After Ayodhya, A Sense of Impatience in Varanasi as Devotees Want Gyanvapi Back
Devotees at Varanasi’s Kashi Vishwanath Temple desire a solution, like in Ayodhya, through a court-mediated mechanism or a compromise
“Gyanvapi is the original temple, we need it back soon…I hope that the courts will be quicker than in Ayodhya…" — Brij Bhushan Ojha, a trustee of the Shri Kashi Vishwanath Temple Trust, told News18 last week. He was pointing to the Gyanvapi Mosque behind him which is visible from the Neelkanth Bhawan, the office of the temple’s CEO.
Ojha’s wish is also reflected in the ‘impatience’ of many devotees at the temple who make it a point to look at the white-coloured mosque beyond the iron bars that separate the mosque complex from the temple premises. Nearly everyone here knows about the ASI report pointing to tell-tale remnants of a Hindu temple at the mosque as well as the Hindu prayers that were recently started at the Vyas Tehkhana (southern cellar) of the mosque after court’s orders. The wazukhana shed, under which the Hindu side claims is the original Shivling, can be seen partially from a spot across the Nandi deity in the temple premises. Paramilitary forces stand guard at the temple-mosque boundary, on the high-watch towers, and many CCTVs are in place.
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The scenes are quite the opposite of Ayodhya where News18 was earlier this week where a sense of ‘closure’ and ‘settlement’ prevails among the devotees after a grand temple has come up. Many at Ayodhya spoke of a sense of pride and glory while visiting the temple town, saying Hindus had got their due.
The Supreme Court judgement in 2019 said a mosque would come up away from the new temple. When we drove about 30 kilometres from the new temple to Dhannipur village, only a poster of ‘Masjid Muhammed Bin Abdullah’ existed on the five-acre land. Children are playing cricket on the barren land as the Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation says the work could finally begin in May. Some local Muslim villagers here say it may have been better to build a school or a hospital as the village already has over a dozen mosques.
Devotees at Varanasi’s Kashi Vishwanath Temple desire such a solution too, through a court-mediated mechanism or a compromise. “Nothing has been left to doubt after the ASI survey. The Muslim side should show large-heartedness and give up the mosque to the Hindu side. Or let the courts decide on the matter soon in a time-bound manner," a group of pilgrims from Gorakhpur told News18.
Local Muslims in Varanasi are guarded on the subject when they speak. Near the Godalia Chowk where many Muslims run businesses, an aged Hashim Mohammad said a mosque is always built on pious land and if it is proved that the Gyanvapi mosque was built after demolishing a temple, “toh hamari masjid jaati hai toh jaaye (let our mosque go, it is fine)". He pleads that peace and harmony are important and nothing should disturb Varanasi’s peace.
The sense of impatience in Varanasi also finds resonance in what Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said earlier this month on the floor of the state assembly — that Hindus only wanted three places (Ayodhya, Kashi and Mathura) as these were sites where Hindu gods took incarnations.
“But the majority community had to beg for these places for centuries in the face of arrogance and vote-bank politics…in Mahabharata, Lord Krishna had asked Duryodhana for only five villages for the Pandavas but he refused in his arrogance and the war of Mahabharata ensued," the CM had said. He added that seeing Ayodhya getting a grand temple, Nandi opened the barricades at Varanasi (to Vyas Tehkhana) at midnight and asked how Krishna would now stay quiet (about the ongoing dispute at Mathura).
Will this official endorsement of the Varanasi-Mathura issue by the chief minister now enter the official lexicon of the BJP in ‘Modi 3.0’ if the party comes back to power at the Centre? We all will soon know.
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