Wah Taj, and the after thoughts
Today early morning, an Egyptian colleague of mine congratulated me for the inclusion of Tajmahal in the new list of "Seven Wonders". It was a happy ending for a month long ordeal, we underwent. After hundreds of spams, thousands of SMSes, millions of minutes of coverage on Indian television and billions of pleas to vote for Tajmahal, it finally won.
I know it must have received billions of votes, and of course- majority of them from India. Many of them must have voted for it more than once. They must be overjoyed at their accomplishment, more than Shahjahan would had ever been. But for me it was a pyrrhic victory. It was a battle not worth the fight.
It is not about the legitimacy of the entire exercise, which was validly questioned by UNESCO. It was not even about the extinction of "seven wonders" from the face of the earth, necessitating a need to re-list them all over again. And it is not certainly about the domination of a very small region of the world in the previous list- as if the Great civilization of Maya, Incas, Nazcas, Aztecs and Indo-China did not exist or never constructed anything worthwhile, be it Angkorwat or Borobudur or Great Wall of China.
My reservations are about something very commonplace- as to why should we have a list of seven wonders, why not eight why not six….or more pertinently, who made the list, and what was his legitimacy. Or was it some popular perception repeated trillion times so as to make it look like part of eternal human wisdom
Some days ago I was debating this very idea with a friend of mine and we came to a conclusion that the number "seven" is something oft repeated in the nature-
7 Days of the Week
I know it must have received billions of votes, and of course- majority of them from India. Many of them must have voted for it more than once. They must be overjoyed at their accomplishment, more than Shahjahan would had ever been. But for me it was a pyrrhic victory. It was a battle not worth the fight.
It is not about the legitimacy of the entire exercise, which was validly questioned by UNESCO. It was not even about the extinction of "seven wonders" from the face of the earth, necessitating a need to re-list them all over again. And it is not certainly about the domination of a very small region of the world in the previous list- as if the Great civilization of Maya, Incas, Nazcas, Aztecs and Indo-China did not exist or never constructed anything worthwhile, be it Angkorwat or Borobudur or Great Wall of China.
My reservations are about something very commonplace- as to why should we have a list of seven wonders, why not eight why not six….or more pertinently, who made the list, and what was his legitimacy. Or was it some popular perception repeated trillion times so as to make it look like part of eternal human wisdom
Some days ago I was debating this very idea with a friend of mine and we came to a conclusion that the number "seven" is something oft repeated in the nature-
7 Days of the Week
7 Deadly Sins
7 Continents
7 Oceans
7 Oceans
7 Colors in a rainbow
7 notes in a music scale
7 major metals
7 phases of the moon
7 virtues
And perhaps to imitate these sevens, somebody thought of making a list of seven wonders, assuming, that such a list will derive its legitimacy from the Mother Nature itself. And he has done wonderfully well; he has fooled the entire world for years and years together. So much so that the exercise was repeated in every era and age, with new adjectives to the wonders- some came up with a list of seven ancient, medieval and modern wonders- some came up with seven natural and seven industrial wonders- some came up with a list of seven wonders in a particular country- the latest fad being the New Seven Wonders of the World, started by a Swiss.
Even the natural phenomena mentioned above are subject to debates- seven days of week were invented by humans for convenience; seven sins were described by the churches, there were only 3 continents in the larger part of human consciousness- and even today one may argue before giving continental status to Australia. The seven oceans derived themselves from their predecessors of seven seas, which demonstrated the geographical ignorance of those who coined the term- and in an effort to hide their embarrassment coined new term of the seven oceans, dividing Pacific and Atlantic into north and south to conjure up the number. The seven colours of VIBGYOR are limited by the limits of human sight, there are many more colours in the VIBGYOR- that we are not able to distinguish. So the number 7 is not all that magical. (Believe me; I do not have any bias towards this number, it being my birth number as per numerology).
Once the myth of seven being a special number is gone, the next question is whether we should have a list of seven wonders. The answer will of course be, a vehement NO. In fact, I believe that there should be no such list- because what is wondrous to me, may not be all that wondrous to somebody else…and thrusting the choice of majority (even that is debatable) or choice of even those who choose to call themselves aesthetically gifted (whatever that means) to make such a list- is against ethics and surely against the freedom of choice and forming opinion.
If by a mere click of a mouse, one can make or mar the greatness of a monument- then it is a dangerous phenomenon. Such a pursuit is always fraught with a high degree of regional, religious, racial and patriotic chauvinism- with an attitude of "my monument is better that yours and therefore my group is better than yours".
