INDIA: Science Turns Miracle of Milk-Drinking Stone Idols Sour

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Mahesh Uniyal

NEW DELHI, Oct 1 1995 (IPS) - A week after the annual Hindu festival to honor the Hindu god Ganesh, a serious religious and political debate is raging whether the country witnessed a divine miracle, elementary physical science or a plain hoax.

The furore began when stone idols of Hindu gods allegedly were seen drinking milk offered by devotees. As always in India, it quickly became a political issue which observers believed may even influence next year’s elections and turn the many Hindu castes against each other – and against the minority Muslims. Hindus make up more than 70 percent of the population of almost 900 million.

A politically powerful, radical Hindu organisation, allied to India’s main parliamentary opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), declared the milk-drinking gods to be a “miracle” prophesising the dawn of a Hindu century.

The ruling Congress party was more sceptical, with one of their leaders calling it a “gimmick”. This was a risky statement, as the BJP is the Congress’ main rival in next year’s elections and millions of Hindus are likely to be very much displeased with someone disclaiming a religious wonder.

Extremist Hindu parties like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad have meanwhile claimed that the milk drinking was a prophesy that India should be a “pure Hindu” nation. A statement perceived as a threat by the country’s Muslims, Sikhs and Christians.

Psychiatrists and scientists explained it away as simple mass hysteria, triggered by an easily explicable physical phenomena.

A rationalist organisation has offered a reward of 100,000 rupees (3,200 dollars) to anyone who can prove the milk drinking to be anything but a hoax.

Still, there are many believers.

“In the beginning was THE WORD. And then I saw. I fed Lord Ganesh milk with a straight spoon and he drank,” said one witness in Bombay, the capital of Maharashtra State which has the most ardent devotees of Ganesh, the elephant-headed god in the Hindu pantheon.

Most newspapers, however, were cynical in their reports of Ganesh lapping up milk from spoons held under his trunk by millions of devotees who lined up patiently at temples across the country.

Starting early on September 21, the word had spread like wildfire, by mouth and long distance telephone, that Ganesh idols were drinking milk offered by the faithful. The miracle travelled overseas, with queues reported at Hindu temples in Britain.