It is a mausoleum on the banks of Yamuna River in Agra built out of white marble entirely. Everyone who has visited this wonder will surely remember the first time they entered through the gigantic gates and skipped a breath at its sight. It won’t be an exaggeration to state that it is a breathtaking, awe-inspiring and a truly humbling sight. In 1977, when the United States launched the Voyager spacecraft, it included 115 images of life on Earth. One of them was of the Taj Mahal. In case the ship was intercepted by aliens (crazy expectations humans keep), the people who launched the Voyager wanted them to know that Earth contained a building as magnificent as the Taj.
The Taj Mahal, like every other monument in India, has had its fair share of abuse ranging from theft to defacement. Some of our monuments have received a more BABARIc treatment than the others (excuse the pun). Now everybody knows that excessive pollution of the air and water around the Taj have already deteriorated its condition for the worse and if we act swiftly and effectively, we may be able to save the grand gesture of eternal love from its imminent demise. Surely the government has introduced some photo-op initiatives to save the Taj but nothing concrete has come out of it and any significant progress is yet to be achieved.
Some days ago we came across a news that a radical Hindu militant group that proudly calls itself the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and its bedtime buddy identified as the Bajrang Dal have attacked the Taj Mahal and have vandalised one of its gates claiming that it blocked an entrance to a temple in its premises.
If this incident had taken place in any other country containing any one of the seven wonders of the world, it would have been taken way more seriously than it is in our country. Our entire legislature, judiciary, executive and enforcement have accustomed themselves to function with ignorance. We have a history of being lazy with everything we do and it arises from not out of lack of resources, mind power or money but out of ignorance towards anything and everything unless of course, the issue is Pakistan, Cricket or Bollywood. Our leaders have developed a tendency to run the entire machinery as they see fit without keeping in mind the oath they swore towards the people they represent, the very people that elected them into office, unless of course its election time.
Revisiting the point in the discussion, it happened because more often than not we have news that the leaders of these so-called protectionist, racist and extremist groups claim that the Mughals are the villains that looted and destroyed our ancient culture and more importantly the Hindu religion. They succeed in doing so not by arguing facts and information but by spreading lies and misinformation on a large scale. These groups have thousands of volunteers all across the country and their patrons, some of which are NRI’s. Since they are legitimised and authorised by the government and backed by political parties suiting their agenda they act as the religious front of the government that is supposed to be secular by nature and law because our constitution prevents political parties to favour any certain religion.
These groups have operated freely for the better part of this century with no proper oversight and have thus gained a certain vigilante status in our country. Their members violate numerous civilian and criminal laws as they see fit in the name of protecting a religion. Certain groups are more violent than the others maybe a majority of such religious groups are harmless but even if one of them regards themselves above the law, it sets a bad example for other groups to follow.
Only recently we had widespread violence and allegations over the release of a certain movie that they claimed to hurt their religious sentiments and after a long and hard-fought battle when the movie was finally released, it turned out to be a lie but lives and property were lost nonetheless.
The attack on the Taj Mahal was not an isolated incident but rather a part of a bigger pattern of systemic, homegrown lawlessness and an environment of fear. These groups hurt whoever they want and destroy whatever they want without the fear of prosecution. We as a country have to remember that whenever incidents like these happen it is not just a loss of property and heritage but also the loss of something greater than anything, we lose a chunk of our democratic spirit a chunk of our freedom.
If we want to live in a prosperous and advanced country we have to prevent the erosion of the largest democracy in the world. We can refurbish and rebuild property but we can not rebuild an identity. Our democratic values will cease to exist and with it, the India we fought for will cease to exist.
Just saying 