Ayodhya temple vs hungry people

The below video is a perfect example of Dhimmitude exhibited by the Hindus. Mohan Bhagwat was speaking at an event when a student posed him a question linking poverty and Ram Mandir. Here is the video:

The discussion goes as follows:

Random kid: Does making “Ram Mandir” ensure food for the poor? (Kya Ram Mandir banane se garib ki thali mein roti aayegi?)

Mohan Bhagwat: Ram Mandir has not been made yet, did it ensure food for the poor? (Kya ab tak nahi bani, to garib ki thali mein roti aa gayi?)

The above question had the spirit similar to The Economist’s cartoon when India launched Mars Orbiter Mission two years ago. Then the theme was that India is so poor that it should not suspend its space activities. Now the same logic is applied to building the Ram Temple.

Mohan Bhagwat explained it well in the last few seconds of the above video that Ram is a cultural icon of India and his temple is just one way of remembering him and honouring our past. The Hindus need to stop chanting “Sarv Dharam Sambhav” in every situation and need serious lessons in nationality and religion to be able to answer such pointless questions.

There is an important story from Hitopadesh, where one of the characters reciting the “Vasudhaiva Kutumbkam” shloka is shown to be a brotherhood preaching shrewd subversionist. It gives a clear warning against blindly welcoming any idea, individual or group without due diligence of studying their history, nature and intent. The story is about “Subuddhi- the Crow, Chitranga- the Deer, and Ksudrabuddhi-the Jackal“. The whole story is described in a very interesting article here.  The moral of the story is that one should not blindly fall for calls of universal brotherhood.

A variant of the story from Mahabharata is even depicted in Mahabalipuram, sculpted under the Pallavas with an ascetic cat mimicking Arjuna’s devout pose. See the picture below.

While Babri Masjid is just another mosque for the Muslims, the significance of Ayodhya for Hindus is very different, it being the birth place of Ram. The only reason that this issue has dragged on forever is probably due to the Dhimmitude shown by Hindus and iconoclasm of the Muslims. While Muslims iconoclasm has been bolstered by various laws passed by the Indian state since independence, the dhimmitude of the Hindus is plain and simple the result of too many “Vasudhaiva Kutumbkam” style shlokas that are often repeated in the popular parlance. It is high time that Hindus teach their kids some solid worldly lessons from Panchatantra and Hitopadesha!