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Why Grieve over Babri “Masjid”? How About Somnath, Rama and Thousands of Other Temples ?

Dt:  3/12/14

Why Grieve over Babri “Masjid”?

How About Somnath, Rama and Thousands of Other Temples ?

Dr T.H.Chowdary*

On the 6^th of  Dec 1992 tens of thousands of exasperated, frustrated  emotionally  insulted  at the  existence of a  humiliating structure on the  very site  where hundreds  of millions of Hindus believe  Lord Rama was born,  tore down the  dilapidated structure going by the name of  Babri Masjid  where  for decades there had been no prayers of Muslims.  Ever since 1528 -29 when one Mir Baqui,  a soldier of the  invading  foreigner, Babur  built  a mosque after  razing  to ground  an existing  temple,  Hindus have been trying to take possession of the sacred site repeatedly  and many were the dead   in the process.  Various Hindu organisations  had since  before Independence  and thereafter tried  to convince their  Muslim brothers that  they should allow  Hindus  to re-construct the Mandir on the  Ram Janmasthan and that they  would help and assist Muslims to relocate the  “mosque” elsewhere.   Muslims did not  and even now do not, agree.

2. On the  other hand, outrageous  questions like the  following are posed.  What is the proof   that there was a historic person  called Rama; proof  that the spot claimed to be the Janmasthan was indeed so;  proof that there  was a temple, proof  that the foreign soldiers of  Baqui pulled that  temple  down; proof that on the very foundations  of  that temple, the mosque   was built. These questions  insult   the faith and belief for thousands  of years  of  hundreds  of millions of  people.  They  are  unlike no Hindus  questioning  the historic  existence of any Prophet or their  miracles like  being transported from a particular place on earth on a horse   by a messenger  to a god  and  that he brought a  Holy Book etc. Prime Ministers and men of goodwill tried to settle the Rama Janma Bhoomi issue amicably but in vain.  The failure was not only due to the   unreasonable stand of   some Muslims but  the passionate support that Marxists,  self- styled “eminent” historians  and intellectuals and  India’s

peculiarly “secular”  sloganeers arguing on behalf of unbending and un-compromising Muslims  that the Hindu  mythology  about  Rama and temple was false. It does not occur to the  opponents of the  Hindus that in 1520s there could  not have been  a large number  of Muslims in Ayodhya,  that there was no space for a mosque excepting  that either on the very site believed  to be the  Janmasthan of Lord Rama or adjacent to it; that the structure was built  solely with the  aim of incessantly humiliating the  vanquished  Hindus and to tell them that they  are  powerless, impotent.

3.  As though  some calamity has happened to Muslims and some monstrous  act had been perpetrated by Hindus, some Moslem organisations, various brands of Marxists, Communists and fellow -traveling, self-styled “eminent” historians, sociologists and   fundamentalist  “secularists” and de-Indianised people  of this country are observing 6^th of  December as the  Babri Masjid Destruction Day, wanting to tell the world that  Hindus had destroyed a famous place of worship  belonging to a minority  community.  It is incomprehensible  as to why it does not  occur to them that thousands of  temples had been razed to the ground  by Muslim invaders as recorded by Islamic  scholars and   historians  and scribes who accompanied  those  invaders. It does not  occur to them as to why just by the  side of  Krishna  temple in Mathura,  there should be a mosque; why just by the  side of  Lord Siva's temple  in Varanasi, there should be a mosque. Were there no other  sites  available for the construction of mosques   in those cities ? Why  had they to be  built  just by  the side of and even  encroaching upon  the temple lands of Lord Krishna and Lord  Siva? Was it not  to  remind the  defeated  Hindus, of  the   humiliation   that they had suffered, their impotence and  the  might  and  invincibility of the   Islamic  conquerers?  Can any self- respecting  nation and people  suffer the continuance of such monuments to their humiliation, to their  subjugation and relegation as second class citizens? Hindus  had been  prepared to forget about the thousands of temples that had been razed to  the ground and  mosques  built on them: Rama, Siva and Krishna  are the most venerated  divinities of  Hindus .   On the very places where  temples had been built for them,  the existence of mosques built by invader conquerors, iconoclasts, is  an insult,  continuation of wounds inflicted upon their civilization, their   faith and their psyche.  Without  absolutely any concern for their  sentiments  and beliefs,  Marxists,  Muslims and the Macaulayans ( people who are only in blood and colour   Indian but   unIndian in all other  respects), and     “secularists” are  observing  the  6^th of  December as  the  Babri Destruction Day to tell the  world that Hindus have done  some unpardonable act of destruction,  of  sacrilege .

