jantarmantarposts-blog

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Art

a piece from my artbook that I hadn’t shared online yet! It’s actually a re-paint of something I created in art school like.. 10 years ago, haha. I love revisiting old stuff. 

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India #Indianpolitics #Nationalism #politics #Pakistan #NarendraModi

Indian Nationalism

The five most striking features

India became independent in 1947. In 1975 Indira Gandhi inserted a new defination of India as “a sovereign, socialist, secular and democratic republic”. When the Hindu right-wing party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power with majority for the first time in India in 2014 it turned this pledge on its head. People wanted a strong leader and an alternative to the 50-year-long dynastic rule of the Congress party. Epitomised by Narendra Damodar Modi this new chapter in the life of the nation, has unleashed latent forces.How does this play out in everyday life of the people? The stories are many, but let me here offer its five most striking features:

Many origins of a king. Valour and reptiles

MEGASTAR Man and myth collide when it comes to the Indian prime minister, the leader of BJP. Narendra Damodar Modi, the Megastar. Since he rose to fame, breathless stories about his heroic exploits have become folklore in India. One has it that, for a wager, he swam alone to reach a submerged temple in a lake which was infested with crocodiles. The story is told in two ways. That he wrestled with a crocodile or that he caught a baby crocodile. In India crocodiles are worshiped since ancient times. In Gujarat, where Modi was born, it is associated with fertility cult and virility. In Indus seals from Harrapan civilisation, it is argued, it stood for Ursa Major (power of creation). Modi’s ascent to prime minister’s chair - which he refers to in his speeches as PM as singhasan [throne] - was marketed with the crocodile myth. Comics with stories of his exploits are distributed to school students in BJP ruled states.

RIGHTEOUS KING In medieval times when a king took over a throne, he often issued new coins in his name. Modi did this with “demonetisation” when on 9 November 2016 he declared a war on corruption and black economy. Overnight 86% of India’s currency ceased to be legal tender. A nation of 1.3 billion people watched bemused as government reached into their pockets and stole. When people started questioning, the government initiated series of income tax raids on rich individuals and entities (mostly business houses supporting political opponents) and launched Digital India initiative. The last two, won over the gullible – who saw it as a revenge on the rich. _Megastar became the righteous king.

NO BEEF The cow is venerated in India because of its undisputed role in agricultural society. In May this year, a notification issued by ministry of environment banned trade in cow. It stated that cow should be used for agriculture only. Most BJP-ruled states also brought in ban on cow slaughter – thereby legislating dietary habits of its people. Beef is sold and eaten in India not only by Muslims and Christians, but also by rich jet-setting Hindus, the odd balls, the poor and tribal populations. Not long ago, a judge ruling on a case before him couldn’t help remarking:

“The sentence for killing cow is 5, 7 or 14 years in different states, but the sentence for causing death of human being through rash or negligent driving is only 2 years!”

Muslims target of anger (Picture credit:Milli Gazette/Delhi)

LYNCHING Vigilante justice is not new to India. In the past lynching of one religious community by another was common during religious processions and festivals. It is known to have occurred during the Mughal and British rule. But today, lynching of individuals is conducted by self-appointed “Hindu rakshaks” – defenders of faith – who target Muslims (14% of India’s population); Dalits (low caste communities 16.2%) and others such as tribal communities, pastoralists including thinkers, rationalists etc anywhere and anytime, to gain political footing in the power structure.

GO BACK TO PAKISTAN This aspect is perhaps the most tragic. Communities that had co-existed for a millennium were in 1947 divided, as a parting gift by the British, into Muslim Pakistan and Hindu India. It triggered mutual genocide and largest migration in world’s history (15 million people were uprooted). Today, most Muslim lynching occur with vicious extortion to “go back to Pakistan”.

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Indian Nationalism

The five most striking features

India became independent in 1947. In 1975 Indira Gandhi inserted a new defination of India as “a sovereign, socialist, secular and democratic republic”. When the Hindu right-wing party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power with majority for the first time in India in 2014 it turned this pledge on its head. People wanted a strong leader and an alternative to the 50-year-long dynastic rule of the Congress party. Epitomised by Narendra Damodar Modi this new chapter in the life of the nation, has unleashed latent forces.How does this play out in everyday life of the people? The stories are many, but let me here offer its five most striking features:

Many origins of a king. Valour and reptiles

MEGASTAR Man and myth collide when it comes to the Indian prime minister, the leader of BJP. Narendra Damodar Modi, the Megastar. Since he rose to fame, breathless stories about his heroic exploits have become folklore in India. One has it that, for a wager, he swam alone to reach a submerged temple in a lake which was infested with crocodiles. The story is told in two ways. That he wrestled with a crocodile or that he caught a baby crocodile. In India crocodiles are worshiped since ancient times. In Gujarat, where Modi was born, it is associated with fertility cult and virility. In Indus seals from Harrapan civilisation, it is argued, it stood for Ursa Major (power of creation). Modi’s ascent to prime minister’s chair - which he refers to in his speeches as PM as singhasan [throne] - was marketed with the crocodile myth. Comics with stories of his exploits are distributed to school students in BJP ruled states.

