The High Court judgment on Ayodhaya, if it becomes the law of the land through the Supreme Court, has ominous ramifications for India’s minority communities

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Response of Dr John Dayal, Secretary General, ALL INDIA CHRISTIAN
COUNCIL, to the Judgement on Ayodhaya by the Lucknow bench of the
Allahabad High Court:

New Delhi, Sept 30, 2010



The judgment of the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High court today
[30th September 2010] on the Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi dispute is
patently based on populist and political sensitivities, rather than on
points of law. Its implications, not just for the Muslims who were a
party in the dispute, but all other religious minorities is yet to be
fully assessed, but here is little doubt that there is an ominous aura
to a verdict being touted by some as the only way to inter community
peace in India. Judges SU Khan, Aggarwal and D V Sharma – the last of
the 18 justices who have heard the case since its inception -- have
given a legal cloak to popular Hindu mythology and faith that the Lord
Rama was born at the very spot where the mosque was built over the
ruins of a Hindu temple sometime in 1528 AD during the reign of
Emperor Babar.

The fractured judgement -- Justice Sharma took an absolute and
unabashed pro-Hindu line while the other two appeared to give somewhat
more consideration to the arguments of both Hindus and Muslims -- does
not bring a closure to the dispute as an appeal in the Supreme Court
is inevitable. But Hindu groups, who see the demolition of the mosque
on 6 December 1992 as the natural outburst of an injured majority
sentiment, have hailed this as a glorious victory. RSS chief Bhagwat
has called upon all Hindus and others to join in a national campaign
to build a “magnificent” Ram temple at the spot. Political leaders
such as Mr Lal Krishan Advani have supported this move, and others
have asked the Muslims to be magnanimous in defeat. The more virulent
right wing of the Sangh Parivar, unmoved by calls of restraint, has
demanded absolute control of the Mosque land, and everything else
around it.

All sides have three months to move the Supreme Court. The time, some
feel, may be used for out of court negotiations and dialogues which
will make it easy for the Supreme court to make the High Court
decision absolute and pave the way at some time in the future for the
Ram Temple to take shape. The more secular elements, among them
academics, hope the Supreme Court will take a long enough time for a
new generation of Indians to accept the situation with the baggage of
emotions and religious fervour.

That is as maybe. But jurists, law scholars and thinkers among the
minority communities have been left numb at the Lucknow bench’s effort
to play “village mediator”, accept mythology and theology as legal
facts, and then proceed to divide the disputed land in a three way
distribution – one part to the Muslims and two parts to two different
Hindu groups. This surprised most because it is not even a prayer by
any one of the many litigants. This also treads a very thin edge of
the legal wedge in
India where land disputes between religious groups is legion, and
documentation, written and archaeological very scarce. Even in the
Hindu Muslim relationship, there are at least three other major Temple-
mosque disputes and the Sangh Parivar lay claims to as many as 3,000
mosques built at various times over former temples. Forgotten in this
claim is the history of Buddhist stupas and shrines all over the
country which were demolished to make way for temples during the first
Hindu resurgence a thousand years ago. There are, however, no
Buddhists of Indian origins in any numbers to make a claim. Also
apparently blown away by the wind is the law of the land that the
religious character of a building, church, mosque, temple or
gurudwara, has been “fixed” for all times from the moment of India’s
Independence on 15th August 1947 and no one can usurp each other’s
religious places.

It is not for nothing that historians and archaeologists, as well as
jurists of the stature of Rajeev Dhawan and PP Rao, have commented on
the court’s temerity in framing issues of faith and devotion, and then
giving a ruling on them, banking on specious evidence if available or
on folk lore when even the shred of academic proof was not
forthcoming. This is the caution bell for other minority communities.
The major disturbing signal from the judgement is that the courts in
India are not ruling anymore on points of law, but on the feelings and
faith of people, which gives the majority community an extraordinary
power in a multi cultural nation such as India. It can, I fear, have
serious implications in inter community disputes of this nature in the
future.

The supporters of the judgement and these include the diverse ruling
parties in New Delhi and the states are gloating on “a window of
opportunity for peace and reconciliation”. It is to be examined how
the judgement, even if it buys time, provides the way to future peace
with possibly a temple and a mosque coming up, this time lawfully, in
the future. There is no doubt that a jubilant Hindu majority will sue
for peace and this could see their right wing religious groups
ensuring that there is no trouble. But at this time in history, I do
not see Hindu groups agreeing to have a Ram Temple rub shoulders with
a revived Babri Mosque across a barbed wire fence. With the issue back
in the courts, onus is also on the Muslim community to ensure that
its extreme elements do not turn violent but wait for the next
judgement, even if at least one major Muslim leader as said “We will
not surrender”, quite reflecting the rather depressed mood of the
community at large.

What has been salutary in the existence of the past few days has been
the preparedness of the Union government and the state governments to
take the strictest precautions so there was no flare up violence
between the communities. The Indian army, the Air Force and hundreds
of thousands of state militia and police forces were mobilised across
the country, extraordinary precautions including a modicum of
censorship of SMS and mass mailings were taken, and thousands of
people taken into protective custody on the eve of the judgement.
This decisiveness is welcomed by the minorities who, unfortunately
still have more faith in central armed forces than the local police
for their security.

The disputed land is currently in the custody of the Union government,
as is the final responsibility of maintaining peace in a land that
seen so much bloodshed over the last 19 years since the former deputy
prime minister, Lal Krishan Advani, led a religious crusade across the
nation, his land march leaving thousands dead in Hindu Muslim riots
which reached their culmination in the demolition of the Babri mosque
in the afternoon of 6th December 1992.