By Yeye Omileye Achikeobi-Lewis, M.Ed. NCC, LPCA
I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don’t notice it.
Alice Walker
Recently I remember sitting in on a Buddhist lecture on the Four Karmas. The teacher was very knowledgeable and excellent, but when he came to a section of the text where Black was portrayed as destructive and evil and white as good, and in fact both connected to the Caste System, he paused and tried not to look in my direction. I was the only black participant at the temple. I felt the heat rise up into my cheeks, I was uncomfortable for him but also hyper aware of how Colonialism has shaped our spiritual practices and way of seeing The Other, people of color.
Global Spiritual Colonialism is too vast to mention in this small commentary I want to make, but needless to say it does exist. I remember reading a book on the Dakini of Tibetan Buddhism and being astounded at how many black dakini and black male counterparts there were. Many were important protectors of Dharma. I was equally surprised at how color-blind people were when they looked at these dakini. For some reason they never saw their color, almost not realizing they were black – it is a bit like the Emperor has no clothes syndrome. So there is Black Tara who wards of evil; Palden Llahmo protector deity of Tibetan Buddhism and a fierce form of Saraswathi; Troma Nagamo wrathful form of Vajravarahi, who helps us to cut through delusion and our dualistic nature; Simhamukka – a meditation wisdom deity, who is also seen as a wrathful form of Padmesambhava who brought Buddhism to Tibet. The list goes on. What surprised me even more was how these female dakinis and their male counterparts served a powerful wisdom function, yet were so frightening, and often described in the most grotesque ways. it seemed like an utter contradiction, which could be partly explained by the fact that our kleshas (emotional poisons) are ugly things, but my logical mind always told me it could not explain the whole story, and it does not.
We see this same description of the utterly terrifying depiction of black deities in Hinduism. So Ma Kali is one of the most famous of them all. She is seen as a savior mother to all, yet she is so let’s face it beyond scary looking and sounding. We could say that is because she does the scary job of once again removing the obscurations of our negative character and emotional traits, but how much of that explains her frightening appearance?
The more I encountered the terrifying yet enlightening black dakinis and deities of Asia, is the more I began to realize that maybe their forms were trying to free our minds from Spiritual Colonialism. Unbeknownst to many Colonialism and Slavery in their grab for land, booty, and Mother Earth’s riches, had a policy of re-writing much of the colonized and our global spiritual narrative. Colonialism, had a kind off schoolboy simple plan, yet sophisticated operation of casting everything that was black as bad and evil. For you cannot enslave or colonize a people who have a spirit or soul, can you? not really. You have to deal with what Dr. Joy Degruy, author of Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome, calls Cognitive Dissonance. The Oxford Dictionary describes Cognitive Dissonance as, “the state of having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes, especially as relating to behavioral decisions and attitude change.” Dr. Degruy points out that the American Founding Fathers legally wrote into the American Constitution that blacks were to be deemed as three-fifths human. Why? In order to continue to exploit their labor as “chattel”, and exploit their vote as partly human.
Slavery and Colonialism made us inhumane towards people of color. Not only was the inhumanness of the black person written into law, but also articles, books, commentaries and treatment. T.R Cobb author of An Inquiry into the Law of Negro Slavery in the United States of America wrote,
“This inquiry into the physical mental and moral development of the Negro race seems to point them clearly, as a peculiarly fitted for a laborious class. Their physical frame is capable of great and long exertion. Their mental capacity renders them incapable of successful self-development, and yet adapts them for the direction of wiser race. Their moral character renders them happy, peaceful, contented and cheerful in a status that would break the spirit and destroy the energies of the Caucasian or the native American.” (p. 46-47)
During the Slave era the lynching of the enslaved African was a horrendous public affair called entertainment. It helped to etch the inhumanness of the black person in the consciousness of the of all and turned the humanity of all inside out. School kids, workers were given days off, so that they could witness a lynching. In R. Ginzburg’s book, 100 Years of Lynching, a typical lynching is described.
