A lot is being said about Hanuman ji in recent days. First, there was a manufactured controversy where UP CM Yogi Adityanath was misquoted by media. Media reports claimed that Yogi Adityanath has said Hanuman ji was a Dalit, which was soon found to be gross misquotation and misrepresentation of facts.
Indian political scenario nowadays competes and sometimes defeats Bollywood in absurdity and drama content. More often than not, we find ourselves checking whether a news portal is real or a parody one, because, such is our predicament that parodies sound real while real sounds increasingly like parody these days.
Another glimpse of it was witnessed yesterday when BJP legislator Bukkal Nawab claimed that Hanuman ji was a Muslim. Though he did not claim copyrights over Bajrangbali, he said that he thinks Hanuman ji was a Muslim. His reasoning, all Muslim names like Rehman, Suleiman, Farman are inspired from Hanuman.
#WATCH: BJP MLC Bukkal Nawab says “Hamara man’na hai Hanuman ji Muslaman theyy, isliye Musalmanon ke andar jo naam rakha jata hai Rehman, Ramzan, Farman, Zishan, Qurban jitne bhi naam rakhe jaate hain wo karib karib unhi par rakhe jaate hain.” pic.twitter.com/1CoBIl4fPv
— ANI (@ANI) December 20, 2018
Twitter users had some more ideas to further the reasoning of deep secrets behind rhyming vocabulary.
We Hindus believe that Hanuman ji is immortal and he has been present all along since Treta Yug to modern days. Now another BJP leader has claimed that Hanuman ji is probably Jaat, considering his ‘nature’. Recently, there was also a claim of Hanuman ji being a Jain.
It is not even the first time that Hanuman ji is being discussed in a political context. Not long ago, images of Hanuman ji, created by artist Karan Acharya went immensely popular all over the country. Soon, secular, liberal intellectuals started complaining how the ‘Angry Hanuman’ represents a ‘militant-Hindu’ stereotype and is fanning communalism in India.
Now that Hanuman ji’s caste, nature and probably political affiliations are being discussed, let us elaborate the issue a bit.
Hanuman ji is the son of a King, Kesari and his wife, Anjana. Now, regarding his birthplace, many believe that he was born in Gokarna in Karnataka, some say he was born on the Anjeneya hill near Hampi, also in Karnataka. Before the Karnataka government stakes a claim over Hanuman ji’s home state status, let it be known that Maharashtra too claims that Hanuman ji was born at a place called Anjaneri mountain in Nasik district.
What if Hanuman ji is a Kannadiga first, well the rioting people in Bengaluru who torched a hundred buses in 2016 during the Kaveri agitation did imitate some of his activities on a minuscule scale. But Hanuman ji is vegetarian, so we don’t think he will be motivated to burn anything for a plate of biriyani.
While people in the Hindi-belt can argue over Hanuman ji being Jaat, Muslim or Gujjar, the newly formed government in Sri Lanka might sue him and claim compensation for burning their capital city to ashes. considering they had to lease an entire port to China recently, the financial prospects might motivate our neighbours in the south to sue our beloved god.
Since Maharashtra also seems to claim his birthplace, an all-out inter-state war between Karnataka and Maharashtra for claiming Hanuman ji as their own cannot be ruled out either. Imagine a situation where Mrs Fadnavis goes on a selfie-clicking spree with Bajrangbali while HD Kumaraswamy visits 10 Janpath to seek Sonia ji’s advice on what to do next.
Any Hindu who has read Ramayan and believes in Hanuman ji knows that he is beyond the narrow definitions of caste, creed, region, and language. Born as a Rudra Avatar, Hanuman ji, who, as per Hindu scriptures, could threaten the very existence of the sun in his childhood, represents the greatness that lies beyond these narrow identities.
Like Yogi Adityanath actually said, Hanuman ji represents every Indian from north to south, rich to poor, regardless of what caste or religion they conform to. He was a war strategist, a bureaucrat, a skilled diplomat, a loyal soldier, and a fierce warrior.
If we Indians want to relate ourselves to any ‘activity’ of Hanuman ji, it should be the shedding of self-doubt and believing in our inner strength that we are capable of greater things. Like Hanuman ji was once cursed to forget his strength to cross the ocean in a single leap, we seem to have forgotten our true identities in narrow lanes of casteism and regionalism. Jai Hanuman.
