Hero worship in India and the World
“India is Indira. Indira is India”. -A congress leader after India won the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971. India has a pluralistic society with no dearth of gods and religions. The world came to know of religious tolerance by observing Indian culture where people worship different and so many gods yet could survive as a nation. But in spite of this fact, a significant element of hero worship is evolving in India and has strengthened well in the last five decades. The World versus India- Then: More than two thousand years ago, hero worship was common in human civilization. The Egyptian Pharaohs were considered to be heavenly which lead to the construction of one of the greatest marvels of ancient civilization the pyramids to house the mummies of their ‘gods’. The Romans were not an exception with most emperors coveting the title of ‘Caesar’. In the Indian context, Asoka who ruled in the third century BCE was probably the first person to consider himsel