Religious structures too have become
bigger and vicious in its competition and posturing. The more unenlightened and
primitive the society the worse it becomes. It rarely has the aesthetic
connections that traces to its spiritual beginnings and benign intents. They are
another extension of acquisitive culture and predatory mindset. The world doesn’t really need any more religious structures. It needs more space for
silence, a place to commune with oneself and nature. The world needs more open
spaces and gardens, and increasing connection and awareness of biodiversity. It’s
about time that in the name of faith, hard earned and immensely valued, democratic
systems are not allowed to be ransacked. Lots of damage has been done in recent
times. Exciting technologies are only fueling the baser selves.
The tragedy of Ayodhya is part of
this nonsense that is being served on tribulations of common people. 'Lord Ram' is
significant presence for people in north India (it has pan India impact and is
part of daily life in north India). When you meet someone in village the common
salutation is ‘ram ram bhaiya’ when they take dead body for cremation they pray
‘ram naam satya hai’ all through the journey. These are essential part of life
in north India and reference of Ram is indelible part of popular culture and tradition. 'Lord Ram' is a significant part
of their faith and reality of life in this region, so is the stories related to him as avatar that is known to every Hindu which adds to the aura. What is also known
to every Hindu is that Ram was born in Ayodhya, and this is an ancient 'knowledge'.
These may not pass any factual scrutiny but what is true to most is that Ram
was born in Ayodhya as an ancient belief. Therefore it can easily be logically
be conjectured that there must have been a big temple in Ayodhya dedicated to
lord ram. And it very likely that these were destroyed by Muslim invaders. And that
there was nothing wrong in these acts of destruction since these were norms of
the time (as also Hindus too have destroyed many Buddhist sites, so too one
sect against another, it’s always byproduct of power) as also there was always intention
to loot as temples were known to be endowed with riches hence easy target. Most
importantly these were squatter occupied caste nurturing sites that spread the worst forms of infection
into society and were centers emanating degrading value system. So the
destruction temples were not entirely unwelcomed by common people.
But Ayodhya need to be seen in a
different perspective since it is connected to the daily life of millions of
common people and lack of temple in what is considered as the most sacred site
was a glaring absence. This is an unbelievably significant emotive issue. The manipulative
cunning politicians realize it. If Castetva forces had any empathetic context
they would have rectified it at the onset when India got independence, it was
easiest thing to do without causing any harm. But they used this emotive issue as a festering opportunity to showcase their benign self to the world (specifically West, from
where they desperately seek nourishment to pose as liberals). They exhibited their
unique entitlement of proprietorship over misery ridden common hindus while they patronized beleaguered muslims with fanfare called secularism they acquired to hide their primitive selves.
In the meanwhile to get the enmity thriving they acted to keep the emotive issue
burning and incrementally allowed it to deteriorate, to fuel the situation into
crisis and went about milking it. These are the most dangerous people, they pose
as benign "trustees" but cannibalize. The arrogance and special place in universe
assured them that they could control it while playing liberal secular to the
world. What they did not factor was Hindutva snatching the control. Indeed Castetva
worked to help Hindutva to easily snowball it and gain credibility. Hindutva is
the reality while Castetva is fake and devious. Whether Hindutva is able to
work on the egalitarian aspects of Hinduism is the challenge. It is an uphill
task since Castetva have seriously degraded the society, as also they will seek
to vitiate to gain control (a study of sabarimala issue will help to understand this
critical matter). So instead of finding the egalitarian references things will
get reactive as Castetva will mimic soft Hindutva in an existential fight to
not get sucked by it. Castetva is a subset of Hindutva, desperately posturing
liberal secular will not help stop the breach. The fake will have to find their
true self. Power and greed will make it easy homecoming. Castetva holds no
solution, and are indeed part of the problem. It’s better for sane people to
shift their attention to Hindutva and help it work to steer towards egalitarian value
systems. Difficult since at the end of the day religion too is problematic.
It was therefore but natural for
temple to be at Ayodhya, it was already an emotive issue connected to
millions of common hindus of this region much vitiated by cunning politicians. Anything
else would have had serious ramifications. It’s not really about majoritarianism
or unleashing of fascism (it's interesting castetva taking up fascism!) as is
being posited by cunning posing as liberal secular. SC has dealt the matter
competently and was much nuanced in its dealings. Ideally a garden would have
been much better option but in the context of the heightened emotions, also understanding
how much deeply it is connected to narration of faith for common Hindus in the
region, it is surely sacrilegious. Mosque issue here is not connected to common
Muslims and is being exaggerated by cunning section posing high morals at the
expense of common people. They really want common muslims to become extreme,
and yes some leaders will seek to gain but this will be against the interest of
common people –whom they don’t much care when the gravy is somewhere else. These
are fuelled by dangerous forces who conveniently ignore the ground reality and cataclysmic
undercurrents for personal gain. Religious structures have lived their life
but a temple in Ayodhya for Ram brings an end to centuries long contentious matter.
It’s time to move forward.