神の名彫った体が「寺院」　カースト最下層のヒンズー教徒　印

【ジャイジャイプール（インド）ＡＦＰ＝時事】インド・ウッタルプラデシュ州の聖地アヨディヤに１月、モスク（イスラム礼拝所）跡地に建てられたヒンズー教寺院の開設式典に国中の名士が集まった。（写真は、インド中部チャッティスガル州ジャイジャイプールで開催されたヒンズー教のラーマ神の信者「ラムナミ」の祭典に集った人々）
　だが、この寺院に祭られたラーマ神を最も熱烈に信奉する宗教運動「ラムナミ」の人々は、ヒンズー教のカースト制度の最下層ダリットに属するために聖地への立ち入りを禁じられてきた。
　ラムナミ運動の人々は頭からつま先まで流れるような文字でラーマ神の名を彫り、身をもってその信心深さを示している。
　クジャクの羽の冠をかぶり、やはりラーマ神の名が書かれた白いショールをまとった７０代のセトバイ・ラムナミさんは「ラーマの名に身をささげた」と語る。「寺院へは行ったことがない。ラーマの像に花をささげたことすらない」
　タトゥーだけでなく、献身を示すため、この運動の名を姓として名乗る。
　■抵抗のタトゥー
　１００年以上前、寺院への入場を拒否されたダリットの祖先たちは、灯油ランプから出るすすで作ったインクと針で対抗した。
　高位カーストのヒンズー教徒に対し、ラーマ神はカーストや性別に関係なく、万人のための神だと示す抵抗のメッセージがタトゥーだった。
　２億４０００万ドル（約３６０億円）をかけて建てられた新たな寺院の場所には、１６世紀に建造されたモスク（イスラム礼拝所）があった。
　だが、ナレンドラ・モディ首相の所属政党で、ヒンズー国家主義を掲げるインド人民党（ＢＪＰ）の支持者らが１９９２年に、モスクを取り壊した。これをきっかけに、イスラム教徒を中心に約２０００人が死亡するインド独立以来最悪の宗教暴動が起こった。
　今年の総選挙で３期目の続投を目指すモディ氏は、ヒンズー教寺院の開設によって自らの支持基盤をいっそう固めようとしている。
　だが、ラムナミ運動の人々は、自分たちのタトゥーはどんな寺院よりも強いと言う。グララム・ラムナミさん（５２）は、アヨディヤ寺院に集う人々にとってラーマ神がいるのは「偶像の中」だが、「われわれは自分の体を寺院にしたのだ」と語った。
　新たな寺院の歴史に刻まれた暴力についても指摘する。「ラーマは決してモスクを壊せなどとは言わないし、イスラム教のアラー（神）も決して寺院を壊せとは言わない」
　ヒンズー教徒は死者を火葬することが多いが、ラムナミの人々は土葬を選ぶ。ラーマ神の名を燃やしたくないからだ。
　グララム・ラムナミさんは「カーストが低いと思われることなど気にしない。われわれはカーストや階級が意味を持たない土地に属している」と述べた。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2024/02/14-16:23）

While India's great and good gather for the opening of a controversial temple to the Hindu god Ram, some of his most fervent but least privileged adherents gather separately to celebrate the deity -- covered from head to toe in tattoos of his name.
Once barred from entering holy sites because of their place at the bottom of India's millennia-old caste hierarchy, members of the Ramnami religious movement aim to show that all can worship their beloved Ram.
But as India prepares to inaugurate the temple at Ayodhya -- built on the site of an ancient mosque torn down by Hindu zealots in 1992 -- the Ramnamis say they have made an even bolder display of their faith.
They have inked Ram's name over and over on their bodies in flowing rhythmic script.
I devoted my body in his name, said Setbai Ramnami, wearing a crown of peacock feathers and draped in a white shawl also covered with Ram's name.
I have never been to a temple... I have not even offered flowers to a Ram idol, said Setbai, who is in her 70s and a member of India's 200-million-strong Dalit castes, those once known as untouchables.
As well as tattoos, members take the movement's name as their surname to show their total commitment.
- Defiant message -
When Setbai's ancestors were denied entry to temples more than a century ago, they fought back with a needle and ink made from the residue of kerosene lamps.
The tattoos were a defiant message to higher caste Hindus that the god they were being prevented from worshipping was for everyone, irrespective of caste and gender.
For many Hindus, the temple opening on Monday will be a long-held dream come true.
In the early 1990s, the party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi backed the campaign to destroy the mosque where the temple now sits -- triggering modern India's worst religious riots that killed 2,000 people, most of them Muslims.
Now the $240 million structure is set to consolidate Modi's Hindu base as he seeks a third term in general elections later this year.
But the Ramnamis say their devotion, etched on their skin, is stronger than any physical structure built in the god's name.
For us, Ram is everywhere, in every particle, in every sound, said 52-year-old Gularam Ramnami, adding that for those celebrating the Ayodhya temple Ram resides in an idol.
We made our bodies a temple.
Many of the scores of Ramnamis meeting Sunday for an annual gathering in Chhattisgarh state said they welcomed the Ram temple's opening.
But they also urged caution and pointed to the violent history of the structure.
Ram never says break a mosque, and Allah never says break a temple, Gularam said.
We have always said never hurt anybody through thoughts, words or actions.
- 'An ideology' -
It took a whole day for Setbai to have her face tattooed, but she insists she did not feel pain because it was done in devotion.
There will come a day when we will all leave, she said. It is good that I have immersed myself in devotion... this is exactly how I want to die.
But times are changing for the Ramnamis too.
Full-body tattoos are becoming less common, as some younger devotees looking for jobs limit the etchings to body areas they can cover, although they say they maintain the other strict rules of the group.
Ramnamis are vegetarians, do not drink alcohol or smoke, and mostly grow everything that they eat.
Unlike most Hindus who choose cremation, Ramnamis bury their dead because they do not want Ram's name to burn.
Many Dalits and other marginalised groups still face violence and discrimination, but Ramnamis say their tattoos show their support of a god all can worship.
We do not care who thinks we are lower caste, we belong to a land where caste and class hold no significance, Gularam said.
Ramnami is an ideology... it is not caste or religion bound.