The Ironies of Power: Modi at Gangaikonda-Cholapuram

When Narendra Modi posed for one of his infinite photo-ops framed against the gopuram of the ancient Gangaikonda-Cholapuram Temple on 27 July 2025, one of the biggest ironies of history was created.

Gangaikonda-Cholapuram was the capital of Rajendra Chola (r 1014-1044) who was much different from Modi upon whom the BJP leader H Raja conferred the title of the “Living Gangai Kondan”. Rajendra Chola’s empire was marked by pluralism. He built temples but was not a religious bigot. The differences don’t end there. They just begin.

Rajendra Chola was a Tamil ruler and a symbol of Dravidian pride. A man like Modi, who is using every means at his disposal to impose Aryan-centric ideology and suppress India’s diverse cultures, religions, and languages, can never truly wear the mantle once borne by Rajendra Chola. Modi’s very presence in the ancient Chola capital looks like a grotesque appropriation of a legacy that resists his political agenda. 

The Chola Empire patronised multiple religions: Shaivism, Vaishnavism, Buddhism, and Jainism, unlike Modi’s political stance that is straitjacketed inside a rigid Hindutva framework. Rajendra’s campaigns and trade integrated various cultures in large parts of South Asia and almost all of Southeast Asia. How can someone who blatantly marginalises the minorities genuinely venerate a ruler whose empire celebrated diversity?

The deepest irony probably lies in the Ganga water that Modi brought to Gangaikonda-Cholapuram. Rajendra Chola had brought Ganga water too to this place in 1022. But how?

Rajendra Chola was essentially a conqueror. Soon after succeeding his father to the throne in 1014, exactly a century before Modi ascended the throne in Indraprastha, Rajendra invaded Sri Lanka and colonised the entire island. Then he extended his power to Maldives and Lakshadweep islands. Having defeated the Chalukyas of the Deccan region, he marched his army northward in 1022 and subdued the kings of Orissa and Bengal. What a conqueror this man was! When he brought various idols from the temples of the North, along with jars full of Ganga water, he was making a historical claim which was articulated clearly in the title he gave himself: Gangaikonda-Chola – The Chola who Seized the Ganga.

Rajendra’s carrying of the Ganga water was a symbol of his conquest. Did Modi mean his carrying of Ganga water to Rajendra’s capital to be symbolic of an Aryan conquest of the Dravidian territory?

In spite of all the conquests and immense power that he possessed, Rajendra never imposed his religion (Shaivism) or his language (Tamil) on any of his conquered people. On the contrary, he built many Buddhist monasteries and sponsored the construction of a Buddhist temple named Chudamani Vihara.

In short, Rajendra Chola promoted and accommodated multiple religions, languages, and cultures. His empire wasn’t just a military powerhouse; it was also a cultural bridge between India and Southeast Asia, a hub of pluralism and tolerance.

Standing before the mighty Chola Emperor’s temple, Modi may have hoped to drape himself in the aura of that ancient greatness. But beneath the photo-ops lies a deep dissonance: between history and its hijacking, between plurality and propaganda, between architecture that endures and ideologies that divide.