AYODHYA – THE BATTLE FOR INDIA’S SOUL
URL: http://mikeghouseforindia.blogspot.com/2012/12/ayodhya-battle-for-indias-soul.htm

Thanks to Wall street Journal and Krishna Pokharel and Paul Beckett for writing the series on the topic,  it is one of India’s unfinished social business and needed to be addressed.  The article follows my commentary.

 Indeed,
it is the battle for India’s soul. I wrote a commentary on Egypt’s new
constitution, and one of the paragraphs stated, “The Civility of a
nation is measured by how she treats her women, children, the ones in
ditches, the minorities and the voiceless” an Australian professor shot
back and wanted to know India’s record. 

Neither Indian nor American system will score 100 in civility, but
certainly it has the structure to contribute towards that goal, and the rule of law prevails. As a solution, India has offered reservations in jobs, education
system to those economically backward and those in the ditches to uplift them,
we still have Sachar Report’s recommendations to be implemented to uplift Muslims.
We have to pull every one up from the ditches to a point from which
they will be competitive.
Harassment and Oppression of women continues, female infanticide is a
daily occurrence. However, India’s laws are equitable, the
knowledge of which has not permeated into the whole society, but it is
happening. Thanks to the internet and social media, the society will
eventually monitor itself. You can be who you want to be in India. Its a
tough battle, but legally, your path is paved. 

About Shia killings in Pakistan, I wrote, “Like all minorities around the world, the Shia, Ahmadiyya,
Hindu and the Sikh minorities in Pakistan are constantly harassed and
hounded. As I reflect upon it, the issue is much bigger than Shia-Sunni, it is
the majoritarian arrogance that wants to feel superior by pushing the  “others” down and oppress them in everywhich way.   It takes a violent form in Pakistan, but takes
different avatars in different places including our own United States, Israel, India
and other nations. Even though we are a blessed country, we still have bigots
running and saying things that don’t make sense. Thanks to the founding fathers
for making this nation respect the rule of law, which ensures every citizen, a
relative safety. 

Thanks for the founding principles of India that value every human, the law is about equal justice, however we are not there and I hope Egypt will be on a similar trajectory, once their constitution is modified and revised for all people to live freely. 

It does not matter what other nations do, as Indians, India should matter to us.

We have
several items of unfinished business, that needs to be resolved where all
parties would walk out with a sense of Mukti from the tension. Things will
simply not go away until there is a national dialogue on these topics: The
exodus of the Pandits, Sikh Massacre, Gujarat Massacre, treatment of Dalits,
female infanticide, reservation system, safety and justice to women, economic
inequity and social justice, and of course Babri
Masjid.

Each
one of us need to shelve our prejudices towards fellow Indians. If you
have it, others have it, if you drop it, others are likely to drop. You
cannot blame others, if you are not free from the blame. A
good society is where no one claims priviliges over others. No Indian
is above the other, nor your opinion is above mine or vice-versa.

I
hope to write the the piece unfinished social business of India before
the end of the year, if someone else writes it, all praise to him or
her.  

 

Click on the picture to enlarge the maps

I will be writing a full piece on Ayodhya, I did an extensive Radio talk show on Ayodhya on the10th Anniversary and again in 2003. the Dallas Observer had published a lead article on the show then.  If any of you have a good solution, that all parties feel justice is served, write a note to quote in the article. You can do so in the comments section below.

Jai Hind 

Mike Ghouse

Committed to contributing towards cohesive societies

www.MikeGhouse.net   

Courtesy of Wall Street Journal, they are planning to publish an article a day, and I hope to share it here at http://MikeGhouseforIndia.blogspot.com 

Ayodhya: The Battle for India’s Soul
Courtesy – Wall Street Journal http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2012/12/03/ayodhya-the-battle-for-indias-soul/

By Krishna Pokharel and Paul Beckett

[This Wall Street Journal investigation is being published in serialized
form. A new chapter will be posted each morning this week on India Real
Time.]

Our story begins in 1949, two years after India became an independent
nation following centuries of rule by Mughal emperors and then the
British.
What happened back then in the dead of night in a mosque in a northern
Indian town came to define the new nation, and continues to shape the world’s
largest democracy today.

