Ayodhya dispute

The Ayodhya debate is a political, historical and socio-religious debate that was prevalent especially in the 1990s in South Asia.

The Babri Mosque was a mosque constructed by order of the first Mughal emperor of India, Babur, in Ayodhya in the 16th century. Before the 1940s, the mosque was called Masjid-i Janmasthan ("mosque of the birthplace"). The mosque stood on the Ramkot ("Rama's fort") hill (also called Janamsthan ("birthplace"). According to Hindus, it was built on the birthplace of the deity Rama after the Mughal rulers demolished the Ram Mandir ("Temple of Rama") on its location as they had done to many other temples around India. The mosque was in turn destroyed by Hindu activists in a riot on December 6, 1992.

Timeline

In 1528, the emperor Babur was said to have built the mosque, but he may have only renovated the building, subsequent to the demolition of the Rama temple.

In 1767, Jesuit priest Joseph Tieffenthaler records that Hindus are worshipping and celebrating Ramanavami at the site of the mosque. In 1788, Tiefffenthaler's French works are published in Paris, the first to suggest that the Babri Masjid is in proximity to the birthplace of Rama, saying that "Emperor Aurangzeb got demolished the fortress called Ramkot, and erected on the same place a Mahometan temple with three cuppolas."

During the 19th century, the Hindus in Ayodhya continue the tradition of worshiping Rama on the Ramkot hill, and return to the site. According to British sources, Hindus and Muslims used to worship together in the Babri Mosque complex in the 19th century until about 1855. P. Carnegy wrote in 1870: "It is said that up to that time [viz. the Hindu-Muslim clashes in the 1850s] the Hindus and Mohamedans alike used to worship in the mosque temple."

In 1858, the Muazzin of the Babri mosque says in a petition to the British government that the courtyard had been used by Hindus for hundreds of years.

By the 20th century, Hindus in the area claim that the Mosque had not used by Muslims since 1936, and they took over the unused mosque in 1949.

It was until about 1990 the standard view that an ancient Ram Janmabhoomi temple was demolished and replaced with the Babri Mosque. References such as the 1986 edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica reported that "Rama’s birthplace is marked by a mosque, erected by the Moghul emperor Babar in 1528 on the site of an earlier temple". According to one view, the ancient temple could have been destroyed on the orders of Mughal emperor Babur. This view is academically and politically controversial.

Politics

Many Indian observers see the controversy surrounding this mosque within the framework of Hindu fundamentalism and Hindu Revivalism. It was commonly believed by Hindus until about 1990 that the mosque stood on an ancient Hindu temple, though some commentators disagree and say that although the judiciary has been debating on the dispute of Babri Masjid (mosque) in Ayodhya for more than 40 years, it had remained a non-issue until the mid-1980s [1]. The Encyclopædia Britannica of 1989 reported that the Babri Mosque stood "on a site traditionally identified" as an earlier temple dedicated to Rama's birthplace. According to their view, the ancient temple could have been destroyed on the orders of Mughal emperor Babur, though this view has been challenged. However, thousands of Hindu temples had been destroyed by Islamic rulers for both political and religious reasons. The 2007 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica notes that there is no temple structure in the ancient and holy Hindu places of Varanasi and Mathura which dates prior to the 17th century.

The Hindu Nationalist movement has been pressing for reclaiming three of its most holy sites which had been suffered sacrilege at the hands of Islam - at Ayodhya, Mathura and Varanasi. L K Advani, the leader of the BJP in his memoirs argues "If Muslims are entitled to an Islamic atmosphere in Mecca, and if Christians are entitled to a Christian atmosphere in the Vatican, why is it wrong for the Hindus to expect a Hindu atmosphere in Ayodhya.

This is often unpalatable to the minority Muslim community and to secularists, who consider this period as culturally Indian noting that these rulers made India their own home and enriched India's varied traditions.

The legal case continues on the title deed of the land tract which is for the a government controlled property. While the Muslim parties have agreed to hand over the land if it is proven a temple existed and demanding it be proven that it is indeed Ramjanmbhumi (i.e. Ram was born on this site) , the Hindu side wants a law in parliament to have it constructed saying faith in the existence of Ram Janmabhoomi can not be decided in a court of law.

The situation regarding the Ram Janmabhoomi has been compared to the Temple Mount controversies and claims in Israel by the Daniel Pipes [2]. In particular, Pipes writes:

"Ayodhya prompts several thoughts relating to the Temple Mount. It shows that the Temple Mount dispute is far from unique. Moslems have habitually asserted the supremacy of Islam through architecture, building on top of the monuments of other faiths (as in Jerusalem and Ayodhya) or appropriating them (e.g. the Ka'ba in Mecca and the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople)."

Nobel Laureate V. S. Naipaul has praised Hindu Nationalists for "reclaiming India's Hindu heritage". He further added that the destruction of Babri mosque was an act of historical balancing and the repatriation of the Ramjanmabhoomi was a "welcome sign that Hindu pride was re-asserting itself"

In fiction

• The Babri riots are depicted in the 1995 film Bombay.
• Nasrin, Taslima: Lajja

Further reading

• Baburnama: Memoirs of Babur, Prince and Emperor. 1996. Edited, translated and annotated by Wheeler M. Thacktson. New York and London: Oxford University Press.
• Ayodhya and the Future of India. 1993. Edited by Jitendra Bajaj. Madras: Centre for Policy Studies.
• Elst, Koenraad, Ayodhya: The Case Against the Temple (2002) ISBN 81-85990-75-1
• Emmanuel, Dominic. "The Mumbai bomb blasts and the Ayodhya tangle", National Catholic Reporter (Kansas City, August 27 2003).
• Harsh Narain. 1993. The Ayodhya Temple Mosque Dispute: Focus on Muslim Sources. Delhi: Penman Publishers.
• R. Nath. Babari Masjid of Ayodhya, Jaipur 1991.
• A. Nandy, S. Trivedy, S. Mayaram, Achyut Yagnik Creating a Nationality: The Ramjanmabhumi Movement and Fear of the Self, Oxford University Press, USA (1998), ISBN 0195642716.
• Rajaram, N.S. (2000). Profiles in Deception: Ayodhya and the Dead Sea Scrolls. New Delhi: Voice of India
• Thakur Prasad Varma and Swarajya Prakash Gupta: Ayodhya ka Itihas evam Puratattva— Rigveda kal se ab tak ("History and Archaeology of Ayodhya— From the Time of the Rigveda to the Present"). Bharatiya Itihasa evam Samskrit Parishad and DK Printworld. New Delhi.
• Thapar, Romila. A Historical Perspective on the Story of Rama in Thapar (2000).
• Thapar, Romila. Cultural Pasts: Essays in Early Indian History (New Delhi: Oxford University, 2000) ISBN 0-19-564050-0.