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Punarutthana of abandoned Hindu temples

Karnataka was once part of Vijayanagara empire, which successfully safeguarded the saffron flames of Dharma for close to three centuries. Also the Kakatiyas and countless other Hindu kingdoms ruled this illustrious land of Bharat, blessed by countless sacred rivers.

The might, prosperity and grandeur of the Hindu kingdoms which ruled Karnataka and nearby regions is very evident in the Hindu temples they constructed and bequeathed to next generations. The temples are known for their exquisite grandeur, intricately carved pillars and idols which had eyes of precious gems.

The plunder and loot of these temples stripped the Gods of their possessions, and many of the idols now we find in museums in foreign lands. The abode of these Gods fell into abandon and ruin as the Presiding Deity of the temple was taken away and sold in black markets by thieves.

Its is estimated that around 70,000 Hindu Heritage monuments exist in Karnataka alone. And needless to say the State Archaeology Department and Archaeological Survey of India is ill equipped to preserve them, leave alone renovate them.

At this juncture of doom, was started the #ReclaimTemples project in Karnataka by Girish Bharadwaja and other Dharmik warriors. They took the lead and started organising the local Hindu community to revive the Hindu temples now lying abandoned and in ruins.

The sincerity of their efforts saw people joining the project and leading from the front. #SundayForDharma campaign where every Hindu is asked to devote atleast one Sunday for Shramdaana and revival of ancestral temples in their locality is being embraced by people from all walks of life. The result is for all to see, as people started working for Dharma beyond the narrow confines of caste or organisational identities.

The revival of Hindu temples is happening at never seen before pace, and two ancient Hindu temples were reclaimed and revived in less than 2 months.

Rummanagudu Shri Neelakanteshwara Temple temple in Kalaburagi Karnataka was revived and NandiMurthy was consecrated and worship restarted.

Another temple revived was Rukmini Panduranga temple at Kalaburagi Karnataka. The consecration of the idols brought a festive cheer in the villages and HinduSamaj united in welcoming the Deities back to the temple.

 

Bharata Punarutthana Trust registered in Bangalore is leading the activities. The updates about the activities can be tracked via the twitter handles @punarutthana and @GirishVHP

Donations can be made via https://www.instamojo.com/@bpt.

To join the activities on ground, please register via imojo.in/dharma or call #ReclaimTemples toll free number 18002002805

Dharmik Revival in Malappuram

Malappuram district in Kerala is now often regarded as the next Kashmir, where the calls of Jihad permeates the air many times a day. Abduction of Hindu women, killing of Hindu youth, desecration of temples, encroachment of temple land have become the new normal.

However Malappuram is also the sacred land of Hindus, where the HinduSamaj once worshiped the most powerful Deities. The typical worship prevalent in Malappuram made the temples famous all over Bharat and people came to pray and as cure for many maladies.

 

The sacred land of Hindus also attracted the most ruthless of all Islamists invaders HyderAli and his son TipuSultan. The many invasions of Malappuram starting from 1766 AD was fought fiercely by the warrior clans of Malappuram. But the cruelty and attacks on women and children by Islamist forces resulted in blackmail and victory in many instances.

What followed during the Mysorean invasion was loot, plunder and destruction of Hindu temples, and unspeakable atrocities on Hindu women. More than 10,000 Hindu temples were estimated to be destroyed during invasion of Tipu Sultan alone. The Jihad against Hindu Dharma were continued by those left behind by his army and their descendants. The Jihad termed as Mappilah riots repeated every years from the Tipu invasion and culminated in the most gruesome riots of 1921. More than 5000 Hindu temples were estimated to be destroyed in Moplah riots of 1921; more than 10,000 Hindu men murdered for not converting to Islam; and close to one lakh Hindus forced to flee. The nature of atrocities on Hindu women can be gauged by the below as recorded in the book Malabar Rebellion 1921.

“A respectable Nayar lady at Metatur was stripped naked by the rebels in the presence of her husband and brothers, who were made to stand close by with their hands tied behind. When they shut their eyes in abhorrence, they were compelled at the point of the sword to open their eyes and witness the rape committed by these brutes in their presence.”[21]

The riots in Malappuram repeated in 1947 during Partition of Bharat and also in 1992 during RamMandir agitation which saw more attacks on Hindu temples.

The situation now is no different. HinduSamaj is now facing an enemy resourceful with cash to burn, men ready to die for Jihad and an administration remaining as mute witness to the extremism perpetuated in name of religion. The abduction of Hindu women continues unabated, the ideologies of ISIS is professed openly in public, Hindu youth are killed in open streets.

However not all is gloom, as was started an attempt to revive Hindu Heritage by those unwilling to surrender and determined to reclaim everything that belonged to our forefathers. The  #ReclaimTemples movement in Malappuram has committed and fearless volunteers reviving the very temples destroyed by Jihadis and organising the Hindu community around these temples. Many of these temples are in places where Hindu population are only around 10% or lesser.

Religious fanatics have openly declared that they will convert Malappuram to an Islamic State by year 2021 and celebrate the 100th anniversary of Moplah riots. Our answer to the same is that whatever the temples destroyed till date will be revived by 2021 and the land of our Gods will also be reclaimed from the encroachers.

We have started by rebuilding Cheriyamundam Vaniyannur Siva temple. The details and the progress of efforts can be accessed via link www.ket.to/kl001

Another temples that is being revived is Alathiyur Subrahmanya Swamy temple in Tirur Malappyram, Kerala. The details and the progress of efforts can be accessed via link www.ket.to/kl002

The revival of each temple is an elaborate process where the entire rituals as mentioned in Tantra shastra and Shilpa Shastras are followed in its entirety. So that means that revival of one temple should not wait for another to be completed. Especially when there are more than 300 Hindu temples waiting to be revived and rebuilt in Malappuram district of Kerala alone. As such UgraNarasimha Charitable Trust is embarking on an ambitious project to start simultaneous revival of all the Hindu temples presently lying in ruins in Malappuram district of Kerala. The objective is to rebuild all the temples in another three years.

