Oscars: Tale of Two ‘Best Pictures’; Oppenheimer-Gandhi: Love and Disdain Shared by Both Individuals -- By Nilesh M Shukla

 Oscar Awards for 2024 were announced on 10th March. ‘Oppenheimer’ won 7 Oscars including the ‘Best Picture’ award. It certainly deserved it. 41 years ago, on 11th April 1983, ‘Gandhi’ won 11 Oscars including the ‘Best Picture’. And certainly it too deserved it.

Curiously  contrasted personalities they both were! One “Father of Atomic Bomb '' and another “Apostle of Non-Violence and Peace”! And yet, their stories made it to earn ‘Best Picture’ Oscar. However unusual it may appear, when you deep dive into the real life of these two seemingly opposite poles, they stand out in sharing exactly the same object of love and exactly the same class of people who disliked them. A duo, otherwise so vastly diverse that bracketing them together is nothing short of blatant oxymoronic pairing.

Posters of Blockbuster Oscar ‘Best Picture’ winners and images of books on the Bhagavad Gita. Its  text is considered a holy scripture by about a Billion Hindus of the world. It is even considered by many thinkers as a Bible of humankind because it does not profess any religious rituals but merely consists of a dialogue about life, about way to  think and conduct. It is just a small book consisting of 700 verses in Sanskrit language and takes less than 180 minutes to chant/read them. It has charmed and captivated many brilliant minds; Ralph W Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Annie Beasant, Carl Jung, Aldous Huxley, T S Eliot, Romain Roland etc to name a few.

Among the most celebrated scenes of the film 'Oppenheimer' the two are prominent; the bedroom scene and other, the detonation scene. In both, the father of the atomic bomb, J Robert Oppenheimer is seen quoting from the Bhagavad Gita. The same Bhagavad Gita, something in which the apostle of peace, aka the champion of nonviolence, Mahatma Gandhi is equally invested. He is in fact famous for commentary on it (The Gospel of Selfless Action or The Gita According to Gandhi, By Mahatma Gandhi, compilation of his 1926 discourses, published by Navajivan Publication House). The sacred Sanskrit language scripture, the Bhagavad Gita, unites an American scientist and an Indian lawyer! 

These both remarkable individuals did share exactly the same suspicion from their respective governments. The Government of America headed by president Harry Truman suspected Oppenheimer to be a communist and at worst, a suspected traitor who shared classified info. His disdain for the physicist becomes apparent when he not only calls him a “crybaby” but also instructs staff to keep him away from the White House. On their part, the British colonial government of India, headed by Queen Elizabeth II was deeply suspicious of Gandhi due his agenda for freedom of India. Her Prime Minister, Winston Churchill never hid his disdain for him. In a file related to reports on the Bengal Famine, he penned down his disappointment in his own handwriting, “Gandhi is still alive” dismissing that there was a famine, thus exhibiting guttural disdain for the Indian Freedom Fighter and utter disregard to 3 million Indians who died of starvation due to British administrative order that had created 1943 Bengal Famine, bearing a uniquely dubious distinction of being the only one known in history as the “man-made famine”. (Order of the British government to ship away 100% of all grains produced in the fertile lands of India, not leaving anything for Indians to eat. Churchill was so recklessly indifferent to crippling famine that when an Australian ship with relief supplies docked at Kolkata port, it was blatantly ordered not to unload and was diverted to Europe)

Besides suffering suspicion and hatred from their governments, they both also stand out together in suffering the very same rejections by the one very same organization, the Nobel Prize Foundation of Sweden and its member organizations that select Nobel laureates. The Physicist Oppenheimer was nominated 3 times for the Nobel, in 1945, 1951 and 1967 but was rejected every time. The Leader of the Non-Violent Freedom Struggle, Gandhi was nominated 5 times, in 1937, 1938, 1939, 1947 and in 1948 and rejected each time. (However, to be fair to the Nobel committee, much later in 1999, the Nobel Prize Organization did realize their error of judgment and published an apologetic admission under the title of “Mahatma Gandhi, the missing laureate” at:  https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/themes/mahatma-gandhi-the-missing-laureate/  )

Oppenheimer deployed atomic energy as a weapon. Mahatma Gandhi deployed the peace instinct of humans as a weapon. Stark opposites. That this unusual duo could still merge at several places does transform a true oxymoronic into a curious non-oxymoronic pair, with shared admirers and haters in equal measures and makes it a curious tale of two films. 