4. This type of  vilification of Hindus shall not go unanswered, unchallenged  and rebutted.  We would like to remind our countrymen of the  most unpardonable  barbarism, and  brigandage that was indulged in by some  Islamic rulers of foreign origin and native converts in this  country. We would not  talk  of the tens of thousands of temples as destroyed; of the hundreds of thousands  of  heads  of defeated  Hindu soldiers that had been exhibited pyramids ;we will not talk of the  lakhs of defeated soldiers and their children taken to the  slave   Bazars of Bagdad and sold as slaves; we will not talk of the thousands of Hindu women who had been abducted,  molested, forcibly converted and  consigned  to the harems of the  conquerors; we will not talk of  the thousands of  proud  Hindu women who immolated themselves lest they should  fall into the hands of lascivious and ravishing victorious soldiers of a foreign  faith.  Since Babri  mosque  has become to the detractors of Bharat, an instrument of calumny against Hindus,  we would like to take up just one instance, namely that of the destruction of  the hallowed Somnath temple in the year 1026 AD  by Sultan Mohammed of  Ghazni. There is absolutely no denial of this fact. It is near this place  in Prabhasa where Lord  Krishna  cast off his mortal  remains near Dwaraka. The fiendish, sacrilegious, blood -thirsty  and looter deeds of   Md. of Ghazni were recorded  by the  historians accompanying him. Somnath is one of the  most revered Jyothirlingas sacred to Hindus . The Somnath  Temple  was constructed no one knows when. It was getting renovated for hundreds of years before . Tens of thousands of devotees assembled there every year to  worship Lord Siva . Thousands of  priests and Sadhus who were standing in its  defence  were  slaughtered like sheep .   Immense quantities of gold and diamonds and other precious   stones had been looted and transported by caravans of  camels  out of India to Ghazni.

5. The Somnath temple so sacred to Hindus and so much a part of their psyche was first destroyed by Mahmud of Ghazni in Jan ( 6 to 8^th) 1026.  50,000 Hindus defending it were slaughtered. The Shiva Linga was broken to pieces and  taken to Ghazni where the  pieces were laid as steps to a mosque so that  could be contemptuously trodden upon by Moslems. Immense quantities of  gold, diamonds and other precious wealth was looted and  carried off on a few thousand camels.  Abi Raihan -Ali- Biruni; the noted Arab chronicler vividly described (1030 AD) the iconoclastic zeal of  Mohamed. He wrote,

“Mahmud utterly ruined the prosperity of the country and performed there wonderful exploits by which Hindus became like atoms  of lust scattered in all directions.... their scattered  remains cherish the most inveterate aversion towards Muslims”.  (Romila Thapar and “eminent” historians of the  Marxist Madrassa, innocuously known as Jawaharlal University negating the truth say that Mahmud's assault on Somnath was motived  by loot for treasures rather than Islam and  iconoclasm).  The defenceless Hindus offered ransom if Mahmud saved the temple; Mahmud refused.   Here is the record:

“The Linga he raised was the stone of Somnath,for soma means the  moon and  natha means master,so that the whole word means master of the  moon. The image was destroyed by Prince Mahmud, may God be merciful to him!  AH 496.  He ordered the  upper part to be broken and the  remainder to be transported to his residence, Ghazni with all its coverings and trappings of gold, jewels, and embroidered garments.  Part I of it has been thrown into the  hippodrome of the town, together with the  Cakrasvamin, an idol of  bronze, that had been brought form Taneshar. Another part of the  idol  from Somnath lies before the  door of the mosque of Ghazni, on which people rub their feet to clean them from dirt and wet.

