Articles
January 22, 2024 – Reinvigorated Renaissance of Dharma
Dt:12/1/24
January 22, 2024 –
Reinvigorated Renaissance of Dharma
Dr T H Chowdary*
Over 3000 temples were desecrated , destroyed fully or partially and mosques were constructed on these very sites during the thousand year (8th to 18th centuries) period of Islamic invasions, plunder, destruction of temples , rule and forced and fraudulent conversion. The roll back of Muslim rule in Bharat started with the rise of the Maratha power under Chatrapati Shivaji in the later decades of the 18th century. Destruction of temples to end “idol worship” , apart from looting their treasures was an important mission of the invaders and rulers ordained by Islam’s theology, as emphasized by great historians Will Durant and Arnold Toynbee and scholar-statesman Dr B R Ambedkar, among others.
2. The Maratha princes Ahilyabai Holkar (31 May 1725 - 13 Aug 1995) was the first Hindu ruler who took up the noble task of restoring the temples destroyed by Muslim invader-rulers. In Somnath as well as in Varanasi she did not pull down the mosques over the destroyed Shiva temples sites. In Somnath and Varanasi but built new temples adjacent to the mosques vindication of Hindu veneration for all places of worship. Lists of over 3000 temples destroyed by Muslim invader-rulers over which mosques were erected ( some temples were structurally altered as mosques ) are given in the two volume publication, “Hindu Temples, What Happened to Them :The Islamic Evidence” authored by the intellectual warrior , the late Sri Sitaram Goel for the Voice of India, New Delhi Publishing House and in another book, “ Hindu Masjids” by Sri Praful Goradia, another scholar and a former Rajya Sabha Member.
*Padma Sree awardee
Chairman: Pragna Bharati , Telangana
Founder & Fellow Emeritus: Center for Telecom Management & Studies
Fellow: Tata Consultancy Services
Fellow: Institution of Engineers (India)
Convenor: Bharatiya Dharma Rakshana Samakhya
Former: President - IETE ; IT Advisor- Govt of Andhra Pradesh
First CMD – Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL)
Chairman: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Hyderabad Kendra
Governor: INTELSAT, Washington
Executive Counsellor: INMARSAT, London
8,P&T Colony, Karkhana, Secunderabad-500009
M:9849067359 WhatsApp: 8309392687 T:(40) 2784-3121
3. Rama Janmabhoomi in Ayodhya came under the rule of Babur, the first Mughal King (14 Feb 1483 - 26 Dec 1530). His General , Mir Baqui Tashkendi demolished the Rama temple and converted it into a mosque in 1528. To get it back Hindus waged 77 unsuccessful raids and battles since then . In Nov 1949 an idol of Rama Lalla “appeared” in the mosque premises and it is being worshipped since then in a restricted way . The mosque has been in non-use since before. Rama Janma Bhoomi’s re-possession and construction of a temple for Sri Rama has become a celebrated cause renascent Hinduism . Sri Lal Krishna Advani ji’s Ratha Yatra from Somnath in 1990 electrified Hindu’s resolve to re-possess the Janma Bhoomi. Irate Ram Bhaktas pulled down the Babri structure on 6 Dec 1992. Karaseva in 1990 and the demolition on 6 Dec 1992 had seen over 200 Ram Bhaktas shot dead and about 200 deaths in the subsequent riots. The Allahabad High Court’s verdict in 2010 was that the “mosque” was over a destroyed Hindu temple . This verdict was confirmed by a Five-Judge Bench of the Supreme Court in Nov 2019 and so began the construction of the grand temple with people’s , not government funds like in Somanath in 1948-51. The consecration of the Siva Linga in Somnath temple in May 1951 was by Rashrapati Dr Rajendra Prasad who over-ruled Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru who urged him not to go to Somanath for the consecration. The consecration of the Ram Lalla idol on 22 Jan 2024 is by the Bharat’s Pradhana Mantri , Sri Narendra Modiji.
4. While the people of Bharat are happy and jubilant for the triumph of truth and Dharma, the congenitally ( since 1925) anti-Hindu, partition- supported, Muslim-appeasing Communist Parties and their fellow travelers and the Indo-Italian , Mother, Son, Daughter - captured Congress, patron of minorities (Muslims and Christians) for their votes are boycotting the function for which they will be punished in the election to the Lok Sabha in a few months hence. I will end this brief survey by what the late Prime Minister Sri P V Narasimha Rao said:
“I can fight the BJP . But I cannot fight Ram.”
5. Bharat must now move to get all the 3000 temple sites where mosques were built . A Truth and Reconciliation Commission not only for Kashmir as suggested by the Supreme Court Js.Sanjay Kaul but for the whole of Bharat must be tasked to accomplish its overdue noble task as befitting a civilizational state that Bharat is.
“Dharmo Rakshathi Rakshitaha”
Jai Sri Ram!
END
(701 words)