Commentary
Once Bitten, Once Shy — College Students Across India Celebrate Ram Mandir Inauguration
Colleges across India witnessed celebrations on January 22, as the Ram Mandir was inaugurated.
Saffron flags placed on top of buildings and balconies, loudspeakers blaring songs, actors taking to Instagram to convey their wishes, and sweets distributed in every gully across the country.
Such celebrations were witnessed in Indian colleges on rare occasions — when the Indian cricket team won the ICC World Cup in 2011, for instance.
Similar scenes were however visible once again - as the prana-pratishtha concluded in Ayodhya on January 22, college student bodies and groups were out in force marking the day with much fervour.
There are two ways to see this development — one is your regular browbeating method of branding people for their religious beliefs, and the other is to see this in positive light and allow people to practice their faith.
Swarajya contacted students across India to find out what they did on January 22, and the responses solicited were nothing short of a celebration.
At West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences (NUJS), the students performed an aarti, followed by chanting the Hanuman Chalisa. This was being done at a time when the pran-pratishtha ceremony was being live-streamed.
The scenes were similar at the Indian Institute of Technology (Kharagpur) — students took out a procession and celebrated the inauguration of the Ram Mandir in a state that has been persecuting Hindu activists for speaking their mind. Bengal has also seen violence against Hindu groups during the polls.
The celebrations were not just limited to law colleges, but engineering institutes and science colleges like the prestigious Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru also joined in the celebrations.
The IISc campus was illuminated in celebration of the Ram Mandir inauguration. This landmark event was marked by a series of celebratory observances that drew in students, faculty, staff, and campus residents in a shared display of cultural festivity.
In anticipation of the day, the IISc community distributed 1,500 'Mantrakshata' from the holy city of Ayodhya, symbolising the sanctity of the occasion.
The consecration ceremony was screened live at the CCE hall from 11 AM on January 22. It drew in nearly 600 students, and we are told that an event of this nature is happening perhaps for the first time on campus. Prasad was distributed soon after.
Students lit the campus with diyas, reminiscing Deepavali.
In Ashoka University, one of India's most talked about liberal arts institutions, students performed a pooja and bhajan sandhya on the 22nd, despite opposition from some student groups. Posters of Anand Patwardhan's controversial documentary film 'Raam Ke Naam' were placed in the college, in an attempt to provoke them, students tell Swarajya in anonymity.
Tensions were diffused, thanks to the administration stepping in to intervene. Students add that the management ensured they got the space required to celebrate the occasion.
We received similar reports from Gujarat National Law University (GNLU), Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Mohali (IISER-M), National Law University (Odisha) and NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad.
All in all, the inauguration of the Ram Mandir also seems to have empowered a silent majority of students across the country, who were afraid to speak their minds before.
