Ram Temple: Modi Has To Redeem The Sacred Pledge

The people of India have given the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led by Narendra Modi a second term with an even bigger majority than they did in 2014. The party has won 303 seats on its own and has got more than 50 per cent vote share in as many as 16 states and Union Territories.

In fact, the BJP along with its allies — they too rode the Modi wave — got the same vote share, 45 per cent, in an intensely competitive and fractured environment, that Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru did in the first election to the Lok Sabha, when there was virtually no opposition to the Congress. Then, only 1,849 candidates from 53 parties contested, as against 8,040 from over 2,000 registered parties this time.

Whichever way you look at it, the 2019 victory of the BJP is the biggest and most defining ever, in India’s history.

A number of factors have, undoubtedly, contributed to this thumping and unprecedented win, but the one that really turned the wave of 2014 into the tsunami of 2019, is the trust that people have in Prime Minister Modi’s intention and ability to deliver what he promises. By that yardstick, there has not been another PM like him.

Though this has given him a heady win, it also means that the fall will be precipitous, if he fails to live up to expectations during his second term.

In Existence, Courtesy Lord Ram

But for Shri Ram, BJP would still be languishing as a perennial loser at the national level. He gave BJP its first big win in Uttar Pradesh and, later, in the Centre. But the moment the BJP led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee formed the government, it consigned the promised Ram Temple at Ram Janmabhoomi to the dustbin. People saw in it a betrayal of the worst kind, and in 2004, made it clear that they had not voted for a poor Xerox of the Congress party.

Although there was little forward movement on the Ram Temple during Modi’s first term, there was no abandonment of it either. In fact, in the run-up to the elections, BJP made every effort to assure its voters that that the party was committed to it, and needed a second Modi term to see it through.

In 2010, just before the Allahabad High Court delivered its verdict in the Ram Temple case, Lutyens media, expecting a verdict in favour of Muslims, went into overdrive to convince Hindus that India — read Hindus — had moved on and was no longer interested in a Ram Temple at Ramjanmabhoomi. The usual ‘Hindu’ suspects were also pressed into service, allegedly at the behest of Sonia Gandhi’s Congress party, to call Shri Ram a mythical figure, and make a case for building a hospital or a school at the holy spot, to liberate which Hindus have been fighting for centuries.

No one asked, then, whether Muslims had moved even an inch, and no one questioned their continuing support, even post-1947, for the invading barbarian who had razed the original Ram Temple in 1528.

If Ram Is Faith, So Is Allah. Why The Selective Demand For Proof Of Existence?

Ram is faith, as is Allah. In matters of faith, there never can be historical evidence or proof of the sort that courts of mortals require. Allah and Ram are real and living for those who believe and mythical for those who don't. Allah revealed Himself to the Prophet through an angel no one else saw or heard. Ram revealed Himself to Valmiki, a Dalit dacoit who became a saint after much penance, and, later, to Goswami Tulsidas. This is the belief of their followers. They do not need any 'proof' of their existence, or of Ram’s birth at the Janmasthan.

Lawyer Asaduddin Owaisi says the Supreme Court cannot decide the case in favour of Hindus on faith; it has to adjudicate solely on the basis of legal evidence. But Owaisi, a staunch Islamist, wants the Babri Mosque to be resurrected because, as per his understanding of his faith, only a mosque can be built at a spot where a mosque once existed. When told that mosques are regularly razed and shifted in Muslim countries, including the home of Islam, Saudi Arabia, he says what happens elsewhere is of no consequence; in India, his interpretation of his faith holds.

In sum, what this means is that the Supreme Court and the Hindu faith must both yield to Muslim faith, as interpreted by Owaisi, Babri Masjid Action Committee and their ilk, and agree to building a mosque instead of a Ram Temple at the holiest of holy Hindu spots. At the same time, they are also fine with temples - not built over mosques - still being destroyed brazenly in parts of undivided India currently under Muslim rule, the Kashmir Valley included. It is this attitude that has made anti-Muslim a positive Temple sentiment that never was anti-Mosque or anti-Muslim to begin with; no other mosque was attacked anywhere.

Be that as it may, the reality is that the invader-built structure has gone and a functional temple is in place at the Janmasthan. Hindus have shown enormous tolerance and patience, qualities that have enabled them to survive and outlast all other civilisations of the world, in so far as the building of a grand temple there is concerned. This is not ‘moving on’ as rootless Lutyenites like to believe, but a civilisational and spiritual maturity that followers of aggressive and violent “me-only” ideologies cannot fathom.

But, let there be no doubt that should anyone try to remove the idols of Ram Lalla from the temple, much less construct a mosque over it, Hindus will not embrace them with a naive sentiment of brotherhood.

In 1986, Rajiv Gandhi got the locks of the disputed structure opened. In 1989, he not only allowed shilanyas of the Ram Temple at the disputed site, but also began his own election campaign from Ayodhya with a promise to usher in Ram Rajya if elected. Had he lived and won power, there is little doubt that a grand Ram Temple would have come up, and much of what happened later avoided.

An Italian Job, Deviously Done

Unfortunately, with the rise of Sonia Gandhi, his Italian-born wife, who is said to have become an Indian citizen only eight years before his assassination, Islamic fundamentalists and Hindu-hating Marxists became all-powerful, and what looked like an easy resolution became an intractable confrontation that frightened even leaders of the BJP. Ever since then, every politician has been trying to squeeze political milk out of the situation. That milk, as Guru Nanak once demonstrated in another but related context, is red in colour, and people have seen it.

In 2014, many people, a large section of Hindus particularly, voted for Narendra Modi because he was quite unlike timorous BJP leaders who craved acceptance by ‘secular’ political parties and the Lutyens ecosystem, even if it meant betraying the causes they espoused and got votes for. Five patient years later, they have given him another five years, because they have sound reasons to believe that he will not sell them short, even though they are troubled by his prioritising of minority appeasement over core issues that set the BJP apart from Rahul Gandhi’s Congress.

The Supreme Court’s delaying tactics, the Congress party’s treachery - it is paying dearly for it - and the intransigence of Islamists notwithstanding, people expect Prime Minister Modi to finally undo this grievous historical wrong and find a way to clear the road for construction of a grand Ram Temple well before 2024.

All Hopes On PM Modi

People see in Narendra Modi the leader they were looking for but never found, and will not accept any excuse from him for failure on this count. They have patiently made, suffered and seen off leaders who failed them, and have given Modi a historic mandate so that he can unlock the door that his predecessors were afraid to even knock, and give Ram Lalla the temple He has been patiently waiting for. They are now convinced that its time has come.

No one knows this better than Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself.

This post was first published in Swarajya https://swarajyamag.com/politics/shri-ram-is-the-secret-of-bjps-energy-it-must-never-ever-forget-that

AYODHYA: A WISE, 'MOVE ON' VERDICT

I too have something to say to add to the debate that has begun in the wake of the Ayodhya verdict which, in sum, accepts the core Hindu claim over the garb griha where idols of Ram Lalla are presently installed, and respects the fact that a mosque stood over the disputed land for centuries.

