Bhagat Singh: The forgotten legend

Two events this week have got me leaning on a mix of counter-factual history and mythology for help. It was Bhagat Singh’s birthday on September 28, and, as is customary in India of late, not a word came by on any TV channel about the legendary martyr. Remember he was only 23 when he was hanged for his principles.

The other discomforting experience was being caught in long traffic snarls in western UP on Sunday thanks to a religious festival that had been transported from Maharashtra. I am referring to the 10-day long celebration of Lord Ganesh — the elephant-headed god worshipped in Maharashtra as Ganapati.

One explanation why Bhagat Singh is shunned by Indian news channels may be that while nearly all TV entrepreneurs make big money from vending blind faith, the upright freedom warrior would be a threat to their commerce by making more sense with compelling reason. Bhagat Singh was a atheist who had evolved into a well read, Marxist visionary. According to Prof. Chaman Lal, historian and author of many books on the legend, the Sikh hero was so certain of his growing distance from religion that he didn’t think twice before cutting his hair. It must be for good reason that Bhagat Singh wrote his moving essay Why I Am an Atheist just days before his execution at the Lahore jail.

TV is a disturbingly powerful medium. It can make the legend of Bhagat Singh vanish from the minds of the new generation. When it does discuss him it does so by sticking to the “safe topics”, and avoiding his penchant for denunciation of superstition. What we experience though is Hindutva-backed Bhagat Singh Sena. It goes about attacking people who reject its extreme nationalism or its version of how women should think.

To compound the tragedy, Bhagat Singh who died for advocating an enlightened future generation of Indians, stands forsaken by a growing army of young men and women he had in mind. Though they dare not denounce him openly they have not spared any opportunity to insult his memory. Even celebrating the 10 days of Ganapati could do with better awareness of the tradition, something a scientific-tempered observer like Bhagat Singh would support.

The Hindu religion has its subtleties and nuances. And Ganapati is part of this lore. Unfortunately, as I found out, the garish revellers had missed the point as they drove through a chaotic day in UP with their mega decibel speakers mounted on rented trucks. In other words, it would be frustrating for you to look for anyone among the Ganapati crowd I met near Rampur, with red hibiscus flowers.

They are offered to the best loved deity in the Hindu pantheon. In Maharashtra, Ganapati is considered partial to the red flower, a fact I confirmed during a visit to one of his temples in Ratnagiri district. Gauri-Hara cha nandana, Gajavadana, Ganpati. Every Maharashtrian knows the captivating song to the little child of Gauri (Parvati) and Hara (Shiv). It is usually sung in Raag Bhopali, the most popular version being rendered by Asha Bhosle. What passed for music in UP was revolting.

Classical singer Kishori Amonkar’s composition in Raag Hamsadhwani also describes enchanting forms of the deity. Ganpati vighana haran, Gajanan, she sings. Vighan (or vighn) haran is similar to the concept of mushkil kusha, or deliverer from obstacles. In UP though the role of the deliverer was hitherto assigned to the monkey god Hanuman. He was the sankat mochan.

The mandarins of Hindutva based in Nagpur and their much-advertised promotion of Hindu culture thus offered a garish substitute to what was once aesthetic in Indian religious traditions. I quizzed a drunken reveller about the meaning of Ganapati Bappa Morya written on his T-shirt. It is an endearing Marathi salutation to the deity. He said it was a Sanskrit greeting to Ganesh.

The appalling situation was not helped when the PM declared that the elephant head of Ganesh was proof of plastic surgery in ancient India. While scientific analyses of Hindu religion, including adulatory accounts, are currently frowned upon in India, a treasure trove of excellent research on the Ganpati lore exists nevertheless. One such explanation suggests the Ganpati beliefs are a set of pastoral tradition. Ganpati riding a rat, for example, has a slew of explanations.

“Conquest is very often symbolised in this manner,” anthropologist Balkrishna Atmaram Gupte says. “Shiv rides the bull he conquered; Krishna dances on the hood of the snake Kaliya whom he vanquished; and so Ganesh rides over the rat he destroys. The origin of the head of an elephant on one side and the little field mouse on the other can thus be accounted for in his figure.” Other interpretations speak of mice symbolising fertility.

Meanwhile, the Nehru Memorial Library in Delhi, hub of probing research in social sciences, looks primed to be stripped of its questioning spirit by the new administration. Since Ganapati is a generous god, is there hope that Bhagat Singh’s dream of a India, unfettered by blind faith, stands a chance of being fulfilled?

The writer is Dawn’s correspondent in Delhi
By arrangement with Dawn