India’s State Emblem Has Fangs

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled a bronze cast replica of the Mauryan lions of Sarnath, the symbol of the Indian State, on top of the new parliament building. The event was immediately accompanied by howls of protest from those who argued that the lions have been depicted baring their fangs and, consequently, look too aggressive. Is this criticism justified?

The attempt to tone down the state emblem is just one instance of post-Independence India trying to build a mythical pacifist history to conform to an equally tilted narrative about India’s Freedom Struggle being almost entirely non-violent. This is also true of the story of Emperor Ashoka becoming a pacifist Buddhist after the Kalinga War. The truth is that no primary text links Ashoka’s conversion to Buddhism to regret over the death and destruction in Kalinga. All the evidence suggests that he was already a practicing Buddhist years before the war. Even the supposed “regret” expressed in one of his edicts is just a prelude to threatening a local forest tribe with the same violence. Buddhist texts from Sri Lanka clearly mention how Ashoka ordered mass killings of Jains and Ajivikas well after his conversion.