Ram Janma bhoomi and the larger truth

The Bhoomi Pujan of Ram Mandir is an historic event for a civilizational country like India. It is a signal that India is willing to re-assert its civilizational ties with Bharat and is also willing to fight long battles at many fronts, legal, propaganda wars and also on the streets. This has not been an easy victory and because of the sensitive nature of the topic, often only the so called ‘rationalists’ have chosen to speak on the topic openly often without having read a word about it or at best quoting from the ‘Secular’ myths peddled by some media houses, hampering truth in the process. The Bhumi Pujan is an apt time to talk about this long battle and lay to the fore, the historical narratives around the case in particular but also to show how the civilization has survived the massive onslaught from the invaders and also their ‘fanatic religious zeal’ to destroy the faith of the non-righteous ‘idol worshipers’ and to establish what they called as the only true faith. 

Some global historical background: 

"Did they even notice this the destroyers, as they entered? Were they, even fleetingly, impressed by the sophistication of an empire that could quarry, sculpt then transport marble over such vast distances? Did they, even for a moment, admire the skill that could make a kissably soft looking mouth of hard marble? Did they, even for a second, wonder at its beauty? It seems not. Because when the men entered the temple they took a weapon and smashed the back of Athena’s head with single blow so hard that it capitulated the goddess. The head fell to the floor, slicing off that nose, crushing the once smooth cheeks. Athena’s eyes, untouched, looked out over a now-disfigured face. 

Dramatic though all this was, far more destruction was achieved through sheer neglect. In their silent copying-house the monks preserved much, but they lost far more. The atmosphere could be viciously hostile to non-Christian authors. Pagan books were requested by making a gaging gesture. Only 1% of Latin literature survived the centuries, 99% was lost. One can achieve a great deal by the blunt weapons of indifference and stupidity. 

Since then, and as I write, the Syrain civil war has left part of Syria under the control of new Islamic caliphate. In 2014, within certain areas of Syria, music was banned and books were burned. In 2015 the Islamic State militants started bulldozing the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud, just south of Mosul in Iraq because it was ‘idolatrous’ (people worshiping idols). ‘False idols must be destroyed they proclaimed. "

The above are some excerpts from a damning narrative book by Catherine Nixey ‘The Darkening Age- Christian destruction of the classical world’. As I read this book I felt sad about the entire episode which was kept hidden for so long, but to be honest as I read I was not surprised, as they say history may not repeat but it rhymes. I could see the stark similarities that ancestors of our civilisation had to face in medieval India. What Rome suffered at the hands of Christianity in the early years after its formations, India experienced at the hands of the barbaric tribes invading from another monotheistic cult which had developed in central Asia and Middle East. –Islam.

Some Indian Historical background. 

The Ram Janmabhoomi Case, especially the opening of the gates in 1986 brought again to the forefront the actual debate about Islamic iconoclasm (destruction of idols and temples). There were people in Indian who have done similar works as Catherine. Sita Ram Goel, Ram Swarup, Arun Shourie, Belgian historian Koenraad Elst and Meenakish Jain have all spent years documenting this history, the history that must not be talked about in public. Voice of India in 1991 and 1992 published two very important books on this subject Hindu temples- What happened to them. Vol1 and Vol2. This two books are a must read for people who want to know this subject in greater detail. An important part of this volume was the list of 2000 Muslim monuments built on the sites and/or with the materials of Hindu temples. The volume 2 was devoted exclusively to the Islamic evidence, historical as well as theological.

 "Islamic tradition from early on, viewed India as the land par excellence of idolatry. One hadith described India as the 1st country where idolatry was practised and stated that ancient Arab idol were of Indian origin. Mahmud Ghaznavi proudly professed himself on his coins ‘breaker of idols’. His standing in the Islamic world rested in two interlinked successes- breaking of idol and de-honoring of Hindu temple treasures of al-Hind. The cumulative effect of Islamic onslaughts was a thorough uprooting of the sacred geography of India. It would be phenomenal task to locate a Indic-(Hindu, Buddhists, Jain, and Sikh) shrine in northern India that pre-dated the eighteenth century." From Meenakshi Jain book –Flight of deities and rebirth of temples. 

