Temples are for Burning!

Leo  

Dozens of temples were reportedly destroyed by frenzied mobs in Kashmir in the wake of the tragic destruction of the sacred shrine of Nunda Rishi in Chrar-e Sharif on the night of May 10-11, 1995. Most of these were in Budgam district, in which Charar-e-Sharif falls, but it is known that the Ram Temple at Barbarshah, Srinagar, which was locked after the forced migration of Kashmiri Pandits in 1990, has also been broken into and desecrated. This in spite of the presence of a large security picket in the Ranbir Bhawan complex adjacent to the temple.

The Ram Temple at Barbarshah is a historic temple. History records that it was at this site that Maharaja Gulab Singh, the first Dogra ruler of Kashmir in the nineteenth century had to fight a battle with local chieftains to gain complete supremacy over the Valley. This is supposed to have been the last battle in the process and the Maharaja built a temple on the mound to commemorate his victory.

What is more significant in this context is that while a lot of noise was justifiably created about the destruction of the shrine at Charar-e-Sharif, both in and outside, nobody had a word about the desecration and destruction of temples in the wake of the vandalism at Chrar, nor a word of sympathy and compassion for the exiled KP community which is otherwise at the receiving end of unwarranted, unwanted and uncalled-for advice, from those who call themselves secularists, not to further alienate Muslims of Kashmir by giving vent to their grievances and demanding their rights. Is the destruction of temples not to be taken into account? Have the Kashmiri Hindus to behave as dumb and mute spectators to whatever has been done and is being done to their temples, houses and properties?

As it is, many temples and shrines were desecrated in Kashmir, even in Srinagar, during the past decade and a half with hardly anyone taking notice. It was on July 27, 1980, when that secularist of all times, Sher-i-Kashmir Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah was at the helm in Kashmir, that the Hanuman Mandir in Hari Singh High Street, the Shiv Temple in Karan Nagar, the Shiv Temple at Wazir Bagh and many smaller places of worship were desecrated by frenzied mobs protesting ostensibly against some alleged skirmish the previous evening between some army men and matador drivers near the Central Telephone Exchange in Srinagar. The next evening. i.e. on July 28, 1980, Dr. Farooq Abdullah visited the Hanuman Mandir, accompanied by the then Administrator, Srinagar Municipality, Sardar Dharamvir Singh Oberoi, perhaps to mollify the injured sentiment of Hindis. Leo was witness to this.

Next came the protest by Sikhs on June 7, 1984, against the deplorable attack on the Golden Temple at Amritsar, the previous day. In Srinagar, this protest also assumed the form of attacks on and desecration of Hindu Temples throughout the city with nobody taking any notice. On this day, apart from temples, the Nirankari Bhawan and the Arya Putri Pathshala with a small Arya Samaj Temple adjacent to it, in Wazir Bagh, Srinagar, and some houses of KPs in the area, experienced the wrath of the protesters, more of whom were Muslims accompanying a few Sikhs, shouting "Sikh Muslim Bhai Bhai, Hindu Jaati Kahan Se Aayee".

What happened in 1986, and in 1990 and after that is history although it may not be so for those who must call themselves secular. For them, it seems, temples are for burning.

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Courtesy:- Leo and April-May 1995, Koshur Samachar