Meaning Of Ayodhya: Fact And Fiction by N.S. Rajaram
(Dispute is over historical truth, not brick and mortar)

Hindu historical awareness
As we approach the new millennium, it is time to take a look at what was perhaps the defining event of modern Indian history and historigraphy - the demolition of the so-called Babri Masjid at the site known as Ram Janmabhumi. It is historically important because it was the most visible symbol of the rising Hindu historical awareness, a point made among others by V.S. Naipaul. It is important from a historiographical point of view because it served to expose the venality of a tribe of scholars and politicians who had prospered by associating themselves with the destroyers of their civilization.

This article therefore has two goals. First, to summarize the relevant information relating to the temple-mosque controversy over the site known since time immemorial as Ramajanmabhumi. Second, to bring into focus the real issues involved - issues that have been obscured by the cloud of controversy surrounding it. Upon carefully examining it, one discovers that the dispute is not so much about the right of possession to the ancient site known as Ramajanmabhumi as it is over the version of history that is sought to be imposed on the people of India. It is a serious contraction of the scope and meaning of the Ayodhya episode of December 6, 1992 to treat it as a dispute over a piece of land, and brick and mortar; the dispute really is part of a struggle being waged by an ancient people to recover their own history from the clutches of imperial surrogates.

It is therefore a serious error to treat the demolition of the Babri Masjid as a mere retribution for the temple destructions by Islamic vandals going back a thousand years. That would place the Islamic vandals and the kar sevaks on the same moral plane, which I see as a historic error - for what the kar sevaks were trying to recover was not merely the disputed structure built over their sacred site, but the true history of their land. Ayodhya is much more than a religious symbol, it is an eternal national symbol of untold antiquity.

In this regard I am with V.S. Naipaul in seeing the demolition as a symbol of rising historical awareness on the part of the Hindus. Hindus have long recognized the fact that the Babri Masjid was never intended as a place of worship; it was a symbol pure and simple of the victory of Islamic imperialism over the Hindu Civilization. So, in reclaiming the site, the Hindus were only recovering what rightfully belongs to them - a sacred symbol that was desecrated and usurped by an imperialist invader.

Temple vs Mosque: the evidence
At the same time, before we can analyze the symbolism of Ayodhya, it is necessary to have a clear idea of the true facts of the case including previous temple destructions. The secularists of course claim that there never was a Ram temple at the site and therefore there was no temple destruction. I will present irrefutable evidence from literary, archaeological and epigraphic sources to show that temple destructions at the site are a matter of historical record. We may begin with the literary records from the Muslim sources themselves. Until recently, they have never denied the destruction of Ram Temple. On the other hand, they took great pride in their vandal acts until the Secularists stepped in and taught the value of negationism. Let the facts speak for themselves.

In 1855, Amir Ali Amethawi led a Jihad (Islamic religious war) for the recapture of Hanuman Garhi, situated a few hundred yards from the Babri Masjid which at that time was in the possession of Hindus. It ended in failure. Mirza Jan, was a participant in that failed Jihad. His book Hadiqah-i-Shuhada was published in 1856 in which he tells us:

"... wherever they found magnificent temples of the Hindus ever since the establishment of Sayyid Salar Mas'ud Ghazi's rule, the Muslim rulers in India built mosques, monasteries, and inns, appointed mu'azzins, teachers and store-stewards, spread Islam vigorously, and vanquished the Kafirs. Likewise they cleared up Faizabad and Avadh, too from the filth of reprobation (infidelity), because it was a great centre of worship and capital of Rama's father. Where there stood a great temple (of Ramajanmasthan), there they built a big mosque, ... Hence what a lofty mosque was built there by king Babar in 923 A.H. (1528 A.D.), under the patronage of Musa Ashiqqan! (Harsh Narain: p 105)"

The next source I wish to cite is a Persian text known as Sahifah-i-Chihal Nasa'ih Bahadurshahi written in 1707 by a grand-daughter of the Moghul emperor Aurangazeb, and noted by Mirza Jan in his Urdu work Hadiqah-i Shuhada (and other writers like Mirza Rajab 'Ali Beg Surur). Mirza Jan quotes several lines from it telling us:

"... keeping the triumph of Islam in view, devout Muslim rulers should keep all idolaters in subjection to Islam, brook no laxity in realization of Jizyah, grant no exceptions to Hindu Rajahs from dancing attendance on 'Id days and waiting on foot outside mosques till end of prayer ... and 'keep in constant use for Friday and congregational prayer the mosques built up after demolishing the temples of the idolatrous Hindus situated at Mathura, Banaras and Avadh ... (Harsh Narain: pp 23-24.)

