Jump on to the juggernaut

One should look at the very purpose of the twin yatras by BJP, writes Prakash Patra.

Around mid-July each year, Lord Jagannath, accompanied by his brother Balabhadra and sister Subhadra, leaves his temple abode and sets out on his chariot down Puri’s famous ‘Bada Danda’ (Great Road) to visit his aunt at Sri Gundicha. The head of the erstwhile royal family of Puri sweeps the street as the chariots are pulled by devotees. Bhajans revering Jagannath fill the air, none perhaps as sweet and revered as those composed centuries ago by that unlikely devotee, Salbeg, a Muslim who even though denied entrance to the temple, is said to have composed and sung his bhajans outside the temple.

HT Image

It will be in the same temple city of Puri and down the same Bada Danda that BJP president Rajnath Singh will roll out his rath on April 6, which happens to be Ram Navami. Singh’s yatra is synchronised with that of L.K. Advani who rolls out his juggernaut from Dwarka in Gujarat the same day. The two yatras will crisscross the country to ‘educate’ people on the imminent dangers to the internal security of India (read: Hindu religion). And in case you’ve missed the potent symbolism, the news is that this time the BJP will invoke not good old Lord Rama, but Lord Krishna to rally the flock.

The immediate backdrop to the yatras is, of course, the recent terrorist attack in Benares. In Benares itself, the BJP’s attempts to derive political capital out of the twin blasts that rocked the city were rebuffed by its own people. The act of the chief priest of the Sankatmochan temple politely turning away BJP stalwarts from the precincts of the temple so that he could receive a delegation of clerics to ensure communal amity in the historic city is a gesture that will be remembered for long. It will be especially remembered by those who would glibly presume that the assertion of ‘self’ must necessarily be defined by being aggressive against the ‘other’. So while the BJP did not celebrate Holi to mourn the death of innocent people in Benares, the Hindu residents of Benares, like the priest of Sankatmochan, went ahead with the festival of colour because they did not want to be seen blaming the entire Muslim community for the acts of terror. For them, life moved on and the people, irrespective of their religion, stood together to protect their city and their shrines.

Threat perceptions apart, one should look at the very purpose of the twin yatras. The BJP has been groping in the dark ever since it lost the elections, despite Advani’s ‘India Shining’ yatra that traversed the country and the series of other yatras that its leaders have undertaken during the last two years — Tiranga yatra, Nyaya yatra, Jail Bharo yatra, etc. The Congress-led UPA government has given the Opposition a virtual armoury of sticks to beat it with. But the restless BJP perhaps sees that such issues may not succeed in helping it regain its strength. Religion is an emotional issue that has been successfully tried by it in the past. If it has to come to power, it has to use religion and religious symbols.

The so-called Ram janmabhoomi movement, which Advani would like all of us to think of as a moment in a Great Cultural Hindu Renaissance, is virtually dead. Despite its rhetoric, the BJP is aware that on the Ram temple issue it has lost the hardline Hindu vote base. This segment of the electorate is disillusioned with what it sees as the BJP’s failure to move ahead from the position of December 6, 1992, when the Babri masjid was demolished.

The VHP, the Bajrang Dal and even the RSS are virtually at loggerheads with the political formation represented by the BJP. Even a product of that movement such as Uma Bharati has parted ways with the party. She, too, invoked the name of Lord Rama and marched from Madhya Pradesh to Ayodhya to remind the people of the temple issue. But there were few takers.

The temple issue could help the BJP in crossing the political divide to cobble up an alliance to rule the country. But it could not expand its base enough to make it on its own. Now the party turns towards Lord Krishna because his appeal probably is larger and if it works — and that’s a big if — it could help the BJP rejuvenate its appeal. After all, Mathura (the Krishna janmabhoomi) is also a part of the core agenda of the BJP.

To get back to Puri, scholars and historians are unanimous in their view that Lord Jagannath, who later came to be associated with Krishna, was originally a tribal God. He was worshipped as a ‘Khamba’ (wooden pillar) centuries ago. The tribals who worshipped ‘Naga’ (cobra) merged these and other symbols over a period of time. Later, Buddhists would identify Lord Jagannath with the Buddha and worship him. When the anti-Buddhist wave arrived, the idol that used to be worshipped in Buddhist viharas in western Orissa was buried and remained buried for more than a century.

The idol was exhumed by another Buddhist king around the 10th century. The present seat of Lord Jagannath, the temple at Puri, was built later and the icons of Balabhadra and Subhadra, too, came later. The tribals contribute significantly to the temple rituals even today.

In essence, Jagannath (Lord of the Universe) symbolises the evolution and fusion of Indian culture and the Hindu philosophy. Hindu fundamentalists will tell you the story of one Kalapahar, a Muslim general, who attacked the temple. But for the millions of ordinary Hindu devotees, there is the story of Bhakta Salbeg.

When Rajnath Singh’s rath rolls out in Puri, perhaps Salbeg’s soul stirring bhajans will be in the air. But for both Singh in Puri and Advani in Dwarka, the bhajans may as well be in an alien language.