Skip to main content

The flickers of Diwali lamps

Let the lamps remain different


This is the seventh Diwali of mine in succession without any Diwali lamps anywhere in the neighbourhood. I live in a region of India where Diwali is not celebrated. Like most villages in Kerala, mine too does not celebrate Diwali though half its population is Hindu. This indifference to Diwali doesn’t signify anything more than the cultural diversity of India. Even the Hinduism in this country has more shades than the advocates of a monolithic Hindutva are ready to acknowledge.

One of the most beautiful aspects of India is its cultural diversity. The North-east is nothing like any other part of the country. Their foods, dresses, languages, and even physical appearances are an amazing contrast to those in the other parts of the country. The differences in the other parts (such as between north and south) may not be so highly accentuated but they are far too many to be accommodated comfortably in any system or ideology that ventures to homogenize them.

The cities in Kerala, however, celebrate Diwali on grand scales. That is because of the presence of people from the North in large numbers. It is not the Malayalis who celebrate the festival, in other words.

Should the North impose Diwali on all Indians just as they are going out of their way to impose Hindi?

According to a recent study, 305 attacks took place in India on Christians alone (leaving aside the countless assaults on the major enemies of Hindutva advocates) in 273 days in India. These attacks are all a part of a comprehensive strategy to impose one particular culture with its language and religion on entire India.

What is happening in India under Modi is a huge and cruel farce. Modi will be hugging the Pope in the Vatican while his supporters are attacking the Pope’s institutions in India. This is quite typical of what has happened in many parts of India earlier in history too.

For example, a group of people who came to be known as Namboothiris entered Kerala from the North sometime between the first and fourth centuries CE and soon became the lords of the entire region by employing strategies very similar to those wielded by the Modi-Shah duo today. Though these Namboothiris constituted less than one percent of Kerala’s population, they became the owners of most of the land and remained so until the 18th century by manipulating the political powers with the help of religion. Something similar is happening today in India. The only difference is that the corporate bigwigs are doing in India what the Namboothiris did in Kerala.

By the second half of 19th century, the Namboothiris in Kerala had become a totally degenerate people. Greed and lust had corroded their very souls.

Do I see the flicker of similar greed and lust (more for power now though the Namboothiris lusted after women as much as power) in the Diwali lamps nowadays? If the Festival of Lights can bring some enlightenment to our leaders, there is hope for a better India. I’d like to hope that this Diwali will bring some light at least to the people whose hearts are becoming increasingly darker.

Did someone tell me that Diwali is about the victory of the good over the evil? Well, wish you a Happy Diwali. 

PS. This is not meant to hurt anyone’s sentiments especially on the occasion of a festival. I lived in the North and Northeast for most part of my life as an adult and Diwali celebrations were very much a part of my life. Do I miss them? This post is an answer to that question. To myself more than to anyone else.



Comments

  1. Hari OM
    Deepavali is very much part of Tamil and Karnatakan traditions... and as Chinmaya Mission is essentially Keralite and Deepavali is a major celebration for us, I am surprised to read that you think it otherwise. The focus in the South is more the second of the five days, whilst the North favours the third day - the difference being the focus in the first is more spiritual, while the second is more earthly. Of course, like so many events (and I include Christmas!) commercialism has over-ridden the spiritual almost to the point of folk entirely ignoring the source of the festivals. Generalisation, of course, as many do still adhere.

    I do understand something of your aversion, though. When I saw how so many people were prepared to light up entire neighbourhoods with flashy lighting and bigger and better each year (as folk here do with Christmas lights) it makes a mockery of the original intent of lighting the diyas. I agree that imposition of celebration makes no celebration at all - imposition of 'faith' is an invasion. I too wish the leaders of India, and Australia and UK ... and many other nations could see the light! YAM xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This morning I went to the Jan Seva Kendra nearest to my home for an official work. The man, son of the local Hindu temple priest, had opened the office as usual as I had expected. Diwali made no difference to him though he told me that only the online part of the work would be done today since all Central govt offices would be closed. I said I only wanted to get the online part done today.

      That's how Diwali looks like in my village and all the villages near me and most probably all over Kerala. There are changes taking place because of the increasing influence of the BJP and right wing organisations in the state too.

      Swami Chinmayananda was after all a co-founder or inspirer of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and it's no surprise that his institutions celebrate Diwali. Awakening the "Hindu consciousness" was one of the proclaimed objectives of Chinmayananda - very much in tune with the Hindutva ideology. I have no association with the cult except that a few of my acquaintance have been teachers in its schools for brief periods. They were all invariably happy to leave the jobs because they felt out of place there due to the way religion was taught and practised there.

      Delete
    2. Hari OM
      ...and there is a reason I did not take the robes, despite having completed all relevant study and qualification.

      I do take exception to the calling of CM as a cult - it is not that, any more than the Roman Catholic church is a cult. It is, however, just as RC can be, or any other such institution, prone to the fundamentalist outlook.

      Though, in truth, Gurudev himself never advocated such. He very much allowed for pluralism in faith. However, his point was that if one was to claim to be Hindu, then it is necessary to behave as one and have the relevant knowledge to support it. This would apply, again, to any faith system. There are many 'mouth Christians' just as there are 'mouth Hindus'. Practice and application is another thing altogether.

