NEW DELHI: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman, here on Monday, stressed the significance of proper storytelling and documentation in the attempt to restore temples by fair means. Defending the restoration of Hindu places of worship, she emphasised that the government is using concrete evidence with legal proceedings and not indulging in evoking emotions among the people.
“We need the right kind of storytelling, highlighting it and wherever necessary… so that the civilizational attempt to restore (temples) is done with fairness…we are not trying to emotionalise anything…emotion we have inside, but proof with which we go to the court should stand out for itself,” Sitharaman said at a book release event here, as reported by PTI.
The construction of the three-storeyed Ram temple in Ayodhya is underway after the Supreme Court verdict came in favour of the temple in 2019. Earlier in January, Prime Minister Narendra Modi performed the ‘Pran Pratishtha’ of Ram Lalla idol as per prescribed rituals.
Speaking at a book launch event on Monday evening here, she said documentation has been an inherent part of the Hindu way of life. "Wherever digging takes place, idols of gods are found as they serve as historical records which are now accepted by the courts," she said.
She unveiled the book titled " Waiting for Shiva Unearthing the Truth of Gyan Vapi" authored by eminent historian Dr Vikram Sampath.
The Gyanvapi Mosque has been at the centre of debate, with many believing that it was built on the remains of the Kashi Vishwanath temple. Various petitions in different courts, including the Supreme Court, Allahabad High Court, and Varanasi District Court, are trying to deal with different angles of the dispute
She said the history of Kashi was rebuilt every time it was attacked, beginning with Qutub ud Din Eibak in the 11th century to the times of Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb.
She made a ring of references to literary records of Chinese and Persian travellers documenting the history of Kashi. Touching upon the Gyan Vapi, she quoted the lawyer Vishnu Shankar Jain that "once a temple is always a temple because our living supreme beings are inside them". She also said, "We are blessed that three of our holiest Hindu religious places -- Ayodhya, Kashi, and Ujjain, are being reconstructed and revitalized during our lifetime".
She praised Sampath for documenting the civilisational history of India through his book on the Gyan Vapi. She further said, "We cannot leave it to others to distort our history". She ruled that for a thousand years documentation was lost or scattered which had existed in forms of stone engraving, palm leaf, copper plates, and oral traditions.
She also mentioned the well-researched books written by Sita Ram Goel on the Kashi temple and Meenakshi Jain on the Mathura temple.
After the release of the book, the author said that "it is the burden of historians to bring out the truth of Gyan Vapi to the masses". He asserted that the story of Gyan Vapi is not known to the people unlike Ayodhya even while Hindus continuously struggled to reclaim the religious places.
In the book, historian Sampath has dwelt upon various historical records and aspects.
Sampath’s book has elucidated quotes from the court proceedings in a 1936 case filed by Din Mohammed and others against the Government of India to conclude that the Gyanvapi Mosque was illegal as per the Islamic jurisprudence while the place being an integral part of the age-old religious customs of the Hindus.
Sampath has also quoted from the court verdict, which was upheld by Allahabad High Court in 1942 and ruled – “…the very appearance of the ruins indicated that there existed a temple before the construction of the mosque; …according to the strict Islamic laws, the mosque was not legal…as consent of the Hindus was not taken to either build the mosque or offer prayers at the spot that belonged to Hindus."
He has also stated in the book that the civil judge S. B. Singh and Krishna Chandra, who had heard the Din Mohammed versus Government of India case, had made references to the book by E. B. Havell, Bernares: The Sacred City (1905), where he writes “…at the back of the mosque of Aurangzeb (Gyanvapi Mosque), near the Golden Temple (Vishwanath), is a fragment of what must have been a very imposing Brahmanical or Jain temple."
The author has quoted the submission of then Secretary of State for India in Council, filed by R. V. Vernede, arguing that “the idols and the temple, which stand there (Gyanvapi) existed since long before the advent of Islamic rule in India”.
The book, published by BluOne Ink, was launched at PM Museum in New Delhi on Monday evening.