“The Ram Mandir movement wasn’t just a movement for any temple. It was a struggle for a temple at Janmabhoomi of Lord Ram, who is India’s identity. Over 3.7 lakh sacrificed their lives for this movement. Then there were years of court cases. … When the legal battle was won, it was decided that a grand temple be built in Ayodhya. It was also decided that the Ram Temple shouldn’t be built by the government or any businessman, (but by the people of India).” – Pravesh Kumar, VHP’s National Spokesperson
Sex workers in Maharashtra’s Ghatkopar came forward and contributed liberally. Beggars gave away their day’s earnings. Elderly people, some in their 90s and living frugally, gave away chunks of their meagre pensions. Kinnar Samaj hijras participated with gusto. An Adivasi woman borrowed Rs 11 from her neighbour and gave that away.
When Bollywood music composer and lyricist Ravindra Jain sang ‘Sawa rupaiya de de re bhaiya Ram Shila ke naam ka, Ram ke ghar me lag jayega patthar tere naam ka’ (Contribute Rs1.25 for Ram Shila, a brick in your name will get added to the House of Ram) in the 1980s, little would he have imagined that the whole of India would come together to construct the Ram Mandir 40 years later.
The drive to collect funds in January-February 2021 for the construction of the Ram Mandir saw 20 lakh volunteers reach out to 12.7 crore families, according to Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) data shared with IndiaToday.In.
People were waiting for the volunteers to reach them and many went beyond their means to contribute because they said it was like a dream come true as a Ram Temple was coming up at Ramjanmabhoomi in Ayodhya after a wait of 500 years, some of the volunteers on the fundraising drive told IndiaToday.In.
As the date, January 22, for the consecration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya approaches, we take a look at what is being called the biggest fundraising drive in India’s history and why it was needed.
Reach of the Ram Temple fund raising drive
The Ram Janbhamoomi movement started in 1984 and at a big rally at Delhi’s Boat Club, Bollywood composer and lyricist Ravindra Jain sang ‘Sawa rupaiya de de re bhaiya Ram Shila ke naam ka…’, says Rajiv Tuli, head of RSS’s media wing.
“The Ram Temple Nidhi Samarpan campaign in 2021 took the movement to an altogether different level,” Rajiv Tuli tells IndiaToday.In.
The 45-day-long nationwide fundraising campaign started on January 15 and concluded on February 27, 2021. It was led by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and supported by Sangh organisations.
Like in the 1980s, when a donation of Rs 1.25 was sought for Ram Mandir Shilanyas, this time the lowest coupon was for Rs 10. The amount was kept on the lower side to help everyone contribute to the Ram Mandir cause.
Because the aim wasn’t to just collect funds, it was to connect millions to the Ram Mandir movement.
“The strategy to take a small amount in donation was to reach out to a huge number of people. We reached around 15% of India’s population,” explains Rajiv Tuli, adding, “No movement in the country has had this kind of massive reach.”
According to VHP officials, volunteers on the fundraising drive reached 65 crore people, covering over 5 lakh villages across India. Around Rs 2,100 crore was collected for the Ram Temple.
“People thought this was a chance for us to contribute towards the Ram Temple. They thought they could proudly tell their children and grandchildren that they contributed to the building of the Ram Mandir,” says Tuli, adding that donation has a big role in Hinduism.
Everyone conributed, from sex workers to beggars
“The Ram Mandir movement wasn’t just a movement for any temple. It was a struggle for a temple at Janmabhoomi of Lord Ram, who is India’s identity. Over 3.7 lakh sacrificed their lives for this movement. Then there were years of court cases,” Pravesh Kumar, VHP’s national spokesperson, tells IndiaToday.In giving a background to the Nidhi Samarpan (fundraising) drive.
When the legal battle was won, it was decided that a grand and magnificent temple be built in Ayodhya. It was also decided that the Ram Temple shouldn’t be built by the government or any businessman like the Laxminarayan Temple had been and became more popular as Birla temple.
“The larger society had fought for 500 years for the temple at Ayodhya, so it was decided that we should approach society for the construction of the Ram Temple,” says Pravesh Kumar, who has participated in the 2021 Nidhi Samarpan campaign and also documented the details in the book Sabke Ram.
The VHP functionary says that people were all the while ready to contribute to the construction of the temple. They just needed to be reached.
