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At the outset
I must thank the organizers of Hanuman Vyayam Prasarak Mandal
for having invited me to deliver this Key-note address at this
August-gathering.
I feel myself honoured to get associated with H.V.P. Mandal which
has done pioneering work in the field of Traditional Indian and
modern sports and physical education. This grand complex and a
band of dedicated coaches, instructors, sportsmen and sportswomen
is a testimony to these efforts of yours for the last 7 to B decades.
The founders of this mandal were great visionaries who conceived
this idea of imparting physical education to citizens, promoting
sport in traditional Indian style, which helped the society to
achieve the goal of " a sound mind in a healthy body". Undoubtedly
it is these people who got instructions in this institution before
independence who have contributed a lot in the struggle for freedom.
In the post-independence period also this institute is playing
a cardinal role in promoting physical education and sports with
its emphasis on 'Indianness'. This seminar, I believe, on the
subject of "History of physical Education and sports" is also
a part of that effort. The Organizers have asked the scholars
to delve deep in the indigenous source material which will make
us richer in knowledge in this subject by the end of this seminar.
I must confess here and admit my limitations that I am neither
a scholar nor an expert on this subject, I am only presenting
my observations as a student on Indian Culture.
I would like to begin my address with a question "What are we
aiming at?" Are we aiming at " History" of physical education
and sports which traditionally means arranging events in a chronological
order with the help of source material which in the case of history
is Archaeology with all its modern branches, Epigraphy, Numismetics,
Classical and Prakrit literature on various topics? Or are we
in the search of a "Guiding principle" which inspired the people
of this land and was responsible for these events with a specific
style and meaning with reference to the society they lived in?
The former one is like examining a fossil of a bird and the latter
is like seeing the same bird flying in front of your own eyes.
The first one is mere mechanical, descriptive and deterministic,
while the second one is related more with actual experience, to
have insight and intuition. The first one is complimentary to
the second one but inadequate to grasp or describe reality independently.
The first one will be labeled as "an Indian source material" only
because it is found in limited geographical area called "Indian
Subcontinent". But the second will help us to qualify it as "INDIAN"
not solely limiting it to its geography but because of the cultural,
philosophical and spiritual dimensions it has which are not visible
in the first. To make it more simple I will quote Stanislav Grof
[1]
One of the most important achievements of Western philosophy
ot Science is the recognition that scientific theories are nothing
but conceptual models organizing the data about reality available
at the time. They are only useful approximations of reality
and should not be mistaken for a correct description of reality
itself. The relationship between theory and the reality which
it describes is that of map and territory in KORZYBSKI's Sense
(1933); to confuse the two represents a violation of scientific
thinking - a serious error in what is called logical typing.
Gregory Bateson, the famous American anthropologist and generalist,
used to say that person committing logical error of this kind
may one day eat the menu instead of the meal. Since it is always
possible to formulate more than one theory accounting for the
available data, the problem in question is to find a theory
that would be broad enough to incorporate some important aspects
of perennial philosophy and yet preserve the pragmatic Powers
of mechanistic science.
There is no dearth of scholars of the first variety who are popularly
known as Historians but there is a great paucity of Historians
who do not commit the mistake of treating a map as a territory
or menu as food. If we really want to find out the " Indianness"
from the deliberations of this seminar on " Physical education
and sports " we will have to address the key problem of scientific
methodology and also appreciate the revolutionary changes seen
in the perception of philosophy of science. I would also like
to say a few words of caution when I say 'Indian or 'Indianness',
I mean an unbroken tradition of culture, philosophy, arts, language,
a way of life and not a nationalism or patriotism as it is perceived
today. This tradition has its uniqueness which is native and intrinsic
to it. This uniqueness is also reflected in all source material,
cultural, social, educational and spiritual aspects of human activity.
Physical education and sports also forms a part of it.
We are all products of Macauley[2] and
all our present tools are designed to study a culture, a way of
life which is different from the ancient Indian ways of life which
we are trying to study and analyze. Surprisingly the western scholars
have appreciated this inadequacy earlier than their Indian counterparts.
