Uma’s Guiding Light

It is not a viewpoint that the central government wants to have anything to do with, but in MP he is also perceived as— and these are the words of head of the RSS’ Vishwa Samvad Kendra in Bhopal Anil Soumitra—the ‘sutradhar’ of the state’s development. Uma Bharti has stated that she has asked the Swadeshi Jagran Manch to advise her on the economy, and in practice this means two men—Govindacharya and S. Gurumurthy. And it comes as no surprise that her advisor, planning and development, Atul Jain, a former journalist, is intellectually beholden to Govindacharya.

The indications of his perceived importance are apparent in the state. He was recently the chief guest at a recent three-day seminar in Amarkantak on ‘Indigenous Knowledge and Development’ organised by Anil Soumitra’s NGO Spandan. The seminar was supported by the MP Council for Science and Technology and among those who attended were central minister Sanjay Paswan, state minister Om Prakash Dhruve, director of the MPCST H.P Garg and a number of senior officers of the state administration. Till recently such a turnout at an RSS-backed event would have been unimaginable in MP.

It was, perhaps, appropriate that Govindacharya spoke of his vision after a dip in the river at its very source on the day of Narmada Jayanti, even as the Cabinet was meeting further downstream to declare Amarkantak a teerthsthal.

In his discursive fashion Govindacharya spoke of geography as a determiner of culture—a vaastushastra for nations. India’s geography like the geography of any other nation imposes language, culture, appearance and food habits on the inhabitants.

His arguments build up the case for an economy based on local resources to the practicalities of an economy based on ‘Gai ka doodh, Narmada ki Dhara’’, which to use Uma’s words, is a huge step.

There were others at the seminar who brought a practical touch to the proceedings. Rajesh Gupta, an IPS officer now an SP in Morena, spoke of his experience in Khandwa as CEO where he undertook work that resulted in scores of villages adopting an economy based on cattle resources, biogas and organic farming.

From isolated experiences such as this to the economy of an entire state, is not a transition that seems possible. In fact, the first major report brought out under the Uma regime deals with ‘‘Gauvansh ke samrakhshan and samvardhan’’ but does not reveal much about the contributions the gaushalas will make to the economy.

The state’s director of Science and Technology H.P. Garg perhaps best illustrated the confusion when he spoke at Amarkantak. He stresses the need for maximizing the use of science and technology. He also spoke on the need for fusing traditional knowledge with modern technology, ‘‘It is not enough to be a superpower of knowledge, we must convert it to wealth.’’ And just towards the end, in a nod to the new dispensation, he praised the steps taken towards the protection of gauvansh and the cited the healing power of gaumutra.

But even this was too extreme for the guest of honour Shri Mahamandeleshwar Shri 1008 Swami Shukdevanandji Maharaj who thundered, ‘‘Those who speak of wealth from knowledge can pursue vigyan (science) but they cannot pursue gyan (knowledge).’’

It was difficult not to escape the conclusion that two very different worldviews, neither making much sense of the other, had come together at Amarkantak. And even if the vagaries of the current administration are overlooked, at an intellectual level much the same is happening within this BJP government.

Meanwhile, the voters of MP, as they have already so many times said, would just be happy with better roads and enough power.