As Statues of Icons Are Brought Down, Let's Remember Why They're Iconic
“This is an attack on ideologies, that much should be clear,” R.P. Chaudhuri, manager, Sanghmitra Baudhvihar, Banda, said in response to the recent statue-demolishing spree the country has witnessed, and specifically on the B.R. Ambedkar busts that were vandalised in Meerut and Azamgarh. Starting with Lenin, moving to Ambedkar and with threats to Periyar thrown in, the recent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wins in the northeast – a first in close to three decades – have been accompanied by the destruction of statues that were iconic to certain states, not to mention, as Chaudhuri puts it, ideologies.
Perhaps this shouldn't come as a shock, given that other recent reports read like cautionary tales, wherein power is being used to re-write history, literally. This “moorti giraane ka silsila (statue-destroying spree)” was perhaps a predestined event.
In Banda, almost every village and kasbah boasts of a “mandatory Ambedkar statue”, as chief reporter Meera Devi calls it, standing in front of one such statue that adorns the yard of the community centre in Mohan Purva village. “But what of his ideals?” she had asked, in August 2017, in a bid to understand the place he occupies in contemporary rural India.
“Of course he was a great man, he has great importance for us,” Lallu Prasad Nishad, the district head of the Bahujan Samaj Party in Banda, the one party that lays claim to Ambedkar's legacy in the state, had told us. “Not only for us actually, but he is a man of great importance for the entire country.” Sure enough, almost every BSP rally in Banda and around has invoked, cited and paid homages to Ambedkar, even bringing in local Indian Idol aspirants to belt out a few Babasaheb-inspired tunes.
Local advocate Jaykar condones the attacks, terming them unconstitutional and linking them to the “general upsurge in crime” in the state. “There is an act of violence, there is retaliation. Badle ki bhavna ko uksaya jar aha hai (The thirst for revenge is being fanned).”
His younger colleague Umlesh Bharti, however, sees them as a link in the chain of history, a narrative that has always been defined by the powerful, “As far as I know my history, when Babasaheb had spoken of social discrimination, and even after he had authored the constitution, his effigies were burnt. People who think that way have since been celebrating Ambedkar Jayanti and what not, but they don’t think twice about manufacturing these attacks. They serve as good distractions, and are part of obvious vote-bank games.”
Ram Sukhram, a Dalit resident of Devli village, Gazipur district, Banda, has no illusions about the politics behind it all, and the decades of systemic caste oppression. “Our voices need to be stifled for the status quo to be maintained. That is why these events happen.”
In 2017, Chaudhuri had said, “Governments and leaders get these statues installed in the name of honour and ideals, but that’s about it, isn’t it? Who is really following in his footsteps?” The lack of cleanliness and “rakh-rakhaav (caretaking)” at the Mohan Purva community centre – both in 2017 and on a recent visit – certainly indicated an apathy that is not merely passive.
In 2018, amidst all the well-meaning ire against the “bhakt-ist” mentality hell-bent on tearing down idols and ideologies, nobody seems to be posing certain important questions. When was the last time anyone paid their respects at this statue? When was the last time anyone deliberately applied Ambedkarite values to a life-decision? Or Lenin’s? Or Periyar’s, for that matter?
This is not to say these questions should dilute our focus from what’s at stake here. It should, all the more, urge us to rediscovering our own icons. It might just be the only option available to ensure that movements against equality do not gain ground, no matter who holds power. Fighting against “the very conscious narrative of asamaanta (inequality)”, as Chaudhuri puts is, is the answer.
Khabar Lahariya is a rural, video-first digital news organisation with an all-women network of reporters in eight districts of Uttar Pradesh.
This article went live on March sixteenth, two thousand eighteen, at zero minutes past eight in the evening.The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.
