Salaam UAE

May you continue to inspire the world with your commitment to religious freedom and pluralism

A MYRIAD THOUGHTS and memories flashed through my mind as I watched on television the inauguration of the BAPS Hindu Mandir in Abu Dhabi by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on February 14.

It was in early 2007 that I reached Dubai to serve as India’s consul general. The Hindu temple in Dubai was one of the first places of importance I visited. It was a small, nondescript temple which functioned from 1958 in the first floor of a building that housed shops in the heart of the old city. The building was located right next to the main mosque and the ruler’s court, and it housed a Shiva temple, a Krishna temple and a gurdwara.

Migration of Indians to Dubai can be traced to its days as a trading hub and centre for pearl fishing, much before the discovery of oil and the birth of the UAE as a nation. Sheikh Rashid, father of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum (ruler of Dubai and vice president and prime minister of the UAE), was a hero to the Indian community. It was thanks to the welcome extended by him that Indians in Dubai grew in numbers and flourished. I heard many stories of how Sheikh Rashid used to be a regular at Diwali celebrations. Sheikh Rashid embodied secular governance at its best. A telling story was how some conservatives protested the permission granted to the Hindu temple and its location right next to the mosque. They asked him to take back his decision. Sheikh Rashid’s response was that all people are welcome to practise their religion in Dubai and visit a temple or mosque as they please. However, they will all obey the law. Anyone breaking the law will go to jail, irrespective of whether they are Hindu or Muslim. That is why a jail is situated between the mosque and the temple.