Articles
Somnath Day
Dt: 3/12/14
Somnath Day
( To be observed every year on 6th December)
Dr T.H.Chowdary*
Many Muslim organizations, communists and some “secularists” observe the 6th of December as Babri Masjid Destruction day. This is an insult to Bharat and its civilization and culture. It is also an effort to foster separatism of the Muslim minority and avoidance of its integration with the nation.
2. Babur was not an Indian. He was an invader come from Ferghana in Central Asia. He defeated another Muslim invader –ruler, Ibrahim Lodi in the battle of Paniput in the year 1526. After a few conquests and rule over some parts in North India, he died. In his Baburnama (autobiography) he expressed his contempt for India and its climate. He wanted to be buried in his native land and so he was. Therefore, Indians have no reason to commemorate him.
3. One of his Generals, a Shia Muslim, Mir Baqui is generally credited to have built a “mosque” in Ayodhya in 1527- 28. In the decade of the 1520, the population of India was about 15 cr. Muslims were less than about 10%. And 80% of them were to the North West of Delhi upto Afghanistan’s border. There could have been hardly a few hundred Muslims in Ayodhya. If they were to have a place for prayer that is, a mosque why should it have to be there where for thousands of years millions of Hindus have been believing to be Rama Janmabhoomi?
Facts become stories which become legends and which are carried on as race memories. So is the case with Rama Janmabhoomi. There was a temple as the memories of Hindus go. Guru Nanak ( 15-4-1469 - 22-09-1539) went to this temple and prayed there .
4. This temple was pulled down by General Buqui and on that very place, by using the pillars and the materials of the temple a mosque structure was constructed. This is known as the Babri mosque.
5. Apart from so much of Hindus belief, the archeological survey ( carried out by order of the Allahabad High Court) utilizing deep penetration radar has clearly established that under the demolished Babri structure there was a ruined temple. It is therefore clear that a temple was pulled down and the Babri structure was constructed on that site. The verdicts of the three judges of the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court on the 30 Sept 2010 agree this much; namely, that over the ruins of a temple the Babri structure came up.
6. What is the sanctity of this Babri structure? It is not in commemoration of a saint or learned person of Islam. It is a monument to the victory of Muslims and the defeat of Hindus. This monument also humiliates the most revered of the Hindu trinity, namely Vishnu whose avatar was Rama. There is not a single Hindu in this country who has not heard the name of Rama. How many Indians have heard of Babur and how can there be any comparison between a foreign invader, an iconoclast on the one hand and the Avatara of Vishnu himself on the other.
· That temples have been desecrated and on those very sites mosques are constructed are evidenced by the mosque in Mathura on the site of the temple of Lord Krishna ( Keshav Dev’s temple) which was pulled down in the year 1017 AD by Mohammed of Ghazni, later on reconstructed on a small place where it was destroyed.
· Similarly, in Kasi the grand temple for Viswanath was pulled down in 1669 and on that very site a mosque was constructed. On a small portion of that site, a small Viswanth temple has later constructed by Devi Ahalyabai Holkar .
· These two are standing examples of the vandalism and arrogance of the Islamist conquerors who planted these mosques like daggers in the hearts of Hindus, in the very sites held to be sacred by Hindus.
· The construction of a grand Rama Mandir at his Janmabhoomi in Ayodhya is to recapture self- respect of Hindus and to wipe out the shame of defeat at the hands of foreign invaders who came not only to loot and rule but to destroy Hinduism itself (this without success)
7. In order to bring out this stark truth of the destruction of over 3000 temples and that about 2,000 mosques stand on the very sites of the destroyed temples, Hindus must observe 6th of Dec as Somnath Day.
8. SOMANATH’s Restoration: For centuries preceding the first destruction of the Sivalinga, Somnath at Dwaraka (Saurashtra region of Gujarat) by Mohammed of Ghazni in the year 1024 , Somnath was a place of most revered pilgrimage for millions of Hindus from all over Bharat for centuries. It was repeatedly destroyed by Muslim invaders and rulers and as many times rebuilt by self-respecting, valiant Hindus. Finally, in the time of Aurangazeb not only was the restored temple destroyed 3 times ( 11th, 14th,1 5th and 18th Centuries) for the 4th time but it was converted into a mosque.
Somnath is in Prabhas Patna which used to be in the sultanate of Junagadh. At the time of Independence, the Nawab of Junagadh acceded to Pakistan. More than 85% of the population was Hindu. The Hindus rose in revolt. The Nawab fled to Pakistan. The Nawab’s Diwan, Shah Nawaz Bhutto and a British Commander of his army invited the Government of India to take over the State and restore order. Three days after that event, Sardar Patel, N.V.Gadgil and K.M. Munshi visited Prabhasa and declared that “the Government of India has decided to restore and reconstruct Somanatha temple”. The Cabinet met in Delhi and endorsed this decision of Sardar Patel. Respecting Gandhiji’s wishes, the money required was raised from the people of India, although the planning and the construction were undertaken by the Government of India itself first under the direction of Sardar Patel and later, K.M. Munshi. The mosque was removed. The dilapidated structure was pulled down and a grand Somnatha temple was built. This was in vindication of the self-respect and the reassertion of the soul of Bharatiyas.
Had Sardar Patel lived for a few more years (he died in Dec 1950), most of the desecrated temples which had been converted into mosques would have been regained and temples reconstructed, like the grand temple in Somanth. With the death of Sardar Patel, Nehru, the anti-Hindu put an end to the recapturing of the soul of India as represented in its hallowed temples. It is necessary that Hindus recall the history of Somnath and the interruption to the suppression of nationalism by pseudo -secularism propagated and practised by the Nehru dynasty, and its captive Congress.
9. The detailed story of the destruction of the Somantha temple again and again and its final restoration is narrated in two works. (1) Jai Somnath and (2) Pilgrimage to Freedom both of them by K.M.Munshi, the founder of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. Pragna Bharati, and patriots would observe 6th of Dec as Somnath Day and hold public meetings to tell the story of the restoration of Somnath by removal of the mosque (from where the Sivalinga was removed and its relocation at a distance) . It is hoped that this observance of Somnath Day will bring out the true facts of the iconoclasm of the Islamic invaders and rulers and the negationism in Indian history that is, making no reference to whatsoever to the vandalism, iconoclasm, tyrannical rule, suppression and plunder of Hindus during the long period of the rule of the aliens. We need a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), as Nelson Mandela instituted in South Africa to facilitate Africans forgive and forget the atrocities committed by the racist conquering White rulers. Monuments to Hindus (or any community) defeat and helplessness in their very and only land cannot be suffered by any free, self-respecting people. (1,288 words)
END
First Edition: 6/10/10
Undated Second Edition: 3/12/14