The 바카라Benaras experience바카라 is being redesigned. The narrow and winding lanes around the Vishwanath temple in Varanasi, which gave the place its character of timelessness, of repose in the middle of chaos, is giving way to an architecture of designed order. The temple is at the centre of the project that promises to change the 바카라eternal city바카라 like nothing else has. It marks the western end of Vishwanath Dham, spread over about 11.6 acres, and a 20m-wide pedestrian pathway, forked towards the end, will connect it to the ghats on the Ganga. Coupled with the open space바카라the Mandir Chowk바카라envisaged in front of the temple and a smaller such space foregrounding the adjacent Gyan Vapi mosque, the design gives the temple unrivalled visual prominence in the Varanasi cityscape. If the project is completed as planned in November, just a few months ahead of the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, it will likely be showcased in the ruling BJP바카라s poll campaign as a major accomplishment. After all, much of political rhetoric in modern times taps into the latent yearning for a return to a glorious past바카라refracted through our present-day imagination바카라and the promise of a similarly glorious future built upon those past glories. The Vishwanath temple, demolished in the 17th century and rebuilt in the 18th beside the Gyan Vapi mosque that had been constructed on the old plinth, has long evoked memories of 바카라Hindu pride바카라 and, along with the Ram temple in Ayodhya, served as a template for Hindutva articulation of cultural nationalism.
The Quest For Our Glorious Past Is How The Right-Wing Woos The People
The politics of nostalgia involves mobilising the masses around the yearning for a glorious past brought alive in imaginations of the future.
Indeed, nostalgia바카라바카라a sad feeling mixed with pleasure when you think of happy times in the past바카라, as the Oxford Learner바카라s Dictionary defines it바카라has been a powerful tool used across the political spectrum for mobilising the masses, though its importance seems to grow as one moves towards the right. From Donald Trump바카라s 바카라Make America Great Again바카라 to Erdogan바카라s invocation of the Ottoman empire, the politics of nostalgia revolves around claims to resurrect the greatness of a past era in the present. It usually involves privileging one version of the past over others바카라and that바카라s linked to which groups are being mobilised in particular.
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In India, the Nostalgia Project바카라so to speak바카라traces a long history. Perhaps the first institution to take up the 바카라cause바카라 was the Gurukul Kangri University, set up at the dawn of the 20th century by Arya Samaj leader Swami Shraddhanand in Haridwar. His son, Indra Vidyavachaspati, one of the first graduates of the institution that aims to return to 바카라Vedic pedagogy바카라, has described it in his 1957 book Mere Pita: Sansmaran (바카라My Father: Reminiscences바카라). The university was located in a forest and students followed an ashram-like lifestyle. They got up at 4 am, bathed in the river and played kabaddi. Ayurveda was the preferred system of treatment when they fell ill. Once when an inquisitive Indra asked his teacher how birds could talk in the Panchtantra, he was told this was possible in Satyuga.
Vishwanath temple and Gyan Vapi mosque in Varanasi
According to the book, the 바카라West바카라 gradually entered the 바카라Vedic바카라 realm. The thatched roof was gone as modern infrastructure came up. A clock was installed. Mustard oil-lit lamps made way for kerosene lanterns. And Indra was reluctantly administered allopathic medicine once when he had fever.
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This early 20th-century account captures a long-standing debate, particularly in right-wing circles, on the Western and the indigenous, and the idea of a lost 바카라golden age바카라.
According to Shiv Shakti Bakshi, executive editor of BJP mouthpiece Kamal Sandesh and an historian trained at JNU, communities around the world nurture popular cultural memories. 바카라It could be someone celebrating the Vedas or tribals celebrating their valiant heroes. These are cultural registers through which communities sense their past,바카라 says Bakshi, who asserts there is no single, correct, academic history. However, many have labelled popular memories as 바카라a-historical바카라. The Indian History Congress in December 2014 criticised PM Narendra Modi바카라s statement that some plastic surgeon must have installed the head of an elephant on Lord Ganesha. In 2015, a talk on 바카라ancient Indian aviation technology바카라 at the 102nd Indian Science Congress generated much heat, with many scientists dismissing the claim.