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Canadian First Nation Peoples, Gazing into Future, Paganism is Way Forward 4-Part Essay by Nilesh M Shukla

 Part 1 

The government of Canada has taken many steps to reassure and encourage communities of the First Nations. This has been widely acknowledged by the indigenous community. Any average Canadian, who may not be a member of the First Nations,is also sympathetic and happy to help out. This is indicative of a mature, emphatic and understanding society. It helps a violated and a disadvantaged community to feel wanted and move from despair to a future of hope, achievements and fulfilment. 

Indeed, some measures of hand holding, out-of-turn opportunities at education, employment, housing, business etc can and should be fine, until the First Nations gain enough confidence to feel that they no longer need. But in the long run, what seemed welcome at one stage has a potential to turn toxic and damaging. In the long run the handouts and freebies end up harming that very same community. However, going forward, The First Nations people would need to rediscover the unique life force that they once possessed before they were rudely disturbed upon arrival of not-so-friendly sailors, soldiers, settlers and merchants onboard modern ships from the other end of the Atlantic since the early sixteenth Century. 

The Canadian First Nations became the victims of the overseas settlers. A large number  of unsuspecting innocent First Nations people were mowed down by gunpowder and the rest were ‘eliminated’ using every other dark trick. Settlers proved to be insensitive and cruel exploiters. However what is different for the First Nations as compared to indigenous folks of  the world is that some of the Canadian indigenous communities have still survived somehow. In part, thanks to the European merchants who collaborated with them in harvesting fur and the lack of appetite of Europeans in acquiring the frozen inhospitable lands of Canada.

Therefore, the surviving First Nations could still tell us the tale that Vikings, Celts, Pagans, Heathens, Polytheists, Germanic Tribes etc in Europe could not. Those ancient Europeans had completely and totally perished along with their language, history, gods, rituals and culture. What has remained of them are some archaeological ruins in the form of Stonehenge, some artefacts in the museums and caricatured Santa Claus and Halloween. Probably the same fate awaited First Nations in Canada too. 

However, just when everything was about to be lost, the wheels of fortune turned and a few members of the First Nations could survive, albeit just a bit. As a consequence of general progress in transport, communications and education levels, the world over, and especially the renaissance in Europe gave birth to a whole new kind of thinking generation. They were liberal and open minded elites who did not share pride in an inherited aristocracy but in liberal art, culture and fresh thinking. This development saved some of the First Nations people.

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Part 2 

Come the nineteenth and twentieth century, some of the Europeans and Americans became a little disillusioned by what they saw happening in the name of religion in the churches around them. Apart from dogmatic dictates and the moral and financial corruption, they discovered the ugly history of systematic annihilation of Pagans, everywhere in the world. They saw how the innocent word ‘Pagan’ was made into a derogatory term and made to mean “Devil worshippers”. It was beyond them to reconcile the reverence for nature and for one's own ancestors with an evil term as “Devil-worship”. Europeans were cleverly gaslighting the divinity of paganism as devilishness. They soon discovered deceit and moral degradation of so-called ‘civilised’ under the cloak of their make-believe ‘love’ and ‘empathy’.  These modern men, whose conscience was stirred up, went ahead to discover roots and religions of the pagans. Many of those began their own churches with their own Pagan Gods, Deities, Symbols and rituals, taking cue from still-alive practices. This movement is still in a budding stage but surely, it has aroused a fresh thinking.

Not so much in the twentieth century, but currently in the twenty first century, these ‘new’ Pagan religions suddenly became more relevant as the world witnessed the consequences of thoughtless destruction and exploitation of nature, what is popularly known as “Global Warming” and “Climate Change”.

