We like to put names to major transitionary movements in India; Mahatma Gandhi for the independence of India, Mohammad Ali Jinnah for the birth of Pakistan, Sardar Patel for the unification of the Princely States, M.S. Swaminathan takes the Green Revolution, Manmohan Singh nabs economic liberalization – and Narendra Modi takes whatever it is that is happening now.
It seems as if personalities, and not institutions, have been sweeping change across the subcontinent. But such a view would be to buy into the myth of the personality. The Indian personality cult is all-pervasive – and has been here for a while.
It’s in a leader’s best interest to cultivate legends around themselves. Such was the idea of the rulers of the Delhi Sultanate, whose court musicians wrote reams of verse praising their achievements, writing of them in such terms as if they were lovers. The father of Urdu poetry in India, Amir Khusrao, was one such musician. “Chaap Tilak” is an undoubtedly beautiful classic of the Qawwali tradition (covered by popular artists even today). It’s a wonderful poem of yearning and romantic surrender – until the words “Oh Nizam” interject themselves in the verse. That’s when you know who the poem is written for.
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