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Redeeming grace at Ayodhya

Redeeming grace at Ayodhya

Author: Balbir K Punj
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: February 14, 2003

The VHP has given the Government its February 22 deadline for handing over the contentious Ram Janmabhoomi site. Otherwise, it threatened to launch a campaign to take over other such sites where temples had been destroyed or converted into mosques. If the VHP were a little more patient, it would realise that the Indian establishment has woken from its slumber and seen the gross injustice meted out to tens of millions of Ram bhakts in the country in the Ram Janmabhoomi dispute. A key person in the form of HRD Minister Murli Manohar Joshi has been appointed for the first time to coordinate between the Government and different Hindutva bodies.

The same probity, unfortunately, could not be said about the 'secularists', particularly the Congress, which had toyed with the issue all along. Ms Sonia Gandhi, wavering indecisively between 'soft Hindutva' and rapprochement with the minorities, has criticised the Government's decision to approach the Supreme Court for the transfer of the 67-acre undisputed land.

The floor area of the demolished Babri structure was around 0.33 acres, which along with its precincts made up a disputed complex of 2.77 acres. The Congress Government under PV Narasimha Rao had acquired 67 acres of the surrounding land in 1993, primarily from the VHP and the Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas to spite the Hindus. The five-member bench of the Supreme Court in 1994 pronounced that the Government must return this excess land to its lawful owner barring the bare minimum. Since the land concerning the title dispute was islanded amidst properties owned by Hindus, this bare minimum was thought necessary to facilitate the winning party to be able to enjoy the land if it were to win the title dispute. This implied that, after keeping a suitable portion in Government acquisition, the rest should be returned to the VHP and the Nyas.

Nothing was done to execute this part of the Supreme Court judgement all these years. When the VHP reiterated its demand for the return of the undisputed land by February 2002, the 'secular' temperature suddenly rose, forcing the Government to take unprecedented security measures to stop even token religious activity on the undisputed land. One wishes the establishment had shown even half the zeal to stop infiltration across the border that has been taking place all these years. On March 13, 2002, while hearing a PIL filed by the Delhi-based Mohd Aslam alias Bhure, a smaller bench pronounced that no part of this 67 acres should be returned till the title dispute was resolved.

The current case filed by Mahant Ram Chandra Das is pending in the court since 1949. However, the history of the legal attempts to recover Ram Janmabhoomi goes even further back in time. In 1885, Mahant Raghubar Das filed a petition in the Faizabad District Court. Though this was turned down by the British judge, his observations lent a 'legal validity' to two points: First, that the mosque was established by the order of King Babur; and second, the land had a strong reverential association with the Hindus.

Admittedly, a legal solution to the Ayodhya dispute is only second best to one by mutual agreement. But both seem to elude us constantly. The disputed piece of land is sacrosanct to Hindus, and nitya-seva (daily worship) of Ram Lala is being held in a makeshift temple as allowed by the apex court. This land never had any special reverential associations for Muslims. The structure that stood there, named after a Turko-Uzbek aggressor, was defunct as a mosque. Besides being of little architectural significance, no prayers were offered there after 1936. By contrast, worship of Lord Ram, was being offered inside the now demolished structure since 1949.

In Hindu tradition, a temple is considered the dwelling place of the Lord. But in Islam, a mosque-like a Jewish synagogue-could be shifted, and there are several examples in this regard in the Islamic world.

The historical perspective apart, to what can we trace the psychological roots of the Ram Janmabhoomi dispute? In concise terms, we can trace it to the disowning of a pre-Islamic past by those converted to Islam. To most Indian Muslims, Ram, the national icon, is of subsidiary importance, if at all, to Babur who was a Turk-Uzbek aggressor. The Islamic view of Indian history is thus not one of the uninterrupted continuation of tradition, but of a continuing fight with an un-Islamic civilisation, which could not be fully dented unlike in countries ranging from Iran to Morocco. The political fallout of this negative mindset resulted in Partition in 1947.

Babasaheb Ambedkar in his book, Thoughts on Pakistan (1940), and a literary stalwart like Sir VS Naipaul in his Beyond Belief (1998), have critically diagnosed this malady. Ironically, more of it came to light during the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas when Lady Nadira asked Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani if Indian Muslims also needed to carry the Ram-Sita image in their hearts like Hanuman. Ram being pre-Islamic is a divided legacy: He is a national icon to Hindus, but merely a communal figure to Muslims.

Instead of being bridged, such a divisive mindset among Muslims has been stimulated by the 'secularists' both in pre-and post-Independence India. When MA Jinnah used to be a textbook secularist in the 1920s, the Gandhian Congress disregarded his warnings on allying with the communal Khilafatists with astonishing zeal. In the 1940s, when Jinnah had turned separatist, the Congress tried to appease him in every way. This 'secularist' mindset survived Partition. The creation of the Muslim-majority Mallapuram district in Kerala, the Shah Bano case, encouraging infiltration in Assam for votebank politics and withholding full diplomatic ties with Israel were some of its most glaring examples. 'Secularists' frustrated the enlightened section of the Muslim community by colluding with its regressive elements.

In view of the organisation's threat, fears might resurface in the public mind that the VHP has little respect for the law. Some might see it as a turnaround from the VHP pledge last March to abide by the court's decision. However, the VHP has repeatedly said that courtrooms are no proper platform to decide the matters of faith. What moral right does the Congress have to talk of the law's sanctity? Its annals are full of upturned court verdicts via constitutional amendments with retrospective effect. Bank nationalisation, abolition of privy purses, the Rai Bareilli elections, Shah Bano-these are some instances that expose the Congress's doublespeak.

In the post-Independence era, the Congress and other 'secular' parties took advantage of Muslim vulnerabilities and exploited them for political ends. Without addressing society's secular concerns such as modern education, sanitation, health, reproductive habits and women's liberation, it only focused on things like the status of Urdu, madrasas and Haj subsidy in the name of protecting minority rights. The other productive minorities of the country, however, were neglected.

Hindus are being asked to prove whether a temple stood on the site before Babur's General Mir Baqi erected a mosque there. When the Babri structure got demolished on December 6, 1992, over 265 pieces of artifacts with unmistakable Hindu characteristics-which had been embedded inside its thick walls-were recovered. The gem of the proof was a stone-slab of around 5' x 2.25'. This clinching evidence in Sanskrit records the construction of a magnificent gold topped temple of Vishnu Hari (Lord Ram who destroyed the evil Dashanana or Ravana) by King Naya Chandra and Ayush Chandra during Emperor Govind Chandra Gahadwal's reign (AD 1114-1154).

Those who criticise the Centre's moving the Supreme Court in the Ayodhya case neither are friends of Muslims nor have any stake in maintaining communal harmony. They want wounds to fester and Muslims to feel insecure, so as to retain them as a votebank. May Allah save the Muslims from such friends.
 


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