Western scholars also have realized the inadequacies of the traditional
scientific methodology popularly known as "classical physics",
and which cannot take them to the truth. Theory of relativity
and quantum theory shattered all the principal concepts of the
Cartesian world-view and Newtonian mechanics, the comer stones
of classical physics. This was a painful transition for them.
This shook the foundations of their world-view and forced them
to think in entirely new ways. What are these new ways? [3]
Are the Indian Scholars of History, philosophy, sociology and
education aware of this shift in paradigm? Can we see some reflections
of this new thinking in modern history writing of "sports and
games?" The Encyclopedia Britanica says [4]
The history of sports and games is a part of the history of
man as a social animals his interrelations with other individuals
and groups, his civilization and culture and especially his
play.
This is a very important departure from the classical, mechanistic,
deterministic, mathematical approach so characteristic of western
thinking in the past. It is high time that Indian researchers
appreciate this change. Usually there is a tendency to advocate
evaluation of things in a scientific way. This notion ot being
"scientific," springs from the classical belief in "certainty"
of scientific knowledge and also from the dogma of classical science
which rejects all knowledge which is probable and accepts only
those things which are perfectly known and about which there can
be no doubt. I am afraid whether modern science with a new "insight"
approves of this dogma ? Eminent physicist Fritjof Capra states
[5]
Twentieth century physics has shown us very forcefully that
there is no absolute truth in Science, that all our concepts'
and theories are limited and approximate.
The Cartesian belief in scientific truth is still widespread
today and is reflected in the scienticism that has become typical
of our Western culture.. ... Descartes' method of thought and
his view of nature have influenced all branches of modern science
and can still be very useful today. But they will be useful
only if their limitations are recognized. The acceptance of
the Cartesian view as absolute truth and of Descartes method
as the only valid way to knowledge has played an important role
in bringing about our current cultural imbalance.
Capra' s statements should open our eyes. Fossil of a bird is
inadequate to reach the truths and reality of the complete knowledge
of the bird. It is only an approximation to reality.
The dominance and the achievements of science and technology in
the Western civilizations is commonly seen as a symbol of progress
and enlightenment with a tendency to glorify progress and evolution
and to look down upon the period of past as a time of "infancy"
and "immaturity". Progress is taken as a linear concept considering
its beginning as "primitive" and the end as "progress." This is
a suicidal approach to Indian way of Life. This automatically
dubs all activities and civilization of the past as primitive,
tribal, immature, incomplete, lacking in perfection and accidental.
Physical education and sports is no exception to this belief.
Thanks to the description of the "history of sports and games"
given by Encyclopedia Britanica, which does not talk of progress,
modernity, science but speaks of history of sports as a part of
history of a man considering him a social animal, and his interrelation
with other individual and groups, and its civilization and culture.
This compels us to take a note of one more revolutionary shift
in the perception and interpretation ot philosophy of science.
It is very recently that scientists have started thinking that
science should be viewed not as logical systems but as "Forms
ot Life". This means that science is something people do. it is
not, as such, a logical structure, but a human pursuit, a complex,
intrinsically organized as well as extrinsically authorized network
of activities. It was traditionally thought that any science is
like any other science and that "physics" could be accepted as
the paradigm of science. Scientists no more believe in this...
Renowned Physicist Francis Crick, protagonist of the old theory
wrote " The ultimate aim of the modern movement in biology is
in fact to explain all biology in terms of physics and chemistry."
[6] Eminent Zoologist Ernst Mayr
of Horward University considers this to be a grevous error in
understanding biology. He writes :-
The classical philoshers of science tended to agree with the
physicists that every thing in the world of living organisms
obeys the same laws as those that apply to inert matters and
that there are no other laws. As a result there was as almost
total neglect of specific biological phenomena and processes
in the literature ot the philosophy of science, a situation
that lasted until about twenty five years ago.
Ernst Mayr feels that thinking of classical mechanics formed the
original foundation of the philosophy of science which was dominated
by essentialism, determinism, and reductionism and he called this
dogma as "Physicalism." However, he also feels that this extreme
"Physicalism" no longer fits into the conceptual framework of
modern physics.
