By Omar Rashid / The Wire
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 12 remembered medieval-era Bhakti poet Sant Ravidas for his “courage” and “patriotism” during the Mughal period when, according to Modi, Indian society grappled with “assaults on its faith” and attempts to “erase its identity.”
Modi made the remarks after launching several projects in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh. It included him laying the foundation stone of a memorial dedicated to Ravidas, a poet and philosopher who stood against institutionalised caste hierarchy.
Modi performed the bhoomi pujan (rituals for the consecration of the grounds) for the Sant Shiromani Gurudev Shri Ravidas ji Memorial at an event in Sagar, a district located in the Bundelkhand region of the state.
Ravidas is revered by a large number of Dalits, especially in northern states such as Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. The Bundelkhand region of MP, consisting of seven districts, has a Dalit population much above the state average of 15.6% (as per the 2011 Census). Thus the building pf memorials and the promotion of popular Dalit icons has over the years emerged as a strategy of the Bharatiya Janata Party to woo voters.
In Sagar, which has a Dalit population of over 21%, Modi evoked a popular couplet of Ravidas which speaks against the idea of “paradheenta” or dependence and connected it with present India’s spirit of rejecting the “mentality of slavery.”
“Paradheenta paap hai, jaan lehu re meet. Raidas paradheen sau, kaun kare hain preet.”
Roughly translated, it means: dependency is a big sin and those who accept it and do not take a stand against it are not loved by anybody.
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