The First Nations of Canada, just like every other indigenous ancient people of the world, worshipped nature. The Rain, Shine, Spring, Sowing, Harvest, Forays into Seas, Solstices and Equinoxes were celebration times. The Earth, Lands, Mountains, Seas, Rivers, Ponds, Trees,Forests, Sun, Moon etc were respectfully considered their objects of reverence, they were gods, friends, brothers, sisters, mother or father. They spoke with respect to them and gratefully thanked them for the bounties they bestowed. The nature-deities responded kindly to them. So called shamans, interpreted them. Misuse of natural resources was immoral, an insult or a sin. 

The, Celts, Vikings, Germanic Pagans, Red Indians, Mayans, Incas, Slav Pagans, Russian Pagans, South-East-Asian Forest dwellers, etc. either disappeared completely or just barely survived, accepting what crumbs of bread were thrown to them by the conquerors and survived by submitting to them, even aping their tormentor’s customs and languages, hoping to garnish their reluctant sympathy. In Canada, the First Nations too were brutalised. It was beyond the trusting-type   innocent indigenous communities to even comprehend the minds of settlers who apparently had no mercy. It was physically impossible to defeat them using the elementary weaponry that they had. They were completely helpless.

They, who studied histories and anthropology of the First Nations in Canada wrote their impressions, some perhaps even inadvertently, with biases and languages that they had brought with them from Europe. Their biases and languages could not truely express the history, folklore, religious prayers and the spirituality behind invoking the nature-deities. However unfortunate as it is, we have to depend today on those ill-translated European-language “scholarly researched” documents and books. 

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Part 3 

Current anthropologies, histories, geographies and folklores concerning the Canadian First Nations have indeed been written after a painstaking study of still surviving as well as long dead First Nation communities. 

Notwithstanding its immense value, a keen reader with an analytical eye, would not miss that none is seriously appreciative of the life force that kept the community alive and kicking for centuries before the arrival of ‘civilised’ Europeans. In addition, due to limitations of their language and biases inherent to their cultural, their ‘scholarship’ has given rise to make-belief anthropology, poorly translated prayers, watered-down importance of what is otherwise a worship that treasures nature, promotes vital relationships between people, family-members, reinforces belongingness to nature etc. That the people can actually ‘listen’ to or ‘talk’ to lakes, rivers, seas, mountains, trees, fish, birds etc was just a silly joke to them. Communicating with ancestors is just some mumbo-jumbo to them. Everything related to Pagan is myth, their living experience as superstition or silly. 

As hardly any account is written from a perspective of a practising Pagan, the current literature has given rise to a twisted understanding of the indigenous culture. The potential benefit the world was to accrue from the First Nations is lost in ‘civilising’ them. In fact there are many things that the First Nations can teach us, the so-called ‘modern men’. That, if encouraged, the First Nations can be an influential, powerful ally in our current conundrum of fight against Climate Disasters, Forest Fires, Flash Floods and melting of Glaciers in the North, is but overlooked.

Most of the available literature on the Canadian First Nations gives a sense of utter despondency. Yes, it does arouse sympathy for loss suffered by the First Nations as a community but, significantly, it does not evoke the respect that they deserve as a nature-loving, nature-worshipping, sensitive civilization. In addition to the despondency filled literature, another set of literature has recently come up that celebrates success of some members of the First Nations, who could ‘succeed’ by aping the ways of erstwhile tormentors. Thus, in a nutshell, even the newer genre of books encourages abandoning ancestral practices. 

The blame-game is usually an exercise in futility and even counter-productive. Therefore, those who wish to uplift the community may look at interesting options. Studies of factors that help the healthy development of societies suggest what is needed by  the one who wants not only to survive, but meaningfully progress and be happy and fulfilled.

Generous handouts or obligatory-courtesy-job and education is certainly needed in the beginning, but that is half the solution. What is really needed is a sense of purpose, an objective, before that person, not just ‘an’ objective but a ‘glorious’ one. It can not be synthetic but should be something organically inherent to them.

Is there a grand objective for the First Nations even possible? 

 

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Part 4 

There does exist a glorious objective as natural as what water is to a fish, hidden in plain sight, that could transform the First Nations society and maintain their unique identity.

It is simple, natural and it works. Return to the roots. Reclaim that potent ancestral nature worship, lead the green movement and embrace that profoundly far-reaching Paganism. 

