Swadeshi
Bapu, Videshi Fame
By Farzana Versey
06 April, 2007
The
Asian Age
Burn all your currency notes
that have the image of the Mahatma on them if you do not want to insult
him and what he stood for. Money, we are told, was never on his mind.
Every few months we are witness
to the imagined persecution of Gandhi. The latest is an advertisement
for a credit card firm in South Africa where the Mahatma's lips are
shown moving to convey that he is speaking on behalf of the brand.
The ad agency, getting all
defensive, has come up with a ridiculous excuse: "Gandhi is featured
alongside other icons who stood for fighting against injustice and for
the rights of the man in the street."
What does the possession
of a credit card have to do with justice? How many men in the street
use plastic money?
Predictably there have been
protests, and these are even more ludicrous. One of those omnipresent
spokesmen said, "Mahatma Gandhi did not stand for the promotion
of business interests. Mahatma Gandhi was a simple man, and money matters
were not part of his criteria. He left all his assets behind when he
left the country. He was not a commercial man, but a well-respected
politician and spiritualist."
Cult figures cause vision
impairment. The simple Gandhi had in fact stated, "I do not regard
capital to be enemy of labour."
He commercialised deprivation.
Oriental exotica was given a new face when the land of maharajahs became
the land of the half-naked fakir. By spiritualising the suffering of
millions he only consolidated the old fatalistic view of life.
There is no doubt he was
"a well-respected politician". Isn't that why the Birlas played
host to him? The concept of swadeshi is a canny business idea. If life
gives you a neembu make neembu-pani; the added proviso is: don't say
boo to orange juice. Or in the precious words of Gandhi, " India
must protect her primary industries even as a mother protects her children
against the whole world without being hostile to it."
We blame the west for dumping
their waste on us. It is a perfectly valid accusation. But, how ethical
is our intent? Suddenly, western brands became affordable to the huge
middle-class; worse, the 'honorary' foreign goods from China, Thailand
and Korea could keep even a lower middle-class person happy. The elitists
panicked. This was when swadeshi came to their rescue and gave them
the grand exclusive Indian dream of cavorting in the Hauz Khas ruins.
We have earned our stars
and stripes, not to speak of call centres, based entirely on this smart
strategy. Today, everyone – from fashion designers who truss up
urchin-bodied models in khadi couture to ayurveda spas detoxifying you
with forest twigs to authentic cuisine and indigenous literature –
is a major player in hawking the halo of traditionalism.
Parodying poverty by going
around unshod when he owns shoes that cost Rs. 5 lakh, M. F. Husain
further mastered the Gandhian prototype when he depicted Mother Teresa
in an expensive Paithani sari. He quite succeeded in converting her
into a native goddess untainted by Vatican canonisation.
Indian enterprise has become
pusillanimous, willing to decimate anything that comes in its way. Leftists
may hold on steadfastly to their glasses of Old Monk and Che Guevara
T-shirts, but Singur was the real McCoy as far as swadeshi goes and
we have seen what happens.
On the strength of milking
gau-mata, Laloo Prasad Yadav gets to feed management techniques to the
New Jersey cash cows. He goes to Harvard and Wharton. Everyone is charmed.
Here is the son of the soil. What more can one ask? I'll tell you what.
How many Indians can afford to attend these institutions? Even the IIMs
have further increased their fees. The pay packets they earn will be
several times more than what those working in the railways or the dabbawallas
they invite to lecture them make in several years.
However, Laloo is in no danger
of becoming a Gandhi because his demeanour does not lend itself to a
neat line drawing. He is not chic so he cannot be a special attraction,
the kind Deepa Mehta has added to her Oscar-nominated film Water. Although
the uplift of widows was the work of Raja Ram Mohan Roy and Ishwarchandra
Vidyasagar, Bapu resonates throughout the movie. The Gandhian son of
a debauched zamindar falls in love with a Caucasian-looking beauty at
the ashram. She commits suicide. He does not stay back to fight for
the rest. He escapes in a train. As it gathers momentum, an older inmate
hands over a child widow to him; he carries her like a trophy. One more
groupie joins the Mahatma bandwagon.
If we do not want to make
Gandhi into a commercial enterprise we will have to insist that no industrial
house or financial institution puts in ads during his birth and death
anniversaries; no political party uses his name to get votes, because
votes mean power, power means money; no plays are staged on the subject
or films made that will result in profit. Did anyone object to the box-office
hit Lage Raho Munnabhai?
You want to get self-righteous?
Then go all the way. Unless, of course, your moksha is moolah.
(Farzana Versey can be contacted at [email protected])
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http://farzana-versey.blogspot.com/
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