India’s Ayodhya verdict

November 19, 2019

What is India’s Ayodhya verdict all about?

While India’s majority Hindus are jubilant, Muslims seem to have accepted the verdict on the contested holy site with humility.

India’s Supreme Court on November 9 granted the ownership of the 2.77 acres of disputed land in Ayodhya of Uttar Pradesh to the Hindus, paving the way for the construction of a Ram Temple, and ruled that the Muslims will get 5 acres of land at an alternative site.

A five-judge bench led by the chief justice unanimously decided that the disputed land must be given to Hindus and ordered the central government to form a trust for the construction of a temple, bringing to a close the longest-drawn controversy in India’s history that has become one of the most defining aspects of its polity.

What did the verdict say?

The top court ruled that Hindus will get the disputed land subject to conditions. The 2.77-acre complex will be handed over to the trust, which has to be formed within three months. The temple construction will be monitored by the trust.

Muslims will get alternative land of 5 acres for the construction of a mosque. The court ruled that Muslims couldn’t prove exclusive possession of the inner courtyard, which was in contention, while the outer courtyard was in exclusive possession of the Hindus.

What was the dispute about?

The dispute over land ownership has been one of India’s most heated issues, with Hindu nationalists demanding a temple on the site in the town of Ayodhya for more than a century. The 16th century Babri Masjid mosque was destroyed by Hindu hard-liners in December 1992, sparking massive Hindu-Muslim violence that left some 2,000 people dead.

What did the court rule?

The judges said that the demolition of the mosque in 1992 was “in violation of the status quo orders of the top court.” But they didn’t order any punitive action against those who demolished the mosque in the presence of several top leaders of Modi’s BJP.

The judges said Hindus’ belief that Ram was born at the site “is undisputed,” and that the Sunni Central Waqf Board had not provided evidence that the Muslims were in exclusive possession of the disputed site.

What are the political repercussions?

Saturday’s verdict paves the way for building the temple in place of the demolished mosque. It is expected to give a boost to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, which has been promising the majority Hindus a temple of their most revered god Ram in Ayodhya as part of its election strategy for decades. The minority Muslims fear that the court verdict will embolden Hindu hard-liners in the country.

Modi had promised to build the temple during 2014 elections that brought him to power. But he later decided to wait for the court verdict despite pressure from millions of Hindu hard-liners who asked his government to bring legislation to build the temple.

How did the Muslims react?

Muslims comprise 6 percent of the town’s more than 55,500 people. Overall, Hindus comprise more than 80 percent and Muslims around 14 percent of India’s 1.3 billion people.

Zafaryab Jilani, a representative of the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board, a key Muslim body in the state and a party to the dispute, opposed the ruling.

“We are not satisfied with the verdict and it’s not up to our expectation,” he said. “These 5 acres of land don’t mean anything to us. We are examining the verdict and whatever legal course is open for us.”

Chairman of the Sunni Muslim group Zafar Farooqui, however, said the verdict had been accepted “with humility”. Muslim organisations appealed for calm.

How did Narendra Modi respond?

In a televised address on Saturday evening, Modi said: “… Supreme Court decision has given the nation the message that even the most difficult of all problems falls within the ambit of the constitution and within the boundaries of the judicial system.” The prime minister had earlier tweeted that the verdict should not be seen as “a win or loss for anybody”.

What led to the latest court case?

After the demolition of the mosque, Hindus and Muslims took the issue to a lower court, which in 2010 ruled that the disputed land should be divided into three parts – two for Hindus and one for Muslims.

That was challenged in the Supreme Court by both communities. The five judges started daily proceedings in August after mediation failed to find a compromise.

How was the situation handled?

Restrictions were placed on gatherings in some places and internet services were suspended.

Authorities on Saturday increased security in Ayodhya, which is located 550 kilometres east of New Delhi, and deployed more than 5,000 paramilitary forces to prevent attacks by Hindu activists on Muslims. Police also detained around 5,000 people with criminal backgrounds across the state to prevent them from creating trouble after the court verdict.

Authorities stopped the entry of people into the state through the land border from Nepal, and ordered all of the state’s schools and colleges to remain closed until Monday.

Police arrested dozens of people for social media comments that allegedly threatened “communal harmony” after the Supreme Court awarded the holy site to Hindus.

