Inaugurating Temples in the UAE is No Way to ‘Decolonise’ Indian Culture

After the inauguration of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya in January 2024, Prime Minister Modi was seen inaugurating the BAPS Swaminarayan Mandir in the UAE (United Arab Emirates). The event made big news.

It was also accompanied by another instalment of editorials and social media posts by BJP leaders and Hindutva ideologues that described the UAE mandir inauguration as the start of the 'decolonisation' of India's culture.

Really?

How does that sit with the fact that there are already 1550 Swaminarayan mandirs across the world? In fact, the mandir that the Prime Minister inaugurated in the UAE, is simply mandir #1551. And that’s along with 3,850 Swaminarayan centers around the world as well. And, remember this is just one Hindu sect among many.

For instance, there are over 650 ISKCON Krishna temples across the world. There’s also the predominantly South Indian diaspora with their Shaivaite temples, old and recent, spread across Southeast Asia. There’s the Jain diaspora, be it in Antwerp’s diamond district or the US. Did you know there are over 100 Jain temples and cultural centers across the US?

India’s Vast Cultural Footprint is Not a Recent Phenomenon

Let’s also talk about the Sikh diaspora. There are over 600 Gurudwaras just in the US, UK, and Canada. As a matter of fact, there are already 7 gurudwaras in the UAE!

From Fiji to Australia and New Zealand, to Durban in South Africa, to Zanzibar in Tanzania, to Trinidad, Suriname, and Guyana in the Caribbean - everywhere Indians have landed over the centuries, they have literally carried their ‘culture’ in their suitcases and held on to it proudly. The desi restaurants and clothes shops, the mandirs and gurudwaras, the traditional marriages complete with Indian film music – literally tell us that there are millions of culturally proud Indians all over the world, and they need no one to ‘decolonise’ their minds.

And India’s vast cultural footprint is not a recent phenomenon. Just FYI - Bahrain’s Srinathji Temple is over 200 years old, and Muscat’s Sri Shiva Temple is over 100 years old.

Far from being culturally ‘colonised’, if anything, all this demonstrates the strength and spread and acceptance of Indian culture all over the world, and of India’s genuine worldwide ‘soft power’. It is decades old, and in some places, centuries old.

So, what really is going on here? Simply put, it is political spin - a political campaign ahead of the 2024 elections, to target the Hindu vote again. It would not help to present the UAE Mandir inauguration as a routine ‘ribbon-cutting’ event for the PM, which is what it really is.

Therefore the spin - that every such temple inauguration is part of ‘decolonizing’ Indian culture. It also ties in well with the narrative of majoritarian victimhood which is regularly served up by Hindutva ideologues. Except, as we have demonstrated, Indian culture has always been alive and kicking and thriving, not just in India, but across the world.

By This Logic, ‘Decolonisation’ of Indian Culture Started a Long Time Ago

Also, while the PM’s ‘ribbon-cutting’ at new temples seems to be a novel idea, there is a reason why no other Indian Prime Minister has focused on temple inaugurations - because of the word ‘SECULAR’ in our Constitution. That said, it is a choice that the BJP can exercise. Marrying religion and politics, positioning a Hindu identity and Indian identity as interchangeable, is at the heart of the BJP’s politics, and so the party may well embrace temple inaugurations. But to claim that these inaugurations are ‘decolonising’ Indian culture… sorry, that happened long ago.

In fact, look at the popular McDonald’s McAloo Tikki burger. What does it signify? It’s the story of a massively popular food chain, the epitome of American ‘soft culture’, that had to accept the stubborn cultural response of the Indian palette, and come up with the ‘AlooTikki’ burger, 30 years ago, to succeed in India. Clear evidence that we have never really been culturally ‘colonised’.

What about Rishi Sunak, England’s Prime Minister, celebrating Diwali at 10, Downing Street? Doesn’t it suggest that for quite some time now, Indian culture has, in fact, colonised the coloniser!

And yet, one would hasten to add, that this whole vocabulary and conversation about ‘our’ culture, and ‘their’ culture, or about one culture rubbing the nose of another into the ground, makes me uncomfortable. Civilisation is not a ‘contest’ of cultures or religions, even though today there is a rising tide of jingoistic leaders and their followers across the world who aggressively position it that way.

To My Mind, the Apt Word is Synthesis

To a perceptive student of history, it would be evident, that while armies have clashed, cultures often have not. After coming in contact with each other, they studied each other, learned from each other, and synthesised.

When Alexander marched into Egypt in 332 BC, it did not mark the victory of Greek or Hellenic culture over the equally rich Egyptian culture. In fact, we saw a synthesis of these two great cultures in the city of Alexandria that Alexander founded there. On Alexander’s death in 323 BC, his close friend and general Ptolemy took on the traditional title of Pharoah, kicking off a dynasty that ruled Egypt for the next 300 years, gradually merging their Greek identity with Egyptian culture completely.

In India too, during the centuries of the Sultanate and Mughal rule in Delhi, we did not see a ‘clash’ of cultures. Instead, we saw the evolution of the rich Ganga-Jamuni ‘tehzeeb’, a genuine synthesised cultural tradition that has endured till today.

For a more modern example, look at ‘Bhangra-Reggae’, the synthesis of Punjabi and Jamaican music culture, that didn’t happen in India or the Caribbean, but in the UK, which has become such a genuine cultural melting pot of people from all corners of the former ‘empire’. As it should be.

And finally, one should applaud the people and the Emir of UAE for embracing a Swaminarayan Mandir. I am not ready to bet on when India is likely to return the favour. A new, grand Mosque somewhere in India, with UAE’s Emir as the chief guest at the inauguration, is not likely to be one of the BJP’s election promises for the 2024 Elections.