The process involves volunteers travelling through the remote locations collecting details of the destroyed ancient Hindu temples, its history and other details. The next process is to organise the devotees and form a committee to be part of the revival of the temple. Next is the Devaprashnam, drawing temple design , construction by Sthapathi with knowledge of the particular type of construction.

For the purpose we are forming a Temple Renovation Fund exclusively for construction and revival of ancient Hindu temples. You may donate to the fund and also request others to do so. The details are as below

Name: UgraNarasimha Charitable Trust

Account Number: 6300101001374

IFSC: CNRB0006300

Bank: Canara Bank Thondayad Branch

You may also donate via our payment gateway https://imojo.in/renovation

We need your support as we rebuild and revive close to 300 Hindu temples from their ruins, organise the Hindu community and reestablish Dharma in this sacred land of our forefathers and the Abode of Hindu Gods. All the Hindu temples in Malappuram district will be restored to their pristine glory and fighting spirit of HinduSamaj will be rekindled in this process.

#ReclaimTemples

Heritage Squads in districts across Bharat

Over past two year, we have spent considerable efforts in research documentation and also floated few organisations for ground level interventions. The support we received from everyone was overwhelming. The social media was highly supporting of the #ReclaimTemples project, so was the HinduSamaj in various districts who were eagerly waiting for a ray of hope and a helping hand to save them from the situations of despair.

Our experience for past two years tell us that time is now for mass movement to protect the Heritage Hindu temples across Bharat. The #ReclaimTemples project will be implemented in a highly decentralized, highly localized manner with decision making and driving force in the locality where the struggles happen to protect our Heritage structures.

The movement will involve forming Heritage Squads in each district of Bharat. Like minded individuals can come together for this project. The core concern of the Heritage Squads will be the Hindu Heritage sites lying abandoned in the neighborhood.

There are various activities which can be taken up.

Conservation: Wherever the team has located the Hindu Heritage temple in ruins its absolutely essential to talk and bring the local Hindu community on board. A committee of local Hindu society may be formed for upkeep and maintenance of the Heritage ruins.

The main activity involves forming a team of committed individuals in your locality and leading the cleaning up and conservation efforts of Heritage Hindu temples. The activity may be planned over weekends or any day convenient to the group. The events planned can be published in social media using hashtag #ReclaimTemples, so that people all over Bharat can track the efforts on this front and also share widely motivating others also to join.

An independent trust or society can be formed in due time to take forth the efforts in the region and also for financing the expenses incurred. The efforts are localised, so should be the people involved. Include everyone who considers the efforts and objectives important and can join the same than indulge in meaningless legalistic debates.

Research: Around two lakh Hindu Heritage sites remain abandoned across Bharat. Many of these sites dont exists in official records, and there is no clue in official records of its history.

Research part involve locating such sites, photographing it, uploading it on Google Maps, document its history via blogs or articles.

You can submit the details of destroyed and Heritage temples in your locality via this form 

Litigation: Bharat was truly the DevBhumi where Gods owned the lands. Hindu Kings of past donated thousands of hectares of land for upkeep of temple and Deity. The degeneration of temples was followed by usurping of the temple lands by vested interests. Many such lands were taken over even by Waqf and even by Church.

The tasks invovles checking the revenue records in the villages where the temple ruins exist, collect legal evidences of the land belonging to the temples, and start litigation over the title of land.

Evidences may also be collected using RTI and other legal means, good data exists in court records, British government records, as well as various surveys conducted by British government.

Awareness Campaigns: All efforts on your side to revive our Heritage should be published on social media using hashtag #ReclaimTemples. We are keeping track of the cyber space and will record and give publicity to such initiative across Bharat.

Epilogue

Our nation has withstood 1000 years of relentless assault, now is the time to regain whatever we lost. HinduSamaj has waited close two 4 years expecting various politicians they elected to act on Hindu interests, neglect and disdain is all that we got. Our Heritage is very important for survival of Hindu Dharma. Its the duty of every one of us to lead the efforts, not only for one organisation, leader or even the government.

The situation on ground is humongous for any government to manage. Only Hindu Samaj can lead this struggle for revival of Hindu civilization and make it a success.

Join now

You can register as a volunteer via link imojo.in/dharma

The survival of Hindu Dharma depends on our ability to fight alone when needed and also forming a group who can fight together for protecting Dharma.

Success ahead.

Clash of Civilisations, of Dharma and Adharma

From our epics and mythologies reminiscent of the times immemorial, we have known of the valour of Hindu Gods and Kings. There were always fight between Dharma and Adharma, the Gods and the Ausuras, and between the Kings who remained on the two opposite ends. And we grew up reading the stories of how the Gods and Kings vanquished all the enemies of Dharma.

In Ramayana the young Lord Sriram voices his doubts over killing Tadaka, the demoness that killed many sages and created havoc in life of innocent people. The wise sage Vishwamitra replies that evil has no gender, caste or creed. Lord Sriram went on to liberate the soul of Tadaka from the cursed life she was leading as a demoness.

Another of our mythology tells the story of Lord Shiva vanquishing the three worlds of the Asuras. When the evil permeated the Tripura and Asuras started attacking the Dharmik life from their Abode in Tripura, Lord Siva turned the three cities to ashes.

Fast forward to present, it may seem that Hindus have a lot to learn from mythology as well as history. Our history reveals galore of the kind acts by Hindu Kings that led to their doom along with the Hindu population and Kingdoms they ruled over. Nobody can forget Prithwiraj Chouhan who let Muhammad of Ghor escape only to see the Muslim invader return to torture him to death, the atrocities on Hindu population and the destruction of Hindu temples.