To explain how people have been waiting for this opportunity, he gives the example of a 95-year-old woman in a village in Sikkim. The elderly woman had over the years kept saving from her meagre pension and donated Rs 51,000 to the volunteers.
Pravesh Kumar then talks about how the Kinnar Samaj also participated in the drive. “Munna Kinnar from Ganj Basoda of Madhya Pradesh gave all the support, Kiran Bai of Rajasthan’s Mewar region contributed Rs 3 lakh and Jodhpur’s Saroj Mausi gave over Rs 5 lakh for the Ram Mandir,” says Kumar.
“Sex workers from near the railway station in Ghatkopar in Mumbai’s suburbs also contributed money,” says Pravesh Kumar, adding, “this shows how Ram is present in every heart”. He also details how beggars from Godia in Nagpur and Gurugram gave away their entire day’s earnings to the Ayodhya Ram Temple.
This is exactly what VHP member Mandeep Bansal recounts from his experience from the fundraising drive in Delhi’s Rohini.
“However meagre someone’s earnings might be, they donated liberally and whatever they could. Street-side cobblers, rickshawallahs, sanitation workers and security guards, everyone came forward to donate for the Ram Temple,” says Mandeep Bansal, a lawyer by profession.
“As soon as they got to know that we were there to collect donations for the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, they themselves offered money,” he says.
Lord Ram and Northeast India
People who were always connected with Lord Ram came forward to contribute. But what about parts of the country where Krishna, and not Ram, is the more popular deity?
Some 2,300 km from Delhi is Assam’s Tinsukia district.
Harish Saikia, RSS zila saha-karyavah (assistant general secretary) of Tinsukia district, says in 2021, he faced questions on the significance of Lord Ram and why people in Assam needed to contribute for a temple coming up in Uttar Pradesh.
He says he explained that the Ram that is mentioned along with Krishna in Assamese prayer and Bihu songs is the Ram of Ayodhya. “We brought in that realisation and connected people to the drive,” says Harish Saikia.
Saikia says now most people know the significance of the Ram Temple that is coming up in Ayodhya. A lot of that is due to the 2021 donation drive and also because of social media, he says.
But those who knew about Lord Ram and the temple contributed as much as possible. Harish Saikia talks about a woman from the Adivasi community who works at a tea garden in Margherita town of Tinsukia district. “She borrowed Rs 11 from a neighbour to donate to the Ram Mandir Nidhi Sanhgraha,” says Saikia.
Ram, the unifying factor
Not just people from the Hindu community, people from all faiths have contributed to the funds for the Ram Mandir construction.
VHP’s Pravesh Kumar gives examples of how Buddhist monks from Arunachal Pradesh and Ladakh, Christians from far-flung villages, Sikhs and Muslims from across the country contributed during the Nidhi Samarpan Abhiyan for the Ram Temple.
Such has been the anticipation for the Ayodhya temple that a person from Uttar Pradesh sold his land as he wanted to contribute Rs 1 crore to the temple fund.
Siyaram Gupta from UP’s Pratapgadh sold 16 bighas of land but still fell short of the Rs 1 crore he wanted to donate. He then borrowed Rs 15 lakh from his relatives. He has been invited to the Pran Pratistha ceremony on January 22.
The excitement is high as the date for the temple’s inauguration nears. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has appealed to people to avoid rushing to Ayodhya on January 22, and light diyas (oil lamps) at home instead.
The VHP and RSS have detailed plans to mark January 22 with prayers at neighbourhood temples and telecasting the Ram Temple consecration event on giant screens across the country.
“When the Pran Pratistha ceremony takes place, we will all go to our nearby temples and offer prayers. After that, we will gather at a place and watch the ceremony live on a giant screen,” says Harish Saikia, who was one of the thousands of volunteers to have connected the Northeast with a Ram Setu (bridge).
As a grand temple comes up in Ayodhya, it will be a Ram Mandir of the crores of people who gave whatever they could. The masses have a stake in the Ram Mandir, which is now their mandir. – India Today, 31 Decemeber 2023
› Yudhajit Shankar Das is a deputy editor at India Today in New Delhi.
Filed under: india | Tagged: ayodhya, indian nationalism, ram lalla virajman, ram temple ayodhya, ramjanmabhumi |
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