The First Nations could perhaps take a path which some European and American brethren have taken. They began to develop an understanding of nature-worship of forefathers and became proud inheritors of ancestral Paganism.

Like a Phoenix, the Canadian First Nations could rise to a live and kicking community shored up by clasping ancestral wisdom. Recently, the Prime Minister of Greece, Mr. Kyriakos Mitsotakis, was spotted coining the term for it, The “Ancestral Intelligence” during Raisina Dialogues, an international platform of discussions, mimicking a more popular term “Artificial Intelligence”. No mainstream thinkers have given any consideration to rebuilding the indigenous culture based on the fundamentals of the innate culture of indigenous people.

The First Nations community, standing on their own feet, proudly facing the modern world can become a major contributor to the multi-cultural society of Canada instead of getting remembered in the literature as random creators of totem-poles, Inukshuks and  perhaps in the museums across the world with their artefacts as pieces days of bygone cultures or as pieces of decoration on the fireplaces of the homes of wealthy.

The current religious thought prevalent among the majority population is sworn against “Paganism”. Head-wind can be anticipated from them while reclaiming paganism. But they can not be faulted as they were roped into Paganism-hating-clubs, well before they even learnt to walk. They take it as their religious duty to destroy paganism and to ‘save’ the people from going to ‘hell’ and enduring ‘suffering’. Same is true for “Loyalists” elks.

Pride in going back to basics, going back to nature, reverently worshipping nature and the ancestors, could make a positive contribution to the First Nations psychology and wellbeing and consequently to the Canadian Society as a whole. Anthropologists, and other specialists in the matter of First Nations have defined the problems and solutions of the indigenous communities by “their” lens, “their” bias and in “their” language. A relook is necessary to understand the First Nations through their indigenous Pagan lens.

While European neo-paganism followers had to create their own new ways of rituals, the First Nations of Canada are lucky that they still know some of their rituals and therefore it is easier for them to reclaim their heritage. Indeed they can exchange notes with American and European new Pagans, such as Heathenry, Asatru, Wicca, Feraferia, Odinic Rite, Nova Roma, etc.or other Pagans of Orient, the still active and alive Hindus, Zoarastrians, Kurds, Droids etc. Pagan cultures have found profound learning from Nature. Nature knows only to give. It does not take. It gives everyone, the Sun does not discriminate between people. My Gods, treat everyone equally. Let's show some reverence.

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Letter from Canada: Modi’s Temple Opening in Ayodhya. Why is it a big deal?

What India’s Modi did on 22th January 2024, was predictably flashed on Canadian TV Channels variously as “Opening of controversial Hindu temple” or as a vote-bank-promoting tool ahead of the upcoming general election “using the elaborate consecration ceremony to lobby the country's Hindu majority” etc. remarks. Other media, known for towing similar lines, BBC, NYT, WP, DW, AJ, etc too maintained their characteristic hostile stance. 

While all those observations are neither correct nor legit and at best misleading half truths, the reporters and journos could benefit themselves by considering what really it is that has resulted in unprecedented, unseen, frenzy around opening. There is something more at play. It is political but in a different sense. After opening, Modi announced from the podium: “the occasion marks the beginning of a new era”. Many share his sentiment across the globe. Besides political fallout for India and the world, it has opened a vast curiosity among thinkers and even the general public all over the world. Everyone has begun wondering as to what has triggered an excitement, almost a frenzy all around inside and outside India? More than 100 flights, 40 of them chartered, have landed in the morning that day in a sleepy and hardly known small town of India. Situated hundreds of kms away from cities like Delhi and Kolkata and thousand plus kms away from Bangalore, Chennai or Hyderabad, in the plains of agricultural rural land fed by Himalayan rivers. Ayodhya, where until just a few days ago hardly any flights flew or trains plied. As a matter of fact there have been times in the past when it was a taboo even to visit it. Whatever few pilgrims visited in those times, did it under a shadow of reprisal and arrest by local administration who took pride in having ordered shooting on unarmed devotees. The Supreme Court ruling in 2019 changed everything. 

The town of Ayodhya was not always a sleepy place but was, once, a prosperous thriving capital city of King Rama. After the court verdict, people are now full of hope that the restored temple will once again bring back the happiness of Rama Rajya. 