“Before the torch was applied to the pyre, the negro was deprived of his ears, fingers and genital parts of his body. He pleaded pitifully for his life while the mutilations was going on, but stood the ordeal of fire with surprising fortitude. Before the body was cool, it was cut to pieces, the bones were crushed into small bits, and even the tree upon which the wretch met his fate was torn up and disposed of as “souvenirs.” The negro’s heart was cut into several pieces, as was also his liver. Those unable to obtain the ghastly relics direct paid their more fortunate possessors extravagant sums for them. Small pieces of bones went for 25 cents and a bit of the liver crisply cooked sold for 10 cents. As soon as the negro was seen to be dead there was a tremendous struggle among the crowd to secure the souvenirs….Knives were quickly produced and soon the body was dismembered.” (p.12)
As said before the Black Other was declared over and over again to be without, and it is this memory that has been etched on our spiritual memories.
India, the Golden Child
India was an important Colonialist training ground for acquiring the soul of the globe. Europeans saw India as the lost child and origins they had been searching for. With a darker majority and small Aryan Brahman descent population – who never the twain shall mix, the Western Colonists saw an ideal situation of “Colonial India as a laboratory for race theory,” according to Dirk. It was in India that Richard King, author of Orientalism and Religion says, “the British Colonists shaped India in their own image.”
This was a time when global colonialism dominated the world, and India was the place its racial theories were polished and refined. Dirk points out that leading British Census Commissioner, H.H Risley, wrote a number of Ethnographies on the Indian population and led the way in Phrenology studies and anthropomorphic measurements of individuals, who were categorized according to their nasal measurements and skulls shapes etc. Risely’s whole aim was to prove that the higher caste, namely the Brahmans were related to Europeans and associated with intelligence; while the lower caste was closely associated with Africans and namely intellectually dull. Risley believed, “that in India the various theories of race and human species could be tested in, where in Europe they were only theory (Dirk, P. 184). In fact, Risley was hell bent on showing the connection between race and caste. His beliefs on race, and those of other Colonist in India were hugely influential in Europe. Dirk states that Risely himself pointed out that European students were widely reading his book on Races of Europe and Professor Haddon’s book called Study of Man. He was excited that in Europe students were making extensive use of race theory collected and compiled in India.
There is so much that could be said on this subject of how race came to be perceived in the Colonial area and how it shaped our spiritual thinking, yet there is only so much space to do so. I have developed a specific interest in the role of Colonialism in Asia, especially India, because it is here I believe our global spiritual wounding was master minded.
In this part of the discussion Caste is an important subject, because Caste was the ultimate statement of white superiority and the lowly spiritual status of the black man and woman.
According to Srivinas, author of Caste in Modern India, the layman Indian has no idea of the “complexities” of caste, “to him it means simply the division of Hindu society into four orders viz., Brahmana (Brahmin, traditionally priest and scholar), Vaishay (merchant), and Shudra (peasant, labourer, servant). The first three casts are twice-born as the men from them are entitled to don the sacred thread at the Vedic rite of upanayam, while the Shudras are not. The Untouchable are outside the varna scheme.” P. 63.
But the idea of Caste, Srivinas reveals has a long history. it is only in one of the latter hymns in the celebrated Purushasukta that the reference has been made to four orders of society as emanating from the sacrifice of the Primeval being. In this poem it is stated the Brahman comes from the mouth, Kshatriya – the arms, Vaishya – thighs, and the Sudra – feet of the Creator. From Srivinas we discover that Varna refers to color and seemed to have been originally a term used to distinguish the color and appearance of the conquerors (Arya/Aryan) from the conquered aborigines (Dasyu). He and other authors say that before the Aryan invasion Indian society was divided into trade status.
