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Lucknow is all the way Hindu, pushes Sangh Parivar

Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow

Having exhausted the Lord Ram card, the saffron brigade has now turned towards the Hindu god's brother, Lakshman.

Lucknow's association with the legendary figure has come in handy for the Sangh Parivar, whose leaders are currently engaged in a one-point campaign to emphasise that the state capital has much more than the legacy of Wajid Ali Shah and the other nawabs of Avadh.

"In the hype that was built over the years about Lucknow as the City of nawabs or as the City of gardens, its origin simply got lost," says Urban Development and Housing Minister Lalji Tandon, the main source of inspiration behind the Lakshman mela [festival] here.

"The mela is aimed at reflecting the real picture of Lucknow. So far, what has been projected is only a fraction of the city's heritage," he adds.

"After all," he continues, "Lucknow does not mean simply nawabs and their culture. It has much more. People seem to completely ignore the fact that Lucknow was founded by none other than Lakshman, who named it Lakshmanpuri."

Chief Minister Ram Prakash Gupta dutifully echoed these sentiments at the inaugural ceremony of the mela on February 1.

City Mayor Dr S C Rai went further: "So far there has been only one mega cultural event in the city - the Lucknow mahotsava in which the emphasis was only on highlighting the nawabi culture of this historic city. As if to say that Lucknow began and ended with just that! The Lucknow Municipal Corporation, therefore, decided to organise this event."

A pamphlet circulated to the visitors goes into the "forgotten past" of the city and credits the LMC with identifying the true origin of the place.

Rai and Tandon have also succeeded in ensuring that the grand finale of the 12-day festival is graced by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee , who happens to be the local member of Parliament.

That Tandon and Rai are averse to the theme behind the Lucknow mahotsava was visible in the manner they scuttled the prime minister's visits to that festival in the past two years. Many believe that the manner in which Vajpayee's programmes in the state capital clashed with the inauguration of the festival, both in 1998 and in 1998, could not have been sheer coincidence.

What is godsend to the saffron brigade is the high court ban on holding public events in the Begum Hazrat Mahal Park, where the Lucknow mahotsava was traditionally held.. Named after the wife of Lucknow's last nawab, Wajid Ali Shah, the park had been the venue for such festivals as well as political rallies until the high court stepped in.

The saffron clan was in any case never enthusiastic about the projection of the park anyhow, since it was named after a nawab's wife (despite the fact that she shot to fame for leading a recluse army against the British). So they have promptly found an alternative site for their Lakshman mela.

Interestingly, the authorities have roped in the Archaeological Survey of India to act as a partner in organising the event.

"The idea to involve the ASI was aimed at taking the people of this city to its true origin, to let them have a glimpse of their rich historical past," Tandon told rediff.com.

He lamented, "Today's generation seems to associate Lucknow only with the Nawabi or British monuments, without having the least idea of the archaeological remnants dating back to over 2,000 years that had been excavated from the old site of Lakshmanpuri."

The ASI, for its part, has put up a photo exhibition with pictures of the city's past, obviously to drill into everyone that Lucknow is associated with the Hindu Lakshman and not the Muslim nawabs.

As if that is not enough, the festival, that loudly boasts of providing an opportunity for open discourses on all religious "faiths", limits itself only to discourses by different Hindu congregations. The evening too is laced with only Hindu bhajans.

Yet, the organisers proclaim Lucknow as "that great city that was built by Lakshman as the ultimate centre of pilgrimage for all religious faiths!"

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