Author: N.S. Rajaram
Publication: The Organiser
Date: July 30, 2000
There appears to be some confusion
regarding the Anjuman Deendar Siddeshwara Cult that has now been identified
as the group mainly responsible for Church bombings in South India. The
name Siddeshwara is quintessentially Veerashiava (Lingayat)-a major Shaivite
sect in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. This has led some people-needless
to say including reporters in the 'Secular' press-to portray its founder
and some of its followers as saintly figures driven by the ideal of Hindu-Muslim
unity and the persons arrested for the bombings as aberrations from its
'true' values. This fails to explain why its, prominent leaders escaped
to Pakistan after the Partition, or why its leaders are still in Pakistan.
The truth of the matter is that it was founded with the support of Nizami
officials to covert Veerashaivas in the former Hyderabad State to Islam.
Here are the bare facts. In the
1920s its founder, a Muslim mendicant, went around claiming to be the reincarnation
of Lord Chennabasaveshwara (Basavanna), the founder of Veerashaivism. While
quoting profusely from Basavanna's poems, he proclaimed that all religions
in India were valid but incomplete. His main induction was that it was
unnecessary for the Veerashaivas to wear the lingam, but they could reach
heaven simply by converting to Islam. In other words, he had borrowed a
page from some Christian missionaries who went around presenting Christianity
as the 'completion' of the 'incomplete' Hinduism. This is not very different
from the position of the well known theologian Raimundo Panikkar who in
his book The Unknown Christ of Hinduism proclaimed that the good Hindu
may also be saved by Christ who is working secretly through the Hindu scriptures.
This was swallowed by some gullible Hindus, though in the original Spanish
work titled La India Panikkar referred to Hinduism as 'una mentira' - 'A
Lie.' This was diluted in the English translation.
This camouflage by the founder of
Deendar Anjuman Siddeshwara did not escape notice. A contributor to the
paper Mysore Star (February 1926) cautioned readers that he had the support
of Nizami officials who were sponsoring conversions in the Nizam's domains.
In an article titled 'Warning to Veerashaiva brothers' (in Kannada) the
correspondent cautioned all Veerashaivas against failing in the trap set
by this impostor. But it appears that present day 'secularists' are clutching
at straws to save their faces and their credibility in the flood of news
about the bombings that is directly opposed to their own stories-especially
their unfounded charges against Hindu organizations. If they are serious
about their profession as journalists, they must investigate why Church
spokesmen from John Dayal down rushed to clear Muslim organizations including
the ISI before any evidence was in. They must also investigate the story
behind the false statement of 'minority' spokesman claiming that the Andhra
Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu had promised them to withdraw support
to the NDA Government. Investigating these questionable deeds will go a
long way towards restoring the credibility of these journalists. One cannot
for too long cover up false stories with more false stories.