We have to analyse what went wrong with Prithwiraj Chouhan and what went right in the Acts from our mythology like TripuraDahanam. These two are opposite ways of dealing with Adharma and Asuras. PrithwiRaj Chouhan allowed evil and enemies to gather strength outside Hindu Kingdoms, while Lord Shiva as Trupurantaka reduced the source of evil to ashes via TripuraDahanam.

The Bharat of today, unlike what pseudo Hindu nationalists and Dhimmi organisations want you to believe is on a downward spiral to extinction. The extant of Bharatvarsha is only one fourth of what it was 1000 years before. The enemies which once waged war on it from outside now does it from within. The attacks on Pride and Honour of HinduDharma, our temples and our women are more than ever. Though in ancient times, the perpetrators came from outside, the present times has the Ghazis living amongst us on government benefits and aided by ideology and support from beyond our borders. The speed of disintegration has increased in recent times with Sharia zones being established in villages, cities, districts and states across Bharat.

Dhimmi Nationalists have put forward a solution to the war being waged from within, and it is to call the progeny of invaders as Hindus. They pretend to know nothing of the more than one lakh Hindu temples lying in ruins across Bharat and more than 40,000 lying under Muslim occupation. Desperate for votes and stamps of approval from sworn enemies of Hindu Dharma, they have aligned with those Corporate Gurus who make a living by selling HinduDharma. And the result as usual are shameless deals that will deprive Hindus of their Heritage as well was Pride forever and lead HinduDharma to slow suicide and extinction.

HinduSamaj has to understand that the Dhimmis have neither a solution nor the courage to implement any decision to safeguard HinduDharma. So the only solution will be work towards a goal that will free Bharatvarsha from the pestilence that is ravaging since 712 AD when the first Islamic invasion happened.

And HinduSamaj will have to ensure that the generations to come need not worry about Islamic invaders from beyond our borders or within. This will be possible only when we take care of the source of all Jihad in Bharat.

History tells us of the Pagan temple of 108 Gods in Arabia in the place called Mecca. The temple was converted to a Masjid and the idols destroyed by Muhammad. The end of Jihad will happen when the First Act of War is reversed and no longer there is an inspiration for Ghazis around the world to Pray to before they commit genocide on innocents.

And HinduSamaj can show the way by reclaiming all the Hindu temples that were forcible converted to Masjids and also by rebuilding the Hindu temples now left in ruins. This will lead to a demand and actions around the world to revive the indigenous Heritage structures taken over via acts of Jihad and brute force.

HinduDharma is the sole surviving ancient civilisation that has fought and withstood Islamic invaders from Arabia. Whenever the Ghazis came to destroy us, we had men and women who showed them the valour and courage that vanquished all evil. Hindu civilisation thus has a leading role to play in removing the seeds of terror and their ideology from within and beyond our borders and bestow a world of Prosperity and Peace for generations to come.

#ReclaimTemples

Places of Worship Act, an Unconstitutional Act

Article by Radhey Syam Rai

Any cursory glance of Indian constitution will reveal its reliance on English law and that the core remains the Government of India Act 1935 passed by the British colonial government. The judiciary in India has also been a byproduct of British colonial government, and many a times it reveals the British antecedents. An enactment is presumed to be intravires and the onus of proof lies on the person who challenges its vires. And whenever there is any doubt regarding the constitutionality of an enactment, the doubt should always go in favour of the legislature. 

In short even if the Parliament passes an highly arbitrary law which keeps itself aloof from the concept of justice, the onus will be on the person challenging its provisions to prove its wrong. In normal cases, such an act would be declared ultra vires by the Indian judiciary which has established itself as a vanguard of the Fundamental Rights. But when the Act is another tool of oppression on Hindu religion and civilisation, it requires to be seen if the judges will have the courage and conviction to declare it ultravires.

The spotlight here is on the Places of Worship Special Provisions Act, a two page legislation passed by Narasimha Rao government at the height of Ramjanmabhumi agitation. From the wordings of the Act, the idea was perhaps to nip from bud every agitation to #ReclaimTemples on the lines of the Ramjanmabhumi movement.

We look at some reasons on how this Act is ultravires of Indian constitution and why the courts will have to strike it down if they act without fear or favour.

Places of Worship Special Provisions Act is a ‘colourable piece of legislation’ as defined by the Honorable Supreme Court of India in the case of KC Gajapati Narayan Deo V State of Orissa 1954 SCR 1 wherein the Supreme Court has stated that where a legislature has limited powers because the Constitution lays down a limit on it by providing fundamental rights to the citizens, questions do arise as to whether the legislature in a particular case has or has not, in respect to the subject matter of the statute or in the method of enacting it, transgressed the limits of its constitutional powers. Such transgression may be patent, manifest or direct, but it may also be disguised, covert and indirect and it is to this latter class of cases that the expression ‘colorable legislation’ has been applied in certain judicial pronouncements.

Hindus were driven out from Kashmir by the time this Act was passed and enforced. Kashmiri Hindus left behind them many temples and other Hindu Religious Institutions. This Act washes its hands off when it comes to protection of Hindu Religious Places and Institution. Art 14 and 21 is infringed as far as this provision unreasonably discriminates against Hindus. Mala fide on the on the part of the ruling party which paddled the enactment in the Parliament is clearly apparent here. If the Advocates Act, 1961 and other enactment could be made enforceable pan India, this could have also been enforced in the similar manner.

Also the legislature knew that many temples belonging to Hindus had been desecrated, sacked and converted to Mosques by Islamic invaders at various points of time in the past. The Hindus were not able to claim back the temples which now lay in Pakistan and Bangladesh as the writ of our courts don’t run in those countries but there is definite clamor to reclaim the ones lying within the territory of the Indian Union. The blanket prohibition preventing Hindus from claiming their temples back by instituting a suit to the court and the provision to abate the ones already pending in a court is unjust and ultravires Art 32 of the Constitution as the right to manage religious affairs under Art 26 includes the right to reclaim the temples forcibly converted into mosques. The adjudication of a list is the province of law courts and a prohibition to institute suits and foreclosing the ongoing ones amount to encroachment in the realm of judiciary by the legislature, hence, ultravires on this count too.

