Bishaldeep Kakati
(The writer can be reached at deep.kakati99@gmail.com)
It is a conspicuous fact that any structure, monument or statue of crucial and pivotal importance always becomes instrumental in designing a particular nation in a pristine way, be it the statue of ‘Christ The Redeemer’, ‘The Great Sphinx’ or the most popular ‘The Statue of Liberty’. However in this regard, a contrasting scenario was prevalent in India till a few months back, when India didn’t possess any mind boggling or stupendous statues to be proud of or to boast about. And because of this limitation, somewhere down the line, the nation was probably not being able to show her brilliance in terms of constructing remarkable or striking statues or glorifying her heroes by making their statues. But even this limitation was taken out of equation, when on October 31, 2018, the respected Prime Minister of India inaugurated the statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel or popularly known as ‘The Statue of Unity’.
‘The Statue of Unity’, however, cannot be just viewed as another ordinary statue being erected in a remote area. But if we carefully analyze, we will notice that this statue has many aspects associated with it. And if we try to understand each one of these aspects in a detailed manner, then we will slowly understand and appreciate the substantial impact that this statue might have upon India in the years to come. Not to forget the fact that this statue has every potential to glorify and carry forward the rich legacy of a diverse nation like India.
However, the unfortunate thing is that criticisms of all sorts from almost all the corners of the country started pouring in as soon as the statue was unveiled. Some people were of the opinion that the amount of Rs 2,989 crore that was spent on constructing the statue should have been used in developing the nation rather than wasting on the statue. In fact some of the denizens even went a step ahead to expound that a giant and mammoth statue can never come in handy to save a nation that is still suffering from the woes of poverty. And in a way the concern put forward was logical, but may be that was exclaimed without understanding ‘The Statue of Unity’ from depth.
The matter of the fact is that as soon as ‘The Statue of Unity’ was inaugurated, it made headlines even in the International platform, for the very reason that it became the tallest statue to be erected, standing at a height of 182 metres from the base level, or in simple terms, the statue is about two times as tall as ‘The Statue of Liberty’. However it’s high time that we need to look at the broader picture of it, by balancing the criticisms with the advantages and the benefits that ‘The Statue of Unity’ might have upon India.
The perspicuous fact is that it becomes really necessary for a country to immortalize her legends not only by keeping their work culture confined to books and journals, but also by creating a sensation in people’s mind as to why a particular individual should study about a particular legend. For instance, if we want an individual to study about the legend of SardarVallabhbhai Patel, then we need to create a sensation in his or her mind. And the sensation can be created only when the eyes will perceive the thing and the mind will instigate the senses to study about that invigorating thing. And the same can be related to The Statue of Unity as well.
The simple logic behind this is that the statue will always arouse curiosity among people to query and know as to why India invested so much in making a statue on SardarVallabhbhai and then renaming it as ‘The Statue of Unity’, which happens to be the tallest statue of the world. And when people will search for the answers, it will further popularize India; glorify the hard work of the ‘Iron Man of India’ and his role in uniting all diverse 562 princely states to build one great Republic of India. So the artistic brilliance of ‘The Statue of Unity’ is a direct tribute to the ‘Architect of Independent India’, which will directly or indirectly aggrandize India to a great extent.
The second benefit that the statue can gift India is a thing that is at the present juncture an absolute necessity for a diverse country like India. It is known to one and all that the three greatest things that make India unique from the rest are- the democracy factor, the secularism factor and the unity in diversity factor. However currently if we think of India, we will realize that there has been a major degradation in terms of maintaining the secularism factor or the unity in diversity factor. India is continuously facing tribulation due to internal predicaments arising because of lack of tolerance and unity. Hence in this regard as well, the statue can come as a blessing well sought for. ‘The Statue of Unity’ can once again make the people of India realize the importance of unity, which was really instrumental in making India free from the colonial rule.
Added to this, the statue has another potential associated with it that can directly or indirectly dismiss all those criticisms that were imposed upon it, especially regarding the revenue spent in its construction. No doubt India spent crores in erecting the statue, but the statue also has the capacity to make India step into the pedestal of financial success. ‘The Statue of Unity’, being the tallest in the world, will surely attract a lot of people including global citizens towards it and that will further boost the tourism sector of India. This will also lead to an increase in revenue generation, and in a very short while, India will earn double or triple of the revenue spent on erecting the statue. Thus ‘The Statue of Unity’ if maintained properly can really be the new dawn of India’s development and progress.
Therefore the bevy of India should refrain from criticizing the government’s decree to erect ‘The Statue of Unity’ by taking into consideration only one perspective. The people should rather try to dig in deeper into this issue, carefully analyze the benefits of erecting the statue and that would surely help them to understand and appreciate ‘The Statue of Unity’ in a better way.