December 6

December 6 comes, December 6 goes. But the Babri issue remains supercharged dividing the two communities as usual. Civil Liberties organisations mark the occasion to emphasise on India’s plurality, opposing religious bigotry of the ruling dispensation. There ends the matter. The much talked about concept of unity in diversity is a myth. Social disharmony, not harmony is the order of the day. With Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) firmly in the saddle communal polarisation continues unabated while the so-called secular parties have failed miserably to counter BJP’s game plan.

The claim that there was Lord Ram’s Temple at that spot has been on tenuous grounds. The Supreme Court in its judgement did not uphold this view of Lord Ram’s temple being there and Babar having destroyed it. There are claims by some archaeologists that the remains of some pillars and other artefacts prove that temple was there, but it is disputed by other archaeologists. On the other hand while levelling the land for the Ram Temple, few months ago, remains of Buddhist structure was found there.

As such the seeds of the dispute was actually sown by the British in pursuance of their ‘divide and rule policy’. In recent history, the first incident which occurred was putting up of Lord Ram idols in the Mosque in 1949 in a surreptitious manner. This was done in the middle of the night. Jawaharlal Nehru, the then Prime minister asked the UP Chief Govind Vallabh Pant to get the idols removed but no action was taken by UP’s Chief.

The mosque was locked and remained so till mid-1980s. Under the pressure of Hindu nationalists the gates of the disputed structure were open and shilanyas was performed when Rajiv Gandhi was PM. This shilanyas was not at the site where it has been done now. This criminal act of Ram Lalla idols being kept inside is recorded by the SC judgement. Later on 6th December through communal mobilisation three lakh Kar Sevaks (saffron volunteers) assembled and destroyed the Archaeological monument in broad day light. The UP Chief Minster had given an affidavit to protect the mosque, but he backed out and later proudly proclaimed that he is glad about what he did.

The Muslims Kings and Hindu Kings both had destroyed the temples for wealth and political rivalries. The Maratha armies destroyed a temple in Shrirangpatnam, which was repaired by Tipu. Aurangzeb got Vishwanath temple destroyed in Kashi but the same Aurangzeb gave donation to many Hindu temples, and also destroyed one mosque in Golkonda. But here destruction of temples got associated only with Muslim kings, reflecting it on the Muslims of today and atmosphere of Hate against Muslims was intensified. Muslims of modern times are in no way responsible for what the Mughal emperor did.

The majority of Muslim community accepted the Supreme Court verdict with honour without any protest. They have been allotted five acres of land as compensation. While a Prime Minister who took oath by the Indian Constitution, went to inaugurate the temple building, it remains to be seen if he will go and inaugurate the building of Mosque in case Muslims decide to build one. His associate the Chief Minister of UP, who was accompanying PM while temple ground breaking ceremony was done did declare that he will not be part of Mosque building ceremony.

[Contributed]

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Frontier
Vol 55, No. 26, Dec 25 - 31, 2022