- Al Biruni's India  by E.C.Sachau

Obviously, the  tribe of “eminent” historians of Marxist faith and  “secularists” are indulging in the  crime of  negationism of history.

6. The Somnath  temple was rebuilt soon after the  fury of Mahmud dissipated itself after his hasty retreat to Ghazni by a devious route  via Sindh, Kutch and  Sindh in fear of the   onslaught of Param Deo, “one of the most powerful Rajas of Hindustan had to be met on the  way ( he came by); he (Mahmud) did not consider it to  be advisable to fight with him at that time under all circumstances”;...as noted by the  historian Ibnul-Athir. The temple was reconstructed in 1169 A.D by Kumarapala ( emperor of  Gurjaradesha who ascended the  throne in AD 1144). 

·         Somnath was destroyed a second time by Alaf Khan, a General of Alauddin Khilji.  It was rebuilt again between AD 1325 and 1351 by Chudasama, King of Junagarh.

·         In AD 1469, Mahmud Bedga ( Sultan of  Gujarat at Ahmadabad) defeated the  King of Juangarh, Mandalik ( who shamelessly converted to Islam to save his life), removed the  Shiva Linga from the  Somnath temple and  converted it into a mosque ( Just like the Babri in Ayodhya).  Soon after, Hindus  replaced the  Siva Linga  there and continued to worship it. 

·         In AD 1706, under Aurangzeb's orders, Prince Mohammed Azam ( the 39^th Vice-Roy of Gujarat) destroyed the  Somanth temple ( 4^th  time in 1706 ) “ beyond possibility of repairs”.  From 1705 the Marathas attacked the Mogul power in Gujarat; in 1758, they took Ahmedabad.  In 1759, Saurashtra too came under Maratha Power.  In AD 1783 Ahalya Bai Queen of Indore, finding the ruined temple unfit for restoration, built a new temple to Somnath, a little distance from the original site.  The original site and structure was converted to a mosque under Aurangzeb's orders and it remained so till the time of Independence August 1947. The Marathas lost to the British.  The Maratha paramountcy over Junagarh was taken over by the British.  Dwaraka, Prabhasa (where Somnath is) remained part of the Junagadh state.

7.   The Nawab acceded to  Pakistan at the  time of Independence in 1947.  The  people rose in revolt. The Nawab and his Dewan Sir Shah Nawaz Bhutto ( the father of  Julfikar Ali Bhutto) fled to  Pakistan.  He sent a request through a British officer Mr. Harvey Jones to  Sri M N Buch the  Regional Commissioner  of the Government of India   for Saurashtra States, to take over the  administration. After  a referendum it was  integrated with India. Sardar Patel who was the Dy. Prime Minister and in charge of the integration of  Indian states visited Prabhasa and Somnath and declared that  Somnath Temple, so sacred and so much a part of India's memories and legend and song and story  and  life, would be reconstructed and restored. Jawaharlal Nehru's  cabinet took a decision that Somnath  should be fully rebuilt and  reconstructed  and brought to its greatest glory.  Then  Gandhiji advised the  government that  not a single  rupee of the tax payer's  money from the budget of the  government should be spent upon the reconstruction and restoration of  Somnath. Then a Trust was  formed and  tens of  millions of   rupees  were donated to the trust for the  restoration of  Somnath  temple.  This is in contrast to the same  Gandhiji insisting that the Government of India  should spend money from its budget  to repair and renovate the mosques that were  damaged  or destroyed  in Delhi  in the aftermath of Independence.  

