Icons, Idols and Iconoclausts

Icons and Idols I am on my 2nd day of my 2nd visit to Zari cluster in remote Maharashtra. Zari has been declared as a distressed district for several reasons including farmer suicides. The much known Vidarbha package applies to Zari also, I guess. Zari region is pure and pristine. Not because the internet connectivity is low and the mobile connectivity is less than the desired level. Also not because there is reasonable amount of greenery and lack of industries. The factor that most appealed to me most is the absence of idols and statues of all sorts and varieties of leaders. Not that Zari people do not adore its leaders. They ofcourse remember Birsa Monda, Mahatma Jyotirao Phule, Babasaheb Ambedkar. They paint some walls with the pictures of these leaders or have wallposters or banners. Nothing more than that. If you come back to the neighboring Adilabad district and therefore the state of Andhra Pradesh, the situation is quite radically different. AP is famous as well as notorious for statues. The nook and corners of the state, all the crossroads and junctions of major, mini and minor cities/towns/municipalities/ and villages are replete with statues of leaders of different genre. Cities like Vijayawada boast of statues of international leaders such Marx and Engels is only minor aberration. Otherwise the state is full of statues of national and regional leaders. After seeing the statues of Nehru, Indira gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, you may think the Indian National Congress has perpetrated the statue culture. But the regional party TDP is not at all behind. NTR’s statues are also ubiquitous in nature. The Communist parties are also not lagging behind in this culture. Some of their leaders’ statues can also be seen in cities like Khammam. The nascent YSRCP made its birthright to install the late YSR statues across all places. Sorry I forgot to mention Mahatma Gandhi and Bhimrao Ambedkar. Unfortunately these leaders’ statues could be found along with the other leaders’ statues I mentioned before. While these statues emerged as a rallying points for birthday processions as well as election propaganda, they also became clash points. As leaders are adored by some sections, they are also hated by some sections for historic reasons. So those sections which don’t like a particular leader tend to desecrate the statue of that particular leader by disfiguring it and some other means. This raises the tension in the community. Then the leaders try to do some rituals such as pouring milk, honey, water onto the statue and thereby making it pure. Every generation throws up some icons. During our generation we keep seeing icons emerging from multiple and plural walks of life. As long as they are icons its fine. But once they are turned into idols and thereafter statues, we are giving scope for iconoclasts to enter the scene. Am sure Zari is far away from that culture as of now!