In God’s name
While the moulding of the historically multireligous Varanasi’s image as a purely Hindu centre was a colonial scheme, pushing the Gyanvapi mosque case forward is part of the Hindutva project of sectarian
hegemony.
VISHWAMBHAR NATH MISHRA, the mahant (head priest) of Sankat Mochan Hanuman Mandir, one of the oldest temples of Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, sees the current controversies surrounding the Gyanvapi masjid, including the “discovery” of a Shivling in the water tank and the court cases that have come up in that context, as an attempt to disrupt the city’s centuriesold syncretic culture. “This culture is the essence of this place. This is one of the world’s most ancient cities. The renowned writer Mark Twain had said that Varanasi is ‘older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend’. So, everything that exists in this holy city is new, in one way or the other,” said Mishra, who is also a professor of Engineering at the Benares Hindu University (BHU).
“Then what is the logic in saying something replaced something else? Things have constantly evolved here for nearly 5,000 years, and several streams of thought, culture, and social and religious influences have coexisted. All I see now is an effort to undermine this culture, its values, and coexistence. It has been an ongoing project over the past few years, but now it seems to be gathering greater momentum.”
Sankat Mochan Hanuman Mandir is where Sant Thulidas stayed while writing the Ramcharitmanas and the Hanuman Chalisa in
the 16th century. Mishra stated that many of the slogans that had been raised following the so-called discovery of the Shivling were farcical. “The slogan says, ‘Baba Mil Gaya’ (We have got Baba, or Lord Siva). Does that mean the Baba was not here earlier? Indeed, every entity in this holy city is here because of Baba’s divine sanction. That has been the case for centuries. So, to say that you have suddenly discovered the Baba is an insult to the immortal divine presence.”
Several observers of the temple town agree with Mahant Mishra in this regard. While the city has gradually fulfilled the colonial project of it being presented as a unidimensional
Hindu pilgrimage centre, it was historically a multireligious region. Not too far away, at Sarnath, the Buddha delivered his first sermon. The poet Mirza Ghalib wrote a fantastic masnavi on Benaras in Persian titled Charagh-e-dair or Lamp of the Templed. He described Benaras as India’s Ka’aba (Hama na Kaaba-ehindustan ast). Certainly, Muslims are unlikely to disappear from the city any time soon.
Christopher R. Lee, in his essay “The Alleyways of Banaras and the Ka’ba of Hindustan”, in the book Banaras: Urban Forms and Cultural Histories (edited by Michael S. Dodson), notes that Muslims have lived in Varanasi since the 13th century. He writes: “As Abdul Bismillah, the author of Jheeni Jheeni Beeni Chaduriya (A Shawl Woven of Fine, Fine Threads) describes it, there are many societies and cultures within Banaras. Many non-residents are surprised to discover that many of these are Muslim, or are ones in which Muslims take an active part. Banaras is made up of more than 350 muhallas, or neighbourhoods, many of which are primarily or partly Muslim. Varanasi is justifiably known as the city of temples—the “idol house of idol houses” according to one local poet—yet there are over 1,400 mosques and shrines frequented by Muslims. Although the only mention of Banarsi Muslims in most
guidebooks and even history texts is as destroyers of temples, Muslims have had and continue to have a significant role in the economic and cultural life of the city.”
With this historical background in mind, Mishra is convinced that the flagrant violation of the spirit of Varanasi is not accidental and is intended to impose a sectarian hegemony on the city and, through it, on other parts of the country. Mishra also sees a lot of forces coming together in this plot, including those from as diverse streams as politics, religious outfits, the executive and even sections of the judiciary.
There are several takers for Mishra’s views among all communities in Varanasi. Naveen Rai, who runs a small shop in a bylane near the Gyanvapi masjid and the Viswanath Mandir, said that as someone who has made a living in Varanasi for 40 years, he can sense the foreboding changes that have happened in the city over the past five years. “There was a difference in mood starting from 2014, but the stress on everyday life became more palpable since 2018, when the government and its agencies started demolishing over a hundred structures, including heritage buildings and temples around them, in the name of beautifying Varanasi and making the ‘Ganga corridor project’,” he said. The Ganga corridor project, is incidentally Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pet project in his Lok Sabha constituency; it was completed in December 2021.
Diwaker, a social activist and research scholar at BHU, observed that the demolition of houses and other structures for the Ganga corridor project created a sense of fear in the local population, and that has persisted for the past five months. “The Assembly election results of March 2022 have certainly emboldened the administration and its political masters in the Bharatiya Janata Party