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Babri Masjid is a three-dome mosque structure in
Faizabad/Ayodhya which was established in 1526 by Babar. He is the
founder of the Muslim Mughal Empire which ruled most of northern India from the early 16th to the mid-18th century. Hindus claim that the Babri Masjid was built where the
Ramjanmabhoomi Temple was once located. In 1885, some Hindus filed a claim in the country’s
British colonial courts that this mosque had been forcibly built by
Muslims after demolishing a Hindu temple built on the birth site of
their god Rama. Their request for restoration was denied by the court on
the grounds that the plaintiff had been unable to substantiate the
claim.
But the battle was not yet over. After India’s
independence from British colonial rule in the late 1940s, the district
magistrate of Faizabad (where this structure is located) informed higher
authorities in December 1949 that “a few Hindus entered Babri Masjid
at night when the Masjid was deserted and installed a deity
there…Police picket of fifteen persons was on duty at night but did
not apparently act.”
The district magistrate of Faizabad, Mr. Nayar, admitted
his responsibility and was asked to resign.
However, Nayar’s dangerous and irresponsible action
did not seem to bother India’s ruling Congress party at that time. They gave him a seat in
parliament (Lok Sabha). Moreover, instead of removing the idol and
restoring the mosque to its custodians, the Sunni Waqf Board, it was
locked. In addition, an official receiver, a Hindu, and a priest (also
Hindu) were appointed to look after the place.
Muslims, filed suit in the court - where it has been
lying for almost half a decade. But that was not the end of the matter.
Almost 40 years later, Babri Masjid resurfaced as a symbol of militant
Hindu revivalism, as groups representing this dangerous ideology, which
seeks to exclude non-Hindus from the vision of a “Mother India”,
launched a movement for its restoration.
In December 1985, a Hindu delegation called on the state
of Uttar Pradesh’s Chief Minister, serving him notice that the temple
must be handed over to them by March 8, 1986; otherwise they would forcibly occupy it. On
February 11, 1986, the Faizabad district opened so as to let the Hindus exercise their
"constitutional right" to worship. A report suggests that
Minister Arun Nehru masterminded this coup.
Up to this point, the situation was tense, but no major
violence had yet erupted. This was to be in December 1992, when hundreds
of thousands of Hindu militants mobilized by Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP)
and lead by Mr. L. K. Advani, stormed Babri Masjid and demolished it.
This sparked serious protests by Muslims, police firings, and then
Hindu-Muslim riots. Thousands lost their lives in the violence.
Today, Babri Masjid, despite its destruction almost a
decade ago, is once again in the news. The Hindu militants who succeeded
in tearing the mosque are now racing to start building a temple on its
ruins. It was activists keen on beginning this project, set to begin on
March 15, 2002, who were on the train in the February 27, 2002 Godhra
train incident. Their actions sparked a fury of violence that has today
left about 5,000 dead according to Muslim sources, in the worst communal
violence since the destruction of the Babri mosque in 1992.
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