COUNTER CULTURE | Why do we want to militarise our gods?
1 year, 2 months ago

COUNTER CULTURE | Why do we want to militarise our gods?

The Hindu  

Published : Oct 05, 2023 11:00 IST - 6 MINS READ As the monsoon recedes with a thunderous clap, Khetwadi, a neighbourhood in South Mumbai, bursts into a chaotic celebratory din signalling the start of the Ganesh Chaturthi festivities. This is one edition of the idealised vision that Bal Gangadhar Tilak had in the late 19th century, to usher in a Sarvajanik Ganesh Utsav by using large statues of Ganesha that would, as Robert L. Brown writes, bridge “the gap between Brahmins and non-Brahmins” and present a unified Hindu front against the colonial powers who had banned large public assemblies because of political anxiety. In his book Muscular India: Masculinity, Mobility & The New Middle Class, Michiel Baas writes about how, in the past decade, “the lean, muscular, ideal body type has emerged among middle-class Indian men” thanks to Shah Rukh Khan’s ab-reveal in the song “Dard-e-Disco”, Aamir Khan’s sculpted look in Ghajini, and the launch of the Indian edition of Men’s Health magazine. Every year, the Durga Puja pandals are photographed and archived, the images carted around the Internet, not just for their ingenuousness but also for their beauty. Take, for example, the Van Gogh Durga last year, the smudged swirls of Gogh’s painterly strokes recreated by pressing reams of rolled cloth next to each other.

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