8. Sardar Patel died  before the   reconstruction and consecration of Somnath Temple was completed. Kulapati K M Munshi, a Minister in the Cabinet of  Nehru was  directing these operations   as  Chairman of  the  Trust. Jawaharlal Nehru  accused  Sri K M Munshi  of Hindu revivalism! Munshiji wrote a devastating and disarming  letter, to Nehru .  The substance was   that Nehru was calling  the patriotic,  self -respecting, non- violent actions of Hindus as communalism  while he himself was  promoting  Muslim communalism  by various measures  of  appeasement.  Justifying his work for Somanth's reconstruction and  defying Nehru, Sri Munshi wrote to Nehru, “ It is my faith in our past which has given me the  strength to work in the  present and to look forward to our future.  I cannot value freedom if it, deprives us of the Bhagavad Gita or uproots our millions from the  faith with which they look upon our temples and  thereby destroys the texture of our lives.  I have been given the  privilege of seeing my  incessant dream of Somanatha reconstruction come true.  That makes me feel, makes me almost sure-that this shrine once restored to a place of importance in our life will give to our people purer conception of religion and a more vivid consciousness  of our strength, so vital in these days of freedom and  its trials.”  

9. Despite Nehru's displeasure, the crumbling mosque (just like the Babri in Ayodhya) which was sitting on the very site of the  destroyed temple of Somnath was removed to a near-by place and  Somnath temple  was reconstructed. K.M.Munshi invited the  President of India, Dr. Rajendra Prasad to come and ceremonially  consecrate the deity, Lord Siva. He  also  told  the President  that he should  think of Jawaharlal Nehru opposing  his visit of Somnath before agreeing to  his request.  Rashtrapati Rajendra Prasad disregarded Nehru's objections  and went to Prabhasa and carried out the  consecration  of  Somanth. He made an excellent  speech  explaining as to  why he did that and that India is a  secular  state but not  an  irreligious state. He said,  he would gladly go to the  reconstruction ceremony  of any mosque or church with the  same reverence as for Somnath.  To Dr Rajendraprasad and Sri Munshiji and to true Hindus and Bharatiyas, secularism means  either equal treatment  of all religions or  the  state not having anything to do  with any religious activity.  Jawaharlal Nehru, the “secularist” ordered that President Rajendra Prasad's speech should not be printed in any government publication or broad-cast over All India Radio! On the death of Sardar Patel in December 1950 Jawaharlal Nehru ordered that no minister or government officer should attend the  funeral of Sardar Patel!  N V Gadgil, Munshi and Pandit Govind Ballabh Pant defied Nehru and went to the funeral in Mumbai. Nehru also saw to it that Dr. Rajendra Prasad was not cremated or a memorial built for him in Delhi. No wonder  that Nehru's successors did not allow a memorial for P V Narasimha Rao in Delhi).  That is Nehruvian “secularism” and decency!)

10. The question that must be now asked is how was the  restoration of the  Somnath temple  considered  self-respecting and a  matter of historic  justice  then in 1947 and why is  the restoration now of  Sri Rama's temple at his Janmasthan in Ayodhya facing  so much obstruction and difficulty. The reasons are simple.  The Muslims then ie soon after Independence (1947) were  clearly seen as guilty  of asserting that they were a separate  nation and that India should be  partitioned to create the Islamic state of Pakistan as a home -land for them. They could not deny the  fact of desecration by Islamic rulers in this country of thousands of  temples, the most  living one  being  Somnath which was repeatedly razed to the  ground by  Muslim rulers as repeatedly as it was restored and  resurrected by resolute Hindus. At that  time,  the great  patriot   and   strong national leader  who was not shy  of saying that he was  a Bharatiya, a Hindu  Sardar Patel was alive and was the Deputy  Prime Minister  and the  entire  Congress Party stood by him despite  Jawaharlal Nehru's  vacillations and doubts bordering  on hostility to the reconstruction of the temple.  Mahatma Gandhi also blessed this  project as a  matter of national honour. 