The verdict has surprised everyone because they were all expecting a judgment that would lead to Hindus being asked to remove the idols. That is perhaps why the media was tasked to prepare Hindus to accept the expected verdict, by coining catchy slogans like "India has moved on," "India first" etc. The poorly camouflaged idea of the campaign seemed to be to create a division between ordinary, disinterested Hindus and strident Hindu religious and political groups so that adequate pressure could be brought to bear upon the latter to compel them to accept the verdict as well as blunt their efforts to mobilise Hindu opinion to thwart any move to shift the idols. So isolated, it was thought, such groups could then be conclusively defeated by berating them 24/7 as the 'lunatic fringe' etc, and the land handed over to Muslims after tempers had cooled down.

This strategy was, undoubtedly, formulated by non-Hindus who have little connect with and understanding of the religion of their birth, and the feelings of the hundreds of millions whose faith remains unshaken despite centuries of oppression and even ridicule.

Can the idol of Ram Lalla really be shifted from the sanctum sanctorum? When asked this question during a TV debate, Najeeb Jung did not take more than a second to say: "impossible".

This is the central point that has escaped attention of the 'secular' brigade. That is why some of them are busy trashing the verdict on all kinds of specious grounds and spewing venom that can only lead to communal polarisation and violence, something that will politically harm only the Congress, the very party they believe they are trying to protect. Why have they missed the core? In my view, it is primarily because they are looking at the dispute in narrow contemporary political and electoral terms alone.

The movement to reclaim what many Hindus believe is the birthplace of Ram has a near-unbroken history almost ever since Babar built the mosque in 1528. Whenever an opportunity has presented itself as a result of the decline/fall of Muslim rule, Hindus have attempted to re-claim the janmasthan. According to some accounts even Shri Guru Gobind Singh and the Marathas were connected to it. 'Secular' records from the time the British conquered Avadh are also available, the most famous being the 1886 ruling of British judge who euphemistically observed: "It is most unfortunate that a mosque should have been built on a land specially held sacred by Hindus." One can imagine what he would have said and ruled had the land been sacred to Christians.

Unfortunately, present day secularists have tried to re-invent this centuries-old deeply religious movement to suit their ideological and political predilections. As a result of their efforts and the falsification and sanitisation of India's history by historians hungry for government favours and global recognition, many young Indians are being misled into believing that the Hindu view is a primarily a political creation of the Sangh Parivar while the Muslim one is religious; the faith of Muslims is being hurt, not that of Hindus! What better example can there be of this grotesque distortion than that of Vir Sanghvi who wants India to believe that "Ayodhya movement was a farce designed to win votes for a declining BJP by focusing on a Ram Janmabhoomi which few of us had ever heard of."

It is mostly due to this belittling, even dismissing of the history of the struggle and faith of Hindus and its reduction to a petty electoral fight that positions of some Muslims have hardened over time and an amicable solution has not been found.

Thankfully, all the three judges of the Allahabad High Court did not lose sight of the larger canvas, most of which lies outside the small window that some analysts have been expending all their energies in. They have individually recognised in their own way that the garb griha has been, is and will remain almost as sacred to many Hindus as the Kaaba is to Muslims. That being so, there is no way that any mortal court can order removal of idols of Ram Lalla from there and expect the order to be carried out. If anyone thinks the Supreme Court will do it and Hindus will simply forget the history they know and the sacrifices that many generations have made over centuries, then he is only setting the stage for destroying the very secularism he is trying to build on a false base.

Secular historians would do well to remember that, despite their efforts, Hindus have not and will not forget the wounds of history, even though they have moved on more than we patronisingly give them credit for. As Madhu Trehan said during a TV debate recently, thousands of temples were destroyed by Muslim invaders who built mosques over what she called "sacred Hindu space". Evidence is available and visible even to the unlettered everywhere. But, barring tiny voices, Hindus of Free India have, on the whole, healed their wounds on their own. No one is asking for the return of all such places whose real estate value alone will run into many lakh crore rupees. The Parliament, representing the voice of the Hindu majority, has also shown great magnanimity and given the healing touch by unilaterally freezing the status of all places of worship as on August 15, 1947.

Muslims really have little to give or fear.
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That is why I am among those who believe that the wise and pragmatic Ayodhya verdict offers a real opportunity to Hindus and Muslims to close an unpleasant chapter of India's history and push ahead together in the real sense. Isolhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifated voices proclaiming triumph or crying defeat will always be there in any society. Rather than maliciously use them as excuses to prolong the agony of both communities and create fresh fissures, we should ignore them and use the base provided by the truly learned judges to truly "move on".
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Readers may also like to read:
1. Ayodhya: a matter of faith
2. Is India not free yet?
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AYODHYA: A MATTER OF FAITH

A matter of faith is going to be decided by a court tomorrow. There is tension in the air. There is fear that a polarisation of the sort that took place before and after the Babri Masjid structure was brought down may take place again and lead to communal violence. There are some who believe India -- read Hindus -- has moved on and the idea of a Ram Temple will not catch the imagination of Hindus again. Others, on both sides of the divide, continue to stick to their known positions.

Ram is faith, as is Allah. In matters of faith there never can be historical evidence or proof of the sort that courts of mortals require to adjudicate. Allah and Ram are real and living for those who believe and mythical for those who don't. Allah revealed Himself to the Prophet through an angel no one else saw or heard. Ram similarly revealed Himself to Valmiki, a dacoit who became a saint after much penance. That is the belief of their followers. They do not need any 'proof' of their existence.

Talking of Ayodhya, the town of today, it is worth repeating that it is the place where Hindus have believed since before history that Ram was born and where the capital of His kingdom was. That is why it is a town of temples old and new. Anyone who has been there would have noticed that the Babri Masjid stood in the middle of virtually an ocean of temples. It was, to say the least, incongruous. Almost ever since it was raised in 1528, Hindus have been saying that it was built over a temple at the spot that is most revered by most of them as the birthplace of Ram, and demanding that the place be given back to them. The BJP/RSS/VHP had nothing to do with the Ram Janmabhoomi movement till a few decades back.

In my view, whatever be the verdict of the court, there is little fear of any outbreak of violence or re-polarisation at this point of time. It is not because Hindus have 'moved on' or because the Muslims have softened their stance in any manner. I don't remember who it was who said that the destruction of the Babri Masjid destroyed Advani's movement but I believe he got it spot on. The galvanisation that took place then was to have the masjid moved so that a temple could be built. Effectively that has happened though not in the manner it could and should have. Lest we forget, the movement was not anti-Muslim or anti-mosques. It acquired some anti-Muslim overtones because Hindus believed that Muslim leaders were being unreasonably intransigent and insensitive to their faith.

Have Muslims moved on, or even an inch? No one is asking that question because everyone knows the answer. And as always 'secular' Hindus are not contesting or questioning their position; they are manifestly more worried about appearing to be on the same side as the BJP than anything else. For inexplicable reasons, for them Hindus and the Sangh parivar have become synonymous. Perhaps this has something to do with the Congress strategy of 'turning Muslim' only because that gets the electoral arithmetic right, perhaps it is because they have convinced the party to put its eggs in that basket. Be that as it may, this winning strategy that has effectively bludgeoned the Hindu voice is not going to be the dousing path that some believe it will be. It is only going to widen the gulf over the long run and could lead to unexpected, unprecedented communal violence.

