People's Democracy

THE SETHUSAMUDRAM CONTROVERSY

Another Political Ploy Of The BJP

Shyamal Chakraborty

A FEW years back, a fossil was discovered in the Siwalik mountain range. It had the general shape of a human being. A clamour was raised from certain quarters that this was a part of the human species of yore. Carbon C-14 tests revealed that the fossil belonged to a living being of 1.5 to 2.5 lakh years back. Another set of claim was raised positing that this was the remnant of a pre-man being. This would prove that primitive man was born in India and that from India the human race spread itself around the world.

The relevance of this point made is that the BJP has raised an onerous hue-and-cry about the Sethusamudram project. They claim that the vanara sena (monkey brigade) of the mythical figure Rama, constructed this ‘bridge’ (actually a coral reef formation of ancient times) to the then Lanka (now Sri Lanka) to attack Ravana who had abducted Rama’s queen Sita and to rescue her. The BJP demanded that no canal must be constructed bifurcating the Sethu.

Why is the need arisen for a canal? Any ship travelling east from western India has to circumnavigate the longer route around Sri Lanka. The same problem applies for vessels travelling the other way around. The cost comprises 780 km and 36 hours. The scenario also contributes, expectedly, to rising prices of ship-borne articles of common consumption. Thus, there is real need for short-circuit, i.e., for the canal through the Sethusamudram. The canal will make the sea bed deep enough for heavy loaded ships to negotiate the distance safely.

From the time of the Indo-Aryans, in the Iron Age, and in the process of clearing jungles for the agrarian civilisation to take root in the Ganges valley, the Aryavarta, hundreds of thousands of kingdoms and pre-state- and state-formations have come into existence. Rajahs and kingdoms have come and gone and have come again, to go away finally. There could well have been a king called Rama. We do not possess written evidence in this regard.

PRASASTI

Bards would roam the villages and sing songs, and the songs would often include Prasasti or praises for the kings. The bards were called Lava-Kusha, state the historians. The songs and paeans must have contained Prasasti in the name of Rama the king. Prasasti was in most instances exaggeration and this was commonplace in the cases of popular and famous personalities. Divinity is even now imposed on living beings. We hold that hyperbole and divinity were both applied to the popular king Rama.

Kings are often associated with divinity as was the case of Indra, the king of an Indo-Aryan tribe. The leader of the Indo-Aryan tribe that attacked the Indus Valley civilisation was commonly called Indra. All kings came to be known as Indra. He was also called Purandar because he was the destroyer of pura or citadels. Indra became a divine figure, a god even later on.

What was the Vanara Sena? The story of Ramayana, historians like D D Kosambi (1964) believes, is the story of the Indo-Aryan invasion of south India, south of the Vindhyas. The process along with that of Sudrayan would expectedly take very many decades. Would one believe that the whole episode was over at the end of 14 years? Va-nara means, according to linguists and historians, ‘like man.’

Where does the tail, come from, then? The ‘tail’ was part of the totem of particular tribes. Vanara means people who carried the ‘load of work’ of the Indo-Aryans. They were thus reduced to the position of the Sudras. The totem was subsequently regarded as having been borne of a natural phenomenon and hence Hanuman became a figure to be venerated as a divine being. This has been stated by the historian Debiprasad Chattopadhyay (1968).

RAKHSHASAS

Indo-Aryans derided the people of Lanka as ‘devils with fangs’ or Rakhshasas. We note with surprise that the Ramayana itself notes the big impressive palaces these devils built, and how the Rakhshasas were familiar with what was then ‘modern warfare.’ In fact, non-Aryans were dubbed Rakhshasas.

The inhabitants of Lanka, as Homo-sapiens as the Indo-Aryans, had in fact migrated from the Indian mainland to Lanka 35 thousand years ago. The Indo-Aryans came to India 65 thousand years ago. The species evolved in Africa over millions of years. The migration away from Africa started when the pressure of population started to grow. The species found a nursery so to speak, en route, in Mesopotamia.

Twelve genetic scientists have marked a gene called the M-17. The Indo-Aryans, they say, carried in their beings a large quantity of this gene, close to 35 per cent. For the Dravidians, the percentage is much lower, at less than 10 percent. M-17 has been called an ‘Indo-European gene.’

The prime source here is Spencer Welles’s seminal work, The Journey of Man: A Genetic Odyssey, 2002.) Wells identified the genetic structure of the first Homo Africanus, calling it Adam. Adam lived in the deserts of Africa. This was 80 thousand years ago. ‘Eve’ was found in Mesopotamia 60 thousand years ago.

How did the species Homo Sapiens cross seas? How did, indeed, mankind spread around the world from Africa, negotiating hurdles of vast water bodies? During the time, the earth started to freeze and the ice age started, the level of the sea water went far down. Pathways arose. The human race just walks out and away, says Wells.

When the warmth returned, people were stranded, so to speak in various continents that took shape. The coral reef was already in existence between India and Lanka. The ice age made the travel even easier across the straits.

BJP’S VOLTE FACE

Geologists believe that lime stone had gathered in layers over millions of years in the straits between Rameswaram and Talaimannar. This the base on which the coral reef grew. The satellite photos of NASA have clearly shown the formation as natural. The subsequent attempts by the BJP to distort and misinterpret the photos have been set aside by NASA itself. The ice age saw the sea bed lowered by 150 feet. There was thus raised a natural ‘bridge’ between the land masses. A 167 kilometre-long canal is necessary for movement of ships here. There is also a need to cut open the Adam’s bridge by 300 meters’ width to ensure that ships would travel freely.

The BJP-led NDA government agreed to this digging of the canal, fixing its alignment, back in 1998. Addressing an MDMK (Vaiko fraction) meeting in Chennai A B Vajpayee praised the Sethusamudram project. In a few months’ time, the defence minister in the NDA government, George Fernandes announced that the canal would be complete by three years. The then union finance minister sanctioned Rs 4 crore 80 lakh for the project. Subsequently the situation underwent a change. Thus, the BJP is forced to chant the name of Rama looking to the next elections coming up. The BJP would hold onto the Sethusamudram project issue like the proverbial straw.

We had started this essay with a reference to a fossil with an antiquity of 1.5 – 2.5 lakh years. The fossil has the shape of a man. Embarrassing the BJP which claimed that the fossil showed that man was born in India first, the scientists have now proved that the fossil was that of a great ape — Rama-pithecus. The species is outside the loop of the evolution of man. It is related to the species Orang-utan. Once they were found in great hordes in the forests of Indonesia.

India is fortunate in the sense that our society yet contains human beings with the genetic characteristics of the great ape. You can catch them with saffron bands around their heads and swearing by Advani and brigade. They have little hope of being counted as human beings — intelligence or otherwise.