It will only be a matter of time that this Act will be challenged in a court of law and declared ultra vires by the learned judges.

The Act is as below, please do have a read.

THE PLACES OF WORSHIP (SPECIAL PROVISIONS) ACT, 1991

ACT NO. 42 OF 1991 [18th September, 1991.]

An Act to prohibit conversion of any place of worship and to provide for the maintenance of the religious character of any place of worship as it existed on the 15th day of August, 1947, and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.

BE it enacted by Parliament in the Forty-second Year of the Republic of India as follows:—

S 1(2) It extends to the whole of India except the State of Jammu and Kashmir.

S 1 (3) The provisions of sections 3, 6 and 8 (S 8 Rep. by the Repealing and Amending Act, 2001 (30 of 2001), s. 2 and the First Schedule (w.e.f. 3-9-2001) shall come into force at once and the remaining provisions of this Act shall be deemed to have come into force on the 11th day of July, 1991.

S 2. Definitions.—In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires, — (a) “commencement of this Act” means the commencement of this Act on the 11th day of July, 1991; (b) “conversion”, with its grammatical variations, includes alteration or change of whatever nature; (c) “place of worship” means a temple, mosque, gurudwara, church, monastery or any other place of public religious worship of any religious denomination or any section thereof, by whatever name called.

S 3. Bar of conversion of places of worship.—No person shall convert any place of worship of any religious denomination or any section thereof into a place of worship of a different section of the same religious denomination or of a different religious denomination or any section thereof.

S 4. Declaration as to the religious character of certain places of worship and bar of jurisdiction of courts, etc.—(1) It is hereby declared that the religious character of a place of worship existing on the 15th day of August, 1947 shall continue to be the same as it existed on that day. (2) If, on the commencement of this Act, any suit, appeal or other proceeding with respect to the conversion of the religious character of any place of worship, existing on the 15th day of August, 1947, is pending before any court, tribunal or other authority, the same shall abate, and no suit, appeal or other proceeding with respect to any such matter shall lie on or after such commencement in any court, tribunal or other authority: Provided that if any suit, appeal or other proceeding, instituted or filed on the ground that conversion has taken place in the religious character of any such place after the 15th day of August, 1947, is pending on the commencement of this Act, such suit, appeal or other proceeding shall be disposed of in accordance with the provisions of sub-section (1). (3) Nothing contained in sub-section (1) and sub-section (2) shall apply to,— (a) any place of worship referred to in the said sub-sections which is an ancient and historical monument or an archaeological site or remains covered by the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958 (24 of 1958) or any other law for the time being in force; (b) any suit, appeal or other proceeding, with respect to any matter referred to in sub-section (2), finally decided, settled or disposed of by a court, tribunal or other authority before the commencement of this Act; (c) any dispute with respect to any such matter settled by the parties amongst themselves before such commencement; (d) any conversion of any such place effected before such commencement by acquiescence; (e) any conversion of any such place effected before such commencement which is not liable to be challenged in any court, tribunal or other authority being barred by limitation under any law for the time being in force.

S 5. Act not to apply to Ram Janma Bhumi-Babri Masjid.—Nothing contained in this Act shall apply to the place or place of worship commonly known as Ram Janma Bhumi-Babri Masjid situated in Ayodhya in the State of Uttar Pradesh and to any suit, appeal or other proceeding relating to the said place or place of worship.

S 6. Punishment for contravention of section 3.—(1) Whoever contravenes the provisions of section 3 shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years and shall also be liable to fine. (2) Whoever attempts to commit any offence punishable under sub-section (1) or to cause such offence to be committed and in such attempt does any act towards the commission of the offence shall be punishable with the punishment provided for the offence. (3) Whoever abets, or is a party to a criminal conspiracy to commit, an offence punishable under sub-section (1) shall, whether such offence be or be not committed in consequence of such abetment or in pursuance of such criminal conspiracy, and notwithstanding anything contained in section 116 of the Indian Penal Code (45 0f 1860), be punishable with the punishment provided for the offence.

S 7. Act to override other enactments.—The provisions of this Act shall have effect notwithstanding anything inconsistent therewith contained in any other law for the time being in force or any instrument having effect by virtue of any law other than this Act. 8. [Amendment of Act 43 of 1951.]—Rep. by the Repealing and Amending Act, 2001 (30 of 2001), s. 2 and the First Schedule (w.e.f. 3-9-2001).

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Hindus must Reclaim All temples, Not just Ayodhya

Article by @ajaatashatru

The Supreme Court has directed to resolve the sensitive issue of rebuilding the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya out-of-court. It’s the dream of every Hindu to see the magnificent Ram Mandir in Ayodhya to end centuries of dispute. However, most of the Hindus are not thinking beyond Ram Mandir, due to lack of awareness about the historical significance and magnificence of other temple sites.

In a series of campaign (including the proof from ASI department), we will be exposing these kind of ancient masjids where earlier they were magnificent temples and is occupied forcefully by jihadis during pre & post independence era. As a country, Hindus have got every right to reclaim these temples & lands to bring back the glory because of various reasons.

Temples are not just stone structures or built to demonstrate monopolizing other religions. For every Hindu, temple is a symbol of identity to Sanatana Dharma as its roots. A temple gives an identity to a Person, Language, Culture, Heritage, Education, Civilization, History, Philosophy, Religious & Spiritual Knowledge, Science, Mathematics, Arts, Skills, Harmony and Ideologies. Historically, we haven’t witnessed any temples destroyed by any of our Hindu rulers. The great Bharatha Varsha is made out of collection of these many magnificent temples with different flavors.

