मार्क्सवाद्यांची अवस्था संग्रहालयातील वस्तूंसारखी

दि. 30 जुलैच्या न्यू इंडियन एक्सप्रेसच्या संपादकीय पानावर भारतीय विचार केंद्रम आणि विवेकानंद केंद्र कन्याकुमारीचे राष्ट्रीय अध्यक्ष माननीय परमेश्वरनजी यांचा लेख प्रकाशित झाला आहे. मार्क्सवाद्यांची अवस्था आता संग्रहालयातील वस्तुंसारखी या मथळ्याखाली हा लेख प्रकाशित झाला आहे. मराठी वाचकांच्या सोयीसाठी या लेखातील मुख्य बिंदू येथे मांडत आहे. संपूर्ण लेख इंग्रजीतूनही येथे दिला आहे.
सध्या श्री पद्मनाभ स्वामी मंदिराच्या संपत्तीवरून निर्माण झालेल्या वादाच्या पार्श्वभूमीवर हा लेख लिहिला गेला आहे. केरळमधील अनेक मार्क्सवादी आणि अन्य साम्यवादी नेते मागणी करीत आहेत की पद्मनाभस्वामींना अर्पित दुर्मिळ वस्तुंना संग्रहालयाच्या रुपात संरक्षित करण्यात यावे. वरवर पाहता अतिशय पुरोगामी वाटणा-या या मागणीमागचे रहस्य या लेखात स्पष्ट करण्यात आले आहे.
तसे पाहिले तर मार्क्सच्या विचारात धर्माला स्थान नाही. भारतातील साम्यवादी नेतेही धर्माला अंधविश्वासच मानतात, त्यांचे धर्मभिरू समर्थक भले या नेत्यांशी सहमत नसतील.
लेखात इतिहासातील अनेक उदाहणे देण्यात आली आहेत. 1917 ची बोल्शेविक क्रांती आणि चीनचा तिबेटवर ताबा, तसेच मुख्य चीनमध्ये सांस्कृतिक क्रांतीच्या वेळी अनेक धार्मिक उपासनास्थळांची संपत्तीस संग्रहालय बनविण्यात आले. नंतर मात्र हा अमूल्य वारसा गायब झाला. अशा प्रकारच्या लुटीची उदाहरणे पुष्कळ आहेत.
2010 साली प्रकाशित एका अहवालानुसार रशियातील पोसाद प्रांतातील 'होली ट्रिनिटी मठ' हे युरोपातील सर्वात मोठे आणि सर्वात श्रीमंत उपासना मंदिर होते. या उपासना मंदिराचे रुपांतर संग्रहालयात करण्यात आले. सेंट पीटर्सबर्ग येथील अन्य एका मठालाही संग्रहालय बनविले गेले. आणि नंतर पुन्हा या अमूल्य संपत्तीची चोरी झाली. आज मार्क्सवाद समाप्त झाला आहे आणि रशियात पारंपरिक ख्रिस्ती धर्माला पुन्हा धुमारे फुटत आहेत.
दुस-या महायुद्धात नाझी जर्मनीकडून रशियाची पीछेहाट होत होती. अशा वेळी रशियाला प्रेरणा मार्क्स अथवा लेनिनच्या तत्त्वज्ञानातून मिळू शकली नाही. ज्या धर्माला अफूची गोळी मानण्यात येत होते त्या धर्माचाच आश्रय रशियाला घ्यावा लागला. पारंपरिक चर्चच्या मदतीने लोक उभे राहिले आणि रशियाने हिटलरला पराभूत केले. 1945 साली स्टॅलिनने पोसादचे मठ चर्चला परत केले. तोवर खूप मोठ्या प्रमाणात अमूल्य वारसा लुटला गेला होता.
चीनची कथा तर आणखीनच भयावह आणि भयंकर आहे. 1959 साली 6 हजारांपेक्षा अधिक बौद्ध स्थळं नष्ट करण्यात आली. विपुल संपत्ती संग्रहालयात संरक्षित करू म्हणत लुटली गेली. नंतर आपलीच एक बुद्धीस्ट सोसायटी बनवून माओच्या अनुसार बौद्ध धर्माची मांडणी करून प्रचार झाला. 1982/83 साली तिबेटी प्रतिनिधी आपल्या अमूल्य कलाकृती आणण्यासाठी चीनमध्ये पोहोचले तेव्हा त्यांच्या ध्यानात आले की सोन्या चांदीच्या सा-या मूर्ती विकून टाकण्यात आल्या होत्या. तांबे, पितळ आणि कांश्य धातू वितळवून उद्योगात वापरल्या गेल्या होत्या.
मार्क्सवाद्यांची ही त-हा आहे. पुरातत्त्व त्यांच्यासाठी इतिहासाला आपल्या सोयीने वाकविण्याचे आणि अनमोल वारसा हडप करण्याचे माध्यम राहिले आहे. सा-या जगात असेच झाले आहे. परंतु आज सर्वच ठिकाणी यांचे अस्तित्व संपत चालले आहे. रशियात पारंपरिक चर्च पुन्हा एकदा मूळ धरत आहे. चीनमध्येही कन्फ्युशियन आणि बुद्धाचे पुनर्जागरण होत आहे. भारतातही या साम्यवादी नेत्यांची अवस्था केवळ संग्रहालयात ठेवण्यायोग्य झाली आहे.
http://expressbuzz.com/opinion/op-ed/marxists-as-museum-pieces/299140.html
Marxists as museum pieces
High profile Marxist academicians of Kerala have been taking very keen interest in the sensitive issue of the new findings in the Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple. Most of the party leaders have been prudently reticent, obviously for fear of public anger. What the intellectual giants want is to keep all the valuable articles found in the temple vaults in a state museum, for public exhibition. There is nothing unexpected about this, because for them religion, temple and spirituality are all meaningless and dangerous superstitions. Of course the large followers of the party are not with them in this anti-religious attitude. But the intellectuals are a different class. They hardly communicate with the masses, as they still live in an ivory tower of irrelevant theories and obsolete ideologies.
