Accusing Muslim transgenders of carrying out a ‘kinnar jihad’ (transgender jihad) and their links with terror funding in Pakistan and Bangladesh, several groups of Hindu transgenders across India have decided to constitute their own Peeth and anoint the country’s very first Kinnar Shankaracharya at a grand ceremony scheduled to be held at Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh on the occasion of Mahashivratri on 15 February.
Led by Rishi Ajay Das and transgender leader Kajal Thakur, the event also aims to appoint 10 transgender Mahamandaleshwars under the Shankaracharya across India, and conduct the ‘ghar waapsi’ (homecoming) of more than 200 Hindu transgenders, who were allegedly converted to Islam forcefully.
Das is the founder of the country’s first and only ‘Kinnar Akhada’. Thakur is a transgender leader from Bhopal.
Both have alleged that Muslim transgenders have been heading a ‘kinnar jihad’ for a long time, and they have forced many Hindu transgenders to convert to Islam. Thakur has also alleged that such Muslim transgenders have links with terror funding in Pakistan and Bangladesh.
The Hindu transgenders have decided that their first Peeth would be based at Pushkar in Rajasthan, and it would be the seat of their own Shankaracharya. Pushkar has been chosen, as it is the only place in India to have a temple dedicated to Lord Brahma, considered in Hinduism as the creator of the universe, time, and all life forms.
Das and Thakur informed some media persons on Wednesday that the Kinnar Shankaracharya would be anointed through popular choice by religious and spiritual transgender leaders, along with several Sanatani Hindu kinnars from across the country. They said the move is aimed at protecting the Sanatan Dharma and its followers in the transgender community.
Meanwhile, Hindu religious leaders like Swami Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati of the Jyotishpeeth, and Mahant Hari Giri Maharaj, General Secretary of the Akhil Bharatiya Akhada Parishad, have criticized the move of transgenders to anoint a kinnar Shankaracharya. The Hindu religious leaders have argued that Adi Shankaracharya had established only four Hindu Peeths, and so there can be legally only four Shankaracharyas in the Sanatan Dharma.
On Tuesday, a large group of Hindu transgenders had staged a protest at the Collector’s Office in Bhopal, alleging that Muslim transgender leader Haji Suraiya Naik was involved in ‘kinnar jihad’ and had forcibly converted many Hindu transgenders to Islam. The protesters also claimed that Haji Suraiya and her group were involved in terror funding to Pakistan and Bangladesh. They also alleged that many Bangladeshi ‘fake transgenders’ are also active in India.
The Hindu transgenders had submitted a memorandum carrying their complaints and demands to Additional District Magistrate (ADM) Prakash Nayak. The administrative authorities took the memorandum and assured to carry out an inquiry into the matter.