It requires two to move on, you can't have one moving in as the other moves on and not get a serious blow back at some point of time. May be I am missing something but while many Hindus, including those who I like to call non-Hindus and anti-Hindu Hindus, are calling for Hindus to yield, with reasoning that stretches from the sensible to the scandalous, I have not heard one Muslim of any standing asking Muslims to show magnanimity and respect Hindu sentiments. No one is telling them to not pitch for a mosque constructed by conquerors who destroyed many structures of other faiths, including the famous Nalanda University nearby and, as many believe, built mosques over many of them not as symbols of faith but of conquest, of subjugation.

I wish Muslims liberals and intellectuals who want the rest the world to allow a mosque to come up at the site of a building wasted by the 9/11 attack could show the same sensitivity and respect towards the faith and feelings of Hindus. But they won't because, exceptions apart, it appears that they are fine with Islam's distortion into a supremist, political religion that is designed to grab space, not cede any gracefully to others, even in a multi-religious setting. That is why an increasing number of people have come to conclude, wrongly or rightly, that there is a underlying unity of belief between them and the Taliban who, only a few years -- not five hundred -- back, blasted the Bamian Buddhas out of existence even though they all converted from Buddhism centuries ago and even though there are no Buddhists left in Afghanistan.

As of now, the reality is that the masjid structure has gone and a functional temple is in place at the Janmasthan. Construction of a bigger temple there in a hurry is not an issue that is going to energise a people who have enormous tolerance and patience, qualities that have enabled them to survive and outlast all other civilisations of the world.

What is it, then, that can reignite the electric energy that the BJP once exploited politically at the expense of a Congress that then clumsily tried to play both sides and that is now foolishly playing one alone?

It is only when law steps into and over the domain of faith that the unpredictable that everyone is wishing away will happen. And that will be when and if the Supreme Court passes a final order giving right of the disputed property to Muslims, clearing the way for the building of a new masjid. It is at that point of time that the demands for removing the idols of Ram Lalla will acquire the teeth they lack now. That is the time when many home truths will come tumbling out to haunt dishonest coots who are making light of faith today and are mouthing preposterous suggestions that are politically convenient at this point of time.

The sooner we get it into our heads that neither can the idols be removed nor can another mosque be constructed at the Janmasthan the better. Rajiv Gandhi, I believe, understood the dynamics better than his family does now, if it has even tried to. That is why he allowed the gates of the masjid to be opened and the shilanyas of the temple to be done. Had he been around, I have little doubt that an amicable solution would have been found and the Congress would not have lost the ground it did. The BJP would have still been struggling to get more than a handful of seats in Parliament and communal passions that led to so many deaths subsequently would have been avoided. That chance was lost. One more is coming up.

One can only hope that after the verdict of the High Court is received, India's politicians and Hindu and Muslim religious leaders will sit together and hammer out a solution that reflects due respect to the faith of Hindus as well as the dignity of Muslims. That can happen only if no one tries to squeeze political milk out of it. That milk, as Guru Nanak once demonstrated in another but related context, will be only be red in colour.

CHINA: RELIGION RETURNS

We have forgotten but the Chinese have not. Thanks primarily to our history written from a alien perspective designed to propagate the myth of colonial superiority to perpetuate colonial rule, we no longer remember that India once dominated much of the world, not by sword or by force, but by its intellectual, cultural and spiritual prowess. But the Chinese, despite decades of communist rule during which atheism has been aggressively promoted and religion frowned upon, still remember their ancient, living civilisation and the enormous contribution that India has made to it.

In 1978, Deng Xiaoping effectively discarded the Marxist model of economic development and replaced it not by a capitalist one copy pasted from the West, but by one unique to that country, one designed to rapidly improve the living standards of its people and close the gap between China and industrialised nations. Although the "China Model" is still under development and the country still considers itself to be a "learning state," the stunning fact is that in almost the blink of a historical eye, it "has created an economic miracle, lifting hundreds of millions out of poverty - a record unparalleled in world history."

Three decades after communism was effectively dumped in the economic sphere, China's leaders are rediscovering their religious roots and are quietly facilitating and calliberating their nation's return to it.

On Thursday, The Great Hall of the People, where communist laws and rules on atheism have been framed for five decades, saw a dance drama 'Cosmos' that featured themes like nirvana, karma and rebirth. That this was done in close with the Communist Party at various levels is evident by the fact that China's best names in choreography, dancing, music and stage craft were involved in it. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said the show gave an "Oriental cosmic view" about life's dimensions on earth and celestial premiers in heaven. The Beijing Municipality, which organized the event, described it as a human quest "to find answer in the eyes of Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism".

In 2008, Chinese archaeologists had unearthed a four storey miniature pagoda, commissioned by India's Emperor Ashoka the Great in second century BC to house the remains of Buddha. The pagoda found in Nanjing is crafted from wood, gilded with silver and inlaid with gold, coloured glass and amber and contains the only known part of Sakyamuni's skull. According to Buddhist records, Ashoka collected all the sariras that had earlier been retrieved from Buddha's cremation and sent them to different parts of the world, China is believed to have received 19 of them. The pagoda was initially displayed in a museum.

It is important for Buddhism as a religion to have these sarira to be shown to its followers. In a significant departure from practice, the government has now allowed the relic to be enshrined in the Qixia Temple in Nanjing on June 12, 2010. Phoenix TV and Nanjing TV will broadcast the entire event live. The archaeologists who discovered it are also being allowed to take part in the enshrining ceremony and hold a news conference to exhibit photographs of the process of discovery and why they believe it belongs to Buddha.

India's contacts with China are older than history. The first recorded one is of around 265 BCE, when Emperor Ashoka sent a monk there to spread Buddhism. According to one account, around in 67 CE, two monks brought Buddhist sutras containing 600,000 Sanskrit words from India, and these were translated into Chinese. Other Indian Tantric and Buddhist masters also subsequently went to China and imparted knowledge. Most of us know that there are four Vedas. According to an age-old legend, there are actually five: the fifth esoteric Veda is with the Chinese. Very few Indian yogis have knowledge of its contents.

Chinese philosopher Hu Shi aptly expressed the abiding truth about the extent of India's influence on that country when he said "India conquered and dominated China culturally for 20 centuries without ever having to send a single soldier across her border." Lin Yutang in his excellent, 1100 page book, "The Wisdom of China and India", echoes the sentiment when he observes that the average reader does not suspect that "India was China's teacher in religion and imaginative literature, and the world's teacher in trigonometry, quadratic equations, grammar, phonetics, Arabian Nights, animal fables, chess, as well as in philosophy, and that she inspired Booccacio, Goethe, Herder, Schopenhauer, Emerson, and probably also old Aesop."

China's Prime Minister Wen Jiabao had that long history in mind when, in 2003, he told India's visiting Defence Minister George Fernandes: “Friendliness accounts for 99.99 per cent of the 2,200-year-old Sino-Indian exchanges and misunderstanding merely 0.01 per cent. It’s high time we buried that 0.01 per cent and re-established the 99.9 per cent.” More recently, during his annual press conference, Jiabao told PTI's Beijing correspondent to convey to the Indian people that China and India are not competitors but friends and quoted from an Upanishad "written more than 3000 years ago in Sanskrit" to ask God to nourish both India and China and to let peace prevail between them.

The return of religion to communist China is a significant development. It may well be the beginning of a new, deeper revolution with which China will lead the world in the 21st century. Ironically, India, the land that China has always looked up to for cultural leadership and guidance, is undergoing a serious crisis of self-confidence and, in some sections of its deracinated society, even identity. Perhaps that is one reason why it has not yet been energised with the pride and fire needed to get into a leadership position. Perhaps that is one reason why those who are in a position to steer the nation into such a position are content to keep playing second best to the West, happy that they are lording over the masses who continue to suffer shaming poverty and deprivation.

