Alok Nath, the original Sanskari, seems to be getting gradually replaced from his Sanskari throne. And vying for the spot in question are a number of BJP politicians with Union Home Minister, Rajnath Singh, having recently taken a slight lead in the race.
On January 19, Minister Rajnath Singh took a big lead while addressing a convocation at Lucknow University, when he spoke about the correlation between sanskar and terrorism. “Knowledge devoid of “sanskar” (values) is disastrous for society,” he said. He also added that there are two types of highly educated youth in the country today, those who use their degrees in fields of information technology and science and the others who use it for terrorist activities. Sanskar, he claims, is the discerning factor between the two here.
Not satisfied with bringing in this ridiculous observation, straight from the left field, the minister went on to drop another pearl of sanskari wisdom during the same session. “When an American observatory tells you about solar or lunar eclipse, the media becomes all excited; the youth of our nation praise the science and technology of America,” he said. “But, consult your next door pundit, who will open his panchang and tell you about solar eclipses hundred years ago and hundred years into the future”.
There is something unsettling when a former Physics lecturer turned Home Minister peddles traditional practices to the point of favouring them over scientific inquiry. Even when the statements border dangerously on the ridiculous. Nobody disregards tradition completely today, but its relevance is always questionable.
Naturally, Singh’s claims are not as unbelievable as some of the other tall claims made by other BJP and RSS members in the past, including our own Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, who has claimed that Ganesha’s elephant head is proof that he is the first individual in the universe to have undergone plastic surgery; or that since Mahabharata says Karna, being Kunti’s first born, was not born of her womb, this must be a result of artificial reproduction techniques; or Modi’s foreword in a school textbook published by the Gujarat government where he has mentioned that ancient yogis in India were the forerunners of the modern television – Divya Drishti.
What we’ve being subjected to here for the past one year is a strong, systematic and indigestible dose of the sanskari salesman. This salesman comes when you are least expecting him, peddling something that you may or may not need. But by telling you that the way you lead your life is wrong, this sanskari salesman convinces you to purchase his wares- sanskar – as a way to a better life.
In pitching his sales, this sanskari salesman has one product manual to assist him that he swears by – The Vedas. Every claim that he makes during his sanskari sales pitch, he attributes to existence in the Vedas.
It looks like we Indians shall soon be governed by two books, the Constitution and the Vedas. Only thing is while the Constitution itself maybe amended from time to time, depending on requirement, the Vedas stand absolute on their platform of posterity.
The hitch here is that the version of Vedas and sanskar that is being peddled is the saffron brigade’s own homegrown yet questionable version that has far too many holes in its theory.
Nobody can deny that we Indians had a well-developed society even two thousand years ago with accomplishments in academics, literature and scientific enquiry. But the details and inferences in our ancient literature, whether it be the Vedas, Mahabharata or works from other religion, should only inspire us to the extent of imagination that human beings are capable of. And those ancient writers and compilers had intended exactly that for us.
It is not to be taken literally, as the saffron brigade has done, and chalked out as a list of our achievements. This is insulting our own imagination, said award winning writer, Girish Karnad during a discussion organized by the CPM in Bengaluru earlier this month.
Obliquely referring to Modi’s claims on Ganesha’s alleged plastic surgery, Karnad said that said such claims amounted to denying and falsifying the “mythical imagination and symbolism” of our ancient writers. Mythologies across the world were rich in such symbolisms,” he added. “We should pick what is relevant to us from our past and discard the rest.”
Today, every time the saffron brigade pulls out ‘their’ sanskari card, every time the prime minister peddles myths like Ganesha’s plastic surgery, they are only making us seem ridiculous on the world stage. Because the modern scientific achievements that they mock, also includes, achievements by our own scientific community, like that of Mangalyaan. Or the once respected property like Indian Science Congress, that ended up becoming an utter fiasco.
Because if what the saffronites parrot is true, then the PM should have been consulting his charts on Mangal and Shani rather than waking up in the wee hours of the morning to be present at the Mars Orbiter launch.
One can only hope that the Indian Penal Code will not be replaced by the Dharmic Code with by-laws from Bhagavad Gita.
Image Courtesy: BCCL, Reuters
More on>> Balancing Act
