The
Symbol of Ayodhya
François Gautier
http://www.swordoftruth.com/swordoftruth/articles/revelation/revelation1.html
How
many of those who have lambasted so many times the "Hindu
fundamentalists" and lamented the destruction of the Babri Masjid mosque as
the "death of secularism in India", have been to Ayodhya? (not
Faizabad, mind you, which is Ayodhya's twin Muslim city). When one arrived in
Ayodhya before the destruction of the mosque, one was struck by the fact that it
was a Hindu town "par excellence". More than Benares even, it is
dotted everywhere with innumerable temples; it has all these old Hindus houses
and this lovely river with its ghats which runs through the lower town. And
then, forlorn on the top, there was this lone mosque with its two ugly domes,
which looked so out of place and unused, that any one with a right sense -and
that includes the Muslims- should see that it was not worth making an issue of.
The destruction of the Babri Masjid still evokes such fiery reactions, that the
importance of Ayodhya has been totally overlooked: Ayodhya is a symbol, through
which two India's are facing each other. And the outcome of their confrontation
will shape the future of this country for generations to come.
The first India wants to be
secular and unite together through an egalitarian, democratic spirit all the
minorities, ethnic groups, religions and people of the country. But the question
is: what would be the binding element of this kind of India? Secularism, says
the first side. But secularism has a different meaning for each one. For the
British, it was a convenient way to divide and rule, by treating each Indian
community on par, although some were in minority and others in majority, thereby
planting the seeds of separatisms. For the Congress Party, it has always meant
giving in to the Muslims' demands, because its leaders never could really make
out if the allegiance of Indian Muslims first want to India and then to Islam -
or vice-versa. And for India's intelligentsia, its writers, journalists, top
bureaucrats, the majority of whom are Hindus, it means, apart from belittling
its own religion and brothers, an India which would be a faithful copy of the
West: liberal, modern, atheist, industrialized, intellectual and
western-oriented.
Moreover,
what makes India unique? Certainly not its small elite which apes the West;
there are millions of these western clones in the developing world who wear a
tie, read the New York Times and swear by liberalism and secularism to save
their countries from doom. Nor its modern youth, whom you meet in Delhi's swank
parties, who are full of the MTV culture, wear the latest Klein jeans and
Lacoste T Shirts, and who in general are useless, fat, rich parasites, in a
country which has so many talented youngsters who live in poverty. Not even its
political, bureaucratic and judicial system; it's a copy of the British set up,
which is not fully adapted to India's unique character and conditions. What
then?
The second India which is
confronting the other through the Ayodhya issue is, of course, the India of the
Hindus. When Imam Bhukari states that "we (the Mughals) gave everything to
this country, its culture, its manners, its arts, and the Hindus by destroying
the Babri Masjid showed how little gratitude they have", apart from making
a pompous declaration, he proclaims exactly the opposite of the reality. Because
the truth is that not only Hinduism is what makes India unique, so different
from all the other nations of the world, but it is the single most important
influence in Indian history. In the words of Sri Aurobindo, India's Great Sage
and Modern Age Avatar: "The inner principle of Hinduism, the most tolerant
and receptive of all religious systems, is not sharply exclusive like the
religious spirit of Christianity or Islam...it is the fulfilment of the highest
tendencies of human civilisation and it will include in its sweep the most vital
impulses of modern life.."
And indeed, if you look at
India today, you find that Hinduism has permeated, influenced, shaped, every
part of this country, every religion, every culture. Be it the Christians who
are like no other Catholics of the world, or Indian Muslims, who whatever they
may say, are utterly different from their brothers in Saudi Arabia. But Hinduism
is too narrow a word, it's a corruption of the original word "Indu",
for true Hinduism is Dharma, India's infinite and eternal spiritual knowledge,
which took shape into so many varied expressions throughout the ages, be it the
Vedantas, Buddhism, or the Arya Samaj and which is today still very much alive
in India, particularly in its rural masses, which after all constitute 80% of
its population. And the words of the great Sage still echo in our ears:
"Each nation is a shakti or power of the evolving spirit in humanity and
lives by the principle it embodies. India is the Bharata Shakti, the living
energy of a great spiritual conception- and fidelity to it is the very principle
of her existence...But we must have a firm faith that India must rise and be
great and that everything that happened, every difficulty, every reverse must
help and further the end..."
What
one has to grasp is that the issue of Ayodhya only makes sense when the immense
harm the Muslims did to India is not negated, as indeed it has been and still is
today in the official History books in the West - and sadly in India also. The
Muslim jehad against Hindus, alas, continues even today, whether in Kashmir,
where the last Hindus were made to flee in terror, or in Bangladesh and
Pakistan, where the crowds still regularly go on rampage against Hindus and
their temples (as told by a Bangladeshi Muslim herself, Talisma Nasreen). It is
in this light, that it becomes extraordinary for an impartial observer to see
today that when for once, the Hindus wanted to displace, not even to destroy,
ONE mosque and rebuild the "temple", which they believe was built in
this particular place, for one of their most cherished Gods, the one which is
loved universally by all, men, women, children, THEY were treated as rabid
fundamentalists. The great Mughals must be laughing all the way down their
graves! What a reversal of situation! What a turnabout of history! And when the
mosque was destroyed, it evoked such fiery reactions, such pompous, overblown,
sanctimonious, holier-than-thou, atrocious, ridiculous, sly and totally
undeserved outrage, both within India and in the Western world (who should be
the last one to give lessons to India), that the importance of Ayodhya as a
symbol has been totally overlooked.
The obvious trap is to think
that the demolition of the mosque in Ayodhya is something to gloat about and
that it is the duty of all good Hindus to see that other important mosques at
Mathura, Vanarasi, or elsewhere, be also razed to the ground; or that all cities
with a Muslim name be renamed with a Hindu one. This is not true Hinduism, which
has always shown its tolerance and accepted in its fold other creeds and faiths.
Indeed a true "Hindu" India will be secular in the correct sense of
the term: it will give freedom to each religion, each culture, so that it
develops itself in the bosom of a Greater India, of which dharma, true
spirituality, will be the cementing factor.
Nevertheless, the destruction of the Babri
Masjid, however unfortunate, has made
its point: the occult Mughal hold over Hindu India has been broken and centuries
of Hindu submission erased. Hindus have proved that they too can fight
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