Translation in its simplest form is translating words from one language to another.Translation however gets tricky when translating words from one domain to another.In the domain of social science or theology words like religion, dharma, God , Ishwar etc have heaps of thoeries backing them and those theories are not always compatible , making accurate one to one translation of words almost impossible.
In this essay I will try to point out some of the problems that translation of words like religion causes.
In his outstanding books “Heathen in his blindness” , “Cultures Differ Differently” and “What it means to be Indian” S.N Balgangadhara argues : what we have in India, is not religion but traditions. All those “isms” Hinduism, Buddhism , Sikhism and Jainism are not religions in the same sense of the word semitic religions are. (that is Judaism , Christianity and Islam are religions)
S.N Balgangadhar in his various books conclusively argues that religion as a cultural universal is a biblical idea or secularised christian idea ,which unfortunately today we all have accepted as common sense truth. Very thought that there is no religion in India (or for that matter in Asia .China and Japan for instance also do not have religion) makes us extremely anxious and defensive.
Whosoever translated religion to dharma has translated the word but understood neither religion nor dharma. These are not simple words from the same domain (theological in this case) , simple translation without understanding the theory of the domain can cause severe damage.
In the practical world today when we use the word “religion” for Bhartiya traditions , we end up internalising all the negative traits of semitic religions. For example Bhartiya traditions do not have any concept of blasphemy , hence there is no question of punishment for blasphemy , same goes for apostasy. So when a child learns about these negative traits of religion and he/she is told that “Hinduism"is also a religion then he/she simply associates those non-existent perils of semitic religion with “Hinduism”.
Translation of Sanskrit word Dharma to religion in English exacerbates matters. Dharma is supreme in Bhartiya traditions. ShriRam followed putra dharma by whole heartedly accepting 14 year vanwas for honouring his father’s promise.Mata Janki followed her dharma by accompanying Shriram in vanvas without worrying about hardships. Same goes for all protagonists in Ramayana , i.e Laxman , Bharat , Shatrughna , Hanuman , Bibhishan , Sugriva , Angand and others. What we see here is the actions of all those protagonists in Ramayana are as per Dharma , which has nothing to do with worship of God , commandments of God or how God created the world etc. All of which are quintessential aspects of Semitic religions. I wish this (translation of Dharma to religion) could have been a matter of mere academic inconsistency however it is much more than academic problem. By translating Dharma as religion we have blessed semitic religions with all the great qualities of Dharma. People read phrases like “धर्मो रक्षति रक्षितः” , “धर्मसंस्थापनार्थाय सम्भवामि युगे युगे” ,"यतो धर्मस्ततो जयः” and then also come across words such as “Islam Dharma” , “Christian Dharma” are inevitably bound to associate all the aforementioned great phrases with Islam and Christianity.
When an average Hindu reads in the newspaper about the killing of Kamlesh Tiwari by Islamic terrorist, for avenging Kamlesh Tiwari’s “blasphemous” act of disrespecting “Islamic Nabi”. That Hindu reader is bound to develop disgust not only towards Islam but towards Dharma as well. Reason is very simple , one can know with the help of rudimentary google search that the motivation of Islamic terrorists has sound backing of Islamic religion. Thus the act of killing someone for a mere blasphemous statement can be religious but it can not be and it is not a Dharmik act. However because of the translation problem you will see regional news paper in India using words like “धार्मिक कट्टरपंथी” , “धर्मांध आतंकवादी” etc for depicting such actions. Thus we end up attaching the epithets “कट्टरपंथी” “आतंकवादी” to Dharma.
We can take example of BhagwatGita to understand difference between Semitic religions and Bhartiya traditions. For Jews,Christains and Muslims Bible or Qoran are word of God , disobeying God or Allah is not an option for believers.Whereas we see at the end of BhagwatGita ShriKrishna tells Arjun , I have explained most secret knowledge to you and you may do as you wish. Thus on one hand we have God/Allah commanding believers and on other hand we have Bhagwan after dialogue spanning 700 sholkas telling his disciple/friend/cousin to do as he pleases.
Now you see why translating Bhagwan or Ishwar to God and vice a versa is problematic.
Verse :
"इति ते ज्ञानमाख्यातं गुह्याद्गुह्यतरं मया।
विमृश्यैतदशेषेण यथेच्छसि तथा कुरु ॥ ६३॥
Translataion by Prabhupada : Thus I have explained to you knowledge still more confidential. Deliberate on this fully, and then do what you wish to do.
To illustrate further lets look into Michel Danino’s brilliant comparison of Abrahamic God (Jehovah/Allah) with Hiranyakashyap. Following is the excerpt from Michael Danino’s book ( note : Jehovah is the Hebrew name for God)
If you look at Jehovah in the light of Indian experience, it is striking that he has all the characteristics of an asura. Recall for a moment a being such as Hiranyakashipu: did he not, too, forbid all other cults? Did he not order that he alone should be worshipped as the supreme god? Did he not use fear and violence to try and coerce Prahlada? That he was stopped by a Divine manifestation, like many other asuras eager to possess this world, is another story; the point is that we find here the same seed of pride and cruelty as in Jehovah.
Thus some of the qualities of abrahamic God are same as adharmic asura in Bhartiya tradition and we realise the absurdity of translation of words like Dharma , Ishwar/Bhagwan to religion and God respectively.Bhartiya traditions (“Hinduism” ,”Jainism” , “Buddhism” and “Sikhism”) hence are not religions and Semitic religions (Judaism , Christianity and Islam) are not Dharma.
Anurag Choudhary
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