The legal and political drama that ensued, spanning six decades, has
loomed large in the terms of five prime ministers. It has made and broken
political careers, exposed the limits of the law in grappling with matters of
faith, and led to violence that killed thousands. And, 20 years ago this week,
Ayodhya was the scene of one of the worst incidents of inter-religious brutality
in India’s history.
On a spiritual level, it is a tale of efforts to define the divine in
human terms.

Ultimately, it poses for every Indian a question that still lingers as
the country aspires to a new role as an international economic power: Are we a
Hindu nation, or a nation of many equal religions?

CHAPTER
ONE

The Sarayu river winds its way from the Nepalese border across the plains of
north India. Not long before its churning gray waters meet the mighty Ganga, it
flows past the town of Ayodhya.

In 1949, as it is today, Ayodhya was a quiet town of temples, narrow byways,
wandering cows and the ancient, mossy walls of ashrams and shrines.

The town’s residents included both Muslims and Hindus. But most noticeable
were the Hindu holy men known as sadhus, with painted foreheads, long beards and
loose robes. They flocked there, as they do today.

Hindu scriptures say Ayodhya is the birthplace of Lord Ram, making it one of
the religion’s holiest places. (Ayodhya means “unconquerable” in Sanskrit.)

Among the sadhus, back then, was Abhiram Das, a muscular priest with a strong
voice, a severe visage and a quick temper, according to two of his surviving
disciples. In his mid-40s, he had arrived in the town 15 years before from the
countryside of Bihar, to the east, they say.

He revered Ram. And, his disciples say, he made it his mission to restore Ram
to the exact place he believed the god had been born: a site then occupied by a
mosque called the Babri Masjid.

The mosque was named after the Mughal ruler, Babar, whose troops had built it
more than 400 years before. Inside, the mosque had space for about 90 people to
pray, according to two elderly Muslims in Ayodhya. Verses of the Koran were
written on the walls inside. On the minbar, or pulpit, under the central dome
was inscribed in Persian: “Place for the angels to descend.”

The complex had two courtyards, ringed by a perimeter wall and separated by a
wall with a railing. In the outer courtyard was a small wooden platform with an
idol of Ram where Hindus worshipped.

Abhiram Das wanted to establish Ram inside the building itself. He was not
alone in his quest: a movement of sadhus dedicated to that goal was gathering
momentum.

They claimed the mosque had been built from the ruins of an ancient temple to
the Hindu god, which Muslims disputed. The site had been an occasional
flashpoint for violence between the two communities in the past.

Abhiram Das told his disciples that he had a recurring dream that Ram made an
appearance under the building’s central dome, the two disciples said.

One day in mid-1949, the sadhu repeated his vision to the city magistrate in
neighboring Faizabad, the city which oversees the administration of Ayodhya.

His words immediately struck a chord with the magistrate, Guru Dutt Singh,
according to an account given by Mr. Singh’s son, Guru Basant Singh. Mr. Singh’s
reply, his son said: “Brother, this is my old dream. You are having it now; I am
having it for a long time.”

The two men started to talk about how a statue of a young Ram might be
surreptitiously put in a Muslim place of worship, Mr. Singh’s son said.

The use of idols marks one of the great differences between Hinduism and
Islam. Islam strictly prohibits idol worship because God, to its followers, is
an invisible and indivisible entity. Hinduism holds that God can exist in many
forms and devotees worship idols as mediums to God. So a statue of Ram
itself would be a deity.

There are various versions of what transpired a few weeks later. Many Hindus
have come to believe that it was a miracle. Mr. Singh’s son, speaking in detail
for the first time about those events, said it was, rather, a carefully-planned
plot to return Ram, in the view of his father and Abhiram Das, to the deity’s
place of birth.

**

At the time, India as a country was only two years old, its promise as
a fledgling democracy challenged by the fact that it was rent in two –
geographically, demographically, socially, emotionally — by the Partition that
created the Muslim nation of Pakistan in the territory’s northwest and
northeast.

The migration of many Muslims to Pakistan consolidated the Hindu majority in
the new India. Muslims comprised 24.4% of India’s population in 1941; they were
down to 10% of post-Partition India a decade later, according to census
data.

