Ramayana as an epic
has edified millions. The life issues and moral questions it raises continue to
provoke thought in Muslim Indonesia and Malaysia, Buddhist Thailand and secular
Cambodia. The solutions they propose have remained reference points in South
Asia in the ordinary man’s realm of thought and village level social
interactions. Many western scholars have greatly admired its poetic quality,
dramatic energy and the depth of its ethical search. Most Indians see in it the
teachings of ancient rishis presented in allegorical forms.
While neutral scholars
respect Ramayana’s epic power and human appeal, they are reluctant to attach
any historic importance to the thrilling exploits recounted there. However,
they recognise that, like the Iliad, Odyssey, and Aeneid, Ramayana too sets its
story within the framework of a historical period. It is the epic glorification
of an age that has long passed and a poet’s creation of idealised personalities
amidst the ugly realities of human life…inviting reflection. The story develops
against the background of court intrigue and “power struggle”. And power
struggle has continued. The epic’s moral lessons have become eloquent in our
own days!
Indian society feels deeply
embarrassed about their leaders who are “desperately hungry for power”. It is
difficult to point finger at a particular leader or a specific Party; all
parties are equally determined to gain/retain ‘power and pelf’ using fair means
and foul. It has become democratic India’s New Normal. The devout reading of
Ramayana has not helped the people of the subcontinent to evaluate themselves
with the critical tools it provides.
Continuity in History
Its classical values
apart, social historians have seen in the Great Epic a poetic account of the
Aryan expansion into the South, winning collaborators from indigenous communities.
This has permanently remained a sore point: the way this collaboration was/is won
and is used…as equals or as instruments? Are the indigenous societies of the
South and East inferior races to the dominant classes/castes? People of
Karnataka were not flattered when Adityanath Yogi wanted to confer on them the
glory of belonging to Hanuman’s stock, nor the tribals of Rajasthan for a
similar distinction. Modiji made brief reference to them while visiting the
Hanuman shrine on the way to the bhoomi pujan event. He confessed that the help
of vanvasis and vanaras was required to make Ram devotion gain a wider
appeal. But everything else got lost
amidst the dazzle of the Prime Minister of the Greatest Secular country in the
world presiding at a Ram devotion. But for those who are alert, nothing is
lost. Sooner or later the BJP will have define the role they will assign to the
Dalits, tribals and OBCs. For example, a Murmu was required in Kashmir when
unpleasant decisions had to be made; but when the situation is better, they can
be dispensed with.
But in any case, whether
they like it or not, the Hinduva High Command will have to be more and more
accountable to their Dalit and OBC supporters. The Babri Masjid came down
through their initiative. At every VHP gathering, they constitute the workforce
for providing the essential services. Further, there are people like Sadhvi
Rithambara or Pragya Singh Thakur who can offer erratic services as well. The
Parivar cannot lift its head without the subalterns. But lo and behold! They
were conspicuously absent at the bhoomi pujan, except for Anandiben Patel; no
Yadav, no Jat, no Kurmi.
As long as devotion
is all about obscurantist emotions only, this sort of instrumentalization will
continue. But the day of questioning comes when sufficient number of Dalits,
tribals and OBCs become equipped to think for themselves. Buddha invited
thought, so did Ambedkar. Stray voices are heard like that of Kancha Ilaiah.
The New Education Policy is so planned to prevent this from happening:
productive castes must remain productive, not reflective. M.K. Stalin called NEP
a revised version of Manusmriti. We are under Emergency, he said, with a series
of ordinances and decrees thrust upon us without discussions.
Tragedy of the
Situation
Too few are
perceptive of the real situation in India today. We have been moving from
demonetization, demotivation, and demoralization, to desperation and
covidization! The day after bhoomi pujan, new covid-19 cases shot up from
52,000 to 62,000 and 67,000. A Stanford University study found the UP-Bihar
statistics completely unreliable. Priyanka was right when she warned against
Yogi’s ‘propaganda’. Why Yogi? Medical experts are insisting that the Delhi
growth rate is reported low only based on Amit-Shah-Kejriwal’s defective
testing. WHO that had words of praise of India’s earlier initiatives has become
strongly critical of our testing quality. In fact, Modiji who had amazed the world by calling
together the SAARC nations for a common struggle against covid-19 has allowed
our neighbours to leave us far behind. The great drama proved itself to have
been a farce. But Modiji’s propaganda machinery never fails.
The real tragedy is
not that we are fighting Coronavirus, but fighting truth. While Harsh Vardhan, Health
Minister, is congratulating himself for doing a great job, Indian rate of
growth of Covid-19 cases has risen to twice that of Brazil and three times that
of the US…highest rate in the world. As
long as we were reporting about China, Iran, Spain or UK what we called ‘alarming’, ‘irresponsible’, and totally
inadequate’ have become ‘normal’, strategic’, and ‘carefully planned’ when
worse tragedies are taking place in India. Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Amit Shah asked the
nation to rejoice that we are under
Modiji’s leadership when we are handling the worst pandemic in human memory.
Both of them were in the hospital.
