Tomichan Matheikal's blog

Image of the Ayodhya Temple from NDTV Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be inaugurating the Rs 18,000 crore temple of Rama on 22 Jan 2024. Any patriotic Indian should be filled with nationalist pride. Or, is it religious pride? Cultural pride? Well, you choose. As an Indian whose patriotism is highly questionable, I chose to contemplate on the very existence of Lord Rama. Google instructs me that Rama was born in Treta Yuga, the second period in the Hindu classification of history. Treta Yuga stretched from 2,163,102 BCE to 867,102 BCE, according to Google. The same Google tells us that homo sapiens arrived on earth some 300,000 years ago. Lord Rama lived long, long before homo sapiens evolved. “Hanuman was Lord Rama’s real subject,” a friend suggested. All the others are creatures of Valmiki’s imagination. “Mythology, man,” the friend reminded helpfully. Then what about Lord Rama? Did he evolve before time? A premature homo sapiens? I’m inquisitive. “Don’t you remember Plato?”

Read Ayodhya Politics – 1 here . Rajiv Gandhi tried to run with the hare and hunt with the hound, as one of the observers wrote after the Shah Bano and Ayodhya episodes. He had to please both the sections of the population, Hindus and Muslims, in order to tide his party over the revolt from eminent leaders such as V P Singh and Arun Nehru as well as the Bofors scandal.  He addressed a huge gathering in Faizabad (near Ayodhya) and promised Ram Rajya to the people.  Just a few weeks before the general elections in 1989, Rajiv Gandhi sent home minister Buta Singh to participate in the shilanyas ceremony organised by VHP in Ayodhya. The tactics didn’t yield dividends, however. Congress did not win the majority in the elections and a coalition government led by V P Singh came to power. BJP also became a force to reckon with winning 85 seats in the place of the former 2.  BJP leader L K Advani hit upon an idea to further strengthen the party; he organised a rath yatra from Somna

The Sarayu must have wept quite a lot.  The river which bathed Rama’s childhood and watched the conflicts that the Maryada Purushottam suffered during his adult life went on to witness much more nasty conflicts a whole yug later. When India became independent more than half of the Muslims made arduous journeys across the new national border reducing their population in India to a meagre 10%.  The first Prime Minister of secular India, a visionary who considered dams more sacred than gods, announced that “All of us, to whatever religion we may belong, are equally the children of India with equal rights, privileges and obligations.” Ayodhya was not much affected by the Partition.  The Muslims there chose to stay back placing their trust in Nehru’s secularism.  The Muslims had working relationships with the Hindus in Ayodhya.  Muslim artisans made many of the idols that adorned Hindu temples.  One temple there even had a Muslim manager. Then someone had a dream.  The dream