11. Secondly, at the time of the  Independence, communists and their fellow travelers were discredited for  the support they gave to the  two-nation theory  and creation of  Pakistan.  Much worse, they took to arms to overthrow the  newly independent   Government of  India, characterizing  it as a stooge of  Anglo-American imperialism. They could not dare  to oppose the restoration of Somnath.   That was why the  “mosque” that was built on the very site of the  idol could be removed and relocated at another place and the Somnath  Linga could be  reinstalled and the shrine reconstructed with glory and  love with contributions  from all over India. Sardar Patel's death (15 Dec 1950) and the  progressive  debasement of the idea of  secularism to one of   pleasing and appeasing Muslims for their votes and the rise of the casteist  regional parties all of which are competing with the Congress party for the votes  of the minority,  the hostility of Muslims to Hinduism and to the  true  statement of  their  history and  their  restoration of the  desecrated and destroyed  temples, are the reasons why Hindu Masjids (i.e temples on the  destroyed sites of which Masjids had been fashioned from some of the  temple parts themselves) are still standing, as memorials to the  conquests of Islam and defeat of Hindus. Also, although the communists are splintered into  eight  or more parties and groups,  they are entrenched in several  universities, electronic and print media and in government departments  and some of them  have infiltrated into  some Ministries.  They are consistently with   Muslims in everyone of their  actions  opposed to  Hindus heritage, culture, dharma and  nationalism.  That is why the reconstruction of  Rama's temple in  Ramajanmasthan in Ayodhya has  become difficult and delayed.   The report on the  deep penetration radar survey of the  ground on which the  “Babri” structure once stood, carried out by the  Archaeological Survey of India  was with the Allahabad High Court.  It  established the  existence of ruins of  temple(s) below the floor.  In 2010, 1 3-judge  bench, which included a Muslim, of the  Allahabad High Court gave its  verdict that the Babri structure  stood on the  ruins of  a temple. And yet instigated by the  “eminent” historians  of the Marxist Madrasa, known falsely as  Jawaharlal  Nehru University  and the  good will of the  “secular” UPA government led by an Italian  organisation went to the  Supreme Court in appeal against  the  judgment of the  Allahabad High Court .  There the matter may rest for a few more  decades .

12. As long as  Muslims and disintegrationists go on observing 6^th  of Dec as  Babri Mosque Day,  we would want the people  of this country, the  hundreds of millions who believe in dharma and have respect  for Bharath, for native faith, belief and  culture  to observe 6^th of Dec as Somnath Day so that we will not forget the injury that has been inflicted upon  Hindus not only at Somanth but in tens of thousands of  places. A nation that does not recall its history and learn right lessons  from it, will be doomed to disintegrate. Hence is this observance of the 6^th of Dec as Somnath Day . We hope  that loyal and patriotic citizens of this country will realise and remember the enormity of the  crimes  that were committed by the   invaders  in order to destroy the   native faith,  belief and culture .

13. Disintegrating forces and  resident non-Indians (RNIs) are at work to negate history, to fictionalize facts and  establish falsehoods as truth.  The same old attitudes and belief and purposes which propounded the two-nation theory and the  descendants of Direct Action ( Aug 16, 1946) for the  division of this  historic land of Bharat and  Razaakars who wanted to turn Hyderabad into an Islamic state and the  same  Marxist and communist faithfuls, then and now too allies of Muslim separatism and  their fellow -traveling “eminent” historians, “ progressive” writers and human (Maoist) rights advocates are at work to denigrate Hinduism, Bharat, its culture, its heritage and destroy its integrity.

