lucknow

Updated: Dec 22, 2018 09:07 IST

Samajwadi Party (SP) national general secretary Rama Shankar Vidyarthi on Friday gave a new turn to the ongoing ‘debate’ over the caste of the Hindu god Hanuman by stating that the deity belonged to the Gond community.

The video of Vidyarthi, a former Lok Sabha member, was widely shared. In the video, he was seen condemning the BJP leaders who have variously described Hanuman as a Dalit or a Muslim. Vidyarthi said the BJP leaders should know that Hanuman was born in the Gondwana region dominated by the Gond community.

Hanuman was the ruler of the area and there was no doubt that he was a Gond, the SP leader said. Even the religious texts mentioned Hanuman as the king of the Gonds, he said.

Talking to HT later, Vidyarthi said the BJP leaders were demeaning Hanuman by calling him a Dalit or Muslim. The BJP leaders were trying to divide gods into castes and communities, he said. On Thursday, BJP MLC Bukkal Nawab had claimed Hanuman was a Muslim and Uttar Pradesh religious affairs minister Chaudhary Laxmi Narain had said the deity belonged to the Jat community. “The Lord is named Hanuman and so many Muslims have similar rhyming names like Zeeshan, Furqan, Ehsaan,” Bukkal Nawab said outside the UP assembly on Thursday. Reacting to Nawab’s statement, Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s Ayodhya-based spokesman Sharad Sharma said: “It’s nice that Muslims are describing Hanuman as their own as this only goes to prove their Hindu past and that they became Muslims under pressure.”

Inside the upper house of the UP legislature, Chaudhary Laxmi Narayan said: “I believe Lord Hanuman was a Jat because like the community, he too has a tendency to intervene in others’ matters. So yes, he was a Jat.” Earlier, union minister Satyapal Chaudhary had stated that Hanuman belonged to the Aryan race.

National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) chairman Nand Kumar Sai had said Lord Hanuman was a tribal.

Addressing a press conference on November 29, Sai said: “There are various sub-castes in the tribal community like Hanuman, Vanar, Giddha and Jatayu. It is a well-known fact that when Lord Ram was in exile, members of tribal community became his close aides. They also helped him in the battle against Ravan. Hanuman was also a tribal who resided in a forest area.”