Saturday 22 August 2020

Ram is back home.

 

   

‘Hindustan’. The land of ‘Hindus’ (now I am not saying that this stands for the religion Hinduism but this word has been used for the area which is east of the river Indus and the religion of the majority of people living here IS Hinduism or idolatry). And still, it took us 500 years to build a temple of Lord Ram, in a place that we believe is his birth land.

So it is believed in the Hindu religion, that Lord Ram was born in Ayodhya and that there was a huge temple, which had been made and developed by old kings and locals, on the disputed land. Later, Babar came to India and obviously in order to spread his kingdom and his religion, he severely damaged the mandir or rather destroyed that centuries old temple complex which not only had a religious place in the hearts of the Hindus but also, represented our old art, culture and traditions, and built a mosque over it. Hence that mosque came to be known as ‘Babri Masjid’.

Now this is the story of about 500 years back. Since then, the Hindus have been relentlessly trying to rebuild a ‘Ram Mandir’ on the disputed land. Being a population of 120 million, Hindus have been generous and kind-hearted enough to try to solve the issue by meetings, discussions, negotiations, legal methods and other non-violent ways. 1 man, Mr. Ansari, was living in Ayodhya itself, surrounded by Hindus, and was fighting against them. Do I think that something like this could’ve happened in any Islamic or Muhammedan state? Definitely not. We are a very flexible, loving, accepting and humane religion. We think of the Muslim population as a part of us. For us, the Muslims are Hindustani too. So instead of using the hook or crook method, we chose the civilised way (unlike Babur, from Uzbekistan, 500 years ago).

The ‘Ram Mandir’ or the Ayodhya dispute had been going on for years. The British courts have also looked into this matter. But that “looking into” was of no use, of course. It was after our Independence that the real struggle started. In 1947, an idol of Lord Ram was found inside the mosque. From then on, the hearts of the Hindus started swelling with faith. Since then, the dispute had been in the local courts. The previous Governments had always sidelined the issue, being not very keen to resolve it. After the failure of the ‘Karseva’ yatra in 1990, where protesters were fired upon by the Mulayam Singh Yadav Government, in 1992, under the leadership of Mr. Lal Krishna Advani, a ‘Rath yatra’ was started from Somnath in Gujrat to Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh. This was when the dispute was taken up properly, politically. A lot of ‘Karsevaks’ came to Ayodhya and protested in front of the disputed structure, asking the Government and the Judiciary to build a mandir in its place. After protesting for a few days, the ‘Karsevaks’ lost their temper and destroyed the disputed structure on 6th December 1992.  So many people died in the struggles and riots that took place for the construction of mandir or which happened as a result of the destruction of the disputed structure.

Finally in 2002, the case went to the Allahabad High Court. The Court ordered the Archaeological Department to survey the disputed land and dig to find any evidences of a Mandir. The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) gave its report to the High Court in a “sealed envelope”, without making it public and in 2010, the High Court gave its verdict and divided the disputed land into 3 parts. But the Muslim side wasn’t happy with that so they took the case to the Supreme Court of India. Since 2010, the case had been pending in the Supreme Court. The Muslim side appeared not to be very eager to resolve the issue and continuously delayed it. They also called in political assets and were shrewd enough to ask the Supreme Court to delay the decision until the end of the General Elections 2019. And this was said by their lawyer who happens to belong to one of India’s biggest and the oldest political party. But since 2014, the case had been progressing at a comparatively faster pace. 120 million Hindus gave the decision of their faith, into the hands of 5 people. Daily hearings were held between August and October 2019 and finally on 9th November 2019, the Supreme Court gave its verdict according to which, a temple was to be built on the disputed land. The verdict of the Supreme Court was very amicable though as 5 acres of land was offered to the Muslim community in Ayodhya itself. Finally, Lord Ram was served justice.

Within the battles of religion, it was ultimately the Constitution and the Judiciary who were the real winners. The huge temple will be built by the next 3 years and Ayodhya will officially become the Ram Janmbhumi. I wish that in the future, Lord Ram’s temple, who is considered to be “Maryada Purushotam” (man of men), becomes a symbol of unity, grace, peace, courage, equality, sacrifice, upliftment of poor and justice.

 

35 comments:

  1. Good to see your thoughts maturing on various issues including so called controversial and political issues. True Hindustan stands for people living East of Indus, and since majority were Hindus, it was called Hindustan. Rama stand for social justice, uplifting the needy and values of a culture based society. Rama's life is symbolic of a man who remained on path of Dharma( values) despite so much of life testing him. Ram Rajya is also an utopian world in itself, but its worth a try for sure. Well done once again Kartiki. I like the fearless and Bindaas way of your writing style. Keep it up. Keep expressing

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  2. Outstanding thoughts.keep it up.

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  3. Excellent write up by you dear katiki. You've successfully attempted to comment on one of the most complicated issue of our beloved country in a very professional manner. God bless u
    Abhishek

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  4. Very complicated issue is been addressed in very lucid manner. Keep it up dear stay blessed

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  5. Its put up so nicely !
    Personally , i am very neautral in this case and i cannot gather enough courage to boldly say that the supreme court verdict in favour of the Hindus was 100% correct, but undoubtedly , ur article is the one that makes me take a tour of my own thought cycle and gather reasons why i still stand neautral and feel the decision went wrong somewhere.
    Great going kartiki!

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  6. Written very beautifully Kartiki❣️
    God bless
    Keep writing ....

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  7. Wonderful job kartiki.... Well done...

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  8. Well researched and curated. I am more into spirituality than into religion. But it gives immense pleasure to see young children trying to gather information on relevant contemporary issues. Well done!
    Sonia from https://soniadogra.com

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  9. Well done kartiki.Beautifully written

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  10. Well researched and well written Kriti! Your thoughts will evolve over the years. All the best as you embark on this journey. Keep writing and expressing. Your words should always speak your truth..

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  11. Well penned down. Hindu as a religion was coined by invading forces. Hindu as a religion never existed before. So it was a story about us written by the winner of various battles that we take into account. Which would never be true as wining forces will like to blow their own trumpet. What we see now is an awakening, but sometimes diluted. But still, good for the identity of the nation!

    Keep up the good work!

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  12. Wow kriti .....great going
    Keep it up

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  13. Very well brought out Kriti. Destr of Babri masjid could have been avoided . These kind of incidents just fuel the feelings of mistrust betn both the communities . However , finally the verdict of apex court is welcome and will be acceptable to all as there is no politics involved . Our political parties meanwhile will have to look for new agendas to woo voters ... hopefully this time they look fwd to devp issues....
    Way to go . Well done

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  14. .. Justice prevailed....
    Very well drafted blog. Really liked the way you brought out the facts and your views on the judgment.
    Look forward to more ...

    Dhruv

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  15. Well defined kritti...that's india " unity in diversity". Good work!

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  16. Brilliantly explained...God Bless you

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