Babri Mosque was demolished on 6th of December 1992. Almost 24 years have gone since the demolition of Babri Mosque but still today it awaits for its decision. There have been several adjourned sessions by Indian Supreme and high courts on the matter of Babri Mosque but yet no outcome has been announced after several years of its annihilation which shows Indian mindset and non-seriousness towards the sentiments of Muslims living particularly in India and all around.
The Babri Mosque issue is vital to understand the Hindu belligerence and militancy that has left thousands dead in India in the last 60 years. Babri Masjid has been a source of Hindu extremist mobilization for the last 20 years. Babri Masjid is a three-dome mosque structure in Faizabad/Ayodhya which was established in 1526 by Mughal Emperor Babar. Hindus claim that the Babri Masjid was built where the Ram Janamabhoomi Temple was once located. In 1885, some Hindus filed a claim in the country’s British colonial courts that this mosque had been forcibly built by Muslims after demolishing a Hindu temple built on the birth site of their god Rama. Their request for restoration was denied by the court on the grounds that the petitioner had been unable to substantiate the claim. But the battle was not yet over. After India’s independence from British colonial rule in the late 1940s, the district magistrate of Faizabad (where this structure is located) informed higher authorities in December 1949 that “a few Hindus entered Babri Masjid at night when the Masjid was deserted and installed a goddess there…Police picket of fifteen persons was on duty at night but did not apparently act.” The district magistrate of Faizabad, Mr. Nayar, admitted his responsibility and was asked to resign. However, Nayar’s dangerous and irresponsible action did not seem to bother India’s ruling Congress party at that time. They gave him a seat in parliament (Lok Sabha). Moreover, instead of removing the idol and restoring the mosque to its custodians, the Sunni Waqf Board, it was locked. In addition, an official receiver, a Hindu, and a priest (also Hindu) were appointed to look after the place.
Muslims, filed suit in the court – where it has been lying for almost half a decade. But that was not the end of the matter. Almost 40 years later, Babri Masjid resurfaced as a symbol of Hindu militancy, as groups representing this dangerous ideology, which seeks to exclude non-Hindus from the vision of a “Mother India”, launched a movement for its restoration. In December 1985, a Hindu delegation called on the state of Uttar Pradesh’s Chief Minister, serving him notice that the temple must be handed over to them by March 8, 1986, otherwise they would forcibly occupy it. On February 11, 1986, the Faizabad district opened so as to let the Hindus exercise their “constitutional right” to worship. A report suggests that Minister Arun Nehru masterminded this coup.
Up to this point, the situation was tense, but no major violence had yet erupted. This was to be in December 1992, when hundreds of thousands of Hindu militants mobilized by Vishwa Hindu Parshad (VHP) and led by Mr. L. K. Advani, stormed Babri Masjid and demolished it. This sparked serious protests by Muslims, police firings, and then Hindu-Muslim riots. Thousands lost their lives in the violence.
Ironically, archaeological quarries by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) in 1970, 1992 and 2003 in and around the disputed site have indicated a large Hindu complex existed on the site. ASI rules out a possible Hindu temple rather than provide evidence for one existing before the mosque was erected. Some Muslims and other non-Muslim critics and historians claim that there is no historical record indicating any destruction, or even the existence of a Hindu Temple at the site when Mir Baqi erected the Masjid in 1528. Another observer of the ASI excavation, Jaya Menon of the Aligarh Muslim University, noted that the ASI report itself did not provide any evidence of a demolition, and only asserted the existence of a temple in its conclusion. The ASI report had been criticized by many archaeologists for ignoring evidence such as animal bones, which would not have been found in a temple for Ram, and the existence of glazed pottery and graves which indicated Muslim residents.
A 2009 report, authored by Justice Manmohan Singh Liberhan, blamed 68 people for the demolition of the mosque – mostly leaders from the BJP and a few bureaucrats. Among those named in the report were AB Vajpayee, the former BJP prime minister, and LK Advani, the party’s then (2009) leader in parliament. Kalyan Singh, who was the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh during the mosque’s demolition, has also come in for harsh criticism in the report. He is accused of posting bureaucrats and police officers who would stay silent during the mosque’s demolition. Former Education Minister Mr. Murli Manohar Joshi have also been found culpable in the demolition in the Liberhan Commissions Report. In Sept 2010, Allahabad High Court rules that the site should be split, with the Muslim community getting control of a third, Hindus another third and the Nirmohi Akhara sect the remainder. Control of the main disputed section, where the mosque was torn down, is given to Hindus. However, in May 2011, Supreme Court suspends High Court ruling after Hindu and Muslim groups appeal against the 2010 verdict. Still today Indian Supreme Court adjourns decision by posing that it is not satisfied with the hearings of its petitioners. Modi’s and BJP Sarkar’s discriminatory policies are known to all. Growing unrest and religious extremism in India raises concerns that if this matter of Babri Mosque is not resolved timely, there are again chances of uprisings which surely India is unable to handle and as history shows present ruling government is well on fueling fire rather than cooling it down.
