Dutt, S

English

Nottingham Trent Institutional Repository (IRep)

2.India in strife: the Ayodhya crisisSagarika Dutt collsiders the repercussiolls of the destructioll of the Babri Masjid mosque.For qui te • few yeMS now.cenain lI indu fundamefllal·isl organisalions in India havebeen wAnling to build. Ra",ja/IQmhlloomi (birthplace) rem-pie in Ayodhya. which is be-beved to be lord Rama 's birth-place. Unfonunalely.• rT'MJ!ique.the BabriMMjid. already standsal the site lhey have chosen forbuilding !he tem ple and whichthey claim i, the uacl spo!wbere Rama was born. 1beyalso claim lhal a lemple hadonce existed there bul was lomdown by Babur, the Muslimruler. in lhe siuecnth cenl uryand lhe mesqee was buil! in itsplace .The demolit ion of a majorpan of lhe 400 year old BabriMasjid by k:ar slI"mu (Hind uholy workers) on 6 December1992 was the cu lmination of a movementstarted by these Hindu fundamentalists.aided and ebeued by the Bharaliya IanaraPan y (BI P). a pro- lIi ndu pol itica l pany.The incident took lhe country by SUf -prise. The central government and theSupreme Court of India had been givenan assurance by me Unar Pradcsh gov-ernment and the BI P that the mo~uewould be pro tected and that tar SII"I 'U (apreliminary 10 the buildin g of the templ e)wou ld be only symbolic and cons tst oflhe sing ing of hJwjansand tirtans (Hindureligious soogs). and wou ld not includeany ccnsuucuon act ivity. prohibited byan injunction ofthe AIlahabad It igh Coun.As news of lhe demo lit ion spread.com muna l riocs broke out all over lhecou ntry and the anny had to be deployedin many mall. to maintain law andorder .Th e demoli lion of the mosq ue wasstrongly condemned in all quanen bypeople who were C'OflCeJnN about lhethreat to Ind ia ' s secular lradi lion s. TheUtW Pndesh government was dir.min edfor fai ling to prevenribe inc idenl. and !heslale was broughl under President's rule.Great betrayalAddressing the nalion ~ afler lhedemolition of the lTlO!Ique. the PrimeMin-Dr $<lJ<Ufli DIIIt . a , radwltll" of IMU"'I'II"rJi,.,ofKt'III . is l'WTTt'ItlI, ba.W i"Ca/i'Nfta ",/wrt' fM is rt'S('arrlai". is·Slit'S rt' lalt'd W fM i"ft'truliOlfof INf 'das d IIIN/li~,IItUt: S1dtll" .isrer of Ind ia. P.V . Narasimha Reo.blamed the BJP and the Vishw a UinduPari shad (VIIPj for the ' greal betrayal'of the nation . However. other op pos ilioopanies.jhe Natiooal Front-Left Irorucom -bine an d the Indian Unio n Musl imLeague. also bla med the central gove rn-ment and said thal the Prime Ministershou ld have antic ipated that (he far seva kswou ld create trouble in Ayod hya andshou ld have dismi ssed the unar Predeshgovern men t before things went ou t ofhand. They acc used him of fa iling 10 dis-charge his consutcuooet ob ligations anddemanded his res ignation .Narasimha Rao. however. refused tolake any respons ibility for the incident.He said that his go vem mem had not d ill. 'missed the UttaJ Pradesh gove rnment inanlicipalion of !he incidenl because Ihatwould have been unconslilUtional . andugued that in a fede ral se t-up the centra lgovernment cannot act on the ass ump-lion thal a slate govemmera is not trust-worthy .Government respo nseThe day after !he Ayodhya inddent. theCeJlIraI government annouACe'd a serinof measures 10 restore lhe conf.dence ofthe minoril ies. which included. ban OIlcommunal organisalions and an aswr·ance 1hallhe Babri Masj ld would be re-buill. On 8 December. leaders of the BI Pand!he VHP were atTeSled on dwges of~ing communal dimannony and dis-lurbing peace . Those atTeSled includedthe BIP presidenl. Murti Manohar l ashi.the leade r of the opposition in the lok.Sabha. L K. Advani . w VHPpresi dent, Vish nu HariOaImia. and its general sec-retary. Ashok Singhal . Theenure rompkx of thedi:~pllledshrine was cleared of I:arsnVllt by lhr Central ReservePolice Force's Raptd AC1tonFo= and~.On 10December. the cen-tral gcvemmesu banned theRashlri ya S way. m-se va ..Sangh {RSS). the VHP. the8 ajrang Oal. the Iamaar-l-Islam i and lhc Islam ic Sevu.Sangh. under lhe UnlawruJActivities ( ~venl'oo) Aet.196 7. for. period of I WOyears, for ' promoting disbar-mooy Of foelings of enmity.halm! and ill-will betweendirrerenl religious communi -lies ' and for ' part icipating inthe demolition of lhe smcture in Ayodhyaon Decem ber S.vTne ban was welcomedby all political parties except: