Elephants, Lord Ganesha and the Indian Independence Movement

Ganesh Festival, Bombay 1987

I remember it like it was yesterday.  It was 1987 and we had just arrived in Bombay (as it was then) around 5 weeks into my first sojourn into India.  By this point we were probably a slightly sorry looking and certainly grubby group of 3.  Goodness knows what the staff thought when we decided to ‘splash out’ and have tea in the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel (costing the equivalent of 50p each at the time I recall – which seemed extortionate compared to what we were used to paying).  I definitely felt very out of place among the other guests: women looking immaculate in beautiful shalwar kameez or saris in stark contrast to my very worn jeans and T-shirt.

Unplanned by us, we had arrived just in time for the annual Ganesha festival.  The streets were full of people dancing, throwing red powdered paint everywhere and statues of Ganesha being paraded down towards the beach.  Chowpatty beach was filled with people taking the clay Ganesha statues down to the sea, to float away and dissolve back into the water – symbolically representing the cycle of creation and destruction. So sad to think of that same location – including the Taj Mahal Hotel – in 2008 being the scene of an horrific terrorist attack, killing at least 167 people.

Elephants feature prominently in our household.  My son is mad about elephants - he insisted the website logo had to include an elephant.  Our house has many elephants but one large cuddly elephant called Peanuts (who made his way via Ikea) seems to dominate.  But woe betide anyone who says he is a cuddly and not a real elephant.  For Peanuts (my son loves stories and has a fertile imagination) eats millions of peanuts every day (and only peanuts) and robs banks all round the world to fund his peanut consumption.  He leaves his clone in place in the house while he is away so it looks as though he is still there.  Nothing I say can dissuade him from robbing banks (a criminal activity, very wrong, police will be onto him etc.) – surely the real cause of the world’s economic crisis.  Recently Peanuts pronounced himself King of Elephants – then decided he was not only King, but also the God of elephants, at which point I said I would call him Ganesha since there is only one elephant God.  Such is the rich imaginary world of life with a 12 year old.

Last Saturday we decided to make use of Susen’s British Museum membership and have a look at the Viking exhibition currently on.  The exhibition was busy and we were given timed tickets, with 20 minutes to wait.  After our thali lunch at Masala Zone, it was perfect timing to have a look round the small (free) Ganesha exhibition that was also on.

Rather frustratingly, the exhibition had been sponsored by the Japanese Asahi Shimbun Company (a major national newspaper in Japan), instead of Indian sponsorship – which seemed slightly incongruous.  There were several images of Ganesha including one contemporary picture of Ganesha with a cricket bat - which made me smile, also a shrine to Ganesha and a short video about the manufacture of statues of Ganesha.  To the uninitiated, I have to say it does seem quite bizarre worshipping an elephant God – not to mention a clay statue of an elephant God.  Through my own medium of Buddhism, however, I can relate to it in terms of what that figure is representing.  So a Buddhist might bow down before a rupa or statue of a Buddha, symbolising the aspiration or worship of the ideal of Enlightenment.  In the same way, Ganesha in Hinduism is said to represent wisdom and the remover or creator of obstacles and this is what is worshipped.

The video showing the hand crafting of the statues was fascinating.  First a mould has to be made by covering a statue with latex.  This mould once dry is then filled (by hand it seems) with a mixture of clay and a straw-like material.  When set, the latex mould is removed and the idol is then painted by hand[1].

The exhibition also featured a section on Bal Gangadhar Tilak – also known as  Lokamanya Tilak – an Indian Nationalist Leader.   Born in 1856 in British India, as it was then, he was a journalist, social reformer, lawyer and early prominent leader and activist for Indian Independence.  It was Tilak who started the worship of Ganesha as a public festival – known as Ganesh Chaturthi.  The British had banned Indians holding large gatherings for political purposes, with an exception for religious festivals.  By promoting the worship of Lord Ganesha at a well-organised public event Lokamanya Tilak could bring people together and promote nationalism under the guise of a religious festival – a festival still celebrated long after India gained its independence.

Time then for the Vikings and a whole different story – and one that almost certainly made up some of my ancestry - with family roots in Scotland, North of England and Denmark.  Then a cup of tea and home.

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[1] This hand crafting has, apparently, been overtaken in some parts by a more mass production of idols using Plaster of Paris, leading to environment problems.  Heavy metals used in the production were leading to water contamination, together with accumulation on the sea or river bed of non-biodegradable parts of the statue.  The local authorities have been trying to encourage original clay moulds only, or non-destructible statues that are only symbolically immersed in water and then re-used.