To counter the opposition’s claims that the Pran Pratistha ceremony is a “political” event, the RSS, its allies, like-minded intellectuals, writers and academics have come up with their literature and social media “based on their research” for publicity. Media campaign has been started. Ram Mandir as India’s “civilizationist” movement and the decades-long struggle to find a place for it.
In the past week, at least two books have been released which suggest that the Ram temple is not just about religion, but ‘dharma’ or Hinduism, a way of life.
News 18 has learned that at least half a dozen of these books on the history of Ayodhya are in the pipeline. Senior author and columnist Arun Anand’s latest book, ‘Ramjanmabhoomi: How Hindus won a 500-year-long civilizational war’, was released on Wednesday.
Last week, writer and former MP Balbir Punj’s ‘Tryst with Ayodhya: Decolonization of India’ was released. This book deals with the history of the occupation of Ram Janmabhoomi by “invaders”. Actually, there is mention of Ramayana in External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar’s book ‘Why India Matters’. He tried to bring in a ‘Ramayana-type’ theme to explain diplomacy and its historical relevance.
Speaking to News 18, author and columnist Arun Anand explained why right-wing academics call the Ram Temple the most important part of India’s “civilizational” struggle and the movement that followed.
“The struggle to build the Ram temple lasted for almost 500 years. It started after the demolition of Ram temple in Ayodhya by Babar’s army. For Indian society, Babar was an Islamic invader. They represented and followed cultural values that did not believe in co-existence, while Lord Ram represented civilizational values that believed in ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ (the whole world is one family),” he said. Said.
“Thus, the struggle for the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya was a civilizational war between these two sets of values. How Hindus fought and won this war against all odds is a breathtaking story that the world needs to know. Since this story is not just about a temple or God, it is about the victory of ‘Dharma’ which is the soul of Hindu civilization and India,” said Anand.
A cultural and civilizational movement, not politics: RSS
Even the Indian faction of the opposition refused to attend the consecration ceremony, terming it “political”, but senior RSS functionaries said they were willing to let vested interests in India’s socio-cultural struggle for survival be its own. are being mixed with “petty electoral politics”.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who is on Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra from Manipur, has repeatedly called Pran Pratishtha a ‘BJP-RSS’ program. Even though all the opposition leaders refused to attend the Pran Pratishtha ceremony, they have planned events around Ram or other Hindu deities to celebrate the ceremony in their own way.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his party colleagues on Tuesday organized a ‘Sundar Kand’ recital program at a temple in Rohini and sought blessings from Lord Ram and Hanuman for the country’s progress. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced that she will visit the Kali temple in Kolkata’s Kalighat area on January 22, the day of the consecration ceremony. She will offer prayers at the Kali temple and take out an “all-faith rally” in the city after her visit to the temple.
Reacting to such statements and programs organized by opposition politicians, a senior RSS functionary said, “They are talking like ignorant persons. He has been blinded by his political ambitions and that is why he refused to attend the function even when invited. Every Hindu devotee would like to attend this ceremony if given a chance, however, these politicians boycotted the ceremony. They have their own different excuses like one called it a ‘BJP-RSS programme’, the other used ‘incomplete structure’ as an excuse. But they are failing to understand that Ram Mandir is more than just a religious event. “Ram Temple has always been a symbol of India’s history, its struggle against foreign power and its age-old tradition and ancient civilization.”
“We know that Left Communist historians will always want to dismiss Ram as a mythological figure and Hinduism as ‘non-collective’. But can they ignore the culture and tradition of India, which has always revolved around Ram Rajya? They only talk about the empires established by the invaders, but they conveniently forget our ancient civilization. We want people to learn about forgotten or hidden history. That is why writers and academics inspired by the RSS have done their research and written such books,” he said.
Arun Anand further said that he had written the first book on this issue in 2018 which was published in 2020 during the Covid-19 restrictions. “However, a lot has happened since then and more importantly, there has been a consistent attempt to equate the Ram temple with a religious structure, it is a religious structure because it represents dharma and decorum, that is why That Ram is known as Maryada Purushottam. To establish this, I came up with this new and latest book on Ram Janmabhoomi,” he said.
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