Acharya convicted before trial

By Anil M. Dave


The nation’s media has been preoccupied with various controversies
related to the Shankaracharya of Kanchi Kamkoti Peetham for the last
couple of weeks. The entire media apparatus seems all afluster to
ensure that investigation into the accusations levelled by the Tamil
Nadu police against Shri Jayendra Saraswati may not contain any
lacunae.


A unique example of ‘Trial by Media’ has been presented before the
country. This flurry has successfully planted a doubt in the minds of
millions of readers and viewers and converted the Shankaracharya from
an accused to a convict. As a corollary, another doubt, that the
religion of the majority in this country has decayed and its centres of
faith are crumbling, has taken root. These doubts are amply
demonstrated in the initial statements of political parties who seem
defensive about the accusations levelled against the Shankaracharya
while the treatment meted out to him is being made a point of debate.
If anyone has questioned the veracity of the accusations, the sphere of
such queries has been within the bounds of Tamil politics.


Our police, famous for handling ordinary bureaucrats and Lilliputian
politicians with timid subservience, did not think twice before
launching a crusade against a centre of faith! Behind the obvious legal
tangle, are there any larger invisible issues which must be brought
forth by investigative scribes and reporters?


Those who negate the primacy of Kanchi Kamkoti Peetham are probably
ignorant of the fact that Adishankara, that unique organiser of India’s
cultural integration, had consecrated a ‘yoga lingam’
here and shed his mortal coils. The Mutt has a history of
two-and-a-half millennia. Even those who dwell eternally in coffee
houses and smoke away thousands of years of legacies, recognise the
progressive nature of the present Shankaracharya. In his tenure, the
Mutt has come forward as an institution working against inequality and
the caste system.

The Truth of Kanchi

Shri Jayendra Saraswati is the first Shankaracharya to partake of the hospitality of the downtrodden. He propagated the ‘tat twam-asi’ (Thou art He) theory of Adishankara which underlines the thought that no Hindu is partita
(fallen). A backward-looking orthodox section of the Hindu society was
forever annoyed with this revolutionary Shankaracharya for his
enthusiasm to embrace all and sundry. This however did not deter the
intrepid sanyasi in his efforts to make the Kanchi Mutt an institution of universal appeal.


Shri Jayendra’s leadership facilitated the proliferation of the
disciples of the Mutt all over the world. Through its various trusts,
the Mutt runs almost two hundred schools, various hospitals including
the world-famous Shankara Nethralaya and the Child Trust Hospital in
Chennai and Guwahati respectively, twenty-five colleges and a deemed
university. There is an international library in the deemed university,
which has material on every religion in the world for research. This
network of education and healthcare has spread not only in south India
but in states like Gujarat, Assam and other deprived areas also,
particularly those inhabited by forest-dwellers (Vanvasis).


There is a saying that a daughter-in-law when annoyed with her
mother-in-law hits her child instead. The onslaught on Shri Jayendra is
in a similar vein. The largest theocracy in the world is being run by a
superpower who uses economic and religious weaponry to realise its
military ambitions. This theocracy is now colluding with another—a
palace-state. This coalition, after an effort of a century, has
succeeded in converting 80 to 90 per cent of Indians in the north-east
to Christianity. They would not allow any doors to open for the
re-entry of these converts in the mainstream. The sinister designs of
this coalition were aptly discussed in a Delhi-based journal, Tehelka in its first issue. The questions raised therein are worth pondering upon.


If the Shankaracharya of Kanchi tries to open this closed door with the
instruments of education, health and service, is he not inviting
international vendetta? We have got used to the irritation of our
neighbour on the Kashmir issue. We still do not recognise the umbrage
this coalition takes at the new winds blowing from the mainstream in
our north-east.


Reduction of votes scares our political leaders and disturbance of law
and order terrifies our administrators. We have umpteen examples of the
above. The warrants against many a religious leader, criminal dons,
politicians rot in the police stations for years, waiting to be served.
The assurance behind the courage of Ms. Jayalalithaa must be probed and
understood by the one billion Indians.


Shri Jayendra made an honest effort to solve the Ayodhya question. He
is not one of those political flag-bearers of religion who wishes
merely to be seen or published. His desire for a solution has been
sincere and his attempts were innocent and proactive. This certainly
could annoy those who wished to keep India in a limbo of disturbance.
It is a proof of Shri Jayendra’s magnanimity that besides the Hindus, a
large number of Muslim religious leaders voiced their concern for his
case and pledged their support. No one else batted an eyelid. Why
wasn’t a candle lit by those who take out candle-lit processions over
minor issues, when a major spiritual centre of the country’s majority
is under attack?


Attacks have changed their character in modern times. Their targets are
hither but the bombing is thither. India’s powers-that-be and all
Indians must recognise these hidden attacks. The East India Company
employed the same strategy of pitching Indians against Indians and
through this covert war ruled our country for a hundred and ninety
years.


Albeit, no one shall have the gall to subjugate India ever again, but
we must not lose any of our fronts. These assailants from beyond our
boundaries take advantage of our constitutional system and expand with
the help of our own establishment. Once their expansion becomes
sustainable, they break the bonds of the Constitution and become
anti-establishment, resulting in terror tactics and violence. We have
seen this technique employed in Kashmir and the north-east. If our
leaders remain tongue-tied for fear of votes and ignore these breeders
of disquiet, despite realising their designs, then the people have no
option but to turn the applecart upside down.


There is a psychological problem with the majority in this country, as
accepted by many sociologists. We, Indians, fall prey to self-pity with
alacrity; we love self-criticism and lose faith easily. If we do not
free ourselves from this slipping into a sad mode, all dreams of
development shall die as mere plans. The silence of our society over
the arrest of Shri Jayendra Saraswati is a dangerous signal. The
British had no inkling in 1857 on how youth sprouted in the old veins
of India and a terrific movement shook the foundations of White rule!
It is necessary to ponder on all aspects of this subject. It is time to
recognise the truths and facets of covert and overt assaults, to search
for solutions and to ensure the defeat of all nefarious designs.

(The writer is a former adviser to Madhya Pradesh government.)