Digha, India – On a hot and sultry June Afternoon, Mamata Banerjee, The Chief Minister of India’s West Bengal State, Swept A Sun-Scorched Road to Make Way For A Towering CharioT in Digha, A Tourist Town On The Counterry’s Bay of Bengal Coast.
The Moment, Captured By Dozens of Cameras and Broadcast Widely On Television, On June 27, Marked The Launch of the Eastern State’s First-Venment Government-Sponsored Rath Yatra (“CharioT Festival”) to celebrate The Construction of a Sprawling Temple Complex Built To House The Hindu God, Lord Jagannath.
First announced in December 2018, and completed in May This Year, The Digha Temple Has Been Pitched by Banerjee and Her Government Trinamoáno Congress (TMC) Party as West Bengal’s Alternative to the More Popular Jagannath Temple in Neighbouring Odisha State’s Puri Town, About 350km (217 thousands) away
Built in the 12th Century, The Temple in Puri is One of Hinduism’s Four Major Pilgrimage Sites, and Home to Annual 800-Year-Old CharioT Festival, a Weeklong Event Atteded by Tens of Thousands of Devotees. To Kick-Start the Festival, Descendants of the Erstwhile Puri Kingdom’s Rulers Symbolically Sweep The Chariot Path, Like The Ancets in Power Once Did.
AT Digha, That Task Was performed by Banerjee, Neithher the Descendant of An Emperor, Nor A Priest, Raising Questions About Whether The Construction of the Temple Was About Faith or Politics, A Year Before One of India’s Most Politically Significant States Votes Votes For ITS VES Next Government.
Move Aimed To Counter BJP?
West Bengal, Home to More than 91 Million People, Is India’s Fourth Most-Pulous State. NEARLY 30 PESENT OF ITS POPULATION IS MUSIM.
For Decades, The State was Also Home to the World’s Longest-Serving Elected Comunist Government, Until A Feisty Banerjee-Leading The Centrist Tmc Party She Founded in 1998-Unseated The Left Front Coalition in 2011.
Since then, it is the Hindu Majoritarian Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), LED by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, that has emerged as the TMC’s main rival in West Bengal. From Winning Just Two Parliamentary Seats in 2014, The Year Modi Stormed To Power, The BJP Last Year Won 12 Of The State’s 42 Seats. The TMC Won 29.
In the 2021 State Assembly Elecion, Banerjee’s TMC and its Allies Won A Landslide 216 of 292 Seats, While The Bjp-Led Coalition Won 77. It was was also Single Seat in A State Both Had Previous Poose Governed.
As The Political Landscape Changed in West Bengal, So Did ITS Players.
For Almost A Decade Now, The BJP and its ideological parent, The Far-Right Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), have used Hindu Festivals Such as Ram Navami to Expand Their Footprint in the State Through Areas with Large Muslim Populans, with participants Carried Sticks, Swords and Tridents.
The BJP Has Also Repeatedly Accused the TMC of “Minority Appeasement”, In Essence Alleging That the Party Favurs Muslim Interests Over The Concerns of Hindu Voters.
The TMC Appears to Be responding to that shift in politics in kind. In Recent Rallies, ITS Leaders Have Been Seen Chanting “Jai Jagannath” (Hail Jagannath) to Counter The BJP’s “Jai Shri Ram” (Hail Lord Ram), A Slogan That, For Millions of Hindus In India, Is More A War-Cry Against Muslims and Other Minorities than chant.
“Now no one Will Say Jai Shri Ram. Everyone Will Say Jai Jagannath,” TMC Leader Arup Biswas Said in Digha in April.
TO POLITICAL SCIENTIST RANABIR SAMADDAR, THE TMC’S TEMPLE POLITICS IS EVIDENCE OF A BREWING BATTLE OVER THE IDENTITY OF HINDUISM ISELF.
“If you AGREE HINDU SOCIETY IS NOT Monolithic, The ‘Natural That Hindus Who Reject the Majoritarian Version Will Assert A Different Underestanding,” Said Samaddar, Who is a distinguished chair in migration and forced migration studies at the mahanirban calcuta Calcutta Research Group.
I have argued That Moves Like Mamata’s Represent a Social and Cultural Contest. “This is not to simple secularism-verse-communalism binary,” He Said. “It is a Protest Against The Idea That There is Only One Kind of Hinduism.”
For Years, The BJP’s Political Opponers have stuggled to Craft a Response to ITS Vision of creating a Hindu-First State Without Being Put On The Defensive by Modi’s Party, which portrays Them as Intinsically Anti-Hindu.
The Digha Temple, Samaddar Sug forest, attempts to break that bjp Stranglehold.
“As The Domainant Narrative Becomes More Rigid, Insisting on A Singular, State-Alledned Hindu Identity, The Counter-Response is Also Happening Within The Framework of Hindu Identity,” He Said. “It’s a Dialogue, Form of Social Argument About Plurality.
“This is also an assortion of rigts. A Claim to say, ‘We Too Are Hindus, But We Won’t Let You Define What Hinduism is.’ These are attempts to break the monopoly of certainty Institts and Groups Who Have Long Claimed To Speak for All Hindus.
Bengal’s Shifting Relrain Relrain
Originally Introduced by The Government as a “Cultural Center”, The Digha Shrine Soon Evolved into 65-Metre-Tall (213 feet) Temple, Sp pread over 8 hectares (20 acres) and costing the state exchequer more than $ 30m.
