Passion to be a moral power by Indian elite class made, Indo-Pak wars, indo-china war of 1962 still baiting Indians with the nightmare of idealism.
- Keerthiraj
Mahabharata
is the world’s largest and great Indian epic containing 1.8 million words. It
is no exaggeration that, Mahabharata is ten times the combined length of the
Iliad and Odyssey and three times the length of the Bible. Its grandeur is not
only limited to mere size, as it is the fusion of Indian mythology, history,
philosophy and political theory. Today’s world famous 'Bhagavad Gita' is also a
gift of Mahabharata written by Vyasa. According to the historians Mahabharata
represent incidents during the time period of tenth century BC to eighth
century BC and then evolved with time. In spite of controversies regarding
Vyasa’s Mahabharata, no one can disagree with the fact that Mahabharata is a
replica of political, social, cultural foundations of India.
A number of episodes, the mysterious
characters and the secrets hidden in every scene, made it complex and at the
same time interesting. Struggle for power between Pandavas and Kauravas, the two
branches of Kuru clan occupies central part of the epic. Pandu, younger brother
of Dritharastra was crowned due to blindness of Dritharastra. Later,
Duryodhana, son of Dritharastra, claims the crown based on he is the son of
elder brother Dritharastra. On the other hand another claim is to make Udhistira,
eldest son of Pandu, as a king because he is the eldest among Kauravas and
Pandavas. This debate got terminated at the end of the Kurukshetra battlefield,
where Pandavas emerged victorious after destroying all the Kauravas.
Absolutely we have a reason to
remember Mahabharata today. When it comes to political tactics or war strategy,
the whole world including Indians remember Sun Tzu or Machiavelli. "Aa no bhadra kratavo yantu visvatah”
worth repeating as there is no wrong in receiving useful ideas from all over
the world. But the wrong thing is to attributing only one side i.e. the
idealism of Nehru and Gandhi to identify India in global politics. We neglected
the wonderful insights contributed by the great epic towards statesmanship.
Mahabharata offers three different personalities who symbolize idealism along
with power politics. Firstly, Krishna, the avatar purush and brother in law of
Pandavas. Secondly, Shakuni, uncle of the Kauravas. Thirdly, Bhishmacharya, the
Pitamaha of the entire Kuru clan.
Indian leaders, both pre-independent
and post independent era, neglected the national interest of India while giving
high importance to idealism. Indian leaders were so interested to showcase
their idealism and failed to track enemy's insidious tactics against our
national security. Passion to be a moral power by Indian elite class made,
Indo-Pak wars, indo-china war of 1962 still baiting Indians with the nightmare
of idealism. Even if you go back to history we can find how idealism hurt
India’s national interest. Prathviraj Chauhan defeated Muhammad Ghori in the
first battle of Tarain and granted amnesty to Ghori on moral grounds. But the
very next year, in 1192, Ghori defeated and killed Prathviraj in the second
battle of Tarain. Ghori established his influence on India. You may respect Prithviraj
Chauhan, as an ideal person on moral grounds, but he failed as a king and
statesman in his duty and failed to protect the security of his nation and
citizens. Even in Mahabharata Udhistira stands as a symbol of idealism. Even
Arjuna to some extent showed this unique weakness during war. Krishna
understood it is impossible to win the war, with Pandavas practicing idealism.
So Krishna guided Pandavas to follow Yudda Dharma (Duty of a warrior) rather
than idealistic restrictions. We can see contradictions between moral values
and Yudda Dharma when Krishna used the Drona’s affection over his son, Karna’s
love towards his mother Kunti. Of course these dilemmas never go away. They
just reappear in different forms. Many people never learn to manage these
dilemmas. Krishna, not as a Godly avatar, but as a shrewd statesman managed
these dilemmas in a right way.
India defeated Pakistan in several
wars. But still we have border problems because of a war neutral and soft
policy followed by India to maintain its status as a moral power. India's
non-violent ways of solving problems through diplomatic shuffle of politics,
are appreciable. But in world power politics we can’t expect the success of nonviolence
without a backing by shrewd diplomacy and statesmanship. The great epic showed
Udhistira’s idealism shined only under the light of Krishna’s Statesmanship.
Here I remember Shakespeare’s lines "I must be cruel only to be
kind". Mahabharata is the evidence that this principle is well known in
India even before centuries. “Everything is right in war and love” is not a new
thing in Indian context. In this way Mahabharata has lot more in its stake to
contribute towards present Indian politics. Mahabharata can be a panacea to
most of the social and political problems of current India. With a lot of new
dynamics in world politics, I think it is the right time to remember
Mahabharata, while framing both domestic and foreign policy of India.
KEERTHIRAJ (krj492@gmail.com)
· Currently serving as a Faculty for International Relations and Political Science at Alliance University, Bangalore.
(This article was published in Central Chronicle newspaper on 10 April 2016)
