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Journalism of Courage
As far as the eye can see in the dark, Dashashwamedh Ghat in Varanasi dazzles with lights reflecting from the sparkling rendition of the evening aarti, you can only see people. They squat on the steps of the ghat, they stand all around with their children, they crowd the terraces of the buildings, they congregate around the boats tethered there or sit in the big boats, with their shimmering golden and green lights casting their spell on the Ganga.
Five years ago, I had watched the evening aarti at this very spot. Then, there were only a couple of thousand people present – and toilet smells in the background. Last week, there were many times that number, the stench no longer pronounced, colourfully dressed young priests swirled around in sync with the chants amid cries by the crowd, of “Har Har Mahadev”, “Bolo Ganga Maiyya ki Jai” and “Gobind bolo, Hari Gopal bolo”.
It was a gathering mostly of young people, with an occasional older face in the crowd. They had come from all over – Mumbai, Satara, Kolkata, Kota, Silchar, Ludhiana, Chennai.
I wondered if this is what Hindu resurgence was all about. And what would be its political fallout – in 2024, and in Modi’s third stint, if he secures it?
A visit to the Prime Minister’s constituency and to Ayodhya and Lucknow last week brought home the kind of echo the Ram Temple is getting a fortnight before the consecration of Ram Lalla – when a 51-inch idol, representing the deity as a five-year-old, will be installed in the sanctum sanctorum of the new temple, being built where the Babri Masjid once stood and was demolished on December 6, 1992. A date that’s perhaps history for those in their 20s and up to the mid-30s, in other words, 65% of India.
A 32-year-old executive at the ghat with his wife and daughter said they were there to “get this experience”. A Class 9 student from West Bengal said she was there with her parents because she wanted to know about her roots, about “why Lord Shiva made Varanasi his abode”, and why the Ganga is “my mother”.
A 25-year-old engineer from Satara told me of “the immense peace” he had experienced at the Kashi Vishwanath Temple with its Shivaling. He added that while belonging to a traditional NCP family, he will vote for Modi next time—and “look after my father who is an auto rickshaw driver and my mother who have sacrificed so much to make me an engineer”.
He stood at the now famous corridor leading to the Kashi Vishwanath Temple, with no sign of the old narrow alleys with small shops on either side, which used to crowd the way to the temple. The adjacent Gyanvapi Mosque, with a grille around it, stood as a reminder of the battle that the BJP plans to wage next.
Public relations officers claimed a 10-fold increase in footfall in Varanasi over the last two years since the corridor came into existence—and said that an estimated 20% of the pilgrims in Varanasi are from South India—and followers of Lord Shiva. Hoardings dotted the city of the PM welcoming them with the Tamil “Vanakkam”, with a Kashi Tamil Sangamam now part of the city’s annual calendar. It is one more way the Modi-led BJP is making its determined outreach to the South.
The PROs added that “people are coming partly because of aastha (faith) and partly because of tourism”.
It is now about “dharma (religion) and development”, a young entrepreneur explained. “Younger people are becoming conscious of their identity, but they also want a good life.”
Religious tourism, some of it facilitated by RSS workers, is set to get a massive boost next with the ‘Navi’ Ayodhya now under way, across 1,450 acres. Leading up to the consecration, the PM inaugurated a new railway station and international airport for the temple town.
For Anuradha, 55, from Nashik, an exciting world has opened up in Ayodhya. She is here to see the under-construction Ram Temple, having boarded a “rail gadhi (train)” for the first time in her life, its clanging sounds keeping her awake all night. Both have left a deep impression on her. While “bharpoor (totally) unhappy” with the BJP in Maharashtra, Anuradha says, they will support Modi.
So will a group of landless women from Ujjain, who were there seeking “mukti (nirvana)”. Brought on a pilgrimage by a contractor, they are awed by Ram Lalla, if not with the BJP replacing Shivraj Chouhan as Chief Minister in Madhya Pradesh.
Is it mainly the upper caste youth who have become “fervently religious” because they are any way inclined towards the BJP— ask the analysts? Or is it a new-found consciousness about their religion and spiritualism which has made them turn to the BJP? Are the OBC and Dalit youths as swept up in this fervour?
The BJP thinks it has the answers having merged the divine figure of Lord Ram with a symbol of good governance, to attract Hindus cutting across caste and age. The party’s 700 vehicle-video mounted “Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra” will cover every village in UP by January 25, showcasing their `labharthis’ everywhere and filling the forms of those who have not yet managed to get the welfare benefits.
PM Modi has called for people to celebrate January 22, the consecration day, like Diwali – the festival marking Ram’s return to Ayodhya after 14 years of exile – and light diyas at their homes and temples nearby. It is a call to make what is essentially a religious event into a national occasion.
The late PM P V Narasimha Rao of the Congress once said, “We can fight the BJP, but how can we fight Lord Ram?” His predecessor, V P Singh, had expressed a similar sentiment. The Opposition today continues to face the same challenge.
Should its leaders attend the consecration ceremony, knowing its significance for the Hindus, but also knowing how over the decades it has become identified with the BJP?
After 1992, when the Babri Masjid was demolished, the Ayodhya temple has not really influenced voter choices, even though it was included in the BJP’s manifesto to keep its core supporters happy. Under Atal Behari Vajpayee, it was put on the backburner in the 1996, 1998 and the 1999 elections.
But unbound by coalition constraints, the Modi regime got over the last remaining hurdle in 2019, when the apex court handed over the site to the Hindu side to build a temple.
Will 2024 be a different a story when it comes to the temple and elections? Be it the devout in Varanasi or the pilgrims in Ayodhya, they credit the PM for getting the temple built.
Hence, the Opposition’s dilemma—to go or not to go to Ayodhya on January 22. Nitish Kumar, Mamata Bannerjee, the Left parties and Tejashawi Yadav have made it plain that they are not going. SP chief Akhilesh Yadav tried to circumvent the issue, saying he will go to Ayodhya when “Ramji ka bulawa aayega (summoned by Ram)”. It is the Congress which is still undecided—its leaders, Sonia Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, who have received an invite, “may decide individually”.
Larger questions hang unanswered. Will Ram Lalla go on to redefine the fundamentals of the Indian Republic? Can the Hindu resurgence be a benign force for good, instead of a polarising force to divide? Can religious resurgence go hand in hand with reconciliation between all faiths and help young women and men tap into their best natures to fulfil and realise their potential?
These may seem philosophical questions but have deep political undertones, too. Sure, Modi will oversee the installation of the idol, how does he steer what follows will shape his legacy as much as what happens on January 22 — if not more.
(Neerja Chowdhury, Contributing Editor, The Indian Express, has covered the last 10 Lok Sabha elections. She is the author of How Prime Ministers Decide)
