https://epaper.timesgroup.com/Olive/ODN/TimesOfIndia/shared/ShowArticle.aspx?doc=TOIGO%2F2018%2F03%2F19&entity=Ar00201&sk=43113EDE&mode=text
Back in 1948, when the toweringly great polymathic scholar of Goan origin, D. D. Kosambi published his definitive critical edition of Shataka Trayam by Bhartihari, the 5th century Sanskrit poet, he dedicated it in Sanskrit to “the pioneers of new human society, the vigorous great men (mahamanava) named Marx, Engels and Lenin”. For him and his equally extraordinary father Acharya Dharmanand Kosambi, it was perfectly logical to remain simultaneously Marxist and Gandhian. The Kosambis would have been extremely startled by this week’s vulgar contretemps over the statue of Lenin destroyed after an unprecedented elections success in Tripura by the still-ascendant BJP. “The proletariat has overthrown the Marxists” said Rajat Sethi to the Washington Post. Soon afterwards, this articulate BJP election strategist (who made a striking appearance at the Goa Arts + Literature Festival 2017) told AFP “This is simple catharsis. It is a good and legitimate form of expressing their resistance against their symbol of oppression.” A sustained statue demolition derby seemed on the cards when BJP National Secretary H Raja wrote on Facebook, “Today Lenin’s statue, tomorrow Tamil Nadu’s EVR Ramaswami’s statue” unleashing retaliatory mayhem. Shyama Prasad Mookerjee’s bust was blackened and damaged with a hammer in Kolkata. A statue of Ambedkar was damaged in Meerut. Eventually both Narendra Modi’s office and Amit Shah spoke out – the latter specifying “any person associated with the BJP involved with destroying any statue will face severe action from the party.” “We build statues of snow, and weep to see them melt” wrote the masterful 19th century intellectual, Walter Scott. It is our collective nature to put some human beings on pedestals, then tear them back down for being as flawed as the rest of us. In the Book of Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon himself warns the prophet that we erect statues with “head of fine gold, arms of silver, thighs of brass, legs of iron…and feet of clay.” For this is what we most reliably learn from history, that today’s heroes can turn into tomorrow’s villain. Such is particularly the case when an ostensibly new order seeks to reinvent the nation, as does RSS-sponsored Hindutva, epitomised by its main ideological architect M.S. Golwalkar who insisted “hostile elements within the country pose a far greater menace to national security than aggressors from outside.” Nowadays, the national debate constantly returns to statues. Monumental erections would seem to dominate the 21st century Indian mind. Just a week ago, Larsen and Toubro Ltd. signed a contract with the Maharashtra government led by the BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis to build “the world’s tallest statue” of Shivaji for an estimated 2500 crore. The height of the proposed monument has been increased to 210 metres so it can supposedly top a 208-metre-high statue of the Buddha in Henan, China. But in the meanwhile, the Gujarat government (also BJP) insists its under-construction “Statue of Unity” of Sardar Vallabhai Patel will be “the world’s tallest statue when completed” at 182 metres, for the cost of just under 3000 crores. Talk statues in Goa, and bad blood immediately begins to flow. When a selection of MLAs including Congress, Goa Forward and Churchill Alemao of NCP proposed a memorial to Jack Sequeira (popularly known as “Father of the Opinion Poll”) in the assembly complex, the ruling coalition refused. Then the MGP decided it would support statues of TB Cunha and Ram Manohar Lohia instead, to which Vijai Sardesai jeered, “we look at MGP’s demands with great amusement and utter disappointment…it is as if they discovered the word statue only after our demand for Dr. Sequeira’s.” According to him, a party that historically stood against the state’s independent identity was trying to “change the face of Goa.” Right after Indian troops raised the tiranga for the first time in Panjim on December 19, 1961, a mob (“eager to show their patriotism” says city historian Vasco Pinho) smashed the bust of Vasco da Gama in the Municipal Garden, and tore down a statue of Alfonso da Albuquerque in what is now Azad Maidan. Canada-based Goan artist Alex Tavares recalls seeing the head thrown aside. But a similarly mauled statue of Luis de Camoes was pieced together by the Archaeological Survey of India and now stands proudly in its museum. Given the recent scholarship by Landeg White that proves conclusively this all-time great 16th century epic poet was “made in India”, it seems entirely possible it will be restored to the public in the future. Stranger things have happened to statues in history.
