Debating Ayodhya: Liberals' Perspectives on the Ram Temple
There is no doubt Modi is behind building the great Ram temple in Ayodhya. Not only the temple, but he is also investing billions of dollars in building Ayodhya city as the center of the Hindu faith, and this newly built holy city will be as important as Varanasi and Haridwar in its religious significance. The presence of the Saryu River also adds to the charm and the potential of Ayodhya to emerge as another center of the Hindu faith and Holy men.
A lot has been written about the controversy surrounding the birthplace of Lord Ram. Liberals argue that he is a mythological character. Others with no courtesy towards Hinduism call Ram a comic character and outrightly dismiss the faith and devotion of the masses. They also dismiss the reports of the ASI (Archeological Survey of India) as nonserious findings and describe the Muslim officers behind the excavations as government stooges.
Left-leaning liberals oppose the Ayodhya temple on the following grounds. First, they dismiss any historical evidence that any temple was destroyed by Muslim rulers in Ayodhya to build a Babri Mosque. Second, they dismiss the premise of the main contention against the Babri Mosque was built on the birthplace of Lord Ram, as the deity is a fictional character. He is a myth, just a part of a mythological story. Thirdly, the liberals express fear that there is no end to this confrontation. The wrongs done by 16th-century rulers can’t be corrected, as it would be wrong to judge a 16th-century ruler by the moral standards of the 21st century. Fourthly, they argue that Muslims are a sizable minority and can’t be pushed aside by Hindus. If Muslims retaliated and indulged in communal violence, India would not be able to progress economically. This means that Modi’s project of attaining economic prosperity through industrialization, bringing foreign direct investments, and developing export centers, as China has done in the last few decades, will flounder. It means for the sake of their own future and the sake of their country, the Hindu nationalists must not try to bully the minority Muslim community. Lastly, many academic articles also claim that the myth of Ram had no pan-Indian appeal; it was a local dispute in an unknown town of Uttar Pradesh, but the Ramayana serial in Doordarshan established Lord Ram's most loved deity in India in the 1980s.
Hence, the liberals argue the faith of neither party is of any significance, and even if it is true that the Ram temple was destroyed on the orders of a Muslim ruler, Hindus should relinquish the claim on the land. The RSS chief has said that it is not fair to look for Hindu idols under every Mosque, but three disputes are well known to India. The second is Gyanvapi Mosque, and the third is Mathura, the birthplace of Krishna, the most revered and loved deity of the Hindu pantheon, incarnation of Lord Vishu, and narrator of Bhagwat Geeta, the holiest book of the Hindu faith.
The questions and concerns raised by liberals are not totally out of place. Unlike the Ayodhya, Varanasi and Mathura are open and shut cases. The outer wall, columns, pillars, and foundations of the temple were used by Aurangjeb to build a mosque in 1669. The figures of Hindu deities on the Gyanvapi are still visible to the naked eye. Aurangzeb was a brutal Muslim ruler of India, and he imposed the Jijiya on Hindus, which meant if any Hindu went for the pilgrimage, then they had to pay the tax to the government. He also ordered the brutal killing of Sikh Gurus and his children.
(Mukesh Devrari)
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