Also, an orgy of old books were burnt and old art objects, smashed.
Homes were invaded and family altars shattered that denoted continued Confucian reverence.
Few temples, mosques and churches were also closed and put to secular use.
Even the Buddhist, Lama and Taoist temples of Beijing, were barred and their statues, altars and other furnishings removed.
No old literature, either Chinese or Western, was on sale. Instead, the bookshops were stacked with Mao Zedong's works.
No traditional operas, no traditional music and no traditional plays, either, were performed.
This was China of Cultural Revolution era. From 1966 to 1976, Mao destroyed China's traditional culture and its people, through brainwashing and global isolation.
However, his ideology has lost its appeal among the Chinese masses a long time ago. The subsequent regimes in China often demonized it as catastrophic and obsolete, but it still has an appeal among Indian Maoists, even though Mao had struggled with his own ideological prognosis and had abandoned his earlier dislike for capitalism by geopolitically embracing the United States in 1972.
The destruction of Dholkal Ganesh by the Indian Maoists in 2017 in Chhattisgarh is one of the numerous episodes of their apathy towards tradition and religion.
The mighty idol, which was discovered in 2012, was pushed off Dholkal mountain's high perch, from a height of 13,000 feet, after the Maoists were frustrated with the frequent movement of tourists and devotees to the place.
Tampering with history and vilifying Hindi deities are other sorts of weapons used by Indian Maoists to serve their political agendas. "Mahishasur: A People's Hero", a book written by Maoist sympathisers, including Nandini Sundar, is a living example of it.
Before throwing some light on their works to denigrate a Hindu goddess, it is very important to introduce Nandini Sundar, who is also a professor of sociology at the Delhi School of Economics.
She is the wife of The Wire's Founding Editor, Siddharth Varadarajan, who had selected NDTV India's Executive Editor and Maoist sympathiser Ravish Kumar for 'Gauri Lankesh Award.'
Vardarajan, who was editor-in-chief of The Hindu, had to quit in 2011 amidst N Ravi's allegations that the "news desk was given standing instructions not to take any stories on Narendra Modi on page one ..."
In a letter written to The Hindu employees on April 20 2011, Ravi had alleged that the daily was giving excessive coverage to the activities of the left and some of its leaders.
He had also alleged that the daily had turned into an apologist for A Raja through the 2G scam coverage and remained silent on his resignation in the face of mounting evidence even when demanding Suresh Kalmadi, Ashok Chavan and B S Yeddyurappa's resignations in similar circumstances.
Ravi also had alleged the newspaper's pronounced pro-China tilt, blacking out or downplaying any news which was less than complimentary to the Chinese Communist regime.
Vardarajan's resignation also came amidst PIL filed by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy who had raised the issue of foreign editors in the Indian print media.
Swamy's petition had questioned legality of Vardarajan, an American citizen, holding the position of editor of a national daily.
His wife, Nandini Sundar, was booked by Sukma police for murder, criminal conspiracy and rioting on November 7, 2016, but the Chhattisgarh police, under Congress rule, gave her a clean chit this February.
NANDINI Sundar, in "Mahishasura: A People's Hero" book, raked up outrageous and malicious narratives about Goddess Durga being a prostitute, with an aim to not only celebrate Mahishasura, but also desecrate a much-revered Hindu deity.
She writes that the Brahmins were incompetent to defeat Mahishasura and hence, in a planned skulduggery, they sent a beauty in the form Durga. For eight continuous days, she served alchol and piled amusements on Mahishasura and on ninth day, seeing her chance, killed the demon.
All this she wrote based on a forwarded whats app message of Chhattisgarh-based CPI leader Manish Kunjam in a group he was part of.
The forward also noted that in Bengal, Durga idols are considered incomplete till earth is brought from the house of a sex worker.
So, the book attempts to create a wedge in the society by building a narration around Brahmin-Dalit or Aryan-Dravidian tug of war. And also convert it into an occasion of vengeful anti-Hinduism and obscene vilification of a Hindu deity to serve their own political agendas.
These evil attempts should be smothered. It can be done through counter-questions or counter-narratives. They must be asked how about thousands of other tribes across India venerating Durga.
The assertion of the traditional worship of Durga requiring the use of mud from the house of a prostitute has got nothing to do with any salacious alternative reading, but is a fine example of egalitarianism, where even fringe sections of society are not ignored for worshiping Goddess Durga.
These half-baked propagandists should also be countered by enlightening them that any worship of Durga also requires nominal worship of Mahishasura. The idea is that any asura who is killed by gods and goddesses attains liberation and becomes a part of their pantheon.
Also, they must be told that asuras mourn Mahishasura, not vilify and abuse Durga.
Such counter narratives have the potential of turning the Maoists' claims into unadulterated dung.
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