by Abrar Khan
(Daijiwold, December 6, 2007)
Come December 6th, and it would mark the completion of the 15th year post the demolition of the Babri Masjid. To this day, the issue remains as hot as it was on the day the unfortunate event took place. It is a concern that has the sentiments of two religious communities attached with it. The issue has led to many a bloodshed and turmoil in the entire country, throughout this past decade and a half.
It is really disheartening that we have been slitting the throats of our own brothers all these years. One major problem we Indians have, is that we get too emotional with certain things. Little do we give importance to reasoning and understanding. Although we talk about the great culture that we have, in practicality, we hardly practice it.
People talk about fundamentalism being the cause of the global unrest. Yes, negative fundamentalism is bad. But if we hold onto the fundamentals of the legacy that has been passed onto us, positively, the entire disorder in the world will take no time to disappear. We do not hold onto our roots, which teach us to be human.
An accusation made in context of the Babri Masjid, is that the mosque was built by demolishing a temple belonging to Ram. Some, give another dimension to this accusation, by concluding that Islam is a religion that has no respect for the sentiments of people following different faiths. In the first place, with due respect to the sentiments of our Hindu brethren, there is no evidence that a temple existed on that place before. Secondly, in the context of Babri Masjid, for those who felt that Islam spreads hatred and disrespects other faiths, here is one piece of information from the basics of Islam – "And abuse not those whom they call upon besides Allah, lest they, out of spite, abuse Allah in their ignorance (Quran 6:109)". In this verse, it is clearly specified that abusing other faiths and their followers increases hatred and thereby, they may turn away from their true Creator.
This is what the real Islam is. To know what Islam is, the best and the predominant source of information is the Glorious Quran, the word of God. Secondly, the authentic Hadith – life and sayings of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) collected by the Sahaaba (r.a), his ardent companions. Thirdly, the life of the Sahaaba (r.a) – their sayings and lifestyle.
We must understand that religion and community are two different things. A community contains all kinds of people – educated, uneducated, poor, rich, literate, illiterate, good and bad. Because a limited few from any particular community harm an individual or a society with their deeds, it in no way means that that is what their 'religion' preaches.
The demolition of the Babri Masjid was indeed an immoral act. It was an act of a limited few, who wanted to use it as a tool for their political ambitions. Although they claim of being the protectors of Hinduism, the ones who know the roots of Hindu philosophy, would know that they are not on the right path.
Keeping the sentiments aside, let us look at the Ayodhya issue with a sense of reasoning and understanding. As mentioned earlier, there is no evidence on the claim that a temple belonging to Ram existed. In the entire Hindu mythology, be it Ramayana, Mahabharata, the Bhagavad Gita, or the Vedas, there is no mention of the word 'temple' anywhere.
"There was never a concept of temple in Hinduism before. It was only when Jainism and Buddhism started gaining momentum in India with temple architecture, Hinduism also adopted the trend of building temples and making idols for worship. In Hinduism, worship of nature was predominant right from the ages of Ramayana and Mahabharata. They never had temples. It was only in the Gupta period, somewhere in the 4th – 6th century A.D, temples were built as place of worship for the Hindus" says Dr N Saraswati, Reader, Department of History, University of Mysore. Therefore, it becomes crystal clear that the mythological Ram never had a temple.
Besides, the Babri Masjid was built in the year 1528. The great poet Tulsidas who was a contemporary of Akbar, and who started composing poems in the year 1574 (just 46 years after the construction of the Mosque), was a great devotee of Ram. Interestingly, there is no mention of any destruction of a Ram temple and a construction of a mosque, in the works of this Ram Bhakt. It is noteworthy that his best literary work was 'Ramcharitamanas'.
In the book 'The Babri Masjid Question, 1528-2003: A matter of National Honour (Vol.1), Edited by A.G.Noorani, there is a remarkable reference regarding Babar, made by Dr Rajendra Prasad. In his work India Divided, Dr Prasad praises Babar for his tolerance towards other religions. Dr Prasad unveils the message Babar had sent to his son prince Humayun – "Oh son: The Kingdom of India is full of different religions. Praised be God that He bestowed upon thee its sovereignty. It is incumbent on thee to wipe all religious prejudices off the tablet of thy heart, administer justice according to the ways of every religion. Avoid especially the sacrifice of the cow by which thou canst capture the hearts of the people of India and subjects of this country may be bound up with royal obligations" (Chapter I, Doc. 1)
An intelligent person would realize that such a man would never have ordered the demolition of a temple.