Temple activities are the reflection of society. Currently, we have degenerated ourselves at alarming rates. Most of our Temples have ended up as business hubs & its earnings are misused for corrupt means including funding the jihadis. As a country, Hindus are not fully united since ages, primarily gifted by our Dharma. As individuals we are having our own freedom of speech, expression, interpretation & belief system without hurting the core.
Hindu social fabric is deeply divided & our rulers effectively exploited greatly post independence. We are not uniting for a cause, but all are individually fighting for ‘something’ in the name Hinduism. We don’t know what we need. We don’t have basic objectives to achieve. There are still modern Jaichands who are ready to destroy our remaining identity in the name of (pseudo) secularism.

Instead of building new temples and lavish religious structures, every Hindu should start fighting to reclaim lost and seized Hindu temples along with its assets to reclaim our identity. This does not mean we have to be violent or intolerant. If we follow our Dharma, we will get desired solutions including Saama, Dhaana, Bheda & Danda principles. When ‘tolerance’ becomes ‘weakness’, we have to (re)act firmly. We are not even doing this due to various factors.

All these events show that we have to fight for our own existence to reclaim our identity right from beginning. Hence as a restart to Dharma, need to reclaim all our temples as our Karma, where there are clear proofs of destruction & occupation by jihadis. Hindus should strongly unite, reform & raise above ideological differences, superiority complex, caste wars, discrimination/racism, feudalism without further delays. Dharma won’t die, but we fail Dharma.

Even, if we reclaim Ram Mandir, the problems won’t end & it’s just the beginning to counter jihadists or there will be further increase in threats from jihadists. We will win this battle, and the war must continue till our enemies are no more.

Hindus need a larger vision to restore our glories from our past with modern ideologies keeping Dharma as our foundation. Our history is distorted for the same reason, our identity is suppressed for the same reason, our educational system was weakened because of the same reason. We no need to always stay in the past, blaming ‘others’ or victimizing ourselves because of the ‘others’, now is the time to “think & act firmly”.

Hindus should start thinking the following objectives to understand our roots

• Reclaim Temples from Jihadi occupation
• Rebuild/Renovate Temples presently in ruins
• Rename our Cities
• Release the existing temples from Government control and political exploitation

The above activities unite Hindus & the ideologies for building a Nation.

We are unfortunately competing with other religions by erecting statues, idols, temples overnights at foot paths, streets or any available public places. This is partly understandable, due to insecurity caused by jihadis who are notoriously famous for occupying public spaces.

In a democracy, without mass civil movement, no political party can bring any radical change to counter Jihadis. Remember, Hindu is not a communal by birth. Hindu is more secular & rigidly follows our constitution & law of land than ‘others’. This is because of our roots existing in Dharma.

Firstly, to uphold Dharma, every Hindu should start fighting for his/her rights for the common objectives. To start with, Lets fight to Reclaim our Temples.

And to conclude, Ram Mandir is just one amongst the lakhs of Hindu temples destroyed by Muslim invaders, and one among the 40,000+ temples converted to Masjids. So lets talk of every Hindu temple destroyed by Babur and his compatriots, not just Ayodhya. Lets demand return and reconstruction of every Hindu temple presently in Muslim custody.

If Lord Rama was alive, he would have liberated all Hindu temples forcefully occupied by foreign invaders, not just a temple in his name.

#ReclaimTemples

Swamy offer to surrender Hindu temples sites to Muslims

Its not very often that we hear Hindutva leaders talk of Ram Mandir, and when we hear them, we realise that the elections are near. Of the lot that comprises firebrand leaders from Hindutva stable, Subramanian Swamy has a place of his own and a following that rivals any other. Swamy is the only Hindutva politician who doesn’t shy away from talking of ‘40,000’ temple sites seized by Muslims in Bharat and presently in use as Masjids. He has also published the list of about 2000 of the Masjids built on temple sites in the website of Virat Hindu Sangam, an organisation he founded to support his crusade for Hindutva.

This is significant in the turn of events, as the movement to rebuild Ram Mandir in Ayodhya came to standstill soon after Bharatiya Janata Party found fortune and favour in other issues like development. The Hindutva leaders confined Ram Mandir to a small paragraph in its manifesto and wannabe Hindu Popes in Nagpur found it better to keep all talks of Ram Mandir a procedural formality. There is none to talk about temples, forget any efforts to reclaim them.

However in 2015, Swamy published the details of such Hindu temple sites in his VHS India website. But along with, he also put forward what he described as Lord Krishna offer to Muslims. Swamy declared that Hindus were willing to surrender rights to 39997 temple sites presently with Muslims, if Muslims return Kashi, Mathura and Ayodhya to Hindus.

To understand the fallacy of this offer from Dr. Swamy, we have to understand the concept of Hindu temples, its Deity and Ownership.

Tantric rituals associated with temple consecration details the Prana Prathishta that is essential as per Sanatana Dharma. Once Prana Prathishta is done, the Deity is a living being at the temple site, and this Deity manifests at the temple site for eternity. What we should understand that, with Prana Prathishta the entire temple complex and site becomes abode of our Gods so consecrated. It remains so irrespective of stoppage of prayers or even when the temple is used to offer Namaz as is the case in many temple sites across Bharat. This concept of Prana Pratishta and associated rituals was in a way lost in North India due to repeated waves of Islamic invasion. However the fact remains that Prana Prathishta was an integral part of temple consecration before Islamic invasion. Even the thought of foregoing Right of worship in Hindu temples thus goes against the basic tenets of our religion and civilization ethos.

Secondly, we should know who owns the temple sites. Hindu temples is actually the abode of the God that resides there and the owner of a temple site is the Presiding Deity of the temple. This is an established concept in law, answered in affirmative by the Privy Council and later by the Indian Judiciary.

