The Narendra Modi Stadium Ahmedabad reverberated to sounds of Jai Shri Ram as India played Pakistan in the World Cup. No such shouts have been heard against other teams before or since. Not to be outdone a Pakistani player offered namaz on the field against which complaint and counter-complaint have been filed. I have grown up hearing the chant Jai Shri Ram as a personal religious intonation (something akin to Alleluia or Praise the Lord among Christians), but never as a taunt, until recent times. I fail to understand how the followers of Hindutva with their well-known animosity towards practices of Islam, now seek to emulate a common but distasteful Islamic practice, where perpetrators of violence shout out Allah u Akbar after bouts of killings. Is Hindutva inexorably heading along the path paved by Islamists?
But such practice is not indigenous to India. There are other societies where opponents have been taunted and mocked at. And somewhere the taunt has come to spread and receive general acceptability.
Look at the Ottoman Turks’ siege of Vienna in 1683. Legend has it that a baker, working late at night (as is essential in his occupation) heard the Turks tunnelling under the walls of the city and alerted the army.
The Christian forces having been thus forewarned, secured their defences changed the battle strategy, caught the invaders unaware and routed them in the battle that followed. The city was saved. The baker in turn created a crescent shaped pastry in the shape of the Ottoman’s Islamic emblem, the crescent moon in celebration, so that when his fellow Austrians bit into the croissant (crescent in French), they would be symbolically devouring the Turks!
Marie Antoinette popularized the croissant in France by requesting the royal bakers replicate her favourite treat from her homeland, Austria. Today, the confection has conquered all palates and the delicacy is devoured by Christians and Muslims alike, the latter perhaps largely unaware that its origin symbolises the defeat of the Muslim forces that ended their forays into Central Europe, hastening the decline and fall of the Ottoman juggernaut.
Or consider the chant Olé, Olé, Olé heard the world over particularly at sporting events. What is the origin? History records that on January 2, 1492, Moorish rule of Spain came to an end when, Boabdil, the leader of the last Moorish City “Granada”, surrendered to armies of the just united Christian Spain (after the marriage of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile). This ended the 700-year reign of the Moors in Iberia.
The united Christian forces had surrounded the city of Granada and blockaded it for eight months. Eventually, on January 2, 1492, Granada surrendered. The young Abu Abdallah Muhammad XII (“Boabdil” to the Spaniards) handed over the keys to the Spanish sovereigns.
As the Moors moved south toward exile, they reached a rocky prominence which gave a last view of the city. Boabdil reined in his horse and stood and gazed back upon the kingdom he had lost: the beautiful Vega, the towers of Alhambra, and the gardens of the Generallife; all the beauty and magnificence of his lost home. Allah Allah Allah u Akbar, he said, as he burst into tears. His mother, Ayesha, reproached him, and questioned: “Why do you weep like a woman for what you could not defend as a man?”
The spot from which he looked for the last time on Granada is known as ‘the Moor’s last sigh’ (el ultimo suspiro del Moro). A stone marker to the ‘Moor’s last sigh’ still commemorates the spot.
As the hated Moors were finally forced out of Spanish soil and the Christians reasserted their rights over their entire country, one version has it, that the victorious populace broke out into spontaneous dance and song mocking and taunting the departing rulers and their entourage shouting Olé, Olé, Olé, the Spanish rendition of the Moorish chant Allah, Allah, Allah. Long after the mocked-at-losers had departed, Olé, Olé, Olé, has come to echo as words of celebration, much beyond the borders of Spain.
Goa as usual does not remain far behind in such peccadilloes. As I read through Remo, the fascinating autobiography of Goa’s most successful pop/rock star Remo Fernandes, his understanding of crowd behaviour struck me. He narrates that he was looking for a drummer when the name of Jose Fernandes was recommended by some friends. Remo after watching him play at Clube Nacional was considerably impressed. So he met Jose who too was pleased to link up with the newly emerging star. Now the question was to find an appropriate name for the band. Remo came up with a pithy Remo and Bondo
But Jose was reluctant, since bondo the nickname by which he was locally known was a term of ridicule. Every village has a boy or two carrying that appellation, usually meant for those who are considered duffers. Naturally, Jose had reservations to being officially identified by such a nickname. However Remo believed otherwise and persuaded him; the band came to be known as Remo and Bondo. The rest is history. Bondo has been the acclaimed king of drums in Goa with the crowds getting into a frenzy shouting Bondo! Bondo! at his mere appearance. As we know bondo means an empty coconut. Interestingly, our bondo playing drums (which by definition are empty) has confirmed that empty vessels do really make the most noise; and the most desirable noise indeed, when he is in charge! Before parting, let me add that Bondo though born and brought up in Panjim has his family roots in Benaulim which village (with Calangute) has the reputation for producing the best coconuts in Goa. Does it not follow that better the coconut, better the bondo?
(Radharao F Gracias is a senior Trial Court Advocate & a former Independent MLA)
