Earlier this month, a 216-foot high statue of Ramanujacharya – founding father of the Vishishta Advaita school of Vaishnavism in 11 century South India – was unveiled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The statue is called ‘Statue of Equality, presumably on the lines of the Statue of Liberty in the big apple. Modi said Ramanuja’s Statue of Equality and Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel’s Statue of Unity will change India. The main institutionalize of the most recent statue is Chinna Jeeyar Swamy, said to be the guru of Telangana chief minister K. Chandrasekhara Rao. Chinna Jeeyar Swamy claims and also the prime minister of India affirms, that a good spiritual movement of equality was launched, then again why was untouchability in those areas even more widespread than the remainder of India. For those looking to make statues, there’s no shortage of true icons of equality. Ayyankali (1863-1941), who was a Dalit himself, started a movement for allowing Dalits of that region to be allowed to run within the village streets. It is a known indisputable fact that Ramanuja was by birth a Brahmin and never left the Brahminic socio-spiritual practices within the temple and out of doors. He was the other of Basaveswara, a Brahmin by birth who rebelled against Brahmanism to ascertain a spiritual system of human equality in Karnataka. Adi Shankara started his Shaivite movement within the 8th century CE within the context of the inroads Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity had made. But that failed to stop the expansion of those religions. Both the Ramayana and Mahabharata were composed around Vishnu’s avatar narratives. Ramanuja in this situation worked to push the Vaishnava cult with vague talk about human equality – within the hope that it might stop the Shudra/Dalit migration to other religions. But the rigidity of Brahminism failed to allow any change and untouchability and Shudra inequality were rampant till reformers like Narayana Guru, Ayyankali, and Periyar emerged. The country knows what quite educational values and patriotism matters within the remainder of India isn’t different. A key component of equality is respect for the food and work culture of various caste-community people. Jeeyar said in one of his sermons just before the inauguration of the Statue of Equality: “If you eat pork, you’d only think sort of a pig. If you eat mutton, you’d only follow the herd sort of a goat as your brain stops working. If you are taking eggs, you’d only behave sort of a chicken – peck within the dirt, place to put, and eat from it”. With this statement, Jeevar Swamy insulted the food culture of the bulk of Indians. He disrespected the blood within the body of Shudras, Dalits, and Adivasis, other than Christians, Muslims, Sikhs, Lingayats so on. Is this the type of equality that Ramanuja practiced and taught? Even after a thousand-year-long spiritual and cultural legacy, this type of human intolerance and inhuman cultural traits survive among followers of Ramanuja whose statue is now called ‘Statue of Equality. This means they’re taking off with a brand new meaning for the concept. Equality now means the practice of Varna Dharma, casteism, and untouchability.
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