A Founding of
the Hindu Rashtra – Not Just a Temple
This is an article written by Sri Virendra
Parekh, an editor and senior journalist in Mumbai. I am just sharing this verbatim
to those readers who are loyal to Ram and United India.
The bhoomi poojan of Ram temple in Ayodhya
is a major landmark on India’s journey towards the Hindu Rashtra. We are indeed
blessed to witness this historic moment. To grasp its true significance, one
has to view it in a perspective of centuries. The last millennium, which opened
with wanton destruction of Hindu temples by Islamic invaders, ended with a
powerful popular movement to restore the Ram Janmabhoomi temple in Ayodhya. The
current one opens with the foundation laying ceremony of that grand temple. No
wonder the country is celebrating it as a grand festival of civilisational
reaffirmation and resurgence.
To be sure, the challenges before the
Hindu civilisation, which remain multiple and serious, would not disappear with
the reconstruction of the Ram temple. The reconstruction, however, signifies
Hindu society’s determination to overcome these challenges and also holds out
an assurance of its success in this noble endeavour.
For centuries India has been struggling to
retain its civilizational identity. It has been a battleground of two
civilisations (Hindu and Islamic) for the last one thousand years and three
civilisations (Hindu, Islamic and Western) for nearly three centuries. Muslim
invaders were interested not just in enjoying India’s fabled wealth and power,
but also in driving out Hinduism (“kufr”) and establishing the “only true
religion”. Chronicles of their court historians testify to that. The
Britishers, too, were not as neutral or indifferent in civilisational issues as
it may appear at first sight. Macaulay’s famous minutes leave no doubt on that
score.
India did manage to retain her identity
through these turbulent centuries, but it could not defeat the invading
civilisations. It could neither absorb them fully through assimilation nor throw
out what could not be assimilated. This inability to reject what it could not
digest was the essence of foreign conquest. Even today, it has not gained that
freedom in full measure.
The unresolved tussle resulted in a
civilisational stalemate. This stalemate, as Girilal Jain pointed out three
decades ago, lies at the root of crisis of identity faced by our intelligentsia
over the last hundred years. Are we an ancient civilization under assault from
predatory forces or a hotchpotch of innumerable identities struggling to become
a nation? Should we cherish our culture as a unique and invaluable asset or cut
it asunder as burdensome deadwood from the past?
The foreign rule over the centuries,
meanwhile, divided our intelligentsia into broadly two groups. A large part of
it, which wanted to enjoy wealth, power, prestige, status and position decided
to collaborate with the ruling class by offering to serve it. A small part of
the intelligentsia stuck to its roots and refused to join the rulers. It was
driven out from the corridors of power, but its voice could never be completely
silenced.
Members of the former group learnt Persian
and Arabic, took up jobs under Muslim rulers and adopted their mores and
manners. The British Raj was much wider, stronger and more uniform. Most
members of the groups which had earlier collaborated with Muslim rulers now
donned the new attire with alacrity. Thousands of Hindus took to English
language, dress, manners and even ideas, ideals and thought processes. They
came to view themselves as partners of the rulers rather than the ruled. Nehrus
are a good example of this class. This rule—collaborate with rulers if you want
to come up socially—remained in operation even after independence.
It was this class of Anglicised brown sahibs,
with a history of serving successive foreign dispensations that formed the
dominant elite at the time of independence. With Jawaharlal Nehru as its
guiding star and spirit, it sought to remake India into a Western image. Indian
state under Nehru became a powerful agency for propagation of Western ideals
and institutions.
A word here about Communists is in order.
In India, the Western civilization is represented not so much by Christianity
as by Communism. Some Christians may appreciate the religiosity (not the
religion) of the Hindus. But the Communists’ contempt for Indian philosophy,
religion and civilization is deep, absolute, and uncompromising. They could
think of no greater calamity than India returning to its Hindu ethos.
To continue with the story, the dominant
left-leaning elite sought to mould India into a non-Hindu entity. It used
secularism to repudiate the Hindu ethos of India and socialism to humiliate the
weal-creating business class and subordinate it to the benefit of an ever
expanding rapacious neta-babu combine. Under its aegis, Hinduism came to be
viewed as synonymous with superstition, inequality and exploitation.
Nationalism became suspect and invoking India’s ancient civilization was
branded as communalism.
Ram Janmabhoomi movement was Hindus’
reaction to this soulless, rootless un-Indian state that had scant regard for
their concerns and sentiments. The overnight conversion to Islam of
Meenakshipuram village in Tamil Nadu in 1981, Khalistani terrorism in Punjab,
the overturning by the Parliament of the Supreme Court judgment in Shah Bano
case and fanning of separatism in J&K left Hindus deeply worried about
their future in their homeland. That is why the opening of padlocks at the
shrine at Ayodhya in 1986 and shilanyas at the sight in 1989, meant to be minor
diversions, became historic turning points. Ram came to occupy centre stage of
the public discourse.
Like a subterranean river bursting out in
a desert, Hindu awakening broke out into the open and carried away everything
before it. All attempts to smother it failed. This was the sentiment that saw
BJP under Narendra Modi win absolute majority in Lok Sabha elections twice in
succession. The civilizational stalemate that Girilalji spoke about is
beginning to resolve in favour of the Hinduism. The left-leaning intelligentsia
which dominated the public discourse has lost its political clout. Narendra
Modi is the most visible and powerful symbol of this transformation. No wonder
the dispossessed intellectual elite regard him as a mortal enemy.
The nature of the Indian state is
changing. Nehru as prime minister sought to prevent President Rajendra Prasad
from attending the Somnath temple renovation ceremony. Modi as prime minister
is going to lay the foundation stone himself. We have indeed come a long way.
The reconstruction of Ram temple is not
directed against the Muslims. The dispute is not between Hindus and Muslims but
between those who respect India’s civilizational ethos and those who wish to
destroy it. A Shia organization was among the first to announce donation for
the temple. Pakistani author Tarek Fatah has consistently supported the cause
of the Ram Janmabhoomi. On the other hand, Sharad Pawar was determined not to
attend the ceremony even if invited. Left to himself, Mani Shankar Aiyar may
perhaps erect the Babri mosque again at the spot.
An overwhelming majority of Muslims in the
Indian subcontinent are descendants of Hindu ancestors. In their veins also
flows the blood of Vedic sages and saints of yore. Vicissitudes of history tore
them away from their parent society. The temple reconstruction is an occasion
for all of us to remember this blood relation between India’s two major
communities. With silent endorsement of the temple reconstruction, Indian
Muslims can bond again with their parent society. Millions are doing it
already.
We may wish that all this should have
happened twenty, thirty, fifty years ago. But history or Mahakal moves at his
own pace. He cannot be pushed from behind; nor can his march be thwarted by
trying to block his path.
The bhoomi poojan is an occasion for all
of us to invoke Ram to be our unifier and liberator. Let Ram, who united the
royalty and laity of his kingdom with Tribals in forests and mountains in
distant lands, bring together estranged brothers in his homeland. Let Ram, who
liberated Sita from the bondage of Ravan, liberate us from the bondage of the
past and lead us to Ramarajya.
Jai Sri Ram.
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