Recent incidents reminded me of an interesting short story by R K Narayanan. In a Horse and Two Goats, a rustic village idiot meets an English visitor. The Englishman bargains for a horse statue in a comical misunderstanding while the villager thinks he is interested in his two goats.
Something similar is happening in our country. Statues are being made to symbolise something bigger in a political game. There is a kind of tit for tat going on in our country. Statues are being vandalised, torn down and defaced.
Two busts of the Soviet Communist leader Lenin were torn down in the north-eastern state of Tripura after an election victory for Modi government, 30 years after the Left parties ruled the state.
Then a bust of the founder of the Jana Sangh Party, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, was defaced in Kolkata. As the action spread, a statue of Erode Venkata Ramasamy Periyar, an anti-religious scholar and social reformer was then vandalised in the southern state of Tamil Nadu.
Image Credit: wionews
These incidents of violence and vandalism are a stark reminder of the baselessness of present politics. It is mindless to vandalise public property just because one group rejects or criticises the ideology of the other group. More so, in our country, where high claims are made about democracy and unity in diversity.
This raises scepticism about the future of our country. Will acts of mob justice and vandalism of public property henceforth be allowed if they are in alliance with the party in government? What if the government changes in the future?
Shakespeare asked, “What’s in a name?”. And now is the time when we ask “What’s in a statue?”
All over the world, busts, memorials and statues stand over village squares and city centres. They are not just landmarks for postal convenience, or to tell your Uber driver where to locate you. They are thus placed because they have a historical relevance and social significance. They stand there because history placed them there.
If today’s politics becomes an enemy of history, there is promise of anarchy in the future. We cannot acclaim all the present achievement by denying that they stand on the ghosts of yesterday.
Read Also: Jayalalitha Statue: Attempt To Glorify Or Ridicule
