For the majority of the Indians, India’s journey didn’t start after the Britishers left. They always have regarded the land of India as one of the most ancient civilizations of the world, if not the most ancient one. In fact, Indian civilization is one of the two most great ancient surviving civilizations in the world — the other is the Chinese civilization, which somehow has managed to survive in the form of Confucianism and Taoism. Notably, Indian civilization is much older than the Chinese one. The other great contemporaries like the Sumerian, Babylonian, Greek, Mayan, Persian and the Egyptian civilization today are found only in the pages of history and in the form of archaeological structures.

Despite facing many foreign attacks over the last many centuries, the Indian civilization has managed to sustain itself. The English word India comes from the Greek word India or Indika via Latin. The two Greek terms derive from the Sindhu river — called Indos by the Greeks. Not to forget the book called Indica, an account of Mauryan India written by Greek writer Megasthenes — who was the ambassador of Seleucus in the court of emperor Chandragupta Maurya. The Indian culture is also often called the Hindu culture. The word Hindu has been in use since the past by the outsiders to denote the Indians — first used by the Persians. The word is derived from the Sanskrit word Sindhu. According to the Persians, the inhabitants living on the other side of the river Sindhu were called as Hindus — as the letter S of Sanskrit converts into H in Persian language.

The culture is also popularly called as the Bharatiya culture. According to the Indian Constitution, the country has two official names — India and Bharat. The name Bharat itself has been used for description of this land since ancient times. The original name of the Mahabharat, one of the two famous epics of India, is also Bharat. The Vishnupuran, one of the ancient Hindu Puranas, says, “The country that lies north of the ocean and south of the snowy mountains is called the Bharatam; there dwell the descendents of the Bharata”.

This clearly shows that the idea of India as a country dates in the long past. If one looks at all the ancient cultures of the world, one would find that all were a mixture of nature and idol worshippers — the common feature that is still largely prevalent in India in the form of the ancient Indic religions like Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and other indigenous tribal faiths at a time when most of today’s existing cultures across the world have already abandoned these ancient practices.

Here, the rebuilding of Ram’s temple in Ayodhya is permitted by the Supreme Court of India through its historic judgement on November 8 last year. Notably, the Somnath Temple of Gujarat, one of the 12 major Bhagwan Shiv’s Jyotirlingas, was restored after India got independence. The major Hindu temple was destroyed by the Islamic invader Mahmud Ghaznavi, just like the way Ram temple of Ayodhya was destroyed by Mir Baqi, the general of Mughal dynasty founder Babar. Actually, both Somnath and Ram Temple share the same destruction history. However, the former didn’t have to go through any court battles. Congress leader KM Munshi, who later became the Union minister of Food and Agriculture in the Jawaharlal Nehru’s government, was the first major voice to raise the issue for the restoration of the Somnath temple way back in 1920s. After India’s independence, Sardar Vallabh Patel, the first Union home minister, took the initiative to restore it. Even Mahatma Gandhi gave his consent when Munshi and Patel proposed the reconstruction of the temple but suggested that it shouldn’t be funded by the state.

Gandhi’s wish was respected and a trust was formed headed by Munshi. In 1951, during the inauguration ceremony, President Rajendra Prasad himself was present despite Nehru’s opposition. Just like the Somanth Temple, construction of the Ram Temple won’t be state funded but be managed by the trust formed. That's why, the presence of prime minister Narendra Modi in the Bhumi Pujan isn’t something wrong because Indian secularism isn’t the same as European secularism — which means the separation of the Church and the State. Indian secularism is not an atheist concept — it is about respecting every faith and doesn’t bar the State to associate with religion. Basically, it's pluralism using the European word secularism.

Shri Ram is a significant icon of ancient Indian culture, who symbolises honour and righteousness, and is the hero of Ramayan, the other famous Indian epic — which is not only an essential part of different regional cultures of India from east to west and north to south but also is a part of culture of countries like in Nepal, Muslim majority countries like Indonesia and Malaysia and Buddhist majority countries like Thailand, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Laos etc.

The Bhumi Pujan of Ram Temple is in no way an attack on Indian pluralism because it is a continuation of the pluralistic ancient Indian culture. There have been existence of schools like the six orthodox schools of Hinduism — Nyay, Samkhya, Yoga, Vaiseshika, Mimansa and Vedanta — and the other heterodox schools like Ajivika, Buddhist, Jain, Ajnana and Charvaka. Also, there have been many internal divisions among these schools too. Vedanta has been mainly divided into Advaita, Dvaita and more. Even there have been other Hindu cults like Vaishnavism, Shaivism and Shaktism. Buddhism itself has been divided into many schools like Theravada, Mahayana and Vajrayana — and some like Sarvastivad, Mahasanghika, Sthaviravada etc don’t exist today. Despite differences, all these different sects existed together in ancient India.

Also, ancient India has been known for conducting debates — called Shastrarth — as found in the ancient texts like the Upanishads. One of the great debates of ancient India is found in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad where some of the great Vedic scholars and philosophers like Yagyavalkya, Kahol, Ushastha, Uddhalak, Shakalya etc participated — which also included the woman philosopher Gargi Vachaknabhi. This great debate was held in the ancient city of Mithila, the capital of the Kingdom Vaidehi. Not to forget that, this same Indian culture also later accepted Islam, Christianity, Judaism and Zorastrianism into its own fold.

There were sceptisms back then too when Somnath Temple of Gujarat was earlier restored in 1950s — but it really never hampered the idea of India’s pluralism. So, the present scepticisms too are just assumptions. Ram and Ayodhya have always been essentially a part of Indian culture — not only for Hindus, but also for Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs. In fact, Shri Ram Temple in Ayodhya represents the diverse continuous ancient Indian civilization and one shouldn’t forget that India is a Civilizational State. (IPA Service)