A day in the life of Bharat Mata Mandir, Varanasi: Idol chatter

On an average, the Bharat Mata Mandir, built by a freedom fighter and inaugurated by Mahatma Gandhi in 1936, gets 400 visitors a day. Over 70 per cent are foreigners.

It’s early morning and two women are making papad on a well located just outside the temple. A few minutes later, the mandir gets its first visitors. Excited at the sight of the women making papad, they start taking pictures.

The visitors make their way to the stairs leading up to the temple, pausing to take off their footwear as instructed by a board. A boy sitting nearby ensures that people comply.

To its surprise, the group realises that there is no idol of the Bharat Mata inside. Instead, located in a slight depression at the centre of the temple is a map in marble of “undivided India” or “India before Independence or Partition”, including areas now under China, Tibet, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Myanmar and Sri Lanka. Mountains stand out in relief, black lines indicate rivers.

The UP Tourism Department publicises the place as a “novel temple” housing India’s map in marble instead of being “dedicated to customary gods and goddesses”.

Still, on a pillar near the entrance is a photograph of the Bharat Mata more in line with what the visitors are expecting. In the 8X4-foot photo, she is “a goddess on a lion” with a flag in one hand, against a map of India in the background. A later addition, the picture was put up about a decade back.

There have been other changes. A few years ago, someone wrote a bhajan for Mother India, and now “Jai Bharat Mata, Maiya Jai Bharat Mata” is sung on Independence Day and Republic Day, as well as August 14, which is when the RSS celebrates ‘independence for Akhand Bharat’.

As the guide explains the map to the first group of visitors, few ask any questions.

The temple is run by Shardul Gupta, the grandson of Shiv Prasad Gupt, the Congress leader and freedom fighter who founded the temple as well as the Kashi Vidyapith nearby.

However, for the past three decades, Shardul Gupta and the Vidyapith have been fighting a legal dispute over 9 bighas of land around the temple, worth crores now.

Balram Singh, who manages the upkeep of the temple, also runs its small book corner. Here titles such as The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes and the much-banned Sons and Lovers by D H Lawrence share space with pictures of Hindu gods and goddesses. Besides, there are books on Varanasi in several languages. The books have been selected by Balram’s elder son Bharat, who helps manage the temple.
A Class IV employee in the press section of Kashi Vidyapith, Singh, 57, studied up to Class VII. Professing deep pride in “nationalist thinking”, he points to a list containing names of 25 workers who helped construct the temple. Basantu, at no. 23, was his grandfather’s uncle, Singh explains, and the family has been looking after the temple since.

“I was born here, my children were born here,” Singh says. Now while he “devotes” his mornings and evenings to the temple, his two sons pitch in during the day.

Singh’s family of 10 lives in three tin-roof rooms near the temple. They include his wife, the two sons, three daughters, a daughter-in-law, a granddaughter and a nephew. Bharat, 35, was named after Bharat Mata. The other son, Gorakh, is studying in Class XI.

The temple work pays around Rs 2,500 a month, the salary coming in Bharat’s name. Besides, the family gets to keep earnings from selling the books.

The money from the parking at the temple goes to the owners.

Proclaiming himself a “strict custodian”, Singh says he does not allow anyone to loiter on the temple premises. However, that’s a losing battle, he admits. Students of Kashi Vidyapeeth’s Fine Arts Department, for example, often plonk themselves on the temple steps. After many boys and girls left behind names etched on the second floor of the temple building, access to that was shut.

The rest of the temple remains open across the year, apart from a half-day closure for Holi.

Around 8.30 am, some visitors from Tamil Nadu arrive. The first question they have is also about the absence of a statue. Singh gets agitated. “This is Bharat Mata, this is our real mother,” he says.

However, Singh admits, not many share his passion. Neither has the controversy over the slogan ‘Bharat Mata ki jai’ made a difference. Occasionally an Indian group of tourists may shout ‘Vande Mataram’ or ‘Bharat Mata ki jai’, but that is more for fun, says the temple custodian. A few Indian tourists may also bow before the map, some toss a coin or two on it. But most of them just click pictures and leave in less than five minutes, he says.

The foreigners spend more time, but their interest lies in places on the map. Around 9 am, a group of Italian tourists arrives, and their guide borrows a torch emitting red light from Singh to show where lies which city.

One girl clicks herself with Singh, as others browse through the books in front of him. But, even as Singh looks on hopefully, no one buys anything. On an average, Singh calculates, only one in a dozen tourists buys a book. The books on Varanasi in foreign languages are the most in demand.

At around 10 am, Singh leaves for his office at Kashi Vidyapith, and Bharat takes over. Chewing paan masala, the Arts graduate says he treats this as just another job.

He has been an hour at the temple when some French tourists arrive. Their guide also uses a torch to show places on the map — “This is Rajasthan, that Kashmir, here is Haridwar”. Watching silently, Bharat notes, “It is Afghanistan what he is calling Kashmir.” He doesn’t bother to correct the mistake.

As the tourists start leaving, Bharat shows them books in French. He tries to talk to them in the few words of French and Spanish he knows. The tourists aren’t swayed.

Sitting back next to the books, Bharat wishes Narendra Modi would do something for Varanasi. The Prime Minister is the MP from the city. “They say ‘Bharat Mata ki jai’, but they should do something for the temple,” he says.

As if on cue, a group of Indian women comes in, and after a walk around the temple, one of them shouts ‘Bharat Mata ki jai’ while leaving. A friend retorts with a laugh, ‘Vande Mataram’. Another hangs around longer trying to locate her town in Odisha on the map.
A foreigner couple stops by next. Their guide, Anil Kumar Singh, explains the map for nearly 10 minutes. However, Anil Kumar admits, the foreign tourists halt here only because the temple is on their pre-decided tour, not due to any special interest.

Some of the Indian visitors who come later, including Bareilly resident Vivek Swaroop and a Srinagar dentist, Ashraf, also comment on the lack of a statue in the temple, but add that they welcome it.

“The recent controversy isn’t why people visit the temple. Everyone keeps his love for his motherland in his heart,” Swaroop says.
Singh, who returns to the temple around 4.30 pm, stoutly disagrees. He praises the action taken against JNU student Kanhaiya Kumar for alleged sedition, and against AIMIM MLA Waris Pathan for refusing to say ‘Bharat Mata ki jai’. “How can you do this? Being an Indian, you raise slogans against India and in favour of Pakistan!” Singh says.

Bharat is interested in the more immediate problems. The court dispute has ensured that the temple hasn’t seen any repair in decades, he says. While doors and windows show wear and tear, half-a-dozen maps of India from the Vedic to British period, which were sketched on walls, have faded.

As the clock strikes 5, Singh sends someone to the rooftop to remove the Tricolour. By 5.30 pm, when the few remaining tourists trickle out, he shuts the temple.

Singh steps out to have a chat with some people in the lawn outside, which is in as much disrepair. Tea arrives from home, and he has it there before heading to his room.

Hardly anyone through the day stops to read the poem written especially for the temple by Hindi poet Maithili Sharan Gupt, hanging on a board. The poem calls the temple a space for everybody, irrespective of their caste and religion, and irrespective of who they follow, Ram, Rahim, Buddha or Jesus.

Closing the gate, Singh shows a carving on it, of a sun and a moon. The moon represents the Muslim community, he says.