Johnson Boris humbly
admitted that his government could have handled the virus differently. But it
is too much to expect of Narendra Modi to admit failure, even if a few millions
yield to the disease. After all, of late he had been speaking of the population
problem. His formula of clashing of plates worked no greater wonders any than
chanting mantras. Though his words do not sound as insensitive as those of
Bolsanaro of Brazil, his passivity before others’ pain seems to be more
determined, especially when people die for not shouting ‘Jai Shri ram’ or for
their food habits.
The “New Normal” in
Secular, Democratic India
One thing emerges
clear during the post-bhoomi pujan age. We have to get ready for an undisputed
“Majoritarian Era”. It is no more majority-appeasement, it is
majority-totalitarianism. August 5th, not the 15th, marks
the new national day, the day of tampering with the Constitution. Keeping 8
million under detention for a year, unheard of in democracy, we have lost even
the moderates in Kashmir. The opposition parties had too little to say when the
army moved into Kashmir, when Triple Talaq was withdrawn, when Babri Masjid
land was passed to those who had demolished the sacred edifice. And even their muffled
protests were too weak to win attention.
But with the bhoomi
pujan, things are pointing to worse things to come. Soft voices of protest have
turned enthusiastic expressions support for the unfairness. Even the Congress and the Communists want to
be associated. Soft Hindutva is on the way to getting Hard. The message seems
to be that all is fair as long the unfairness is imposed peacefully. With
regard to August 5th, Pawar’s cautions were dismissed as Digvijaya
Singh’s objections silenced. Suppressed emotions spilt over in some places. Curfew
was imposed when minority communities came out in strong dissent in Cachar dt.,
and the army was called in to help in Sonitpur dt. Dissent sinks into silence. A
dissentless land turns into a desert. No one is surprised, this is the New Normal
in India today.
Again, we will have
to get used seeing MLAs herded like school children into 5-star hotels as it
has happened in Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. Does this happen in
any other democracy in the world? With Chief Ministers and ministers in the
hospital and MLAs in health resorts, who runs the government? The RSS possibly,
as D. Raja of the CPI remarked. Hotel industry has benefited a great deal, but
who pays the cost? The hungry looking farmer, the underpaid migrant worker, the
mistreated Dalit/tribal.
And what about
fairness to the voter who supported a candidate with a particular ideology?
He/she begins to lose his/her confidence in democracy. So, total indifference
to democracy is another New Normal we have to learn to live with. When ethnical
values don’t matter any more, self-interest takes over. A candidate does not
communicate to the voter the principles he stands for nor the services he seeks
to render to society, but the advantages he is eager to accumulate in which his
supporters can hope to have some share. Even if MLAs cost 10-15 crores per
head, High Principles can be surrendered at much cheaper rates. That is the New
Normal in our beloved country.
A Double-Edged Sword
Instrumentalization
of religion is nothing new in history. But it is a two-edged sword. Just as one
side cuts all the way down doing injustice to someone in the cause of your
interests, the other side confronts you with the very justice you have damaged,
which in fact constitutes the core of True Religion. Many Rishis of ancient
times taught that religion was not merely in holy places but essentially in Uprightness
of Conduct. So it will happen that the promoters of the self-interest of an
individual or a Party, find themselves on a suicidal course. For, true Religion
punishes the wrong doer…but in its own time. The Indian voter is intelligent.
He/she gives everyone a chance, but waits for the final choice.
Mary Trump in her
recent book on Trump confesses that she had been taught in her early years that
lying and deceiving is just Normal, a “way of life”. But a time came when her conscience spoke up.
Today Trump supporters are asking themselves what they should choose: their
immediate interests or their nation’s long-term destiny. For them, November 3 is just round the corner. Voters in
India have a longer spell to make their decision. Meantime, can opinions be
expressed as to what is fair? Where lies our long-term future?
Will Opposition
Parties wake up and make their voices heard? Will genuinely religious persons
in the Hindutva ranks speak up for what is right in the entire issue of
Majority-minority relationships. Will the subaltern communities that are being
used to do servile services take note of the direction that Manuvadis are
leading them, the strategies they develop to confine and limit their future?
Will the Ambedkarites take over one day and insist on building a Buddhist
temple at Ayodhya on whose 3rd century foundation the present structure
was built? Will pre-Aryan tribal groups approach the Supreme Court one day
insisting that they have been robbed of their most sacred site?
The Nation Calls for
Other Priorities
We do not want to be
judgemental. Only time will tell how fair August 5th has been to
Indian society. As Patel’s “imported” statue did not make Gujarat any taller,
the temple built around politics will not constitute the pride of India, but
will stand as a symbol of its collective guilt. Ultimately it will end up as a
tourist structure, soon be forgotten when the Moditva tide wanes. What
ultimately matters is nation-building, not slogan-shouting and minority-menacing,
or Pakistan-provoking. The economy must
be made to look up, and the benefits must be shared more fairly.
In Rama we have a
noble-minded figure, Purushottam, who “renounced power” in view of a higher
principle, readily going into exile. Will it have a message for our
power-hungry leadership who make even religion a slave to power politics? Can they
take a leaf from Gandhiji’s understanding of rama-rajya, which stood for
righteousness, a secular version of dharma?
What ultimately happens, only time will tell.
