There seems to be no end to the controversy surrounding the caste and clan of Lord Hanuman.
A few weeks after Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath faced flak for claiming that Lord Hanuman was a dalit, a BJP MLC from Uttar Pradesh, Bukkal Nawab, claimed on Thursday that the monkey god was a Muslim.
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According to him, there are several Muslim names that are almost similar to Hanuman. "I believe that Lord Hanuman was a Muslim. That is why the names of people in Islam are almost similar to Lord Hanuman, whether it is Rehman, Ramzan, Farman, Zeeshan and Qurban. Such types of names are found in Islam only," he told a news agency, and added that these names have been derived from the name Hanuman.
The Uttar Pradesh chief minister, during an election campaign in Alwar, Rajasthan, had courted controversy after he had said Lord Hanuman was a tribal, a forest dweller, a dalit, and was deprived. His comments had drawn sharp criticism from various quarters, with one of his own ministers, Om Prakash Rajbhar, saying it was wrong to divide gods on the basis of caste.
Union Minister Satyapal Singh, too, had refuted Adityanath's claim and told the news agency, “During the time of Lord Ram and Lord Hanuman, in our country, no caste system was being followed in the society. No one was branded a dalit or backward class."
Later, a Jain monk, Acharya Nirbhay Sagar, came out with the claim that Lord Hanuman belonged to their community.
