Peace activists from various religions have launched a series of interreligious prayer services at different parts of Varanasi as sectarian tension over the Gyan Vapi mosque controversy gripped Hinduism’s most sacred city.
“These prayers are taken from ten different religious sources namely Hindu, Tao, Jewish, Zoroastrian, Jain, Buddhist, Christian and Muslim faith tra-ditions. They were sung regularly by Mahatma Gandhi in his ashrams along with his disciples and satyagrahis,” Father Anand Mathew, a cultural activist in Varanasi, told on May 23.
The Indian Missionary Society priest further said they use the Hindi version of those hymns translated by renowned Gandhian Narayan Desai. Father Mathew also distributed among the public those songs printed in a pocket size booklet
The prayer campaign was first launched May 20 in the cam-pus of Benares Hindu University on, with students who support peace, secularism and dialogue as participants. Later prayer meetings were also held in Maidagin and Shaheed Udyan Sigra.
Jagriti Rahi, a Gandhian who attended the prayer meetings, says common people of Varanasi do not want any more riots and curfews. The entire city now debates whether a stone found in the pool of ablutions in the mosque premise is a shivling (the phallic image of Lord Shiva) or an abandoned fountain.
She recalled the experiencing the pain from the wounds of riots immediately after the Babri Masjid violence and the consequent month-long curfew three decades ago.