Now we come to the Lord Krishna Offer Original and its Kaliyug version put forward by Dr. Swamy.

Lord Krishna demanded to Duryodhana that Pandavas be given five villages to avoid war. But Lord SriKrishna didn’t act on his own and without consulting the Pandavas. Actually, Sri Krishna made the offer to Duryodhan after the Pandavas who are the rightful owners accepted the same and tasked Lord Krishna to propose the same to Kauravas.

The Kaliyug version of Lord Krishna offer has Dr. Swamy offering to Muslims what he doesn’t own or have any authority upon because the ownership of the temple sites rest with the Presiding Deity of the temple. Swamy even though being a Legal Eagle is proposing to alienating the temple sites, when clearly he has no rights to do so.

Swamy so learned in our Constitution and our laws, has got our epics wrong when he compares his Offer with that of Srikrishna, the wisest of all men in Dwapara Yuga. Swamy offer of Hindus contenting with 3 temples is more a defeatist proportion, as it surrenders the Hindu right over the rest of the temple sites.

Also if we refer history, we can get glimpses of the heroic resistance to invading Muslim armies by brave Dharmic warriors. These temple sites which Swamy wants to alienate are the mute witnesses to the foremost acts of bravery and valor in world history. We owe our brave ancestors a commitment not to give away the abode of ours Gods for which they gave up their lives.

Those who participated in the Ramjanmabhumi agitation still remember the slogans shouted throughout Bharat- “Ayodhya is just the beginning, Kashi and Mathura will be next”. Nearly 33 years since start of Ramjanmabhumi movment, Ram Lalla still is in a tent in Ayodhya and leaders who supposedly fought for Ram Mandir now live in palatial bungalows in Lutyens zone, many with Z security.

And it is this situation that should alarm a Dharmic Hindu. The present Hindutva organisations and leaders are incapable of defending or reclaiming what belongs to Sanatana Dharma. Neither are they fulfilling their duty of protecting it, they are instead indulging in the treachery of alienating our Gods and their Abodes.

With due respects to Swamy and his efforts to defend Hindu religious rights, it has to be made clear that no individual or organisation or any entity that exists, has the right to alienate the shared Heritage of our Dharmik civilisation.

Destruction of Hindu temples in Goa by Christian fanatics

Article by @OGSaffron

While the destruction of Hindu temples by Muslim invaders gets most of the discussion spotlight, and understandably so, an exposition of anti-Hindu iconoclasm by anti-Dharmic forces would remain incomplete if it did not mention the Christian iconoclastic campaigns against Hindu society. Therefore, this brief essay correctly positions Hindu-Christian encounters as not the intercultural meeting of two distributed groups but instead a story of Hindu survival against the crusading spirit of anti-idolatry.

With that in mind, the tragic story of Goa resembles the religious nature characteristic of the destruction of Hindu temples by Muslim invaders. Indeed, and much to the chagrin of secular revisionists of Indian history, the story of Hindu survival in Goa against Christian conquistadores is rooted in the intransigence of proselytism, even though secularists would have laymen believe it to be originating from Brahmanical stubbornness that should have otherwise been receptive to the messages of Christ. Or emanating from the impatience of a heathen population already content with their ancestral traditions; or from other re-contextualizations of similar deconstruction.

In truth, the campaign against Hindu heathenry was driven by the old Judeo-Christian hostility against idolatry (Henn, 2014). Such hostility provided Christian conquistadores the perfect theological justification for both colonial conquest and the destruction of Hindu temples (Henn, 2014). In other words, not primarily a political and/or economic justification, but a staunchly religious one, as something contentious secularists purposefully hesitate to categorize. For the Hindus of Goa, this meant a ferocious and humiliating experience of subjugation. By the second half of the sixteenth century, Portuguese-Catholic forces “launched a ferocious iconoclastic campaign against Hindu culture in India that seemed to bring an end to all ambiguities and confusions regarding the identities of gentiles and Christians” (Henn, 2014, p. 40). This ferocious campaign was “directed primarily against Hindu temples and images, and affected above all India’s western coast” (Henn, 2014, p. 40).

Steeped in the old Judeo-Christian hostility against idolatry, and likely against anything outside the Abrahamic fold that embodied a cultural sophistication not sanctioned or approved by monotheistic centralization, the iconoclastic campaign devastated Goa between 1540 and 1560 (Henn, 2014). These two decades were marked by a demoralizing devastation of Hindu Goa; all Hindu temples, shrines, and images were destroyed or removed (Henn, 2014). Furthermore, the performance of public Hindu rituals was banned and actively suppressed (Henn, 2014). By 1600, most Hindus who did not convert to Christianity were either expelled or fled Goa (Henn, 2014).

Like the mosques built on top of destroyed Hindu temples by Muslim invaders, purposefully embodying architectural expressions of conquest over heathenry, so too did the Christian foreign intruders destroy Hindu temples in order to replace them with Christian images and monuments of victory (Henn, 2014). In this regard the destruction of Hindu temples by both Muslim and Christian invaders converge in that their anti-idolatry campaigns go from “a war against images [to] a war between images” (Henn, 2014, p. 40). For Goa, the significance of this change meant that the destruction of Hindu temples was outstandingly systematic, resulting in a drastic alteration of its architectural landscape.

The campaign to eradicate Hindu images was so intense that Portuguese Christians “did not just target singular and outstanding religious landmarks” (Henn, 2014, p. 41). Instead, they “systematically destroyed all Hindu temples, shrines, and images,” replacing them with Christian equivalents, which went on to birth a distinct European-Christian architectural development largely devoid of the previous traditional Hindu form that once ornamented the land praised as the Kashi of Konkan (Henn, 2014, p. 41). To quote the Portuguese poet Camoes, “Goa [was] taken from the infidel [in order to] keep severely in check the idolatrous heathen” (Henn, 2014, p. 40). And Goa was indeed taken from Goan Hindus, their images and monuments destroyed, and their public performance of Hindu rituals banned. In fact, Christian explorers like Afonso de Sousa came to India with premeditated plans to attack and destroy Hindu temples (Flores, 2007; Henn, 2014).

