Kashi Corridor!

India’s prime minister, Shri Narendra Modi, inaugurated the Kashi Phase I corridor, dedicating it to the nation. As one who has always been awed by the oldest and continually living city with 3500 years of documented history.

Kashi, aka Varanasi and Banaras, is at the Ganges riverbank and has been repeatedly attacked and destroyed by Islamic invaders. If the immense wealth was the initial attraction for raiding the temples, wanton destruction against idolatry was the later cause. Thus began the attacks of the holiest of all holy temples by Ahmed Nihalidin, Ghazni Mohammed’s governor, in the 11th century. Later, Qutub-ud-din Aibak razed more than a thousand temples.

The city came under Afghan control after the defeat of Ibrahim Lodhi in 1526 but later was captured by the Moghul ruler Babur. Sher Shah Suri later captured it, and later Akbar took control. Raja Todar Mal constructed a new Vishwanath temple in 1585, which was destroyed by Aurangazeb, who got the Gyanvapi mosque constructed in the place of the temple.

The Kashi Vishweshwar temple, as we see it now, was built by Ahalya Devi Holkar in 1777 AD. King Ranjit Singh had the Kashi Vishwanath temple spires covered in gold. A huge bell donated by the King of Nepal hangs in the temple.

Aurangazeb retained many temple remnants in the mosque to prove their superiority. The rebuild of Kashi to its earlier glory by the U.P. Government is the first-ever in 250 years of the city’s chequered history.  I endorse the beautification of the temple city and its corridor, a mammoth task.

While the inauguration was on, the scion of the Congress party once again confused himself and all others over his understanding of Hindu, Hinduism, Hindutva and Hindutva-wadi, spinning his own narratives of these. His party, M.P., Dr. Sashi Tharoor, demanded ‘reparations’ during a debate in the Oxford Union on 28th May 2015. The sum worked out to be close to GBP 3 Trillion. If the British plundered India for 200 years, the Islamic invaders did so for 800 years and are equally liable for India’s poverty.

Why should anyone complain if the temples are revived into their old glory? Akhilesh Yadav, the chief of the Samajwadi Party, claims that his government had mooted the building of the Kashi corridor. In the same breath, he commented at Modi that older people come to Kashi as the last leg of their lives, hinting that Modi is passé. He could be seriously wrong.

A section of Indians basks in the glory of their forefathers invading, destructing and subjugating India and Indians. It is, therefore, not surprising that they are afraid of a surge in Hinduism, which cannot pose a challenge to the basic credentials of the country. If there’s a Mecca or Vatican for the followers of other religions, a Kashi, Ayodhya, or Mathura must not disturb anyone’s sleep.

A  temple must bond communities, which I am sure the newly built corridor would give.

Sampath Kumar

Intrépide Voix