Meet Hate Offender Nischalananda Saraswati The Shankaracharya of Puri has been demanding that India be declared a "Hindu Rashtra"
05, May 2022 | CJP Team
Notorious for his demand that India be declared a Hindu Rashtra, Swami Nischalananda Saraswati is an influential figure as he holds the title of the 145th Jagadguru Shankaracharya of the Purvamnaya Govardhana Peetham of Puri. However, his words are hardly saint-like, given his calls for reinstatement of the caste system, and rejection of the concept of gender equality, relegating women to the status of second-class citizens.
Saraswati was born in Darbhanga in 1943 as the son of the raj-Pandita of Maharaja of Darabhanga. After learning vedic mathematics in the Tibbia College, he went on to study shastras at Kashi, Vrindavan, Naimisaranya, Shringeri among other places.
Every once in a while, Saraswati makes news headlines for right-wing mouthpieces with announcements of ‘protecting’ Hindus from ‘jihad attacks’. On May 3, 2022, Sudarshan News talked about how Saraswati will publicly resolve to turn India into a ‘Hindu Rashtra”. Though the Govardhan Math itself called the event Prakatyotsav to celebrate the birth anniversary of the Shankaracharya. Still, his views regarding Hindu-Muslim interaction are not a mystery.
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Saraswati, along with three fellow gurus, have repeatedly stressed the ‘need’ to “proclaim and affirm a resolution” that India be turned into a Hindu state. During an event in Raipur in February 2022, Dainik Bhaskar quoted him as saying, “I was speaking in Kanpur once. I did not know that some Muslims were also sitting there. I said that there should be welfare of the world. They were surprised to hear this because they never think like this… They think Hindus should be divided.” This was clearly an attempt o defame Muslims.
Similarly, a month before this, he attended a Sant Sammellan to discuss ways to “counter Islamic jihad” and “help create a Hindu nation”. The organisers of this event were the same people who organised the Dharm Sansad in December 2021. However, Saraswati’s communal convictions run deeper.
Even during anti-CAA and NRC-NPR protests, the Jagadguru made the same demand for a religion-based nation. In 2020, Hindustan Times reported how Saraswati told reports that there was no country for Hindus although many countries are declared as Muslim and Christian nations. He claimed that it was the responsibility of the United Nations to declare India, Nepal and Bhutan as Hindu nations.
Watch the first two minutes of this video to hear his argument.
((TRIGGER WARNING: COMMUNAL CONTENT))
Similarly on June 18, 2006, he said, “Hindutva is facing severe jolts all over the world. Muslim fundamentalists and Christian missionaries are the age-old enemies of Hinduism. Next to them the communists have come forward to squeeze the throat of this great way of life. They have also walked a long way in this deadly mission.”
Saraswati has also repeatedly voiced his support for the caste system. In 2020, CJP’s sister organisation SabrangIndia had reported how the Shankaracharya said that people’s “fate” is determined at birth. During Lok Sabha elections, he earned the anger of the Akhil Bharatiya Sant Samidhi in in Ranchi, Jharkhand for saying, “Dalits should not enter temples.”
His views about caste are especially dangerous considering he talks about ‘alternative-castes’ who do the opposite of what is expected of ‘khandani caste’ community. He argues that the caste determines the work and Indian education and the army suffers because non-Brahmins and non-Kshatriyas enter these fields.
Around 1994, India Today reported how Odisha Law Minister Narasingha Mishra challenged the Swami’s succession. Mishra produced government files and other documents to accuse Nischalananda of wrongfully usurping the Shankaracharya’s mantle. This controversy came after a sexist comment by the saint wherein he said “women did not have religious sanction to recite the Vedas”.
Image Courtesy: newindianexpress.com
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