Commentary/T V R Shenoy

The true memorial for any ruler is what s/he does when still alive -- what they do for the people

Where is the tomb of Chanakya? Can anyone tell me where Samudragupta was cremated? Is there any memorial to mark where Rajaraja Chola breathed his last?

These are but a few of the great Indians whom we revere. It doesn't take mausoleums to keep their memories alive.

Compare this with the way memorials and monuments are sprouting today. It is as if politicians, or their followers, know their achievements were so few (if any!) that people need concrete reminders.

A gigantic slice of the Yamuna waterfront in Delhi has been appropriated by the Nehru-Gandhis -- Jawaharlal, Indira, Rajiv, and Sanjay. That is in addition to Teen Murti Bhavan, the Indira Gandhi Memorial at 10, Safdarjang Road, and other pieces of prime real estate.

The Congress is now making a determined attempt to encroach on temple land at Sriperumbudur, on the grounds that Rajiv Gandhi died there. That land is sacred, dedicated to the saint Ramanuja. It was bad enough that a compliant administration allowed a political meeting to be held there. Should the error be compounded?

Nor is it just the Nehru-Gandhi who are the major beneficiaries. Adjoining the bungalow occupied by Sonia Gandhi is another giant piece of property. A board identifies it as the Lal Bahadur Shastri Smriti. But have you ever tried to buy a ticket to enter?

Or how about the Babu Jagjivan Trust, yet another bungalow which is a stone's throw away from the Central Secretariat complex? If this keeps up Delhi will be reduced to a gigantic graveyard.

If the Congress is the worst offender, it isn't the only one. The Telugu Desam, the party of United Front convenor Chandrababu Naidu, is trying to grab a park to construct a memorial to N T Rama Rao.

Mercifully, a group of concerned citizens have taken up the cause. They feel, quite rightly, that their children would be better served by the wide green acres of a park, not the barren concrete of a tomb to departed greatness.

Better still, the Andhra Pradesh high court has stepped in. Chandrababu Naidu has been prevented from making political capital of the father-in-law he overthrew.

Why is it that such memorials always seem to be on the most expensive real estate? How expensive is it?

Recently, there was a dispute over a single house on Aurangzeb Road in central Delhi, currently the Israeli embassy. The Supreme Court of India valued this property at not less than Rs 500 million!

Please understand that this house is far smaller than 10, Safdarjung Road, where Indira Gandhi was shot. That in turn is only a fraction of sprawling Teen Murti Bhavan.

The Bofors scandal, as everyone remembers, was caused by a pay-off of Rs 640 million. Here we are talking of a waste of several hundreds of millions. Yet nobody is remotely concerned.

How, when, and where did this grave-worship begin? It has no sanction in ancient Indian tradition. True, some texts cite veneration of Shiva-Shakti as Shamshaan Rudra and Shamshaan Tara! But even so it was the gods who were being worshipped, certainly not mortals.

Nor does Islam in its purest form permit any such thing. In fact, in Hejaz, the land of Mecca and Medina, it is specifically prohibited. The kings of Arabia are interred in secret places, so that nobody worships at their tombs.

Did it then begin in the West? Scarcely! The Kremlin has housed every ruler of Russia since it was built in 1156. 10, Downing Street has been the home of British prime ministers since 1721, the White House that of American presidents from 1799. Nobody has suggested making a monument of them.

Yes, Mt Vernon in the US is a museum to George Washington. But that was a private house, one which his heirs gave to the nation. Just as Indira Gandhi presented Anand Bhavan in Allahabad. (Why was it necessary to dedicate Teen Murti Bhavan as well?)

No, this idiocy is nothing to do with Hinduism, or Islam, or Christianity. Let us lay the blame where it belongs the perverted 'secularism' -- that is the legacy of Lenin.

It was in Communist Russia that Lenin's mummified body was set up for grotesque rituals in an ugly mausoleum. (Though Stalin had enough sense to retain the Kremlin!)

It has been steadily downhill from there. Wherever the deadening hand of socialism appeared, tombs sprouted on public land -- in China, Korea, and, of course, India.

I really couldn't care less for the waste of land in Beijing or Pyongyang. But I would hate to see India's cities die.

The true memorial for any ruler is what he or she does when still alive -- what they do for the people. If an Ashoka or an Akbar is revered, it isn't for an Iron Pillar or a tomb at Sikandra.

I hope and pray that the Andhra Pradesh high court breaks new ground in the NTR Memorial litigation. It's time to halt the trend of encroachment in the name of the dead. And, perhaps, even time to start a little land reclamation?!

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