14. The undertaking to construct ( since 2013) an International  Islamic University and a Women’s Arabic College in Tirupati by the  road leading to Tirumala is  repetition of the  ignoble constructionofht e Babri  Masjid, to tell Hindus, “ what of 1527/28: in Ayodhya? Even  now , you  Hindus can do nothing when  Islamists desecrate your holy places by planting institutions of our Umma, the   transnational community of believers. The High Courts stay order is in disregard, as the  T.T.D under government control looks on!  Somnath is a symbol of  our very existence. Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, Rama and  Krishna are  the breath of our life.  Babur was an invader; he belonged not to this  country; he did not want to be buried here; he was, by his wish, buried not in our Bharat but in his land of  birth, outside India.  Have we to memorialize such a person or his progeny and his desecrating deed?  We can't, we should not, memorialise those who conquered us, who desecrated and destroyed our temples, who looted our wealth, who imposed zezia on us for not converting to their faith, whose the residue progenies (in India) of their  and the  converts to their  faith, disowned the common India nation-hood , and voted and  rioted for the  division of India  and  creation of ht e  Islamic state of Pakistan still place  their faith above the good of this  country's people and  their land from which they derive their sustenance.  We hope and pray that all who are born in Bharat; irrespective of their faith and  past history of their forefathers, do not repudiate or denigrate their  millennial heritage and  acclaim Sri Ram as Imam-i-Hind and  allow the  restoration of Sri Ram's temple and  do not glorify a foreign invader who didn't even want to be buried here.

15. May the undying spirit which repeatedly frustrated the alien, iconoclasts' resolve to destroy out our temples and  root out our Dharma, the spirit that inspired us to rebuild and restore Somantha, the  Shrine Eternal and the  courage that defied even  Jawaharlal Nehru (who characterised Somantha's restoration as Hindu revivalism), inspire us to preserve Bharat, to protect Dharma and recall and  revere our heritage, to build a prosperous, powerful, intellectual and ethical nation as a Jagatguru once again.

                                           Aurangzeb: Kashi and Mathura:

“Aurangazeb’s purpose in building these mosques ( Kashi and Mathura) was the same  intentionally offensive political purpose that moved the Russians to build  their  Cathedral in the city center at Warsaw. I must say that Aurangazeb was a veritable genius for picking out provocative  sites.  Aurangez and Phillip –II  of Spain are a pair.  They are incarnations  of the gloomy fanatical vein in Christian, Muslim and Jewish family of religions………Perhaps  the Poles  were really  kinder in destroying the Russians’ self discrediting monuments in Warsaw than you (Indians) have been   in sparing Aurangazebs’s  mosques.  –  Arnold  Toynbee,

The world famous historian and philosopher  in his

Azad Memorial Lecture at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Mumbai -1963

END

First Edition: 9/11/09

Updated Second Edition: 3/12/14

Annex#1

What Spain, Poland, Russia and  African people  did

to alien Conquerors and  Domestic Tyrants

 It may be  recalled that Spain was once overrun  in 708 by Muslim (Moors from what is  now  Morocco) armies and  ruled for over  700 years by them.  Churches there were razed to the  ground  and on those very foundations, mosques were built.  And people were converted, mostly by force from Christianity  to Islam. In the 15^th  century, a number of Christian kings and   knights united to  attack, defeat and drive away the  Moors, the Muslim  rulers from Morocco. The Christian rulers pulled down all the mosques  and  restored the churches which existed before the Muslim conquest.  Besides,  they also told the  people that  if they did not reconvert to  Christianity,  they would have to leave Spain. Over 95% reconverted  to Christianity  and  the unwilling people  went away to the lands from where their conquering, converting ancestors came . 