The British in India, took this one mention of what was returned to a the Varna Caste system and ran with it. It was obvious they were forever eager to prove their global superiority. Madras Census Commissioner Cornish telling reveals,
““The whole caste system, as it has come down to us, bears unmistakable evidence of Brahmanical origin….The whole system of caste was built up to maintain the monstrous idea that a Brahman was of a different order to the rest of created beings. (Cornish, Report on the Census of Madras Presidency, 1871, Vol. 1, p. 116)
British Census Commissioner Baines, backs this up stating,
“Color was never out of mind. The gods were adjured to protect the Arya color and the epithet most often applied to the opposing race is that of dark complexioned. Thus the old name for race or, as subsequently interpreted , caste or order, connoted, at the time it originated, that is at the first contact of the Ayra with a lower race, a real ethnic difference, as Mr. Risley has pointed out.” (p. 123).
And George MacMunn author of Martial Races of India published in 1933 further stated,
“The martial races of India were largely the product of the original white Aryan races. The white invaders in the days of their early supremacy started the caste system, as a protection, it is believed, against the devastating effect on marls and ethics of the miscegenation with Dravidian and Aboriginal peoples.” (p. 9-10)
Just as a side note martial race of India was a category created by the Western Colonist to distinguish those who were fit for fighting. They were apparently of more masculine character, loyal and therefore especially suited for military service. On the other hand, “non-martial races” were regarded as unfit for fighting.
The whole idea of caste was so tenuous that it was hard for the British census to use the Varna Caste system in a consistent way, because it was rare to find groups that fit neatly into the Varna system, except for the Brahman. It became clear that only the Brahman benefited from the construction of the Caste system.
The British colonists constructed entire castes as “criminal castes” and through andromorphic measurements and dubious ethnographies categorized the: social, moral, intelligence, criminal tendencies, cultural and even race of origins of whole groups of people. The reality is that those groups that were classed as criminal castes were often those who were the most resistant to colonial rule.
Caste was also associated with spiritual concepts such as the Brahaman being associated with priestly functions, white, superior, intelligent, and founders of a great civilization. While the aboriginal population were categorized into the lower caste and seen as vile, evil, dull and lazy.
The idea of Castes seeped into spiritual concepts such as the three gunas: Sattvic, Rajas and Tamas – the three dynamic shaping principles of the universe and world. Authors of Caste System: Vaishyas, Sudras, and Untouchables, Sophia Lee and Dr. Gowler say,
“varna means different shades of texture or color and represents mental temper. There are three Gunas:” (Deshpande) Sattava (white), Rajas (red), and Tamas (black). These three Gunas are also classified to have their own characteristics. Sattava are wise, intelligent, honest, good, and other positive things. Rajas have qualities such as passion, pride, and valor. Tamas are dull, stupid, not creative, and other negative things (Deshpande).”
Because the Text Say So
In order to rule the world or waves, as the British anthem states, it was important for Colonists to shape the world in its image. Hugh Urban author of India’s Darkest Heart: Kali in the Colonial Imagination states, “in the Colonial situation, the mimesis or imagining of the Other becomes all the more politically charged. Colonial history too must be understood as a spiritual politics in which image-power is an exceedingly valuable resource.” In order to master the native subject, the colonizer must imaginatively construct the native in terms that he can comprehend and control.” (p. 171)
King helps us to understand this phenomenon and how it occurred. He explains that many of the written text of places like India had in fact been oral transmissions, and many of the text translated belonged to one class of people and thought and that was that of the Brahman, whose thought patterns matched those of the Colonist. He is very clear when he states, “Relying purely on written text can misrepresent the nature of religion and the religion being studied.” ( P. 711 ) and that,
“it is important to realize that the world religions as they are usually portrayed are idealized and largely theoretical constructs that bear some relationships to, but are by no means identical with, the actual religious expression of humankind, especially in the pre-modern era. One should also note simultaneously the homogenizing and imperialistic ideologies of a religious world. In effect by focusing upon the Brahmanical strands of Indian religion, the theological treatise of Catholicism or the scholarly Quranic commentaries of Islam, one inevitably marginalizes a significant proportion of human religious experiences and expressions.” (p. 68)
In the light of controlling and shaping India and global spiritual perceptions, the British Colonists and Orientalists surprisingly shaped a whole religion called Hinduism. According to King the word Hinduism is derived from the Persian word called Sindhu, which referred to the Indus River. Hinduism became only known in the nineteenth century. He boldly states, “the notion of a single religion known as Hinduism, the notion of a Hindu religion, I wish to suggest was initially invented by Western Orientalist basing their observation upon a judeo-christian understanding of religion.” P. 90
The relationship of the Brahman to the Western Orientalist and Colonist was key to the shaping of the perceived history and spiritual depictions of India, and the image of the black man, woman and deity. It was their Vedic text which were prioritized as the key text of Indian society. King helps us to know that a large portion of the Vedas were local customs absorbed and regurgitated.