The
premise that the Western, Classical scientific world-view possesses
universal applicability is being questioned by more advanced among
the western philosophers of science. Realization of this had immediate
repercussions on physical and biological sciences and through
them they are inevitably percolating into humanities like sociology
and anthropology. The concepts and paradigms of these disciplines
are brought to bear on the study of "history of sports and physical
education." It is to be noted here that what constitutes a shift
in the "mind-set" and processes of thinking for the Westerners
who had to free, themselves from the shackles of Cartesian Newtonian
modes of thinking is really a "rediscovery" for us, Indians. It
is a pleasant surprise that this was perceived clearly by an eminent
Western scholar, M.Marriot who says [8]
It is an anomalous fact that the social sciences used in India
today have developed from thought about Western rather than
Indian cultural realities. As a result, although they pretend
to be of universal applicability, the Western Sciences often
do not recognize and therefore, cannot deal with the questions
to which many Indian institutions are answers. In the interest
of dealing with Indian questions and answers this volume explores
social science ideas that can be developed from the realities
known to Indian people.
What are these
realities which were known to Indians in the matter of sports
and physical education? That sport and physical activities are
not to be viewed or pursued in "isolation" but are the part of
a "holistic" unity called human personality, was unknown to Indians.
It is described by Ayurveda as an integration of body, senses,
mind and soul and not merely a mathematical, mechanical addition
of these disjointed and separable parts. Sports and games that
form part of many a Vrata and Utsava throughout the annual Rtuchakra
bear witness to it. It is to be noted that women are not only
not excluded from sport-activity but in some of these they are
the exclusive participants. Sport is nothing if not spontaneous.
The very creation of the universe is a sport for the Highest being
. This Lila if it is to be enjoyable to the one who plays
and the one who views should retain as much of its original spontaneity
as possible. Otherwise, it becomes a cutthroat, mercenary activity,
full of tension to the players and to the spectators. That is
why games in which none losses, none wins but all enjoy is recognized
now as a therapy in many a psychological disorders. Even at the
mytho-cosmological level,lndra is (a dancer). As a result of this
dance of Indra, the world is created, Heaven and Earth are held
apart and divine light is obtained. In this cosmic activity of
Indra, Maruts, are his playmates. Yes, the Rgveda describes them
as they play in a sportive manner.
If any philosophy
of sports is to be developed which would be conceptually "Indian"
having universal application, it becomes imperative to go to the
original sources of knowledge. This makes study of Sanskrit essential
to all those who are studing the History of physical education
and sports in ancient India.
The present
state of sports activity no doubt exhibits highest human efforts
and excellence but it is frigheningly encroached upon by technology.
As a result very few can really participate in this activity.
It is also getting increasingly dependent upon money power. Very
few and privileged countries in the world can hold Olympic Games
today. This inability to hold Olympic games it purely economical
for most countries of the world. Competition is very essential
for the game but this must be for improving individual and team
excellence and not as an end goal. It we connive at this aspect
of competition, unnatural and dangerous tendencies creep in. The
use of drugs is one such tendency. It not only distorts spirit
of sports but also destructs the sportsman. Such tendencies should
be condemned without any economy of words.
I started
my address with a question "What are we aiming at?". Is our aim
is to unearth "guiding principle" in the history of physical education
and sports and to find out what prevented us from being self destructive,
uneconomical and complex?. Then we have to understand "Indian
world-view" ot self and its surroundings, that is "nature", and
what was his ultimate aim to achieve in life. To grasp this "Indianness"
we will have to avoid making mistakes of equating "fossil of bird"
with the "bird" itself. History will have to be interpreted with
its cultural, philosophical and spiritual dimensions. We will
have to purge ourselves of all Western and ideological biasses.
The Western methodology should be used with the knowledge of its
limitations when applied to our culture and we should also fully
recognize shift in its philosophy of science. This will minimize
of our exhaustion of chasing a mirage of progress and modernity.
Inspection of history of physical education & sports with
this view in our mind will help us rediscover methods of physical
education and sports which are simple and not complex, economical
and not expensive, meant for all and not for exclusive few and
accommodative of all ages & both sexes suitable to all climates
and geographical variation.
I hope and
wish that this Seminar is a step towards that aim of rediscovering
"guiding spirit" of "Indianness" related to physical education
and sports in India.
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