The Epochal Beginning of the Restoration of One of the Holiest Sites of Hindus: A Story of Loss and Recovery
It is seldom that an event occurs in the history of a civilization which is a culmination of centuries of struggles, sacrifices of hundreds of thousands of people, and perseverance of belief in a system of law and order. On August 5th, 2020 the foundation stone was laid for the project to rebuild Lord Rama’s birthplace temple in Ayodhya, India.
Lord Rama is believed by Hindus to be the 7th Avatar of the Divine (personified as Vishnu — the Sustainer in Hindu belief system). Hindus believe that whenever the balance between the good and evil is disturbed in the favor of evil, Divinity takes a tangible form called an Avatar, and appears on Earth to destroy the evil and restore the balance.
Lord Rama was born around 5000 BC, precisely January 10, 5114 BC, a date derived based on the position of astronomical objects recorded in the epic Ramayan which describes the saga of his life. He is called Purushottam (foremost among humans) due to his qualities as an ideal son, husband, and king. His obedience to his father, his quest to rescue his wife kidnapped by the evil Ravana, his destruction of Ravana and the liberation of the people, and his ultimate sacrifice to abandon his beloved pregnant wife for maintaining the moral fiber of his kingdom, is the story which has inspired Hindus, and even non-Hindus, who have read the story over thousands of years. His designation as a ‘human being’ brings him closer to us ordinary humans, such that each one of us can aspire to inculcate some of his qualities in our daily existence.
The temple at the site of his birth, which was in existence since time immemorable, was destroyed by Mir Baqi Tashkandi, a general of the invading Uzbek King Babur, a descendant of Genghis Khan. This was not an isolated incident, as hundreds of thousands of temples have been destroyed by religious fanatic Mughal rulers in India prior to the British takeover. The destructive activities were recorded with relish in their memoirs. On my last visit to New Delhi, it pained me to see easily recognizable pieces of the destroyed original Hindu temples in the so-called architectural marvels constructed by the invaders. The Lord Rama birth site, being one of the very sacred places for Hindus, had a total of 77 attempts made over centuries to reclaim it at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives of warriors and holy men, as well as ordinary men, women, and children.
After the British left India, the former unbroken India was partitioned into Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Islamic Republic of Bangladesh, and Secular Republic of India, which does not have a state religion. After independence in 1947, Hindu organizations petitioned to the Indian judicial system that Lord Rama’s birthplace, which was called ‘dispute land’ and was off-limits to the public, be handed over for reconstruction of a grand temple consistent with its historical and religious significance. The movement to reclaim Lord Rama’s birthplace united all Hindus, regardless of innumerable divisions in the overall Hindu society. The Indian judicial system took a long time in this case due to political and antisocial interference. Finally, on November 9th, 2019, after the presentation of extensive archeological evidence, the Supreme Court of India ordered the 2.77 acres to be handed over to a trust to build the temple. The trust of the Hindu people in the judiciary system is something to reckon. It took 72 years post-independence for a site of immense Hindu religious significance, which was forcefully taken nearly 500 years ago, to be regained by the due process of law.
The history of Hindus is rife with instances where due to their internal divisions, they could not put up a united front against the invading hordes, resulting in destruction of culture and forceful religious conversion of the locals into the faith of the invaders. Today, we Americans are now the most divided in living history. We need to find the common core values which make us all American and bring those to the forefront while putting our differences behind us. Our enemies are bleeding us to death with a thousand cuts, and we are not realizing their significance. Poisonous false propaganda is being infused, which is making fellow Americans hate each other with a ferocity previously reserved only for the vilest enemy. We need to unite soon before it is too late. As Benjamin Franklin rightly said, “We must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.”