It is important to know that in the Colonial era, the Brahmin class were created by the British as a class who were go betweens between them and the millions they governed. Who were Indian in color but English in taste, morals, intellect and opinion.
Back to The translations of Indian spiritual text, they were firmly in the hands of the Western Orientalist and Brahmin. The English translation of Indian text were highly valued. Many of those who translated the Indian spiritual text and even other spiritual text from around the world were Western Missionaries. Everything that was not in their sphere of understanding religion and tradition was seen as vile and evil.
Caldwell, well known for his study of languages exemplified how the Western Orientalist and Colonizer used their ethnographic studies to shape our spiritual understanding of the Colonized Dark Other. In a speech he delivered to the Annual Meeting of the Society for Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, April 28, 1875, he states,
““The fact of the terminology of devil-worship being purely Tamil throughout is to my mind a tolerably conclusive argument of the Tamil origin of the system. With reference to the social state of the Tamil people, it is clear that the origin of the words in common use will enable anyone to determine what was introduced by the Brahmans, the civilizers of Peninsular India and what existed before their arrival. All words relating to science, literature and mental refinement, all that relate to an advanced civilization and all words pertaining to religion, the soul and the invisible world are in the language of the Brahmans; whilst all words that relate to the ordinary arts of life, the face of nature, the wants , feelings and duties of a rude and almost savage people are being exclusively Tamily, we are obliged to assign to this superstition a high antiquity, and refer its establishment in the arid plains of Tinnevelly and among the Travancore jungles and hills to a period long anterior to the influx of the Brahmans and civilization of the primitive Tamily Tribes” (p. 138)
In India, the British had set up the school system, the system of law, systems of policing etc. The translated text circulated through these systems and went beyond India to Europe itself. Many of the text on Yoga for instance, were translated by Western Orientalists, who were often missionaries and Christians. King says, “even the anglicized Indian who spoke a language other than English preferred to read the British translation of text, because of the symbolic power attached to English. He would prefer to gain access to his own past through the translations and histories circulating through colonial discourse. English education also familiarized the Indian Ways of Seeing, techniques of translations or modes of representation that came to be accepted as natural.” P. 93
This truth is repeated through all colonized territories. According to many authors such as Dirk and King, many of the ethnographic reports of the Western Orientalist were also highly dubious,
Not only were Indian text interpreted by Colonizing Orientalist but so too were Buddhist text. In fact, the study of Buddhism came after the study of Indology. Orientalist explored the idea of Buddha being Shiva and even African, but they threw these notions out. Their manipulation of the Buddha’s identity exemplified the level of influence Western Orientalist had. Initially, Orientalist scholars portrayed Buddha as Martin Luther King, however as the Nineteenth century wore on they began to portray Buddha as a pacifist, afraid the effects his beliefs would create a rebellious population amongst their Indian subjects.