The issue is simple and it is clear that justice has to be done in favour of the minority community. But somehow, some people with satanic political intentions, have been trying to make things complicated and do not want justice to prevail.
However, it gets even more saddening when people of immense knowledge, also misunderstand the concept.
Sri Sri Ravishankarji, (popular for his 'Art of Living') gave his opinion on the Ayodhya issue to a cochin based infotainment magazine called Seasonal (Vol.5, issue 2, march 2007) where he said "The temple is already there now. That cannot be removed at any cost. So that should be just allowed to be there. You can say that there was a mosque, but someone can say that there was a temple before that. This can go on and on in history. But seeing the present situation, I would say keep the same yardsticks".
If only panditji had made an attempt to keep the 'present situation yardstick' 15 years ago, the mosque would probably had not been demolished, for at that time, the mosque was there and looking at the present situation then, it should have 'just allowed to be there'.
Sri Sri Ravishankarji adds "Suppose it was the birth place of Jesus Christ or Prophet Muhammad, what would the world say if people had a temple there? They would say 'Come on, take it away, keep it at another place because it is a sacred place for our community'. We should use the same yardstick, because it is the birthplace of Rama and it is sacred to millions of people who have their emotions attached to it. Okay, even if a mosque is built there, is it going to be honoured like Mecca? Will it be a sacred place where everybody will go? No. Maximum good for maximum number of people is what justice is about."
With due respect to Panditji, keeping aside the maximum good and minimum good, to destroy somebody's good and try to do good, is it good after all?
Besides, the fact whether the present day Ayodhya, is itself the Ayodhya of Ramayana, has not been proved in history. In Valmiki's Ramayana, the Ayodhya belonging to the king Rama, was a place containing many palaces and huge buildings (urban set up). There are no archeoelogical evidences for these in the present day Ayodhya, thereby giving a feeling that the Ayodhya of Valmiki was imaginary and fictional. Therefore, the claim that the site of Babri Masjid, itself was the Ramjanmabhoomi, does not hold good.
But all said and done, if anybody is responsible for the unfortunate demolition of the Babri Masjid, in the true sense of the term, it is the Muslim community itself. A spiritual elderly from the Community was questioned as to who he thinks is behind the demolition. He replied with grief, "Nobody else is to be blamed. It is our own mistake, that we did not tell the world, what the importance of a mosque is…"
(Daijiwold, December 6, 2007)
Come December 6th, and it would mark the completion of the 15th year post the demolition of the Babri Masjid. To this day, the issue remains as hot as it was on the day the unfortunate event took place. It is a concern that has the sentiments of two religious communities attached with it. The issue has led to many a bloodshed and turmoil in the entire country, throughout this past decade and a half.
It is really disheartening that we have been slitting the throats of our own brothers all these years. One major problem we Indians have, is that we get too emotional with certain things. Little do we give importance to reasoning and understanding. Although we talk about the great culture that we have, in practicality, we hardly practice it.
People talk about fundamentalism being the cause of the global unrest. Yes, negative fundamentalism is bad. But if we hold onto the fundamentals of the legacy that has been passed onto us, positively, the entire disorder in the world will take no time to disappear. We do not hold onto our roots, which teach us to be human.
An accusation made in context of the Babri Masjid, is that the mosque was built by demolishing a temple belonging to Ram. Some, give another dimension to this accusation, by concluding that Islam is a religion that has no respect for the sentiments of people following different faiths. In the first place, with due respect to the sentiments of our Hindu brethren, there is no evidence that a temple existed on that place before. Secondly, in the context of Babri Masjid, for those who felt that Islam spreads hatred and disrespects other faiths, here is one piece of information from the basics of Islam – "And abuse not those whom they call upon besides Allah, lest they, out of spite, abuse Allah in their ignorance (Quran 6:109)". In this verse, it is clearly specified that abusing other faiths and their followers increases hatred and thereby, they may turn away from their true Creator.
This is what the real Islam is. To know what Islam is, the best and the predominant source of information is the Glorious Quran, the word of God. Secondly, the authentic Hadith – life and sayings of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) collected by the Sahaaba (r.a), his ardent companions. Thirdly, the life of the Sahaaba (r.a) – their sayings and lifestyle.
We must understand that religion and community are two different things. A community contains all kinds of people – educated, uneducated, poor, rich, literate, illiterate, good and bad. Because a limited few from any particular community harm an individual or a society with their deeds, it in no way means that that is what their 'religion' preaches.
The demolition of the Babri Masjid was indeed an immoral act. It was an act of a limited few, who wanted to use it as a tool for their political ambitions. Although they claim of being the protectors of Hinduism, the ones who know the roots of Hindu philosophy, would know that they are not on the right path.
