The BJP and RSS have attempted to maintain a distance from the ongoing Kashi Vishwanath Temple-Gyanvapi mosque and the Mathura Idgah controversies. Barring statements of “truth must come out” and “people can’t be stopped from going to court”, both have avoided directly engaging with the matters at the organisational level. However, Kashi has been among the core concerns of the Sangh Parivar since the 1950s — it is, in fact, older than even the Ayodhya-Ram Janmabhoomi issue.
The RSS first passed a resolution on Kashi Vishwanath in its Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha (ABPS) baithak way back in 1959. A resolution on Ayodhya came only in 1987.
Since 1950, when the RSS began passing resolutions, the temples in Kashi, Mathura, and elsewhere that were allegedly destroyed by “Muslim invaders” have figured in the resolutions thrice, either directly or in an oblique reference — in 1959, 1987, and 2003 — although there have been multiple references to these issues in other forums of the Sangh Parivar. In the 2003 resolution, the RSS urged the government to bring a law to restore the disputed sites in Ayodhya, Kashi, and Mathura to Hindus.
In its 1959 resolution, titled “Issue of Temples turned into Mosques”, the RSS said, “Many intolerant and tyrannical foreign aggressors and rulers in Bharat have, during the last one thousand years, destroyed many Hindu temples and built mosques in their place, with a view to smiting the nationalistic sentiments of our people. …Out of all such temples, the Kashi Vishwanatha temple occupies a special place of honour. The Sabha urges the Government of Uttar Pradesh to take steps to return this temple to the Hindus.”
The resolution said that until this was done, “discontent among the Hindus will remain acute” and “it will not be possible to bring about emotional integration of the Muslims with the main national society of the land.”
However, it was not until the early 1980s that the RSS felt the need for a public movement on the issue of reclaiming temples destroyed by Muslim rulers. In 1981, the RSS passed a resolution calling on Hindus to be united by burying caste differences. In the following years, the movement gained momentum through the VHP under the leadership of Ashok Singhal.
In April 1984, the first Dharma Sansad organised by the VHP demanded the removal of the three mosques at “Ayodhya, Mathura and Kashi”, even as RSS itself remained focused on the Ram Janmabhoomi in Ayodhya.
The following year, in its ABPS meeting in Nagpur on March 15, the RSS said that “Ramjanmbhoomi Ayodhya, Krishna Janmabhoomi Mathura and Vishwanath Temple Kashi are most sacred places for Hindus”; however, its demand was concentrated on Ayodhya as it “expected that UP government will realise the truth and will return it (disputed site at Ayodhya) to rightful owner Hindu samaj”.
The 1987 resolution too was focused on Ayodhya, but the RSS said, “Independence demands that all public vestiges of foreign domination disfiguring our national scene needs to be washed clean.”
It was in the Akhil Bharatiya Karyakari Mandal resolution of 2003 that the RSS specifically mentioned Kashi and Mathura along with Ayodhya. The resolution, titled: “Ayodhya, Kashi, Mathura”, said: “The ABKM reiterates its unqualified support to the just demand of the Hindu society for restoration of the holy shrines of Ayodhya, Mathura and Kashi to them. Bhagwan Ram, Bhagwan Krishna and Bhagwan Shankar symbolize Bharat’s age-old civilization, cultural and spiritual identity. Restoration of the pristine glory of these holy places is the bounden duty of independent Bharat.”
Referring to Islamic invasions, the resolution said, “History bears testimony to the wanton vandalism of invading Islamic hordes, which had resulted in the destruction of thousands of Hindu holy places and construction of many Muslim monuments all over the country. That the intention of the invaders was to leave a permanent mark of their victory over this land and pronounce the supremacy of their faith is clear from the fact that all these monuments of infamy stand either on the destroyed holy sites or cheek to jaw with Hindu holy places, reminding people of this country at every day-break about their subjugation by the foreign invaders for centuries.”
No self-respecting nation would tolerate such “symbols of dishonour”, the resolution said, and demanded that Ayodhya, Mathura and Kashi should be restored on the lines of the Somnath Temple in Gujarat.
The resolution called upon the Muslim leadership to give up their claim over the sites at Ayodhya, Mathura, and Kashi “so as to pave way for creation of mutual goodwill and respect between Hindus and Muslims forever”. However, “if the Muslim leadership fails to understand the intensity of the sentiments of our countrymen and continues with its obdurate and obscurantist attitude, the ABKM calls upon the Government to explore the possibility of a legislative option to resolve this issue in the interest of national unity and communal harmony,” it said.
In October 2007, RSS’s Suruchi Prakashan book “RSS Resolves” said in its foreword: “…Ayodhya, Mathura, and Kashi are the holy places with the pious idols of Bhagwan Sri Ram, Bhagwan Shrikrishna, and Bhagwan Shiva. The cruel invaders whole heartedly made all efforts to destroy them… The symbols of the invasion and national insult are still standing there. No nation of repute and pride would tolerate such symbols, rather, uproots and destroys them.”
It added, “RSS is in favour of reestablishment of the honour of such places. It is a staunch supporter of Sri Ram Janmabhoomi movement and also desires freedom of Kashi and Mathura.”
Buy Now | Our best subscription plan now has a special price
In March 2014, before the Narendra Modi government came to power, Singhal had claimed there were 30,000 sites like Ayodhya, Mathura and Kashi that were “illegally occupied by Muslims”, according to a report by the RSS-affiliated magazine The Organiser.
After the November 9, 2019 judgment of the Supreme Court on Ayodhya, while RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat suggested that the Sangh Parivar would keep away from Mathura and Kashi and focus on “vyakti nirman” (character building), VHP working president Alok Kumar had said: “The Ayodhya issue has just been resolved. Once the temple is built, we will think about Kashi, Mathura issues.”
In fact, after the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992, a popular slogan of the Sangh Parivar was: “Ayodhya to bas jhaanki hai, Kashi Mathura baaki hai (Ayodhya is just the beginning, Kashi and Mathura are still left).”
People at the Gyanvapi mosque and the adjoining Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh in this photograph dated March 12, 2021. (Express Photo: Anand Singh) 
Share