The destruction was so great that Buddhism failed to recover from it's blows even today in India. The destruction of Nalanda and other such institutions is well known parts of the Indian history. Documented accounts of destruction of 20000 erstwhile Hindu temple or Buddhists, Jain monasteries are present, that occurred in the Indian Subcontinent in the medieval period. The city of Vijaynagar was the world’s wealthiest city at its prime and it took 4 Sultanates to mount a combine attack and some internal defections to take down the Empire. Even after the victory the Sultans kept destroying the city for 6 months so that nothing remained of its former glory. All the temples and monuments were destroyed. The readers can thus imagine, what remains at Hampi is nothing but a tiny little from the vast cultural footprints. 

 But the Hindu history has one difference from its Greeko-Roman counterparts. They fought, and not only did they fight they survived to tell the tail and even in some cases recovered the lost ground. The priests on many occasions moved the temple idols from its original place and buried it in some place to save them from the onslaught of the barbarians.  The Hindu, Sikh kings fought and survived and wherever they were in prominence they re-established the faith of the ancestors and their practices. The Cholas, the Vijaynagar Empire, Marathas, Sikhs, Ahom dynasty fought not just for their political positions but to protect Dharma at large from complete annihilation. A lot was lost, but some of it did survive and some of it is being revived even till date. The Vijaynagar Empire for e.g. As a popular folklore is, gave shelter to the Vitthal of Pandharpur when it was under attack, and then the Vitthal was reinstated to its original place after Maratha Empire was strongly established and downfall of VIjaynagar. Most prominent Hindu sights that have survived are because the priests, the kings and larger public all worked with the common goal of protecting the older Gods. The idols in Puri, Pandharpur, Tulzapur, Somnath have been reinstated a number of times, either preserved or rebuilt so that the Dharma is preserved. Kings and Jahagirdars like Sawai jaisingh , Shivaji, Sambhaji, Peshwas, Ahilya Bai all spent huge sum of money reviving whatever was left after the destruction. The Ganga gahts, the Ksahi Vishwanath temple, the Mathura sight, were all rebuilt either by the patronage they received from Rajputs or the Maraths during their rule and dominance. This are well documented accounts which were widely discussed in the pre independent India. But the onslaught was not complete, the Hindus after independence had to suffer from a different kind of fraud, fraud of Secular- Marxists historians and their denial. 

The Fraud of the Historians. 

"For the last half century and more, certain academic writings on India have exhibited a remarkable proclivity to extricate Islamic iconoclasm from the religion of Islam. The wholesale destruction of sacred shrines in the subcontinent has been dismissed as a “lust for plunder,” unconnected in any way from the Quranic injunctions. Irfan Habib proclaimed that the expeditions of Mahmud Gaznavi  were economic and not religious, ignoring the Qurans’s explicit hostilities to idols and idolatry." Meenakshi Jain –Flight of deities and Rebirth of temples. 

"The Ram Janmabhoomi movement brought cheer to the Hindus and they started counting days for the mandir to be built there, but they were counting without the stalwarts of Secularism in the Nehruvian establishment. It was not long before a hysterical cry was heard -‘Secularism in danger!’

The Statement in your newspaper report that the site of Mathura is to be ‘liberated’ and handed over to the ‘rightful owners; as the birthplace of Krishna raises the questions of the limits to the logic of restoration of religious sites. How far are we to go? Can we push this to the restoration of the Buddhist and Jain monuments destroyed by the Hindus? Or a pre-Hindu animist shrines? The letter was signed by  Romila Thappar, Bipin Chandra, H Mukhia, and S Gopal well known Marxist historians. This letter was published in Times of India.  Quite a few readers of TOI including several professors of equal rank wrote letters challenging the facts as well as the logic of the Marxist professors, but none of the letters were published. Some non-discreet letter were published and TOI declared that the ‘controversy had been closed.’ Little did it know it had only begun? Marxist historians charged TOI of being ‘communalist’. The other side waited for their articles to be published but TOI under pressure and wanting to look Secular did not let the other side publish as it developed cold feet, and tried to brush the matter aside to sound Secular instead of publish some fact on the case." Sita Ram Goel- Vol2 hindu temples what happened to them. 

