Hindustan/ India/ Bharat has been a land of Hindus for
time immemorial. Without going too deep,
it can be said that it is well accepted that to call “Hinduism” a “Religion” is also a
stretch of imagination. This is because unlike the monotheistic religions where
there is acceptance of only one God (mark that G is capital), Hindus never have
had one God. In Monotheistic religions
you have only one God, there are these set of rules (commandments if wish to
refer to them as) and then there one life. You live life as much as possible
following these rules and then there will be a judgement day. It is therefore an endeavor to live the most
“correct” life as possible as per the
set of rules laid down. Conformity to the rules and following one God is
hallmark of such religions. Christianity, Islam and Judaism emerge from this
school of thought. Now compare that to Hinduism where core to the belief is the
idea of “rebirth” (which is a metaphor for cyclic nature). In Hinduism one believes in nature everything
is there for a reason. There is no judgement. Hunger is the primary driver of
our actions. If the tiger is hungry, it will eat sheep. If as a human we
prevent Tiger from eating the sheep, we are in turn killing the tiger who will
die of starvation. Hence there is no judgement as well here. Hunger demands
food and actions for the same cannot be judged. “Imagination” differentiates us
from animals. However Hindus firmly believe in Karma. All actions will have a
consequence. Hindus have lived their lives across the country believing in
their own “gods” which could be a tree, an animal, a mountain, a statue. Since
there is no beginning or an end and no judgement, Hindus have been diverse.
Hindus have also followed their own different ways of life for example a dalit
from Kashmir has nothing in common with dalit of Tamil Nadu.
India has been barraged with a lot of influences from
people from the monotheistic religions and have unsuccessfully tried to convert
Hindus/ India to a uniform block. It is for all practical purpose, it is easy
to govern a uniform society rather than a diverse one. It can be argued it will
be more efficient way of governing. Businesses also like uniformity. Let us
take an example here. If you were to market a detergent in India, wont a
businessman ideally like one language of communication and one sensibility.
Makes for an easier way of doing business.
Same is the case for politicians. Present dispensation who
has been funded by the “Hindu Vegetarian Merchant class” has also strived for
the homogeneity. So be it one Nation- One national language, one education
curriculum. In fact if the present dispensation would have its way we would
have to declare India a vegetarian country by now. They have already declared
some parts of India, alcohol free (as if in Hinduism alcohol is prohibited).
BJP under Modi has even tried to reduce Hinduism to one avatar of Vishnu, RAM.
Mind you no Sita, Laxman or Hanuman with
Ram in the Ram temple. Or lets say since it’s a Ram Lalla temple then no mother
of Ram? They would like to talk about Krishna but not Radha. Radha is a
difficult relation to explain through their world view. So you shall find
absence of Radha from BJP under Modi. The present dispensation obviously would
like to claim the politics of BR
Ambedkar but would never address the core issue BR Ambedkar had with his
understanding of Hinduism. BJP under Modi would like sameness as diversity is
too complex for them to handle.
With the tone of the passage so far it would be clear, I
am fan of diversity. I grew up in Nashik
where near by we have Shree Saptashrungi Shaktipeeth. It is common practice
there to offer goat as sacrifice. She is reverent to me. I also happen to be
son of north Indian Parents who revere Vishnav Devi of Katra. Non Vegiterian
food is strictly prohibited at her place. I have lived in peace with both the
ideas. No judgement. No one was correct and no one was incorrect. In India, in Hinduism there is not
correct or wrong way of living life. In fact there are no judgements. Nature
does not operate that ways.
Yet in other walks of lives, Indian Hindus or Indians in
general have become monotheistic. Cricket (Test Cricket) is a way of life. The way you play cricket
tells a lot about you. In cricket there is a coaching book issued by MCC. MCC
is the club who are self appointed custodians of Cricket and own the famous
Cricket ground Lords. It tells you have to hold a bat, how much to open up
legs. Which shot to play and when. It tells you the run up you need to have as
a fast bowler, the jump, the rotation of the arms everything. MCC in England obviously
are inspired by their monotheistic way have prescribed the way game is to be
played. I must confess I haven’t read the book 1st hand but over the
years listening to experts have figured out that a number 9 is expected to be
formed in your stance while playing a cover drive. I know by hearing what a
smooth fast baling action looks like.
