India: From Babri Mosque to Ram Temple: Historical perspective | Ram Puniyani (Dec 2022)

 

From Babri Mosque to Ram Temple: Historical perspective

 

Ram Puniyani

 

This 5^th August (2020) the Prime Minister of India did the ground breaking ceremony (Bhumi Pujan) for Ram Temple in Ayodhya. The Prime Minster compared the 15^th August; when India got freedom to the 5^th August, when according to him Lord Ram was liberated. Also he said that as all the people rallied behind Mahatma Gandhi to get India freedom; so now all people have rallied together to liberate Lord Ram. The RSS chief who was present on the occasion quoted some shloka from Manusmriti.

It is wrong to say that from last many centuries the struggle for Ram Temple has been going on as claimed by Narendra Modi. There is some mention of the some disputes for Ram Chabutara on the outskirts of the mosque in late 19^th Century, but to say that Hindus have been struggling for this temple is a pure concoction. The issue came to forefront only from 1980s when BJP’s Advani took over the issue from VHP, who had begun the campaign that Lord Ram was born at the spot where Babri mosque is located and so we should build the grand Ram Temple, precisely at that spot. The Ram Temple campaign gained a heightened response in the aftermath of implementation of Mandal Commission, giving 26% reservations to OBCs.

The claim that there was Lord Ram’s Temple at that spot has been on tenuous grounds, Supreme Court in its judgement did not uphold this view of Lord Ram’s temple being there and Babar having destroyed it. The SC did not uphold the view that Lord Ram was born at precisely that spot. 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 sown by British; in pursuance of their ‘divide and rule policy’. Mrs. A F Beevridge while commenting on Babri mosque in Ayodhya put a foot note saying that there might have been a temple on which the Mosque was made. (Anatomy of Confrontation: Edited by S. Gopal, Penguin). In some versions of Ramayana (there are nearly 300 version of Lord Ram Story: A. K. Ramanujam), Dashrath was the king of Varanasi and not of Ayodhya. Similarly Valmiki Ramayana also does not mention the place of birth of Lord. Goswami Tulsidas, who wrote the most popular Ramcharitmanas, was living around the time when the Temple of Lord is supposed to have been destroyed. He also does not mention any such incident in his writings. The mythological issues cannot be compared to history. A.K. Ramanujam’s book gives brilliantly the diverse narrative of Lord Ram story, which is prevalent not only in India but also in various parts of South East Asia.

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. No action was taken by the District Collector, K.K.Nayyar, who after retirement joined the previous avatar of BJP, the Bharatiya Jansangh.

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 6^th December through communal mobilization three lakh Kar Sevaks 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 gald about what he did.

Liberian Commission, constituted by the Government, report mentions the BJP leaders as the culprits of this crime. Court cases are under progress on this issue and cases against Lal Krishna Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharati are pending in the Courts. Ram Temple movement, the rath yatras led by Advani were the big polarizing factors in Indian politics. It increased the communalisation in society. It also presented Muslims as temple destroyers and widened the Gulf between the two main religious communities in India.

The Muslims Kings and Hindu kings both had destroyed the temples for wealth and political rivalries. Just couple of examples, Maratha armies destroyed a temple in Shrirangpatnam, which was repaired by Tipu. Aurangzeb got Vishwanath temple destroyed in Kashi, 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.

This movement has been the major polarizing factor in contemporary India. Now the claims of Mr. Narendra Modi that the movement is centuries old is not true and nobody is able to challenge his assertions as lot of emotive element has been created in the whole issue. The ownership of land has been with Sunni Waqf Board. The judgement of 2010, Allahabad high Court was based on faith and the land was equally divided between three parties, two third going to Hindu side and one third to Sunni Waqf Board. The basis of judgment was the ‘faith of the people’ not the legal grounding of the case. Same thing was upheld by Supreme Court and despite recognising 1949 smuggling of Ram Lalla Temple and Demolition of mosque a crime; it allotted the whole disputed land to Hindu side and arranging for alternate site for the mosque. It was an irony of history that those who committed the crime were beneficiaries of the crime and achieved their target through a crime and other mayhem created by them.

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 Cheif Minster 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.

