FAITH FACT AND FICTION

Faith, fact and fiction

Ashok MalikThe PioneerSeptember 15, 2007http://www.dailypioneer.com/columnist1.asp?main_variable=Columnist&file_name=ashok%2Fashok88%2Etxt&writer=ashok

Ram is make-believe, Dwarka did not exist, the Saraswati is a myth.

But how much have the Archaeological Survey of India and its politicalcollaborators done to honestly excavate India's antiquity?For an entity contemplating an early election, the UPA Government'spropensity to create controversies is remarkable.

In an affidavitfiled before the Supreme Court, the Archaeological Survey of India(ASI) has insisted that there is no "historical record" to validatethe Ramayan and, as such, Ram is a fictional character.

The case commenced after a petition filed by Mr Subramanian Swamy, theJanata Party president, seeking curbs on the Sethusamudram ShippingCanal Project. It argued that the project would cut and destroy the'Ram Setu', saying it was an ancient monument revered by Hindus as thebridge Ram built to journey to Lanka.It is important to note the Government's affidavit represented a shiftin the debate.

The ASI could have stopped at saying that the Ram Setuwas a naturally occurring formation, not man-made. Yet, it crossed itsbrief and labelled Ram himself as fictional.

This upset even those whowere not necessarily adherents of the Ram Setu.
There are three issues that flow from the affidavit.
First, thefamiliar bunch of Jawaharlal Nehru University alumni and Delhieditorial writers has defended the ASI's affidavit as a citation of"science". Actually, this unifocal attack on the faith-based aspect ofthe anti-Sethusamudram protests suits the establishment just fine.

The Government has never quite explained the environmental imbalancethat can be caused by smashing an ancient (natural) structure.Christian fishermen off the coast of Tamil Nadu -- who have no reasonto venerate Ram's bridge -- already fear for their livelihood.

That aside, projections have been made about the economicnon-viability of Sethusamudram. It is possible that all of these arewrong, but the Government has not bothered to politically sell theissue. Instead, the overriding reasons for pushing ahead seem to begranting lucrative dredging contracts to flunkies of the DMK and itsMinisters.
Second, while the Prince of Ayodhya did not live 1.7 million years ago-- as some have claimed -- is the Ram story all myth? Granted, an oralstory-telling tradition has ample scope for exaggeration; Ram probablydid not fly back from Lanka on an airplane called the Pushpak Viman.Yet, is there no kernel of truth or historicity to his legend?

Consider a Greek analogy. For centuries, the Illiad and the saga ofthe Trojan War were dismissed as Homer's imagination. The Greeks,under foreign rule, were told the cherished epics they raised theirchildren on were nonsense; to borrow from the ASI's affidavit, they"cannot be said to be historical record to incontrovertibly prove theexistence of the characters or the occurrence of the events depictedtherein".
It took Heinrich Schliemann, a classical history buff and amateurarchaeologist, 20 years of excavation in the 1870s and 1880s toestablish that Achilles and Hector did actually fight to the deathoutside the gates of Troy.

Where are India's Schliemanns? Not in the ASI.Professional integrity demands archaeologists and historians attemptto authenticate popular legends.

From the life of Jesus to the timesof David and Moses, the Bible has lent itself to such endeavour in theChristian and Judaic worlds. In Britain, identifying the real KingArthur and mapping his kingdom has been an honest intellectualpursuit.

What is the ASI's record?A serious, rigorous archaeological expedition that attempts tocross-verify the story as told in the Ramayan will take years, perhapsdecades.

The ASI has not even begun the task. Nevertheless it is happyto announce Ram is a fabrication.

The case of India's other great folkhero, Krishna, is illuminating. Even after evidence is available of acity submerged off the coast of Gujarat -- roughly corresponding toscriptural accounts of the destruction of Dwarka by a tsunami-likewave -- attempts are made to undermine the findings.

There is cussedinsistence that the "underwater city" is not, in fact, Krishna'scapital. It may not be; but how do the Culture Ministry's bureaucratsknow?Third, is it correct to see the past only as a backward extension ofpresent prejudices? Over the centuries, rivers have changed course anddeserts have shifted sands. In the process, they have rendered citiesderelict, effaced whole civilisations.

From north Africa to westernChina, the exploration of these 'lost histories' is a subject ofintense national pride.In contrast, what has India done with the quest for the Saraswaticivilisation?

In December 2004, the UPA Government told Parliament itwas abandoning the Saraswati River Heritage Project. The project wasmeant to carry out excavations and trace the route the Saraswati tookbefore it dried up. Its budget was a mere Rs 4.98 crore. Yet, theCulture Minister announced it was being shut down; the search for theSaraswati was not worth it.In the Rajya Sabha, a CPI(M) MP, Mr Nilotpal Basu, demanded to knowwho had formulated the Saraswati Heritage Project. Obviously, he wasseeking to target individuals in the previous NDA Government.

Many Hindus remember the Saraswati in their daily prayers. Even so,the search for the river is as much a secular imperative as afaith-based one. The Saraswati and the societies and cultures thatgrew and fell by its side are a part of our legacy; a forensicexamination of these, if possible, would tell us how our ancestorslived and worked, ate and entertained.

This should be a nationalenterprise, with ample resources and time dedicated to it; it shouldnot be a political football.In the end, whether it is the historicity of Ram, of Dwarka or of theSaraswati age, it is not so much a matter of what we know -- but ofwhat we care to find out. Is this religious mumbo jumbo or is itracial memory? That compelling question determines any view of theASI's affidavit.

"Generation who ignores History ,History repeats itself."
Therefore Jews keeps reminding it' s generation about HOLOCAST .