Friday, September 15, 2017

If we don't respect our culture, who will?



Indians are psychologically damaged people who preserve the monuments of invaders with more care than their own, and proudly show them off to tourists or even visiting heads of state. When was the last time you saw any visiting prime minister or president posing before any monument other than the Taj Mahal?

Sadly, our present nationalist PM also cannot break this ghastly tradition.


Is Sidi Sayyed mosque the only thing to show to the Japanese PM, Mr Modi, after all the money spent on Vibrant Gujarat and Gujarat Tourism ads which say “Kucch din to guzariye Gujarat mein”, showing a glimpse of what the state has to offer?

You could have chosen a few more places in Gujarat to show to Mr Abe.

Like,

The most ornately carved sub terranean stepwell , an example of the industriousness of ancient India in conserving water during the harsh , called Rani ki Vaav (Queen’s Well) , which goes more than five floors underground, is situated in Patan, about 120 km from Ahmedabad. 


The carvings , numbering more than 800, for more than seven galleries, the central theme being dashavataras (ten incarnations of Vishnu). Not secular enough surely.





Or one of the only two major sun temples surviving in India , somewhat intact.


Built by Bhima I of Chalukya (Solanki) dynasty in 1026, looking magnificient even after being desecrated by Khilji’s hordes.






 Or why not a two day safari to Gir, the last remaining abode in the world for the Asiatic lion? It would have sent such a good message to the international community about India’s efforts to conserve an endangered species and a publicity for India’s biodiversity. Isn’t Gir a great symbol of vibrant, alive Gujarat?

 



Lets have a look at the Sidi Sayyid Mosque.




How is this in any way more beautiful than the three examples shown above? The famed ‘jaali’ wouldn’t even be in public eye had it not been on IIM Ahmedabad’s logo. Ahmedabad surely is the business capital of Gujarat, but it simply cannot be the cultural capital. It was founded as a garrison town by an invader tyrant and this mosque itself is the sign of a dying dynasty, having being built by one of its generals in the last year of the sultanate’s existence.

Mr Modi, by promoting this monument as your pride, you will promote a dynasty (better known as Muzzafarid dynasty)  which had murderers from Ahmed Shah to Mehmud Begada ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gujarat_Sultanate ) who were no less a disaster for this country and its people than the Delhi Sultanate, Deccan Sultanates or the Mughals, and who spared no efforts to wipe out anything resembling beauty or culture from the land they had usurped. 

For example:-
  



One can only imagine what grand structure it must have been.  But like any politically incorrect structure, it lies as a silent symbol of what this country has faced for eight centuries which has been carefully whitewashed by secularism.

If we don’t respect our culture, then who will?

And the irony is that the mosques built from the material of the destroyed temples are hailed as the hallmark of ‘composite culture’.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jama_Mosque,_Ahmedabad





How long will the BJP keep on antagonizing its core voters, and why have you joined that bandwagon,  Mr Modi? If we show neglect and disdain for our culture and heritage, then those ancient monuments are nothing more than ruins where fools carve “Raju loves Tina” kind of heart and arrow shaped masterpieces on their walls. 


Maybe after your guide role play in Siddi Sayyed mosque, your next stop with Mr Abe will be Sabarmati ashram where you will have a couple of hundred pics of you together with charkha (Just like you did with Mr Xinping, for which he gave a non violent reply in Doklam. What a masterstroke by you, indeed) to drive home the message that we are peaceful, please love us, we are very non violent and we tolerate every kind of treason and perversion under the sun, that we never attack anyone and we turn the other cheek when slapped. 



This attitude is not very different than the curtailing of the history of the brave people in this country to a single page in some stupid school history book, of denial that anything was ever great in this country before the copy paste constitution was made, of giving silent approval that it was central asian hordes and Europeans who brought culture into this country. 


And that wont win you any new fans Mr Modi. That will cause you infact to lose your existing ones. Dont flush their goodwill in some Swacch Bharat toilet. 


http://www.thebombaybugle.com/featured/modiji-if-we-dont-respect-culture-who-will/

1 comment:

  1. its a shame that the indian lion is referred to as asiatic lion, our elephant as asiatic elephant, the hindu numeral as the hindu arabic numeral! and nobody is even talking of correcting this anomaly!

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