Spoken like a true child of Aurangazeb! Let us next look at what archaeology has to say about the Ayodhya site. Here is what a leading archaeologist, Dr. S.P. Gupta (former director of the Allahabad Museum), wrote about recent excavations at Ayodhya.

"From 1975 through 1980, the Archaeological Survey of India under the Directorship of Professor B.B. Lal, a former Director General of the Survey, undertook an extensive programme of excavation at Ayodhya, including the very mound of the Ramajanmabhumi on which the so-called "Janmasthan Masjid" or Babri Mosque once stood and was later demolished on 6th December 1992."

"Professor Lal took as many as 14 trenches at different places to ascertain the antiquity of the site. It was then found that the history of the township was at least three thousand years old, if not more ... . When seen in the light of 20 black stone pillars, 16 of which were found re-used and standing in position as corner stones of piers for the disputed domed structure of the 'mosque', Prof. Lal felt that the pillar bases may have belonged to a Hindu temple built on archaeological levels formed prior to 13th century AD ..."

Lal's insight was verified by further excavations. He had actually found evidence for possibly two temples, one that existed before the 13th century, and another between the 13th and the 16th centuries. This corresponds very well indeed with history and tradition. We know that this area was ravaged by Muslim invaders following Muhammad of Ghor's defeat of Prithviraj Chauhan in the second battle of Tarain in 1192 AD. This was apparently rebuilt and remained in use until destroyed again in the 16th century by Babar.

Then came the explosion of December 6, 1992, which changed the picture dramatically. Several old inscriptions were found of which one proved to be crucial. It is written on a large stone slab, in 12th century AD Devanagari script and belongs therefore to the period before the onslaught of the Ghorids (1192 AD). The inscription was read by Ajay Mitra Shastri, Chairman of the Epigraphical Society of India. He gives the following summary.

"The inscription is composed in high-flown Sanskrit verse, except for a very small portion in prose, and is engraved in chaste and classical Nagari script of the eleventh-twelfth century AD. ...It was evidently put up on the wall of the temple, the construction of which is recorded in the text inscribed on it. Line 15 of this inscription, for example, clearly tells us that a beautiful temple of Vishnu-Hari, built with heaps of stones ... , and beautified with a golden spire ... unparallelled by any other temple built by earlier kings ... This wonderful temple ... was built in the temple-city of Ayodhya situated in Saketamandala. ... Line 19 describes god Vishnu as destroying king Bali ... and the ten headed personage (Dashanana, i.e., Ravana)."

Need we say more - a temple for Hari-Vishnu who killed the ten-headed Ravana, in the temple city of Ayodhya?

Defeat of the negationists
Ayodhya represents more than a battle over a site and a building. It is a struggle by Indians to recover their true history from the grip of imperial surrogates - the Islamicists and the Secularists. These are the residue of defunct imperial movements. They are now partners in negation trying to preserve their previleges and positions as representatives of imperialisms past. Negationism - which means denial of historic crimes against humanity - has been their main tactic. They find Ayodhya unbearable because it has called their bluff.

Central to the Secularist program is the effort to impose the Islamic view of history on Ayodhya. The Islamic view holds that the history of any place begins with its Muslim takeover, and nothing that took place before the takeover is of any account. According this version, the demolition of the Babri Masjid is a crime, but the destruction of previous temples at the site (or anywhere else) is of no account. This is part of a larger Secularist-Islamic program to impose such a negationist version on all of Indian history.

