kashi: soul leaving the body
TRANSCRIPT
Kashi: Soul leaving the body
26 January 2017 Travelogue
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Feeling like breaking up The soul of Kashi appeared leaving its body.
Mother Ganga seemed old, tired and frustrated. First time I felt that she is no longer willing to absorb the sins of her delinquent children.
Benares is older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend, and looks twice as old as all of them put together." —Mark Twain
Kashi (also Varanasi and Banaras) is widely known as the spiritual capital of India. Traditionally believed to be the chosen abode of lord Shiva, this city has significance for believers of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, and the followers of the Bhakti movement (Kabir panthi, Raidasi).
The city nourished by the sacred waters of Mother Ganga, and protected by Lord Shiva, Lord Hanuman, Kaal Bhairva, and Goddess Durga, has inspired immortal souls like Gautam Buddha, Mahavir Swami, Tulsidas, Kabir, Ravidas, Guru Nanak, et. al.
Historically, many Hindu and Muslim rulers patronized the city, making it one of the prominent center for study of religion, art and culture. The city produced many legends in the fields of science, music, dance, art, literature and spirituality. Since ages, the city has been attracting students, research scholars, knowledge seekers, curious and enthusiasts from world over.
Unfortunately, in recent years, the city appears to losing its character. The soul of the city appears leaving her body.
The city has become a generic Tier 2 north Indian city of India. You would struggle to tell a difference between Kashi, Patna, Bareilly, Moradabad, Aligarh, Agra, Panipat, Hissar, Jhansi, Allahabad. The city is growing like ginger - unplanned and unmindful.
I have been madly in love with this city of spiritual lights for past three decades. However, on recent visit I strongly felt like breaking up my love affair.
In this note, I highlight the present day condition of the holy city of Kashi, with the objective of making a larger point that perhaps the direction and paradigm of development we have chosen needs to be reviewed.
"States are as the men, they grow out of human characters."
—Plato (Greek, 427-347BC)
"The curse of me and my nation is that we always think things can be bettered by immediate action of some sort, any sort rather than no sort."
—Plato (Greek, 427-347BC)
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In a rush to go nowhere Famous historian Will Durant once famously said "India was the motherland of our race, and Sanskrit the mother of Europe's languages: she was the mother of our philosophy; mother, through the Arabs, of much of our mathematics; mother, through the Buddha, of the ideals embodied in Christianity; mother, through the village community, of self-government and democracy. Mother India is in many ways."
Mark Twain, added to this by saying "India is, the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grandmother of tradition. our most valuable and most instructive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only."
Kashi is the birthplace of four Jain Tirthankaras. Gautam Buddha preached his first sermon here. Adi Sankara is believed to have received lesson in spiritual humility from Lord Shiva, here. Sant Kabir was born here. In Kashi, Goswami Tulsi Das composed the Ramcharitmanas and the Hanuman Chalisa, the narratives that impacted Hinduism deeply across north India. The city has prominent place in Sikh traditions also. The city is also believed to be home of Hindustani classical music.
In recent time, the city gained popularity as the incumbent prime minister chose it to represent it in the parliament. Subsequently, it has been designated as the partner city of Kyoto (the second largest city in Japan); and also a Smart City under the urban development program of the central government.
Admittedly, I have been madly in love with the city for decades. Like a passionate lover I cherished almost everything about the city. But as Geoffary Chaucer famously said seven centuries ago, "All good things must come to an end".
On my recent visit to the city early this week, for the first time I felt like breaking up. To me, the soul of Kashi appeared leaving its body. Mother Ganga seemed old, tired and frustrated. First time I felt that she is no longer willing to absorb the sins of her delinquent children.
The city appeared terribly chaotic. The people were in general inconsiderate, insensitive and indifferent. The melody of divine music has surrendered completely to the cacophony of endless traffic snarls. Everyone appeared in a hurry to reach nowhere; leaving the fellow citizens struggling on road. I experienced more road rage and profanity than humanity and spirituality in the city.