Police said the social media posts on platforms including Facebook, Twitter and Youtube had threatened “communal harmony”. At least 77 people were arrested in Uttar Pradesh after the ruling.

Will India’s Muslims be more alienated?

Many Muslims have watched with a mix of fear and resignation as the BJP has morphed into the officially secular country’s near-undisputed political force.

In over a dozen interviews, Muslim community leaders, businessmen, and students said they respected the verdict but it exacerbated their sense of alienation.

“Why did the court then give a ruling which is completely one-sided? Was the court under pressure? We don’t know. We can’t trust anyone now. No door is open for us,” said local Muslim community leader Azam Quadri during evening prayers in Ayodhya.

“I feel humiliated by the Supreme Court verdict,” said one affluent Mumbai-based Muslim businessman, who declined to give his name. “Others don’t care. They have become numb. It’s best to be numb in Modi’s India.”

However, the Muslim group’s leader said ultimately it would accept the verdict and called for peace between the two faith groups.

Key dates in centuries-old Indian holy site dispute

The 1992 demolition of Babri Masjid — a mosque named after the Mughal emperor Babur — by Hindu hardliners in the Indian holy city of Ayodhya led to riots that left more than 2,000 dead.

Hindus say the small patch of land where it stood is the birthplace of their revered god Ram, and the site has become a symbol of India’s Hindu-Muslim divide.

Here are the key dates in the centuries of bitterness leading up to the Indian Supreme Court’s ruling:

5114 BC –

According to devout Hindus, this was when the important warrior deity Lord Ram or Rama, the seventh avatar of Vishnu, is born in Ayodhya in northern India.

1528 AD –

After more than a year’s work, a mosque to honour Babur, who came from what is now Uzbekistan to conquer northern India, is completed. Nearly five centuries later, the derelict site now covered in weeds and the rubble is considered the epicentre of modern Hindu nationalism.

1853 –

The first recorded sectarian clashes over the mosque erupt after Hindu devotees launch protests saying the mosque was built on the birthplace of Rama. Muslims stage their own march on Ayodhya and about 70 die in clashes.

Two years later, another Muslim march on the city is fought back by British and Hindu troops in clashes that leave up to 700 dead.

1934-1949 –

The mosque is damaged in a communal riot in 1934 after the killing of a cow, an animal Hindus consider sacred. But it is soon after the subcontinent’s 1947 partition into Hindu-majority India and Muslim-dominated Pakistan that Ayodhya becomes a battleground between the two faiths.

On December 22, 1949, dozens of people break into the mosque and set up idols of the gods Ram and Sita. The next day, thousands of Hindus gather outside believing it was a miracle. Federal courts order the idols to be removed, but local courts refuse to enforce the action.

1986 –

Hindu agitation over Ayodhya grows in the 1980s. In 1986, one radical group launches a campaign to gather bricks for a new temple that draws contributions from across India as well as from supporters in the United States, Canada and Europe.

1990 –

LK Advani, then leader of the conservative Bharatiya Janata Party of current Prime Minister Narendra Modi, leads a procession of Hindus demanding the building of a temple on the mosque site. The Indian army blocks the procession and Advani is arrested. Some 30 Hindus are killed in clashes.

1992 –

On December 6, some 200,000 Hindu activists gather in Ayodhya. Some climb fences surrounding the mosque. “With pick axes, shovels and their bare hands, they destroyed the mosque in a matter of hours,” wrote US professor Heather Selma Gregg in her book, “The Path to Salvation: Religious Violence from the Crusades to the Jihad”.

The demolition sparks nationwide riots in which 2,000 people die. There are also disturbances in Pakistan and Bangladesh.

2002 – 

In February, a train carrying Hindu activists from Ayodhya prior to the 10th anniversary of the demolition catches fire in Gujarat state — where Modi is the chief minister — and almost 60 are killed. Anti-Muslim riots in the state leave more than 2,000 dead.

2010 –

A court in Allahabad orders the mosque site to be divided between three Hindu and Muslim groups. All the parties appeal and the Supreme Court stays the ruling.

Nov 9, 2019-

India’s Supreme Court awards Hindus control of the site.

(Compiled from news agencies)