A SHOCKWAVE is sweeping the country over the alleged large-scale embezzlement of funds, or chanda chori — ‘theft of donations’ — at the Ram Temple in Ayodhya. The alleged siphoning of funds is a major blow, especially to the devotees who donated what they could to the deity Lord Ram.
The Ram Temple was built on the ruins of the Babri Masjid, which was demolished in 1992 by thousands of Hindu zealots during the Ram Janmabhoomi agitation. That agitation shook the country, marked by Rath Yatras led by Bharatiya Janata Party president Lal Krishna Advani as part of the BJP-RSS campaign to reclaim what they assert is the birthplace of Lord Ram. According to that claim, Babur, the first Mughal emperor, had demolished a Ram temple to build a mosque in his name.
The BJP-RSS succeeded in their objective, with support from sections of the judiciary. From that time, a massive fundraising drive was also underway. The Liberhan Commission named Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, and Uma Bharati — all senior BJP leaders — among others, as “culprits” behind the mosque’s demolition. Even the Supreme Court judgment conceded that the demolition of the Babri Masjid was unlawful.
Nonetheless, given the current state of the judiciary — which many view as being under the influence of the ruling dispensation — those held responsible were effectively rewarded with the entire plot of land where the mosque stood, to build the Ram Temple. Funds began pouring in to construct the ‘grand’ temple. Prime Minister Narendra Modi played a dual role — as head of state and as chief priest — at the temple’s inauguration. He is widely seen as the final authority on all matters related to the Ram Temple.
Questions about the structure’s quality surfaced during the first monsoon after the ground floor was completed. The ceiling began leaking, forcing the use of buckets to keep the floor dry.
As devotees began arriving in large numbers, the Prime Minister’s Office was reportedly overseeing all arrangements for collecting donations. The scale of collections can be gauged from the Vishwa Sindhi Samaj’s claim that it donated nearly 200 one-kilogram silver bricks for which it received no receipt. Many substantial donations were made in various forms.
The total amount allegedly siphoned off by the temple trustees is estimated at Rs 2,000–3,000 crore.
To cut a long story short, the cat is out of the bag: the temple is a scene of plunder of wealth and the full implications of the theft will be known, if at all, in the coming weeks.
The whole Ram Temple campaign was primarily aimed at political upmanship. It did lead to the emergence of the BJP as a ruling party, and also helped spread hate against Muslims to make its political base very strong.
We are in a democracy where fraternity has been discarded; hate against Muslims is allowed to go up in spirals. One is reminded of the earlier kingdoms when kings plundered temples to increase their wealth. How do we contrast the temple destructions during kingdoms and currently under a semi-democratising society turning into an elected autocracy? The lust for money remains the common factor; religious polarisation was not part of the plundering rulers. Now, polarisation is the main agenda of communal forces.
Two major examples come to mind. One is Raja Harshdev of the 11th century Kashmir and the plunder of Somnath by Mahmud Ghazni. Temples and holy places were destroyed by other kings, too. Polymath D D Kosambi points out, “King Harsha of Kashmir (AD 1089-1101), not to be confused with the 7th-century emperor Harsha, systematically melted down all metal images through the length and breadth of his kingdom, with just four exceptions. The work was carried out by a special ‘minister of uprooting gods’ (Devottapatna Nayak).
Writer Asghar Ali Engineer points out, “About Mahmud Ghazni, too, historians are quite selective in recording the facts. We highlight the fact that he plundered and destroyed the Somnath Temple. But we do not throw light on the fact that he employed Hindus in high positions in his army and administration. Among the Hindu generals, names of Tilak, Sondhi, Rai Hind and Harjan are mentioned in Tarokhi-Bayahaqi…Coins were issued in his reign with Sanskrit inscriptions.”
As per the current social understanding, the destruction of temples had religious motives and was part of the ‘divide and rule’ policy of the British, who implemented communal historiography. Before the destruction of the Somnath Temple, Mahmud Ghazni ordered the seizure of all the gold and silver idols of the temple; the total worth of these acquisitions should be more than twenty thousand gold dinars, a huge amount and great wealth.
“… The King looked at the idols in wonder and gave orders to seize the spoils and appropriate the treasures. There were many idols of gold and silver and vessels set with jewels…the value of these things found in the temple exceeded twenty thousand dinars,” writes historian Romila Thapar. She adds: “Temples were depositories of vast quantities of wealth, in cash, golden images and jewellery-the donations of the pious, these made them natural targets for non-Hindus searching for wealth in north India. The lust of Mahmud for gold was insatiable…the concentration of wealth in Somnath was renowned.” She further points out: “Religion did not count unless it could serve a definite political purpose, where it was exploited to the hilt.”
In popular perception, the novel ‘Jai Somnath’ by Kanhaiyalal Maneklal Munshi played a major role in demonising Mahmud Ghazni and Muslims. It presented his forays to loot the temple as those motivated by religious purpose alone, as an insult to Hindu religion. And further temple destruction by Muslim kings became the main propaganda of communal forces.
While many Muslims kings are singled out for destroying the temples, hardly any attention is paid to the donations which many Muslim rulers gave to Hindu temples. They received “copies of farmans (court orders) of King Aurangzeb from Mahakaleshwar Temple (Ujjain), Balaji Temple (Chitrakut), Umanand Temple (Gauhati), Jain temples of Shatrunjaya, and other temples and gurudwaras scattered over North India. These farmans were issued from 1065 AH (1659) to 1095 AH (1685).”
The similarities between the temples destroyed by the likes of Ghazni and the present Ram Temple Trust under the control of the current dispensation are uncanny.
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Ram Puniyani is an eminent author, activist and former professor of IIT Mumbai. The views expressed here are the author’s personal and Clarion India does not necessarily share or subscribe to them.