While today the Prime Minster is doing the ground breaking ceremony of the temple one recalls the similar incident in the aftermath of India getting freedom. There was a clamour that the state government should renovating Somnath temple, which was destroyed by Mahmud Gazani. Mahatma Gandhi said that building the religious places is not the work of the state. So a private trust built it. They invited Dr. Rajendra Prasad, the President of India, to inaugurate the temple. Jawaharlal Nehru, the Prime minster advised that the President should not do it in his official capacity, as the state is neutral in matters of religion. Same Nehru went on to lay the foundations of educational institutes, public sector, scientific establishments and what have you, to bring India on par with the Modern times. He also went on to label these, as ‘Temples of Modern India’.

Times have changed. Now temple building has become the agenda of the state and the education and health facilities have been passed on to the Corporate. While the Constitution says the state should not take up issues related to religion, the Prime minster goes to inaugurate the temple in full religious regalia. We need to bring back the values of Indian Constitution and welfare of the people on the centre stage of the society and leave the ‘matters of faith’ to the communities. The status quo in matters of places of worship should be maintained and plans to make more social facilities be brought on the forefront of social agenda. The whole episode has tainted the secular nature of state to no end. It has put a deep fright in the heart of minorities.

Can the secular character of Indian state is a bigger question. Can state focus more on facilities for the poor and marginalized and delving in past as a cover of for revivalism be shunned. The history of Buddhist Vihars being destroyed by followers of Brahmanism also needs to be remembered, but past should be a matter for us for learning that wrong paths have to be shunned and the issues of people be brought to forefront so that all of us can live with dignity and honor.