A point that cannot be overemphasized: any effort aimed at understanding the history leading up to the Ayodhya demolition must be careful not to view the events of December 6, 1992 in isolation, ignoring the thousand year history leading up to it. This would cause one to lose sight of the single most important historical theme in India today: the ongoing struggle between the two versions of history - the nationalistic and the imperialistic. The latter is negationist - for it seeks to negate the evils of Islamic imperialism by whitewashing their record and transferring the blame to the Hindu victims. Those calling themselves 'Secularists' in the Ayodhya dispute are agents of defunct imperialisms - the Islamic and the European. These negationists are fighting the nationalists trying to recover their national history. This is the real battle over Ayodhya.

The negationist (or 'Secularist') version of Indian history requires accepting the Islamic view of history - to wit, that the history of any place begins with its Muslim takeover; nothing that happened before is of any account. This is how Muslims view the history of all the conquered lands - from Egypt to Iran and even Pakistan. They have been defeated in their purpose to impose this version of history on India also. The Hindus refuse to accept this imperialistic distortion - one that sees the victims as villains and imperialist vandals as heroes. The struggle over Ayodhya is but a facet of this larger struggle.

This distortion of Indian history is probably the most insidious legacy of India's imperial past. For communal harmony to prevail in India, her people must come to terms with history. A previleged group like the Secularist-Islamicist nexus cannot go on propagating a negationist version of history that serves its own interests, while heaping abuse on anyone who challenges them. This will only harden attitudes, and make an already difficult situation impossible. If this goes on much longer, it will soon reach a point of no return. It is fervently to be hoped that we are not already there.

As far as the Babri Masjid is concerned, by no stretch of the imagination can it be called a place of worship. It was not meant as one by Babur, nor seen as such by either the Hindus or the Muslims in more than four centuries. Both sides understood that it was erected to mark the defeat and humiliation of the Hindus at the hands this invader with his hostile ideology to destroy and uproot India's ancient civilization.

This is the real meaning of Ayodhya. It can no longer be evaded. As far as the future course is concerned, Indians must come to terms with their history. More than a hundred years ago, America faced a similar challenge over slavery. Many argued that slavery was not so bad after all and that God willed the blacks to be enslaved. But Abrahama Lincoln refused to indulge in such negationism. He told his people:

"Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. ... No personal significance or insignificance can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor to the last generation."

This should serve as the guide to our study of the past and for our course in the future. In this Abraham Lincoln is a better guide than the Secularists.

Selected Biography
The Ayodhya Reference: Supreme Court Judgement and Commentaries. 1995. New Delhi:Voice of India.

Ayodhya and the Future of India. 1993. Edited by Jitendra Bajaj. Madras: Centre for Policy Studies.

Elst, Koenraad. 1990. Ram Janmabhoomi vs. Babri Masjid. New Delhi: Voice of India.

Elst, Koenraad. 1991. Ayodhya and After: Issues before Hindu Society. 1991. New Delhi: Voice of India.

Elst, Koenraad. 1993. Negationism in India: Concealing the Record of Islam. 2nd enlarged edition. New Delhi: Voice of India.

Goel, Sita Ram. 1991. Hindu Temples: What Happened to Them. Volume I (A Preliminary Survey). New Delhi: Voice of India.

Goel, Sita Ram. 1991. Hindu Temples: What Happened to Them. Volume II (The Islamic Evidence). New Delhi: Voice of India.

Goel, Sita Ram. 1993. Islam vis-a-vis Hindu Temples. New Delhi: Voice of India.

History versus Casuistry: Evidence of the Ramajanmabhoomi Mandir presented by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad to the Government of India in December-January 1990-91. New Delhi: Voice of India.

Narain, Harsh. 1993. The Ayodhya Temple Mosque Dispute: Focus on Muslim Sources. Delhi: Penman Publishers.

Rajaram, N.S. 1995. Secularism, the New Mask of Fundamentalism: Religious Subversion of Secular Affairs. New Delhi: Voice of India.

Rajaram, N.S. 1998. A Hindu View of the World: Essays in the Intellectual Kshatriya Tradition. New Delhi: Voice of India.

Shourie, Arun. 1999. Eminent Historians: Their Methodology, Their Line, Their Fraud. New Delhi: Harper Collins.

N.S. Rajaram
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