Jawaharlal Nehru, the country’s first prime minister, was striving to
stabilize the new country. He was determined to establish India as a secular
nation that respected the religious beliefs, or lack of them, of all its
citizens.

“All of us, to whatever religion we may belong are equally the children of
India with equal rights, privileges and obligations,” he said in a message to
the nation when India became independent on Aug. 15, 1947.
Still, many Hindus felt aggrieved about Pakistan’s creation and the choice
given to Muslims to move or stay. They used a term that would be repeated
countless times over the following decades: Muslim “appeasement.”

Even within Nehru’s Indian National Congress party, there were many who
supported the drive to make India a Hindu-dominated country. Some in Congress
were actively involved in the formation of the All India Hindu Mahasabha, a
conservative Hindu political party, several years before.

The party opposed the creation of Pakistan and blamed Congress for it. The
man who killed Mahatma Gandhi in early 1948, Nathuram Godse, was an activist of
the Hindu Mahasabha. He was hanged in November 1949.

Partition had little effect in Ayodhya, though. Many Muslims stayed,
maintaining a cultural mix that had existed for hundreds of years.

Muslim artisans made many of the idols that Hindu devotees worshipped in the
temples. Hindu priests bought clothes and flowers for temple statues from Muslim
vendors. One temple in Ayodhya even had a Muslim manager.

“Why would we leave our country?” said Mohammad Hashim Ansari, a local
tailor, who was then in his late 20s. “We belong to this land.”

**

Guru Dutt Singh, the Faizabad city magistrate, was tall and obstinate, with a
neatly-trimmed moustache. He graduated from Allahabad University in what was
then the United Provinces; today, it is in the state of Uttar Pradesh.

He joined the Provincial Civil Services but, his son said, refused to kowtow
to his colonial masters. He insisted on wearing a self-fashioned turban in
contrast to the hats favored by the British.

During a posting to Bareilly, when he first met one of his superiors, Michael
Nethersole, the British man asked him: “Why don’t you wear a hat?”

“Why don’t you wear Indian headgear?” Mr. Singh retorted, according to his
son.

Yet Mr. Singh also demanded respect for rank: He scolded his son for cheekily
referring to Mr. Nethersole, as “Leather Sole” because “He is, after all, a
district magistrate,” his son recalled being told. Mr. Nethersole’s descendants
couldn’t be traced.

In his duties, which included preventing riots, Mr. Singh sought to be
even-handed about religion, his son said. At times, he told Hindus that he would
lock them up if they created trouble.

At other times, he called Muslims for consultation and said, “I consider you
as my younger brothers; I’m your elder brother and we both belong to Mother
India,” his son said.

What Mr. Singh considered his neutrality at work, however, fueled his
resentment at what he saw as “the appeasement of minorities” – Muslims, in other
words — his son said.

His father was not in favor of the creation of Pakistan. But once it existed,
he believed, “If a country has been made for you, you should all go there,” his
son said.

Mr. Singh was a devout Hindu, eschewing alcohol and maintaining a vegetarian
diet. He visited Ayodhya at least annually, staying in a guest house at a
temple. Since college days, Ram had been his religious focal point.

Ram is one of the incarnations of Lord Vishnu, who is part of Hinduism’s holy
trinity: Vishnu is the protector; Brahma is the creator; Shiva is the
destroyer.

According to Hindu scriptures, Ram was born in Ayodhya tens of thousands of
years ago. He was the eldest son of the Hindu King Dasharath of the Solar
Dynasty, so-called because the monarchs were believed to be descendants of the
sun. Ram is revered as “maryada purushottam,” an excellent man of honor.

It was to Ayodhya that Ram returned from exile after rescuing his wife, Sita,
from the demon god Ravan in Sri Lanka, according to an ancient Sanskrit version
of the Ramayan, the Hindu text about Ram’s life.
Benevolently, Ram ruled over his kingdom from Ayodhya, becoming the epitome
of good governance, the Ramayan says. And, in the twilight of his life, he was
said to walk through a door in Ayodhya directly to heaven.

As Mr. Singh aged, his conviction grew that he wanted to put Ram back where
he believed he belonged, his son said. He thought Muslims should yield the Babri
Masjid.

