Two kinds of Hindus

Titled ‘Ayodhya: Where Divinity Meets Modernity’, the full-page colour ad that the Uttar Pradesh government put out in newspapers recently made me pause. Beneath the photos of the model Rama temple and of the Chief Minister of UP and the Prime Minister, the verbose ad claimed that the “double engine government” was “restoring” the “glory” of “the sacred city” and upgrading its infrastructure to make it “a world class city.” Indeed, the ad was replete with project details of the hospitals, highways, international airport, greenfield township, museum, multi-level parking complex, among others, being built there.

Does this vision for making Ayodhya modern, which overlaps with that of real estate barons, offer any room for the lower middle classes and the poor? For the non-Hindus? Above all, the ad was indifferent to what turning this small old town of sadhus into a “world-class city” might do to its sacred character.

The Ayodhya ad though will appeal to a section of Hindus. These Hindus view development in terms of material change: the availability of smooth roads, fast cars, trains and planes, hip gadgets, and glitzy hotels. Their love for this model of development makes them turn away from any criticism. They look forward to a consumerist, urban future. Enjoying themselves as Hindu, they share a triumphal view that India belongs to Hindus and no-one else. And, in their historical imagination, Vedic India was flourishing until Muslim invaders spoilt it all. Rarely do they pause to see the role of the British in pushing these distorted views to make their rule appear beneficial for Indians.

Not asking whether vengeance is a good ethical response, their religiosity is at ease with taking revenge on innocent people in other religions who have nothing to do with any of the wrongdoing attributed to their ancestors. Colonised by Western/Semitic ideas that a religion must have an all-powerful creator, a church and a holy book, these Hindus view Hindu dharma similarly as a temple-centred religion with the Gita as the holy book.

For another section of Hindus, bhakti or devotion has little to do with pomp and power: ostentation indeed violates the spirit of authentic bhakti. They find Shabari, the old woman who waits patiently for years to see Rama and offers him berries that she has bitten into and confirmed as sweet, endearing. Fruits, meat, water, alcohol, flowers, leaves, twigs: anything can be offered to God as long as the devotion is selfless.

Feeling intimate with God, these Hindus adore, abuse and discard Gods at will. They also create Gods and new myths freely: only such a creative freedom could bring about the multitude of deities within Hinduism. These Hindus consecrate local places -- Rama and Lakshmana stood on this rock; Hanumantha passed through that forest -- without feeling the need to certify them as historical facts. Given this free relationship with creating sacred spaces, destroying a mosque to build a temple on the same spot does not appear to them to be either logically or morally proper.

Not drawing strict boundaries about their religious life, the second section of Hindus feel free to visit the holy places of other religious communities. Their faith extends to the entire world, and not just the territory of India. And, that world, for them, includes people of different faiths. These Hindus might find some of the practices of other religions strange and even repelling, but that doesn’t bring with it a desire to curb those practices. Their own practices might appear odd to others, isn’t it? Such a live-and-let-live stance prevails among these Hindus.

For them, a contented and fulfilled life has little to do with material comforts and worldly success. So, the ‘development’ activities of the government, which are weakening the rural economy and crowding the cities, seem undesirable to them. A lavishly built temple amidst a shopping mall-like environment fails to elicit devotion in them.

Caste and gender identities inhere across both kinds of Hindus, but the differences between them are serious.

If there is something deeply spiritual in how the devout experience religion and God at the personal and collective levels, the loud political celebration in Ayodhya has none of that sanctity.