A French fix for Ayodhya! : The Tribune India

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A French fix for Ayodhya!

The Supreme Court, describing the Ayodhya dispute over its title, pending since 1949, as a “matter of sentiments and religion”, appealed for an amicable settlement.

A French fix for Ayodhya!

Illustration: Sandeep Joshi



Mukund Kunte

The Supreme Court, describing the Ayodhya dispute over its title, pending since 1949, as a “matter of sentiments and religion”, appealed for an amicable settlement. However, that is neither pragmatic nor plausible. It may be a well-meaning idea but it is unlikely to yield results. Therefore, constitutionality and law should prevail.

Anyhow, let me wind back to a French solution thought out by Eileen Savdie who was my wife's hostel room-mate in Sorbonne in 1960. A Mormon from Utah but a Parisienne by wedlock, she was visiting us after three decades en route Australia. She was overwhelmed with her first look at India, despite the dismal brush with the visa people and Air India.

She was fascinated by the bindi and wore one all the time that she was here. "If I had meant it as a method of contact with people, I couldn't have done better", she wrote to Anu from Perth. "I'll never forget those whole lines of children, the way they cracked up when they had a look at my face and yelled a 'Hullooooo' at me. Thank you for that magical little package, Aouski. Great piece of make-up that thing."

The Ayodhya strife was brewing that December and had exploded in the two days between Eileen's departure and the scheduled arrival of her grand-nephew. But David and his friend Hellen got stuck in Bangkok because, “nobody could fly into that angry country of yours”, Eileen yelled at us on the phone. So agitated was she that on returning to her Rule Descombes apartment in Paris she wrote at length suggesting a French solution for Ayodhya. 

“An Indian client of mine said to me the other day that a long time ago it was a Hindu temple. It was torn down and a mosque was built. And that got me to thinking. Wouldn't it be a wonderful ideal to build a combined temple-mosque that would symbolise cohabitation and friendship between religions?”

Eileen added, "We have an ecumenical project here in Paris that will have no cross, no paintings, no symbolism. It will be Catholic because that's the majority here. Your building, like the multi-cultural theme in the architecture of your President's Home, could have both Hindu and Muslim symbolism, and that could be used by both groups, each one three days a week and the seventh would be for maintenance by both groups working together to preserve something they build jointly. I think having a multi-religious symbolism in the building would be a more dramatic message that 'le freak' that's supposed to be built here in Paris, without any at all. What do you think, my Kuntes? There must be money in India for such a project? Who would be financing the temple? Surely there are plenty of Muslims and Hindus that could be convinced that a massive inspiring symbol of cohabitation and the sister/brotherhood of humankind would be less costly that tearing each other's building down periodically and building another? And think of the tourists it would draw”. 

“If you think it has any merit at all or might at all be feasible, we could put together a project and submit it to (a) both Hindu and Muslim monks, or (b) to international organisations. Do write if anything constructive develops.

Your ever-loving ancienne comrade de chamber —Eileen”. 

The writer is a former Additional Secretary in the Cabinet Secretariat.

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