It is time for India to shift its gaze from the West whose story is over to China who is writing the next one. Even if we are not yet ready to cast away yokes that have choked our minds and spirit, it will be better if the Guru becomes the shishya, the student, of one who has for long been his own shishya, so that he can remember and reclaim his respect and his leadership role, and enrich his people and the world once again.

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION: NO DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HUSAIN AND WESTERGAARD

Often the question asked pompously by self-designated "liberals" is: where does "freedom of expression" end and religious sentiment start? Some ask, is religious sentiment the greater of the two and who is to decide? Then comes the killer: can 'goons' - offended believers - be allowed to take that decision? That option is, naturally, summarily dismissed as obnoxious. That done, they quickly appropriate the authority of deciding to themselves and a tiny band of similarly cocooned and rootless - at least pretending to be - individuals, and swiftly proceed to intolerantly thrash anyone who differs with them.

Nowhere has this stance and attitude been more shrill and black-and-white than in the case of MF Husain who left India because some Hindus protested against his right to paint Hindu Goddesses in the nude, by filing cases against him in court and vandalising a couple of his exhibitions to vent their anger. Ironically, the man who walked away because his freedom was fettered in India, has become a citizen of Qatar, a theocratic state that does not allow even a creative breath in matters related to religion, and says he is "honoured" by it.

In this paper, I will attempt to address the issue of artistic/creative freedom that has been much bandied about for years in defence of Husain's paintings that have hurt the religious sentiments of many believing and practicing Hindus.

There is little doubt that in olden times, Hindu Gods and Goddesses were painted/sculpted in the nude, mostly above the waist. Why was it so? During those days, in most parts of India, women did not cover their breasts; that is how they dressed. In 1892, for example, Helena Pretrovna Blavatsky wrote that when the wife of the British Governor of Madras had first wanted a law to "induce native women to cover their breasts, the place was actually threatened with a revolution." Blavatsky also mentioned that in 1470, Athanusius, a Russian traveller to India, observed that "women walk about with their hair spread and their breasts naked." Nude paintings and sculptures during those days were, therefore, accurate reflections of the prevalent customs.

But what is of the greatest significance is that these depictions were not manifestations of "freedom of expression" in the sense that these so-called liberals are trying to distort them in to. They were always created by believers with a great sense of devotion, love and reverence for the deities. These creations were also always meant for worship and/or veneration. They were never meant to be mere art for art's sake, as is the practice in the Western world at present, or to show any disrespect to either the religion or its followers.

Today, the way people dress has changed. That is why Raja Ravi Verma painted gods and goddesses in clothes that conform to the sensibilities of our times. That is how other artists paint them too now. That is why even though the artists who create thousands of statues of Goddess Durga with great reverence for Durga Puja each year, do so in their natural state, the Goddess is no longer shown without clothes to the public. The only Goddess who continues to be shown naked is Kali, because her manifestation, as per religion and legend, is in that state. The copy-pasted concept of creative freedom of expression is not even in the frame.

It is not in Hinduism alone that gods and goddesses have been depicted nude. Those who have some knowledge of the Tantric Buddhism followed in Tibet, Ladakh, Sikkim, Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh are aware that in many temples and paintings, gods and goddesses are depicted not only nude but in sexual union, in some cases very graphically. That, again, has nothing whatsoever to do with "freedom of expression". It has everything to do with the esoteric belief and practice that spiritual enlightenment can be attained through tantric sexual practices. These depictions, it needs to be repeated, are made with utmost devotion and an understanding of, and belief in, the sacredness of it. This does not automatically entitle anyone, particularly one who does not follow and respect their faith, to "creatively" and "artistically" reinterpret them in a manner that appears to be disrespectful and insulting to the deities who are living gods for their believers.

Let us come back to Husain. Something must be said here which most avoid saying in public but for which the sentiment is very strong. Husain is not a believer. On the contrary - it doesn't matter whether he is "secular" or not - he follows a religion that professes that there is only one God, Allah, and that all other gods are false and must not be respected or venerated. Therefore, when he paints Lakshmi and Durga not only nude but in a manner that seems to suggest sex with animals, no Hindu can believe that he has done so with any respect or veneration in his heart, like artists of olden times used to. It cannot also be a meaningless coincidence that perhaps the only other person he has taken the creative liberty of painting nude is Adolf Hitler. These paintings can be seen here. (Update: I have just discovered that Husain has painted some more offensive paintings that, if published in newspapers, may start violence on an unprecedented scale. Nude Ram and Sita having sex while Hanuman watches, Nude Sita clinging on to Hanuman's tail etc. Even that nude Lakshmi painting where everyone thinks she is sitting with her vagina resting on the head of her son Ganesh is actually her sitting on an elephant - body is not human. This guy is obviously a serial offender.)

Let us now draw the only real parallel that there is to what Husain has done: the famous Danish cartoons that had the whole Muslim world up in arms in 2005. Here too, an artist has used his creative freedom to depict the Prophet based on his understanding - however faulty - of the genesis of Islamic terrorism that is afflicting the world. Yes, many Muslims say that, as per their understanding, Islam is a religion of peace. But, who can deny that the extremists who have picked up the gun also claim that they are waging a holy war, a jihad, against those who do not follow Islam, as per their understanding of the teachings of the Prophet? Kurt Westergaard, the cartoonist, manifestly drew inspiration from the claims of the latter to draw the cartoons in question.

Can Westergaard's right of creative freedom to do so be justified, just as Husain's has been and is being very vociferously? Keeping aside the manner of depiction of the Prophet for a moment, it needs to be remembered that the basic argument of Muslims is that any pictorial depiction of the Prophet is prohibited in Islam. No compromise is acceptable to them on this score and, afraid of dangerous and violent backlash, almost all Indian "liberals" have made peace with this stance and meekly surrendered the right of a non-Muslim who does not believe either in the Prophet or in Islam, to exercise his right of "freedom of expression" and paint the Prophet.

But there is a twist here. The Prophet was actually painted by Muslims for centuries. Many old paintings showing him are available in a number of museums and other places places in the world. Some of these can be seen here. In fact, as per some accounts, the ban on so depicting him was not laid down in the Quran but was put in place a few hundred years later.

Be that as it may. What is of real relevance is the view that is dominant at present. The real question, therefore, is whether this view is to be respected and accepted. Or are we to get into endless debates to make a case that since paintings of Prophets were permitted a few centuries back, artists have a right to paint him today too in that manner? And, following from that stance are we then to accuse Muslims opposing it in the same manner as some of us are berating Hindus who are, comparatively peacefully, protesting against nude paintings of Hindu Goddesses by Husain?

If we are to accept one argument, as many so-called liberals cleverly have, for very practical reasons, then how can we reject the other unless we are dishonest in our souls? Unfortunately, some of us are. That is why they can, in one breath, demand in righteous rage that Husain be brought back to India, wish that Taslima Nasreen is sent out of India, and keep totally quiet about the banning of the making of a film on Nehru and Edwina due to pressure of Nehru's descendants and the banning of the telecast of 'The Lost Tomb of Jesus' by Discovery channel due to pressure by Christian groups? There are many more such examples.