The problem arises when there is someone who does not
follow these rules. Shewag is the name that comes to the mind when we talk
about someone who did not follow the rules. His feet hardly moved but he made
that up with excellent hand eye co ordination. Moreover his obsession to get to
milestones with 6s made him a outlier. The coaching books was thrown out of
window more often than not. He scored
some of India’s biggest scores in Test cricket. However he disrupted the
way the test cricket was played at the top. People “judged” him against the
coaching manual and he was found guilty of not following the same. The man who
played more than 100 tests for India with an average of 49+ did not get a proper
send off. In 122 tests Virat Kohli has an average of 47.2. Despite that it is
safe to say that Shewag never enjoyed the popularity that was bestowed on Virat.
While we like to pride our self as a diverse society, we have turned monotheistic
due to our education.
Another outlier that comes to mind in who paid the price
of who he was the cricket he played was Kevin Pietersen. The man made “Switch
hits” popular. However he questioned the way cricket was being played by
England at the time. He paid the price and was not allowed to play at least 3-4
years of cricket.
People from India who are supposed to embrace diversity
suddenly turn to monotheism when it comes to cricket. This is a good place to
talk about Rishabh Pant. Rishabh, we all know, is a free spirit who likes to
take the match to the opposition. He works hard on his unconventional
technique. It is a testimony of his dedication that he is playing at pinnacle
of the cricket after the life threatening accident. He is a fighter. He backs
himself and his technique to counter punch any bowler and any situation. In the last tour
of India to Australia in 2022, he won game for India from place where no one
saw it coming. Players like Pant who are exceptionally talented and work hard
on their skill are no doubt different from the ones you get out of coaching
manual. They are who they are because of the way they think and the way they
execute their skills. In the 1st innings of the MCG test when he got
out playing a falling flick, he was called “Stupid, Stupid, Stupid” by none
other than Sunil Gavaskar. It was understandable. Sunilji played his cricket
exactly as was written in the “Commandments of cricket”. His criticism should
be taken with a pinch of salt especially because he is also an very old man
now. However I saw people who otherwise seem to be normal Indians, who cannot
embrace the diversity of idea that Rishabh brings to table, react rather violently to that shot. One of
my close mates mocked the shot by showing us the demonstration. (the
demonstration was not good as it takes skills to play the shot and fall the was
pant does). These are people who are working at top 1% organisations of the
world where they make a conscious effort to be diverse. They are Hindu Indians
who are supposed to embrace the chaos that comes with diversity and yet when it
comes to unconventional players, it is thrown out of window.
My problem with this criticism of Rishabh is as under
·
Just because the shot is
not in your manual it cannot be termed wrong. We Indian wont follow the “commandments”
of Cricket.
·
If a player has practiced a
shot (like KP had done with switch hit) and plays it with good percentages, it
is wrong to talk ill about it till the time Risk to reward ratio is skewed in
wrong direction.
·
What you cannot understand
cannot be wrong. It is lack of your imagination. To link the success of such
shots to luck is undermining the hard work of the athlete who has developed
innovative shot to get an advantage over his rival
·
I also hear that if Pant
needs to play the game he does he needs to come down the order. He cannot play
that game at 5. The simple counter is if no, 4 can get out 90% times playing a 5% shot Pant can play his
game at 5 without any issue. His records shows he has been successful doing so.
Over this series Virat got out 9 out of 10 times playing
cover drive. Every time cheaply. There is absolutely no percentage in that shot
for him and yet he was not called stupid. The same friend failed to demonstrate
the “Cover drive” of Virat. Why ? May be because a cover drive is in the book and no matter how many times you
fail playing it, you cannot be “Stupid” playing it. Why ? Why is Virat not
called Stupid playing the cover drive when he doesn’t know how to play it.
Manjrekar rightly said, one cannot judge Pant by the way
he get out. Currency of Cricket is Runs and Wickets. If you have to criticize Pant
do it when he isn’t scoring enough runs.
Diversity is supposed to corner stone of Indian ethos. The
Hindu ethos is respecting and acknowledging what you do not know. India has
failed Rishabh Pant by reacting the way they did. Gautam Gambhir, the coach,
would be an idiot if expects a horse to walk like a donkey or vice versa. As a coach he needs to use the different
styles each player brings and divert it for the well being of the team. There
is no one way to live life. There is no one way to play test cricket! Embrace
diversity is my message to all who have read this so far.
My 2 cents of advice to Rishabh Pant : STAY STUPID
….. STAY HUNGRY !!!!
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