Vanshvaad

The zeal of the new convert is today less true of religious beliefs and truer of newly held political affiliations. This is because there are fewer religious converts in action as most of those who tend to act(and kill)  on behalf of religious faiths are not converts but mercenaries. In the case of political converts, there may be a few who do wait for the crumbs to fall from the top, but by and large their zeal is more passionate and emotional and to that extent of high voltage than out of any reasoned conclusion. A lot of Modi acolytes belong to  the order of the newly converted and their passionate panegyrics of Modi are sure to make him blush if not in public, in private at least.  One of the Sunday issues of a leading Newspaper speaks about the strikingly handsome 41inch waisted Modi because he is from handsome Gujarati male community ( Gujarati females,what aboutyou?) while another leading columnist hails him as the destructor of Vanshvaad to make the road to ‘parivartan’ easier( making poor Mamta  see ‘red’, being denied her share of  ‘paribortan politics’ despite not having a Vansh of her own a la Modi).

Vanshvaad as I understand is ‘dynastic tradition’- or in a much broader sense ‘family tradition’. There is no one born in this world that cannot claim to a family or ‘vansh’. The journalist’s praise of Modi for his battle to destroy  ‘vanshvaad’ is doing injustice to the idea of a family. But what baffles me is that we are ready to applaud destruction of ‘vansh’ because it is something undesirable and therefore to be rooted out. Dynastic tradition is a continuation of the family tradition. The Journalist seems to be myopic to limit  ‘vanshvaad’ to  Indian politics, choosing to turn a blind eye to Kennedy clan, Bush clan, Clinton clan who have carried the political torch of the family  in American politics. In fact, the destroyer of Vanshvaad had just met the Clintons who are aspiring for the Whitehouse in the next elections.

Vanshvaad in politics faces greater hurdles than in any other occupation.  It is easy for a carpenter’s son to wield the chisel with aplomb as it is for the tailor’s son to use the scissors. It is easy for the doctor’s progeny to join the father or the mother or the parents in their clinic; so is it easy for the lawyer to have his/her offspring to be called to the Bar. We have a number of great scholars and academics whose sons and daughters have made sure that their parents’ footprints are left in tact by carrying  their legacy in the university circles. Infact the journalist I have referred to has her own son followingthe mother's profession as writer-cum-journalist. There is nothing wrong to follow in the footsteps of the parents and proclaim proudly to the world that I am my father’s/mother’s son/daughter. In fact the phrase ‘a chip off the old block’ refers to someone who is similar in character, talent and skill to his father or mother.

Vanshvaad might have gained notoriety as a result of the caste system that had come to the society from the ancient days. Again this is also a partially understood concept as the original idea behind it was known as the ‘ Varna’ system in ancient India. Then the term ‘Varna’ was used for four different groups and not based on occupations and hierarchical ranking as it came to be  in the medieval period. The concept of dharma evolved in ancient India dealt with the duties assigned to each ‘Varna’  and the health of the society depended on each individual contributing in full measure to the duties and responsibilities given to him/her. But the  effect of binding some communities to inherit power, wealth  and status while denying the same to other communities resulted in the heinous caste system that had plagued and continues to plague our society, making Vanshvaad a disreputable term.

In India, this has been used ad nauseam to target some families whose scions have used to pitchfork them centrestage in the National politics. To be born of political parents is now made out to be a cardinal sin and to destroy dynasty politics is denial of democratic right to a politician’s progeny to enter politics. This is a misconceived approach because democracy provides the best safeguard by throwing out those who seek their goodwill at the hustings on the basis of inherited family reputation  without possessing merit or character.

 So to hail Modi not for his articulation nor for his honesty nor for his ideology- (one can differ from it but that does not mean there is no ideology)-but for his single minded determination to demolish vanshvaad is doing gross injustice to him. It is a pity that the Modi acolytes seem to be chanting in the same breath

All hail Modi, hail to thee

The PM of India

All hail Modi, hail to thee

The one and only face of the BJP

All hail Modi, hail to thee

 The destroyer of Vanshvaad.

Let us hope that our journalists learn to package sociology into their political discourse and not package politics into their newfound zeal for the PM.