Myth & Reality 1-1-2015

1, January 2015                           Myth & Reality

Modi deserves credit for stirring a moribund Indian Middle class in cleaning house – cleaning the streets of garbage and promising to build latrines for villages whose women are often harassed and often brutally assaulted while performing their morning or evening ablutions in open fields. There is a chronic need for indoor toilets and plumbing. Middle India and many ex-pats have responded warmly and enthusiastically to Modi’s laudable work ethic. He enthralled 20,000 of his countrymen in New York City bring with his message of hope and change (sound familiar?). What is profoundly disappointing is Modi’s penchant of conflating myth with fact. He falsely claimed that ancient India were pioneers of cosmetic surgery offering as proof that Karna, in the Mahabharata, was born outside his mother’s womb using genetic science. He cited further proof in the elephant-headed Ganesha being fused onto a human skull which ushered in the science of plastic surgery.

The perpetuation of myth as reality has always been appealing to an Indian population immersed in rituals and charismatic priests whose enormous influence has generated huge personal fortunes. Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, warned his followers of such tendencies. Sadly, Sikhs have also often fallen prey to unscrupulous religious godmen. We Indians have such a hunger to believe in the supernatural that many of us were swept in the hysteria of Lord Ganesha’s trunk drinking milk from a spoon. Fortunately, scientists soon debunked the myth stating that such an occurrence was proof of one of the basic laws of physics. Ganesha’s trunk was merely acting as a capillary. Sales of milk rose by a staggering 30% during this period. The empiral proof of Rama existence is still shrouded in mystery. Yet many claim the Seventh avatar of Vishnu’s birthplace is Ram Janmabhoom – the precise location of Emperor Barbar built the Babri mosque. This precipitated the Muslim-Hindu rioting when both groups claimed the temple site as hollowed and sacred. What is even more disturbing is the indoctrination of young children. For example, many are being taught that the first airplane was invented during the mythical Dvapara Yuga, when the Hindu God Ram flew from Sri Lanka to Ayodhya in India with his wife Sita and brother Laxman in a Pushpaka Vimana - a swan­-shaped chariot of flowers. Modi’s home state, Gujarat seems to be on the forefront of this indoctrination. The government has introduced nine new books, written by Hindu nationalist ideologues to 42,000 elementary schools across the state. Pakistan is not immune to advancing pure myths as reality. For example, the most widely read books Maut ka manzar — marnay kay baad kya hoga (tales, of scenes of life after death) illustrated with fictional stories. These fictional tales are now being incorporated into Pakistan’s mainstream education. It is time India (and Pakistan) reject myth and root their future in reverence for the ultimate reality.