The liberal agenda, let it be said, is not only shallow and dishonest but is also manifestly a political one, pursued vigorously by a tiny but vocal and powerful group driven by greed for grants, appointments, approval of the West and free jaunts to it, 'blessings' of the Family etc. It is also constrained by fear of business losses that some journalists-turned-big-businessmen might be made to suffer if they apply uniform yardsticks in all cases. Also, as two liberals have revealed on Twitter, it additionally gives them a brainless high as they believe it sets them apart from, and places them above, those belonging to what in their view is the lowly lower middle class.

No surprise that they can live comfortably with calls to kill Westergaard and still manage to shout that India must get back Husain and honour him with a Bharat Ratna.

Related reading: Tirupati and The 'Tomb of Jesus'


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BABA RAMDEV BUYS AN ISLAND: WHAT NEXT?

The West has been attracting Indian Gurus, both fake and real, for a very long time. Perhaps the first one to head for and live in the US was Parmahansa Yogananda, whose Autobiography of a Yogi continues to attract readers. Swami Prabhupada, who founded ISKCON, and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi are the other two who shot into limelight and acquired a large following after they set foot in the US.

The latest to join the 'pantheon' is controversial Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev. Born Ramkishan Yadav in a village in Haryana, he suffered from paralysis as a child and was able to regain full functionality of his body through Patanjali's Yoga. Dropping out of school in class eight, he joined a gurukul, assumed sanyas and took his present name. In 1995, he established the Yoga Mandir Vidya Trust. In 2002, Sanskar TV channel started airing his yoga classes. Overnight he became a sensation and soon started appearing on many TV channels.

Ever since then, his rise has been meteoric and his now vast organisation is reportedly worth hundreds of million dollars already. His Yoga camps are attended by thousands of people, and as many as 20 million view them live on TV regularly in 170 countries. Hundreds of thousands claim to have benefitted from the methods being taught by him to rid their bodes and minds of all kinds of ailments.

Thus, unlike most gurus who have preceded him in their Westward journey, Baba Ramdev is already a real rock star in India, the likes of which India has never seen. That may be because he is not a religious guru in the sense that commonly understood; he does not preach any religion. Yoga can be practiced by people belonging to all religions.

The Guru of Good Health is now expanding rapidly overseas too. He has just bought Little Cumbrae, a 684 acre, conch shaped island in Scotland for a little over $ 3 million. Technically, of course, it has been bought by Sunita Poddar to establish a centre of Baba Ramdev's Patanjali Yoga Peeth there. She and her husband have made their fortune in Scotland running a chain of Glasgow nurseries called Little Einsteins, and have now put their accumulated wealth in Baba Ramdev's retreat rather than in a holiday home or some such somewhere.

What led them to take this extraordinary decision? When Sunita first met Baba Ramdev in Britain in 2006, she was severely obese and on 12 tablets a day. She attended his Yoga camp for six days and lost six-and-a-half kilos. That motivated her to get more involved and help others too by getting a teaching certificate. Her husband claims that she lost 36 kilos in six months and has been completely cured of the many diseases that she had and needs no medication now. "My husband and I have worked very hard for what we have but now it's time to pay back the community, so we decided to buy this island and build this centre here" says Sunita. Little Cumbrae looks straight out of an Enid Blyton story with hidden coves, rugged cliffs, a Victorian residence, a Castle Keep and a lighthouse. The couple want to make it a "Shanti Dweep", an island of peace.

On September 27, 2009, Baba Ramdev took the first steps to turn this island into "a place of pilgrimage" and a "peace haven to spread Indian values", with "bhoomi pujan" and a "hawan" ceremony, as hundreds of people, including bemused journalists and locals, flocked to see him. Those gathered also got a glimpse of his yogic skills as he demonstrated some of them in what appeared to be a most unlikely setting.

1400 years back a nun from Lindisfame named St Veya established a religious sanctuary on this island. And now, something similar is being planned. Perhaps it is just a coincidence. Baba Ramdev does not plan to stay in Little Cumbrae but is expected to visit at twice a year. The Poddars will run the centre and also pursue their aim of making Scotland the healthiest nation in the world within 10 years by spreading the message that they have the tool of preventative measures to achieve that.

It is perhaps only a question of time before Baba Ramdev also crosses the Atlantic and sets up base in the ultimate destination of all gurus, "Patal Lok", the United States, in even more spectacular fashion. The Yoga Guru seems to be getting richer and bigger by the day at a blistering pace. But, he does not have a bank account, sleeps on the floor, has steamed vegetables twice a day and practices abstinence. There is also little doubt that some of his controversial views aside, he has consistently displayed a genuine interest in helping people attain good mental and physical health by making authentic yoga a part of their daily lives. He has become what he has not due to any gimmickry but because of the the real, positive changes that hundreds of thousands of people have experienced and are experiencing due to him.

Baba Ramdev has done nothing yet to show that he is another of those fake gurus who head for the West in search of riches and more. But one cannot help wondering why his gaze too has simply floated over and away from the huge continent of Africa. Is it colour and wealth that are pulling him, like others before him, to the West? Or is it something else, something akin to what Parmahansa Yogananda has written about in his autobiography?

Picture: The Guardian
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FORGET DRINKING, BOYS AND GIRLS CAN'T EVEN STUDY TOGETHER.

The Sri Ram Sena is much in the news for attacking boys and girls drinking in a pub in Mangalore. There has rightly been widespread condemnation and outrage at the efforts of this outfit to do moral policing in the name of Indian culture. Politicians, Renuka Chowdhary apart, quick to sense the mood of the masses, have however come out against "pub culture". Rajasthan CM Gehlot is in fact not happy with the culture of boys and girls even holding hands in public, much less downing a few pegs together.

In the middle of all this, two developments have taken place in opposite directions. The Delhi High Curt has allowed married couples only to display their affections in public, ruling that “….It is inconceivable how an expression of love by a young married couple would attract offence of obscenity and trigger the coercive process of law,…”. This has, naturally, warmed the hearts of many of us who believe that expressions of love between unmarried couple should also be permitted. India has to shed its medieval mindset and embrace 21st century.

The Uttar Pradesh Board of Madrassa Education (UPBME), however, believes that any "free interaction between boys and girls" is not permitted by Islam". It has described co-education in schools as "anti-Islamic and against the sharia" and has banned it across madrassas in the state. "Parda" (veil) is essential in Islam and co-education encourages "be-pardagi" (removal of veil). So says Haji Rizwan Haq, chairman of the UPBME.

So, where does this fiat of Islamic fundamentalists leave 15% of India's women? Forget going to pubs or even restaurants, they are barred from even studying with boys. From here, it is but a short walk to total Talibanisation where women are barred from studying altogether, and have to be so totally veiled that if they are stationary, a stranger may well believe that he is looking at sacks filled with unidentifiable goods. (Read this disturbing post with a video that I could not bring myself to watch, by my German blogger friend Georg)

How can we call ourselves a liberal, modern nation when such a large number of our women are oppressed in the name of religion and not a voice is raised? Will we hear Renuka Chowdhary rant against the UPBME? Will we see the blogosphere go up in incensed flames? Will there be protests and petitions by myriad womens' organisations?

Nothing is of the sort is going to happen because no one wants to ruffle the feathers of Islamic fundamentalists. More importantly, none of those who agitate against the many 'senas', socially mingle or identify with Muslim women for whom time has largely stood still. They will dishonestly keep pretending as if these women belong to another planet.