2. When Russia  conquered  Poland, a cathedral was built in  Warsaw for the  Russian Orthodox church. When Poland gained independence, the cathedral was pulled down and a Catholic church  was built as the Poles  did not  want to be reminded  of the humiliation of defeat and destruction.After the communist rule was ended in Russia, the cities that were named after Lenin and  Stalin  got  rid of those  names and had their original names restored, St. Petersburg for Leningrad and  Volgograd  for Stalingrad . Almost all the  statues of  Lenin and Stalin  had been pulled down. Similarly, countries  in East and Central  Europe which were subjected to imperial  Soviet communist rule, the national governments that succeeded the dissolution of  the Soviet empire pulled down all monuments which reminded them of the humiliation of  imperial domination and  national shame.  The most telling act of tearing down a monument for national humiliation is the  pulling down of the   infamous  Berlin Wall  on the 9^th  of  Nov  1989.  This wall was a standing monument to the inhumanity, cruelty and  destruction of  freedom practised by the erstwhile Stalinist communist regimes .  This wall was in particular built to prevent the  fleeing of the  oppressed East German people under  Communist dictatorship to the freedom  and democracy of the Federal Republic of  Germany. 

3. People who have gained independence and throw out the shackles of  foreign  imperial exploitation and rule have, in assertion of  their self- respect and national pride, discarded the memorials to the conquering hordes. For eg:  the people of what was called  Gold Coast, the name given by the  British colonists renamed their country  as Ghana;  Rhodesia  became Zimbabve; Burma became  Myanmar; Ceylon became Sri Lanka; Cambodia became   Kampuchea; Siam became Thailand ; Madagascar became Malagasy; Peking has become Beijing; Canton has become Guangzhou and so on.  Uncharacteristically, it is  we in our country that are retaining  the name  of India  whereas for millinia we called our land Bharat and our people  Bharatiyas.  Without any self -respect, we are describing our country India, that is Bharat instead of saying Bharat that was India. 

Annex#2

Annex#3

Kulapathi K M Munshiji's  short narration of

the Somnath Affair in his book,

“Pilgrimage to Freedom”.

“ When Junagadh fell, Sardar Patel, as Deputy Prime Minister, pledged the  Government of India to the reconstruction of the historical Temple of  Somnath.  The Cabinet, Jawaharlal presiding, decided to reconstruct the  Temple at  Government cost .  But Gandhiji advised Sardar not to have the  Temple reconstructed at government cost and suggested that sufficient money should be collected from the  people for this purpose.  Sardar accepted this advice.

            The government of India appointed me as the  Chairman of the  Advisory Committee for the  reconstruction of the Temple, and I had  also a hand in preparing the  trust Deed and participated in implementing the  scheme.

            Jawaharlal, more than once, criticized me for working for the reconstruction of the  temple, and I had to point out to him in a long letter that everything was done from the  very beginning in accordance with the  decision of the Cabinet taken under his guidance.

            My correspondence with the  Prime Minister was no secret to Rajendra Prasad.  He promised that he would come and install the deity, whatever the  attitude of the  Prime Minister, and added: “I would do the  same with a mosque or a church if I were invited”.  This, he held, was the core of Indian secularism. Our State is neither religious nor anti-religious.

            My foreboding proved correct.  When it was announced that Rajendra Prasad was attending the  inauguration of the  Somnath Temple, Jawaharlal vehemently protested against his going to Somnath.  But Rajendra Prasad kept his promise.

            His speech at the  time of the  installation of the  deity was published in all the  newspapers.( Under direction from Jawaharlal Nehru the speech was cut out from the official organs like the  All India radio) The speech is a masterpiece of literature by any standard.  It briefly traced the role which the  Temple had played in the past, analysed the  true role of religion and took a pledge for the  future”.

            I shall give here only two passages which I have translated from the original Hindi:

            “Even as the  Creator of the  Universe, Brahma, resides in the navel of Lord Vishnu, similarly in the  heart of man reside the  creative  urge  and faith, and these surpass in power all the armaments, all the  armies and all the  emperors of the  world.

            In that era, India had been a treasure-house of gold and silver...centuries ago, the major portion of the  gold of the world was in the  temples of India.  It is my view that the  reconstruction of the  Somnath temple will be complete on that day when not only a magnificent edifice will arise on this foundation but the mansion of India's prosperity will be ready- that prosperity of which the ancient temple of Somnath was a symbol.”