By Binodan KD Sarma
I was a restless 6 year old when the Ramayan was first aired on national television. We did not have a television at home those days. My father believed that knowledge of all kinds can be obtained from books. So, we had books all over the home. Books on dining tables, on sofas and divans, book cases, bedrooms and even some lesser read magazines in the puja room. My mother is a devout lady and would oppose the books being stacked in the room of worship. My father, the eternal logician, would wittily defend saying that books are representative of the Goddess Saraswati and therefore are in a rightful place. That is how I grew up learning of our religion. That it is less of a religion and more a way of life and philosophy that can guide us to become a better human.
Ramayan and Ram was one such representation of the way of life amongst the 33 million and others that we may have conjured during the process of evolution in society. No God was supreme. Each one has their own place and purpose in helping humans to explore humanity or their spiritual self. Hindus therefore had multiple shrines or places of pilgrimage. We were not fastidious about having a single location like Islam with Mecca or Christians with Bethlehem. In a way this made the religion widely accepted as a philosophy.
Lord Ram, like all His other counterparts, was representative of a wide philosophy not occupying any super-power status across the country. If we break down our country’s religious alchemy, we will also realise how democratic it stood itself with different regions and communities finding solace in either worshipping of avatars of the Devi or the Devs, not succumbing themselves to a single deity at any point of time. Even the holiest scriptures maintained this democracy with deep philosophies that is not the course of discussion today. Somewhere in the democracy of the Hindu religion, lurked an inherent insecurity of the lack of a superman that could galvanise a community with a single call. There was no scope of a religious crusade that Hindus could ever envisage on a large scale like the ones that happened in Europe between the Christianity and Islam. This was a boon for our community but a bane for anyone to be able to politicise and polarise the country in the name of Hindusim alone. This insecurity of the lack of an anchor deity and the inherent lurking desire to have one (as a cause) is a narrative that slowly started to manifest over the last 99 years with the objective to make a Hindu Rashtra.
Every nation founded in the name of religion, needs an anchor God/purpose. I don’t need to cite examples but if you do a bit of reading and observation, this will be clear to you about the countries that we speak of. Manifesting an anchor God/purpose is not something that can happen over a few years. It will need a narrative to be created, performed and repeated much like our own religious texts and mythologies that have been translated, narrated and performed over thousands of years through word of mouth to become what they are in their current avatars. This period can be expedited over the years with the advent of technology and availability of multiple channels to spread the narrative. It is natural that we find ourselves in the pulpit of a key juncture of this narrative with the consecration of Ayodhya as the epicentre of Hinduism and Lord Ram, or as he is fondly being referred to as Ram Lalla. Ayodhya is our quintessential Bethlehem and Mecca. In establishing so, the profound narrative that we all have been exposed to is that we are now a religion and not a philosophy any longer.
My interest in the entire Ram Mandir narrative is sociological, rather than just political. It is a keen observation of how a repetitive narrative can stoke inherent insecurities of us as humans to find a single anchor to hold on to, rather than 33 million options. By establishing Lord Ram, as almost a single known face of Hinduism, the narrative of the political and social forces gears up for stage three of the purpose of making a Hindu Rashtra. This stage will be about celebrating a pompous pride of being a Hindu rather than a humble one that all our scriptures preach. We will find it manifesting itself in capitalist elements from t-shirts (remember ‘Jesus Superstar merchandise), coffee mugs, rings, clothes, to key chains and a million other elements that will be commodified and sold to progress the narrative. Our generation and the coming generations will be exposed to this in a structured manner through text books, entertainment and everything else that we consume. So much so, that like the celebration of the grand temple, which I am sure is grand, we will celebrate becoming a religious nation, rather than a secular one. Society is most gullible when it comes to finding a purpose to live. As we evolved from the neanderthals, we are instinctively led to find purpose collectively and not tuned toward individual goals. We love mass movements, because it allows us to be part of something that everyone is doing. It helps build a collective responsibility and irresponsibility (that can never be accountable). The few evolved manage to stoke this instinct and make us a part of the narrative.
In the coming few years as we head towards another win for the ruling party, it is evident that we will witness more of such narratives and more such spectacles. And while all this happens, Lord Ram, who may have till now been privy to only prayers of a select few (read North India), should brace to listen to an exponential number of prayers, who, having seen the crescendo and mindless euphoria of 22nd January, I can safely say, will be crying out loud, everyday – ‘Jai Shree Ram,’ in every exclamation.
(The writer is a marketing consultant and a keen observer of sociology and politics. He writes in hope that the world becomes a better and kinder place to live in soon).