RAM JANMABHOOMI DISPUTE.

 The birthplace of Lord Rama is known as Ramjanmabhoomi and is believed to have been where the Babri Masjid stood in Ayodhya. However, this is just a matter of faith and no historical evidence is available to back that claim.  The Archeological Survey of India has stated that as per its findings, prior to the building of the Masjid a non Islamic structure existed there on which the Babri Masjid was built. 

The Babri Masjid was built in about 1528 AD by one of Babar’s generals Mir Baqi. For 400 years, the site was used both by Hindus and Muslims. The claim that a temple stood at the site of Babri Masjid prior to its construction was first stated by one official of the Faizabad court in 1822. 

Based on that statement the Nirmohi Akhara laid claim to the site and religious violence was first recorded at the site in 1855.  In 1859 AD, the British administration set up a railing to separate the outer courtyard of the mosque to avoid disputes.

This went on till 1949 when the idols of Rama were placed inside the mosque allegedly by the volunteers of the Hindu Mahasabha. This led to suits being filed by both the parties and the site was declared as disputed and the gates of the Masjid were locked.        

In the 1980’s the VHP started it campaign for construction of temple at the site with the BJP being its political voice. In 1986 a district judge ruled that the gates be reopened and Hindus be permitted to offer worship there. This decision was then endorsed by Rajiv Gandhi because he wanted to win back the confidence of the Hindus after the Shah Bano fiasco. Nevertheless, Congress lost the 1989 elections and the National Front Government under V P Singh came to power with the rejuvenated BJP which increased its seat tally from 2 in 1984 to 88 in 1989.   

In 1990 LK Advani took a Ratha Yatra across North India for gathering support of the Ram Temple. Advani was arrested in Bihar before he could reach Ayodhya. However, many Karsevaks managed to reach Ayodhya and they attacked the mosque. The para military forces stopped them and in the pitched battles many Karsevaks lay dead. The BJP with drew its support to the V P Singh government on the issue and the government fell. In the 1991 Parliamentary elections BJP further improved its tally to 120.

On 6^th December 1992, the RSS, BJP and the VHP organized a rally of  about 150,000 karsevaks at the disputed structure. There were speeches by LK Advani, Murali Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti and others. As time went by the gathering became restless and started raising slogans. A police cordon was placed around the masjid anticipating the attack but the force was just not adequate enough to stop the karsevaks. Ultimately by noon the karsevaks broke the police cordon and the police fled.

The karsevaks fell on the structure with axes and hammers and within a few hours, the entire structure was leveled to the ground.

The destruction of Babri Masjid brought out severe condemnation from the Muslims from all over the country. There was communal rioting in which about 2000 people died. Of this, the Shiv Sena led rioting  in Bombay alone claimed 900 people. This in turn ultimately led to the reprisal in the way of Bombay blasts in 1993.

The justice Liberhans Commission set up for enquiry into the incident took over 16 years and ultimately concluded and submitted the report to the government in 2009. As per the commission the events of December 6 were planned and not spontaneous.

Surprisingly from 2009 till 2014 despite the Congress government being in power nothing happened. In 2015, the SC admitted a petition stating that with the BJP in power, the issue would not be pursued by the CBI because the names of LK Advani and Rajnath Singh were mentioned in the report. In April 2017, a special CBI court framed charges against Advani, Joshi, Uma Bharti, Vinay Katiyar and others. In September 2020 the special court acquitted all the 32 accused stating that demolition was not pre planned and there is no evidence for that.

After the day of the Babri Masjid demolition, in Pakistan 30 temples were destroyed. There was also violence against the Hindus in Pakistan.

In Bangladesh too people attacked Hindus and burned down temples, shops and houses all over the country. 10 people were killed and 11 temples destroyed.