the B1P.Ho wever. the ban will only drive the pr0-scribed organ i~l ions. l$pecial\y the RSS.underground. The RSS has always been avery elusive organisation and this is thethird time Ihat it has been banned . BUIthis is the lirsl lime that il has decided 10challenge the ban . which indic ates that itperceives its posi tion to be very strong.Foreign repercussionsThe storm ing of the Babri Masj id hadrepercussions in neighbouring Muslimcou ntries such as Bangladoh and Paki-:IoIM. and even in the United Kingdom .where temples were attac ked and dam-aged . lbe Organ isation of Islamic Coun-tries (DIe) c:oodcmned the Ayodh ya in-cident as ·shameful' . Al lhe United Na-tions. lslamjc countries urged the Secre-lary-General. Boeuos Ghali. to use hismoral and poIilical aUlhor'ilY to enserethe ufety of Muslim s in India. Takingnote of the Indian go vernmenl's dec isionto reconstnld the mosque and punish !heguilty. the DIC called for immediate stqKin this direction. while ambas.sadon ofthe Islamic cou nlries said that the)' wouldbe ' watch ing' the implemenlalion of theIndian government 's decision 10 rebuildlhe shrine.l Mean while. the goYernmentof India ~uesled the governn~fI1s ofBan gladesh. Pakistan . and the Uni tedKingdom tOprolm HinduandSikh pI~of wonhip. in their respective counlries-The fore ign media also had a role 10play in !he Ayodh ya cri sis. 1llose whoare responsible for ma intain ing law andorder in India, the stare governments andthe po lice. co mplained that the eo verag egiven 10 the inciden t by the fore ign me-dia. especially the BBC and CNN. hadaggrava ted the situation and led 10 moreviolence in the country. People in Indiaare also concerned that the incident andthe pub licity given 10 it by the foreignmedi a will tarn ish India 's image abroad.Thi s is espec ially undesirable .11 a limewhen the Indian government has initiateda process of economic reforms and istryin g 10 woo foreign investors.Sensit ive IssuesEver since the parti tion of the Indian sub-continent in 1947. along religious lines.Hindu-Musli m re lations has been a verysensi tive issue in India . Al thou gh Hindu sand Muslims had co-ex isted quite peace-fully for cen turies in Ind ia prior 10 Britishrule, the British policy of divide and rule ,coupled with the Muslim leaders ' per-sonal ambit ions and their fear of majorityrule in a democratic and indepe ndent In-d ia, sowed the seeds of Hindu-Muslimconfl ict. Hindu-Muslim riots have oftenbroken out in area s which have a mixedpopu lation , and at the sl i gh t e~t provoca-tion . Muslims are the largest minorit ygroup in India. Thei r numbe r exceeds lOOmillion. and they const itute about 12 percent of the total popu lation . However. theIndian government has never discrimi-nated against them .The Consnrution of India, which de-clares that India is a secular state, makesadequate provisions for the protec tion ofthe right of minorities. The fundamentalrights granted to Indian citizens by theconstitution incl ude the right 10 equ ality,the right 10 freedom of relig ion, and cul-rural and educa tional rights. An icle 14 ofthe constitution guarantees equality of a llpersons before the law. Anicl e 15 pro-hib its di scrimination on grounds of reli-g ion, race , caste, sex , or place of binh, asbetween citize ns. Anicle 25 says that allpersons shall be ent itled to freedom ofcon science and the right (0 pract ise andpropagate their religion freel y. And Ani-d e 20 allow s all the minori ties in India topre serv e and promote the ir language,scri pt and culture. It is indeed remarkablethat India , RO per cent of whose popula-tion is Hindu, has not been made a Hindustate.Reflected IdealsLeaders of the Indian freedom strugg le,such as Mahatma Gand hi, had never en-visaged a Hindu India , but rather a secu-lar state in which peo ple of all relig ionswould live in harmony, 11lC constitutionof India reflects their ideals. However ,Hindu chauvinists and fundamentalistshave often misunders tood or miscon struedtheir good inten tions . Mahatma Gandhiwas himsel f killed by a Hindu fanatic. InINDIA IN STRIFEP.V.Norasimho Roo ,rhpIlIdiollPrimpMill;stprthe da ys following the Ayodhya inciden t,the Prime Minisle r, Naras imha Rao, cau-tioned that India will d isintegrate ' if weleave the path of secularism' and that'being Indian should be equated with be-ing ... secular. ' JThe Ayodh ya inciden t has prom ptedthe Indian peopl e to lake a fresh look atthe BJP and assess anew its role in Ind ianpoli tics. The BJP 's popu lari ty has beenincreas ing over the years, and it faredextreme ly well at the la"t general e lec-tions he ld in India , in 199 1. Its supportbase consists mainl y of the weal thy trad-ing class and upper caste Hindus, but ithas also succe eded in wooin g 10 its fo ld asection of the middle-class intell igen tsia .The Ayodh ya incident has cost it some ofthe good will its supporters had for it. andthe manhandling of journa lists by the tarsevaks has certainly lost it the good willof the med ia.Unfortunate IncidentAlth ough Advani, the leader of the BJP,has described the Ayodhya incident as'unfonunare'. he has a lso tried to defendthe tar sevoks, who he said had beco me'exasperated by the tardiness of the judi -cial process and the obtuseness and myo-pia of the executive.' He has expressedthe opin ion that the country has over-reacted to the dem olit ion of ' an old suu c-lure, which ceased to be a mosque overfi fty years ago ' . and has poin ted out thatmore than 50 Hindu temples have beendes troyed in Kashmir and 200,000 HinduKashmiris have been displaced withoutprov oking s imilar outrage in India."What he has omitted to say, how ever,is that il was his political party and theHindu fundamentalist organisations, andnot the Indian government or anyone else,which had turned the Ayodh ya disputeinto a major national issue. It is d ifficu ltto say, at this point. whether Advani genu-inel y supports the ac t ion s of the tarsevaks, or s imply doe s nol wan t 10 adm itthat his party lost control over a section27of its followers and tha t the strategy ithad adopted for ga ining political powerhad backfired.Ideal rulerIncident ally, Lord Rarna , the legendaryHindu king, who is believed to be anincarnation of the Hindu god, Vistmu . isportrayed as being just and benevolent,the idea l ruler , who sou ght abov e all elsethe well -being of his subjects, and inwhose kingdom there was always peaceandprosperi ty. 'The behaviour ofhis devo-lees who sto rmed the mosque andof thosewho mstigared them is the antithesis ofeverything Lord Rama stands for. Ech o-ing the sentiments of man y Hindus, theeditorial of a leadin g new spaper in India ,The Statesman, has pointed OUI that LordRame ' s name has been 'shameless ly mis-used ' and that he is ' unlikely to allowhimself to be worsh ipped in a templefounded on dece it and duplicity ' ,' A sur-vey conducted in five major Indian ci tiesrevealed tha t more than 70 per cent of thepeo ple disapproved of the demolition ofthe mosq ue. Saner element s in India ar-gue that even if the contention of thelIi ndu fund amen ta lists, that rne BabriMasjid was built after tearin g down atemple which maned the ex act spot whereRama was born. is true , it is still no ex-cuse for destroying a place of worship.Ideall y, the temple should have bee n builtwithout dam aging the mosque.There is no doubt about the fact thatLord Rama's name is being exploited forpolitica l pu rposes and that the Ayodh yadispute is a case of pottucisauon of ren-gion. h is yet to be seen how this issuewill be reso lved. whether banning theHindu fundamentalist organisations. ar-res ting the BIP leaders, and dismissingthe BJP stale governments is the answerto the probl em , only time will tell . Thatneit her the BIP nor the Hindu fundamen-talists are read y to accept defeat on thisissue is qui re obv ious. The BJP has al -ready warned the central govemrnem nor10 rebuild the mosque in the vjcmity ofthe proposed temple. The Prime Ministerhas prom ised a white paper on Ayodhyasoon, but the dispute is likely 10 drag onfor a long time yet.NOTESI . 'RSS, Jumaat, Rajrang Dal, VP bannedor 2 years ' , The Td egraph (Calcutta),11 Dcc 1992, p.l .2. 'O IC appea ls for restraint", The States -man (Calcutta) , 10 Dcc 1992, p.12.3. Nara si mha Raos in te rv ie w withDileep Padgaonk ar, Editor, Times ofIndia , telecast by Doordarshan on 10Dec 1992 at9 pm.4. ' Not a ll the ambiguity can ma skAdvani's message ', The S,alesnwfI, 12Dec 1992 , p.l.5 . ' Let History Jud ge ' , ib id., 8 Dec 1992,p.R.

India in strife: the Ayodhya crisis

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Nottingham Trent Institutional Repository (IRep)