A project in the ancient Indian city of Varanasi dreamed up by Prime Minister Narendra Modi shows the master political marketer's penchant for symbolism as political strategy, emilyschmall writes.
In this March 19, 2019, photo, funeral pyres burn on the banks of river Ganges, in Varanasi, India. According to ancient practice, funeral pyres burn constantly, with the debris and ash shoveled into the river. In the Indian city considered the center of the Hindu universe, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has commissioned a grand promenade connecting the sacred Ganges river with a centuries-old temple dedicated to Lord Shiva, the god of destruction.
The project is also part of a larger Hindu nationalist effort to erase evidence of India’s diverse past. The demolition of around 300 commercial and residential buildings to make way for the promenade has left a gaping hole in Varanasi’s urban core, a congested maze of zig-zagging brick lanes full of religious shrines.
The Vishwanath project is part of a broader campaign to downplay the Muslim Mughal dynasty’s place in Indian history. The campaign includes restoring the Hindu names of cities that were renamed by Mughals centuries ago and excluding the Taj Mahal, a Muslim tomb, from government tourism materials. Though Varanasi draws millions of devout Hindus each year, scholars and residents emphasize its identity as a city where people of many faiths have long lived together harmoniously.
And in January, the central government in New Delhi and the BJP-led government of Uttar Pradesh state spent an unprecedented $650 million on a Hindu mega-fest, advertising the event on CNN and plastering the festival grounds with posters of Modi and the state’s chief minister, Yogi Adityanath, a Hindu monk who was arrested but not prosecuted for allegedly inciting a deadly 2007 anti-Muslim riot.
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