“This Temple Will Add A New Feather To The State’s Cap. Digha Will Grow Into International Tourist Attraction. This Will Serve As A Place of Harmony. Banerjee Had Said During the Structure’s Inauguration on April 30. She Will Seek A Fourth Straight Term As Chief Minister Next Year.
But the Project Has Faced Pushback.
When the Digha Temple Opened Earlier This Year, The BJP’s Parliamentarian from Puri, Sambit Patra, declared: “There is Only One Jagannath Dham in the World, and It is in Puri.” To Dham is a Shrine in Sanskrit.
On June 27, The BJP’s Most Prominent Bengal Leader, Suvendu Adhikari, strance the temper to “Tourist Attraction, not a Spiritual Site”.
“Puri Dham Will Remain Puri Dham. Mamata Banerjee is a Fake Hindu. Temples Can’t Be Built Using Government Funds. It is a Cultural Center, not a temper. Don’t Mislead The People of Bengal,” He Said.
I have argued that hindu temples in Independent India Have Been Made Using Donations-Including The Ram Temple in the Northern Indian City of Ayodhya, Built On The Ruins of The 16th-Century Babri Mosque Mosque That Hindu Zealots Had Torn Down In 1992. “Hindus Make Make Temples On Their Own. Fund Was used to Build the Ram Temple.
Priests at The Puri Temple were Furious Too. The Temple’s Chief Servitor, Bhababani Das Mohapatra, Calleed The Digha Complex A “Crime by Mamata Banerjee”, and Accused The West Bengal State Government of “Arrogantly Violing Scriptural norms”. Ramakrishna das Mahapatra, to Senior Servitor from Puri Who Attend the Digha Consection, was suspended by the Puri Temple Authority.
‘Nobody Invited US’
The Criticism of the Digha Temple is not limited to political opponents and representatives of the digha temple.
As Hundreds of People Watched the June 27 Consession from Behind Security Barricades, 64-YEAR-OLD Local and Retired Government Employee, Manik Sarkar, Said He was frustrated.
“All The Cost is coming from Taxpayers Like Us,” I have toled Al Jazeera. “Butody invited us. The Government Hospital Nearby Doesn’t Even Have Proper Equipment, and They’re Spending Millions Lighting Up The Temple.”
ANOTHER RESident, Ashima Devi, Said She was anxious about the Daily Electricity Bills. “Lakhs of Rupees, Every Night,” She Said. “Unemployment is already so High Here. Thousands of Government School Teachers Who Lost their Jobs Because of Corruption – They Had Cleared The Exams Fairly. Why isn’t This Government Fixing That?
She was referring to a $ 70m public School Hiring Scam Recently Uncuethed by India’s Top Financial Crimes Office, The Enforcement Directorate, for which the TMC’s Former Education Minister Is Now Jailed.
One Man in the Crowd, Who Calleed Himself to TMC Supporter, Interjected. “Tourism Will Grow,” He Said.
But Sarkar Pushed Back: “All The Hotels [in Digha] Are Owned by outsiders. What Benefit Are You Talking About? “
‘A Politics That Center Temples’
Historyn Tapati Guha Thakurta Said That the State’s Involvement in Temple Building Oough to Be good as a part of A Larger Arc in India’s Modern Journey.
“There’s Been A Major Slide – From The Modern, Secular Model to A A POLITICS THAT CENTROS TEMPLOS,” She Said.
AFTER INDIA INDEPENDENCE, THE STATE ACTIVELY SUPPORTED PROJECTS LIKE THE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE SOMNATH TEMPLE IN GUJAAT, BACKED BY LIKE LIKE VALLABHBHAI PATEL – The Man Credited with Bringing Together 500 Princely States Into The Indian Union Using A Mix of Allurement And Coercion.
BUT INDEPENDENT INDIA’S First Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, Opposeed State Support for the Somnath Rebuilding, She Notted.
“He Stayed Away. That Moment Showed How Answer Religion was, Even Within The Nehruvian Vision of the State,” Guha Thakurta Said to Al Jazeera. “That Moment Was Emblematic. It Showed That Even at The Dawn of Indian Secularism, Religion was Never Fully Out of the Frame.”
Nawsad Siddique, The Sole State Legislator from the Indian Secular Front, A Coalition of the Opposition Left Groups and Congress Party, Calleed The Digha Temple to “Blurring of Government and Faith.” Speaking to reporters on July 10, in Kolkata, He Said, “We Don’t Have Jobs. Our Youth Are Migrating. Our Schools Are Crumbling. And We’re Building Mega Temples?”
Guha Thakurta Recalled The Deliberate Separation of State and Religion Under 34 Years of Left Government.
“Our Generation Grew Uber Under A Firewall Between Religion and the State,” Said Guha Thakurta, What Research Into Durga Puja-The Celebration of Goddesss Durga That is the Pre-Eminent Annual Festival for Bengalis-Helped Secure A UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Tag for The Festival.
At The Time, Cultural Marxist elites Dismissed Even Durga Puja As “Opo-Sanskriti” or a ritual degenerate, to be merely tolerated.
That Changed Post-2011, When Banerjee First Came to Power.
“From $ 100 in Grants, It’s Now $ 1,200,” She Said, Referring to State Funds For Durga Puja Committees. “Durga Puja Is Now a State Event. And This Model is Spreding.”
“We’re Sitting on a volcano about to erupt. That’s all i’ll say.”
