Our Monuments: What do they symbolise?

By – Anirudh Garg

On your first trip to the Taj Mahal, you would have been itched to click a picture of yourself trying to hold the monument from its tip, obviously imitating to do so from a distance and not actually grasping it. Well, it is nothing short of a ritual for any tourist visiting the Taj Mahal. While a few theories without a head or a tail try to justify that Shah Jahan chopped the hands of the labourers of the Mahal, the monument still holds immense significance in the Indian heritage.

Often termed as a symbol of love, Taj Mahal depicts the great architectural mastery Indians had from the very beginning. Today, the state-of-the-art monument is the prime tourist attraction and contributes a major chunk to Indian tourism.

While most of the monuments were built in the pre-historic and pre-democratic times, the latest addition to the Indian collection came into existence in 2018. Inaugurated by the Prime Minister of India, the Statue of Unity, as its name suggests, symbolises unity. However, the reason behind its formation stands questionable because of its high cost. If economists are to be believed, the statue will continue recovering the revenue from its building cost in many decades to come.

A fact that is not new to any Indian is that our country preserves the most diverse cultures and heritages. The beautiful and visionary monuments built by the former rulers epitomize Indian culture and exude great Indian architecture. Other than their beauty, they also bring a sarcastic side to our notice. Being built centuries ago with minimal resources, the monuments still hold their structure strong to date. However, the infrastructure developed today using high-tech resources, doesn’t take a lot of effort and time to break down.

The Indian capital, New Delhi, and its neighbouring regions are a hub of historic monuments of great importance and pride. On one hand, Qutub Minar symbolizes victory, on the other hand, Lal Qila(Red Fort) is often seen as a symbol of rebellion. The Red Fort, for that matter, is a very important building for the Indian constitution as the nation’s Prime Minister hoists the national flag on it every Independence day. The ritual is being followed since our first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, performed the same on the Lahori Gate of the Red Fort.

Monuments play a crucial role in preserving a nation’s heritage and culture. Coming from different backgrounds, the citizens feel connected to each other’s culture through a glimpse of the historic structures. From Konark Temple in Odisha to The Gateway Of India in Mumbai and from Taj Mahal in Agra to the iconic temples in southern India, every memorial glorifies various cultures of our country. From depicting love to victory and from science to harmony, Indian architecture covers all bases making India a truly great country.

DE-DOLLARISATION (RUSSIA CHINA FINANCIAL ALLIANCE)

China has been in the news since the beginning of the 2020 pandemic- the outbreak of COVID-19. It has been a focal point of hatred across the globe, being allegedly accused of having infected the globe with the Novel Coronavirus, still unknown whether deliberately or accidentally. 

Giving it tough competition, Russia made it to the headlines as a ray of hope in this pandemic when President Putin announced that Russia had successfully devised the vaccine for COVID-19. Sadly, the vaccine turned out to be a flop and the ray turned out to be ephemeral.

But this wasn’t the only hot update in the happenings of these two countries; another big update was the De-dollarisation: the Russia-China Financial Alliance.

De-dollarisation, by definition, is the holding of assets and liabilities, by residents, denominated in a foreign currency and is a policy concern in an increasing number of developing economies.

Now, what is the main intention behind it ? The major  intention for countries to do so is to position themselves in order to be less affected by U.S. financial sanctions. The global policies for de-dollarization include sharply reducing US debt holdings, dropping the US dollar’s status as an anchor currency. It also includes increasing non-dollar bulk commodity trade, growing the reserve of non-dollar currencies and ramping up gold’s edge against the dollar.

China and Russia, after talking for years, have finally decided to abandon the US dollar for real. This action has been in talks  for both the countries since 2014, when they began expanding economic cooperation following Moscow’s estrangement from the West over its annexation of Crimea. Thus replacement of the dollar in trade settlements became a necessity to sidestep U.S. sanctions against Russia. A major  reason for its emphasis on de-dollarization is that U.S. sanctions are extra-territorial and they target all companies using the U.S. dollar or operating stateside subsidiaries. Thus, avoiding reliance on the dollar is therefore seen as a way for Russia to bypass sanctions.

In the first quarter of 2020, the share of the dollar in trade between the countries had fallen below 50 percent for the first time. Now, after putting the plan into action, according to a Moscow Daily, the  share of dollars has dropped to 46 percent, dropping from whopping 75 percent in 2018. The 54 percent of non-dollar trade is made up of Chinese yuan (17%), the euro (30 %) and the Russian ruble (7 %).

Russia and China have now drastically cut their use of the dollar in bilateral trade spanning over the past several years. In 2015, approximately 90 percent of bilateral transactions were conducted in dollars. After the outbreak of the US-China trade war and a concerted push by both Moscow and Beijing to move away from the dollar, however, the figure had dropped to 51 per cent by 2019.

In January, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov explained that Moscow is continuing with “its policy aimed at gradual de-dollarisation” and is looking into making deals in local currencies, wherever possible. Lavrov called the rejection of the greenback “an objective response to the unpredictability of US economic policy and the outright abuse by Washington of the dollar’s status as a world reserve currency.” Movement away from the dollar can also be seen in Russia’s trade with other parts of the world, such as the European Union. Since 2016, trade between Moscow and the bloc has been mainly in Euros, with the current share sitting at 46 percent. 

Since the 21st century began, many doubters of de-dollarisation have been holding that global de-dollarisation is still in its infancy.  In their opinion, markets are mainly dependent on the US dollar. But the COVID-19 pandemic seems to have triggered a faster de-dollarisation progress. Taking into account other countries’ diplomatic decisions and the market’s expectations for the US dollar, one can judge that the US can never form a strategic containment circle against China. 
China is confident in this.