AP News, December 31st, 2007
Thousands of Hindu hard-liners protested Sunday against plans to dredge a new shipping channel off southern India, arguing the project would damage a marine formation that Hindus believe was created by the god Rama.
The $550 million project, aimed at cutting up to 30 hours from the time it takes ships to travel between India's eastern and western coasts, was approved by the government in 2005. The Supreme Court is expected to rule early next year on challenges to the project.
About 84 percent of India's nearly 1.1 billion people are Hindus, and many complain dredging the 104-mile channel would damage what they call Rama's Bridge, a chain of shoals and reefs between India and the island nation of Sri Lanka off India's southern coast.
In Hindu mythology, Rama built the bridge with the aid of the monkey god Hanuman and his army to rescue Rama's wife Sita, who was abducted by the demon king Ravana.
Some Hindu organizations were angered by a September report in which government archaeologists said Rama's Bridge was formed by "several millennia of wave action and sedimentation," and the dredging issue "cannot be viewed solely relying on the contents of mythological text."
The government's position is "an insult to millions of Hindus all over the world," said L.K. Advani, leader of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party.
The government has disavowed the archaeologists' words, and asked the Supreme Court to give it three months to rephrase its legal position on the channel.
The peaceful rally on New Delhi's outskirts was organized by the World Hindu Council, a Hindu nationalist organization.
Speaking at the rally, council president Ashok Singhal warned Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that Hindu organizations would launch a nationwide protest if the government goes ahead with the project.
Singh is under pressure from a partner in his coalition government, Dravida Munnetra Kazhgam of southern India, to expedite work on the channel.
It is estimated the project would cut 460 miles — or about 30 hours' travel time — for ships journeying between eastern and western India by letting vessels travel between India and Sri Lanka. That passage is now too shallow due to the reefs and shoals of Rama's Bridge.
