it’s statues, statues all the way, shaking them, breaking them and soon thereafter as atonement of the sins, pouring milk and purifying them. A part of India has, for no reason, sunk into a shithole of hatred and violence.
Breaking statues is nothing new in our country as the Moghuls and Muslim invaders vandalized every statue they passed, breaking the noses or cutting of the voluptuous breasts of the statues and idols. From the decapitation of figures during the olden times to breaking down the 1700-year-old Bamiyan Buddha a few years ago, to more recent ruination of Iraqi cultural heritage by ISIS, humanity has tried to erase or rewrite history by attempting to erase any evidence unsuitable to their way of thinking.
Worldwide tens of thousands of statues of Lenin, a symbol of control and oppression, have been destroyed after perestroika. Every ruler and their cadres erect statues of their favourite persons to promote their ideologies. Ambedkar sprang up at every slum and in every Dalit zone and Periyar occupied alongside space in Tamil Nadu. Most of the statues symbolize one or other kind of reform, which a few always opposed if not publicly, secretly, waiting for an opportunity to vandalize them.
It is therefore easy to stir up unrest by breaking statues and in retaliation, the offended persons break up other statues thus unleashing a mindless battle. Installing statues should be licensed and limited to the greats and confined to a few public places only.
I saw a bust of Modi vandalized too, but had confusion on the utter dissimilarity between the PM and his bust. I would have, if I was the sculptor, pulverized my creation before anyone would have ever seen it.
Sad that even small issues magnify into big trouble in our country, as emotional and restive people ready to jump in at the slightest mischief.
There’s a funny side to statue breaking that has emerged. Thousands of Periyar statues could have been declared as bronze statues and charged from public exchequer. Breaking the nose revealed clay under a bronze layers of paint! That’s innovative indeed!
Sampath Kumar
Intrépide voix
In Pic: PM Modi’s(!) bust in a Shiva temple in Kaushambi District in UP
