Hey Ram! Gandhi’s last words (Part-1)

 

 

 

 

After 30 years of struggle in the court, the Supreme Court has finally ended the hearing of the case. More than a billion people had been waiting to give for the verdict. Finally, Ram did get his justice. Now there is also a section of people who are skeptical about whether Ram Rajya will be established in the country after the verdict. But what is Ram Rajya?

A quick search using Google search engine takes you to page where Mahatma Gandhi describes Ram Rajya. It talks about Ram Rajya as Kingdom of Gods where Ram and Rahim as one and same. It also considered Ram Rajya as true democracy where justice is delivered swiftly without elaborate and costly procedure. It talks about peace, harmony, and happiness but definitely not a Hindu Raj.

As a child, I have already heard of these characteristics of Ram Rajya but had never thought about it deeply. Today I am going to analyze each of these characteristics to verify the claims.

Is Ram Rajya about democracy and equality? Ram lived in the kingdom of Kosala and he was the eldest, most loved and able person to rule the kingdom after his father. But Ram was forced to leave his home because his father, King Dasharatha, gave his word to his step-mother, Kaikeyi, to send Ram for exile of 14 years. Had it been a democratic society, Ram would be forced to stay back and rule the kingdom as the only person who did not want him as a king was Kaikeyi. Even her son, Bharata, was not happy with his mother for asking Ram to leave for exile. Therefore, Ram Rajya is not about democracy in the true meaning of the word.

Was it then a Kingdom of Gods or paradise or heaven? It might surprise some of the readers that in the beginning, Ram was considered only as a hero, the noblest of kings and perfect example for man. He did not even declare himself as God. Had Ram been god himself, why would be let Sita be abducted by Ravana in the first place? Again, we break the myth that Ram Rajya was about heaven or the Kingdom of Gods.

Then is Ram Rajya about peace, harmony, and happiness? If it was so, Ram would not have disappointed all his subjects and left for exile for 14 years. Everyone in the kingdom, including his father and his brother were unhappy with his decision to obey the law. In fact, his father died out of pain after he left for exile.

After the abduction of Sita, Rama needed an army to defeat Ravana. He made an alliance with Sugriva who promised to support him to find Sita. However, in return, Rama had to help get his kingdom back. Therefore, Rama had to kill Sugriva’s elder brother Bali to earn the alliance. Again Rama caused pain to Bali, who at his dying moment said that he would have helped Ram to get his wife back as well.

In another incident in the epic, Hanuman set Ravana’s kingdom on fire and caused a lot of distress to innocent people. Why did Rama not punish him? Towards the end of the epic, Rama went to war against his twin sons and almost killed them. All these incidents certainly prove that Ram Rajya was not about peace, harmony, and happiness.

Was Rama trying to establish a Hindu raj? Rama himself did not declare as a Hindu so Hindu raj is also out of question. However, he was the protector of the dharma or the Law of the land.

Is Dharma about equal rights for prince and pauper? Firstly, Rama did not make the laws of the Dharma, he strictly followed them even at his cost of personal detriment. Therefore, the credit of making laws egalitarian should go to his predecessors rather than to Ram. Yes, it is true that Ram did not discriminate anyone based on gender, color, gender, language, opinion, belief, disability, occupation, rich and poor.

It is Mahatma Gandhi’s version of Ram Rajya which provided equal rights for Ram and Rahim. After the Independence of our country, Bharat was partitioned in two parts so that Rahim could have his Islamic country called Pakistan. Did the Ram also get a country too? India became “secular” where Ram was discriminated. Even the temple for Ram could not be constructed after more than 72 years of Independence. In 1989, the Lord had to himself present His side to the court for his temple. When the court refused to hear the case, it resulted in a huge movement resulting in the destruction of the Mosque. Since then, the court had asked to find the structure below the present-day Mosque. Canadian experts in 01.08.2002 and then Archeological Survey of India (ASI) on 23.10.2002 confirmed the presence of Ram mandir for more than 2000 years. Yet, the high court decided to divide the temple into three parts despite the confirmed presence of the temple by the latest technologies.

In 2010, the appeals were then transferred to Supreme Court. Quite strangely, the court did not allow any hearings till 2017 on the pretext that documents presented to the court were in Hindi, Sanskrit, Persian, Urdu, and French. After such long years of delay, the court allowed the Uttar Pradesh Government to translate these pages to English.

After 30 years of trial in the judicial system of “secular” India, the Supreme Court remarked that “there are many more cases in priority” than the case of Lord Rama on October 29, 2018.

Why do you think Gandhi said these words “Hey Ram!” just before his last breath? Probably because Gandhi was asking for forgiveness for his mistakes in pushing Bharat to secular India or maybe he already knew that there cannot be Ram Rajya in secular India.

Since our Independence, we have been fed with wrong definitions of Ram Rajya. I too learned about these wrong notions at my school and from various media. It did not make sense to me as I have elaborated in this article. The first step towards clarity is to remove misconceptions so that clarity of thoughts prevails among us. ..........To read Part-2 click here