The day of Allahabad High Court verdict on Ayodhya Ramjanmabhoomi case should be marked by golden letters in judicial history of India. The world witnessed with naked eyes the revolutionary change in Indian judicial system. Till 30th September the main sources of any trial were facts and evidences, but they were replaced on the fateful day by myths and superstitions. A Special Bench of the High Court has ruled that the disputed land in Ayodhya where the Babri Masjid stood for 400 years until it was brazenly demolished in 1992 shall be sliced into three parts, 2/3rd portion to be shared by two Hindu plaintiffs and 1/3rd to be given to the Sunni Muslim Waqf Board. This judgment, therefore, is more strange and interesting.
The scuffle in Ayodhya over the issue could be traced back to 1853 with a Hindu-Muslim clash over the land, which left about 70 dead. The issue was however communalised and politicised only after creation of Hindu Maha Sabha and RSS on 1905 and 1924 respectively. British policy of divide and rule gave more strength to these fanatic groups. In 1949 the idol of Ram Lalla (infant Ram) was placed inside the Masjid. The government then declared the premises as disputed and the gates of the shrine were locked. The issue was brought to the court. Acquiring Babri Masjid, demolishing it and building a Ram temple in its stead was propagated to be the ‘birth right’ and ‘sole objective’ of all Hindus.
It is true almost all Hindu followers believing Ram born at Ayodhya. Where Ram janambhoomi in Ayodhya is a trickier question, Hindu scholars are debating on the whereabouts of Ayodhya itself. Strangeness of the court verdict is that all the judges unanimously revealed that the portion under the central dome of the demolished masjid where the idol of Ram Lalla had been kept in a makeshift temple is the exact birth place of Rama “as per faith and belief of the Hindus” since “times immemorial”. Is there any evidence except myths (and that too conflicting)?
They have found the Masjid was built over the temple, which was demolished by Babur – it is totally unhistorical. But suppose the argument is true. Shall we research credentials of all the buildings and worshiping places and restore the Stone Age structures? Legally 1947 i.e. after independence status quo should be considered and at that hour the structure was masjid. From another angle let me ask respected judges that suppose if Babri Masjid still exists today what would have been their verdict? If demolition than ok but if not then haven’t they justified the criminal act of razing a masjid and disrupting peace and communal harmony?
The petition of Sunni Waqf Board was rejected as under some dubious clause it is mentioned that if anyone keeps one property for more than 12 years somehow, the property would be theirs. The judges however neglected the fact that Babri Masjid was under control of Muslims not only for 12 years but more than 4 century until the demolition of it in 1992.
There are so many lands and geographical areas related to mythology of different religions in all over India, for example the largest river Ganga considered as one of the two daughters of Meru (Himalaya); Mahabharata battle field in modern Delhi and its adjacent area; the modern state Kerala itself is considered Parasurama’s creation. For Buddhists, India is ‘the mother of their religion’ and a number of their sacred places are there in India, in whose stead big temples have been constructed. Now all of them have a chance to fulfil their mythological claims (much more historical than claim of birth place of Rama) over these ‘properties’, god given properties that were theirs in bygone ages. They should present their cases before the same trio of Allahabad High Court judges who opened this Pandora’s Box in our judiciary.