Keeping the sentiments aside, let us look at the Ayodhya issue with a sense of reasoning and understanding. As mentioned earlier, there is no evidence on the claim that a temple belonging to Ram existed. In the entire Hindu mythology, be it Ramayana, Mahabharata, the Bhagavad Gita, or the Vedas, there is no mention of the word 'temple' anywhere.
"There was never a concept of temple in Hinduism before. It was only when Jainism and Buddhism started gaining momentum in India with temple architecture, Hinduism also adopted the trend of building temples and making idols for worship. In Hinduism, worship of nature was predominant right from the ages of Ramayana and Mahabharata. They never had temples. It was only in the Gupta period, somewhere in the 4th – 6th century A.D, temples were built as place of worship for the Hindus" says Dr N Saraswati, Reader, Department of History, University of Mysore. Therefore, it becomes crystal clear that the mythological Ram never had a temple.
Besides, the Babri Masjid was built in the year 1528. The great poet Tulsidas who was a contemporary of Akbar, and who started composing poems in the year 1574 (just 46 years after the construction of the Mosque), was a great devotee of Ram. Interestingly, there is no mention of any destruction of a Ram temple and a construction of a mosque, in the works of this Ram Bhakt. It is noteworthy that his best literary work was 'Ramcharitamanas'.
In the book 'The Babri Masjid Question, 1528-2003: A matter of National Honour (Vol.1), Edited by A.G.Noorani, there is a remarkable reference regarding Babar, made by Dr Rajendra Prasad. In his work India Divided, Dr Prasad praises Babar for his tolerance towards other religions. Dr Prasad unveils the message Babar had sent to his son prince Humayun – "Oh son: The Kingdom of India is full of different religions. Praised be God that He bestowed upon thee its sovereignty. It is incumbent on thee to wipe all religious prejudices off the tablet of thy heart, administer justice according to the ways of every religion. Avoid especially the sacrifice of the cow by which thou canst capture the hearts of the people of India and subjects of this country may be bound up with royal obligations" (Chapter I, Doc. 1)
An intelligent person would realize that such a man would never have ordered the demolition of a temple.
The issue is simple and it is clear that justice has to be done in favour of the minority community. But somehow, some people with satanic political intentions, have been trying to make things complicated and do not want justice to prevail.
However, it gets even more saddening when people of immense knowledge, also misunderstand the concept.
Sri Sri Ravishankarji, (popular for his 'Art of Living') gave his opinion on the Ayodhya issue to a cochin based infotainment magazine called Seasonal (Vol.5, issue 2, march 2007) where he said "The temple is already there now. That cannot be removed at any cost. So that should be just allowed to be there. You can say that there was a mosque, but someone can say that there was a temple before that. This can go on and on in history. But seeing the present situation, I would say keep the same yardsticks".
If only panditji had made an attempt to keep the 'present situation yardstick' 15 years ago, the mosque would probably had not been demolished, for at that time, the mosque was there and looking at the present situation then, it should have 'just allowed to be there'.
Sri Sri Ravishankarji adds "Suppose it was the birth place of Jesus Christ or Prophet Muhammad, what would the world say if people had a temple there? They would say 'Come on, take it away, keep it at another place because it is a sacred place for our community'. We should use the same yardstick, because it is the birthplace of Rama and it is sacred to millions of people who have their emotions attached to it. Okay, even if a mosque is built there, is it going to be honoured like Mecca? Will it be a sacred place where everybody will go? No. Maximum good for maximum number of people is what justice is about."
With due respect to Panditji, keeping aside the maximum good and minimum good, to destroy somebody's good and try to do good, is it good after all?
Besides, the fact whether the present day Ayodhya, is itself the Ayodhya of Ramayana, has not been proved in history. In Valmiki's Ramayana, the Ayodhya belonging to the king Rama, was a place containing many palaces and huge buildings (urban set up). There are no archeoelogical evidences for these in the present day Ayodhya, thereby giving a feeling that the Ayodhya of Valmiki was imaginary and fictional. Therefore, the claim that the site of Babri Masjid, itself was the Ramjanmabhoomi, does not hold good.
But all said and done, if anybody is responsible for the unfortunate demolition of the Babri Masjid, in the true sense of the term, it is the Muslim community itself. A spiritual elderly from the Community was questioned as to who he thinks is behind the demolition. He replied with grief, "Nobody else is to be blamed. It is our own mistake, that we did not tell the world, what the importance of a mosque is…"
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