Is Harishankar Jain a true Hindu hero?

For decades, 70-year-old advocate Harishankar Jain has fought relentlessly for what he considers the restoration of India’s spiritual heritage: reclaiming Hindu temples allegedly demolished during centuries of foreign rule to build mosques. In a career spanning over four decades, Jain’s legal battles have expectedly stirred both admiration and controversy. Jain’s journey was deeply influenced by his upbringing. His mother, a staunch Hindu well-versed in scriptures like the Bhagavad Gita and the Vedas, homeschooled him during a frail childhood. Her teachings imbued in him a sense of purpose: to restore Hindu temples lost to history. Rejecting his father's desire for him to pursue civil services, Jain trained as a lawyer, expressly to fulfill his mother’s vision. He began practicing law in 1979 but rose to national prominence in the 1990s during the Ayodhya movement. Serving as counsel for the Hindu Mahasabha in the Babri Masjid case, Jain played a significant role in the legal narrative that culminated in the eventual construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya. Jain’s work goes far beyond Ayodhya. With over 100 petitions filed for Hindu causes, he has spearheaded legal efforts to reclaim temple sites across India. Alongside his son Vishnu, he has fought to seal the Gyanvapi Mosque in Varanasi, claiming it was originally the Kashi Vishwanath Temple, and has pursued similar cases in Mathura’s Krishna Janmabhoomi and Delhi’s Qutub Minar complex. In 1993, his petition led to the opening of the gates of the Babri Masjid for Hindu prayers, a pivotal moment in the Ayodhya dispute. More recently, Hari and Vishnu have argued for surveys of disputed sites like the Gyanvapi Mosque, claiming to have found a shivling structure. Their legal expertise has revived old claims, and challenged India’s Places of Worship Act, which prohibits changing the religious character of any place of worship as it stood in 1947. Harishankar's work intertwines legal strategy with ideological conviction, and makes temple restoration a rallying cry for Hindu groups, championing the rights of Hindus. However, Jain is undoubtedly a polarizing figure, whose efforts could undermine India’s secular ethos and threaten communal harmony. His legal battles have far-reaching implications and have sparked communal unrest on a number of occasions. Hindus in India should be asking these questions - Is Harishankar's mission a rightful reclamation of cultural heritage? Or does his work risk deepening the fissures in a deeply divided society? Is he a hero? Or is he a dividing an already divided country? https://preview.redd.it/mm6rmot64rbe1.jpg?width=572&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d4e5417a7c590611f4222eac85bed9291c7b15c9