (Adhik); 2nd fortnight. So someone following the traditional calendar would equivalently ask every year the title question, when is the independence day this year?
So is this just a vein discussion on different calendar systems or a meaningless revivalist argument just for the sake of revival irrelevant for the present era? Present world has accepted the western Gregorian calendar as the calendar system for the entire world and all the activities that go around the world are timed as per this calendar. In our professional life when we interact with people situated across the globe, it is beneficial to have one calendar system that is accepted and followed by everyone. Moreover, it can also be said that the present Gregorian calendar system is nearly error free and calculates the length of the year highly accurately. Should we not then just move on along with the rest of the world?
The importance of bringing this non-issue is the sentiment that I sense behind these questions. It is that of an inferiority because of the fact that we can’t even organize our festivals to occur at some definite periods of the year. Every year they occur at different dates and we need planning to accommodate. Suddenly there is an added month sometimes and all the festivals are off hugely. At the rock bottom is the feeling that we cannot even maintain a good calendar. We plainly accept it as a fact that the independence day falls on the same day every year and Dusshera keeps moving occurring anytime from late September to early November. The reality on the contrary is that they both occur on fixed days respective to their own calendar systems. The inferiority appears so deep rooted that we don’t even recognize it any more. We just have accepted the calendar alignment as an additional task that is part of the festival chores and we don’t remember how we feel about it.
The reason of this subservient acceptance is not even in the superiority of the Gregorian calendar. I accept that it is the most accurate calendar to measure a year in terms of days. But its months are divided without any logic. There is no natural cycle that is related to the months of this calendar. Natural cycles were the basis of any calendar system and the entire effort was to track and benefit from the regularity in the natural phenomena. In order to achieve this Indians invented the lunisolar calendar system, trying to give as much justice as possible to all different natural cycles. Hence the length of a year varies at times by a full month. Gregorian calendar simply overlooks the monthly variations and only attempts to make the year as close to the actual time of a year. By any means, no calendar system can claim clear technical superiority over the other. The reason could partly be in the widespread acceptance of the Gregorian calendar across the world and the need to adopt it with the increasing globalization. But that would only explain to omnipresent usage, not the acceptance as a superior calendar system.
The answer I believe is in the deep colonial mindset that we have developed. It makes us regard anything with European origin as superior to any indigenous counterpart. British rule, through the imposition of their peculiar education system that was enforced upon our society, made us believe that we were an underdeveloped brute society that had no development in the areas of science and technology. We may have had some marvelous feats achieved in the area of philosophy but in terms of scientific prowess we were no better than the cavemen. Natural conclusion was that any system of measurements that is Indian must be inferior to the corresponding western one, such as a calendar system. Militarily and politically defeated, we accepted these conclusions about our society and civilization. The impressions are so deeply engraved on our minds now that even after 75 years of independence we still are holding upon the same views.
It must be said that there is no mainstream attempt unfortunately in the independent India to correct the discourse, bringing it to more evidence based understanding. We have still been studying the same colonial syllabus of social sciences in our schools and colleges. We obtained our political independence from British in 1947 but did not become free in true sense. As Mahatma Gandhi puts in Hind Swaraj, “Those who have been affected by Western civilization have been enslaved … If we bear in mind the above fact, we can see that if we are free, India is free”. He again reminds us in the conclusion of Hind Swaraj that it would not be proper to say that we obtained home rule if we merely expel the English.
Readers may be thinking that I am fetching this too trivial point too far. Let me give you one example where this manifested bluntly. Shivajayanti, or the birth of Chhatrapati Shivaji has been traditionally celebrated in India on 3rd of Falgun; 2nd fortnight. For some reasons, may be political, that practice was changed a few years back and now it is celebrated on 19th of February. Apart from any short term gains that anyone might have had, I only see a long term loss and show of weakness here. Chhatrapati Shivaji was in fact such a visionary king that he had sensed the impacts of the colonization of mind, even though it was not institutionalized during the middle-eastern invasions. In line with the tradition of past Hindu kings he initiated a new samvat with his coronation and attempted to make Sanskrit as the official language by ordering the penning of Rajabhasha-Kosha. And we succumbed to mental pressure of colonialism and changed his birth celebration event to align with the Western calendar, without even realizing that we are victims of such a mindset.
The saddest part is this. We don’t even recognize the signs where we demonstrate a colonized behaviour, following blindly the customs picked during colonial times. This is the highest form of mind colonization. I am not suggesting here to revert to the Hindu calendar system fully for all the functioning within this country, that is not even possible. But when we adopt the western ways, we have to be cautious, not accepting anything under the premise that it is better than ours because it has come from west. We accept the knowledge of west, but on our terms and conditions. And accept only that that is well proven beyond doubt about its truth and it is well integrated with our ethos. We have to weed out very carefully the norms, customs and methods that we have simply borrowed from west, without really scrutinizing if they are fit for us, or in fact any good at all. It will require asking many such questions that are inconsequential individually. But together they will help building an Indian narrative of social outlook.