Travelure
By Hugh & Colleen Gantzer
Our Prime Minister is very conscious of the power of an image: its subliminal impact lasts much longer than its visual recall. Very significantly he stood in front of a large Chakra when welcoming the VIPs to the G20.
In fact, it was a depiction of a Chariot Wheel of the Sun Temple at Konark, but it is unlikely that he would have explained the significance of the eroticism portrayed in this monument. When straight-laced President Joe Biden stopped and asked our PM what the wheel meant, it is most likely that our quick thinking PM would have explained the greater significance of the wheel in Indian iconography rather than dwell on the religious eroticism of the sculptures in the Sun Temple. This is what we, as columnists are expected to do. We have to go far beyond the bare facts fed to the news desk. We have to place events in the perspective of geography and history.
Emperor Ashok adopted the Wheel of the Law when he became a Buddhist. It could be interpreted as a democratic concept but, in fact, it is much more basic than that. It delivers a powerful message to the despots, and would be despots, who “strut and fret their hour upon the stage and then are heard no more’’.
To us, the Wheel is the basic structure of the mechanical world. It effectively distributes the weight of whatever it was carrying and thereby spreads the wear and tear of its movement around its circumference. Significantly our Dharma Chakra has 26 spokes, which are also the total number of scheduled languages plus the two official languages recognised by our Indian Constitution. India is, thus, the only country in the world which has reserved the right to express its ideas in 26 subtly different ways.
This amazing facility accounts for the tenacious survival of a democracy in spite of the fire and sword of invaders and the cruel depravity of the Emergency and its many subsequent clones camouflaged as elevated principles. Every Indian citizen knows how determined the Central Government is in maintaining its stand in the face of all opposition. We were, therefore, dismayed to find how easily its netas capitulated when a combined opposition decided to appropriate the word INDIA as the abbreviated title of its temporary alliance. An alliance is an association formed for a specific purpose, which is why the nations who had joined together to defeat the Axis powers in World War II called themselves the Allies. The Allies broke apart at the end of the War. Presumably, the alliance which came together for a specific purpose, expects to fall apart when that purpose has been achieved. Then why on earth must The Powers That Be rush to abandon the old and established name of our country just because a group is making temporary use of it?
The name INDIA has been used to describe our country by the ancient Greeks. The term is well over two thousand years old. It was not invented by the British or the Moghuls or any other invaders. Why, then are our Movers and Shakers so scared of the recently formed alliance using the name INDIA? Or, as some of their opponents claim, are they worried about a probe into their history? We do not believe that there are any grounds for such an assumption. It was the present government which erected the world’s tallest bronze statue to the memory of the Iron Man of India’, Sardar Vallabhai Patel. It is also an undeniable fact that Sardar Patel was a loyal Congressman to the end of his life.
So, with this towering evidence before them, it is most unlikely that the Movers and Shakers striding the corridors of power today would be scared of using the word INDIA because of the mistaken belief that it is the property of the Opposition Alliance. But then, why are they rejecting the first words of the Constitution: ‘WE THE PEOPLE OF INDIA’?
As everyone knows, it is very difficult to change the Indian Constitution. But it is very easy to pretend that you have. At which point the Wheel of Dharma Chakra will turn and what is up will start coming down.
(Hugh & Colleen Gantzer hold the National Lifetime Achievement Award for Tourism among other National and International awards. Their credits include over 52 halfhour documentaries on national TV under their joint names, 26 published books in 6 genres, and over 1,500 first-person articles, about every Indian state, UT and 34 other countries. Hugh was a Commander in the Indian Navy and the Judge Advocate, Southern Naval Command. Colleen is the only travel writer who was a member of the Travel Agents Association of India.)