The traditional arts and textile have been pushed back to the narrow, dark and filthy by-lanes, as the global apparel and electronics brands have encroached the main markets.
The traditional food that I loved is struggling to survive the onslaught of global giants like McDonalds, Chicago Pizza, Dominos, etc. Italian, Chinese, and continental food has become a 'must have' in parties and family gatherings. There are disproportionate number of pharmacies, indicating towards the deteriorating health of the dwellers.
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The point I am trying to make is that we would need to rise above symbolism, if we want to grow as a society, and hence as economy. Moreover, the straight road to prosperity is through our strengths and not weaknesses or imitation of others
Growing like ginger - unplanned and unmindful The moment you exit from the Babatpur Airport in Varanasi, you see the modern symbol of development - A concrete six lane highway being constructed to link the city (30kms) with the airport; large showrooms of automobile; Delhi Public School; etc. As you reach the city after a 90-120minutes of arduous drive, you fail to find the Kashi, you have been hearing, reading and imagining about.
The city has become a generic Tier 2 north Indian city of India. You would struggle to tell a difference between Kashi, Dehradun, Patna, Bareilly, Moradabad, Aligarh, Agra, Panipat, Hissar, Jhansi, Allahabad, Gorakhpur, Kota. The city is growing like ginger - unplanned and unmindful.
The main streets are dotted by showrooms of large apparel, appliances and food brands. There are 50x more private coaching centers than schools. It appears that every youth just want to learn to speak English, and become doctors, engineers, CAs and IAS officers.
If you try on your own, it might take 2-3 days to find a place that teaches Indian languages, religion, classical music & dance, silk weaving, or sculpting etc.
The city is dotted with the symbols of Clean India mission. But to the dismay of all visitors, these symbols are dirtier than the city itself. Admittedly, the city has become cleaner in past two years. But "cleaner" is not necessarily "clean". It is hard to find any change in the mindset of people, who spit red anywhere and everywhere, litter with freedom, sweep their shops and homes to throw the garbage on the road, brazenly. The entire city has open drains that remain filled with sewage water and choked with plastic bags. Stray animals are found in abundance.
I spoke to many religious men on various famous ghats. No one, yes None! wanted their children to study Sanskrit and religion. One of them had four children - two are studying medicine, one preparing for civil services and the fourth one is running a gym.
The sign boards make it abundantly clear that the city is desperate to shed its traditional image and look progressive with English as a medium of prestige and not as a medium of communication or learning..
For time immemorial the city has been associated with "Faith" and "Devotion". A 7km walk from Bhairasur Ghat to Assi Ghat anytime during the day would tell you that the "Faith" and "Devotion" are now mostly constricted to the Old, Rural, Illiterate and Poor populace. Save for unmindful rituals and fearful compliance, the young, urban, educated, middle class people are cynical about "Faith" and lack "Devotion".
I met a group of visitors from Kyoto, who had come to Kashi with great expectations. Trust me, they are carrying a message that will demotivate many prospective Japanese visitors.
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En route to degeneration About two decades back, I had a chance meeting with a group of visitors from Pakistan. Most members of the group had their ancestral roots in Delhi and nearby areas. During discussion, I asked them why is it that despite being so rich in natural resources, favorable geography and brave & enterprising people, Pakistan is not able to grow to its potential. The answer was thought provoking.
They said, "The feudal nature of politics has made the society ominously unequal. There is huge trust gap. The gap is rising with every flight going out of the country, as it carries few good people, who would probably never come back to their homeland. With all educated people capable of thinking without prejudice; capable of innovating; capable of promoting enterprise, moving out - the country is left with few feudal lords who have captured all the resources and therefore need not leave the country, and ‘the vulnerable’ who could add little to the growth - economic or otherwise."
