Three Muslim youth were found desecrating murtis of Hindu deities in Srirangapatna town, causing tension and resulting in Mysuru-Bengaluru highway being blocked by protesting Hindus.

According to news reports –

“Srirangapatna town was partially shut on Sunday after three Muslim youths were allegedly found desecrating Hindu god idols. As a result, traffic on the Mysuru-Bengaluru highway came to a halt for hours.

According to sources, Hindu Jagaran Vedike (HJV) activists caught the trio allegedly desecrating Hindu god idols on the north side of Srirangapatna fort on Saturday night. The youths were handed over to police. Subsequently, HJV activists called for a bandh in Srirangapatna on Sunday. Police beefed up security in the town by bringing additional force.

 The HJV activists claimed police were initially reluctant to registering a case against the trio. According to them, cops registered a case only after they threatened to stage a protest outside the police station.  Mysuru SP Sudheer Kumar Reddy rushed to Srirangapatna on Saturday midnight with the additional force to ensure there was no flare-up.”

Incidents of Murti Desecration

Desecration of Hindu murtis occurs on a regular basis across Bharat and other countries with Hindu populations, by fundamentalist adherents of Abrahamic faiths (Islam and Christianity). Below is a partial listing of few such cases form the recent past –

May 2016: Christian employee of Hindustan Photo Films damages 8 Hindu temple deities in Udhagamandalam (Ooty), Tamil Nadu

May 2016: Durga Murtis Vandalised in Chandpur, Bangladesh

Feb, 2016: Panic Grips Pakistani Hindus After Karachi Temple Desecration By Armed Muslims

Mar, 2014: Vandals target Thar temple, desecrate murti (Pakistan)

Oct, 2015: Durga murtis desecrated in Hooghly district, West Bengal.

Sept, 2014: 11 Hindu murtis desecrated in Kishoreganj, Bangladesh

Jan, 2010: Shivalingam desecrated in Bagalkot, Karnataka

May, 2008: Hindu murtis desecrated by Muslims in Trinidad and Tobago

What drives this hatred for murtis?

A murti literally means any form, embodiment or solid object, and typically refers to an image, statue or idol of a devata (deity) in Bharatiya culture. By the Prana Pratishtha ceremony, the idol becomes identical with the deity. Hindus worship the devata that is embodied in the murti.

All Abrahamic faiths (Islam, Christianity, Judaism) prohibit idolatory (worship of idols). Islamic & Christian doctrine in particular, being aggressively proselytizing religions, represents idolators as devil worshipers who are bound for hell fire. This is a central tenet of these faiths, on which all their sects & mainstream religious clergy agree. Thus, adherents of Islam and Christianity hold iconoclasm (destruction of idols) as a ‘good deed’, wherein they are ‘rescuing’ people from darkness and sin. Sadly, this bigotry has never been challenged in the public discourse of Bharat – and unless such bigotry is abolished, all talk of secularism and religious tolerance is just so much hot air.

The subdued coverage in our national media of such regular incidents of murti desecration is explained best by this India Facts piece which says –

“One cannot help but contrast this with how news of attacks on Christian institutions were reported recently in the same mainstream print and TV media, and conclusions reached on primetime debates complete with half a dozen panelists even before the police had a chance to investigate. It was of course found later that of the six incidents, five were of burglary, drunken behaviour, electrical short circuiting, kids playing outside, etc. In short, anything but an attack by the media’s favourite punching bags—Hindu outfits.”