The Promise of Secularism

                                                             

"I have a Hindu worker who helps me, things in the town are still peaceful. But the fact is we don't know whom to trust because we have been betrayed earlier in 1992" says Abid Khan who makes wooden sandals, mostly for the large number of Hindu ascetics and monks who live in Ayodhya.

Unlike Western notions of secularism, India’s secularism does not separate religion and the State. India’s constitutional framework allows “extensive state interference in religious affairs” but in India, the reality is always a twisted variation of the truth. One such defining moment of the Indian secular history was the Babri Masjid demolition-Ram Mandir movement- a decisive event that created a rift so deep, it will take decades or even centuries for the people to recover.  

Many Hindus believe the 16th-century Babri Masjid, named after Mughal emperor Babur (1483-1530), was built at the place where Lord Ram was born in Ayodhya, located about 135km east of the state capital, Lucknow. The constant tussle for the claim on the site of worship always existed but it did not affect the unity and brotherhood of Hindus and Muslims of Ayodhya, till 1949.

One night in December 1949, a group of Hindus placed an idol of Lord Ram and claimed that it had miraculously appeared there, this led to a series of disputes and lawsuits. The political dispute on the issue was magnified manifold when the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) found its instrument for the rise to power in the Ram Janmabhoomi conflict. It tried to spread its propaganda of religious bigotry and nationalism throughout the country, trying to captivate the majority while cornering a specific minority religion: Islam.

It organized rallies for the construction of a temple dedicated to the Hindu deity Ram at the disputed site of the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya in the 1980s. The early ’90s saw a rise in the party’s popularity because of the Ram Mandir movement. It finally culminated when BJP leader LK Advani organized a rath yatra with strong mythological imagery. Kar Sevaks from all over the country converged in Ayodhya intending to build Ram Mandir by destroying the mosque built by the tyrants of the past, the Mughals.

In every stump speech from the rath, Advani spoke of the “historical Hindu wound” and made Babri Masjid a buzzword for hate in Indian living rooms. The speeches were instigating and inflammatory. Leaders gave fiery speeches telling how the Babri Masjid is a blemish on Hindu culture, and they made speeches to charge the mob for some eruptive action. On December 6, 1992, the Kar Sevaks demolished the Babri Masjid while the armed forces watched in silence as the leaders provoked the mob. It chanted outrageous slogans that hurt religious sentiments.

·       Jo Swapna Dekhte Babar ke, Armaan mitaakar maanenge!

We will wipe out aspirations of those who dream of Babar (referring to the Muslim community)

·       Kasam Ram ki Khaate hai, Mandir wahi Banaenge!

We will construct the temple at the same place where the mosque is situated

·       Ek dhakka aur do, Babri Masjid tod do!

Give one more blow and demolish the Babri Masjid

The demolition of the Masjid led to riots all over the country; properties destroyed, lives lost and chaos prevailed.  Eyewitnesses allege that the demolition of the mosque was planned, and many Kar Sevaks were trained and armed with harpoons and rods. Many Hindus, over generations, have been taught to view the mosque as a site of historical humiliation. They acted as ‘mnemonic communities’, self-identifying as wounded. The leaders of the BJP continued to deny the fact that the demolition was planned and stated it as an act of the mob, decided by the god. Leaders such as Uma Bharti even claimed that” She does not regret the demolition, as it furthers the goal of building a Ram Mandir there”.

November 9, 2019, surely joins December 6, 1992, as another ‘black day’ for ‘the idea of secular India’. The dispute has been finally concluded when the Supreme Court of India announced its majoritarian verdict in favour of the construction of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. It surely hurts when the verdict repeatedly criticizes the undoubted criminality in destroying the mosque in 1992 but does not direct that due punishment be surely inflicted within a short date — as it had stipulated for handing over the disputed plot for the Ram temple. It is a paradox of history that a judgment has actually fulfilled what the destroyers of the mosque had sworn all along – mandir wahin banayenge.

The wrongdoings of history cannot be corrected by reversing the decision in the present. The construction of the mosque after destroying the structure before it was unfair and unequal, but the masjid became a place of worship with a sentimental, emotional, and religious attachment to it. Destroying the mosque or any other place of worship is a heinous crime, especially in a democracy.

August 5,2020 will always be remembered as the final nail in the coffin when the Prime Minister of the country stated: “For those who have devoted their lives to this cause, this day is as significant as the day India gained independence”. While India’s national movement for independence transcended the barriers of religion, caste and language to unite us as a nation, the Ram temple is and has always been a Hindutva project that deeply divided India, especially because of the irrationality and violence which it involved.

For the sense of closure to get even a fighting chance, those accused of the demolition must be punished for their crime. This, however, has not been the case; A Special CBI Court in Lucknow has now cleared the remaining debris with an unconscionable judgment by acquitting all those indicted. Its conclusions are drastic and defy logic and fact. Given this grim background, and the grave consequences that the exoneration of those who demolished a religious structure would have on public trust in the judicial system, it is imperative that the CBI goes on appeal. The cause of communal amity cannot afford successive judicial setbacks to both secular values and the rule of law.

 An uncertain yearning about the closure, following a long-awaited resolution, should not make us overlook the demolition of Babri Masjid- it was and will be one of the heaviest blows to India’s secular democracy and the rule of law.

-Abhinav Sardesai