Politics and Sacred Dips

[Guest guest]

http://www.organiser.org/04feb2001/cover1.html

 

 

 

The Kumbh mela is no ordinary event. The Mahakumbh certainly is not.

Needless to say, it has turned out to be the major event in the

beginning of the millennium. Besides, being the first in the new

millennium, this Mahakumh is occurring after one hundred and forty

four years.It is one of the rarest occasion when the planets, the

Sun, the Moon and the Jupiter come in their exact constellations.

Long before the prehistoric courses of the legendary Saraswati river

was discovered (a monumental discovery of the century) people from

the mighty Himalaya, to the confluence of the three seas down south

have been flocking to the Sangam at Prayagraj unfailingly every

Kumbh.

 

>From time immemorial, ancient wisdom was handed down from generation

to generation and fine honed by institutions — religious and social.

The culture of this land evolved a continuous social system of

materialistic as well as non-materialistic values of life blended as

artha, kama, dharma and moksha. All this is Hindutva, and much more

than this. Talking of Hinduism, Mahatma Gandhi once said: "Hinduism

is a relentless pursuit after Truth; and if today it has become

moribund, inactive, irresponsive to growth, it is because we are

fatigued; and as soon as the fatigue is over, Hinduism will burst

upon the world with a brilliance perhaps unknown before." (Young

India, April 24, 1924)

 

This time, over seven crore pilgrims are likely to visit the Kumbh

and take a holy dip. Pilgrims trecking from far and wide, from all

walks of life representing all stratas of the society have converged

on the banks of the Sangam as one humanity. Kumbh is a great

equaliser. Caste and creed, differences—social and political have no

place here. Unconcerned, the Ganga flows towards her goal, washing in

the process all the sins of every single pilgrim, every single

visitor who comes to her with folded hands. This year, one such

unusual visitor to the Kumbh was really the Congress president, who

despite security advice to the contrary, chose to take a dip in the

Ganga and plunge into UP politics.

 

Standing in waist-deep water she cooped a palmful of the auspicious

Ganga jal and splashed it liberally on her head, usually done by a

devout Hindu to cleanse oneself of all sins of commission and

omission. The two pundits standing close to the permissible distance

of the Congress president (from Nehru-Gandhi clan) not hailing from

Allahabad, wound up the religious rituals within ten minutes,

probably at the bidding of the security. The VIP visitor then headed

for the ashram of the Shankaracharya of Dwarkapeeth Swami

Swaroopanandji, known for his soft-corner for the Congress party and

an avowed critic of the VHP. The Congress president bowed down to

touch the feet of the saint who once had launched Ramalaya Trust,

reportedly at the behest of former PM P.V. Narasimha Rao, to throw a

spanner in the VHP movement. The VHP has welcomed the Congress

president's holy dip. Anyone who understands the nuances of Indian

politics would guess why the Congress president was in a tearing

hurry to visit the Kumbh?

 

Like any other devout Hindu, which she is not, being catholic

Christian by religion, she certainly did not go to the Sangam to wash

off her sins—the Hindu style. Nor did she go there to wash off the

sins of the Congress party which accumulated over 50-odd years is a

tall order even for the Ganga. Yet she went, she took a dip, and

reportedly felt good about the whole thing. Looked like the whole

thing was about adding a religious overtone to the political milieu.

She was trying to `steal' a page from the past. It was the Congress

and the leftover Leftists in Indian politics who were dinning out day

in and night out that the BJP-RSS-VHP is mixing politics with

religion. While the first is not doing it, the second and third are

not even political parties. In fact the BJP has held the view that

secularism is really in practice in India because of the religious

moorings. Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya wrote as far back as January 25,

1960: "So long as our action, whether it is political or social, is

not based on dharma, it would not be possible to bring about a basic

change in human nature nor would it be possible to co-ordinate

individual aspirations and social needs. The ruling party in India as

well as the opposition, both have disregarded this basic principle.

Jana Sangh has had to be founded to make good this deficiency.

 

Dharma of the self cannot be separated from self-rule. Here dharma

does not stand for form of worship, sect or religion. Dharma only

means the philosophy that sustains the society. Hence, Jana Sangh has

not been created merely to participate in the contemporary game of

power-politics. Its aim is to bring about a favourable change in our

age, based on the ancient cultural values of life." Dharma is not

religion as Nani Palkhiwala wrote in "We, the people". In her

enthusiasm to don an Indian cap, the Congress president has probably

succumbed to the advice of her coterie in a great hurry with a view

to gaining a little bit of political mileage.

 

Former Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi has used the `Hindu Card' for

her political convenience with least consideration to conviction. So

the Congress is free to try the new card and reverse its policy of

ignoring the majority for the sake of minority votes. Anyway, playing

the majority against minority is bound to be counter-productive.

Meanwhile, can we expect the large Christian population in the

country and elsewhere, to emulate the Congress President—and take a

dip or two in the holy Ganga, for whatever gains, immediate or

futuristic as dreamt of.