India has always been lucky. Right people, right place, right time. Again and again. History has favoured us with leaders who ensured our survival, our culture, our nation, and our people.
For me, beyond the freedom fighters, two names stand above the rest. Two men who embodied the best of what this land has to offer. Two figures Indians should aspire to. Akbar and Shivaji. Both deserving of the suffix ‘the Great.’
Today, the 19th of February 2025, marks the 395th birth anniversary of my personal hero, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.
But the Chhatrapati we celebrate today is a distortion. A shadow. Much like the modern, digitally manufactured angry Hanuman, angry Shiva, and angry Ganapati (three of my absolute favourite gods), corrupting the essence of what these deities once stood for, the real Shivaji is being buried under deafening गोंगाट, a cacophony drowning out his true legacy, which can rightfully be described as a roar, a सिंह गर्जना.
For those who truly want to understand the hero of every Marathi माणूस, the people’s king, the father of Swarajya, a man I can proudly call ‘My Chhatrapati’ as much as a free citizen of a Republic can without dissonance, I invite you to read Govind Pansare’s ‘Who was Shivaji?’. Read it in Marathi, if you can. If you think you had respect for this heroic historical figure before, based on what you were told or read to date, you will realise how much more he deserves, and how much we insult his memory by the way we behave in his name in the present.
Be that as it may, today, I bow my head to the true Shivaji. छत्रपती शिवाजी महाराज की जय! Long live the People’s King.
P.S.: Ironically, Govind Pansare was shot down by assassins on the 16th of February 2015, three days before Shiva Jayanti. But like the great king, his ideas live on.
