Indo-French Connections: Mahakal and Charles de Gaulle
Mahakal and Charles de Gaulle: Two words you didn’t think could appear together. After all, the Mahakaleshwar temple of Ujjain appears to be so distant from Charles de Gaulle, the founding father of post-second World War France, that it’s hard to fancy a connection between the two. But historical events can play out in unexpected ways, the after-effects of which can be felt decades after, in the unlikeliest of contexts.
The Mahakaleshwar temple at Ujjain was recently in the news owing to the Mahakal corridor project whose aim is to expand, decongest and beautify the temple premises. The project is expected to give a huge boost to the city’s tourism with the annual expected visitor footfall expected to increase from the current 1.5 crores to 3 crores. And it’s the funding of the second phase of the Mahakal corridor project that will expand the eastern and northern parts of the temple premises, which happens to have a rather surprising French connection.
The second phase of the Mahakal project is being developed with funding from Agence Francaise de Devellopement (AFD), a French public institution that works on sustainable development, economic growth, infrastructure development and education/health projects as mandated by the French Government. And AFD is a direct successor of the Caisse Centrale de la France Libre, which was established by Charles de Gaulle in December 1941 to take care of note-issuing and public treasury of Free France (government-in-exile of France in World War II). Later on, in AFD’s avatar, its activities acquired quite a different scope, so much so that now the Mahakal corridor project stands to benefit from its funding as part of the City Investments to Innovate, Integrate and Sustain (CIIIS) initiative.
Such is the circle of time, that an institution established in far-away Western Europe, after more than 80 years, comes to be connected to Ujjain, the land of Mahakal, the Lord of Time and Death. The dots indeed, sometimes, connect themselves in the most unexpected ways.
