Babri Masjid

The Babri Mosque (also Babri Masjid) was a mosque constructed by the Muslim emperor of India Babur in Ayodhya in the 16th century. It was alleged that Babur destroyed an existing temple at the site, which Hindus believe was the temple built to commemorate the birthplace of Rama, an incarnation of Vishnu and ruler of Ayodhya.

The mosque had been used by Muslims as a prayer site for hundreds of years. In 1949, Hindu activists who wished to see it replaced with a Rama temple broke in and placed statues of Rama inside the mosque. Following this, the state government ordered the mosque sealed.

In 1986 the mosque was reopened by a lower court at the request of the Hindu nationalist Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP, "World Hindu Council") to allow Hindus to worship there.

In 1990, Lal Krishna Advani, a top member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) began a campaign tour (a rathayatra, or "chariot-journey") to build support for a Rama temple at the mosque site. LK Advani Speeches by LK Advani inflamed passions further. The VHP also negotiated with the All India Babri Masjid Action Committee (AIBMAC), an organisation created to represent the interests of Muslims in the mosque, over the site, each presenting evidence to the court of their claims to the site.

The mosque was destroyed on December 6, 1992, by a crowd of nearly one million activists (karsevaks) of the VHP and other associated groups. The destruction occurred at the end of Advani's rathayatra,there is some evidence that it was pre-planned by Hindu nationalist groups. Journalists present were next attacked according to a letter by Time magazine journalists Jefferson Penberthy and Anita Pratap to the judical Liberhan commission set up later.

While the mosque was being pulled down a few sane local Hindus from Ayhodya pleaded with Acharya Dharmendra of the VHP's Marg Darshak Mandal and BJP leader Uma Bharati to stop murderous gangs of kar sevaks from attacking their Muslims neighbours of the town and burning and looting their houses and shops, he is quoted in the Times of India as having said, "Although the local Hindu residents did ask me to hold the crowds from burning Muslim homes I would have never stopped them them. This is the only way in which Ayodhya could become like the Vatican.".

Between nightfall on December 6 and mid-afternoon the next day, kar sevaks killed and then burnt 13 men and children according to the BBC World Service. While nearly all the Muslims had left their homes before the week-end for safer spots, the rest fled on hearing the news that the Babri Masjid had fallen. Those who died obviously could not escape in time.

The rule of the Centre was imposed in UP at 6 p.m. on December 6. However according to the BBC rioting began seriously only at about 4 a.m. the next morning and continued for nearly 12 hours, with mobs of several hundreds roaming the streets of. this temple town, shouting 'Jai Shri Ram' and plundering and torching Muslim homes

Any other mosque the mob could find was an added bonus to the destruction of the Babur Mosque. As a result, barring two, all the masjids and idgahs of Ayodhya were either destroyed or damaged.

Today both Hindu and Muslim communities hold the'outsiders' responsible for the happenings in Ayodhya, and always insisted that they would survive kar seva after kar seva together. Both sides talk of how the Muslims of the town supplied all the wood used to build the temples of the Hindus and grew flowers and strung them for the necks of the gods and goddesses.

Following the destruction of the Babri Mosque, communal riots broke out between Hindus and Muslims across India, including in Mumbai (Bombay), which was a largely secular and cosmopolitan city. It is generally accepted that the campaign to build the Rama temple and the destruction of the mosque was responsible for the BJP's meteoric rise to power.

Since then, the VHP has been moving forward with plans to build a Rama temple there. In December 2002 the VHP announced that it would construct the temple in a year and a half (i.e., mid 2004).

It may be noted that many, if not most Hindu religious leaders are opposed to the policies of the BJP and the VHP. These seers and religious leaders are opposed to the politicizing of the Ram Mandir issue and want to construct the new temple in a civilized manner. The Akharha Parishad, which is the supreme body of the sadhus of different Hindu sects, has not only boycotted BJP meetings but has also sharply criticized the RSS-BJP-VHP trio for communalizing and politicizing the issue. The All India Akharha Parishad and Bharat Sadhu Samaj have made it clear that they will have nothing to do with the Dharama Sansad a religious council set up by the VHP.

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