Hindu nationalists demolished Babri mosque in 1992 and promised a temple in its place to consolidate power and capture India’s parliament and the executive. Three decades later, the Hindu nationalist head of the state inaugurated the new parliament with a traditional Hindu ceremony. Six months later, he will take the centre-stage as the promised temple is inaugurated, his whim torpedoing even the highest priests and their objections to this hyped ceremony of an incomplete temple structure. While doing so, he will also be proclaiming himself as the ‘chosen’ divine incarnate. The inaugural is an ode to the glory of both his self-proclaimed invincibility and the Hindu supremacy.
Like the ancient times, a temple built on the ruins of an existing one will become a monument testifying the grandeur of a ruler. Like centuries ago, a temple is being turned into a centre of power where political power will be sanctified at the altars of this temple – where one person will assume the role of the grand role of a monarch cum head-priest, much like the patrilineal kingdom. The scale of the celebration has turned it into a national day and the temple into a national monument. The last layer of pretense is thus stripped, and the transition of a secular and democratic India into a Hindu supremacist India now lies completely bare before us.
This shouldn’t have come as surprise, even as it is horrifying for many liberals. Ever since the Supreme Court verdict on the Ayodhya dispute gave the go-ahead to the temple construction despite deeming the Babri mosque demolition an egregious violation, this moment was foregone conclusion and simply a matter of time. Prime minister Narendra Modi seizing the moment to politicise it ahead of the elections was already being speculated.
On expected lines, the RSS and the BJP, which built their political capital on the Ram temple politics, are going to milch this moment to their benefit. Whether they succeed in this goal or not, will not only depend on what their selling points would be but also on the ability of the liberals to convincingly counter the majoritarian discourse driven by religious identity and hatred.
The latter’s response, thus far, does not seem to inspire confidence. The secular parties are choosing between firing salvos from behind the grand priests, opposing Modi’s bid to capture Ram temple for political motives, and becoming defensive – labouring to prove their Hinduness or their ‘Ram Bhakti’. While some claim to be the authentic champions of Ram temple, others are trying to flaunt their religious faith in public. What is even more disappointing is that many liberals and commentators are getting drawn into this debate of what the true essence of Hinduism and devotion to Lord Rama is.
Nothing more could give a stimulant to the aggressive Hindutva political movement of turning India into a Hindu theocratic state than the bid by liberals to apologetically give credence to the belief that the religion of the majority is the common unifying cultural thread and a proof of Indianness. By trying to offer evidence of their own unflinching religious faith, they are strengthening the pillars of the Hindu theocratic state that the Hindu Rightwing is erecting.
Those who profess in secular and democratic India will need to discard this glib talk and desist from peddling soft Hindutva. If they believe in liberal values and secularism, they must leave religion to the personal. They must focus, instead, on what this grand ceremony around a temple symbolises.
It symbolises the confluence of political and religious power vested in the hands of one man and the political ideology he espouses.
As Ayodhya reverberates with slogans of ‘Mandir wahin banaya hai…..’, three decades after a rampaging mob brought down a mosque with slogans of ‘Ek dhaka aur do, sara dhaancha tod do….’, followed by ‘Mandir wahin banayenge…….’, the temple will stand as a memory to that destruction and the subsequent communal riots in which 2000 people were killed. As an ode to the glory of its victor, it is also mocks at the vanquished.
It will also stand as an attestation to a new India where might is right and where an aggressive form of Hinduism which is articulated, endorsed and stamped by the Hindu Rightwing alone will be held supreme.
It will stand as a witness to a legal process where matters were decided on the basis of majoritarian sentiment and not jurisprudence of legalities.
This symbolism must be spoken about.
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