LONDON: The Babri Masjid incident shows that all is not well between the Hindu majority and the religious minorities in India. A PHRO press release from London said it sounds the death knell of secularism as a political concept. The orchestrated violence at Ayodhya which left some 9 persons killed and many more injured has prompted the Punjab Human Rights Organisation to publish their report entitled “Ram Janam Bhoomi A Myth’. It reproduces an article by Mr. A.R. Darshi, who argues cogently and strongly that Ayodhya was not and could not be the birth place of Rama. He makes the point that in the absence of evidence which points conclusively that the Babri Masjid site was indeed the birth place of Rama, Indian authorities should immediately quell the present agitation and restore peace and normalcy to the disturbed areas.
The ease with which prominent politicians of Mr. Advani’s ilk can whip up baser elements and emotions of the Hindu community, shows India in its true colours as a theocratic and nonreligious state. Hindu extremists and fundamentalists, aided and abetted by the Indian authorities, are desecrating Sikh and Muslim places of worship with impunity. There is a growing feeling that religious uniformity and not diversity is the political slogan of the future. Babri Masjid was built in 1526 in the reign of the first Moghul Emperor, Babar, yet it was not until 1882 that a claim was made by the Hindus that it was built on the site of Rama’s birth. The Indian courts thoroughly examined this claim from 19823 and found it to be baseless, Two Hindu judges were included in the panel of Supreme Court judges who heard the case. Why then is the claim being resurrected after some 108 years? The Vishwa Hindu Parishad, has warned Indian Muslims that no less than 3000 Muslims Mosques in India have been built on the previous sites of Hindu Temples. If each claim is pursued with the same enthusiasm and violence as with Babri Masjid, India is in for a long period of Hindu Muslim conflict.
Harjit Singh
Article extracted from this publication >> December 7, 1990
