“In the early 90s, two locks were opened: one of the Babri Masjid and the other of the market [economic liberalization]. When they opened those two locks, they unleashed two kinds of fundamentalism-religious and economic.” – Arundhati Roy
Thirty years have passed since the demolition of the Babri Masjid, and three years from the controversial judgement that allowed the Sangh to build a Ram Mandir on the debris of Babri Masjid. Surprisingly, the Supreme Court expected the judgement to bring peace and communal harmony to the country, despite its clear bias and fatal flaws. However, as expected, there is constant effort from right-wing forces to transform the three-decade-old clarion call “Kashi, Mathura Baaki Hain”, into reality! Thus, it is clear that this judgement boosted the confidence of these hooligans. Hence, one has to scrutinize the past that led to the present situation.
According to one addendum, produced with the judgement, the decision of considering the disputed land of Babri Masjid as Ram-janmabhoomi, and thus, allowing the construction of a Ram temple there, was based on “the faith and belief” [1] of Hindu devotees. This not only resembled the narrative of the architects of the Babri demolition, but also set an unprecedented and baffling example of championing faith over facts. Thirty years back, the then leaders of the Ram-Mandir
movement from RSS-BJP, including Vajpayee and Advani, themselves admitted several times that it was impossible to exactly spot Ramjanmabhoomi. It was a purely political stance to “influence the electoral verdict in favour of the BJP”. On June 18, 1991, Advani even made a pitiful confession: “Had I not played the Ram factor effectively, I would have definitely lost from the New Delhi constituency.” [2]. However, it is confounding that the apex court failed to realize not only these hateful intentions, but also the consequences of such a judgement.
For all intents and purposes, the whole narrative of the Babri Masjid being built atop a pre-existing Ram temple is a British construct. After the first war of independence of 1857, the British cleverly used the mandir-masjid controversy and annexed the propaganda of temple destruction by Mughal ruler Babur to crack Hindu-Muslim unity despite no evidence backing this claim. Babri Masjid was built in 1528, but in ‘Baburnama’ there is no mention of a Ram temple underneath. Looking further back, there are no references to Ayodhya being the birthplace of Rama in Hiuen Tsang(7th century) or Al-Biruni’s(11th century) accounts. Even in Tulsidas’s ‘Ramcharitmanas’ written a few decades after the construction of the Babri Masjid, there is no mention of a Ram Mandir being destroyed for a Masjid. Even the ‘Skanda-Purana’, proclaimed as the ‘documentary evidence’ in this case, refers to the city of Ayodhya as the birthplace of Lord Rama, but there is no mention of the Mandir-Masjid trope [3].
No archaeological evidence of temple destruction was found in numerous excavations in Ayodhya, since the 1970s, including a few politically motivated attempts. Due to excess political pressure on Archaeological Survey of India, the renowned Indian archaeologist Shereen Ratnagar commented, “The circumstances and content of the argument for a temple and the political context in which they have developed leave no doubt that archaeology has been co-opted by some Indians to push sectarian agendas.” [4]. The 2019 Babri verdict showed how the most important pillar of the ‘largest democracy’ was forced to bow down before the Hindu chauvinists. Both the hideous act of Masjid demolition
and this compromised judgement must be condemned unequivocally. However, one must also understand the larger, seemingly invisible power at play that controls this chain of events. The economic crisis of 1990, the involvement of IMF, then the so-called ‘economic reforms’ of 1991, and the opening up of the Indian market for foreign investments as per demands of world monopoly capital, should not be seen as isolated events. The coincidence with the polarisation of Indian mass through Babri demolition, is no accident. Erstwhile ruling Congress first manufactured the context through the controversial Shah-Bano judgement. During the demolition, they were mere spectators, keeping all state machinery indolent. It was not just a win for leaders of Hindutva or Hindu vote-bank politics, rather the big, global players and
their Indian collaborators won the battle by breaking the unity of the working class ‘in the name of God’. Today the working class is sunk further in neoliberal onslaughts, with the ruling class still trying its best to
divert focus through hijab-halal debates. To win this battle, we need to expose the ploy used by this pro-corporate and anti-people system, which is constantly nurtured by the nexus between imperialism and religious fundamentalism.
References:
- https://frontline.thehindu.com/cover-story/supreme-court-denies-justice/article30014667.ece
- https://www.newageislam.com/books-documents/ag-noorani/how-mosque-became-temple/d/10526
- https://frontline.thehindu.com/cover-story/short-shrift-to-facts/article30024814.ece
- https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/381044
