Chandni Chowk Durga Temple Vandalism: Or the Vengeance of the Vanquished Secular Sultanate

On a visit to Delhi three years ago, I made it a point to visit the historic Sis Ganj Gurudwara. It is the site of one of the greatest heroes of Sanatana Dharma, the indomitable Guru Tegh Bahadur who splendidly showed the middle finger to the Islamic monster, Aurangzeb. And paid for it brutally. It was the lion-like trio of Guru Tegh Bahadur, Chhatrapati Shivaji and Maharaja Chhatrasal who set fire to the foundations of Aurangzeb’s wretched Jihadi Empire and showed that no matter how great or powerful, every monster can and should be brought down. They inaugurated a powerful new wave of Sanatana resistance and rejuvenation that would endure all the way throughout the Indian Freedom Movement. I had the same experience when I next visited the Rakab Ganj Gurudwara built on the site of Guru Tegh Bahadur’s disciple, the noble Lakhi Shah Vanzara’s home. This courageous soldier of Dharma risked his life to steal Guru Tegh Bahadur’s body lest it be defiled even in death by Aurangzeb’s Jihadi foot soldiers. You will go mute when you learn that Lakhi burnt down his own house to give a proper cremation to Guru Tegh Bahadur. This among countless other ways was how Sanatana Dharma was preserved and is a major reason why India continues to remain a Bharatiya-majority country.

It was difficult not to weep when I recalled all this history sitting in those sacred precincts.

Then something else struck me when I stepped out of the Sis Ganj Gurudwara. You know who’s a neighbor of sorts of Sis Ganj? Sunehri Masjid. And then the physical environs of Sis Ganj. Chandni Chowk. Old Delhi. When you walk around the streets and gullies in the general Old Delhi area, it’s hard not to get the feeling that you’re in Lahore or Karachi. Here are some names at random that I recall from my memory of that visit: Masjid Auliya, Masjid Badi, Masjid Momin, Kutub Khana, Lal Masjid, and not to forget, the Jama Masjid. There are also countless Dargahs and various hues of Islamic Centers dotting this general landscape.

These are physical, concrete, and real sites of permanent occupation. The fact that thousands of Delhiites pass by them daily as they carry on with their routine lives only shows that this permanent occupation has been normalized in our collective civilizational psyche.  

Now think of sacred sites like the Sis Ganj Gurudwara and what they symbolize. These are sites in a state of permanent siege. Now think what this contrast symbolizes. This is why I never tire of urging Hindus to read history.

Cruel as it may sound, I wasn’t the least surprised when I read news and saw the horrific visuals of the Jihadi vandalism of the century-old Durga Temple in Chandni Chowk. Like Sis Ganj this was also in a state of permanent siege. Like Sis Ganj, the vast clutch of numerous Hanuman Mandirs dotting Old Delhi are in a similar state. All it takes is that one fatal strike of the matchstick.

And if you think that the Durga Mandir vandalism and desecration is a coincidence, think again. There’s really nothing coincidental or spontaneous about a mob of 300-plus Muslims bludgeoning their way into the temple, vandalizing the Murti of Durga Mata and attacking neighbouring Hindu homes and molesting Hindu women.  

It is simply the latest eruption of a pattern that’s been steadily increasing roughly over the last month or so. Mostly in the proverbial Indo-Gangetic Plain. This phenomenon has a name: The Vengeance of the Vanquished Secular Sultanate.

Narendra Modi’s emphatic re-election with 303 Lok Sabha seats in the recent general elections—that’s a substantial 21-seat increase from 2014—has sent a clear message to the entire Secular Sultanate: that the old templates have been permanently erased. And the Secular Sultanate has read the message equally clearly. There’s no way they can ever hope to recapture political power from someone like Narendra Modi and Amit Shah. More so when there’s not a single state in the whole country where they can manufacture mischief in the old manner by using the state machinery.

And so the Secular Sultanate has resorted to what every desperate person does in times of crisis: regular, unceasing, random, street-level violence. To do this, they have obviously activated their biggest and tried-and-tested component: their Peaceful Goon Squad. To incite and launch unprovoked attacks against Hindus and their sacred institutions in order to elicit a violent reaction. Nothing will make their wet dreams come true as the eruption of a real civil war. Indeed, a violent Hindu reaction is what the Secular Sultanate desperately wants so that the Gujarat 2002 Template can be revived on an international scale. The facts speak for themselves. Look at this horrifying list of 50 hate crimes committed by Muslims against Hindus in the geography ranging from Jharkhand, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Bihar, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka. The crimes range from Love Jihad, temple vandalism, murder, forcible eviction of Hindus, killing anti-cow slaughter activists, gang rape, killing of sadhus, stone-pelting, and forcible conversions to Islam.

Make no mistake. This is today’s version of the dreaded Direct Action Day or the Great Calcutta Killings. Only, it’s far more insidious, spread across the entire nation wherever Muslims are in considerable numbers. And Hindus as a community are far more defenseless and far more vulnerable than back then.

This jeopardy is also multi-pronged today. Think about it. Who are the most vociferous “atheists” in India today? Hindus. Who are the first to whitewash and obfuscate the truth about the rampaging Muslim mobs? Hindus. Who are the first to even defend these mobs? Hindus. Here’s an eminent sample. Every Hindu parent must ensure that their kids stay far away from this specimen.

Who will be recruited by the New York Times, Washington Post, and the rest of the Mullah-loving media in India and abroad to claim that Hindus should blame themselves for getting killed? Hindus. Actually, it has already started. Here’s a sample headline from the loathsome Huffington Post: How BJP Supporters Turned A Fight Over Parking Into A ‘Terror Attack.’ This will be followed by a slew of articles in the coming days on this theme: “see, we told you in 2014 itself that Narendra Modi has turned India into a Hindu majoritarian fascist state. This is the proof.”

As far as Hindus are concerned, blaming Narendra Modi and Amit Shah for not doing anything is self-defeating. It is both unrealistic and foolish to expect the Prime Minister and Home Minister to lead a mob to retaliate. There are multiple ways to achieve an objective. It took several decades of sustained, patient and strategic work to finally pass the J&K Amendment Bill in the Parliament. But more dangerously, this kind of frenzied, thoughtless and kneejerk reaction from the Hindus amounts to walking into the trap that the Secular Sultanate has set. They gain the upper hand in direct proportion to the abuse that Hindus heap on the leader they elected with such a great majority.

Hindus as a community have come to this pass owing to the combined effect of a multitude of reasons most of which are historical. But the net effect has been the fatal weakening of the spine of the Hindu Samaj. And it is better to face the bitter truth directly than perish horribly by living in constant denial. When Hindus send their kids to Christian schools and give them an “education” that teaches them nothing about their own roots, when Hindus don’t monitor what their kids are reading and watching on the mobile, when Hindus aren’t vigilant about the company their kids keep, when Hindus don’t narrate stories from their sacred lore, when Hindus don’t tell their kids about the past heroes who kept their Dharma alive, when Hindus don’t celebrate their own festivals as a family and community…when Hindus fail in this sacred and mandatory duty over a few generations, they lose their will to fight because by then they would’ve lost the capacity to even recognize that they have been besieged.

The Murti of Durga Mata will lie shattered.