This is neither a new phenomenon nor something peculiar to Kerala or Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple. This is inherent in the communist psyche all over the world. They have put in practice this ideology which prescribes places of worship and religious and devotional items to be exhibited as artefacts in museums. This has happened in the Soviet Union and communist China (both in the mainland and in Tibet). But, in the twists and turns of history in the communist countries the entire process has been since reversed and instead of sacred places turning into museums the party itself has become a big museum, while temples and churches have emerged more powerful than ever.
Herbert Genzmer in his catalogue of world famous holy places published in 2010 considers the monastery of the Holy Trinity at Sergiyev Posad as not only one of the biggest and wealthiest monastic enclaves in Europe but as also the spiritual apex of Russian Orthodox Christianity. After the 1917 October Revolution the communist regime declared that the treasures of the monastery had to be preserved. The monastery was converted into a museum. During the World War II, Russia was threatened by Nazi Germany and communism was immune and incapable to arouse the national consciousness. The Orthodox Church proved to be a catalyst for linking the Tsarist legacy of Russia with Orthodox Christianity for awakening the nation. In 1945 Joseph Stalin returned the monastery to the church and in April 16 1946 service was conducted in the cathedral. But much of its treasures was lost.
This was not an isolated incident of communist regimes annexing wealthy institutions using state machinery and transforming them into museums. The Alexander Nevsky monastery at St Petersburg was famous for its treasures. The communist government demanded that the treasures have to be preserved in a museum. The monastery was transformed into a museum, government office and storeroom. Huge shares of its priceless antiquities were looted according to Richard Cavendish in his UNESCO report on World Heritage Sites published in 2008. After the fall of the communist government in Russia all these monasteries have been declared heritage sites by the UNESCO. But the question is who shall replace the looted treasures from these sites placed in museums in the name of preservation?
On a descriptive study on Buddhism published by the Oxford University in 2003, Damien Keown describes that the cultural revolution of communist China proved a catastrophe for Buddhism. The Red Guards destroyed Buddhist temples and looted enormous treasures. The Chinese Buddhist Association was founded by the People’s Republic of China on 1953, which promoted a revisionist interpretation of Buddhism according to Marxism Leninism, insisted the monks to be loyal to the communist party. According to a study by John Powers in 2006, in 1959, 6,000 Buddhist monasteries were destroyed in Tibet by communist China and enormous treasures were robbed under the pretext of keeping them in museums. The treasures of the famous Sakya and Lithang monasteries were looted and then bombed. Numerous historic documents on Buddhism were destroyed.
When a team of Tibetans visited China in 1982-83 to retrieve Tibetan artefacts a Chinese official told them in Beijing that most of the statues were destroyed and those of pure gold and silver were taken away. Those of gilded copper, bell metal, red copper brass were ferried to Luyun from where they were eventually sold to foundries in Shanghai, Sichuan, Tai Yun, Beijing and Tianjin. The foundry called Xi-you Qing-shu (precious metal foundry) situated five kilometres to the east of Beijing, alone purchased 600 tons of Tibetan crafted metals. The team found that almost all artefacts taken by other foundries had already been melted down. Religious texts were burnt and mixed with field manure and sacred Mani stones were used for making toilets and pavements. (1996 Official Report of Central Tibetan Administration)
The Marxist ideologues and historians have kept an eye on artistically rich and wealthy institutions as a worksite for ideological digging. The setting up of museums was politically motivated to interpret the preserved antiquities in accordance with Marxism Leninism rather than their archaeological and historical context. Vladimir Radyuhin, has pointed out that Russia is witnessing the revival of the Orthodox Church and its gradual establishment as state religion. Radyuhin perceives that the Kremlin promotes the Orthodox Church in order to fill the ideological vacuum that the collapse of communism has created. The steady growth of the church can be comprehended from how the mayor of the Moscow was compelled to withdraw the land offered to ISKON fair construction of a temple following protest from the church. Indeed the government has helped to build new and restore thousands of churches including the cathedral of Christ the Savior near Kremlin, the largest Orthodox Church in the world. As observed by Radyuhin the cathedral stands as a symbol of orthodoxy replacing Marxism Leninism.
President Medvedev has emerged as an ardent supporter of the church and was instrumental in giving orthodox theological schools the same status as secular universities. Following the approval in December of a controversial law to restore religious organisations property and assets seized by the communist regime, museums and archives have been compelled to vacate church premises and surrender religious artefacts.
Indian communism, which once held promises of being the alternative to the Congress — remember the slogan ‘After Nehru, Namboodiripad’ — now shows signs of taking the Soviet and east European route to dissolution and disappearance except as skeletons in the museum of history.
P Parameswaran is director, Bharatheeya Vichara Kendram