It is imperative that modern Hindus understand, truly understand, the situation that has led to the Ram Janmabhoomi controversy and why the usual Liberal arguments against the Reconstruction of the Ram Mandir are baseless.
The Saga begins with the invasion of the Mughal tyrant Babur- known for building pyramids of skulls, as described by the Sikh Guru, Guru Nanak himself in the aftermath of the sack of Lahore. In 1528, this Babur- celebrated as the founder of the Mughal Empire in NCERT textbooks- and his general, Mir Baqi- attacked Ayodhya, massacred thousands, and demolished the Ayodhya Ram temple- known for, as any Hindu with even the most basic idea of the Ramayana knows, marking the birthplace of Shri Ram.
It is evident that Hindu rebellions against this horror must have continued- for Akbar, in later years, ordered the mosque grounds to be opened for Hindu prayers in the premises. Later apparently, Aurangzeb- another celebrated hero in NCERT books- did not approve of them. During his time, the mosque grounds were closed to Hindus again and the nearby fortress of Ramkot torn down for bearing the name of Shri Ram.
After Aurangzeb’s death and the weakening of Mughal power, the land was infested by Afghan settlers and colonists who deprived the local Hindus of their lands and treated them even worse than the earlier Indian Muslims did.
It was during this time that Jai Singh II of Udaipur (whose father was a personal friend of Shivaji’s), taking advantage of the weakness of the Mughals and the growing power of the Maratha Hindu Pad Padshahi, bought land and established Jaisinghpuras in all Hindu religious centres of North India- including the mosque at Ram Janamsthan as well in 1717. (Proof of this was established by Dr R Nath from his study of the Kapad-Dwar Collection in the City Palace Museum at Jaipur where he found a letter from a Trilokchand, dated 1723, stating that, ‘while under the Muslim administration people had been prevented from taking a ritual bath in the Sarayu river, the establishment of the Jaisinghpura has removed all impediments.’ Further proof of this is the testimony of the Jesuit priest, Joseph Tieffenthaler, who visited Ayodhya in 1766 and found Hindus worshipped a square box raised 5 inches above the ground, which was said to be called the “Bedi, i.e., the cradle.” “The reason for this is that once upon a time, here was a house where Beschan [Vishnu] was born in the form of Ram.”
It was around this time that the Maratha Empire, working in tandem with the Sultans of Bengal, during one of the rare periods of peace between the two States cleared the Afghans from the lands- but not before the brutal sack of Patna by the latter. This period- where Hindus had almost full rights to pray in the mosque, permission to put idols, bathe in Sarayu, and conduct Ram Navami- under the protection of the Nawab of Awadh is considered to be the most peaceful period in almost 500 years.
The process was continued until 1855, when the mosque grounds were divided into two by the British. It was then in 1858, that the Muezzin of the mosque himself declared in a petition that the Courtyard had been used by Hindus for ‘hundreds of years’ (since 1717 to be exact).
In 1885, a Raghubar Ram moved the Courts for permission to erect a temple outside the Babri grounds- which was out on stay by the British Courts- from which, it can be seen, were as prompt at delivering justice as modern Indian ones.
Then after independence- when it was finally believed that justice would be done- especially since the Somnath Temple was reconstructed with little controversy and with the cooperation of the local Muslims, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru conveniently decided to let the issues fester by locking the gates.
Rights of Hindus- not to mention that of the Udaipur royal family that actually owned the lands at the time (and now doesn’t- because the new rules that came along with independence) be damned!
The denial of these very rights, once granted to Hindus by Muslim Nawabs as gratitude for the help given to him by the Hindu Pad Padshahi, to modern Hindus by the allegedly secular Government of India is what has led to the current predicament at Ayodhya.
It is unquestionable that Hindus possess the moral, financial, legal, and historical right to the land itself.
Consider this– the Babri mosque was, as is well known, a decrepit, crumbling structure that had not been used for prayers since the late 1800s and had been locked up for almost 50 years before any Rath Yatra ever set out under Advani.
Consider this– the Babri mosque holds no spiritual or philosophical significance to Muslim whatsoever. Indeed, the only significance it does hold is to the memory of Babur for massacring the people of Ayodhya and destroying the original Ram Mandir as a sign of his dominance over Hindus- a ‘significance’ that even his own descendants felt bad about. Consider Akbar’s and Bahadur Shah I’s actions!
Consider this– that hundreds and thousands of mosques lay crumbling and unused all across India with no Muslim lifting a finger to restore them. Also consider that the same Muslim bodies shrieking out against the Ram Mandir speak not a word as the Arabs themselves destroy mosques, tombs, and madrassas all over the Middle East. In Mecca itself, the graves of their Prophet Muhammad’s own family members have been turned into parking lots and toilets- and a grand hotel has been built over the family buildings.
Consider this– It is no secret that tens of thousands of Hindu temples were razed to the ground by Muslims between 1200 AD and 1700 AD. In a mere 500 years, almost all great temples, universities, and gardens in North India were wiped out of the map. Mosques were raised over the holiest sites of Hindus as a direct provocation and to advertise the defeat of Hindu society itself. The devastation and depredations unleashed upon Hindus is unparalleled in Human history. There is even no need to pretend otherwise- for such massacres were gleefully recorded by the very perpetrator themselves.
When a similar situation happened in Europe, it ended with the Spanish Reconquista. Within a mere forty years, not one Muslim mosque remained in all the Iberian Peninsula. In India, Swamy- the most outright Hindu among mainstream BJP leaders- asked for the return of only four- and was still refused!
Is it not hypocrisy? Is it not ridiculous?
An India-rubber conscience and an expectation that Hindus- and Hindu alone- should ever be grinding their noses at the altar of Secularism while Hindu customs are mocked, Hindu rights are infringed upon, Hindu leaders are murdered, and Hindus discriminated against- is not a sign of ‘Modernity’ but a gigantic farce which India’s ‘modern’ and ‘sophisticated’ hordes are intellectually incapable of recognising as such.
The Ram Mandir ‘controversy’ began not in 1992- but in 1528 when every Hindu man in Ayodhya was slaughtered, every Hindu woman raped, and every Hindu child enslaved.
From the minute Hindus in India won the right to raise their voices- and not be tortured to death the minute they did so, the mere request that one- just one temple out of the thousands of Marthands, Kashi Vishwanathans, Hampis- be restored is treated as if a capital crime has been committed for which Hindus can only pay for the total and utter destruction of their very civilization!
Even now temples are routinely destroyed in India. Even now temples are taxed whereas mosques and churches aren’t. Even now it is temples and temples alone that are mishandled by government agencies- often comprising of non-Hindus; if something similar is even suggested for other faiths, the shrieking will never stop!
India is secular BECAUSE of Hinduism. The Ram Mandir is a symbol of a Culture that gave shelter to Parsis and Jews and Bahai- and never oppressed another faith in its existence. But unless we fight for its survival, it might not be long before Hinduism goes the way the Romans and the Persians and the Egyptians went- sacrificed to the ‘tolerance’ of other faiths.