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As the Ayodhya Ram Temple inches closer to “Pran Pratishtha”, there are some parallels between now and 1951, when the Somnath Temple in Gujarat was resurrected and a consecration held in what was the newly Independent India’s first such political moment.
One of the biggest similarities is the positioning of the two as reflective of a collective Hindu sentiment. At the time, among those who led the call for Somnath’s reconstruction was Home Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, who also belonged to Gujarat.
Somnath is a standing example for many of the multiple invasions throughout history. First attacked in 1026 CE, it had been razed multiple times subsequently. After Independence, there was a call to rebuild it as a step towards reclaiming “past glories”, as well as to restore it as not just as an ancient monument but as an active site of prayer.
Patel, who agreed with this view, said: “The Hindu sentiment with regard to this temple is both strong and widespread. In the present conditions, it is unlikely that the sentiment will be satisfied by mere restoration of the temple or by prolonging its life. The restoration of the idol would be a point of honour and sentiment with the Hindu public.”
The process effectively began with K M Munshi, a freedom fighter and among the foremost Gujarati intellectuals of the time. Munshi, who is now remembered for founding the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Group of Schools, had recorded visiting the ruins of the Somnath temple site in December 1922.
In his book Somanatha: The Shrine Eternal, Munshi wrote: “At the time, I was passing through an emotional crisis and my imagination was aflame with the past glories of Gujarat.”
On looking at the site, he said: “The heart was full of veneration and shame. Millions have worshipped and worship today Shri Krishna as ‘God himself’… But the nation had fallen low; no one dared to raise his voice to rescue the sacred spot where once His mortal remains had been consigned to flames.”
Munshi went on to write about the many attacks on Somnath over the years, starting with Mahmud of Ghazni in 1026 till Aurangazeb in 1699. In the intervening period, parts were rebuilt by local kings and worship continued, though Munshi made the claim — contested by historians — that it was also used as a mosque for some time.
After the Marathas came to control parts of modern-day Gujarat, Ahilyabai Holkar of Baroda erected a shrine a little distance from the ruins of the old temple. (Holkar is also credited with rebuilding the Kashi Vishwanath Temple after its destruction.)
After Independence, when the princely state of Junagadh under which Somnath fell voted in a plebiscite to stay with India, Patel paid a visit on November 12, 1947. Addressing a huge public gathering, with water in his hands that he picked up from the sea nearby, he announced the decision to construct a temple at the Somnath site.
Richard H Davis, in his book Lives of Indian Images, wrote that Patel’s declaration evoked excitement. It was “just like Independence Day”, one observer is quoted as saying.
A trust was formed for the purpose of construction, including a “donor, two eminent public men, two Government of India representatives and two from the Saurashtra Union”.
Munshi, who would go on to become a minister in the Jawaharlal Nehru-led first Independent India government, wrote in his book that he and Patel also approached Mahatma Gandhi for the reconstruction of the temple, but Gandhi was of the view that the government itself should not make any contribution in the form of money for the same.
There were other issues too leading up to the event. Davis wrote that Radio Pakistan carried a story that tribes in Afghanistan had resolved to prevent the Afghanistan government from returning to India the gates of Somnath temple believed to have been carried away by Ghazni.
Nehru had to complain to Liaquat Ali Khan, the then prime minister of Pakistan, that there was “not an atom of truth” in the story. “Nevertheless, such ‘news’ enabled the Pakistan press to suggest that India was not after all such a secular state,” wrote Davis.
Gandhi was assassinated on January 30, 1948. The foundation stone for the new temple was laid on May 8, 1950. On October 19 that year, the ruins of the old temple were pulled down. Patel passed away on December 15 the same year.
Historian Peter Van Deer Veer wrote in his paper Ayodhya and Somnath: Eternal Shrines, Contested Histories that, leading up to the consecration of the idol in the new structure, Digvijaysinh Jadeja, the Maharaja of Nawanagar and part of the Somnath trust, asked Indian diplomats “to send a pinch of soil, a few drops of water and twigs, from the respective countries to which they are accredited, so that the reinstallation of the idol might symbolise the unity of the world and brotherhood of men”.
Historian Romila Thapar wrote in her 2008 book Somanatha: The Many Voices of a History that the then Ambassador to China, K M Panikkar, was critical of this, an opinion with which PM Nehru agreed.
That Nehru had disagreements with Munshi on the issue was well known. Veer quoted a letter to Nehru by Munshi, saying: “I can assure you that the ‘collective subconscious’ of India today is happier with the scheme of reconstruction of Somanatha sponsored by the Government of India than with many other things that we have done and are doing. Yesterday you referred to ‘Hindu Revivalism’. I know your views on the subject; I have always done justice to them; I hope equally you do justice to mine.”
Nehru was also said to have been unhappy about the Saurashtra government contributing Rs 5 lakh for the temple, which was reported by Gujarati newspapers of the time, Thapar wrote.
The total cost of the temple’s construction was estimated to be Rs 24.92 lakh.
As per Thapar’s book, the new temple “was built by the traditional Somapuri builders of temples in Gujarat, and the style was thought to be appropriate to represent the finest architecture from Gujarat…”.
The architect was Prabhashankar Sompura; his descendants are now involved in the construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya.
On May 11, 1951, when the “installation ceremony of the linga” was held at the temple, President Rajendra Prasad, who belonged to the more right-leaning section of the Congress, attended, ignoring Nehru’s reservations regarding the same.
In a letter to Prasad, Nehru wrote: “I confess that I do not like the idea of your associating yourself with a spectacular opening of the Somnath temple. This is not merely visiting a temple, which can certainly be done by you or anyone else, but rather participating in a significant function which unfortunately has a number of implications. Personally, I thought that this was no time to lay stress on large-scale building operations at Somnath. This could have been done gradually and more effectively later. However, this has been done. I feel that it would be better if you did not preside over this function.”
Prasad is said to have observed that he would have done the same for a mosque or church if invited.
Interestingly, Munshi himself was not present at the consecration and was away in Burma (now Myanmar) as part of his official duties as Union minister. Marking the consecration, he wrote: “With the dawn of a new era, the new temple has risen like the phoenix, from its own ashes.”
The temple, located in the Gir-Somnath district of Gujarat, has always held a prime place in the BJP’s Hindutva narrative. In his book, Davis quoted a BJP “white paper” on the subject from 1993.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is currently the Chairman of the Shree Somnath Trust, elected for the third time. Union Home Minister Amit Shah and senior BJP leader L K Advani are also part of the trust. Advani had launched his Rath Yatra for the Ram Temple in Ayodhya from Somnath, on September 25, 1990.
Last month, after inaugurating the Swarved Mahamandir, claimed to be the world’s largest meditation centre, in Varanasi, the PM said: “During the period of slavery, the tyrants who tried to weaken India were the first to target these symbols of ours. It was necessary to rebuild these cultural symbols after Independence. If we had respected our cultural identity, the sense of togetherness and self-respect within the country would have been strengthened. But, unfortunately, that did not happen. After Independence, even the reconstruction of the Somnath temple was opposed.”
Under the Union government’s Pilgrimage Rejuvenation And Spiritual Augmentation Drive or PRASHAD, four major facilities have been developed on the temple premises.
