Aug 18, 2020
New Delhi:A sense of closure to the many years of Babri Masjid – Ram Mandir conflict was one of the most important feelings on Aug 5, 2020 as foundation of a grand Ram temple was laid in Ayodhya, which was a cherished dream of millions of Hindus.
However, though Ram rules the heart of millions in this country and across the globe, the construction of a Ram temple did not become an issue at least at the national level with large number of Indians completely unaware of it, untill the late 1980s and 1990s when BJP started championing the cause.
Ram Mandir- built on a place which Hindus believe was the birth place of Lord Ram was said to have been destroyed 500 years ago by Mir Baqi, a commander of Mughal king Babur, who built the Babri Masjid on its ruins (whether the facts are true or not but that is the narrative which is generally accepted by public).
As early as the First War of Independence in 1857 during the British time, Hindus had attempted to reclaim portions of the Babri Majid site and later in 1949 Ram and Laxman statues were kept in the mosque, initiating the legal dispute on Babri-Masjid Ram Janambhoomi in the post Independence period.
Only when BJP became the open champion for re-construction of Ram Mandir and depicted Babri Masjid as a symbol of Hindu humiliation and hurt Hindu pride centuries ago, it evoked Hindu religious sensibilities. BJP carefully dovetailed Ram Mandir as part of national aspiration and national pride, targeting Babur as alien conqueror to derive maximum political advantage, no wonder the party was able to catapult itself into political mainstream and power at the Centre.
In the first few election manifestos, BJP did not even talk about Ram Janam Bhoomi. Perhaps in reaction to the Shah Bano case and long felt resentment among the Hindus regarding “minority appeasement” by Congress over the years, BJP, which positioned itself as a votary of majority community, was able to dig out Ram Janam Bhoomi as a political dynamite which could galvanize the majority community all over the country.
The Congress made its attempt to win the Hindu majority when it allowed Shilanyas for the mandir in 1989 close to Parliamentary elections. Congress was in for a rude shock and was removed from power in the Parliamentary elections because BJP-VHP who were already spearheading the movement took credit for getting the Shilanyas performed and Congress becoming party to it only lost its minority Muslim votes.
It was BJP’s Ram Mandir campaign with the nationawide Rath Yatras particularly of BJP leader L.K. Advani which made Ayodhya dispute known to every household in the country.
The problem of faith is that logic always does not work. People are ready to kill and be killed in the name of Religion, even though all religions forbid violence. Any issue related to a temple, church, mosque, gurdwara being a house of God inspires a sense of reverence and touches deep emotional chord in its devotees. For the followers of every religion the sanctity of their place of worship has a paramount value for which they are willing to make any sacrifice.
So, desecration and destruction of places of worship in medieval period may have been used to demonstrate the power of the conquerors on those they ruled but scars upon the psyche of a community whose place of worship is destroyed is not healed even after centuries.
The destruction of Babri Masjid took place out of retaliatory anger and revenge to right a historical wrong done 500 years ago (That is what is believed) and then the role played by RSS, VHP and BJP to make Ram Janambhoomi Movement into a national movement over the last few decades also played a vital role.
For many elections, Ram Mandir was the trump card for the BJP, but with its overuse as an election plank and no Mandir in sight, the law of diminishing return had also started to operate.
If Congress played minority politics to stay in power, BJP played majority politics to come to power with greater expertise. Congress’s attempt at soft Hindutva came too little too late and by the time they had lost both the minority and majority vote banks. For the Congress which led the country to freedom and remained in power at the Centre for several decades, it would have been best if they had evolved institutions to truly strengthen systems whereby religion was kept out of politics. Instead of keeping equidistance from all religions pampering one religious group or another became a part of the political culture, while we kept calling ourselves secular.
When thousands of people get into destructive mode it is virtually impossible to control them but clearly in retrospect, the law and order machinery had completely failed as the keepers of Constitution silently watched the destruction of a house of worship Babri Masjid, which sadly reflected the fragile edifice of Indian democracy once the majority community flexed its muscle.
It was a paralysis of authority from central government to state government as everyone seemed to allow the pent up emotions of the kar sevaks to flow out and no serious attempt to control the crowds was made till the masjid was reduced to rubble.
The act drew condemnation by voices of sanity from leaders all over the world including that of the BJP, besides police cases, commissions of inquiry being set up.
Post Independence, Somnath temple was re-built but then no one at that point thought of Ram Temple at Ayodhya, perhaps because Ram Mandir- Babri Masjid was embroiled in land dispute and court cases.
Actually the whole Ram Janam Bhoomi- Babri Masjid issue has raised some very fundamental issues. I think no sane person would say it is correct to destroy a house of worship of any religion whatsoever because that is what a community holds closest to its heart and mind.
In this case, whoever destroyed the first temple at Ayodhya did wrong, not only by destroying the temple but erecting a masjid at the same place. The Hindus whose temple was initially destroyed got the opportunity to destroy that Masjid after few hundred years, obviously their act may seem wrong but it has to be seen in context of the shock and humiliation their community suffered over the years at the destruction what they believed of the original mandir of Lord Ram.
What the British Judge in 1886 said on this issue is extremely pertinent, “ It’s most unfortunate that a masjid should have been built on land specially held sacred by the Hindus. But, as that event occurred 356 years ago, it is too late now to remedy the grievance. All that can be done is to maintain the status quo.”
How far can we go back to redress grievances of a community? Can we change imperial and colonial history including persecution of one group against another and large scale murder, loot and destruction which have taken place in history ?
Ram Mandir may be one off case and I think both the communities involved Hindus and Muslims have now done the right thing by abiding by the decision of the highest court.
But we must understand that righting historical wrongs may not be advisable and practically possible always. Extremely unjust and painful past may also have to be just forgotten and forgiven because you cannot continue ad infinitum, so let the bygones be bygones.
What is sad that on Aug 5, 2020 itself, there were murmurs of Hindu right wing groups raking issues of other controversial places like Kashi Vishwanath temple, Mathura’s Krishna Janambhoomi temple and the Muslim Personal Law Board saying “Today when at the site of the Babri Masjid, the foundation stone of a temple is being laid, AIMPLB feels the need to reiterate that ‘according to the light of the Shariat, where a mosque comes up once, it remains a mosque till eternity’. “Hence, Babri Masjid was a mosque yesterday, is one today and God willing will remain a mosque. By keeping idols in a mosque, starting pooja there or stopping the namaz that was offered there for a long time, do not change the status of a mosque.”
If India has to remain a country where people of different religions, colour, sects, castes, languages have to live together in peace and harmony then a meeting of minds and meeting of hearts have to take place with a spirit of love and accommodation with a vision towards the future and not the past.
–India News Stream
