Dr Pravin Togadia, General Secretary, Vishwa Hindu Parishad
Mid-Day
Posted on
TitlNo comparison Author: Dr Pravin Togadia, General Secretary, Vishwa Hindu Parishad Publication: Mid-Day DatMarch 17, 2001. The obliteration of the already mutilated statues of Gautam Buddha at Bamiyan in Afghanistan has evoked an expected reaction from the secular fundamentalists in India. Instead of outright condemnation of the vandalism of the Taliban, they saw in it another opportunity to heap calumny on the Sangh parivar. In the process, the sad events at Bamiyan have been trivialised. The destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas is being compared with that of the Babri structure. An image of Talibanisation of the Hindu society in particular is being projected. Of course, this has been done in the past, and it will continue in the future. This reminds me of the statement made by a person who said that the reports of his death are highly exaggerated. For the secular fundamentalists, to calumnise the Sangh parivar is their favourite past time. The secular fundamentalist argue that by causing the destruction of the Babri structure, organisations which have been involved in the reconstruction of a temple at Shri Rama Janmabhoomi have no right to criticise the Taliban. Assume that there is a merit in this. It does not address the issue why they did not mount a campaign against the vandalism in Afghanistan. Instead, right from the very first article of mild criticism of the Taliban, reams of paper has been expended to calumnise the Sangh parivar. What is amusing that each and every perpetrator of this programme said essentially the same thing. Before I come to my main point, let me say that those who say that the destruction of the statues is un-Islamic do not remember the history of Islam properly. Such actions have been the norm, not only in India but also all over the world. The Taliban is doing is continuing a tradition of 1400 years. Vidiadhar Naipaul sums up the situation well. He said: “In art and history books, people write of the Muslims ‘arriving’ in India as though they came on a tourist bus and went away again. The Muslim view of their conquest is a truer one. They speak of the triumph of faith, the destruction of idols and temples, the loot, the casting away of locals as slaves.” There is a huge difference between the Bamiyan Buddhas and the Babri structure. The former was not constructed after deliberately destroying an indigenous place of worship. It was not built in honour of an invader who came to destroy the civilisation of the people. Therefore, it was not a monument of slavery of the people of the land where the statues were erected. The Bamiyan Buddhas are a part of the heritage of Afghanistan. The Babri structure can never be a part of our heritage because it replaced a temple for Shri Rama, who is honoured as a Maryada Purushottam. It is the destroyed temple that is part of our heritage. And it is this that is being reconstructed. Icon smashing is not restricted to the followers of Islam. The Christians have done similar acts. The BBC website has Dr Margaret Aston saying that the destruction of the religious images in England about 400 years ago had the same objective as that of the Taliban – namely to discourage idolatory. She also said that sanction for this act was sought in the Bible, just as Taliban is saying that they are following the Koran to justify their own act. In the Outlook (May 8, 2000), Smt Anita Pratap wrot “Every nation has its own Babri Masjid.... France, Spain, England, Germany and many of the so-called civilised nations of the world live with their version of Babri Masjids - monuments new conquerors constructed to assert their might and power over the architecture of the defeated.” It needs to be said, to be fair to Pratap, that her main emphasis was that the people of those countries have learnt to live with their ‘Babri Masjids’. The point, however, is that those who are living in those lands do not follow the culture of their defeated ancestors, but the one that was imposed on them by those causing the acts of vandalism. Hinduism is a living culture, and the attempt by the Hindus to recover their holy sites is something that should be treated with respect. Taliban refused to even consider the plea of other nations to relocate the statues. In contrast, Hindus have made sincere efforts for a peaceful recovery of their three most holy sites, and have said that they are not seeking the return of the thousands of the other sites which have a similar history. These three sites are the most important part of our national heritage, and the Islamic structures built on them were meant to be an ocular reminder of the slavery of the Hindus. Because these efforts were frustrated, not so much by an obscurantist Muslim leadership but by the secular fundamentalists, that the Babri structure came to be destroyed. In comparing the vandalism of Taliban to the destruction of the Babri structure, the secular fundamentalist have equated Babur with Gautam Buddha and have simultaneously given an artistic merit to the structure of the slavery of the Hindus. By saying that the Babri structure is part of the national heritage of India, they have sought to glorify a foreign invader even while denigrating the Maryada Purushottam. The Sangh parivar is quite used to being insulted by the secular fundamentalists. Surely the nation should not tolerate the insult to the memory of both Gautam Buddha and Shri Rama. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.ofbjp.org ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A worldwide community of BJP's friends, supporters and activists: Friends of the BJP - Worldwid http://www.ofbjp.org/fob ----------------------------------------------------------------------
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