The question is: Can India really move forward into a New Age as a progressive and liberal nation if one in every six of its women are actually moving back in time?

P.S. This ban on co-education by the UPBME comes just a month after militants banned it in North Waziristan, Pakistan. To the best of my knowledge, UPBME is not affiliated in any manner to these militant groups. Are we missing something? Is this a sign of things to come? Is it surprising that no Indian blogger has written about the ban till now?
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Recommended reading: Valentines Day: It's chaddi vs langot!

OBAMA: CLOSET 'HINDU' OR SECULAR WORLD LEADER?

All those who have been saying that Barack Hussein Obama is a closet Muslim pretending to be a Christian need to shed their prejudices. All those who believe that he is a Christian who believes that all those who don't follow the Faith are going to 'burn for eternity' need to discard their blinkers. And all those who think that Obama's Gandhi-inspired call to 'be the change you wish to see' is a political rather than a 'value' call also need to put their cynicism to rest.

By now, the whole world knows that among the lucky charms that Obama carries with him are a tiny Madonna and child, and a tiny monkey god, revered by Hindus as Hanuman. By now, it is also widely known that a portrait of Mahatma Gandhi adorned his office. Whether it will move to the Oval Office with him will be known only on January 20, 2008. Be that as it may, all these are indicative of the global and liberal influences that have shaped Obama, thanks to his mixed parentage and his growing up in Hawaii and Indonesia.

But what exactly are Obama's views on religion? What are his spiritual beliefs that are going to have a profound impact on the manner in which he understands and responds to international developments as President of the United States of America?

In 2004, much before he emerged as a Presidential candidate, he had given an interview to Chicago Sun Times columnist Cathleen Falsani, one of the most gifted interviewers on matters of Faith. The column that she wrote after that has been quoted and misquoted many times. The full conversation, which had never been published earlier, is now available and can be found at beliefnet.

Going through the whole interview will be illuminating in more ways than one. Before you do that, soak in some of his salient beliefs that he had revealed to Falsani. Here they are:

I am a Christian.

I believe there are many paths to the same place, and that is a belief that there is a higher power, a belief that we are connected as a people. That there are values that transcend race or culture...

I'm not somebody who is always comfortable with language that implies I've got a monopoly on the truth, or that my faith is automatically transferable to others. I'm a big believer in tolerance. I think that religion at its best comes with a big dose of doubt. I'm suspicious of too much certainty in the pursuit of understanding

I went to a Catholic school in a Muslim country. So I was studying the Bible and catechisms by day, and at night you'd hear the prayer call.

My mother was deeply spiritual person, and would spend a lot of time talking about values and give me books about the world's religions, and talk to me about them. And I think always, her view always was that underlying these religions were a common set of beliefs

I think that the difficult thing about any religion, including Christianity, is that at some level there is a call to evangelize and proselytize. There's the belief, certainly in some quarters, that people haven't embraced Jesus Christ as their personal savior that they're going to hell. I find it hard to believe that my God would consign four-fifths of the world to hell.

I can't imagine that my God would allow some little Hindu kid in India who never interacts with the Christian faith to somehow burn for all eternity.

In my own sort of mental library, the Civil Rights movement has a powerful hold on me. It's a point in time where I think heaven and earth meet. Because it's a moment in which a collective faith transforms everything. So when I read Gandhi or I read King or I read certain passages of Abraham Lincoln and I think about those times where people's values are tested, I think those inspire me.

I think Gandhi is a great example of a profoundly spiritual man who acted and risked everything on behalf of those values but never slipped into intolerance or dogma. He seemed to always maintain an air of doubt about him.

Barack Obama is quite clearly someone else. He is not just another ambitious politician who has risen to be the most powerful man in the world.

Many of us in India have been brought up with the timeless, liberal and inclusive belief that the Supreme Being, call Him by whatever name you like, can be reached by many paths. It is quite possible that some people who were earlier accusing Obama of being a closet Muslim may now mistakenly start accusing him of being a closet Hindu for echoing that belief.

Is there any other living leader in the world today who has been similarly enriched ethically and spiritually by values and influences from all over the world?

That is why he is one leader who is already more than the President of the US that he is going to be. That is why when he talks about the triumph of hope over fear, his words don't ring hollow. That is why when he tells the people of the world in his victory speech that "our destinies are shared", they don't disbelieve him. That is why there is great expectation all over the world that he will prove to be a truly transformational, secular global leader.

Change is here.
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Readers may also read:
1. President Obama is Barack indeed
2. Wife, mom and first lady Michelle
3. Obama and Biden Vs Osama bin Laden: coincidence?
4. Obama and Jindal: Hanuman and the Monkey
5. Osama and Obama: Saul and Paul
6. Creating thousands of Obamas in India!

ST ALPHONSA AND MIRACLES: RESPECT FAITH

"Was St Alphonsa a doctor? Which medical college did she attend to learn how to cure people from her grave?" These are the words that one thought would flow spontaneously from self-proclaimed atheist MK Karunanidhi, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, when he heard that Sister Alphonsa had been declared Saint by the Pope on the basis of scientifically verified miracles that physically deformed people had been cured after praying at her tomb. It was only last year that he had publicly asked a similar question about Lord Ram in response to the belief that He had built the Ram Setu. But now, Karunanidhi and many others like him are either silent or are expressing fake happiness about the fact that a nun from Kerala has been made a saint.

A few facts. St Alphonsa was born in Kudamaloor, a village near Kottayam, to Joseph and Mary Aug 19, 1910. At the age of seven, she took to serving Christ, calling him "my divine spouse", somewhat like Meera had called Krishna. She became a nun and after facing several health problems she died on July 28, 1946, in Bharnanganam. On October 12, 2008, she was declared a saint on the basis of three miracles attributed to the mystic curative powers of her tomb that have been accepted by the Vatican.

In India, there are literally thousands of dargahs (graves of sufi saints), samadhis (Sanskrit for tombs) 'peeths' (power places) and other places of pilgrimage of saints, pirs (holy Muslim men), gurus and babas (holy Hindu men) of all religions and sects. Believers cutting across religions pay obeisance to them and have faith in their various miraculous powers. But some 'modern', educated and Westernised Indians never tire of dismissing all talk of miracles as nothing but "andh vishwas" (blind belief of the brainless). When idols of Ganesh started drinking milk across India a little more than a decade back, much was said by them derisively. The same thing happened when sea water next to the dargah of Haji Ali in Mumbai miraculously turned sweet one day. There are voices now muttering the same things about the miracles of St Alphonsa and the hidden agenda of the Pope.

As far as atheists and rationalists, particularly in India, are concerned, all faith is irrational and all talk of miracles is regressive and befits acceptance only by illiterate and gullible folks living in India's villages. Many Westernised and educated Indians, specially Hindus, living in the cities do not have the courage to openly accept their Gods and beliefs while continuing to follow them, eyes wide open. How often can one see such people swearing that astrology is nothing but superstition while sporting astrologically prescribed gem stones on their fingers. How often can one find them questioning the very existence of Ram, Hanuman, Shiva, Krishna and Durga, to name just a few Hindu Gods, while privately worshipping them, particularly when in trouble! Such doubters are there in and of other religions too, but they are afraid of openly voicing their skepticism out of fear of serious reprisals by powerful religious leaders.