The term Buddhism arose at the same time as the term Hinduism, in the nineteenth century. The very first history of Buddhism was written by an Orientalist Scholar by the name of Eugene Burnouf, who wrote a monumental Introduction to Buddhism known as l’histoire de Buddhisme Indien in 1844, which was a 600 page book. In terms of the interpretation of Buddhist text, apparently King reveals that Western Orientalists did have vernacular commentaries and native translators, but it often got subordinated to their own view,
“As a result of this search for pure Buddhism as viewed through the eyes of Westerners. Pure and authentic Buddhism became located not in the experiences, lives and actions of living Buddhist in Asia but rather in the university libraries, archives of Europe – specifically the edited text and translation carried out by the Orientalists.” ( p. 150)
And She Even Dances on Bones
It is in the light of all the above we can go back to the Black Dakini and Female Mother Goddesses of Asia we meet in our yoga classes, Buddhist prayer texts, and re-told Asian myths. Now we can understand how those terrifying images of them grew from the substrate of the Colonialist imagination. Kali is a well-known and feared Goddess. She is also a Mother Goddess I love dearly, so let’s talk about her for a moment. Kali is quite a powerful Goddess, agreed? Agreed. She is also extremely black, drawn and depicted in the most terrifying ways. The black bit isn’t bad, it is the terrifying bit that makes her blackness seem bad. As author Hugh B. Urban states in his essay India’s Darkest Heart: Kali in the Colonial Imagination (which is part of an anthology entitled, Encountering Kali in the margins, at the center, in the west),
“If the European scholars identified the “Golden Age: of India with the Vedas, they also identified its darkest and most perverse age with the worship of Kali and her votaries, the secret cults of the Tantras.” (p. 170)
The author goes on to reveal that the British colonial authorities saw Kali as frightening. They distorted Kali to appear vile and violently sexual. No wonder, as Kali was associated with battle and the lower-caste of India, who were non-Aryan. In the Mahandeya Purana, Kali is depicted as “bloodthirsty, hideous, emaciated creature, raging about the field of battle and slaying the demons Canda and Munda.” It has to be remembered that the majority of ancient text in India were translated in the nineteenth century, often by missionaries and Orientalist with imperialistic, Protestant and Christian beliefs. This includes the Mahandeva Purana which is said to be as old as 7th Century CE. The key translation of this text, however came from those such as C.C. Mukherjee (1893). Remember, many of the ancient text were translated with the help of the Brahmin caste, who viewed themselves as coming from the Aryan lineage and therefore better than the Darker Other – the Dravidian and Aboriginal of India.
If the Dark Other was wicked and evil, guess what? Poor Kali, their mother, was also depicted as wicked and evil in the Colonial imaginings. I discovered that the first visual depictions of Kali originated from the Western nineteenth century imagination. Urban says that during this era, Kali is depicted as a “horrific creature with long thin limbs, a distended belly, protruding ribs, long fangs, and a lolling tongue, who lurks in battlefields and cremation grounds consuming human flesh. She is as a whole a fusion of death and sensuality, of terrifying violence and erotic power” ( P. 172).
We will notice this is the description we are normally given of the dark Mother Goddesses of the Buddhist Tradition too. Remember, once again who interpreted many of those texts. In the description of Kali we see the Victorian moral undertone, their fascination with sex (which was on the surface suppressed), and racism. In fact, Urban points out that Kali in the Colonial imagination represented, India’s darkest heart”. Furthermore the encounter with Kali was not initially with the orientalist but the Christian missionaries, who sensationalized and debased Kali, who in their eyes represented the evil dark other. Also Kali’s horrific image conjured up by the European colonist was popularized through various travel narratives of the British in India, such as Fanny Park’s widely read Wanderings of a Pilgrim in Search of the Picturesque.
The intensity of vileness with which the Western colonist depicted Kali is, Urban reveals, illustrated in the way a British writer describes the Kalighat, a festival held by Kali worshipers,
“Never did I see men so eagerly enter into the shedding of blood, nor do I think any butcher could slaughter animals more expertly. The place was literally swimming in blood. The bleating of the animals, the numbers of slain, and the ferocity of the people employed, actually made me unwell, and I returned about midnight, filled with horror and indignation.” (p. 176).