Sita Ram Goel, Meenakshi Jain, Arun Shourie in his classic 'Eminent Historians Their Technology, their line, their fraud,' all put together have exposed  the Marxist historians to the core. The final blow off course was received by them when the Supreme Court in its observations said that, “the report by the so called ‘historians’ can at best be taken as their opinion but not as statements of facts.” The fact that in the court of law hardly anyone came to testify their public statements made through new papers for years on Ram Janmabhoomi, the questioning was existence of Lord Ram, the doubt they cast on the ASI which had in the in the 80 and 90s already produced documented evidence of a Hindu temple form 12th century, also accepted by Supreme court in its judgement, the historians lost the complete face and credibility. This are our “eminent historians.”

The Ayodhya Case:

The temple at Ayodhya was destroyed in 1528 by Babur and a mosque built there subsequently in his honor using the remains of the temple as was the practice. The Hindus kept fighting for the Janmasathan even when they were out of power and had no means to sustain this fights. A host of historical accounts from the foreign travelers from various hues have confirmed the continuing clashes to reclaim their land. 

"The Austrian Jesuit, Joseph Tieffenthaler, who toured Awadh between 1761 and 1771, saw Hindus worshipping a religious structure in the form of cradle. Walter Hamilton in his Gazetteer of 1828, also noted the influx of pilgrims who “resort to the vicinity,” where the remains of the ancient city of Oude (Awadh) and the capital of great Rama are still to be seen. The extensive court case after 1857 demonstrated the continuing Hindu claim to the site. They also confirmed that large crowds visited Ayodhya throughout those centuries, particularly Ram Navmi. A letter from R Burn, Chief Secretary to the government of the United Provience, dated 25th January 1913, stated that, “one perpetual case of friction was the existence of a mosque on the traditional site of Sri Ram’s birthplace. This was constructed in 1528 by Emperor Babur who destroyed the ancient temple and used its material for the ne building.”  The lieutenant-Governor, who visited Ayodhya on 18th July 1915, observed, “it is very difficult… for anyone who is not a Hindu to appreciate the reverence which they feel for the Holy ground of Ayodhya.” After Independence the Hindu public presented an application to the UP government for the construction of Ram temple near the mosque. The city magistrate submitted an report on on 10th October 1949, where he stated the Hindus have to construct a Vishal Ram temple in Ayodhya.” Meenakshi Jain –Flight of Deities and Rebirth of temples. 

Thus clearly the case in Ayodhya was fought by the Hindus right from 1528 when the Mandir was destroyed right upto 2020 when the Supreme Court finally ruled the case in the favor of the Hindus.

Summary: 

The entire account and purpose of this article was to show, far from the popular narrative, the case as portrayed in the popular media, about the Hindu aggression on the “minorities” of India, the case is actually testimony to the long hard battle the Hindus have fought just to reclaim one of the 20000 odd sights they lost during the Islamic invasion. This is totally not to suggest that reverse should take place and the Hindus go about destroying the Islamic structures. The Hindu do not see religion as a monolith. They are the last surviving traditions of what westerners call Pagans who welcome other Gods in their pantheon with equal ease and start their worship as one more God in already 33 crores. But it would be dishonest to whitewash the horrors of the medieval period as some figment of imagination of certain hindus and disregard the entire narrative as “communal”. Far from it if genuine Secular traditions have to take root in India the starting point should be the case were the so called “ Secular Progressives” of India accept the facts of Islamic invasion which was raw barbarism unfolding on inheritors of this land. Let the Bhoomi Pujan of Ram temple act as that occasion were the ground is also laid for bigger truth to be laid out in the open without it been covered by false sense of Secularism! “ Jai Shree Ram.”