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India: TRUTH AND FALSEHOOD

It is for the first time that in Independent India some serious thought is being given to the religious politics that has been polluting Indian scene very badly since 1947 with hatred being generated towards Muslims. The Archaeological survey of India has presented a truth before the Supreme Court that there is no evidence for the Sri Ram having lived any time before and that the proposal for the Sethusamudram Channel Project construction in Ram Sethu, Ram bridge or Adam bridge” in Tamil Nadu, be given green signal. The Channel when constructed would save a lot of time for Indian vessels to go to South East Asian and Pacific nations. However, as the apex court was considering the appeal, on second thought, the government of India which includes Muslim League and headed by Congress Party, and supported by the Communists, has now decided to redraft and modify “the truth” a bit so as to change the appeal content submitted to Supreme court. This has been done with view to appeasing the majority sentiments, particularly the Hindu fundamentalist outfits and anti-Islamic forces operating and keeping in view the larger religious politics linked with Babri mosque. Or, Congress Party which promised to rebuild the Mosque at the site, does not want to keep the word in rebuilding the mosque at the site what it stood before it was demolished by the anti-Islamic forces in the country. Babri mosque case has been pending for quite some time now without materializing the mosque getting constructed. It is now evident that the government of India has always used the judiciary as a powerful shield to protect their narrow interests and what they think is the only way left for them.

But it is even ridiculous that two officials of ASI have been suspended by the government of India for telling the truth to the apex court in this regard. In September in the midst of a political controversy over the Sethusamudram project, the Centre told the Supreme Court that there was no historical evidence to establish the existence of Lord Rama or the other characters in Ramayana. In an affidavit filed before the apex court, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) rejected the claim of the existence of the 'Ramasetu Bridge' in the area where the project was under construction. The multi-crore rupee project proposes to provide a shorter sea route from Rameshwaram to Sri Lanka saving hours each passage.

Referring to the Ramayana, the affidavit said there is no 'historical record' to incontrovertibly prove the existence of the character, or the occurrences of the events, depicted therein. Referring to the Ramayana, the affidavit said there is no "historical record" to incontrovertibly prove the existence of the character, or the occurrences of the events, depicted therein. ASI in its affidavit filed through ASI Director (monuments) C Dorjee stated, "The petitioners while seeking relief have primarily relied upon the contents of the Valimiki Ramayana, the Ram Charit Manas by Tulsidas and mythological texts, which formed an important part of ancient Indian literature, but which cannot be said to be historical records to incontrovertibly prove the existence of the characters or the occurrence of the event, depicted therein."

Whereas it is submitted that the ASI is aware of and duly respects the deep religious import bestowed upon these “texts” by the Hindu community across the globe, it is also submitted that the study of human history, which is the primary object of the ASI, like other sciences and fields of study, must be carried out in a scientific manner using available technological aids, and its findings must be based on tangible material evidence. "Earlier, Marine and Water Resources Group, Space Application Centre, Ahmedabad, which had conducted the study had said, "The Adam's bridge/Ram Sethu is believed to be constructed by Lord Ram to cross over to Sri Lanka."
The period of Ramayana is considered as Tretha Yug (more than 17, 00,000 years ago). The study, however, concluded that the Adam's bridge is not man made in nature. The views expressed by the government and ASI are also same.

It may be noted here that the petitioner has also sought declaration from the court that the formation known as Ram Sethu/Adam's bridge is a protected and ancient monument and it should not be demolished while constructing Sethusamudram which is going to connect Rameshwaram in Tamil Nadu to the regional nations in order to save navigation time for the ships. On September 14 Supreme Court permitted the project to be commenced without destroying the Ram Sethu. The apex court had earlier directed the government not to damage 35-km-long Ram Sethu. After considering other alternative routes suggested for Sethusamudram.The Central government and state of Tamil Nadu wanted to remove Ram Sethu and construct a transport corridor to Sri Lanka.

“Ramayana” is undoubtedly one of the greatest world epics narrating a story of righteous king Ram who shed his thrown and lived in the forest for 14 years where his queen was kidnapped by “Ravana” and he retrieved her after a great deal of struggles but only to be lost again for ever after they return to Ayodhya. It was written in the remote past and the charters have been revered and worshiped as gods and goddess, Ram even has been adored as a national hero. There is no doubt that Hindu extremist communal political parties in India , having lost the "Ayodhya drama" with the destruction of Babri Mosque got done by the anti-Islamic terrorists, have spotted a powerful weapon in the emerging "Ram Sethu" controversy. And they have every reason to believe that it is now their turn to make political capital out of anything that is linked to "Ram", the main protagonist in long story “Ramayan”. (This writer had the opportunity to visit the cave in the Himalaya where the author of Ramayan lived and wrote that historical piece of great work of art with full of moral tales to help the masses to live like good people. Surely, Valmiki never thought that his epic work would one day be misused by Hindu politicians seeking power though religion to whip up passion for votes and this emotional flare-up would eventually make Muslims the target of the Majority India and a dirty communal war would engulf the Indian nation).

