January 22 is the true discovery of India as Bharat reconnects with its sanatan past

As I sit down to write this piece with just hours to go for the Ram Lalla Pran Pratishtha at Ayodhya Dham, my residential complex, much like many across the length and breadth of this nation, is in a celebratory mood. I have been listening to loudspeakers playing ‘Ram aayenge, aayenge, Ram aayenge… meri jhopadi main Ram aayenge’ and other Ram bhajans since morning. Plans have been made for Sundarkand path, Ramcharitmanas recitation and other festivities throughout the day among residents to mark the return of Prabhu Shri Ram after 500 years of exile. Friends and acquaintances in different social media groups whom I have never found to be fond of overt expression of faith in public life are excitedly exchanging songs, images and other content on Ram Lalla. Not just Ram bhakts but Hindus from every walk of life, even those who consider themselves nominally Hindu can’t seem to wait for the sun to rise on Monday. Their disposition is reflected in the mood of the nation, among the multitudes of humanity headed for Ayodhya, in the impromptu bhajans that were heard onboard Ayodhya-bound flights as strangers greeted each other. Not to speak of the holy city that has been gearing up to greet their Ram Lalla with a welcome fit for the emperor of emperors.  https://x.com/swati_gs/status/1748994143731519685?s=20 It’s almost time. A five-century wait has come to an end. When we are in the moment, witnessing something incredible such as an event that comes once in a century or rarer still, the significance tends to slip us by. Not this time. Hindus are instinctively conscious of the enormity of the occasion. The weight of history, the culmination of an atavistic revival, and a sense that we are the legatees of an ancient, indigenous civilisation that has survived numerous violent conquests, colonization, genocide, destruction and architectural overwriting of countless places of worship, articles and symbols of faith, and that it is now upon us to build a uniquely pagan yet modern civilisational state, is not lost on any of the Hindus who have accumulated enough karma to be a witness to the events on Monday. Seen from this prism, the glorious Ram Mandir at Ayodhya isn’t just a temple, but a symbol of reclamation that speaks of resilience, of the rebound of a wounded civilization, of a people that was dispossessed but never gave up hope, faith in the divine or sanatan dharma. The ‘bhavya’ Ram Mandir at Prabhu Shri Ram’s birthplace in Ayodhya is also the tale of endurance, survival, restoration of Hindu pride and the decentralization of history. It is a necessary pushback against the damaging narrative that mitigation of historical grievances is ‘majoritarian supremacy’. The desecration, flattening and conversion of places after places of worship and sites sacred to Hinduism such as the birthplace of Prabhu Shri Ram or Sri Krishna cannot remain normalised at the cost of Hindus swallowing their sense of injury, pride, and identity. The intention behind the architectural overwriting of Ram Janmabhoomi and the erection of mosques over sites most sacred to Hinduism is eternal subjugation. It is an imperial statement. Asking Hindus to normalise that subjugation is to force them to accept intergenerational subordination and humiliation. It is the cruellest of narratives propagated by the political elite of Independent India, backed by scholars, academicians and deracinated secularists that Hindus must be subjected to eternal cultural subjugation even after transfer of political power. This was no self-rule. This was colonialism by other means. Therefore, 22 January, 2024, is the true discovery of India. It is not a new ‘idea of India’, however, that Bharat is incorporating. We are not stepping out from old to the new. We are reconnecting with our sanatan past. The soul that was long suppressed is finding a collective expression through Shri Ram. The colonial pall of gloom is fading into a glorious dawn. As the President of India, Droupadi Murmu, wrote in a letter to the prime minister on Sunday, “The nationwide celebratory atmosphere around the inauguration of the grand temple for Prabhu Shri Ram in Ayodhya Dham is in uninhibited expression of the eternal soul of India.” Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views. Read all the Latest News , Trending News , Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.