If Babri Masjid was a symbol of Indian slavery, then how about Taj Mahal and India Gate, etc.? How many more symbols of slavery will be demolished in the name of Bharat, the new republic?
Syed Ali Mujtaba | Clarion India
AS the consecration (Prana Pratishtha) ceremony of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya began on Monday, some bitter truths have come to light that need to be understood in the background of the temple construction on the ruins of the 15th century Babri Masjid and the Post Truth India.
In 2019, the Supreme Court of India delivered the verdict that 67 acres of land should be given to the Ramjanmabhoomi Trust to construct a huge temple complex incorporating one Ram temple and six other temples. The Ram Mandir will be constructed on 2.7 acres (1.1 hectares) including 1,480 sq. yards of the demolished Babri Masjid site. The total temple area will be about 57,000 square feet.
Now as things are coming to light in this scheme of the Ram Temple Complex, the ‘Ram Mandir’ is being built some 3 km away from the demolished mosque.
Rajiv Dhawan, the lawyer for the Muslim litigant in the Babri Masjid-Ramjanambhoomi dispute, has raised his voice; if that is the fact then why the Babari Masjid of 1,480 sq yards was destroyed at all if the temple’s construction was not intended to take place on the contentious site?
This phenomenon can be explained by referring to my book; ‘Post Truth India – Brand Republic’, (Mittal Publication 2022) wherein I have argued that the BJP rule is sustained on lies and untruths and that is Post Truth.
The lie about the construction of the Ram Mandir was paddled as a story that the Hindu god was born exactly below the central dome of the Babri Masjid. Therefore, the mosque has to be demolished to build a temple there. The campaign to build Ram Temple on the very site where Babri Masjid stood was vigorously sustained for nearly two decades till the disputed structure was demolished on December 6, 1992.
Now, when the mosque stands destroyed and the Supreme Court has given its verdict in favour of the Hindu litigant and the grand Ram Temple is being inaugurated, it is learned that the garb girha of the current temple is not at the exact spot of the central dome of the Babri Masjid.
This is a classic example of the post-truth India. What was browbeaten for more than two decades that it’s not a mosque but only a frame (Masjid nahi hai dhancha hai) has now turned out to be a hoax. It was only used as a gimmick to destroy the Babri Masjid. There was no truth in it and as such is yet another example of the post-truth. This lie was peddled by the BJP since the 1980s and was made true under the extended BJP rule.
This narrative looks to have taken a leaf from the Hindu tradition of thugee which was banished during the British rule in India. ‘The Thugs of Hindostan’ were no ordinary tricksters and deceivers but were part of a complex phenomenon that drew its sanctity from the Hindu goddess Kali. Their idea was being a Thug is a service to the Hindu religion.
Another example of post-truth India is the slogan; we take a vow in the name of Ram to construct the temple at the very place where Ram was born, (swagandh Ram ki khatay hain, mandir wahin banayen gay).
This slogan necessitated the Supreme Court to press in the Archaeological Survey of India to find the existence of the Ram temple below the Babri Masjid and to dig out the idols of “Ram Lalla” if they were there to prove the veracity of the slogan being raised.
The Archaeological Survey of India in its report submitted that it could not find any evidence of the Ram temple below the mosque, though it found some non-Islamic structures below that no way could be concluded as Ram Temple. So, the entire slogan of constructing the temple at the very place where Ram was born was another blatant lie. Now when the temple is constructed some 3 km away from the demolished site, the post-truth nature of this pedagogy is evident.
The third example of the post-truth phenomenon is the idols that were kept in the Babri Masjid in 1948 and later in the makeshift temple after the demolition of the mosque are not the same that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is stalling at the garbh girah during the consecration ceremony.
There are reports that the idols of baby Ram (Ram Lala) that were kept in the Babri Masjid in 1948 and later in the makeshift temple have been changed. The new idol of Baby Ram is dark in colour and looks more like a Dravidian god rather than one from the Aryavarta, the land of the Aryans.
There is a fierce debate going on about the selection of the idol, believed to be imported from China.
Babri Masjid is touted as a symbol of Indian slavery, knowing well that the entire length and breadth of the country is full of architectural marvels that tell us the story of foreign rule in India. If Babri Masjid was a symbol of Indian slavery, then how about Taj Mahal and India Gate, etc.? How many more symbols of slavery will be demolished in the name of Bharat, the new republic?
Well, these are some hard truths of post-truth India, where a superstructure is being built to construct a brand new republic. This brand new republic is being built on two premises, one on telling lies or Post Truth, and the other is to hate Muslims.
The story of Ram Temple and ‘Post Truth India is that the brand new republic’ is run by telling lies and spreading the canard against Muslims. During the Ram Mandir campaign, the infamous hate-mongering slogan; beat Muslims with shoes as they all are the progeny of Babur (Babur ke auladon ko jootay maro salon ko) was being raised to goad the entire Hindu community to develop hatred towards Muslims.
This is the new frame (dhancha) of the Indian republic that unfolds under the BJP rule. Undoubtedly, below the velvet gloves of Hindutva, there are the steel knuckles to kill the Muslims. This new model of the Indian state is touted as ‘Ram Rajya’. This sums up the Ram Temple and the Post Truth India story.
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Syed Ali Mujtaba is a journalist based in Chennai. He is the author of the book; ‘Post Truth India- Brand Republic’, He can be contacted at syedalimujtaba2007@gmail.com
