A Saint Marches In...
By Poornima Joshi
Outlook
30 October, 2003He is a sadhu with a brave heart—taking 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 participants—local intellectuals, mahants and regular visitors to Hanumangarhi—pledging 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."