On 22nd January 2022, when the city woke up from sleep, they witnessed the presence amongst them of about 7,000 VVIP guests invited by the temple Trust, a non-gov body. Everyone who matters in India, who are leaders in their own fields, be it business, politics, finance, religion, scientists, philosophy, art, theatre, music, media etc. were present to witness the opening. Learned men had calculated from the celestial movements of stars and planets that a slot of 84 seconds beginning 12:29:03 pm.was the most suitable time period for that important event. Besides those who were invited by the Trust, there were other visitors, estimated at 250,000. VVIPs. The tycoons, celebrities, faith leaders, politicians were seen rubbing shoulders on the streets or on the Saryu Riverfront of Ayodhya with ordinary folks. Entire funding, temple decorations and food expenses were met through crowdfunding through donations. Tradition was set by Mahatma Gandhi by his categoric edict that no government funding should be provided for building temples and that crowdfunding route only can be used for that purpose. Mahatma in his foresight had spelled out that restriction when rebuilding of Somanath Temple was discussed during the early years of independence. 

Excitement was not limited to Ayodhya city alone but was palpable even 12,000 kM away in Canada and its many temples. So also was in many cities of 100 other countries that are home to a significant ethnically Indian population notwithstanding the fact that they have no or negligible skin in the outcomes of Indian election or economy. And still, somehow they found it important enough to arrange live streaming of the telecast of the Ayodhya function. Besides temples, the ceremony was shown live at hundreds of locations including the one on a large screen in the Times Square of New York. On various other TV channels, Live interviews of many Europeans, Americans, Australians etc who were clearly not of Indian ethnicity, were expressing excitement and happiness. A few American Rabbis too seemed extremely enthusiastic and excited with the rebuilding of the temple on the site that marked the birth place of legendary King Rama, considered an Avatar of Bhagavan Vishnu. 

Temple was originally a room in the Palace of Rama’s mother Kaushalya Mata. That is where she delivered the baby Rama. Millenia ago a monumental temple was constructed there, housing a murti (idol) of baby-Rama and was continuously maintained there by subsequent societies for subsequent thousands of years till 1528. 

Global community, perhaps, finds it intriguing. What on earth is in the opening of that temple?? How can a temple excite billions of Indians and others, after all it is just a temple? And there are thousands more scattered around, so what is the big deal? 

Well, there are a few important reasons. Bhagavan Rama epitomises good governance and personal purity. The ideas and SOP for governance conveyed through text “Ramayana” are legendary and far more advanced than what we consider as modern democracy or justice system. The justice and fairplay of Rama excites everyone because that's what one wants to see in their own societies. On the other hand, the lofty ideas of Rama’s governance excite the thinkers of the world who are grappling with the solution to discontent, fear, poverty and greed prevalent in their societies. This must be the main cause behind the intense excitement. 

In our modern society, the relationship between haves and have-nots derives its laws and SOP framework out of an exploiter-exploited rights-based paradigm, while in the Rama Rajya, the same is derived from supporter-supported responsibility paradigm. In the former, your need becomes my opportunity but in later your need becomes my duty. In the former, one fights for taking rights and in the later one fights to take responsibility. This is what tickled Mahatma Gandhi and he craved Rama Rajya for the Independent India as soon as she attained frredom from the British rule.

The sage-author Valmiki, can be interpreted to be saying in ‘preface’ of the Ramayana text, that armed and powerful use weapons to kill weaponless and powerless when he sights the famous episode of bird-hunter. This story is the backdrop of Ramayana to illustrate oppressor-oppressed relationships and Ramayana shows the way how humans could change it to the sustainer-sustained or nourisher-nourished relationship between them where powerful consider it their duty to save powerless. Valmiki thought of haves and have-nots, thousands of years before Karl Marx and today's liberals. Rama Rajya's solution was based on Dharma (Duty) and not on rights. Therefore Rama ended up uniting diverse societies while Marx et al have inadvertently excelled in breaking up of united societies. 