      And, as your grind is, the imposition and insistance that any one system is the only one, or that any other is by that deficit 'wrong' is the basis of all unrest in such matters. To deny any the practice of their faith, whatever that be, on the basis that it does not fit with one's own beliefs, whatever they be, is a grave error of intellect and spirit. YAM xx

      Delete
  2. Fragmentation is a clinically practised strategy of the Sanghparivar.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Undoubtedly. And they will do it holding aloft a flag with the inscription 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam'.

      Delete
  3. India is not a monolith of one single civilisation... but a mosaic and confluence of civilization(s).... breathing the mystical air of pluralism for more than millennia. Let there be a thousand Ramayana, and as many Mahabharathas. Let Ravana, as well as Rama be celebrated. “ There are many lamps... but One Light..” - Rumi

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why I won’t vote

From Deshabhimani , Malayalam weekly Exactly a month from today is the Parliamentary election in my state of Kerala. This time, I’m not going to vote. Bernard Shaw defined democracy , with his characteristic cynicism, as “ a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve .” We elect our government in a democracy. And the government invariably sucks our blood – whichever the party is. The BJP and the Congress are like Tweedledum and Tweedledee though the former makes all sorts of other claims day in and day out. BJP = Congress + the holy cow. The holy cow has turned out to be quite a vampire and that makes a difference, no doubt. In our Prime Minister’s algebra, it is: (a+b) 2 which should be equal to a 2 and b 2 . There is an extra 2ab which is the holy cow. In George Orwell’s Animal Farm , the animals revolt against the human master and set up their own nationalist republic. Soon politics develops in the republic and some pigs become leaders. The porcine

Prelude to AtoZ

  From Garden of 5 Senses, Delhi [file pic] Hindsight gives an unearthly charm and order to the past. There can be pain too. A lot of things could have been different, much better, if only we possessed the wisdom of our old age back in those days. As a writer put it, Oedipus, Hamlet, Lear and a lot of those guys must have thought, “I wish I had known this some time ago.” Life is a series of errors with intermittent achievements. The only usefulness of the errors may be the lessons they teach us. Probably, that is their purpose too. We are created to err so that we learn, I dare to put it that way. I turn 64 in a month’s time. It’s not inappropriate to look back at some of the people whom life brought into my life so that I would learn certain lessons. No, I don’t mean to say that life has any such purpose or design or anything. Life is absurd. People come into your life as haphazardly as vehicles ply on your road or birds poop on your head. Some of these people change the chemist

How Arvind Kejriwal can save himself

Narendra Modi and Amit Shah have a clear vision. Eliminate all opposition. Decimate them or absorb them. My previous post [link below] showed a few people decimated by them. Today let’s look at the others: those who are saved by joining the Bharatiya Janata Party [BJP]. 1. Himanta Biswa Sarma  This guy was in Congress and faced serious charges related to the multi-crore Saradha chit fund scam. He also faced corruption charges related to drinking water supply in Guwahati. His house was raided by the Central Bureau of Investigation [CBI]. Then he switched over to BJP and all his crimes just vanished. It’s as simple as taking a dip in the Ganga and all your sins are forgiven. Today he is the chief minister of Assam. Nothing is heard of all the charges that were levelled against him. 2. Amarinder Singh  This former Captain in the Indian Army was a Congressman until Modi’s Enforcement Directorate [ED] started raiding him, his son and his son-in-law. He put an end to all those raid

The Good Old World

Book Review Title: Dukhi Dadiba and irony of fate Author: Dadi Edulji Taraporewala Translators: Aban Mukherji and Tulsi Vatsal Publisher: Ratna Books, Delhi, 2023 Pages: 314 If you want to return to the good old days of the late 19 th century, this is an ideal novel for you. This was published originally in Gujarati in 1913. It appeared as a serial before that from 1898 onwards in a periodical. The conflict between good and evil is the dominant motif though there is romance, betrayal, disappointment, regret, and pretty much of traditional morality. Reading this novel is quite like watching an old Bollywood movie, 1960s style. Ardeshir Bahadurshah, a wealthy Parsi aristocrat in Surat, dies having obligated his son Jehangir to find out his long-lost brother Rustom. Rustom was Bahadurshah’s son in his first marriage. The mother died when the boy was too small and the nurse who looked after the child vanished with it one day. Ratanmai, Bahadurshah’s present wife, takes her

Quasi-Humans

Book Review Title: Soft Animal Author: Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan Publisher: Penguin Random House India, 2023 Pages: 261   Very many people – too many, in fact – live partial lives. That is, most people don’t explore the depths of anything: the meaning of their life, of their love, of their religion, whatever. There is no passion about anything. Consequently, life becomes dull, even painful. This novel is about the dull pain experienced by a woman in her mid-thirties. She is married to a rich man who was in a love-relationship with her for long enough before marriage. He is an IT professional and she is a homemaker. Mukund Chugh and Mallika Rao. A rich Punjabi boy and the not-so-rich “south Indian girl” (as her in-laws refer to her). Mukund is a good guy. Mallika, the first-person narrator tells us that “All my life I had wanted to be with someone like Mukund, someone so sure of themselves and their identity.” But disillusionment follows soon enough. Entering into married