“He used to have this tussle in him that ‘While I so much respect their
religion, why don’t they reciprocate?’” his son said.

In the mid-1940s, Mr. Singh met K.K. Nayar, an administrator in the national
Indian Civil Service, Mr. Singh’s son said. The service was a precursor to
today’s Indian Administrative Service and the two men were stationed in the same
city.

Mr. Nayar was from Kerala in the south. He was erudite and more soft-spoken
than Mr. Singh. The two men found common cause in their reverence of Ram and
their desire to take action, Mr. Singh’s son said. Both men were also
sympathetic to the Hindu Mahasabha, the conservative Hindu political party, but
refrained from actively supporting it because of their government jobs, he
said.

Together, the men asked the official in charge of appointments in the United
Provinces to post them at the same time to Faizabad, which administered Ayodhya,
according to Mr. Singh’s son.

Mr. Singh moved there in 1948 as city magistrate. Around the same time, Mr.
Nayar moved there as district magistrate, the most senior administrative post in
the district. Both men are now deceased. Mr. Nayar’s son declined to be
interviewed.

**

The Singhs moved into Lorpur House, a yellow, British-era mansion. Starting
in mid-1949, Mr. Singh, Mr. Nayar, Abhiram Das and other local officials met
there to plan how to install Ram in the Babri Masjid, according to Mr. Singh’s
son.

As the family’s only child, Guru Basant Singh was then about 15 years old. He
said he was in charge of serving tea and water at the meetings and at times hid
behind the door to listen in on the planning.

The meetings were held in secret after sunset, he said. A Hindu servant was
posted at the door with instructions to tell any visitors that his father was
resting.

His version of events is confirmed by Mahant Satyendra Das, one of Abhiram
Das’s surviving disciples, who is now the government-appointed head priest at
the site of the mosque.

He joined Abhiram Das in 1958. That year, the sadhu gave him a detailed
account of events, said Mr. Das, who recalled their discussion in an interview.
(The two men share a surname but were not related.)
“Top district officials” including K.K. Nayar and Guru Dutt Singh, worked
with Abhiram Das on how the idol might be put in the Babri Masjid, which was
locked and guarded, Mr. Das said the sadhu told him.

One guard, a Hindu, took the afternoon and evening shift. Another guard, a
Muslim, took night watch, Mr. Das said he was told.

The Hindu guard agreed to let Abhiram Das and a small group of sadhus sneak
into the mosque with an idol of Ram during his watch, Abhiram Das told his
disciple, adding: “We took the Hindu guard into confidence by telling him about
the virtues he will earn by being part of this extremely holy work.”

The Hindu guard would then hand over the keys to the Muslim guard at
midnight, as usual, Mr. Das said the sadhu told him.

On the other hand, the Muslim guard was “briefed” by Guru Dutt Singh and K.K.
Nayar “what he had to do,” according to Guru Dutt Singh’s son. He was threatened
with his life if he did not cooperate, Mr. Singh’s son said. The guards and
their descendants couldn’t be traced.

The statue of Ram would be about seven inches tall, made of eight metals, and
would depict an infant – a “Ram Lalla” – befitting the place of his birth.

Both Mr. Singh, the city magistrate, and Mr. Nayar, the district magistrate,
knew how furious Nehru and the government in New Delhi would be if the mosque
was infringed upon, said Mr. Singh’s son. They both decided that they would
resign rather than obey any order to remove the statue, he said.

Other details fell into place and the meetings ended around October 1949,
according to Mr. Singh’s son. Now, the planners had to await their moment.

In late November 1949, religious friction in Ayodhya was on the rise. Sadhus
and devotees of Ram lit sacred fires outside the mosque and read from the
Ramayan as they listened to speeches about how Ram should be returned to his
birthplace. Members of the crowd scuffled with local Muslims.

The planners, said Mr. Singh’s son, set their date for soon after: The night
of Dec. 22, 1949, a Thursday.

“We decided that since the country has now got political liberation, we
should also liberate the birthplace of Lord Ram,” Abhiram Das told Mr. Das, the
latter said.

**

In the chill of the north Indian winter, the Hindu guard ended his shift that
night. But before he left, as planned, Abhiram Das and two other sadhus gained
access, Abhiram Das told his disciple.

