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DAY DREAMS Competitive Hindutva The
Kumbh mela is certain to lead to yet another explosion of religiosity
but is this good for India, asks INDIA TODAY'S This month's Kumbh mela the most auspicious in 144 years has been a godsend for the media. The first Kumbh since the electronic media explosion, the television channels are full of evocative visuals of naked sadhus, weird godmen, funky tourists and millions of ordinary Indians taking a holy dip. The technology has changed and the arrangements are much, much better but there is still an undeniable feel of an eternal India to the congregation in Allahabad. It's not the Cox and Kings tents or the leftover hippies pulling hard at the chillum who have made it so. The Kumbh is a celebration of faith. It's a celebration of Indian tradition. Which is why the entire exercise to transform this great event into a celebration of exotica is somewhat spurious. But there is an unintended consequence. The photographs of Naga sadhus prancing about naked in the ice-cold waters of the Prayag, watched starry-eyed by backpackers, may not correspond with the image of a new, nuclear India at ease with modern technology. However, this juxtaposition serves a purpose. It reminds Indians of an underlying reality that has far greater potency than all the mobile phones put together. In its undeniable exotica, Indians get a feel of the Indianness of its civilisation. Make no mistake, this Kumbh mela is going to have profound implications on the way Indians perceive themselves. Apart from reminding them of faith, it will be a stark reminder of the religious roots of our nation. Religion may be unwanted in politics but it is the cement holding the diverse peoples of India together. We can deny this at our own peril. Ever so often something happens which serves as a reminder. In the late-1980s, there was the serial Ramayana on television. To the cosmopolitan mind, this was plain kitsch. But to those who gathered before TV sets for weeks on end every Sunday, the Ramayana changed their lives. The connection between the Ramayana serial and the Ram temple movement in Ayodhya was obvious to all those who witnessed the election of 1991. The Kumbh images are certain to lead to yet another explosion of religiosity, not least because the casual approach of Hinduism will be contrasted with the more organised thrust of other religions. The feeling is powerful enough for Sonia Gandhi to try and make political capital out of it. It is powerful enough for the Vishwa Hindu Parishad to attempt a linkage between the Kumbh mela and the unfinished Ram temple agenda. We don't know who will manage this better but the future months could witness a tussle in competitive Hindutva+born out of a realisation that it pays to be seen to champion Hindu causes. Is that good for India? The answer, to put it bluntly, is that we don+t know. We all realise that there has to be a self-imposed limit beyond which faith should not intrude into public life. Nobody wants to create a counterpart of America's Bible belt in India. The question is: till what point does the Laxman Rekha extend? More important, what is acceptable within the bounds of this Laxman Rekha? My feeling is that, quite unintentionally, the Kumbh mela has redrawn and extended the line between faith and public life. To what extent, we will know in the next two years. (Swapan Dasgupta is Deputy Editor, INDIA
TODAY. He has edited Nirad Chaudhuri, |
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