At best of times, in the post-Nehruvian era, India has found more time to indulge its religious tendencies than the attention it gives to the state’s secular commitments. From Haj in Saudi Arabia to Hindu pilgrimage in Tibet, among other venues of religious importance, the state does walk the extra mile to help the communities with funds, security personnel and with diplomatic assistance where needed.
Last week the Indian ambassador in Kathmandu, Mr Shiv Shankar Mukherjee, a genial man with not a trace of religious bias, was asked to lay the foundation stone for a new building to house Hindu pilgrims visiting the famed Pashupatinath Temple with a grant assistance of Rs 50 million from the Indian government.
According to reports, the “dharmashala” as a part of master plan of Pashupati Area Development Trust would have over 400 beds with separate space for office, reception, and prayer hall, kitchen, dining hall and power utilities. The dharmashala would provide good quality and affordable resting-place to the Hindu pilgrims in the vicinity of the temple and would significantly promote the development of the Pashupati area, said an Indian Embassy press statement.
In his address at the function, Mr Mukherjee reportedly stressed that the Indian government was happy in being part of the process of infrastructure development of an important cultural and religious heritage of Nepal. He underlined the importance of India-Nepal economic cooperation programme as a cornerstone of overall relations between the two countries and “expressed the hope that the dharmashala would stand as an important icon of age-old cultural bonds between India and Nepal.”
No one should quarrel with India’s spirit of philanthropy. The government has built hospitals in a couple of Saarc countries even if its own citizens remain deprived of basic health care. It donated a few million dollars to the United States, ostensibly to enable the superpower’s typhoon-stricken states to overcome their trauma. So be it. But building new temples and mosques or even dharmashalas to house pilgrims was at best the prerogative of Indian rulers from the bygone era. Today’s secular Indian state is a different kettle of fish or at least it should be different. If not, it may as well open up is coffers to the countless religious organisations at home building mosques, synagogues, churches, gurudwaras, and of course temples to as many deities as there are people to worship them. Also, it has to be noted, Pashupatinath Temple happens to be a place of worship where entry of non-Hindus has been traditionally forbidden. It is not like Delhi’s Jama Masjid where visitors from different faiths are welcome to walk in freely to admire the magnificent structure or to take pictures, by observing the simple gesture of taking off their shoes. Nor is it a Sikh gurudwara where anybody regardless of his belief is welcome if only he would cover the head with a handkerchief in obeisance.
However, it is not the mere act of financing or building a religious complex in Nepal that is at issue. The picture looks unpleasant when we take India’s other postures into account, particularly its inbuilt aversion to the rise of secular political forces in the former feudal kingdom. Along with the reports of India’s ample contributions to the temple complex came a report from Chennai last week in which the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) has charged the so-called saffron brigade in India and the United States with trying to ‘sabotage’ the April elections to the Constituent Assembly of that country.
“Elections have been postponed thrice... The US and the BJP and its sister organisations such as VHP and RSS in India do not want the elections to be held for their own vested interests,” top-rung Maoist leader and party’s central committee member C P Gajurel claimed. He said while the United States wants to turn Nepal into a base from where it would control India and China, the rightwing Indian groups are keen that Nepal remains a Hindu nation. Mr Gajurel, in Chennai to attend a meeting of an Indo-Nepalese forum, accused the “Hindu fundamentalists” of fomenting violence in parts of the landlocked country, especially those close to Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, in order to sabotage the polls.
“We, by the electoral process, want to make Nepal a people’s republic and abolish the 240-year-long monarchy. But elections have been already postponed thrice and if they are not held on April 10, we would initiate a mass movement in the country,” he said.
Mr Gajurel ruled out reviving an armed struggle that the Maoists had carried out against the monarchy, saying “the arms were locked in the containers while the cadre confined to cantonments”.
The Maoist struggle created a mass movement, paving the way for people’s rule. “Those who are supporting the monarchy, including some Generals in the Royal Nepalese Army, do not want elections to be held as that will put an end to feudalism in Nepal,” Mr Gajurel said. Even as he clarified that there was “no clear evidence” of India’s direct hand in “attempts” to sabotage the elections, he added: “We have taken up with India, the efforts of the fundamentalists, and some provocative firing by (India’s paramilitary) CRPF on the Indo-Nepalese border.”
This was not the first time the pioneers of republican democracy in Nepal had expressed fears about India’s religious rightwing and the United States quietly seeking to reinstate the deposed king. At one point Pakistan and China too were eager to beef up King Gyanendra’s royalist army against the secular people of the impoverished country.
It was only when India’s avowedly secular Congress party tried to play the game of religious revivalism in India’s neighbourhood that people sat up with disbelief. The Telegraph of Calcutta in particular put the spotlight on the grumbling within the party leadership about the arriving radical change in Nepal. “Don’t do away with the monarchy.” “What was the hurry in proclaiming that Nepal will not be a Hindu nation?” “I am a devotee of Shankar Baba (Lord Shiva). At this rate you will do away with Lord Pashupatinath also.” “Don’t hand over power snatched from the king to the Maoists by implementing their agenda.” These homilies were delivered not by a BJP leader but by veteran Congress leader Karan Singh, the newspaper said.
Dr Singh, a former ruler of Jammu and Kashmir, offered this and more advice to senior politicians from Nepal. Former Nepali foreign minister Chakra Prasad Bastola, one-time negotiator with the Maoists Shekhar Koirala and Arjun Narsingh of the Nepali Congress were shocked to meet him during the turbulent days in 2006 when India tried every possible trick to keep the monarchy from plunging to a fatal fall.
“We were flabbergasted. That BJP leaders should get emotional about Nepal no longer being a Hindu nation, we could understand. But where was this coming from? Why was Karan Singh speaking this language?” The Telegraph quoted a member of the Nepali delegation who met him as wondering loudly. Dr Singh also seemed upset over the new parliament proclaiming that Nepal would no longer be a Hindu but a secular nation.
“What is a secular state?” he asked them after suggesting that this was a hurried move. Dr Singh also advised them not to act in a manner which would end up in power taken from the king being handed over to the Maoists. “We told him — ‘Doctor saheb, we are politicians. We work among the people. We know what to do. We have not participated in the democracy movement on behalf of the Maoists. The battle for multi-party democracy is primarily our battle. So don’t worry. We will find a middle path acceptable to all’,” one of them said.
Like the Congress leader, the BJP, too, has been worried by the prospect of Nepal “losing its true identity”. BJP president Rajnath Singh, according to the Nepali delegation who met him at the time, got “very emotional” over their country no longer calling itself a “Hindu nation”. He reportedly hectored the delegation, saying: “Don’t give up your language and don’t give up your religion. These define your national identity.” At a time when the people of Nepal are preparing to assert their collective secular will in landmark elections later this year, it does look curious that India should be seen donating funds for the very temple complex from where the fallen king once derived his legitimacy.
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