NPR reported today on a perfect example of the power of symbols in society. Two reporters traveling down the Grand Trunk Road, which runs the length of India, saw a strange phenomenon when in Punjab, a sort of nouveau-riche state near the India-Pakistan border (The journalists can explain a lot better than I can about how the statues look and function within society, so click here for the full story). What I could comment on, thanks to our rhetoric class, was how the large, colorful concrete statues the journalists saw perched on top of roofs and by roadsides fit into Kenneth Burke's symbol schema. These statues serve as nothing more than status symbols: none of the locals could provide any logic or background information about what the statues symbolize or represent, other than to say that only wealthy Sikhs own them. Not just any Sikhs, by the way--in the rapidly industrializing Punjab, these Sikhs often traveled abroad to earn a great deal of wealth, which they sent home to their families. The NPR journalists commented on the pervasiveness of McDonalds' drive-thrus, car dealerships, and all sorts of Western-style advertising not as present in poorer areas of India. I couldn't help but wander if the idea of identifying with some sort of icon or symbol seen in these advertisements hadn't seeped into the Sikh consciousness, making them ready for some sort of symbol of their own with which to indicate status. No matter what the underlying cause, the facts remains that Sikhs of Punjab have chosen concrete statues of airplanes, eagles, lions, and other fantastic creatures as their symbols of inclusion.
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