Three days ago, 39-year-old Revathi lost her life, and her nine-year-old son was critically injured in a stampede at a movie theatre.
The chaos erupted as frenzied fans scrambled to catch a glimpse of Allu Arjun, the star of ‘Pushpa 2.’ This tragedy isn’t an isolated incident but a glaring symptom of India’s dangerous obsession with hero worship.
India’s love for its heroes often borders on the divine. Temples have been built for Bollywood stars like Amitabh Bachchan, Rajinikanth and even Kushboo. In politics, the devotion is equally extreme.
A few years ago, Shankar Rao, a Minister from Andhra Pradesh, built a temple for Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, referring to her as “Telangana Talli”— the Goddess of Telangana.
This cultural obsession with deifying individuals sometimes becomes bizarre and even tragic.
Take the case of 25-year-old Pawan Kumar from Uttar Pradesh, who cut off his finger after mistakenly voting for the wrong party. Or the aftermath of M.G. Ramachandran’s death in 1987 when 31 grief-stricken fans committed suicide.
Such acts reveal a worrying lack of rationality. The devotion goes beyond admiration, becoming an unhealthy surrender of individual thought and agency.
This phenomenon isn’t restricted to the uneducated or economically disadvantaged. It pervades every class, as seen in the recent example of AAP leader Atishi Marlena, who became Chief Minister of Delhi.
When taking charge as Chief Minister, Marlena refused to sit on the Chief Minister’s chair, declaring that it ‘belonged’ to her predecessor Arvind Kejriwal and instead sat on another chair.
Comparing herself to Bharatha from the Ramayana, she vowed to ‘guard’ the chair until Kejriwal returned, just as Bharatha ruled in Lord Rama’s absence with Rama’s sandals on the throne.
The irony was stark. As Marlena sat at her CM desk, behind her were portraits of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar and Bhagat Singh — both staunch critics of hero worship.
Bhagat Singh once said, “Criticise a hero, who is generally believed to be above criticism…the strength of your argument shall force the multitude to decry you.”
Dr. Ambedkar, too, warned against blind reverence, calling it “a sign of debasement” that renders individuals incapable of independent thought.
Even more ironic was Marlena’s name itself — a portmanteau of Marx and Lenin, two communist thinkers who firmly opposed the politics of hero worship.
Marx famously rejected the notion of saviours, while Lenin argued that individuals must control their own reality.
Yet here was a well-educated leader indulging in the same hero worship that her ideological forebears abhorred.
At its core, hero worship is dangerous because it stifles logic, critical thinking and accountability. In India, it manifests across domains, especially politics and cinema.
Criticise Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and you risk being branded anti-national by fervent supporters.
Similarly, question Rahul Gandhi, and you’ll face vitriol from so-called ‘liberal’ circles.
Both sides have devolved into hero-worshipping factions, incapable of rational debate or constructive dissent.
Movie stars command near-religious devotion, particularly in South India. Fans celebrate their birthdays like festivals, build temples in their honour and, in tragic instances, sacrifice lives.
Stampedes at film screenings, violent clashes between fan clubs and property damage during protests all underline the perils of unbridled adoration.
India’s cultural fabric is steeped in the idea of bhakti (devotion), but when this devotion manifests into blind fury — shakti (force) it becomes a menace to society.
Dr. Ambedkar aptly differentiated between two types of hero worship: “One rooted in admiration for noble qualities and the other in blind, obsessive loyalty. The former does not take away one’s intelligence to think and act independently. The latter one makes a perfect fool. The former involves no disaster to the State. The latter is the source of positive danger to it.”
Fanatic displays of loyalty — whether smashing theatre seats, trolling dissenters online, or equating leaders to gods — are antithetical to the ideals of a progressive, rational society.
In India we have a bad habit — we feel we have no right to criticise anyone who has done some good work or whom the ‘media’ has declared heroes.
Just because an individual is of good character, doesn’t mean his decisions cannot be questioned? On the other hand, a bad decision does not mean a person is evil either.
We Indians need to learn the critical importance of balancing admiration with accountability. Respect for achievements should coexist with the ability to question flaws.
We must remember that our heroes — be they politicians, actors or thinkers — are human, not infallible deities. Be inspired by heroic acts, but never surrender your agency at the altar of any mortal.
e-mail: vikram@starofmysore.com
This post was published on December 7, 2024 6:05 pm