Modi’s Lions in India’s New Caste System

Ashoka's lions

More and more opposition parties are choosing to boycott the inauguration of the new Parliament building by PM Modi. The four lions of the national emblem that Modi unveiled atop the building on 11 July 2022 will snarl even more furiously now, I believe.

The 9.5-ton representation of Ashoka’s lions is a stark contrast to the graceful gentleness of the Sarnath lions which were inspired by the Buddha. What Modi’s lions represent is a paradigm shift. India is making a decided transition from the Buddha to the Modi. From compassion to aggression. From mutual coexistence to subjugation of the other.

Modi’s lions mark the subversion of the Buddha as much as Buddha himself was a subversion of the ruthless Brahminical system of his time. Buddha could not accept the heartlessness of the Brahminical system with its untouchability and all the brutality that went with it. Modi is now taking India back to that brutality, so to say.

In the ancient India, the sages left human societies and went into isolation. They practiced asceticism, acquired spiritual qualities and breathed shanti mantras. In Modi’s India, those who claim to be yogis and ascetics are violent people who openly advocate brutality, acquire and flaunt wealth and luxury, and run gigantic business establishments some of which sell spurious products.

In Modi’s India, Lord Rama abandons his Maryada Purushottam image and takes on the bow and the arrow with unmistakable ferocity. Even the gentle Hanuman is made to snarl like a wild simian. When will Lord Krishna replace his flute with an NG-7 machine gun?

When a controversy broke out last year about the snarling lions of Modi which insulted Ashoka’s lions and hence India’s cultural heritage, Anupam Kher wrote in his social media page: “If the lion has teeth, it will, of course, show them. This is, after all, the lion of independent India. If needed, the lion will bite too.” Modi’s lions are not only biting now! Look at the current situation in Manipur, for example. There are a lot of other examples.

Modi's lion

Redefining religious and cultural symbols is perfectly okay. That is required, in fact, lest religions become redundant and cultures become static. But the process of redefining should be based on forward-looking values and principles. Isn’t Modi’s India going backward to just another version of the old Brahminical system? A new caste system is being put in place. The richest 1% of Indians own 40% of India’s wealth now. This new ‘Brahminical’ class is ruling India now. They make the policies. They loot the banks systematically. They make a lot of Indians new untouchables.