Helpless Gods

Illustration by Gemini

Six decades ago, Kerala’s beloved poet Vayalar Ramavarma sang about gods that don’t open their eyes, don’t know joy or sorrow, but are mere clay idols. The movie that carried the song was a hit in Kerala in the late 1960s. I was only seven when the movie was released. The impact of the song, like many others composed by the same poet, sank into me a little later as I grew up. Our gods are quite useless; they are little more than narcissists who demand fresh and fragrant flowers only to fling them when they wither.

Six decades after Kerala’s poet questioned the potency of gods, the Chief Justice of India had a shoe flung at him by a lawyer for the same thing: questioning the worth of gods. The lawyer was demanding the replacement of a damaged idol of god Vishnu and the Chief Justice wondered why gods couldn’t take care of themselves since they are omnipotent. The lawyer flung his shoe at the Chief Justice to prove his devotion to a god.

From Vayalar of 1967 to the lawyer of 2025, India has come a long way: from liberal secularism to emotive fanaticism. If Vayalar were to write today, he would be killed by the country’s right-wing riffraff.

When North India silenced the shoe-flinging incident because the lawyer who committed the atrocity was high caste and the Chief Justice a Dalit, another far more bone-rattling case emerged in Vayalar’s own Kerala. Half a kilogram of gold went missing from the most famous temple of the state: Sabarimala. The deity was incapable of protecting his own property! What use are such gods? Chief Justice Gavai would wish to ask.

B R Ambedkar, father of India’s Constitution, declared a century ago that “God is a useless thing for the purposes of the human life.” B R Gavai, the Chief Justice of India today, is an Ambedkarite. On multiple occasions, Gavai has publicly reaffirmed Ambedkar's vision of an inclusive and just India. He has emphasized that the Indian Constitution, as a living document, continues to uphold the values of liberty, equality, and fraternity that Ambedkar championed. Constitution, not the 33 crore gods of the country’s pantheon.

Ambedkar’s portrait was removed from the Delhi Chief Minister’s office soon after BJP’s Rekha Gupta assumed office in February 2025. This lady had the audacity to state that the Brahmins who “ignited the flame of knowledge in the country” also worshipped weapons. “Only through weapons and scriptures can we protect society and the country today,” she said reinforcing the obsolete caste system.  

Unnikrishnan Potti, a Brahmin, was stealing Lord Ayappan’s gold when Rekha Gupta was proclaiming the glory of Brahmins.

Helpless Ayappan. Do our other gods fare any better?

Gods who can’t open their eyes, who can’t laugh or cry… the poet laments. And the politicians laugh all the way to their respective thrones.

When a politician kneels publicly, check your wallet—and your rights. They're usually reaching for one or the other.

PS. This post is a part of Blogchatter Half Marathon 2025