AYODHYA, India | Thursday
THE man in the eye of a political and religious storm engulfing India is a diminutive, ageing Hindu ascetic who claims to take his orders direct from the gods.
Ramchandra Paramhans is held up as a symbol of a long-running campaign to build a temple on the site of a destroyed mosque in the northern town of Ayodhya.
In 1992, Hindu zealots pulled down the 16th century Babri mosque which they claimed was on the site of the birthplace of Hindu god Ram.
More than 2 000 people were killed across India in the sectarian violence which followed.
Paramhans and the militant Hindu Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP or World Hindu Council) have long been planning to begin building their temple from Friday despite the matter being in the hands of the courts.
Even a Supreme Court ruling on Wednesday which banned them from holding a religious ground-breaking ceremony on or near the site on Friday cannot deter Paramhans.
”On that day, I will go to do puja (prayer). I will go, I will go, I will go,” he insists.
While the VHP is the political face of hardline Hindu activism in India, Paramhans is its spiritual guru.
”A few days ago, I saw a dream in which Ram came to me. He was looking hurt. He said: ‘You have been serving me for so long but look, there is no temple for me. It is now up to you to take a stone and offer it for my temple.’ I am only fulfilling my dream.”
Paramhans is the picture book image of a Hindu holy man — flowing white beard, uncombed hair, a piece of cloth tied around his waist, and beads hung around his naked chest.
He cannot remember his date of birth but says he is more than 93. ”Even my grandfather lived till 140 years, my father till 125. We are a blessed family.”
But he is also one of the most heavily protected spiritual leaders in the country.
In April 2000 he was injured in a bomb attack. A Muslim arrested in connection with the crime was said by police to have links to Islamic terrorists active in Kashmir.
Paramhans was the first person to take the Ayodhya temple-mosque row to court. In 1949 he filed a petition demanding that the disputed land be handed over to Hindus for the construction of a temple. The case went on for decades.
”Finally, I withdrew the case in 1982. I was fed up with the delay,” he says.
But the issue was taken up by hardline Hindu outfits such as the VHP and is now one of the most controversial in India.
Last month, some 700 people died in the western state of Gujarat in Hindu-Muslim riots which were sparked by a Muslim attack on a train carrying Hindu activists returning from Ayodhya. More than 10 000 police and paramilitary forces have descended on Ayodhya to prevent the temple building and ensure there is no violence.
In a workshop where pillars and stones for the proposed Ram temple are being carved and stored, an undeterred Paramhans sits surrounded by an unnerving mixture of armed police and devotees chanting ”Long Live Ram”.
He says he will go ahead with his plan to take a pillar to the site of the temple and offer it to Lord Ram on Friday.
”I will only leave with the pillars. For the sake of Ram, if this government wants to kill me, I am ready,” he says, thumping his bare chest.
”I have struggled to get Ram and today I am struggling to build a home for him.
”Every Muslim is allowed to go to Mecca. And today, Ayodhya has been turned into a fortress. Hindus are not being allowed to come and worship.”
Paramhans, who was born to a poor farmer in Bihar state, says he was destined from before birth to build a temple at Ayodhya.
”All my mother’s children were dying one after another. It was then that my father contacted our guru, who said he would bless them with a son but he has to be given for religion.”
At the age of 14 Paramhans, who never married, began his spiritual journey that took him ”to high mountains, mighty rivers, temples of south India” and ended in Ayodhya.
”I have been here for past 50 years now. This is my home now,” he said.”
”When I came here first, I used to wash utensils, cook for my guru and today I am in charge of all this land that you see, all these pillars that you see.” – Sapa-AFP