Dr. Manoj Dash, Bhubaneswar, 10 January 2026
The Eyes of the Elephant
I come from a small but beautiful village in Nayagarh district of Odisha. My village seats comfortably in the lap of natural abundance – ponds, streams, hills, and forest cover. Many wild animals continue to inhabit the adjoining forest areas although I never saw them while visiting my village except for the wild bear. Wild elephants and tigers were spotted by many although they seldom came near my village. Domestic elephants visited our village once in a year during my childhood and that was quite a thrill for all of us to watch! Our elders instructed us to treat the elephant with veneration because of two reasons. One, Lord Ganesha’s head is said to be of an elephant’s and we worshipped Ganesha every year in schools as he symbolised wisdom and intellect. Two, the elephant also represents Goddess Lakshmi, the giver of wealth.
As a child I always thought why an animal with a massive body has comparatively smaller eyes. But I always loved the small eyes of the elephant more than any other part of its body. The Ganesha idols that we used to buy from the nearby market for the annual Ganesha Puja festival in our school also had smaller eyes compared to the size of its body. My daughter grew up seeing a movie “My Friend Ganesha” on innumerable occasions, which we eventually lost count of. On her insistence, I bought a Ganesha idol made of black stone about twenty years ago from Khiching, a village of talented craftsmen (and women), in Mayurbhanj district of Odisha. The eyes of this idol which continues to occupy a central place in our home are also small compared to the size of its body.
The Chinese Ganesha Idols have Small Eyes, Really?
I carefully checked the size of the eyes of the Ganesha idol at our home when the Hon’ble Prime Minister made a comment about “small-eyed Ganesh idols” on May 27, 2025, during a public event in Gandhinagar, Gujarat. The remark was made in the context of a push for the “Make in India” initiative and a call to boycott foreign, particularly Chinese, goods. During my careful check, I found the size of its eyes small and it is certainly not a Ganesha idol manufactured in China. I am not sure whether Lord Ganesha has ever directed anyone not to make his eyes smaller in size when making his idols. He obviously must also never have asked anyone to make his eyes bigger in size. In my view, craftsmen (and women) do it prompted by their own imagination. So, in my understanding, irrespective of size of eyes of the Ganesha idol, I shall never have any problem with my love and respect for the deity.
The Recent Killing of a Student from Tripura
I rechecked the size of eyes of the Ganesha idol at my home, when recently some goons in Dehradun killed a student from Tripura. It was reported that he was constantly ridiculed by some local people for having smaller eyes and some other body features that didn’t match their own. I had encountered a similar problem in Delhi on many occasions when I went to study there in the early 1990s. On being asked about my nativity, whenever I told people of Delhi that I am from Odisha, they would often give me a vile facial expression while invariably passing a remark that they thought it a part of West Bengal or Bihar. On many occasions, I retorted asking them to get educated. But those were very different times. I certainly cannot come back alive if I advise the same to someone in Delhi in the present intolerant times. People in Delhi would also often call all persons from the southern states of India as Madrasi. This was not only lack of education, but also absence of respect, empathy, and lack of simple realisation that all others cannot be similar to them in their look, where they come from and the way they would express themselves in Hindi.
This kind of intolerance has been and is being largely manufactured by an organisation, its affiliates and its members who are presently celebrating hundred years of the organisation’s existence. I read a top functionary of the organisation recently making a statement that ‘the society listens to us.’ If society indeed listens to your organisation, why are you not asking the society to stop killing people of our country who have smaller eyes or those who look different? I think the correct interpretation of that statement is, some people in the society definitely listen to this organisation to spread hatred in the country and also to kill other Indians who look different.
Further, why is there a need to celebrate rapid growth of a tree variety that spreads poison? Do we celebrate alarming rate of growth in the number of people who consume alcohol and psychotropic drugs? Data available on the NDPS portal reveals that arrests rose from 73,841 in 2020 to 1,16,098 in 2024. States like Punjab, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, and Kerala stand out with consistently high case volumes of drug related cases. The Lancet reports that there has been a rapid change in patterns and trends of alcohol use in India. Chief among them is people are beginning to drink at ever-younger ages. The percentage of the drinking population aged under 21 years has increased from 2% to more than 14% in the past 15 years. Should we rejoice such a growth? If we shouldn’t, an organisation that has survived and grown disproportionately while spreading poison in society, must not be celebrated as well. Rather, all sections of the society must think of ways and means to protect the core values of peace, love, mutual respect, cooperation, and amity in the country.
Persistent Vile Temperament
The same vile temperament persists even after many expert committees, sociologists, psychologists, educationists, and activists from all over the country have expressed their concern on such anti-social and inhuman behaviour of people living in many north Indian states towards other Indians, especially those hailing from the north-eastern states. I consider someone calling another Indian as Chinese as a deeply anti-national act. All such people should be booked under stringent provisions of law in order to dissuade others to spread panic in the minds of people from the north-east.
It is not prudent to think that this type of temperament continues just because of lack of education. It is also persisting because of lack of sensitivity, parental and community apathy, and a culture of unacceptable tolerance towards such anti-social behaviour that could ultimately threaten the unity of India. When the Chinese are getting increasingly aggressive fuelled by a significant resetting of the geo-political order of the entire world led by ultra-provocative behaviour of USA, Russia, and Israel, seeding displeasure and lack of affinity in the minds of our own citizens living in the north-eastern states cannot be in the best interest of our country. No part of the country and no people of a particular part can ever think of itself as more important than another. That would be deeply against national interest and unity. There is an urgent need to fight this tendency at many levels – peer group, family, community, educational institutions, legal domains, and constitutional platforms.
Small Eyes Are Beautiful Too!
Coming back to smaller size of eyes, I have found through a simple online search that smaller eyes signify a personality that is more pragmatic and calculated. People with smaller eyes have greater focus without getting easily distracted. Logic, intelligence, and higher functionality are the hallmarks of people who have smaller eyes.
I admire my brothers and sisters from the north-east as they are smart, sensitive, humane, tolerant, and beautiful. I sincerely beg all people of the north-east to help other Indians in imbibing their admirable qualities. Let the love in your eyes and hearts bloom for those who don’t understand diversity, differences in human qualities and appearances as much as you do. Let’s pray together for all such fellow Indians to get blessed with saner thoughts and better deeds!
