Book Review | National Symbols Vis-À-Vis Popular Values

What makes a nation is indeed its people. One of the various interpretations of that statement is that a nation is shaped by a feeling of belonging. That belongingness binds humans with diverse histories and backgrounds to come together and make of their country what they want, to go beyond what its founders once imagined for it. But if we as citizens are to do so, what anchors our identity over time? How can the nation remain the same if its founding vision becomes history and new values emerge to replace the old? This makes it something of a “Ship of Theseus”. In T.M. Krishna’s book, We, The People of India: Decoding a Nation’s Symbols, he shows how a nation’s soul lies in the symbols it imbues with its values.

These symbols, as physical entities, are subject to the cruelty of time; but, as ideas, outside of time, they form a philosophical canvas that allows us to communicate with past and future generations. In attempting to identify the essence they contain, he meditates on the icons that have shaped the social and political imagination in/of India: The national flag, the Sarnath Lion Capital, the motto “Satyameva Jayate”, the national anthem, and the Preamble. Krishna attempts to understand what the legacy of the founders of the nation has looked like in the past and how it stands today. One by one, he grapples with each of the aforementioned symbols, writing long, thought-provoking essays, some longer than an average chapter in a history book.

India’s political and social identities are tied to the ideas that its symbolic sentinels hold. But it is also true that what they communicate does not come from them, but from something larger, of which a minuscule memory remains on display through these “objects” of national import. The very notion of a flag representing a people goes beyond the history of the nation-states, or even the great kingdoms of the past. The Lion Capital bears religio-political and administrative importance outside of what the Indian state has made it to be. The motto has Upanishadic roots but may not be used outside official documents of the state. As much as they are representative of the Indian state, they are also grafts of history made into a favourable narrative, tools for control, power and, at times, of tyranny.

Krishna’s We, The People of India is one Indian citizen’s call to another to look around and think, to spark a debate on where we stand and where we would like to be. It is, however, also a deeply personal and meditative piece of work. A work of a semi-scholarly nature may demand dedicated effort from the reader owing to its length and density. Yet, it cannot be denied that T.M. Krishna is at his boldest, observing what lies in front of him and then casting a long gaze back, trying to understand what India is meant to be for him and for us.

We, the People of India: Decoding a Nation’s Symbols

By T.M. Krishna

Context

pp. 480; Rs 899