I am a Syrian Christian. My roots date back to St Thomas, who came to Kerala in 52 AD and converted six families. From six families, we have grown to about 15 per cent of the population of Kerala, without ever converting anybody. We are very much an Indian church. Latin Christians, who constitute about 3 per cent of the population of Kerala, were converted to Christianity by Francis Xavier in the 16th century.
I come from a deeply religious Catholic family. However, there is plenty of diversity in my family. We have a Hindu, a Brahmo Samaji, a white German Protestant and a white American in my immediate family. My brother, George Kannanthanam, is a Catholic priest who has won innumerable awards for work among the downtrodden, without converting anybody. We believe that if there is a god, it has to be all-encompassing and, therefore, one. We don’t believe that our God is bigger or better than any other god. We don’t believe that we need to fight battles in the name of God. Unfortunately, most of the killings in human history have taken place to prove that one’s god was better than another’s.
I am a firm believer in Jesus Christ. I hugely admire the way he stood up for what he believed in and was willing to die for it. I am an admirer of Ram. Unlike warring gods, he is known as “Maryada Purushotham”, which means a “fair and just human being”. He was an idealist. He does not belong to any religion. He is our own. Though born a king, he bequeathed his throne when asked to do so. He wandered around forests and lived a sustainable existence. When he returned from exile, everybody celebrated; the light was back in their lives.
As a practising Catholic, I strongly support the temple in Ayodhya, dedicated to Ram, for many reasons. First of all, this is where Ram is believed to have been born and lived. Some rationalists and left liberals would argue that Ram is a myth. Religion is a matter of belief. If 85 per cent of Indians believe that Ram was born and lived in Ayodhya, who are these so-called intellectuals to question that belief? There are lots of left-liberal thinkers who question the existence of Jesus. Many doctoral theses have been produced to prove that Jesus never existed. Yet, Christianity has survived for 2,000 years. Hinduism has survived and thrived much longer. For years, the standard greeting among Hindus has been “Ram Ram”, and not “namaskar”, “namaste”, “pranam” or “good morning”. Ram has been an integral part of the lives of the people of India even before the Christian era began. Whether he lived in 2000 BC or 20000 BC does not matter to a believer. What a non-believer says should not matter either. Therefore, if 85 per cent of Indians worship Ram, is there anything wrong with them demanding that there should be a temple dedicated to him? Should not democracy respect the desire of such a vast majority? Or, does the concept of “secularism” prevent the majority from raising any legitimate claim, under the apprehension that it could offend the sensibilities of the minority?
Second, there are thousands of cathedrals and basilicas across the world, where Christ is worshipped. In India, there are over a hundred cathedrals; there are thousands of churches. St. George Forane Church at Ernakulam — it is not even a Cathedral or a basilica — beats the Lulu Mall, located just opposite it, in grandeur. Yet, when a temple is being built for India’s favourite god, there is a massive outrage.
Third, there is no dispute that a Hindu temple existed here. Historians are not exactly sure who demolished the temple. Some say it was Babur; some say it was Aurangzeb. Some date the destruction to an earlier period of Muslim rulers. It does not matter who did it; somebody did. The Supreme Court went into great detail, evaluating the evidence provided by the Archaeological Survey of India and concluded that this is where the temple existed and earmarked the land where the temple would be built. The Supreme Court also ruled that land has to be earmarked for a mosque. Hopefully, a very beautiful mosque will come up there. Ram and the Prophet can co-exist and could be the bonding spot for the nation.
The writer is a former Union Minister and a practising advocate in the Supreme Court of India. He is from the 1979 batch of IAS
I am a practising Catholic. I strongly support the temple in Ayodhya
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17.01.2024
I am a Syrian Christian. My roots date back to St Thomas, who came to Kerala in 52 AD and converted six families. From six families, we have grown to about 15 per cent of the population of Kerala, without ever converting anybody. We are very much an Indian church. Latin Christians, who constitute about 3 per cent of the population of Kerala, were converted to Christianity by Francis Xavier in the 16th century.
I come from a deeply religious Catholic family. However, there is plenty of diversity in my family. We have a Hindu, a Brahmo Samaji, a white German Protestant and a white American in my immediate family. My brother, George Kannanthanam, is a Catholic priest who has won innumerable awards for work among the downtrodden, without converting anybody. We believe that if there is a god, it has to be all-encompassing and, therefore, one. We don’t believe that our God is bigger or better than any other god. We don’t believe that we need to fight battles in the name of God. Unfortunately, most of the killings in human history have taken place to prove that one’s god........
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