REDEMPTION !

 

 

 

 

WHEN a civilisation redeems itself, it does so through such moments -- one of which it is experiencing now, the Pran Pratishtha of the idol of Ram Lalla at the Ayodhya Mandir. This is the moment of fulfillment of a civilisational dream over the past five-plus centuries -- of struggle to get back the Janmasthan of Ram Lalla at Ayodhya. This is also the moment of redemption of a civilisation that had got sullied when it could not protect countless numbers of its symbols of honour and dignity. So, when one of those most honoured symbols of honour has been restored, the Indian civilisation stood redeemed -- to a great extent. This process will, of course, continue -- of restoration of many other symbols of honour. This particular moment, therefore, marks the beginning of that process of restoration of other symbols of national and civilisational honour. This is not a moment confined to the boundaries of India or its people. This is a moment that the whole world is celebrating -- across narrow dividing lines. For, the world realises, as does India, that the journey of India up to this point has brought about a near-total redefinition of the country’s political discourse -- from a pseudo-secular political narrative to a constructive engagement in India’s historical and cultural past over-arching political considerations and developments through centuries.

 

This moment, thus, needs to be viewed from this wider and deeper awareness of the past, the present and the future of India as a nation and also as a civilisational entity. This moment, therefore, calls for a recall of the great sacrifices of countless lakhs of people to have Shri Ram Janmabhoomi restored to the original possessors of the place and the natural claimants of its legacy. History tells us that lakhs of people have laid their lives while trying to either protect Shri Ram Janmabhoomi or reclaim it from invaders’ hands. History also tells us how Governments fell and rose in post-Independence India as much politics got woven around the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi movement. This is the critical importance of this moment when Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi and Sarsanghchalak of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Dr. Mohan Bhagwat led the Pran Pratishtha ritual in Ayodhya. Having seen the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi movement evolve over the past four-decades from pretty close quarters, we are in a position to insist that there was nothing per se political in the entire activity.

 

True, political elements did have a role to play when a country or a society was faced with an issue as critical as this one. Despite this, a deeper awareness of what actually happened in different political camps over the past 40 years gives us the courage to assert that the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi movement was actually an apolitical one. Let alone what certain elements may have to say about this aspect, we are aware fully that despite all efforts to politicise it by many people, the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi movement remained well above politics. That is the reason why it could succeed and could bring the nation to this new start to the process of cultural renaissance. No matter the instigation some political elements might have tried to arouse some segments of the larger Indian society against Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party or the RSS or the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, the common people across barriers of faith understood the actual metaphor of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi movement as a completely apolitical activity. No matter all this, allegations about politics did not subside -- initially about the movement, and subsequently about the Pran Pratishtha ceremony. However, the nation will have to face a rather harsh truth that those who alleged politics in the movement and the ceremony also did not shy away from indulging very dirty political games. They spread dirtiest possible lies about both, and tried to malign the atmosphere of the country against the grand redemption of the Indian civilisation.

 

We do understand their predicament, though. For, whatever they did or say about the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi movement or the Pran Pratishtha ceremony bounced back against them. Yet, they refused to learn the right lessons, and indulged in petty political games that made no actual sense. But the Pran Pratishtha ceremony brought the nation and the civilisation to a great point of redemption of the most sublime kind -- far beyond sectarian thinking or segmented politics. For, when the actual moment came, people from all walks of life, from all faiths, from all creeds and beliefs and from almost all political parties joined hands in celebrations that emerged at every street corner in the country -- and even elsewhere in the world. The spontaneous and voluntary elements in those popular celebrations could not be missed. At least half of India had its morning meals through Maha Prasadam that was distributed to countless millions of people, devotees or otherwise. Those who opposed the movement and the Pran Pratishtha in whatever manner will have no answer to this groundswell of public admiration of the epochal moment the country has witnessed. This moment, thus, stands as a testimony to a great paradigm shift in civilisational context. The impetus this moment has granted to India’s cultural renaissance cannot be captured easily in common comprehension. This was one moment that the country had been waiting for. History will take a turn for the positive from now. India will grow exponentially from now on. This was what Destiny had meant for India that is Bharat.