THE STATUE, THE MAN AND HIS LEGACY

THE STATUE, THE MAN AND HIS LEGACY

His statue has been installed alright but his political principles must be followed now.

Character which is the bedrock of a nation must be given prime priority in public life. Mere posturing will not do. Pretence catches immediate attention but fails to make its mark in bringing about significant changes in the life of a nation.

Politicians are reflections of the general mass of the people. If the people are of strong moral fibre, politicians arising out of them will necessarily be moral. Hence, instead of merely pointing out the faults of politicians, individual character-building is of vital importance to changing the present pernicious political scenario. To that end we must devote ourselves.

The present Prime Minister and the subject of the statue who happened to be our first Prime Minister -- a fact historically chronicled but disregarded owing to our acceptance of a partitioned dominion status as independence on 15 August, 1947 -- have one thing in common. Both have openly stated their devotion to Swami Vivekananda. Both read Swamiji but in an altered light which shaped their lives in accordance. While Netaji read in Swamiji the universal principles of philosophical spirituality and attempted to implement such in practical political life that separated governance from religion, Modiji has devoted his life's energy to bringing about the resurgence of Hinduism in every sphere of national life as envisaged by Swamiji. This strange contrast of approach in the two leaders has sprung from personality differences and their reading into Swamiji different aspects of his dualistic teaching, each in his own way.

History has dealt India hard blows, the hardest being the bloody Partition of 1947 and the unceasing conflict with Pakistan thereafter, a fallout essentially of the age-old Hindu-Muslim problem that has persisted in India for over 1300 years. Netaji did not live to see the Partition -- so it seems at least from his untraced disappearance post 17 August, 1945 -- while Modiji was born three years after the mutilation of the motherland. One shaped the destiny of India prior to Partition while the other, the child of Partition, is shaping it now.

V.S. Naipaul has famously called India 'a wounded civilisation'. His description is accurate. The question is as to how we may heal the wound to health. Here there are serious ideological issues that separate Netaji and Modiji. Some may even  be repulsed by the idea of comparing and contrasting these two personalities, the former regarded by most as immeasurably superior in status to the latter, both in historical terms and in terms of personality traits and character attributes. But such attempts at a snobbish separation of past political heroes from present political leaders must not be entertained if we are to be historically continuous and relevant.

Written by Sugata Bose