Jawaharlal Nehru, who famously sought to promote a scientific temper, was kinder on popular myths, though. 바카라Facts and fiction are so interwoven together as to be inseparable, and this amalgam becomes an imagined history, which may not exactly tell us what happened but tell us something equally important바카라what people believed had taken place, what they thought their heroic ancestors were capable of, and what ideals inspired them,바카라 Nehru wrote in The Discovery of India. 바카라So, whether fact or fiction, it became a living element in their lives, ever pulling them up from the drudgery and ugliness of their everyday existence to higher realms바카라바카라
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The Arya Samaj was the first organisation that tried to counter colonial hegemony by claiming that all achievements of the modern world could be found in the Vedas. This provided a template for the belief that ancient India was a 바카라golden age바카라 of science, prosperity and culture. In his chapter 바카라Inventing a National Past바카라 in Hinduism in Public and Private (edited by Antony Copley), Harald Fischer-Tine has analysed Bharatvarsha ka Itihasa, the history textbook prescribed from 1906 to 1932 at Gurukul Kangri. In the book, Aryan history is presented as 10,000 years old. It claimed Shudras and women were 바카라remarkably free바카라, kings were religious and scholarly, and controlled by an ancient parliament, while executive, legislative and judicial functions were separate. It talks of a pan-Indian kingdom ruled from Hastinapur and also an Aryan air force. In contrast with the Aryan invasion theory, it claimed Shudras did not descend from Dravidians and that there was no untouchability in ancient times. It also said the golden age was lost to 바카라Muslim invasions바카라. The textbook바카라s author read into ancient India all that the British colonial state considered Indians incapable of, argues Fischer-Tine.
In Arya Dharm, Kenneth Jones argues that educated Hindus in Punjab, the Arya Samaj hub, were left 바카라alienated and marginal바카라 by English education and government jobs. They could no longer fully relate to their society바카라deemed backward by the British바카라but could also not become one with the colonisers. Arya Samaj founder Dayanand Saraswati, with his claim that the Vedas were superior to all forms of knowledge, brought solace to the colonised Hindu.
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The 바카라golden age바카라 trope, however, did not disappear after the end of British rule. In 2014, historians like Romila Thapar and Irfan Habib criticised the inclusion of books by former school teacher and activist Dinanath Batra in the Gujarat school curriculum. These books reportedly called for drawing the map of India as Akhand Bharat, besides recommending performance of havans, recitation of mantras and feeding of cows to celebrate birthdays, instead of lighting candles. Thapar called the books 바카라not history but fantasy바카라.
Former Rajya Sabha MP Balbir Punj of the BJP has a different take. 바카라The Macaulayan education system taught Indians to despise India, leading to a tendency in some to see everything in the scriptures as false, while others, in reaction, began to claim they are all true,바카라 he says. According to Punj, both are wrong.
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The Vishwanath Dham project gives the temple unrivalled visual prominence in the Varanasi cityscape
Hindutva ideologue K.N. Govindacharya cites the diversity of India바카라s geography바카라바카라127 eco-agro-climatic zones and 16 per cent of the world바카라s biodiversity in just 2 per cent of its area바카라바카라to claim inclusiveness is part of our national psyche. 바카라That only we are correct is not our ruling idea. As a very old and continuous civilisation, India did not support the idea of exclusivity-based sovereignty. We are different from the Western nation-states,바카라 says Govindacharya, who believes 바카라our national memory of continuity survived 600-700 years of subjugation바카라.
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Agreeing with the idea of India바카라s intrinsic inclusiveness, Punj claims 바카라medieval invasions바카라 changed the 바카라culture of tolerance바카라 in which, for instance, local kings had protected Syrian Christians who found shelter in Malabar. According to him, it was after the 바카라invasions바카라 that people were persecuted for the first time for what they believed. Punj accuses leftist historians of glossing over all this.
A recent change in the RSS바카라s official line has marked a conscious break with V.D. Savarkar바카라s insistence in 1923 that only those who saw India as both their Punya Bhumi (holy land) and Pitr Bhumi (fatherland) can be considered Hindus. On September 19, 2018, in the first series of public lectures by an RSS sarsanghchalak, Mohan Bhagwat called upon Muslims to tell the Sangh where they thought it was going wrong바카라though the organisation would continue to emphasise the common ancestry of all Indians, as this was 바카라true바카라. Asked why the second RSS chief M.S. Golwalkar called Muslims, Christians and Communists 바카라internal threats바카라, Bhagwat said, 바카라Contexts change. The RSS is not so closed that we will agree with everything.바카라
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The idea of common ancestry also finds mention in RSS: A View to the Inside by Walter Anderson and Shridhar Damle. The Sangh, the authors argue, has moved to the line that 바카라all Indians are Hindu바카라 and 바카라loyalty to the nation바카라 is now the only essence of Hindutva. This isn바카라t entirely new. Sometime in the 1980s, at an event in Savarkar바카라s honour, Atal Bihari Vajpayee had recalled his stay at Hotel Kanishka in Afghanistan, where his hosts told him 바카라Kanishka is our ancestor바카라. Vajpayee바카라s point was that change of mode of worship can바카라t change ancestors, a statement similar to Bhagwat바카라s 2018 line.
(This appeared in the print edition as "The Past in Future Tense")
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