All religions are based on miracles and faith. Faith works for only those who believe. Keep giving as many scientific and psychological spins as you like to this phenomenon. Those who connect to the world beyond, as real as the one here, and are touched by it, cannot be fooled by all the so-called rationalizations given by science handicapped by serious limitations at its present level of development. They know what they know and are not going to pick fights with the ignorant who don't and won't.

The recognition by the Pope of St Alphonsa's curative powers that emanate from her tomb has strangely silenced a lot of people. One has not heard of Sanal Edamaruku shouting, as he usually does, that the belief that disease can be healed by praying at a tomb is an impossibility, and that what the Pope has done is nothing more than propagation of "andh vishwas". Similarly, some other modern Indian luminaries who otherwise all but mock with an air of superiority at those who visit dargahs and other such places where miracles have been experienced by many, have either said nothing or have outwardly spoken approvingly of the recognition given to miracles by the Pope in declaring Alphonsa India's first native saint. That is hold that the power of the West has over their voices and pens.

The remaining millions of us in India who believe, reverentially welcome St Alphonsa to the pantheon of not just Christian saints but of saints of all faiths who have enriched India and blessed its people of all religions with their miracles. We understand that faith is a very powerful emotion as it has always been throughout history. And with real reason.

Rather than arrogantly and ignorantly dismiss it as superstition or 'andh vishwas', this is an opportunity for some of us to realise that faith has to be recognised and respected, whether we believe in it ourselves or not. This elementary understanding will go a long way towards generating respectful sensitivity to the beliefs of all those who have experienced the miracles of God and his creation, no matter which religion or sect they follow.

Once all of us do that, the congenial atmosphere much needed for ensuring the communal harmony that this country badly needs will prevail. Is that not what every Indian wants?

This post has also been published in Chicago Sun Times
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Readers may also read: Obama: closet 'Hindu' or secular world leader?

MISSIONARY EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS: NEW RELIGIOUS STRATEGY

Things have changed drastically now but for the first couple of decades after Independence, Christian missionary schools and colleges were the best and often the only English medium schools and colleges available in most parts of the country. Naturally, progressive parents chose to send their children to these institutions. Due to a combination of many factors, some such institutions, like St Stephen’s College in Delhi, have become iconic national centres of excellence, attracting some of the brightest students from diverse backgrounds.

The purpose of setting up missionary schools and colleges was never to build national institutions of academic excellence. In the ‘Face the Nation’ program hosted by Sagarika Ghose on CNN-IBN on July 15, 2008, Father Dominic Emmanuel reminded everyone that in these institutions “if there has to be excellence, it has to be in following Jesus Christ and his commands.” That about sums up what these excellent schools and colleges were set up to achieve.

After long experience, the church has probably woken up to the fact that although these institutions have been attracting the best non-Christian students who have gone on to excel in all walks of life, they have failed miserably in propagating the religion to them. The conversion rate, at least in the metros and other prominent cities and towns, has been close to zero, despite the subtle and not so subtle measures taken by the missionaries to expose and draw students to Christianity.

That is probably why the church now wants to reclaim these institutions and get them to focus on the original objective for which they were set up.

Since conversions from the elite, modern and empowered sections of the society have not been successful at all, the new strategy being implemented by the church is now on empowering Christians and possibly winning over to the religion the un-empowered of other religions by letting them into these institutions with far lower marks than regular non-Christian students.

St Stephen’s College recently announced an increase in the quota for Christian students to 50 per cent. This was followed by a lowering of the cut-off percentage to Christian students to as low as 60 per cent, against the above 90 per cent for others. Not satisfied with that, the college went a step further towards preserving the Christian character of the institution by announcing a quota for Christians in the teaching faculty as well.

Media personalities like Sagarika Ghose are very proud products of St Stephen’s College. She, like others, is quite upset with the ‘back to Christ’ changes that are being pushed through in the college. There is a fear that this is a major mistake which will turn this excellent institution and others like it into centres of academic mediocrity. That is something they cannot reconcile to, having seen the institution at the pinnacle of academic excellence.

The one real justification that is being quoted by those who do not want such missionary institutions to carry their minority identity too far is that they are 100 per cent funded by public money. That, as Father Emmanuel has observed, is a privilege that has been given to religious minorities by the country’s constitution. As per law, minority institutions can establish and administer educational institutions the way they choose to. “All this while, when we were teaching everybody else, nobody had raised any objection, but the moment Christians want to empower their own community, there is a lot of noise.” Father Emmanuel is convinced that the changes being sought to be made are fully justified.

Clearly, the argument to preserve the largely ‘secular’ character of minority educational institutions is based more on individual emotion and identification than on real merit. If we accept the provisions made in the constitution for such institutions and the fact that the fundamental purpose of missionary activity is to preach and propagate Christianity, then there can be no argument against the steps being taken to restore the Christian character of such institutions. Previous deviations from this objective cannot form the basis of a justification for their continuation.

The only surprise is that it has taken so long for the church to realise that its elitist and largely non-discriminatory approach has yielded virtually no religious dividends till now. The doubt is whether the proposed changes will actually bring about the empowerment that the church thinks they will or whether they will wind up encouraging and perpetuating mediocrity among Christians.

The real danger is that the new strategy being adopted by the church for running missionary educational institutions will encourage more rigid religious insulation, not something that secular Indians would want to see in a liberal 21st century society. That is perhaps why 93 per cent of the Indians who responded to the question raised by Sagarika Ghose in her program believe that minority institutions have taken minority identity too far.

TIME TO THROW OUT THE COMMUNalISTS FROM BENGAL

“Communal forces are bent on establishing that Ram built a bridge across the sea…Ram is a mythological character… A large number of Muslim traders, big and small, have fled Gujarat”.

These words of West Bengal Chief Minister on December 06, 2007, are the latest in a series of acts of blatantly communal ‘atonements’ to ensure that the CPI(M) gets its Muslim vote bank back after its cadre went on a killing spree in Muslim majority Nandigram in November. The resultant violent backlash in Kolkata by an obscure Muslim fundamentalist organisation has made the CM quite shamelessly play communal politics of the worst kind.

Buddhadev’s first communal atonement was the overnight banishment of fugitive Bangladesh author Taslima Nasreen from the state, as demanded by a few Muslim fundamentalists. The next was his ‘regret’ for his earlier ‘tit for tat’ statement in support of the murders CPI(M) goons instigated by him had committed in Nandigram. And now this shedding of tears for Muslims in Gujarat, hyphenated with an assault on almost the very foundation of Hindu religion.

If Ram is fictional, then the Dasavatars of Vishnu and indeed Vishnu Himself are fictional. If Vishnu is a mythological character, then, if anyone in the CPI(M) has read at least the Durga Saptashati, Durga, the presiding deity of the Hindus of Bengal, is even more fictional, as is Kali.

In other words, the Chief Minister of West Bengal is telling all the Hindus of his state, indeed the world, that they are a bunch of brainless idiots who are engaged in the worship of false and fictional Gods. Chaitanya Mahaprabu, Ramakrishna Parmahansa, Swami Vivekananda and all other spiritual leaders of Bengal, were also, if the CM's logic is correct, nothing but communalists bent on falsely establishing the many miraculous acts of various Hindu Gods and Goddesses, including Durga and the avatars of Vishnu.

Even fundamentalists of other religions whose believe this to be true about religions other than their own would not have dared to make such an incendiary statement publicly.