When the Muslim guard came for his round of duty, the Hindu guard handed over
the keys. Around 3 a.m., an auspicious time in Hinduism, Abhiram Das and the
other sadhus started ringing small bells inside the mosque. They lit a lamp and
sang to the tiny idol that was placed on the pulpit under the central dome: “God
appeared, compassionate and benevolent,” the sadhu told his disciple.

The Muslim guard made a statement to local authorities soon after that at
around 3 a.m. he saw the area under the central dome bathed in a golden light,
according to Mr. Singh’s son and others. He said the light illuminated a tiny
figure of Ram that seemed to have appeared by itself.

The Muslim guard’s “revelation” and the statement had been planned in advance
to appear to bear witness to a religious miracle, said Mr. Singh’s son.

Bindeshwari Prasad, a sadhu living in Ayodhya, was there that night, the
youngest of a group of sadhus camped outside, he said in an interview at the
red-brick ashram where he now lives. He described the events in mystical
terms.

“I and other people sleeping there that night saw Ram Lalla in our dreams; we
all woke up at 3 in the morning,” Mr. Prasad said, his voice a whisper and his
skin stretched like bark on his aged body. He claimed they could see the idol on
the floor through the railings.

Abhiram Das was there, he recalled. The lock to the mosque was broken and the
group of sadhus entered. “We went near the Lord and sang religious hymns and
worshipped him,” said Mr. Prasad.

Armed constables, alerted to what was happening, shot a few rounds in the
air, Mr. Prasad said. A bullet grazed his abdomen, he said, pointing to the
spot. He said another sadhu took a bullet in the toe.

Mr. Singh’s son said the police had instructions only to fire in the air, as
part of the planning his father and the others had done.

Back at Lorpur House, Guru Dutt Singh was kept informed of what was happening
by two messengers who worked in a bicycle relay from Ayodhya to Faizabad to
convey the latest news, his son said.

Mr. Singh, in turn, entrusted a Hindu employee in the household to take
hand-written messages to K.K. Nayar with a special order to give the missives
only to him. “That was how they communicated,” said Mr. Singh’s son.

When the officials realized the statue had been successfully installed, and
the mosque was filled with sadhus, Mr. Singh and Mr. Nayar took a car to the
site, according to Mr. Singh’s son and Mr. Prasad.

Later that morning, Mr. Singh offered prayers, or puja, in Lorpur House, his
son said: “I don’t know what he said but it is my understanding that he was
telling God, ‘Let happen what has been happening.’”

Then Mr. Singh imposed an order that prohibited the gathering of large groups
of people in Ayodhya. But he made it clear to police that they were not to
obstruct Hindus, his son said.

After, Mr. Singh left his Faizabad home for nearby government accommodation
where visiting officials stayed. He gave instructions that if anyone inquired
about his whereabouts, they were to be told he was “out of station,” his son
said.

Word spread quickly to neighboring communities. Thousands of Hindu devotees
came to see the idol in the mosque.

Abhiram Das helped whip up enthusiasm. That day, Dec. 23, he visited a local
school. Rajendra Singh, the son of a local officer of the Hindu Mahasabha, the
conservative Hindu party, was a pupil then.

“Lord Ram has appeared! Lord Ram has appeared!” he recalled Abhiram Das
saying.

**

There was a dissident voice among the local sadhus. Akshaya Brahmachari was
about 35 years old at the time and a devotee of Ram.

He also was a local Congress party officer who defended the rights of Muslims
to remain in India “as equal citizens” rather than move to Pakistan, according
to a disciple, Meera Behen, who was then a high school student.

There was rising friction in town that day as loudspeakers announced “the
appearance of God, exhorting all Hindus to come for audience,” Mr. Brahmachari
wrote in a memorandum a few months later. But local officials, including K.K.
Nayar, showed no interest in removing the idol or defusing the situation, he
wrote.

He added: “Communal poison was spread in an organized manner and the attitude
of the officials gave the idea to the people that either the Government wanted
all that to happen, or they had completely given in to the
communalists.”

TOMORROW:
The fight to keep the idol in the mosque and the legal battle that
ensued.