A question to my fellow Indian, who voted so fervently for the Taj- what have they achieved- the television channels achieved a higher TRP rating, the websites achieved higher number of eye balls, the mobile companies achieved higher revenues. What did they achieve- that Taj was included in a list, which is not recognized by an International body that could have been loosely associated with such a pursuit, the UNESCO. One will say, so what!!!! we recognize the list, I will ask- if you love Taj, are fascinated with the Taj, wonder as to how it was built then did you require its inclusion in a list. Of course, not. And then remember, there will be billions and billions of people who consider their monuments much superior to ours or anybody else's included in the list. But alas they do not have a voice or numbers on the internet- for example Mali, Morocco, Sudan, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Syria and many Latin American countries are full of great monuments…. But they would not find any mention in this list. But ask them, and they would rate their monuments a notch above the Taj.
Let us not get blinded by patriotism, the world is full with such monuments, that people and civilizations created at different point of times to show the development in their conciousness, some have survived and some have not…. By ranking one over the other, we are doing injustice to them all… the ravaged library of Nalanda and the cities of Mohenjodaro and Harappa were equally wondrous, alas they could not survive.
Last but not the least, Tajmahal is beautiful and will always remain so…but do not overlook equally beautiful places in India… Hampi, Halebid, Khajuraho, Brihadeshwara, Ajanta and Ellora, Mandu, Sanchi, Pavagadh, Fatehpur Sikri and Madurai…. In an effort to make a totemic monument – aren’t we disenfranchising them all?
And perhaps to imitate these sevens, somebody thought of making a list of seven wonders, assuming, that such a list will derive its legitimacy from the Mother Nature itself. And he has done wonderfully well; he has fooled the entire world for years and years together. So much so that the exercise was repeated in every era and age, with new adjectives to the wonders- some came up with a list of seven ancient, medieval and modern wonders- some came up with seven natural and seven industrial wonders- some came up with a list of seven wonders in a particular country- the latest fad being the New Seven Wonders of the World, started by a Swiss.
Even the natural phenomena mentioned above are subject to debates- seven days of week were invented by humans for convenience; seven sins were described by the churches, there were only 3 continents in the larger part of human consciousness- and even today one may argue before giving continental status to Australia. The seven oceans derived themselves from their predecessors of seven seas, which demonstrated the geographical ignorance of those who coined the term- and in an effort to hide their embarrassment coined new term of the seven oceans, dividing Pacific and Atlantic into north and south to conjure up the number. The seven colours of VIBGYOR are limited by the limits of human sight, there are many more colours in the VIBGYOR- that we are not able to distinguish. So the number 7 is not all that magical. (Believe me; I do not have any bias towards this number, it being my birth number as per numerology).
Once the myth of seven being a special number is gone, the next question is whether we should have a list of seven wonders. The answer will of course be, a vehement NO. In fact, I believe that there should be no such list- because what is wondrous to me, may not be all that wondrous to somebody else…and thrusting the choice of majority (even that is debatable) or choice of even those who choose to call themselves aesthetically gifted (whatever that means) to make such a list- is against ethics and surely against the freedom of choice and forming opinion.
If by a mere click of a mouse, one can make or mar the greatness of a monument- then it is a dangerous phenomenon. Such a pursuit is always fraught with a high degree of regional, religious, racial and patriotic chauvinism- with an attitude of "my monument is better that yours and therefore my group is better than yours".
A question to my fellow Indian, who voted so fervently for the Taj- what have they achieved- the television channels achieved a higher TRP rating, the websites achieved higher number of eye balls, the mobile companies achieved higher revenues. What did they achieve- that Taj was included in a list, which is not recognized by an International body that could have been loosely associated with such a pursuit, the UNESCO. One will say, so what!!!! we recognize the list, I will ask- if you love Taj, are fascinated with the Taj, wonder as to how it was built then did you require its inclusion in a list. Of course, not. And then remember, there will be billions and billions of people who consider their monuments much superior to ours or anybody else's included in the list. But alas they do not have a voice or numbers on the internet- for example Mali, Morocco, Sudan, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Syria and many Latin American countries are full of great monuments…. But they would not find any mention in this list. But ask them, and they would rate their monuments a notch above the Taj.
Let us not get blinded by patriotism, the world is full with such monuments, that people and civilizations created at different point of times to show the development in their conciousness, some have survived and some have not…. By ranking one over the other, we are doing injustice to them all… the ravaged library of Nalanda and the cities of Mohenjodaro and Harappa were equally wondrous, alas they could not survive.
Last but not the least, Tajmahal is beautiful and will always remain so…but do not overlook equally beautiful places in India… Hampi, Halebid, Khajuraho, Brihadeshwara, Ajanta and Ellora, Mandu, Sanchi, Pavagadh, Fatehpur Sikri and Madurai…. In an effort to make a totemic monument – aren’t we disenfranchising them all?
2 comments:
Hi Pranav,
Great post! I had written a similar piece myself a few weeks back, but nowhere near as eloquent as yours! I am afraid, in this age of instant gratification, and hungry media willing to lap up anything, that many of us are not even aware of some of the beautiful places within the country that you have listed. Oh well...
Thanks Sanjay,
your travel blogs.... make me remember on the good old days i spend in Mumbai.....
Regards
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