From Babri Demolition to Ram Temple

From Babri Mosque to Ram Temple: Historical perspective Ram Puniyani This 5th August (2020) the Prime Minister of India did the ground breaking ceremony (Bhumi Pujan) for Ram Temple in Ayodhya. The Prime Minster compared the 15th August; when India got freedom to the 5th August, when according to him Lord Ram was liberated. Also he said that as all the people rallied behind Mahatma Gandhi to get India freedom; so now all people have rallied together to liberate Lord Ram. The RSS chief who was present on the occasion quoted some shloka from Manusmriti. It is wrong to say that from last many centuries the struggle for Ram Temple has been going on as claimed by Narendra Modi. There is some mention of the some disputes for Ram Chabutara on the outskirts of the mosque in late 19th Century, but to say that Hindus have been struggling for this temple is a pure concoction. The issue came to forefront only from 1980s when BJP’s Advani took over the issue from VHP, who had begun the campaign that Lord Ram was born at the spot where Babri mosque is located and so we should build the grand Ram Temple, precisely at that spot. The Ram Temple campaign gained a heightened response in the aftermath of implementation of Mandal Commission, giving 26% reservations to OBCs. The claim that there was Lord Ram’s Temple at that spot has been on tenuous grounds, Supreme Court in its judgement did not uphold this view of Lord Ram’s temple being there and Babar having destroyed it. The SC did not uphold the view that Lord Ram was born at precisely that spot. 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 sown by British; in pursuance of their ‘divide and rule policy’. Mrs. A F Beevridge while commenting on Babri mosque in Ayodhya put a foot note saying that there might have been a temple on which the Mosque was made. (Anatomy of Confrontation: Edited by S. Gopal, Penguin). In some versions of Ramayana (there are nearly 300 version of Lord Ram Story: A. K. Ramanujam), Dashrath was the king of Varanasi and not of Ayodhya. Similarly Valmiki Ramayana also does not mention the place of birth of Lord. Goswami Tulsidas, who wrote the most popular Ramcharitmanas, was living around the time when the Temple of Lord is supposed to have been destroyed. He also does not mention any such incident in his writings. The mythological issues cannot be compared to history. A.K. Ramanujam’s book gives brilliantly the diverse narrative of Lord Ram story, which is prevalent not only in India but also in various parts of South East Asia. 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. No action was taken by the District Collector, K.K.Nayyar, who after retirement joined the previous avatar of BJP, the Bharatiya Jansangh. 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 mobilization three lakh Kar Sevaks 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 gald about what he did. Liberian Commission, constituted by the Government, report mentions the BJP leaders as the culprits of this crime. Court cases are under progress on this issue and cases against Lal Krishna Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharati are pending in the Courts. Ram Temple movement, the rath yatras led by Advani were the big polarizing factors in Indian politics. It increased the communalisation in society. It also presented Muslims as temple destroyers and widened the Gulf between the two main religious communities in India. The Muslims Kings and Hindu kings both had destroyed the temples for wealth and political rivalries. Just couple of examples, Maratha armies destroyed a temple in Shrirangpatnam, which was repaired by Tipu. Aurangzeb got Vishwanath temple destroyed in Kashi, 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. This movement has been the major polarizing factor in contemporary India. Now the claims of Mr. Narendra Modi that the movement is centuries old is not true and nobody is able to challenge his assertions as lot of emotive element has been created in the whole issue. The ownership of land has been with Sunni Waqf Board. The judgement of 2010, Allahabad high Court was based on faith and the land was equally divided between three parties, two third going to Hindu side and one third to Sunni Waqf Board. The basis of judgment was the ‘faith of the people’ not the legal grounding of the case. Same thing was upheld by Supreme Court and despite recognising 1949 smuggling of Ram Lalla Temple and Demolition of mosque a crime; it allotted the whole disputed land to Hindu side and arranging for alternate site for the mosque. It was an irony of history that those who committed the crime were beneficiaries of the crime and achieved their target through a crime and other mayhem created by them. 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 Cheif Minster 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. While today the Prime Minster is doing the ground breaking ceremony of the temple one recalls the similar incident in the aftermath of India getting freedom. There was a clamour that the state government should renovating Somnath temple, which was destroyed by Mahmud Gazani. Mahatma Gandhi said that building the religious places is not the work of the state. So a private trust built it. They invited Dr. Rajendra Prasad, the President of India, to inaugurate the temple. Jawaharlal Nehru, the Prime minster advised that the President should not do it in his official capacity, as the state is neutral in matters of religion. Same Nehru went on to lay the foundations of educational institutes, public sector, scientific establishments and what have you, to bring India on par with the Modern times. He also went on to label these, as ‘Temples of Modern India’. Times have changed. Now temple building has become the agenda of the state and the education and health facilities have been passed on to the Corporate. While the Constitution says the state should not take up issues related to religion, the Prime minster goes to inaugurate the temple in full religious regalia. We need to bring back the values of Indian Constitution and welfare of the people on the centre stage of the society and leave the ‘matters of faith’ to the communities. The status quo in matters of places of worship should be maintained and plans to make more social facilities be brought on the forefront of social agenda. The whole episode has tainted the secular nature of state to no end. It has put a deep fright in the heart of minorities. Can the secular character of Indian state is a bigger question. Can state focus more on facilities for the poor and marginalized and delving in past as a cover of for revivalism be shunned. The history of Buddhist Vihars being destroyed by followers of Brahmanism also needs to be remembered, but past should be a matter for us for learning that wrong paths have to be shunned and the issues of people be brought to forefront so that all of us can live with dignity and honor.

