Secular state and bhoomi pujan

The Former Union Minister for Civil Aviation Sharad Yadav at Bhoomi Pujan Ceremony for the “Construction of New Terminal Building” at Civil Enclave, Pathankot on June 29, 2001. The Former Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution Shanta Kumar, the Former Minister of State for Civil Aviation Chaman Lal Gupta and the Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh Prem Kumar Dhumal are also seen.

Ram Puniyani

It is a common sight to see the statues, photos and symbols of Hindu Gods and Goddesses in different Government owned public places like police station and other buildings. Similarly state run buses also have the photos of Hindu Gods and Goddesses. We have stopped thinking whether it is right. It is a common observation that most of the time Hindu rituals are performed while the construction of state projects, buildings etc are undertaken. The practice has become a sort of routine to which not many people give a thought. We remember that after independence serious scholars criticized the government for not being secular enough. Around that time when Pundit Nehru was the Prime Minister, the Central Cabinet not only turned down the proposal of building Somanth temple with state money but Dr. Rajendra Prasad, the then President was also advised not to inaugurate the temple in his capacity as the President of India. The visits of public functionaries to the holy places were a strictly private matter, away from the glare of media.

Times seem to have been changing. The politicians are competing with each other to seek the divine blessing through different well advertised visits, the inaugural ceremonies of state sponsored buildings have the Brahmin priest supervising laying of the foundation stone and undertaking a bhoomi puja (Worship of Earth) and doing his best to get the approval of the supernatural powers though the chanting of Mantras. In this scenario, the move by Rajesh Solanki, a dalit activist from Gujarat to file a Public Interest Litigation against the bhoomi pujan and chanting of mantras performed at the time of foundation stone laying ceremony for the new building for the High court, came as a move to set the things on secular grounds. The function was performed in the presence of the Governor of the State of Gujarat and the Chief Justice of the State amongst others.

Solanki’s plea was that a secular state should not perform the religious rituals. Such an act of worship violates the basic principles of the Indian Constitution, which is secular and lays the boundaries between the state and the religion. Solanki argued that the puja and chanting of mantras by Brahmin priests would make the judiciary lose its secular credentials.

Rather than upholding his rational and secular plea, the court went on to dismiss the petition and also fined the petitioner Rs 20000, doubting his bona fides. The judges went onto say that the Bhoomi puja is meant to seek the pardon of the Earth to graciously bear the burden of the damage to make the construction, to make the construction successful. And since this is for the welfare of all it fits into the Hindu values of Vasudhaiva Kutumbkam (All beings on the planet are one family) and Sarvajan Sukhino Bhavantu (For the good of all).

There is a lot of mix up in different arguments being put forward. To begin with to regard that for making a construction the Earth has to be worshipped is a purely Hindu concept. The people from other religions will do different things to start their construction work, like sprinkling Holy water by Christian priest for example. The atheists will be more concerned about the preservation of ecological balance and to see that the geological and architectural aspects have been fully taken care of.

The legal defense of the practices of one religion for state function is nothing short of violating the basic principles of Indian Constitution, which ensures that state keep its distance from all religions and then treats them all on the equal ground, reaffirmed in S. R. Bommai case. Secularism, as understood in S.R. Bommai is that (1) the state has no religion (2) the state stands aloof from religion and (3) the state does not promote or identify with any religion.

It is true that moral values of many religions can be accepted by the society at large, like Vasudhaiva Kutumbkam (Hinduism), or ‘all men are brother’ (Islam) or ‘Love thy neighbor’ (Christianity) but as far as rituals are concerned it is a different cup of tea. The core of religions is not rituals but moral values. In popular perception and practices it is the rituals which are identified with the religion. This is a matter of social understudying and different streams will go by different opinion on this.

The core point is that the saints of the genre of Kabir, Nizamuddin Auliya, and Gandhi harped on the moral aspects of the religions. As far as practice of religion is concerned people have no restriction in following their social and personal practices, which are so diverse between different religions and even within the same religion as different sects follow different religious practices.

Such a judgment goes totally against the Article 51 (A) of the Constitution also, which directs us to promote the rational thought in the society. The promotion of rituals of one particular faith by the State is against the spirit of our Constitution. Again in many instances there is just a thin borderline between faith and blind faith. Blind faith will push the society in the retrograde direction. Today we know that unless the location for a construction is selected properly, geological and construction aspects are taken care of scientifically, accidents do happen. That’s why state has developed many a norms of construction which are necessary to be cleared and we have witnessed that violation of such norms have led to accidents.

Our courts have to promote these aspects of Constitution rather than to prove in a convoluted way that practices of one religion should be accepted as the state practices. Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi had gone on to state that “In India, for whose fashioning I have worked all my life, every man enjoys equality of status, whatever his religion is. The state is bound to be wholly Secular” (Harijan August 31, 1947) and, “religion is not the test of nationality but is a personal matter between man and God, (ibid pg 90), and,” religion is a personal affair of each Individual, it must not be mixed up with politics or national Affairs” (ibid pg 90).

Last few decades identification of Hindu religious practices has been accepted as the state norms and this needs to be given a rethinking. 

(Issues in Secular Politics III March 2011)

 

hindu hit (हिन्दु हित)

''hindu hit ki baat karega vahi desh pe raj karega'.' (हिन्दु हित की बात करेगा) listen these words carefully. they say, ''baat karega'' (बात करेगा)  hindu hit ki sirf baat karega. hindu hit me kam karega aisa nahi kaha!

