Years ago, I attended a psycho-spiritual integration
seminar. Every day the seminar began with a meditation at the dawn, followed by
what they called ‘processing,’ a special technique of knowing one’s own inner
self. One of the meditations that shook my entire person was, “The Statue
Meditation.” The meditation was very simple: falling into the meditation as
usual, imagining that one is a statue, becoming one with it, and finally coming
out of it. At the processing, one is asked to draw in a sheet of white paper
with crayon pencils in the non-dominant hand the picture of the statue that we
became with all the background and structure. Certain questions were asked by
the guide and we just answered them in the same sheet. This opened our inner
being. I am not further going to describe what the image I became or how I
portrayed ‘my-self.’ What I want to critique is the recent phenomena of statue
desecration in India.
The phenomena of erecting statues have been an age old
tradition to immortalize a certain ideology. It is not seen just in one particular
tradition, culture or ideology, but a world-wide phenomenon. The kind of statue one erects portrays the
kind of philosophy it upholds. For example, the statue of Jesus the Crucified
points out that one should love unto the last drop of blood for the good of the
other without condemning anyone, even the one who wants to destroy you; Buddha’s
mediation statue of shows his serene mind and invites us to be peaceful in all
the circumstances; Tīrthankara Gomaṭeśvara or Bahubali’s statue teaches us not
to have any attachment, even to the clothes, and face all the difficulties with
courage and one-pointed devotion (ekāgracitta
bhakti); Ambedkar’s statue with a book reminds us of the Holy Constitution
of the Republic India and its significance for each citizen of the country; the
statue of Gandhiji with a spinning wheel inspires us to be self-sufficient and
self-reliant with things that we own, and so on. Thus, statues remind us what they boldly stood for something earlier.
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| Statue and busts of Vladimir Lenin, EVR Ramasamy or Periyar and Syama Prasad Mookerjee |
But the recent phenomenon of destruction and desecration of
existing statues in the democratic country is an undemocratic act. It is a
condemnable act. The unceremonious demolition
of the statue of the communist leader Vladimir Illych Lenin in Tripura after the
landmark victory of BJP, the desecration of Periyar statue in Tamil Nadu, statue
of Shyama Prasad Mukherjee in Kolkata, Ambedkar Statue in MP, and some reported
and unreported cases about Christian religious statues elsewhere in the country
speak much about the new trends of statue vandalism
in the country.
However, this trend is not something new to this time. In
the olden days the kings after winning the war, the victorious king either
desecrated or destroyed the chief deity of the rival kingdom.
Partly because of the treasure they contained like gold and silver, and partly as
a sign of defeat of the morality of the enemies. When the deity is destroyed,
the identity of a particular kingdom associated with it is also understood to
be destroyed.
What do these vandalized statues stand for? Lenin
(1870-1924), the Russian communist revolutionary, politician and political
theorist who unified the Soviet Union stands for the “Marxist ideology.” Though
Marxism is not the philosophy of India, the Indians are very much influenced by
the philosophy of ‘classless socialist society.’ We do not find ‘class
struggle’ like that of Russia in India, but we do find struggle for equality,
struggle for social status and such issues which force people to accept this
ideology. Erode Venkata Ramasamy, was commonly known as Periyar (1879-1973)
is a Dravidian pride of Tamil Nadu who launched movements against casteism.
Being oppressed by the Brahminism, launched a political party to uphold the
voice of the voiceless. Today, irrespective of Dravidian parities, he is hailed
as a savior figure. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee (1901-1953) was an Indian
politician, barrister and academician, who served as the Minister for Industry
and Supply in Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's cabinet. After falling out with
Nehru, Mukherjee quit the Indian National Congress and founded the right wing
nationalist Bharatiya Jana Sangh, a predecessor to the Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP), in 1951. He was also the president of Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha
from 1943 to 1946. Mukherjee strongly had opposed the Article 370 of the Indian
Constitution that gives autonomous status to the state of Jammu and Kashmir.
Thus, Mukherjee stands for ‘one nation, one constitution,
one chief and one symbol’ theory. This theory was also reiterated by L.K. Advani
latter. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (1891–1956),
popularly known as Baba Saheb, was an Indian jurist, architect of the Constitution
of India, economist, politician and social reformer who inspired the Dalit
Buddhist Movement and campaigned against social discrimination against Dalits,
while supported the rights of women and labour. He is the face of Indian
democracy, and justice and equality.