Schedule Tribes: Adivasis or Vanvasis

Scheduled Tribes: Adivasi or Vanvasi Ram Puniyani Rahul Gandhi’s in one of his recent statements about Adivasis said “The people of BJP don’t call you Adivasi. What do they call you? Vanvasi. They don’t tell you that you are the first owners of Hindostan. They tell you live in jungles…” The word used for these aborigines is Scheduled Tribes in the Constitution. It is interesting to recall that even in Constituent Assembly Tribal Representative Jaspal Singh Munda asked for word Adibasi (Adivasi). He was very critical for using the word Banjati (Forest dweller) for them. RSS Combine has been using the word Vanvasi (Forest Dweller), right from the beginning. They went to the extent of forming Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram in 1952 to Hinduize the Adivasis, who essentially follow Animist culture. Ram Madhav of RSS stated that if they are called Adivasis, than it will mean that others have come from outside. According to ideology of Madhav and his organization, we (Hindus) are all original inhabitants of India. Presentation of this narrative has deeper political implications. The Aryan immigration (? invasion) theory was initially upheld by the likes of Tilak who in his book ‘Arctic Home of Vedas’ said the Aryans belonged to very high race and they had come from Arctic zone. Golwalkar did not want to contradict Tilak and still state that Aryans are original inhabitants of this land. He made a laughable modification to what Tilak wrote. He said that Arctic zone itself was located somewhere in Bihar-Orissa area and through the landmass migration it shifted to Arctic zone. So when the land was shifting probably the people kept hanging in the sky and settle down when the movement of earth came to a halt. “...that then it moved north-east and then by a sometimes westerly, sometimes northward movement, it came to its present position. If this be so, did we leave the Arctic Zone and come to Hindustan or were we all along here and the Arctic Zone left us and moved away northwards in its zigzag march?” Why this acrobatic exercise to prove that Aryans originated from here itself? The basic formulation of likes of Golwalkar is that “We—Hindus—have been in undisputed and undisturbed possession of this land for over 8 or even 10 thousand years before the land was invaded by any foreign race” and therefore, this land, “came to be known as Hindusthan, the land of the Hindus” This is to assert that Muslims and Christians are foreigners! The linguistic, archeological and population genetics studies show us that we all originated in South Africa. In the earlier wave of migration the people settled here, nearly sixty five thousand years ago. The Aryans migrated from Steppes in Central Asia nearly three and a half thousand years ago. When they came here they established their hegemony over the native Adivasis. In a brilliant analysis of different migrations Tony Joseph in his book Early Indians clearly establishes the origin of Aryans from Central Asia. Now as the Adivasis, were here even before Aryans came, the RSS combine ideology is going all out to prove that Aryans were the original inhabitants in tune with Hindu Nationalism and the claim over the land as ‘first comers’. As per them some people were pushed to the forests by foreign invaders (Muslims). In an attempt to make inroads into Adivasi areas Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram has been acting very intensely in these areas. Its aim is clear, to present Adivasis as Hindu and to impose on them the norms of (Brahmanical) Hinduism. From the decade of 1980s their activities became very aggressive. They also won over section of Adivasis through social engineering. In these areas Christian missionaries were already working through education and health activities. In the major Adivasi areas they had many goals. They were, one, to win over Adivasis for electoral purpose, two, to Hinduize them and three to counter the impact of Christian missionaries in these areas. For example in Dangs (Gujarat), Jhabua (Madhya Pradesh) and Kandhmal (Orissa) the RSS prachraks opened their centers at big scale. We saw the targeted violence against them in these areas the peak of which was seen in the murder of Pastor Graham Stains (1999) and the horrific Kandhmal violence (2008). These areas also saw the rise of the likes of Dilip Singh Judeo, who intensified Ghar Wapasi programs, converting Adivasis into Hindus in these areas. They also started Ekal Schools where their version of History is taught to the children. Simultaneously, they organized Shabri Kumbh melas through which the Hiduization process of Adivasis went on with an intense pace. Lord Hanuman and Shabri Mata were projected as icons for Adivasis, matching with the great reverence for Lord Ram and subservient role of these two deities. Their strategy paid rich dividends at electoral level also. BJP emerged as a major political force in these areas. We need to understand that promoting Lord Hanuman and Shabri Mata among Adivasis may be a type of signaling of the place of Adivasis in the coming schema of things. These areas are among the poorest in the countries and have seen the anti Christian violence from last two decades. The data shows that though the major spectacular violence is not to be seen, a sub radar anti Christian violence continues in these areas. What Adivasis need is and improvement of their social conditions. Rahul Gandhi correctly says that aim of BJP-RSS is to subjugate the Adivasis. "Who provided you the rights to our forest resources? It was the Congress. Who formulated Forests Rights Act and PESA [Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act]? We did. Only the Congress can fight for your rights…" Today BJP is out to ensure the subjugation of indigenous people. “The Congress says Adivasis are the rightful owners of the country's resources. The differences between them and us are not just in the names we call the Adivasis by but also in our mentalities. We are for the empowerment of Adivasis while they are for torture." Rahul Gandhi’s is a major statement and the hope is that Congress type formations stick to it in the face of subjugation of Adivasis rights and dignity, ensuring their security and well being in the society.

After 30 Years of Violence, Rediscovering India’s Coexistence | Seema Chishti (in New Lines, December 2, 2022 )

 After 30 Years of Violence, Rediscovering India’s Coexistence

While Hindu extremists today see Indian Muslims as aliens, the first mosque in South Asia bears witness to over a millennium of rich communal diversity and harmony

Seema Chishti

 [ . . . ]

https://newlinesmag.com/argument/after-30-years-of-violence-rediscovering-indias-coexistence/

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