The Significance of Shri Ram to Indian Nation

The Ayodhya verdict came after so long of the Nehru initiated Congress rule after the British had gone, partially in favor of the Hindus. Swami Vivekananda asked Hindus to rise and awake; as the then Hindus were sleeping, accepting the myth that the colonial rulers were superior to the Indians. There were definite changes in the then society, the Hindus did wake up from their lethargy and slumber, and just two personalities, Swami Vivekananda and Maharishi Aurabindo had destroyed the nefarious programme charted out by the duo of McCauley and Max Muller of mentally subjugating the Indians to the ‘Gorajis’ rule and ways of life. With the independence of India one hoped for a cultural resurgence in India, naturally, but the western instrumented Nehru thwarted all hopes and the Congress shamelessly continued their blistering policies of Muslim and Christian appeasement and did nothing at all for the Hindu community. The only act that happened was from Sardar Patel of reconstructing the Somanath temple that was personally destroyed by the Gaznavi, who had massacred more than fifty thousand Hindus in a single day by noon before he entered the sanctum sanctorum to break the idol of Lord Somanath which was levitating in the garbhagruha through some unknown technology of stuffing the idol and the garbhagruha with precious stones. But then, the Gandhi-Nehru nexus had sidelined Sardar Patel, as Gandhi himself made an immature and play boy Nehru the first prime Minister of Indian Union. The Hindu continued to be in agony, from the Muslims to the Europeans, and then to the Congress rule, with their shameless appeasement of the Muslims for votes. They did not take any lessons from the blatant declaration of the Ali brothers, Muhammad and Shaukat to none other than Gandhi that “we are first Muslims and then only Indians”, and the manner in which Gandhi was propelled into the Khilafat movement in which he was given strong blows below the belt from the Muslims and so on.

The strength of any nation comes from their internal unity. The more a nation is unified, the more they become strong, economic stability shall naturally and automatically follow. A classical example shall that be of Germany, in the pre second European War stage. Normally, for Europe, their nationality depends on their mother tongue, or language. Other aspects just follow suit. In pre European war Germany, things took a drastic twist with the Max Mullerian “Aryan Race Theory”, and what was intended to enslaven India had eventually resulted in the making of an Aryan nation, Germany. Even people like Hegel believed that Germans are Aryans and the entire Indian Philosophy is their creation. Further, when it came to Hitler, he refined the Aryan race concept to special “Nordic Aryans” and believed that they created all civilisations in the entire world. From this came the idea that Germany shall rule the world, as they are the only ones ‘entitled’ to do so. What followed next is simply history. The point is, when a nation is internally unified it becomes strong, and when it becomes strong, it becomes rich and powerful.

For the Europeans, who live in fragmented knowledge societies, India shall appear to be ‘many nations’ as Schawen Blunt spoke in the British Parliament in the 18th century, or a Pandora’s box.  They do not and cannot understand how this nation is one nation. The linguistic differences, differences in food, cloth and geography is supposed to make India many nations according to them. They thought that it is some kind of a mistake for India to be together, and they optimistically predicted that India shall soon fall apart into many nations as it happened to former USSR. But, India did not fall into pieces; on the contrary, it is still one nation as it always had been.

Fact of the matter is that, the unity of India comes not from any phenomena as the Europeans experience; it comes directly from the Indian culture itself. Indian culture is that golden thread which runs through every Indian of past present and also of future uniting them and binding them as one and the same. Tens of thousands of years of refinement process of civilisation had gone into the making of this Indian culture, which had successfully stood the test of time, and all kinds of aggressions, and indeed is formidable. So long as Indian culture is formidable, the unity of India also shall remain as a normal phenomenon.

What had preserved the Indian culture through troubled waters is the Hindu Dharma. Religion is also a carrier of culture, which also transmits culture from generations to generations. Indian culture had been protected, preserved and transmitted from generations to generations by the Hindu religion. Hence, attack on Hindu religion becomes an indirect attack on the Indian culture. This is what makes every Indian a Hindu culturally, in spite of his faith systems, ritual or practices. And thus it becomes important to preserve the Hindu religion to preserve Indian culture, sustain the unity and strength of this ancient and mighty nation, and hence it becomes an Indian’s duty to work towards the continued existence of the Hindu Dharma.

Some people wish to say that Hinduism is not a religion, it is only a way of life, but they are wrong. Indeed it is a way of life, but it is also a powerful religion, a religion that had preserved the most ancient culture and preserved an amazing nation that is India; a Pandora’s box to a European mind! When the strength of Israel is the Jewish religion, the secret behind the development and growth of Israel is the Jewish religion, it is the Hindu religion for the Indians.

And Shri Rama is the sum total of the Hindu Dharma in modern India. Shri Ram is the ‘Maryada Purushottam’ for the Indians, and what even Gandhi desired was a ‘Rama Rajya’. Shri Ram is so much embedded into the Hindu world view; it had long become the symbol of Indian culture and heritage. People wish one another in the name of Ram, they appeal to Ram for everything as ‘Ram Jane’, and so on. In short, whatever happens to Ram also happens to every common Indian.

Ram janma bhumi and Ramlala thus becomes so much important to all Indians on a day to day basis. Everything is Ram, and Tulsidas goes to the extent of speaking of “Ram Maya”: which is a culture itself. Here lies the importance of Ram temple in Ayodhya and Ram Janma bhumi. After so long a period of foreign subjugation and alien rule which was continued by the Nehruvian dynasty and the Congress party, it is now that a small break up is found. Indians will have to start with this; start from this, and work towards Kasi Viswanatha, Madhurai Janmashthana, and to many more cultural symbols. The Vijayanagara Empire and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj are gone after doing their part; the Rani of Jhansi had done her part; Vivekananda and Aurabindo had shown path to us through their very lives; and the Khalsa of the Sikhs stand in front of us to lead us in the path given by Wahe Guru. There is a saying in Hindi in the form of a Doha; “Agar Gobind na hote, Sunnat hoti sab ki”. So much had been the contributions of the Sikhs to Indian culture- Guru Fateh.

After so many years of independence, we still have a long way to go towards the making of Indian nation. Shri Ram and Ayodhya are our guiding spirits and symbols of Indian culture, to re build this nation, to strengthen this nation and to restore the glory of this nation to stand with proud with the heads high in the world, ultimately to teach the world peace, co-existence and harmonious living in a world of plurality.

Visharad Sharma
Batala, Gurudaspur, The Punjab.