The earliest evidence of the use of Sengol is found in the Maurya Empire (322 to 185 BC). Chandragupta Maurya, with the help of Chanakya, defeated Ghanananda and formed the first people’s government. Before Ghanananda, nepotism and racism were prevalent in India, the eldest son of the king was made the king, no matter how unfit, cruel, and luxurious he might be.
Minister Chanakya feared that because of the administrative reforms, the ways of corruption in the cabinet had been closed, they might start inciting the public to make Ghanananda’s descendant the king. Due to the above fear, Chanakya suggested the establishment of a scepter in the form of Sengol, later it became a long-standing tradition in India till the arrival of the Mughals.
Sengol was a symbol of the fact that governance is not the personal property of a person, and it cannot be transferred to his son like the right of property. The power of the king was established in this symbolic sceptre, and after this, every member of the council of ministers, including Emperor Chandragupta and Chanakya, realised that their interests were not above the national interests; they were employees of the Government just like other common citizens of the state. The law of the state will oppress them in the same way as it does to any common citizen.
Historical evidence proves that the tradition of dynasty ended completely in India after the rule of Chandragupta. Physically and mentally advanced children were taught in Gurukul along with the children of the royal family and the student who was superior in knowledge and skills was declared by the king as his son and successor.
There is evidence of the use of Sengol in the Vijayanagara Empire (1336 to 1646 AD), but the last evidence of this is found in Tamil culture, where the influence of the Mughal Empire reached last.
Who does not know about the intense nepotism of the Mughals, they became enemies of their brothers and fathers for the sake of royal power. For a long time, due to nepotism in the Mughal Sultanate and then the British rule, we almost forgot the importance of Sengol.
During the colonial period of India, nepotism and dynasty politics had become so rampant that during the revolution of 1857, the people of India readily made Bahadur Shah Zafar their leader because he was a descendant of the Mughals, even though neither his age nor his qualifications were worthy of that.
The Mughal period was that dark chapter of Indian history in which dynasty and family politics got the most protection. When the son of a king would become a king, then who was to stop the son of a trader from becoming a trader and the son of a pandit from becoming a pandit?
India’s Varna system changed from being based on karma to being based on birth. When caste and social discrimination arose in India, the reason for it was the emperor’s love for his son.
The British were adamant about destroying India and leaving it in the same state where the British Empire was established. On the other side was Nehru, who had the ambition of running an independent India like the Nehru Empire.
He wanted to bring back the old tradition of his dynasty ruling after him, but due to the democratic beliefs of Ambedkar, Gandhi, Patel, etc., none of his moves were possible.
If a dynasty was not possible, then Mahatma Gandhi’s support was very important to win the election democratically. There is direct evidence of the fact that Nehru tried his best to become Gandhi’s adopted son but was not successful.
After Gandhi’s death, Nehru got Feroze Ghandi’s surname changed to Gandhi by scheming. This proved to be an innovative experiment by Nehru’s family to win elections in the dynastic tradition. Today, even educated people have a misconception that the current successors of the Congress are related to Mahatma Gandhi.
On the first day of independent India, the ardent nationalist Rajagopalachari urged Nehru to restore democratic values and reinstate the inherent powers of the Prime Minister in Sengol and to consider himself a servant of the Government, but Nehru politely declined the above request. He kept the Sengol as a personal gift in the museum built in his residence.
The above controversies in the context of Sengol are revealed in the book of Megasthenes – Indica, the literature of the Mughal and British Empire, and the newspapers of the time of independence. Even today, the Sengoal is stuck like a thorn in the throat of those politicians who are running their parties like private limited companies.