Premeditation of this sort affected even the Hindus of Sri Lanka, another focal point unsurprisingly driven by the old Judeo-Christian hostility against idolatry (Flores, 2007). For example, when Portuguese Christians destroyed the ancient Hindu temples of Tirukkovil and Palukamam, they adversely, and purposefully, affected Shaivism in the region (Flores, 2007). Possessed by the conviction of having an exclusive access to an absolute truth, the meeting of heathenry with monotheistic centralization was usually a history of the former attempting to survive the salvific cruelty of the latter. One may find many other examples from a deeper study of similar interactions. Yet the theme of such encounters, whether they were between Hindus and Muslims or Hindus and Christians, remained the same: destruction of heathenry in favor of a fanaticism obsessed with salvific preaching that soon but naturally turned iconoclastic.

Flores, J. (Ed.). (2007). Re-exploring the links: History and constructed histories between Portugal and Sri Lanka. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.

Henn, A. (2014). Hindu-Catholic encounters in Goa: Religion, colonialism, and modernity. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.

Should HinduSamaj expect SanghPariwar to protect Dharma

After the Bharatiya Janata Party victory in 2014 General elections, fault lines started appearing in the united right wing that actively campaigned and propelled NarendraModi to the Prime Ministership. The days that followed presented a rude shock to many who believed that a Swayamsevak who claimed to be a Hindu nationalist will actively pursue the Hindutva agenda and uplift Hindus from all evil, especially from the attack and loot on their temples and protect the cows from slaughter. What happened was not only neglect but intentional insult as per many devout Hindus. Narendra Modi grandiosely proclaimed that Islam is the Religion of peace and GauRakshaks were termed as rowdies on Saffron robes.

For the devout Bhakts, it was all part of a grand strategy, but to many the strategy was the same as that used by many political parties and is called appeasement. As we stand 3.5 years into the tenure of Narendra Modi and 91 years into the formation of Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh, it will be worthwhile to have an independent appraisal of the ideology and the organizations which many thought will turn India into a Hindu Rashtra.

It will also be interesting to know how and why the RSS terms every other Hindu organization outside its control as fringe. The reason for this is that like all “mainstream” Hindu organizations, they will never support a thoroughly reactionary, hardcore, staunch Hindu uprising. Take the US 2016 elections, for example; did any us notice just how many conservatives and Republicans said no to Trump, or just how many of them sided with Hillary? The reason for that is also the same. Those who are entrenched and recognized cannot entertain something that is genuinely meant to bypass them and not seek their approval for ascendance. The devotion to the cause never matters in their scheme of things.

When the Rakesh Sinhas of the world [Senior RSS ideologue, also Heads the India Policy Foundation] decry Hindu rituals as superstitious, “you” have to take a step back and ponder over the mindset of fellow “allies”. And here “you” mean those conscious of the historical fact that paganism in Europe, for example, was literally murdered first and foremost through the banning of heathen rituals, shortly followed by the wholesale destruction of pagan temples.

Now, this is not to say that the RSS is “bad”. It has done a whole lot of good, and continues to do much good for Indians. And that’s just it, it does good for Indians, not Hindus. As a disaster relief organization, the RSS is quite phenomenal, always the first to show up when a natural calamity happens or a social tragedy happens and help Indians out. Some Hindu-centric approaches have also been made by the RSS through Gharwapsi operations. But that does not mean that the RSS will help Hindus to reclaim their temples, or support staunch Hindus or Hindu organizations make Bharat into the Hindu Rashtra that was once graced by the footsteps of Lord Shri Rama, the best of men, a scourge to his enemies, and the most resplendent.

We have never thought how important of a movement to Reclaim Hindu Temples truly is (the movement to reclaim all Hindu temples that was seized by Muslim invaders and presently used as Masjids, and the movement to rebuild all the destroyed temples of Bharat) and the sheer veracity of such a movement. It is not for the faint-hearted, and is certainly not for anyone who would compromise wíth respect to Dharma. Therefore, it is sadly not for the RSS either. How so? Because the average RSS ideologue, regardless of how “communal” he or she truly may be, still believes in non-sequitorial reasoning like “Hindu-Muslim Bhai Bhai” and utters absurdities like “pseudo-secularism”. Pray, tell me, what in the world is “pseudo” about secularism? Absolutely nothing. “There is nothing ‘pseudo’ about secularism—it is at its most genuine when compelling Hindus to think thoughts that are not their own.” And their co-brothers in Bharatiya Janata Party now are proponents of “SarvaDharma Samabhavana” another word they coined which will translate into pseudo secularism which they are dead against. Organising Iftar for Muslims and hobnobbing with Bishops and sometimes lying at their feet as the BJP Kerala President did is the new Hindutva rituals Sangh ideologues and leaders now follows to establish a Hindu Rashtra.

To offer an example: We once had a Rgvedic king named Trasadasyu. How many of us have heard of this name? It can be translated, in quite a literal sense, as “Before whom the Dasyu trembles”. In other words, before whom the consumer of cow-flesh trembles, before whom he who does not believe in the gods and goddesses of the illustrious ancestors trembles. We once had such a king. And the manifestation of the attempt to transform Bharat into a Hindu Rashtra and reclaim all its temples is a manifestation of that great Vedic king of old.

On other side we have a Rakesh Sinha who tells us to downplay ritualism and the average RSS member still thinks there can be compromise of our rituals as also the Hindu Dharma to accommodate Muslims and Christian sensitievities. Those who are very covetous of their current positions will certainly not be fond of a resurgent Trasadasyu.

