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Heard a charming story on the BBC World Service this morning (though I can't find a link right now): there's an Indian-born fellow recently elected to the lately-democratized House of Lords. As a Lord, he gets entered into the books of peerage and is entitled to display his coat-of-arms. Since his family doesn't already have a coat-of-arms, he gets to design his own.
Forgoing the usual heraldic lions, unicorns, and gryphons, he emblazons his shield with an image of Lord Ganesh, the elephant-headed Hindu god of prosperity: also with an Om symbol, and with dolphins (the symbol of Brighton, where his political career began).
Now, heraldry is one of the quaint, meaningless traditions (not unlike the House of Lords itself, come to think of it) that so enthralls Yanqui anglophiles like myself. And I'm thrilled to hear of it being tweaked and bent to a more democratic and multicultural spirit—to an expression of a uniquely Anglo-Indian identity (Brighton, fa chrissakes!), as an expression of one's respect for ancient tradition within the context of another tradition nearly as ancient—traditions that are alien to each other, yet somehow complimentary: imagine a mandala in the form of a stained-glass window, or an avatar of Vishnu painted in the style of a Russian icon...
Or is this a degradation of Ganesh—appropriating his sacred image to a political purpose? Does the separation of church and state (which is, admittedly, more an American concept) fall into this? Is this just window dressing, just one rich politico's whim, or the start of something big? Or just a long-overdue official recognition, in the musty halls of one of Britain's most tradition-bound institutions, of the fascinating fusion that's been happening in her streets for decades?
I'll post a link to the full story later, if I can find one. |
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