RIGHTEOUS KING In medieval times when a king took over a throne, he often issued new coins in his name. Modi did this with “demonetisation” when on 9 November 2016 he declared a war on corruption and black economy. Overnight 86% of India’s currency ceased to be legal tender. A nation of 1.3 billion people watched bemused as government reached into their pockets and stole. When people started questioning, the government initiated series of income tax raids on rich individuals and entities (mostly business houses supporting political opponents) and launched Digital India initiative. The last two, won over the gullible – who saw it as a revenge on the rich. _Megastar became the righteous king.

NO BEEF The cow is venerated in India because of its undisputed role in agricultural society. In May this year, a notification issued by ministry of environment banned trade in cow. It stated that cow should be used for agriculture only. Most BJP-ruled states also brought in ban on cow slaughter – thereby legislating dietary habits of its people. Beef is sold and eaten in India not only by Muslims and Christians, but also by rich jet-setting Hindus, the odd balls, the poor and tribal populations. Not long ago, a judge ruling on a case before him couldn’t help remarking:

“The sentence for killing cow is 5, 7 or 14 years in different states, but the sentence for causing death of human being through rash or negligent driving is only 2 years!”

Muslims target of anger (Picture credit:Milli Gazette/Delhi)

LYNCHING Vigilante justice is not new to India. In the past lynching of one religious community by another was common during religious processions and festivals. It is known to have occurred during the Mughal and British rule. But today, lynching of individuals is conducted by self-appointed “Hindu rakshaks” – defenders of faith – who target Muslims (14% of India’s population); Dalits (low caste communities 16.2%) and others such as tribal communities, pastoralists including thinkers, rationalists etc anywhere and anytime, to gain political footing in the power structure.

GO BACK TO PAKISTAN This aspect is perhaps the most tragic. Communities that had co-existed for a millennium were in 1947 divided, as a parting gift by the British, into Muslim Pakistan and Hindu India. It triggered mutual genocide and largest migration in world’s history (15 million people were uprooted). Today, most Muslim lynching occur with vicious extortion to “go back to Pakistan”.

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SENTIMENTAL ANNIVERSARIES

Empty chairs, average age 60+

Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru was undoubtedly the most charismatic leader Congress party has ever had. But today, apart from a special function organised by Sonia Gandhi at Teen Murti, where all the chamchas gathered, other venues celebrating Nehru's birth anniversary were shot through with dejection.

I went to the Gandhi Peace Foundation just off ITO, New Delhi, where an impressive panel comprising senior journalist, Kuldip Nayar, former Indian Foreign Secretary Prof Muchkund Dubey, the president of Gandhi Peace Foundation, Kumar Prashant and senior Supreme Court lawyer Anil Nauriya - promised an interesting session. The gathering was called by the Society for Communal Harmony.

Nehru with Indira (Source: Wikipedia Commons)

The hall that can seat perhaps 50-60 had at the most a dozen people. The average age was 60+. There were only two young people in the audience, one a student and the other, a mike (technical) assistant.

Nayar spoke about seeing Nehru for the first time in Sialkot. He reminded those present that Nehru's dream apart from building temples of modernity was to ensure that no one goes hungry to sleep.

Prof Dubey stressed Nehru's contribution to One World Order, and his famous speech at the UN in 1955 where he reportedly said that he hoped:

'...gradually all representatives present will not just protect interest of their country but that of others as well'.

Nehru wanted equal relationship between unequal nations and believed that capitalism should be removed "lock, stock and barrel" and be replaced with just, fair and equitable system. But he himself did not embrace socialism wholeheartedly. He chose instead a mixed-economic model.

The president of the Gandhi Peace Foundation, Kumar Prashant said that despite disagreeing on number of things with Nehru, he held him in high esteem. Nehru, he said, apart from grooming Indira for politics, did not anoint her to be his successor. It was Lal Bahadur Shastri who was chosen as PM after his death. Had he not died at Tashkent, Indira would have remained on the sidelines. It was because the Congress Syndicate chose Indira - as a gungi gudiya or one that could be manipulated - that Indira became PM. She did not owe her PM-ship to her father.

A country needs a leader. Sentimental anniversaries are not going to deliver one. The near-empty hall said that.