The Bhishma Pitamah Syndrome and ifs of course of history…

Looking at the history of India you see a single course running across centuries; the Bhisma Syndrome..

 

Bhishm means terrible oath. An oath so terrible that it had the capability of changing the course of history.

So the first instance was when Devavrata, son of Ganga and Shantanu (the then reigning king of Kuru) took an oath, a terrible oath, to remain celibate lifelong and serve the throne of Kuru for his whole like. This oath he took to make sure his dad could marry his old age love, a nubile fisher woman.

This terrible oath was like an agreement which you sign with someone (usually a VC) which closes all the doors for you. He was:

·         To be celibate (so no risk of progeny to sway the mind in future)

·         The fiercest and strongest fighter (one who defeated Parshuram) was to be free of cost body guard of empire.

·         The keenest political mind at service for all time.

Now this not necessary as Bhishma was capable enough to get a woman by force for his purposes. He did exactly that to get his two younger step brothers married. He could have just brought this woman for his dad. Anyways but this oath appealed to psyche of our ancestors. The mark of greatness was:

1.       Ability to spurn power.

2.       Beyond the trappings of wealth, family and woman; the so called trappings of Maya.

And since then India just lost brilliant leaders, rulers and men of exceptional capability who could have changed the course of history.

Imagine Ganga Putra as the King of India. Such a powerful man who would have united India and beyond, laid foundation of development and cultural growth. Beyond speculation India would have avoided such an expensive and huge war called Maha Bharat.

Lets come to now modern India. Gandhi Ji suffered from same syndrome. I propose that he was a man who had complete moral authority, control and position to give India a new direction. Only thing he had to take power in his hand in terms of ruling India post independence. But he wanted to be above this. If he had said that for five years I would be prime minister (a la Mandela, although in hindsight) he would have kept India so united. Jinnah would have been made the president of India. A man driven by ego would have listened to Gandhi and would have felt proud to be first citizen of India. Symbolically a community, so alienated today, would have felt proud. Nehru would have been in his elements as brilliant foreign minister.

The economic thought of Gandhi focusing on grass roots and making populace self sufficient would have put a foundation which would have eased into industrialization. Gandhi Ji just had to make sure that the country was one. And with his moral authority and leaders like Maulana Azad, Semmant Gandhi it would if not a cake walk, but an easy task. Imagine the possibilities it would have ushered today. A country so vast. Resources at its disposal. Today the world would have been talking about India and not China. Most of political troubles we are saddled with today (From Kashmir, to Fundamentalism, to border issues) would not have been there. Religion was sorted. Only thing to tackle would have been un-equality of caste and economy. We would have easily done away with that as the real issues would have been those two and not so many fissures we have. Sangh would never had taken off and neither would have other fundamental parties.

Also imagine the cricket team India would have had. J

And this syndrome was repeated again. JP.

I wish this syndrome was not the cornerstone of our cultural psyche.