How to celebrate anniversaries of great people? I would have thought that the best solution would be by inculcating their thought patterns in daily lived lives. Sure, the contexts would be different. So one takes the major idea, re-looks at it, re-searches it, re-invents it, but incorporates it, if and as far as is possible, in one's life.
Let me give a concrete example that would be easily understood as it is extremely popular. Yes, I am referring to Chanakya. On the internet, 'so said Chanakya' kind of sites assign all sorts of quotes to him, without checking if he really said so, that is, without authentically consulting the actual source.
Such stuff gets easily followed which fetches bitter responses against Chanakya as an old fogey, as a conservative, as a reactionary, blah, blah, blah! Manu, too, faces the some fate. People who may not have even actually seen, forget, read, the 'Manusmriti' gas most authoritatively about it! Instead, 'leave the dross, accept the relevant' should be the open negotiation strategy which, too, can be debated. We are an 'argumentative' enough society for such discussions, for looking up alternatives!
Why all this fulmination? Is that your question? Well, since at about 8 p.m. yesterday, there was an overflow of messages regarding how the celebration of the Savitribai Phule birth anniversary should be.
Her contribution is indeed grand, though many committed historians have pointed out certain major discrepancies in that narrative. That is not our theme right now. Anyways, it is too big to be addressed in a short blog. Actually, such doubts should be addressed through a proper book, I suppose.
Here let us briefly look at the discussions about how to celebrate the anniversary. There were extremely flippant suggestions such as lighting a diya (rather like the COVID clapping, beating of drums, right?), putting on one's forehead her kind of "chiri" kumkum!
To begin with, these days, very, very few women wear the kumkum. If such is their notion of personal choice, would they wear the 'chiri'? If they do, it would be more a fashion statement than a tribute. Most, moreover, would be busy taking selfies. The entire gravitas of the celebration would thus be surely ruined!
It would, moreover, be mere tokenism. Instead, on such a day, why not/how about creative alternatives to find out more about her, about those days, about the fight women in other countries put up (even today! Look at Iran, for instance) for rights such as 'right to vote', 'right to education' which we have got as part of that 'package' called independence!!
As such awareness raising never happens beyond empty tokenism (which is, otherwise, attacked hugely for every possible religious festival), every year typical rituals, a bow to making everything into a consumer goodie, would continue, but ideas would never ever flourish!!!
Pratima@The most certain way of tokenism is assigning a divinity to thinkers, and follow typical rituals. One need not then discover nor debate the complexity of their vision!
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