If this is not communalism and blasphemy of the worst kind, then nothing is.

Buddhadev cannot hide himself behind the shelter of Tagore to justify his blasphemous words. Many scriptures and people have said many unpleasant things about other religions. Will Buddhadev, for example, dare ever to speak about Muslims quoting Swami Vivekananda, or about Jesus Christ citing the Holy Quran?

After the CPI(M) cadres had let loose their rein of terror in Nandigram, I had written highlighting the shocking fact that communists had globally killed more people in the last century than were killed in all the wars combined. Nandigram was no aberration to that totally intolerant and vicious violence that the communist ideology had given rise to everywhere.

Unfortunately for the new ‘Stalin’ of West Bengal, power is not absolute here and staying in power means having to get votes. That realization has generated the next set of disgraceful actions, the latest being this naked and shameless frontal assault on the faith and belief of a billion people of this country.

It is time for the proud intellectuals of West Bengal to recognize that the communists of their state are actually communalists who have caused incalculable damage to the state, which was once a leading state of the country on almost all parameters. They would also do well to realise that in their eagerness to appear liberal and tolerant, the people of Bengal have so far perhaps erred in guiltily associating communalism with the majority community alone.

The actions of the Communalist Party of India (Marxist) and its deceptively smiling leader in the recent past have exposed one more dangerous side of atheist communists, not seen elsewhere in the world. No society which prides itself on its intellectual prowess and boasts of a galaxy of literary and social-reformer giants can afford to let itself be ruled by such a despicable lot of tyrants who do not think twice before jumping into bed with religious fundamentalists and insulting their own culture and religion shamelessly.

It is time the people of Bengal threw these communalists out from their state.

BHINDRANWALE RETURNS TO THE GOLDEN TEMPLE

The great Sikh General of the 20th Century, the 14th chief of the Damdami Taksal, Sant Giani Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, who along with numerous valiant Sikhs attained martyrdom on Wednesday, the 6th of June, 1984, fighting against the Indian Armed Forces for the honour and prestige of Sri Harmandar Sahib and Sri Akal Takht Sahib.

Twenty three years after he was killed while hiding in the Golden Temple in a saddening but inescapable military assault, Bhindranwale has returned transformed as a Great Sikh General who fought for the honour and prestige of the Sri Harimandir Sahib and Sri Akal Takht Sahib against ‘Indian Armed Forces’. At least that is what the above citation which accompanies his portrait installed in the Golden Temple Museum on November 29, 2007 would want you to believe. It has been conveniently forgotten that it was Bhindranwale himself who had first desecrated the holiest of holy places where the Living Guru, Sri Guru Granth Sahib resides, by converting it into a battle zone from where he spewed nothing but political venom and sent out death squads to come back with the blood of innocents

Does it not eerily remind you of what the extremist elements in Pakistan are saying about the recent military assault on the Lal Masjid in Islamabad to remove the radical Muslim cleric who was doing nothing different from within the precincts of the mosque? A similar citation will also be put up to honour him, if and when Talibani type Islamic militants take political control of Pakistan.

Unfortunately, the honouring of Bhindranwale in this manner in Amritsar is not the handiwork of Khalistani militants. It has been done in a state which has a democratically elected coalition government headed by a mainstream Sikh party. The full might of the Sikh religious and political leadership (if you can make out where one ends and the other starts, that is) has manifestly approved and endorsed the move. Worse, the Indian Armed Forces have been literally called enemies of the Sikhs.

We never seem to learn.

So much of blood was shed during the period of terrorism in Punjab; so much of harm was done to the communal fabric of the state that it is nothing but a miracle that both Hindus and Sikhs have almost erased that dark chapter from their collective psyche. Punjab, with its wounds almost healed, is back in the forefront as one of the leading states of India.

A Sikh is today the Prime Minister of India, the de facto Supreme Commander of India’s Armed Forces. Till a couple of months back, a Sikh General was even commanding the Indian Army. The integration of Sikhs into India’s very soul is complete, like it always was, save for those traumatic years when Bhindranwale and a few merchants of hate went on a wanton killing spree, ostensibly for an independent Sikh state, Khalistan. After all the political blunders by the Congress and the tame and almost complete surrender to militants by the Akalis, it took two unsung gallant Sikhs, Police Chief KPS Gill and the slain Chief Minister Beant Singh, to put a swift and firm end to the madness that at one time seemed beyond quick resolution, and restore the identity of Sikhs as the ‘Lions’ of this ancient land.

As per my very limited knowledge and understanding of the teachings of the Sikh Gurus, Sikhism is a religion steeped in Bhakti, devotion to and love for Hari, God, call Him what you like. The great Tenth Guru, Sri Guru Govind Singh added Shakti, power, to Bhakti in His time, as the conditions necessitated that He take on that role solely to protect Dharma. I may be wrong, but He possibly realized that the powerful tool of Shakti was vulnerable to misuse (see what the concept of jehad has become) and could lead His followers astray. Perhaps that is why he terminated the lineage of Gurus and asked all Sikhs to revert to the original path of bhakti shown by Guru Nanak, by believing only in Sri Guru Granth Sahib as their Living Guru.

Sri Guru Granth Sahib speaks only of Bhakti and love. Most of the verses in it are in Braj Bhasha, the language of Vrindanvan, the land of Gopis and Hari priya Radha, where there is nothing except unconditional devotion and love for God. There is not one word of hate anywhere in the Sri Guru Granth Sahib. Karta Purakh (Purush) and Hari are not revered by Sikhs alone. All Indian Panths and Sampradaays have revered Them since time immemorial.

Sri Guru Granth Sahib is, thus, the divine fountain which belongs to and nourishes us all, even if some don’t know.That is perhaps why the wounds created by militancy in Punjab have healed almost completely so quickly.

In all societies there will always be fringe elements who will misuse the name of God for their narrow worldly objectives. They can be ignored and even endured as long as they do not start tearing the fabric which keeps society together. When that starts to happen, sane leaders of religion have to sit up and awaken sleeping masses. If they don’t or, worse, become willing/helpless tools themselves, there is real danger ahead.

Ironically, Bhindranwale has 'returned' to Shri Harimandir Sahib, where the Living Guru of Bhakti, Shri Guru Granth Sahib resides, as His General, and as the defender and protector of the God who has never asked for anything but love from all of us. This return has nothing at all to do with the pride and identity of the Sikhs who understand what the Living Guru says and follow His Vani/Bani (Voice). It has everything to do with the fact that, once again, the desire to use the name of God to forcefully assert mortal political views and achieve petty political power has won. Whether this will again lead to a recurrence of the tragedy that had struck Punjab once remains to be seen. But one can be sure that if that happens, mainstream Sikh religious leaders will have no answer to the call of their conscience.

Guru Nanak had asked all of us living in Kalyug to do nothing more than constantly remember (simran/sumiran/smaran) the Name of Hari. The Name is the Ship, He had said, which will take us across: Across the sansar, the mrityulok, and into the abode of God. As Bhindranwale returns to this world to relive the dark memories his own past, let us not be provoked into looking away from the Light that Guru Nanak wanted us to look at in this Yug.

As for Bhindranwale, perhaps his long and silent and frozen residence in the Golden Temple this time, listening constantly to Gurbani and doing nothing else, will finally make him hear what The Guru wanted him to hear when he was alive.