Doing your bit for Lakshmi: Diwali as a gilt trip

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Why Diwali is such a gilt trip

4 Nov 2007

Jug Suraiya,TNN

 

What are you going to do this Diwali? Give yourself a

gilt trip, or a guilt trip? Come festival time - any festival,

Dussehra, Diwali, Christmas, Eid, Hanukah - pious

laments are echoed in the media about the

'commercialisation' of what are meant to be religious

observances. Sinister conspiracy theories involving

retailers, credit companies and other members of the

commercial establishment are mooted as the cause

behind this merchandising of faith, be it in the form of

greeting cards, the giving and receiving of gifts, or the

hosting of festive get-togethers. According to the

puritanical police (the economic branch of the moral

police), this cash-register religiosity is deemed

deplorable, particularly in a 'poor' country like ours,

where 'conspicuous consumption' is made out to be a

cardinal sin all the more heinous if it exploits religion in

order to indulge itself. Lavish spending in the name of

spiritual belief? What blasphemy.

 

And so it might be - in the Semitic tradition, but

emphatically not in the Indian. The Semitic faiths -

Judaism, Christianity and Islam - enjoin austerity as a

core belief. The Biblical injunction that the rich man's

chances of getting to heaven are on a par with a camel

passing through the eye of a needle makes wealth a sin.

In the Indian tradition, on the contrary, far from being a

sin, wealth is a goddess, Lakshmi, to be rejoiced in and

not shunned. (Interestingly enough, in their Indian

manifestations Semitic festivals have become occasions

of ecumenical celebration: at Delhi's politically and

socially fashionable Iftar parties, there are more non-

Muslims than Muslims, and 'Merry Christmas' can be

said to have truly vernacularised itself into 'Meri

Christmas'. Equally, Marxist-run Kolkata this year

played host to a 'Harry Potter' pandal, a

characteristically Indian tribute to J K Rowling, the

world's very first author to have made more than a

billion dollars on the sale of her books.)

 

Indeed all festivals in India, and not just those

supposedly exclusive to the majority community, are

unabashed money-spinners. And with good reason. For,

like a good monsoon, they help to stimulate demand,

and give a boost to the economy. However, while a good

monsoon is dependent on nature, a good festival is

generated by our own goodwill, the more all-

encompassing the better.

 

And of course of all big-ticket festivals in terms of

receipts, the biggest is Diwali, a celebration of the

bounty of wealth itself. Diwali's got 'commercialised',

and is just an excuse for rampant consumerism, from

colour TV sets and corporate gifts to mithai and

fireworks (no bombs, though, please). But that's just

what it's meant to be: it is, essentially, all about

commerce, the give-and-take of myriad material

transactions which collectively compose a cultural

harmony called civilisation.

 

So if this festive season - or any other - you decide to go

on a gilt trip and buy yourself or someone else a gold

ornament - or a TV set, or iPod, or a share in the stock

market - don't feel guilty about it. You're only doing

your bit for Lakshmi. Not to mention that 9% growth

rate everyone's talking about.

 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Sunday_Spe

cials/Special_Report/Why_Diwali_is_such_a_gilt_trip/a

rticleshow/2515779.cms

or

http://tinyurl.com/27lext