THE GIST of Editorial for UPSC Exams : 16 November 2019 (In India, temple-building can be an antidote to the slowdown (Mint))

In India, temple-building can be an antidote to the slowdown (Mint)

Mains Paper 3: Economy
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Relations between Tourism and Religion

Context

•  Karl Marx could not have got it more wrong when he reduced religion to “opium of the people".
•  The Chanakya sutra probably got closest to the truth. It held, among other things, that the basis of dharma is wealth (“dharmasya moolam artha"). Dharma and economic well-being, here, are inextricably intertwined.

Economic improvement

•  In a country struggling to create jobs for our millions, temple tourism offers one major focal area for investment with a huge job multiplier potential.
•  Unlike manufacturing, agriculture and even services, which are increasingly being automated, tourism is one sector where people and storytelling will always be important.
•  Add the infrastructure and commercial potential of other tourist spots, and one wonders why Ayodhya was such a contentious issue.
•  The temple’s construction will benefit both Hindus and Muslims.

Tourism as a sector of development

•  Tourism is driven by four key attractions: natural beauty, esoteric adventure and sports, historical monuments, and religion.
•  While the first three are driven by the quality of upkeep of the assets and attractions involved—something we have simply not managed to ensure—the last one, religious travel, is driven by the inner spiritual drive of individuals.
•  It needs no marketing.
•  The sheer fact that badly kept temples still draw the faithful by the million should tell us what a little bit of investment in better temples and well-managed charitable trusts can do to boost religion-related tourism and commerce.

Sardar Patel statue - A case study

•  A Gujarat state tourism official has been quoted as saying that the ₹3,000 crore Sardar Patel statue earned ₹57 crore from the sale of tickets to 2.6 million visitors between November last year and mid-September.
•  The Taj Mahal, in 2018-19, earned ₹78 crore from 6.8 million tourists, according to replies to questions in the Lok Sabha.
•  If an artificially created tourist spot like the Patel statue—the world’s tallest—can, in less than a year, draw revenues to rival the centuries-old Taj, consider the revenue that can come from religiously motivated tourism around the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya.
•  Not only the temple, but the entire ecosystem around it will generate huge revenues and jobs.
•  North India, in particular, has huge potential for religious tourism because it cradled the birth of major Indic religions like Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism.

Marx’s ideology on religion

•  The problem with the Left is that it thinks of religion as retrograde.
•  Marx’s big contribution was his materialist interpretation of history, but beyond basics, men are not driven only by economic motives.
•  The Left traces the evolution of modern-day India to political unification under the Mughals first and the British later.
•  But this view is highly questionable, for India is really a ground-up nation, a country created from below through a common and deep reverence for the sacred.
•  Diana Eck described India as “a sacred geography", one created by the footprints of pilgrims who traversed the length and breadth of India from ancient times in pursuit of the spiritual and the sacred.

Way ahead

•  In today’s situation of an economic slowdown, our economists prescribe antidotes like investment in infrastructure, and boosting jobs through rural employment guarantee boondoggles, or even direct cash payouts to the poor.
•  But the one thing they have not talked about is investment in religious places and related infrastructure.
•  When economists do not think about the culture they operate in, their remedies fail.

Conclusion

•  There has been much breast-beating about people being unable to buy cheap glucose biscuits or even undergarments in this slowdown, but they will be proved wrong when it comes to funding the Ram temple.
•  People and philanthropists will contribute to building the temple even in the midst of a slowdown.

Online Coaching for UPSC PRE Exam

General Studies Pre. Cum Mains Study Materials

Prelims Questions:

Q1. With reference to the Wastelands Atlas – 2019, consider the following statements:
1. The new wastelands mapping exercise, carried out by National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) using the Indian Remote Sensing Satellite data is brought out as the fifth edition of Wastelands Atlas – 2019.
2. Wastelands Atlas-2019 provides district and state wise distribution of different categories of wastelands area.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
A. 1 only
B. 2 only
C. Both 1 and 2
D. Neither 1 nor 2

Answer: C
Mains Questions:
Q1. How Temple tourism should be a major focal area for investment as it has the potential to generate jobs?