The present vandalism seems to be an attempt to replace the
constitutional statutes with ideological statutes of the perpetrators. The
demolition of statues obviously is a violation of democratic statutes. The
democracy gives ample space for individual and community rights. It upholds the
freedom of speech. Diversity is the culture of the democracy. Singularity is
alien to the democracy. In a democratic country like India, people have the right
to form parties, social institutions, follow the creed of their choice, and
practice and propagate the faith one
adheres to. Debarring this and attempting to follow one culture and one
tradition is not the philosophy of Indian Constitution.
Often, Marxism is understood to be an atheistic tradition.
But, in India this is not so. Indians are very much theistic and so too are the
people who profess the Marxian ideology. Secondly, Marxian ideology is a
socialistic one, which respects every tradition and culture. The pulling down
of Lenin statute in Tripura amidst “Bharat
mata ki Jai” slogans cannot be justified by any means. What Tripura
Governor Mr. Tathagata Roy
said, “A democratically elected government can undo what the previous
government has done” is nothing but equaling apples with oranges. Does this
statement approves such acts or at least condemns it? First of all, going
against the sentiments of people even if they are minority, is morally wrong. Secondly,
one cannot destroy other’s property, be it of an individual, or organization or
of the public. Thirdly, in the democratic situation, even renaming a road, a
heritage site or any other places has a process. Taking law upon oneself as a
right to do anything is not freedom.
A sudden outburst of anger or destruction in any
psychological situation is understood to be an ‘unconscious act’ of the person.
Unconscious never errs. What we infer from the vandalism of the Lenin statue
therefore, is the eruption of lava of fundamental ideology of the perpetrators
and the people who poisoned their minds. The fascist forces were on work ever
since CPM ruled the state. The only way they could make their presence felt was
to divide the community, and spill the seeds of vengeance and hatred. It is
often said, a repeated lie can make a person believe it to be true. Similarly,
a repeated hatred towards someone can make people accept the other to be an
enemy. But, I strongly believe, that the truth has the ability to withstand any
communal or psychological aberrations. Only the truth will set the world free.
The vandalism that we saw could be an expression of cumulative
anger over a dissatisfaction of a fraction of society. The dissatisfaction
could be towards the previous regime, or caused by an indoctrination, or a
fundamentalist weltanschauung. Cumulative
anger could also due to unfulfilled promises of the past or the failure in
keeping with the pace of the total growth. A group of people think that this
way is the only available alternative and there is no other alternative ways. This
way of thinking is not only wrong politically, but also morally.
History reveals us that those acts of felling the memorials
are not pleasant to the ears. Though the statue of Saddam Hussein was
toppled on 9 April 2003 in Bagdad, the memory of the dictator is still alive
with people in various forms. Though the Taliban militants dynamited the world
renowned 1700 year old Buddha’s statue in
Afghanistan, the memories still linger on. This kind of vandalism only proclaims
the type of philosophy such people are propagating. No civilized culture of accommodation
can approve this. Indian culture, which we proudly say as “sanātana” was known for accommodation. It welcomed every culture,
tradition and philosophy. It has no dogmas or heresies like any other
religions. It can accommodate both theistic philosophies (like Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika)
and atheistic philosophies (like Sānkhya)
without any tension. From the kind of unbecoming wave that is being witnessed today,
we cannot but affirm the death of Indian values and culture in the near future.
Could this be a strategy to re-write Indian History? Looking
at the vandalism of statues of Periyar and Ambedkar, it seems to be so. These
two figures symbolize equality and justice. The thing to be suspected here is
the rewriting of the Constitution and the history of India in favour of Hindutva
to make the country a “Hindu Rashtra.” This re-writing is possible only then
when these saviour figures are systematically established as anti-saviours. The Reuters reports,
“The government of Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi had quietly
appointed the committee of scholars about six months earlier.” The idea is to
make a “holistic study” of
the evolution of 1200 years of Indian culture, though the government has
vehemently denied about the re-writing of history. RSS spokesman Manmohan Vaidya said
in an interview, “The true colour of Indian history is saffron and to bring
about cultural changes we have to rewrite history.” If this happens, no doubt, the democracy will
be a thing of the past.
India was a country of accommodation and it should be
maintained by all means today and tomorrow for the good of our new generation. For
this we need rationalists and thinkers, socialists and activists, educationists
and scientists. Integrity and peace come before religious ethos. Above all, being human and teaching others to
be so, is to be divine. Let us strive for this.
Raju Felix Crasta
Professor of Philosophy and Religion
Picture source:
http://www.sirfnews.com/communist-monstrosity-larger-than-their-fallen-statues-governments/
https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/on-vandalism-of-statues-home-ministry-asks-states-to-check-such-incidents-1820589
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