“The myth is an almost endless novel studded with numerous stories of brilliance. If it teaches or entertains, that is only a by-product. It is more like the Sun and the hills and the fruit trees; they are all a major part of our lives. The mango and the peach become our tissue; they mix with our flesh and blood. The myth is a part of a people’s tissue; it mixes with their flesh and blood. To try to rate myths as though they were lives of great men which could act as models of sublimity would be comic stupidity. Ram and Krishna and Siva are dragged down, if men try consciously to turn them into models of behaviour or thought. They are the tissue, the flesh and blood of all India”. –Dr Ram Monohar Lohia, Ram, Krishna and Shiva, July 1956
Whoever we are, dwellers of forests, hills, villages or cities, we all are Bharatvasis, was the statement made by Honourable Rashtrapati of Bharat while inaugurating the historic event of LokManthan 2024. The event, which had over fifteen hundred artists, intellectuals, activists, and policymakers gathered to review the idea of LOK – its thought, behaviour, systems, and contemporary relevance – was historic in many ways. It was not just a cultural festival but an intellectual churning to reconnect with the common roots of humanity – represented in the idea of LOK.
The event is significant not just because it was magnificently huge or dignitaries from Rashtrapati of Bharat to Sarsanghachalak of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) blessed the event. A former Vice-President and four Union Ministers also addressed the event. The message it has conveyed and the response of the participants from all walks of life from artisans and artists, Padma awardees and leading intellectuals to the call of celebrating the uniqueness of Bharatiya Lok, that transcends the present national boundaries, make the event momentous.
LokManthan has shattered the traditional binaries of folk and classical and connected them all with the inherent unity based on inclusivity, sustainability, and prosperity, all rooted in spirituality. The caste or religious identities supersede our behaviour because the colonial thought process has encouraged it, leading to the fading away of our cultural roots. What is happening in Bangladesh against Hindus is a classic example of this phenomenon. The people disconnected from the roots become inhuman and exhibit barbaric behaviour. When the colonial constructs and neo-colonial narrations are trying to present our diversities as differences and widen the existing faultlines, it becomes our duty to challenge these constructs. This message of oneness given by the LokManthan becomes all the more critical. The intellectual arrogance of the educated needs to be challenged time and again, and the wisdom of so-called illiterates needs to be internalised and cherished to face contemporary challenges. Reigniting the spirit of Lokmata Ahilyabai Holkar and Kakatiya Queen Rudrama Devi can help us achieve this goal. Our shared heritage is the idea of Ram Rajya and the ideals that our Constitution makers put forth before us while adopting and enacting the Constitution. What we need is to connect the dots and find the common linkages. That is what LokManthan is trying to do.
As the RSS Sarsanghachalak rightly pointed out, LokManthan has to be the process where the educated elites of the cities should experience the villages, hills and forests and connect with their roots. The spirit and action programme worked out at the LokManthan 2024 as ‘Lokamrut’ will not end as an event but as a new beginning to change the intellectual discourse. The movement that started with the call for decolonisation has to culminate in the process of renationalisation. This is a collective journey, and each one of us has a role to play. That is the spirit of LokManthan; that is the message of oneness.
