Photos that disappeared from south Indian homes

It is not always the event that a reporter covers stimulates his intellect. Despite looking at it straight and ferreting out instances in history that could possibly be associated to the event, it is rather some other anecdote that comes up touches one’s mind (or heart).

The Supreme Court’s lifting of the ban on James Laine’s book on Chhatrapati Shivaji not only rocked the state assembly on the very first day of the monsoon session, but the issue was taken out on the streets in various parts of the state.

Members of the House in ‘establishing’ their loyalty to the great Maratha warrior delivered speeches and cursed the American author in every possible way.  

The debate in the assembly was reported by all the newspapers the next day, but what had actually moved me the most was an anecdote narrated by a Bharatiya Janata Party MLA. 

After the debate, when we met in the legislature canteen, the MLA said that whatever was said and done, Shivaji’s image had been reduced to size due to politicisation of his name.    

He narrated: “I moved to Mumbai from South India when I was in Std VI, and that was nearly 40 years ago. I remember that every house in South India used to have a photograph of Shivaji displayed on their walls; that used to be a symbol of Hinduism. But soon after Shiv Sena started using Shivaji’s name as their inspiration and source of faith, tradition took a backseat and the photo-frames on the walls in South Indian houses started disappearing.” We all looked at him with our own thoughts in mind.

I kept thinking of his narration for the next two days. He is correct — all great personalities are always restricted within political ideologies. This was the conclusion I arrived at. The other such name that came to my mind was of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar.