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 The
family that prays together stays together. That seems to be the mantra
of the Bachchans as they hotfoot it from one temple to another in the
run-up to son Abhishek's wedding to Aishwarya Rai. And a star struck
nation, denied of any real news of the wedding of the year, eagerly
laps up the superstitious journeys of Bollywood's numero uno family.
It's
the year when archaic terms like 'manglik' jumped out of the
matrimonial columns of newspapers to page one, when our screen idols
moved out of the silver screen to grace temples across India as they
bowed down to blind belief, and when the paparazzi failed to get any
real news and compensated by covering every detail of the temple visits.
And
filmdom's ultimate screen icon Amitabh Bachchan, wife Jaya, son
Abhishek and to be daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai, a formidable family
unit with millions of rupees riding on them and millions of fans
following every move, are singularly responsible.
From November,
when Bollywood's hottest couple went public with their relationship, to
now, the Bachchan family have been seen outside numerous temples
genuflecting before the gods that be, and to every superstition in the
book.
In a country where astrologers are consulted before
business planners when starting a new venture, where a much-in-love
couple has to call off their relationship because their horoscopes
don't match, where women are relegated to second position and where
religion and politics have come to make a combustible mix, the
Bachchans aren't exactly the best role models.
They began their
religious quest in November when they visited the Sankat Mochan temple
in Varanasi in the dead of the night reportedly to get Ash married to a
tree because she was a Manglik, astrologically Mars bearing.
It
was the first confirmation that the couple were getting married. And
photographs of the family, with a deglamourised Aishwarya's forehead
smeared with vermilion, with Abhishek and his parents (and Samajwadi
Party's Amar Singh of course) had the nation giddy with excitement.
From
uber success and glamour, Aishwarya was suitably reduced to 'bahu'
status, head bowed demurely and the Bachchans took on patriarchal
dominance. Just like it is in much of feudal India.
It was also
an opportunity for much of India to brush up on their terminology. Hey,
what exactly is a Manglik? How does one describe the term? Do you
really have to get married to a tree to ensure your husband doesn't
die? Those were the questions doing the rounds of not only media
offices that had to write the story, but also of many drawing rooms.
In
the end, whether Aishwarya really got married to a peepul tree in
Varanasi, a banana tree in a Bangalore temple and a god's idol in
Ayodhya as was widely reported didn't really matter.
The damage
had been done. Father-in-law Amitabh - rings of every stone and hue on
his fingers obviously to ward off the evil eye flashing from every
photograph - denied that she had done so. But who cared. By that time,
the message had gone down. The powerful Bachchans are as susceptible to
the worst kind of superstition as the next person.
To expect them to be different and help stem the regressive slide of Indian society would obviously be too much.
Since
then, the media - and all of us - have faithfully followed their
travels to the Vindhyavasini temple in Mirzapur on Amar Singh's
birthday, their much publicised 15 km trek to the Siddhivinayak temple
in Mumbai (the favourite of all the stars) and some more to help
Aishwarya's smooth induction into the family.
In the latest,
Bachchan senior and his confidants, industrialist Anil Ambani and Amar
Singh, have visited the Tirupati temple and offered Rs.5.1 million each
to the temple trust, one of the richest in the country. Amitabh, who is
said to have also donated 100 kg of gold, placed a card for his son's
wedding on April 20 at the deity's feet.
The motive was
honourable no doubt - for poor children and hospital facilities in
Tirupati. But Tirupati presumably doesn't need the money, other places
could do more with it.
One of the few signs of protest came from
a Bihar feminist lawyer, Shruti Singh, who filed a PIL against the
Bachchans in the Patna High Court.
"The rituals performed by
Aishwarya, Amitabh and Abhishek would only promote superstitions and
blind faith among common people," says a furious Shruti.
It
could so easily have been different. It is the same Amitabh who has
been hugely successful in making a dent in the campaign against polio
simply because he has such a huge following and people believe in him.
He tells us what to drink, what suiting to wear and what battery to use.
He could also use his power over the people to deliver a progressive, rational message through his personal life.
But that is not to be.
If
this can happen to Aishwarya Rai, who symbolises ultimate power, money
and success, think of other women in India. She should have broken the
stereotype instead of becoming one. The Bachchans have failed India.
Did anyone say religion should be a private matter?
(Minu Jain is a senior editor at IANS. The views expressed are personal. She can be contacted at
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Indo-Asian News Service
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