By M.R. Narayan Swamy, IANS
Beijing : In a country of state-sponsored atheists, China still boasts of one god: Mao Zedong.
Three decades after he died, the Great Helmsman remains a highly revered figure although China’s neo-capitalist economy has consumed the uncompromising socialism he preached.
Almost daily, thousands of Chinese, dominantly from its rural areas and provinces, file past the embalmed remains of the man who led the Communists to power and founded the People’s Republic in 1949.
“Most people consider Mao a god, a real god,” explained Kapil Gautam, a young Indian yoga teacher in China who interacts closely with the locals.
“Mao’s contribution to the fight against Japanese invasion and his advocacy of women’s rights and communal lifestyle are remembered with a lot of gratitude,” Gautam told IANS. “People get pleased if you say ‘Mao tse chi wansui!’ (Long Live Mao!)”
There is no mistaking the deep regard for Mao as men, women and children line up outside the Mao Mausoleum at the Forbidden City in the very heart of Beijing for a glimpse of the leader.
The mausoleum is an imposing edifice. The tomb has been built using natural resources sourced from the length and breadth of the country he presided over for 27 long years until his death.
It is no doubt symbolic of the fact that Mao ended up uniting a country that for centuries was wracked by internal strife.
Although entry to the mausoleum is free – one of the rare things that still costs nothing in semi-capitalist China – the complex is not devoid of a little commerce.
Once the queues of people go past the security checks, the officers giving friendly glances to the handful of foreigners, it is time for a group of teenage girls to sell neatly folded coloured brochures that explain Mao’s life history. Each brochure costs two yuan.
A hushed silence descends on the crowd as it is allowed into the main hall where lies the embalmed remains, the leader’s seemingly smiling face lit by an artificial glow, the body covered by a huge hammer and sickle Chinese flag.
Behind the body is a huge Mao statue in white, showing the man seated on a chair.
Much like sanctum sanctorum of major Hindu temples in India, no one gets to stay put and watch the embalmed remains. They get only one quick glance before the guard signals overawed visitors to move on.
Once they stream out, there are plenty of attractions, all about Mao: books, medals, buttons, pins, watches, pens, hangings, framed pictures, postcards et al. They cost upwards of 15 yuan.
Many would be bought and preserved across China in memory of the man who presided over a sweeping revolution, the biggest after Lenin’s feat in Russia in 1917.
Long time residents attest to Mao’s persisting influence over China, particularly among the middle aged and the elderly who had seen a more egalitarian even if turbulent society.
Of Hunanese peasant stock, Mao, born in 1893, rose to be an expert par excellence in guerrilla war that got emulated in many countries — with some success and a great deal of disaster.
The “Long March” of 9,656 km that Mao led at the helm of the Red Army in 1934-35 is regarded as a great military accomplishment.
His rule post-1949, however, produced many upheavals, particularly during the failed “Great Economic Leap Forward” in 1958 that led to millions of deaths and the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution.
All that is history for the man on the street now used to high-rise buildings, Western brands, chic shopping malls and open display of wealth. This is not what Mao stood for. Yet in people’s minds and hearts, the man himself lives on.