Cultural Symbols

 During the Diwali days, two messages were doing rounds repeatedly on the WhatsApp. One of them was an anonymous 'Open letter to the Hindus by a Muslim brother.' This epistle contrasted the Muslim advocacy of all of their religious identifiers to which, the letter stated, they adhere strictly. The contention of the letter was that the Hindus, on the contrary, discard all of theirs under the garb of modernity. 

Quite some list was provided in the letter; women not wearing sarees, not sporting bindis, wearing extremely revealing clothes, Hindus forgetting their basic rituals, and so on. The letter repeatedly asserted that Hindus possibly cannot blame Muslims as they themselves ignore, look down upon, avoid their own identity markers.

The other message was the "no bindi, no business" campaign by Shefali Vaidya. Her message pointed out the way Diwali got depicted in the ads of big businesses. She pointed out how all typical indianness, specifically Hindu, markers, be it the joint family or the bindi were conspicuously absent from the ads of the big brands which instead would have glum women wearing funerary clothes, and the Diwali message, too, would be heavily Urdu-ised. As she took up cudgels against such (mis)representations, the brand behaviour shifted significantly.

Currently such issues are a big debate. Scholars such as J. Sai Deepak  point out how narratives are constructed which glorify the invaders, which eulogise a pretentious modernity under the Macaulay influence for instance. Involved in this delineation is both the historical narrative and a future agenda. 

Undoubtedly, India is a multi-ethnic, multi-racial, multi-religious, multi-lingual, multi-religious country. Yes, there is an obvious 'please the minorities' politicking by most parties. Undoubtedly, the majority community cannot be constantly made to feel small or ashamed through a guilt complex or image shaming.

Unfortunately, most people have such a shallow opinion of modernity. Their outer garb would be very Western, while their inner thoughts would be medieval. Given such a confused identity and total lack of historical awareness, often modernity is silly and simplistic adoption of empty wokism, mostly cheaply imitated from pop culture.  

Given all such confusions, there undoubtedly is a need of understanding and asserting selfhood, given the world wide pogroms floated by the  deep state, by the advocates of capitalism and colonialism.

As the world order is getting re-drafted in to multi-polarity, there is an urgent need to assert one's identity without vague rigidities, as imposed otherwise would be identities convenient to the vested interests! 

In brief, to wear/sport or not to wear/sport a bindi is no longer the question! Bindi is not a blight. Bindi is being, bindi is becoming... beautiful! 

Pratima@Remember P.L.Despande's show entitled "Eka Raviwar chi Kahani"? In it, there is this typical South Indian wife, Kadwekar Mami, who mocks most markedly the ultra modern friend of P.L's wife. This  lady is going to France as her husband's wife, but refuses to wear a bindi as it is a symbol of traditional, orthodox patriarchy! Both comedy and theory, in brief, are bothered by the bindi, or the lack thereof!