And we can safely say that like all “mainstream” Hindu organizations “acknowledged” by the Indian secular government, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and its overgrown family is one that cannot, and should not be relied upon for the main concern of making Bharat into a Hindu Rashtra, let alone reclaim its temples.

Destruction of Hindu Temples by Muslim invaders

Article by @OGSaffron

Little discussed or highlighted is the psychosocial aspect that accompanied most of, if not all, the instances wherein Hindu temples were destroyed. As Jonsson (2006) points out: When “Muslim invaders broke and burned everything beautiful they came across in Hindustan,” they were “displaying the resentment of the less developed warriors who felt intimidated in [their] encounter with a more refined culture” (p. 86).

Indeed, for the Muslim invaders, the Hindu infidels—these “refined” pagans, the Kafirs—were “heathens, par excellence” (Jonsson, 2006, p. 86). Therefore, how could they build such extravagantly ornamented, finely constructed buildings if they were not Muslim? Are not the infidels supposed to be inferior in every respect to the zealous believer, to those who do not join other gods with the One True God?

When one examines the many architectural remnants that have survived in their “hybrid” form—as even the politically correct archaeologists would have us believe in “fusions” of Dharmic and Islamic “architecture” being congregational and intercultural rather than ferocious and resentful—visible is the mosque type that is the conquest mosque. The foundation of such “hybridity” is not the benign intercultural notion that secular ideologues would have us accept but instead a profound hatred of the Hindu and his place of worship. Almost every “hybrid” expression that has come down to us surviving in the form of the conquest mosque is a religious declaration, through architectural continuity, of Muslim superiority over Hindu heathenry.

To define the common feature of such “hybridity” is to capture the essence of the conquest mosque. Mosques of conquest are “mosques that are all built on the sites of dismantled temples and employ recut columns and other spolia taken from the destroyed monument” (Wagoner & Rice, 2001, p. 90).

To give an example, take for instance the inscription on the eastern gate of the Quwwat al-Islam mosque—a conquest mosque that stands as the “Might of Islam”—which records “that the mosque was built with spolia taken from twenty-seven different temples; these spolia include columns, bracket capitals, ceiling panels, and other decorative members, and the mosque can be seen to be founded on the plinth of one of the destroyed temples” (Wagoner & Rice, 2001, p. 90).

The usage of spolia from destroyed Hindu temples in the construction of conquest mosques, often on the sites of dismantled Hindu temples, is not entirely a matter of convenience and/or intercultural sharing, as secularist and Marxist historians often argue.

On the contrary, conquest mosques project quite vividly “the ghazis’ attitude toward the Hindu majority” based on “the virtues of [their] belief in Islam” where “the need to reinforce the spiritual and political authority of Islam through architecture” is in direct response to “the evils of idolatry and polytheism” (Welch & Crane, 1983, p. 124). Take, for example, Firuz Shah Tughluq’s assertion of Muslim orthodoxy when personally destroying the images of Hindu gods. These images “were burned in a place otherwise reserved for public executions and the punishment of criminals” (Flood, 2002, p. 648). The images of Hindu gods were destroyed, desecrated, or mutilated not only because of anti-heathenry, but also on the little discussed insight that the images represented the potency and purposefulness of a very sophisticated non-Muslim civilization that challenged the religious primacy of an Abrahamic faith whose zealous followers emphasized the superiority of its anti-idolatry creed (Wink, 1997). To render the idols powerless was to wash away the intimidation and shame brought on from encountering a more refined culture.

Therefore, the architectural patronage of Muslim sultans so incessantly praised by the rewriters of history is instead, and can be captured more realistically as, the religious declaration of Muslim supremacy over the nonbeliever, where Islam has been triumphant and idolatry has been subdued (Welch, Keshani, & Bain, 2002, p. 33). After all, “Muslim ghazis had brought the Jihad to India” (Welch et al., 2002, p. 31). And with that came the destruction of places of idol worship, and establishing “the foundation of congregations of Islam” in systematic fashion (Welch et al., 2002, p. 33).

To such a zealous mind, experiencing the existence of sophisticated heathenry, represented herein by the Hindu architectural tradition, was discontenting. As Lord Byron (1847, p. 293) put it: “They have raised a mosque…[and] they are not contented with their own grotesque edifice, unless they destroy the prior and purely beautiful fabric which preceded, and which shames them and theirs for ever and ever.”

Byron, G. (1847). Letter to John Murray on the Rev. W. L. Bowles’s strictures on the life and writings of Pope. In F. G. Halleck (Ed.), The works of Lord Byron; In verse and prose (p. 293). Hartford, CT: Silas Andrus & Son. (Original work published 1821)
Flood, F. (2002). Between cult and culture: Bamiyan, Islamic iconoclasm, and the museum. The Art Bulletin, 84(4), 641–659. http:/dx.doi.org/10.2307/3177288
Jonsson, D. (2006). Islamic economics and the final jihad: The Muslim Brotherhood to the Leftist/Marxist Islamist alliance. Maitland, FL: Xulon Press.
Wagoner, P., & Rice, J. (2001). From Delhi to the Deccan: Newly discovered Tughluq monuments at Warangal-Sultanpur and the beginnings of Indo-Islamic architecture in southern India. Artibus Asiae, 61(1), 77–117. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3249963
Welch, A., & Crane, H. (1983). The Tughluqs: Master builders of the Delhi Sultanate. Muqarnas, 1, 123–166. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1523075
Welch, A., Keshani, H., & Bain, A. (2002). Epigraphs, scripture, and architecture in the early Delhi Sultanate. Muqarnas, 19, 12–43. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1523314
Wink, A. (1997). Al Hind, the making of the Indo-Islamic world: The slave kings and the Islamic conquest, 11th–13th centuries (Vol. 2). New Delhi: Oxford University Press.