In 1951, just ahead of the inauguration of Somnath temple, the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru wrote a letter to the President Rajendra Prasad. As Prasad was about to participate in the consecration ceremony, the first PM of independent India wrote, 바카라I confess that I do not like the idea of your associating yourself with a spectacular opening of the Somnath Temple. This is not merely visiting a temple, which can certainly be done by you or anyone else, but rather participating in a significant function which unfortunately has a number of implications.바카라
India was still 25 years away from including the word 바카라secularism바카라 in the preamble of its constitution. But the political position of Nehru was apparently clear. He could sense the numbers of political implication it entails. As Prasad was adamant to attend the ceremony, Nehru again wrote, 바카라My dear Rajendra Babu, I am greatly worried about the Somnath affair. As I feared, it is assuming a certain political importance바카라Š In criticism of our policy in regard to it, we are asked how a secular Government such as ours can associate itself with such a ceremony which is, in addition, revivalist in character.바카라
However, these are all histories now. There is no qualm anymore related to the participation of the state in a Hindu religious ceremony. 73 years after Nehru바카라s letter to Prasad that rightly criticised such 바카라revivalist바카라 projects that could lead to revengeful rectification of imagined historical loss, PM Modi following the consecration ceremony of Ram Temple said, 바카라This is the beginning of a new dawn for India.바카라
Truly, it is new in its essence. The idea of secularism that the country used to celebrate didn바카라t stem from the concept of French secularism. It was 바카라Indian바카라 in its nature that stemmed from the historical syncretism of the country. It came from the essence of Ganga-Jamuni Tehzeeb where the sisterhood of Hindu and Muslims used to be celebrated. Allama Iqbal who was later bestowed with the title of the National poet of Pakistan once wrote in his poem titled 바카라Ram바카라,
hai rÄm ke vajĆ«d pe hindostÄñ ko nÄz
ahle-nazar samajhte haiñ is ko imÄm-e-hind
(India is proud of Rama바카라s very name
To the discerning he is Imam-e-Hind)
Indian folklores while have always put forth the righteousness of Ram over Ravana, it has also given space to Imam Hussain바카라s fight for justice in Karbala. For Gandhi, Ram was the figure of not triumphalism but compassion. His frequent evocation of 바카라Ishwar-Allah tero naam sabko sammati de Bhagwan바카라- was not merely a song, it was a way to understand India바카라s diverse political realities that has grown to accommodate people from different backgrounds within its fold.
On April 8, 1926, Gandhi wrote in Young India, 바카라Hinduism does not consist in eating and not eating. Its kernel consists in right conduct, in correct observance of truth and non-violence. Many a man eating meat, but observing the cardinal virtues of compassion and truth, and living in the fear of God, is a better Hindu than a hypocrite who abstains from meat.바카라
These words of Gandhi, nonetheless hardly find any resonance at a time when the foundation of a temple on the ruins of a medieval mosque that was brought to rubbles through what the SC calls a 바카라egregious act of violence바카라 is celebrated as a national glory. This consecration ceremony, as Pratap Bhanu Mehta says, is no more a Hindu religious event. It is a political spectacle. PM Modi while delivering his speech says, 바카라I apologise to Lord Ram as we took so many years to build the temple.바카라 This someway or other justifies the act of Babri demolition- that the apex court even didn바카라t approve of.
While the PM in his speech tried to showcase the unity of Hindus and the accommodative nature of Ram through the references to Nishad king and Shabari mata, Indian religious minorities like Muslims and Christians always remained outside the core. Or is it the reiteration of Hindu as a cultural identity that encompasses every Indian? In February, 2023, the UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath shared a video of his earlier speech where he was found saying, 바카라Hindu identity is the cultural citizenship of every Indian. Hindu is not a creed, religion, or sect. This is a cultural term.바카라
Referring to India as Hindu Rashtra, the Mahant of Gorakhpur said, 바카라When someone from India goes to perform Haj, he is addressed as a Hindu there. No one there sees him as Haji, no one accepts him as Islam, there he is addressed by the name of Hindu. If seen in that context, India is a Hindu Rashtra, because every citizen of India is a Hindu.바카라
Does the presence of Modi in the consecration ceremony along with UP CM Adityanath and RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat certainly indicate the foundation of Hindu Rashtra? Is wherereligion no more a matter of personal faith- it is a matter of public celebration and assertion?