Trust me, I find the conditions in UP and Bihar no different today. I do not have statistics to support my argument, but anecdotally I know that even middle class parents do not want their children to stay here. The routine education of children has therefore become a mission for all middle and rich class families. People want their kids to get good degrees and migrate from these places, to never come back.
This is in contrast to the southern states, Gujarat and Punjab, where people are keen on migrating to foreign shores but stay connected to their roots. They yearn for returning someday. Here, it is not only foreign shores - Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai are equally desirable destinations. Once out, no one thinks of returning back to or even investing some money in their birthplace. The remittances are usually limited to the support money for old parents and renovation of house.
By highlighting the present day condition of the holy city of Kashi, the point I am trying to convey is that perhaps the direction and paradigm of development we have chosen needs to be reviewed.
In my personal opinion, the present model of growth may not be the appropriate one, for two simple reasons:
(a) It completely ignores the sustainability concerns. (A homeopathy doctor in Kashi told me that the noise pollution in the city due to chaotic traffic is making more people sick than anything else. The worst part is that no one is bothered about this.)
(b) The present model is bound to fail, as it mostly ignores the strengths of Indian society and economy.
The development model adopted by us seems to be mistaking the means for goals. Electricity, roads, bridges, motor vehicles, communication network etc. should be used as means to improve the quality of human life, minimize socio-economic inequalities, and enable people to work for evolution of mankind. Mistaking means for the goals, takes us nowhere.
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Solution lies within The sustainable solution for India’s economic problems could be found only by looking within. Borrowing from the thoughts of Mahatma Gandhi, economics needs to follow ethics and not the vice versa. The primary consideration needs to be “man” and not “money”.
To achieve this means Gandhi advocated trusteeship, decentralization of economic activities, labor intensive technology and priority to weaker sections. Many criticize Gandhian economic ideas based on altruism, self reliance, and non-violence, as an impractical alternative to free market economics. I believe this criticism is unfair and suffers from parochialism.
I believe borrowing blindly from the western economic models would not work in Indian context. The Indian model will have to be quintessentially Indian. It has to effectively tackle the problems of class conflict, unemployment and poverty while attempting to preserve the lifestyle and values of rural Indians, which are eroding fast with unmindful urbanization, industrialisation and modernisation.
A self-reliant, free, just and progressive society is integral to the traditional idea of India. Self-reliance in no way violates the need for technological advancement in the areas like healthcare, communication, etc. It just wants the scale to tilt in favor of ethics and ecology conservation if a conflict arises. Self-reliance also does not infringe upon the idea of free market. It just promotes non-violent and non-exploitive trade and commerce.
In short, the economic model of India, in my opinion, should be based on the following three principles:
(a) Develop an environment of equality and mutual trust through decentralization.
(b) Focus on the intrinsic strengths of Indian economy rather than overemphasizing the weaknesses.
(c) Focus on enablement of population rather than merely providing for them.
Kashi, Vindavan, Tirupati, Gaya, Ajmer Sharif, etc. all have potential to be as desirable, venerable and popular destinations as Mecca, Vatican and Jerusalem.
Converting these centers of Indian religion and culture into self contained special zones with international airport, adequate lodging facilities and annual event calendar could generate substantial employment opportunities with potential to earn material amount of forex revenue.
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A glorious morning of Kashi
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Devotes are forced to change in the open, even in winters
...as the changing rooms installed with great pomp and show lie in shambles
Symbolism is not helping
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...so do the dust bins
...and everything else
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Beti Bachao- Beti Padhao
Namami Gange
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English is a source of prestige, not a medium of learning or communication.
...even for the administration
Sign boards tell a story
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Stray cows are a common menace for people's health
and a threat to their life and property
Cow protection - taken to a new level
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Those clamoring about a grand ram temple seem to care little about protecting Kashi temples from degradation
Few care for the legacy
The contents of this report are based on the personal impressions of the author. It aims to highlight the problems, the city of Kashi is facing and urges the authorities to find solutions. It does not aim to hurt anybody's feelings or religious sentiments. All disagreements are welcome.