Resonances

The law is the law and nobody is beyond its reach. But our law says you’re innocent until proved guilty. Many of us in ‘wait-and-watch’ mode on the Kanchi case are extremely disturbed by the manner it is being conducted in. Wherever you go, somebody wants or offers an opinion. The creed and caste angles intrude like poisonous thorns.

However, a few resonances that came to this newspaper seem worth sharing. Between Diwali and Eid, a very senior custodian of South Asia’s holiest Sufi shrine, Ajmer Sharief, called to exchange greetings. He was distressed at the manner of HH Kanchi’s arrest. “I too do religious work and there’s so much jealousy in our field,” he said. “Orthodox people object each time I try something new.” Meanwhile, some maulanas from Delhi and Hyderabad were all set to board a train to Vellore to meet the Acharya but were dissuaded by the Mutt.

The public, whose faith is vitiated in all godmen by a succession of sordid guru stories, is naturally cynical. But, while Sita and Krishna were divine beings, an acharya, though a ‘chosen one’, is a human required to lead an inhuman life to serve us as a conduit to the Divine. It’s not that he thinks you are untouchable, he is supposed to make HIMSELF untouchable, deny himself the comfort of human touch, so that he can be that pure conduit. We can’t know for sure who lives like that. But, says a Chennai lawyer, also consider that men and women are so badly socialised in South India’s highly repressed society that just talking to someone is fodder for malicious gossip. Nobody can deny this.

Other Kanchi stories came last week from a Chettiar attending a spate of Delhi weddings. HH Kanchi wanted to meet a Dalit leader. When his guest came, HH dropped his towel on the ground next to him and sat inches away. The Dalit leader first called him “Ae Aiyar”. HH, said the Chettiar, listened with humility to every word. “Men created this injustice. Hate the Brahmins. But do not hate the Hindu religion, it belongs to all,” he pleaded. They parted cordially with the Dalit leader’s invitation to “Swami” to visit his basti (HH did).

Similarly, in Gujarat, HH apparently went straight to the Muslim areas, bypassing Mr Modi’s officious attempts to corral him first. A Muslim lady, egged on by local leaders, offered him parathas as “bhent”. Unfazed, HH ate a portion after offering it as naivedya. These incidents were related by a very urbane, proud Tamilian who has no baggage about “Brahmin/non-Brahmin”. Such resonances fascinate because they are vibes between Indian and Indian, independent of stereotypes. We do not know what the outcome of the Kanchi case will be. But it’s heartening some of us don’t think in pigeonholes.