Hindu
historical awareness
This work summarizes some relevant information relating
to the temple-mosque controversy over the site known since
time immemorial as Ramajanmabhumi. In addition, it also
brings into focus what may be seen as the real issues involved
— issues that have been obscured by the cloud of controversy
surrounding it. Upon carefully examining it, the reader
will discover that the dispute is not so much about the
right of possession to the ancient site known as Ramajanmabhumi
as it is over the version of history that is sought to be
imposed on the people of India.
It is a serious contraction of the scope and meaning of
the Ayodhya episode of December 6, 1992 to treat it as a
dispute over a piece of land, and brick and mortar; the
dispute really is part of a struggle being waged by an ancient
people to recover their own history from the clutches of
imperial interests. This is what I have tried to highlight
in the present document. It is therefore a serious error
to treat the demolition of the Babri Masjid as a mere retribution
for the temple destructions by Islamic vandals going back
a thousand years. That would place the Islamic vandals and
the kar sevaks on the same moral plane which I see as a
historic error — for what the kar sevaks were trying
to recover was not merely the disputed structure built over
their sacred site, but the true history of their land. Looking
at it in the context of de-colonization of the Hindu mind,
V.S. Naipaul is right in seeing the demolition as a symbol
of rising historical awareness on the part of the Hindus.
Hindus have recognized that the Babri Masjid was never intended
as a place of worship; it was a symbol pure and simple of
the victory of Islamic imperialism over the Hindu Civilization.
This is what I have tried to highlight in this volume. At
the same time, the historical facts about the existence
or non-existence of previous temples at the site, and the
record of their destruction are very much part of this struggle.
This too I have tried to bring to light by presenting the
relevant information from literary, archaeological and epigraphic
sources. My goal in all this is to
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enable everyone to
see the true historical facts behind the struggle, free
from the propaganda and misinformation that has plagued
the field so far. Unless we have a true picture of the historical
facts, we have little chance of finding our way out of the
present impasse.
Islamic view of history
In spite of the enormous volume of writing that has appeared
on Ayodhya, a central theme that runs through the dispute
has not been sufficiently highlighted; this theme is the
effort to impose the Islamic view of history not only on
the Ayodhya dispute, but on all of Indian history. The Islamic
view holds that the history of any place begins with its
Muslim takeover, and nothing that took place before the
takeover is of any account. According this version, the
demolition of the Babri Masjid is a crime, but the destruction
of previous temples at the site (or anywhere else) is of
no account.
It is this version of history that has been imposed
on countries conquered by Islam — countries like
Arabia, Iran and Afghanistan. It is this version that
Islamic warriors sought to impose on India also for several
centuries but failed. (But this is the version taught
at Islamic institutions in India, like the madrasahs and
even the Aligarh Muslim University.) The Indian Muslim
leaders and their allies calling themselves ‘Secularists’
are fighting to see this version prevail, while the Hindus
are fighting to preserve their own history and tradition.
Ayodhya is a symbol of this struggle for history.
I see the present work as a small effort aimed at highlighting
the following: (1) the true facts of history relating
to Ayodhya; (2) the struggle for the recovery of their
history that lies behind the temple-mosque dispute; and
(3) understanding the consequences of hasty actions by
reacting to transient passions and political compulsions,
while failing to take note of the course of history. The
key fact to note is that the events of December 6, 1992
do not stand alone; they are part of the history of the
struggle being waged between exclusivism and pluralism
going back a thousand years. The stakes in this for the
people of India are enormous. We ignore it only at our
peril.
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