On 9 November 2019, the final judgement in the Ayodhya dispute was declared by the Supreme Court of India. National news channels flashed: “India’s top court gives Hindus site claimed by Muslims“. My younger brother asked me what was this verdict all about, I could just tell him the known 1992 riot in glimpse and the usual google reply “According to the local Hindu belief, the site of the now-demolished Babri Mosque in Ayodhya is the exact birthplace of Rama. The Babri mosque is believed to have been constructed during 1528-29 by a certain ‘Mir Baqi’ (possibly Baqi Tashqandi), who was a commander of the Mughal emperor Babur.
But is the picture limited to itself?
No indeed. On a later note, I realized, till the mid 19th century, the same place stood to symbolize peace and harmony between Hindus and Muslims. They both worshipped at Babri having got each other back. Seven hundred metres from Babri stands “Hanumangarhi”(a temple fortress).
The first communal conflict that Ayodhya witnessed occurred in the mid-1850s-” Hindu-Muslim feud” and why was it for?
TWIST IS THE REVERSE
Factual essays by scholars claimed that “Hanumangarhi stood, in fact, on the ashes of a mosque that dated back to Emperor Aurangzeb’s reign“
That is, just as Babri is supposed to stand on the ruins of a temple, this Hindu shrine occupied a space that earlier had a mosque. There came the motion to “RECLAIM MOSQUE” led by Shah Ghulam Husain. 70 Muslim men lost their lives in the course of events. Hindus made a grand display of slaughtering pigs on the same day. Muslim civilians got attacked and their properties plundered.
But this was to be called a “Superficial Hindu-Muslim conflict “!
Things were even more complex. Muslims in Awadh was about 12 per cent of the whole population. It comprised of a Sunni majority and a Shia minority. Interestingly, the Nawab was of Shia persuasion and an enthusiast for Hindu traditions. The cream of courtly patronage was distilled in favour of the Shia super-minority. It was not a Hindu-Muslim conflict! It was a move against Hindus as well a Sunni rebellion against an unorthodox Shia nawab. After Husain, Amir Ali took the lead and declared jihad to occupy Hanumangarhi and re-establish mosque (supposed to have existed).
Though the claim may not have been incorrect, a committee constituted by nawab declared “There was never a mosque “. When Amir Ali refused this decision, the stage got set for a battle. Several hundred rebels lost their lives and the leader himself fell on the battlefield.
Before Ramanandi Nagas turned into their military seat, the deity in the temple was worshipped by Hindus as “Hanuman” and by Muslims as “Hathile”( One of the 5 saints of Sufism). Hanumargarhi was indeed a shrine that attracted everybody. It was not a “No Muslim” zone. But at some point in history, by preventing access to Muslims, Hanumangarhi allowed grievances to mount. Hanumangarhi was retained by Hindus and the British had set up fences to separate mosque from the platform where Hindus offered worship.
Just like the historian, Manu S Pillai calls it to be curious on the fact that some date the first claim that the masjid sat on the spot of Ram’s birth to the mid -1850s- precisely the time when Muslims claimed Hanumangarhi was “originally” a mosque, and Hindus, in their counter-claim, reminded them of a temple upon which Babri is supposed to have been built.
Though all these matters seem to have no conclusion, it is to be learned that back in 19th-century people in power had the system in place to protect their temple from destruction than the idle head leaders who stood quiet and favoured the mobs of creating havoc in 1992.
/////The essay is a concise and shortened version of a chapter presented by historian Manu S Pillai in his third book “The Courtesan,the Mahatma & the Italian Brahmin” and is presented here with the purpose of a better reach for the public to this interesting piece of tale. You can have a wider reading to the topic from books like:
The Anatomy of a Confrontation Editor: Sarvepalli Gopal
Making Sense of Ayodhya Verdict Author: Asghar Ali Engineer
Ayodhya Author: PV NarasimhaRao
Ayodhya – The Dark Night Author: Dhirendra K Jha, Krishna Jha
Ayodhya: City of Faith, City of Discord Author: Valay Singh
The Babri Masjid Question, 1528-2003 Author: A.G. Noorani
Ancient Geography Of Ayodhya Author: Shyam Narayan Pandey //////