Certainly people in the past have built the bridge to accelerate transport between India and Sri Lanka. Forgetting the fact Ramayana is an epic novel, the Hindu fundamentalists and extremists wish to revive the hatred ridden politics to advance their power game. The make the people believe that Ram Sethu was built by Lord Ram with the help of Hanuman's Vanar Sena (army of monkies) to free his wife Sita from the captivity of 'demon king' Ravana. The affidavit filed jointly by Central government, ASI, and other government agencies virtually puts a question mark against authenticity of the epic called Ramayana and even questions whether the incidents mentioned in it including the battle between Lord Ram and Ravana ever took place.

It is unfortunate that instead of seeing reason and in trying to shield what cannot be upheld by any means, the Hindu fundamental extremist outfits have issued a "fatwa" on chief-minister of Tamil Nadu (where the Ram Sethu lies) Karunanidhi's head for just saying what he has been asserting right from the beginning of his public life as a speaker and writer that Ram never existed. But this fatwa raises another important question: if a death penalty as the befitting punishment is delivered by the fundamentalist forces just for a statement basing on the truth, what could be the punishment for those who destroyed the historical Babri Mosque? Can do this ghastly crime against a religion and the major minority in India just because they are majority people belonging another religion? Hon. Supreme Court should kindly take not of this.

Former Deputy prime-minister L.K. Advani, who seems to nurture hidden hopes of becoming the prim-minister, has been looking for opportunities to reach that chair y hook or crook. But he has not accepted the challenge thrown by Karunanidhi for a debate to prove Ram's existence. Right from the day he entered the public life, Karunanidhi has articulated his thesis about the multi-Gods. His main protagonist in one of his stories made into a film subsequently tell the judge in a court scene that " Let there be Gods, but we question the way Gods are being exploited by some people for their own ends. This we oppose". Advani who dreamt of becoming the prime-minister could not become so, and now the ram Sethu issue could be effectively exploited to whip Hindu passion and make political capital out of it. Supreme Court alone can restrain those desperately looking for opportunities to misuse Religion to create discord in the society and get votes from the vulnerable Hindus.

Frankly speaking, the majority Hindus in general are not that bad, but the political classes actively supported by bureaucrats and media spoil their mind-set and create life of Muslims intolerable. Although the TV serial "Ramayana" was given full publicity through various organizations and the popularity of the serial was impressive, the hero who played the role of Ram in the serial lost the parliamentary elections, while the person who portrayed his enemy character, "Duryodhana" won the election and went to New Delhi to assume his membership in the Parliament.

The Ram Sethu issue seems to have given the BJP and its more fundamentalist partners in India such as RSS, VHP and Bajarang Dal a golden chance to manipulate the religious sentiments of the Hindu masses and get their votes in what seems to be a soon-to-be-held election. It is a sad fact that Indian politicians do not hesitate to create confusion in the name of religion for political gains. If we are to move ahead, religious issues should be left to religious and spiritual leaders to solve. Disputes on historical facts, whether they deal with Rama bridges or Rama temples, should be left to historians with secular minds.

God without form or face has been given a face, shape, gender, color, etc, according to the human perceptions of the age. It appears that India is too keen to see that Babri Mosque is not rebuilt in its original spot, or at least the construction is delayed as far as possible. That is unfair to the Muslims who are still hopeful and eagerly waiting for the Babri Mosque to come up there at the earliest. The government should help people cultivate the good habit of distinguishing facts from fiction. India might still continue to position itself as a “proud” nation with lies, mischief so as to sustain anti-Muslimism and agenda of denying the Muslims their legitimate due from national development and anti-Muslimism. In stead, it could strive for a vision for a better progressive nation that would cater to the overall development of people, including Muslim.

The time has come for Indians to define their real-life priorities and force political parties and media to take them up — poverty, water, electricity, education, transportation, health care and so on and so on. Every person has the right to practice his own religion in his own way. That should not come in the way of the country’s development. It is time we realized that it is only when all work together for a common purpose that we can build a nation free from hatred. The greatness of democracy is that it gives us, the ordinary people, the options and choices to decide who our leaders and rulers should be. We must use that right intelligently to weed out those whose interest is only in remaining in power and choose those with the right attitude. God and religions should not be permitted for politicians to advance their power journey by creating disorder in the society and making different sections of the people to insult each other and kill one other. Hon. Supreme Court should step in to restrain the political parties to misuse their religions in poll campaigns to garner votes from their respective vote banks. Communal harmony is mainly the subject of the majority community and the leaders in India should give substance this aspect. Maligning, insulting and the creating hatred to disunite communities should be done away with, earlier the better!

To conclude here, the plea to government of India and Uttar Pradesh to imitate steps to reconstruct the Babri Mosque where it stood before is repeated with all humbleness as a member of Muslim community in India. It is expected that hon. Supreme Court of India would take steps to make the governments to fulfill their promise to the nation about the reconstruction of Mosque along with the pledge undertaken by both Indian constitution and Nehru to protect the Muslim interests even by granting special guarantees. Also, the bureaucrats and the media that are basically anti-Muslim are well advised to do some honest soul searching now, as they begin the reconstruction of Babri Mosque in Ayodhya.

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Dr. Abdul Ruff Colachal
JNU, Delhi.