Ramayana can help the West understand why India is an inherently democratic, inherently secular and inherently plural without having succumbed to pitfalls of societal diversity arising out of religions, languages and economic status. It is a great learning tool for the nations who seem to be failing at experiments of celebrating diversity in their countries. In the Western model, the solution to diversity at best is “Tolerance of All” but Rama’s Governance model is starkly different, it is “Acceptance of All”. Intellectuals understand what a stark difference is between the two mindsets. If Modi said in Ayodhya after the temple opening that Rama is for everybody and Rama is the spirit of India, it makes perfect sense. Of late, many career coaches and management institutes have adopted Ramayana as their teaching source material for effective administration and ethical management. 

A despotic marauder descended on the fertile Himalayan plains, Ignorant of Rama’s value and with a view to terrorise, rob and dominate the inhabitants of Ayodhya, sacked the Rama-Birth-Temple. His name was Zahir-ud-din Muhammad Babar, also simply known as Babar. He returned to his homeland and died there, however he successfully established a dynasty that ruled India till the Maratha dynasty displaced them. Then came the British who defeated Maratha and governed India till 1947. 

Since 1528, for exactly 496 years Indians of every generation have been struggling to worship once again at the home of baby-Rama. Only they who struggled really understand what it is to participate in the opening of Rama-Birth temple. 

Some may be excited due to the sense of having avenged wrong done or on recovery of ancient grandeur of Rama-Birth-Temple or feel of the sense of relief or for successful culmination of sacrifices made by Rama devotees. All are valid reasons but mainly the import of this excitement lies in the sense everyone feels of a belongingness to a lofty ideal of a society where everyone is happily living under a just and fair administration run by a loving ruler. Everyone naturally craves to live in a society that treats them fairly. The constitution and governance SOP for that kind of an ideal state is termed as “Rama Rajya”. While the term is known from time immemorial, in recent times “Rama Rajya” became a popular term during India’s non-violent independence struggle when the great leader, Mahatma Gandhi began using it as a synonym of good governance. 

Ram-Rajya after having perfected a system of fair, just and open governance, had successfully and continuously delivered it for more than a thousand years. Traditional historians do not find the claim to be historical but consider it a piece of rich literature woven around the mythical Ikshavaku Dynasty. That is fine because according to them civilization dawned just about 4-5,000 years ago. Of course, several Western historians are now finding holes in that theory with the newer archaeological evidence pushing history back several more thousands of years. Even if Ramayana is a myth, the governance concept described in the text of Sage Valmiki, in the epic Ramayana is enticing to say the least. It is so alluring and intellectually fulfilling that thinkers get carried away. As per the ancients, the Ramayana is a historical text, a chronicle of events in the territory of Ayodhya during a long period identified as “Treta Yuga”. The Ramayana text describes history, politics, governance principles, administration, taxation, education system, health care for humans, animals and birds, family values, society and lives of citizens of Ayodhya. chariots, horses, sharp weapons and wars. That its population was prosperous and happy, citizen wore fragrances, wore silk, used gold and silver ornaments, spoke in a rich and articulate language, women were brave and men were strong, no one died ahead of his time, they died in the same sequence as of their birth, later born never died before the former born. The description of the city of Ayodhya is breathtakingly charming. Indians had continuously for thousands of years remained in peace and prosperity using the constitutional framework of the brave King Rama who never ever in his life deviated from righteousness or made exceptions to rules or indulged into favouritism. He fondly came to be known as “Maryada Purushottam”. This expression for King Rama translates as he who is a “great person who stays within the set bounds of morality never transgressing it (even if possible by law or military power or money)” His dynasty is famously known as the promise-keepers, “Raghukul Reet Sadaa Chali Aayee, Praan Jaaya Per Vachan Na Jaay”. Translated: “Way of Rama’s dynasty is to keep the promise even if that meant inviting death to keep the promise” 

Who can resist craving for belongingness to such a ruler or his kind of governance? That is the secret of unlimited charm and attraction Rama and Rama Rajya have stored for its citizens. His governance idea and ethical behaviour is legendary and above petty politics. 

How I wish the journalists and correspondence of the media I referred to in the first para could find some time to reflect upon the governance ideas laid out in the Ramayana. Even if one was to leave alone the governance and if they were to just enjoy the rich literature, they woild be thrilled.

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