Break the silence - we have tolerated these old hatreds for far too long

I am a non-convent educated, ordinary Gujarati. My teachers too, were mediocre, middle class people, who never thought of saffronising the curricula they had so meticulously adhered to for decades. They never taught me to wear a murderous weapon like the trishul.

           

My forefathers settled in Ahmedabad city nearly five hundred years ago. It is said Ahmedshah Badshah wanted to build Ahmedabad fort on the model of the Patan fort. He invited artisans from Patan and its surrounding villages. My ancestors, who came from Patan, built the fort and the Badshah rewarded them by granting them land to settle in the heart of city. With this background, I humbly claim that nobody in the Vishva Hindu Parishad can match my knowledge about the history and geography of Ahmedabad.

Let me narrate my firsthand experiences with fascism, another name for Hindu revivalism in my state. The year was 1981 when I was preparing for my Third B.Sc. examination. It was a chilly winter day and I was trying to concentrate on my books. All of a sudden, I heard some noise at a distance. A mob of around 500 people gathered near our Dalit ghetto. They were shouting “Come on, fight with us” (They were abusing us with a derogatory word used for Scheduled Castes in Gujarat). The mob was carrying a two-wheeler lorry, which in ordinary times is used by sweepers. They showed us the lorry and said: “This is for you. Come on. Sweep.” Then, they pelted stones, acid bulbs, petrol bombs and whatever they had. This was but one of the ugly scenes of the anti-reservation movement in Gujarat, when a particular section of society was systematically isolated. Press, police and politicians joined hands to add fuel to the fire.

Much has been written on it, but the point is that for the first time in the history of Gujarat and the entire country, the Dalits, in retaliation, boycotted a holy festival. It was a gesture, a warning signal to Hindu society. After 1981, Hindu revivalism gained ground in Gujarat. After 1981, most of the religious processions, which passed through the road adjoining my area, shouted viciously anti-Muslim slogans. It was the same mob which participated in the 1981 anti-reservation agitation. The same hatred, but the target was different.

In 1985, another anti-reservation movement ravaged Gujarat. But, this time the ruling party had taken care to turn the anti-reservation movement into communal rioting. A senior leader of the Congress party declared in a meeting of party workers, “We have succeeded in turning this agitation into a riot. Hence, our government is saved.” The same year witnessed a 70-day long, historical strike of Gujarat secretariat’s upper caste employees. After some years, Advani was welcomed in the secretariat’s premises by the same upper caste leaders. The then Chiman Patel’s government did nothing to prevent the politicisation of government employees.

The vital blow to the secular ethos came in the form of shameless selection of Keka Shastri, the chief architect of Hindu revivalism, as president of the Gujarat Sahitya Parishad in 1985. Prominent Gujarati writers and Gandhians whole heartedly supported Keka’s selection as head of the most respected body of literature. The recent attack by BJP activists on peace meetings at Gandhi ashram was nothing but the result of criminal silence of the Gujarati intelligentsia, who have buried their conscience under the heap of Hindutva.

Raju Solanki, Indian Express, 24th April 2002

(when I was in financial Express, I used to write in Indian Express. This particular write up was published in 2002. Thanks to Pamela Philipose, the resident editor of IE, New Delhi. A kind lady, who I have never met, painstakingly edited and refined my articles)

From pen of an activist

At 75, Valjibhai Patel is still active in his not so attractive office of Council for Social Justice. From this office he has filed some historical writ petitions in Gujarat High Court. Some people, quite innocently, call him ‘advocate.’ This man with LLB degree and without any 'sanad' has done something extra-ordinary even a person with black robe might not achieve. 

But, before scrolling legal mouse, Valjibhai was an ardent journalist with irrevocable commitment and discreet insight. He narrated, sometimes as an impartial historian or sometimes as a concerned citizen, everything from anti-reservation riots of 1981 to state-sponsored genocide of 2002. In his magazine, ‘Dalit-Mitra’, he gave bit by bit account on how Sangh Parivar spread its poisonous tentacles in Gujarat, how Gujarati news papers started its vicious propaganda first, against Dalits and then against Muslims and how the so-called intelligentsia became, first, silent and then vocal supporter of Hindu communalism. All these articles have been published in a book ‘Karmashilni Kalame’ (from the pen of an activist) edited by Chandu Maheriya.

Today, when secularism has become a commodity for secularists and a punching bag for fundamentalist, Valjibhai’s book gives penetrating analysis and useful insight in the real Gujarat.

Tikesh Makwana - the unsung hero of secularism

Tikesh Makwana was one of those few daring dudes who dared to challenge Hindu fanatics in Gujarat and particularly in Ahmedbabd city. It is very easy to talk on secularism while living in upper caste dominated area and not having a single Muslim as neighbour within one kilometre distance of your home. For Dalits of Gujarat, secularism is not a subject of a symposium, because they have been living with Muslims since centuries and Dalits are the people who have been protecting and nurturing and advocating secularism.

I compiled collection of articles written by Tikesh Makwana in a book "Ek patthar to tabiyat se uchhalo yaro" (एक पथ्थर तो तबियत से उछालो यारो). If you want to get real picture of secular Gujarat, you must read this book, published by Dalit Youth circle of Rajpur-Gomtipur, Ahmedabad. In one of the articles, Tikesh narrated the venomous frenzy of fanaticism which engulfed entire city in post-Godhara riots. Some Dalits misguided by VHP targeted Tikesh as he was exposing their communal character. They threw stones on his home, abused him and threatened him. But, Tikesh did not budge. He carried his fight till his last breath.