A Saint Marches
In...
By Poornima Joshi
Outlook
30 October, 2003
He
is a sadhu with a brave hearttaking on Praveen Togadia and the
Sangh parivar on their own turf. Mahant Gyan Das, head priest of the
200-year-old Hanumangarhi temple in Ayodhya, stood up against the VHP
as it marched to the town earlier this month to lay yet another siege.
What makes Gyan
Das a formidable opponent for the VHP is not just his personal popularity
in Ayodhya but the fact that he is the mahant of a prestigious, historic
temple. Much before the Ramjanmabhoomi site attracted devotees to Ayodhya,
the Hanumangarhi and Nageshwarnath temples were the chief destinations
in the revered Ramkot area of Ayodhya.
The mahant has been a consistent critic of the VHP over the last 10
years and is mainly responsible for the opposition to the "Ayodhya
movement" within the temple town. With him is Swami Swaroopanand
Saraswati, the Shankaracharya of Dwarka, and heads of three of the four
Hindu akharas in Ayodhya. They are all opposed to the politicisation
of the mandir issue and against the methods the VHP employs in its temple
campaign.
Thus, the Parishad's
latest effort, the 'sankalp diwas' on October 17, flopped not just because
of the UP government's intervention, but courtesy what Gyan Das did
on the days prior to the supposed religious ceremony. He built a popular
resistance to the VHP within Ayodhya and persuaded people in the adjoining
districts to boycott the occasion. It is to him that Muslims in Ayodhya
and around attributed the relative sense of security they felt even
in a town full of frenzied VHP mobs.
Fearing a repeat
of December 6, 1992, when crazed mobs had also burned down their houses
and killed innocents, the Muslims had started fleeing the town. This
time, amidst open threats of communal violence and security personnel
thronging the streets, the normally reclusive ascetic organised a quiet
meeting where he sat with worried Muslims and chalked out a peacekeeping
strategy.
"I was hearing
reports of the Muslims fleeing the town because they didn't feel safe
here," he says. "Such events should embarrass people who promise
Ram rajya in India. But what do they care? Bhagwan Ram is just a polling
agent for the Sangh parivar. But for those of us who understand a little
bit about dharma, the very thought of terrified women and children fleeing
their homes is shameful. So some of us sat together and thought about
what could be done."
The meeting ended
with all participantslocal intellectuals, mahants and regular
visitors to Hanumangarhipledging to maintain peace in the temple
town. On October 14, three days before the 'Ram bhakts' were to march
to Ayodhya, Gyan Das went to the Muslim quarters in Ayodhya with friends
and followers. By the time this group of saffron-clad sadhus fanned
out in the busy neighbourhood, he was joined by over 1,000 supporters.
The mahant went from house to house, making it a point to visit Mohammad
Hashim, the oldest Muslim claimant to the disputed land in Ayodhya.
"We went to
each house, assuring everyone that they will not come to any harm,"
says the mahant. "It was not a political stunt. I genuinely wanted
the people of Ayodhya to feel safe. The VHP is an embarrassment for
the Hindus. I wanted to send out a signal. I wanted the VHP to know
Ayodhya would not tolerate them this time. And you should have seen
the welcome we received in the Muslim houses. They stood outside with
garlands in their hands and tears in their eyes. I don't know how anyone
can think of harming the innocents. The VHP has to be stopped. It is
spreading poison in the country."
His unequivocal
warning"Musalmanon par aankh uthayi to aankh nikaal denge
(nobody should dare touch the Muslims)"seems to have worked.
The unease subsided, with Gyan Das's resistance finding popular resonance.
"All of us
stand united," says Khaliq Ahmad Khan of the Helal Committee, Faizabad.
"Mahant Gyan Das is the true protector of the Hindu faith. He created
such an atmosphere that even the minuscule number of VHP supporters
in Ayodhya were hesitant in joining them openly. Ayodhya has rejected
the Sangh parivar and we wanted them to understand this in no uncertain
terms."
Having reassured
the Muslims thus, Gyan Das went to Lucknow to meet chief minister Mulayam
Singh Yadav to urge him to stop the VHP. He lobbied with the district
administration to lend support to the local resistance and organised
defence squads for the protection of the Muslims. So powerful was the
popular disdain against the 'sankalp diwas' that it enabled even Nritya
Gopal Das, the often ambivalent mahant of the pro-VHP Ramjanmabhoomi
Nyas, to stay away from the function on October 17 and only put in a
brief appearance the following day.
Perhaps the most
significant proof of the strength of the Ayodhya resistance came in
the fact that very few of the 'Ram bhakts' hailed from UP. The VHP-mobilised
crowds were high on the tribal quotient, besides cadres from Gujarat
and Maharashtra. In fact, if one were to look at the percentage participation
from Ayodhya, it would amount to nothing. "There was very little
local participation. People mostly came from other states," confirmed
an official.
The worst that Ayodhya
feared did not come to pass on sankalp diwas. But the mahant is not
putting up his feet yet. "We shouldn't forget that the elections
are coming close," he warns. "They will be drumming up Ayodhya
again. They will organise riots, and innocents will be killed. We have
no time to rest. The country has to wake up to this new challenge. The
BJP is totally with the VHP. They want the country to be polarised along
communal lines and nobody is going to come to the common people's rescue.
We have to act now and fast."
Towards which end
the mahant has already sent appeals to intellectuals across the country
to explain the situation to the people. He is part of the Ramjanmabhoomi
Punaroddhar Samiti that, he says, is formed with the precise purpose
of defeating communal elements in the country. "They misguide the
simple, poor people in the name of Ram," says Gyan Das. "They
have nothing to do with either god or dharma. They are rakshasas. The
sooner we understand this, the better it would be for the country. We
have succeeded in alienating the devout population of Ayodhya from the
VHP. It is the duty of every peace-loving, god-fearing Hindu to do the
same wherever it is possible."