You will notice the sensational language in Ward’s revelation. Many authors on Colonialist in India and Asia comment that this tone and over exaggeration is very common during that era. as a picture of the debased Black Other becomes ingrained in the epigenetic memory of the European race and all those affected. We will see echoes of this language and way of thinking about the Dark Other had already pervaded Europe, a sentiment carried over from slavery and crystalized in the colonial era. If there were the imagined horrors of Ma Kali from India conjured from the self-projection of the European mind onto the Person of Color. There was also those like poor Saara Baartman, who was taken from South Africa and spent years being exhibited in freak shows. Hoards of crowds would come from near and far to stare at her buttocks. She exemplified, as Justin Parkinson writes in his BBC news article, The significance of Sarah Baartman, “the epitome of colonial exploitation and racism, of the ridicule and commodification of black people.” In case you don’t know who I am talking about, Sarah Baartman’s Colonial name was the Venus Hottentot.
It is interesting that in the blood curdling descriptions of Kali and her followers, there was a Colonialist fear of rebellion from the Indian masses. While Kali’s sacredness, as a pre-Aryan and Dravidian Goddess was torn asunder, the mass of Indians saw Kali as a national savior during the Colonial Era. We see this description of her in Bankim Chandra Chatterjee’s well known 1882 novel Ananada Math (Abbey of Bliss). He depicts her as glorious in her original state, but ferocious when facing oppression. In his novel Bankim depicts Kali as representing the past, the present and future. It is telling that he represents her past self as a very noble Mother; in the age of foreign oppression she is represented as a blood thirsty hound; her future self is golden with ten arms representing the future and glory of India.
Once again it is important to remember what Alyson Buckman points out in her article, The Body as a Site of Colonization: Alice Walker’s Possessing the Secret of Joy, that “imaging is an important tool used to justify the exclusion and subordination, constructing of the colonized as deserving of their lower status.”
On a final note, as I sat down and listened to the lecture in that Buddhist temple, I suddenly became aware how easy and comfortable it is to accept the story that has been handed down to us. But when I look around me, it appears this story is not sustainable, as it continues to help us support the rape, separation and abuse of masses of people’s and Mother Earth’s lands. I have realized, it is so much easier to choose not to see the Emperor with no Clothes. Some of us do not want to be labeled as trouble makers, some of us find that things serve us just fine the way that they are. But I now know there can be no love or sense of oneness when we do not challenge the myth of the Black Other. There is no love or sense of oneness from stories fostered watered by the seeds of divisiveness not love.
There is a subterranean spiritual story ready to be told and embraced. It is the one that got left out of the history books and our spiritual imaginations. The images of those subterranean Goddesses and Gods stare at us every day and try to speak to us through our rounds of yoga asanas, chanting, and learning the sutras. But a bit like Goddess Echo trying to tell Narcissus she loved him, we do not hear them. Caught in his own ego, Narcissus died trying to catch his image in the small lake he lay by. But the beauty he saw of himself could not be reached through his normal narrow perception of self, only through a courageous self and heart open to re-imagining. The same is true for us.
Reference
Buckman. A. (1995 ). The Body as a Site of Colonization: Alice Walker’s Possessing the Secret of Joy. Journal of American Cultural Banner, P.89.
Cobb. T.R. (1858). Inquiry into the Law of Negro Slavery in the United States of America. University Press of California Libraries
Cornish. (1871). Cornish Report on the Consensus of Madras Presidency. Vol 1, p. 116
Dirk. N. (2001) Castes of Mind. Oxford, Princeton
Deguy. J. (2005). Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome. Uptone Press, 2005
Gingburg. R. (1962). 100 Years of Lynchings. Black Classic Press
King. R. (1999). Orientalism and Religion. New York, Routledge.
Macumnn. G. (1933) Martial Races of India. Sampson Low Marston and Company Limited.
Parkinson. J. The Significance of Sarah Baartman. BBC News Magazine.
Srivinas. N. (1962) Caste in Modern India. Bombay, Asia Publishing House
Picture Credit: Wikipedia
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