By Jawed Naqvi
NEW DELHI, Aug 28: According to a story ascribed to Urdu poet Firaq
Gorakhpuri, an admirer once claimed to have discovered the presence of
electricity in ancient India after he found a copper wire at the
bottom of the foundation of his proposed house.
"That's strange," retorted Firaq, a Hindu and a confirmed rationalist.
"When I was digging the foundations for my house, I didn't find any
wire at all. It makes me wonder if indeed there was wireless too in
ancient India."
Prof Irfan Habib, India's top-ranking historian, shows similar scorn
for the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), whose findings this week
of an alleged Hindu structure beneath the razed Babri mosque in
Ayodhya is beginning to help re-fuel a raging political row.
Thousands of people have been killed in periodic flare-ups related to
the row and Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's government exists
largely because his Bharatiya Janata Party has been campaigning for a
temple at the site where its supporters tore down the Babri mosque in
Dec 1992.
"There is nothing in the ASI report for historians to discern or
divine. It's a pure fabrication with no historical merit," Prof Habib
told Dawn on the phone from Aligarh, where he has taught history for
four decades. "Everything in the report points to a Muslim structure
and Islamic motifs but its conclusions are just the opposite of the
evidence."
Prof Habib gave three key reasons to support his criticism of the ASI
report. It has mentioned, but deliberately not explained, the presence
of countless animal carcasses, some with cut throats associated with
Muslim sacrificial rituals found at each level of the excavation
ordered by the Uttar Pradesh High Court from March until mid-August
this year.
"Also, there is no explanation for the glazed tiles found at various
levels of the digging," Prof Habib said. These tiles are essentially a
pointer to the post-Sultanate, chiefly the Mughal, period. Even more
significantly, each level of excavation has shown construction with
lime and mortar, a definite indication of architectural techniques
that came to India with Muslims.
Prof Habib's arguments could be misconstrued because he is seen as a
Muslim, even if he is a Marxist historian. But Prof R.C. Thakran of
Delhi University, who was among the few professional historians to
have camped in Ayodhya during the entire excavation process, supports
him.
"The ASI has misrepresented the findings in Ayodhya," said Prof
Thakran. There was nothing in the several interim reports of the ASI
to suggest a massive structure it now claims to have unearthed under
the Babri Masjid, he revealed. "It is a lot ofpoor fabrication."
While this has been the liberal, professional view on the Ayodhya
dispute, the ASI revelations have also spurred the rightwing Muslim
and Hindu groups into action, one campaigning for reconstruction of
the demolished mosque, the other seeking a temple there.
The Uttar Pradesh High Court, also known as the Allahabad High Court,
has given six weeks to the two sides to study the ASI report and give
their responses to the findings which essentially claim that there was
indeed evidence of an earlier temple built beneath a 16th century
mosque that was destroyed by Hindu activists in the northern city in
1992.
Rightwing Hindus welcomed the findings while rightwing Muslims
rejected the report. But although the study is expected to have
far-reaching implications in moves to solve who holds claim over the
site, most lawyers say it cannot be taken as a conclusive evidence.
"As far as the legal case in concerned, it is a title suit about the
ownership of the land between Hindus and Muslims," lawyer Rajiv Dhawan
argued. "The Archaeological Survey of India report cannot be taken to
be conclusive. This is only part of the evidence. The report will be
analysed, its authors will be cross- examined to find out whether they
are right or wrong. It will be a long, drawn-out process."
Mr Dhawan said the legal case was not about whether a temple existed
on the site or not. Whether or not a temple existed became part of
rightwing Hindu rabble rousing in the failed dialogue process begun in
1989 between the All India Babri Masjid Action Committee and the
hardline Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP). However, according to Mr Dhawan,
the land was owned by the Sunni Waqf board until 1945. The Hindus
could have only moral right over the land if the existence of a temple
were proven.
Archaeologists supported by Hindu hardliners dismissed the
allegations, saying the report justified their long-held observations.
S.P. Gupta, of the Indian Archaeologist Society (IAS), a VHP-backed
organization, said: "The ASI report is nearly the same as our reports,
because we are also archaeologists. We have seen the digging. It is a
science, so our observations based on scientific facts are bound to be
similar."
A colleague of Mr Gupta, K.N. Dixit, added: "Our excavations in
Ayodhya in 1978 proved the existence of a temple dating to the 11th
century. The ASI report just pushes it back by 50 or 100 years."
Another archaeologist, R.K. Sharma, said the motifs found "proved the
existence of a seventh century Shiva temple". If true, even by this
logic the temple could not have been the birthplace of Lord Ram as
claimed by the VHP, since he belonged to the rival sect of Vaishnavite
Hindus.
Qasim Rasool Ilyas, a leader of the Babri Masjid Action Committee,
says the ASI report has ignored fundamental evidence of Muslims living
in Ayodhya in the preceding centuries. "They have hidden evidence of
Sultanate coins found in Ayodhya, the glazed tiles, carcasses.
Everything. We expect the courts to note this."
However, by the time the courts do take notice, it could be time for
the next elections and for the issue to be reheated for mass
consumption. Will the people relish yet another helping? This remains
the only question no one seems to have an answer to.
"Heads I win, tails you lose."
surrea...@yahoo.ca (surreal_ravi) wrote in message news:<8b6beb99.03082...@posting.google.com>...
Listen you motherfucking son of whore, you are a bastard and your
motherfucking father was a low life bhangi. Harami, are you fucking blind to
read what the professor explained to you. You fucking sack of shit.
>
> "Heads I win, tails you lose."
Get lost you bastard guy.
"Seeker" <4not_listed_due_t...@dont.reply> wrote in message news:<wrT3b.21336$S_.10730@fed1read01>...
mgha...@yahoo.com (Mirza Ghalib) wrote in message news:<757671e6.03083...@posting.google.com>...
So go find your mother and ask her to strap on a dildo and fuck you good.
"Mirza Ghalib" <mgha...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:757671e6.03083...@posting.google.com...
"Anand Agrawala" <ananda...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:c888adb1.03083...@posting.google.com...
dont expect everyone to act like your ammi. Pakis are loser. Khisiayani
billi khumba noche.
I asked you a simple question. Is your mother still a devadasi? A simple yes
or no will do. Don't try to get smart.
"Mirza Ghalib" <mgha...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:757671e6.03083...@posting.google.com...
Hehehehe. Khisiayani billa teree matha ko choday. roftl: Sorry I couldn't
resist it.
>
>
But you missed the joke. Even a billa's lund is bigger than your father's,
so your matha was lucky to get laid by the billa. Hehehehe.
First you answer my question. I asked you first. Did Habib sire you?
I am not going to bother you any more.
"Seeker" <4not_listed_due_t...@dont.reply> wrote in message news:<31n4b.22237$S_.6481@fed1read01>...
>
Don't blame *IT*, its a SureReal Donkey... :)
Not very smart, are you? My point was that I was not infuriating anyone
including yourself. English has never been your strong point. No wonder why
you didn't understand the article in question.
>
> First you answer my question. I asked you first. Did Habib sire you?
> I am not going to bother you any more.
You can keep on trying to bother me all you want. I don't get easily
bothered. Was your Matha not Prof. Habib's sex slave?
your mullah is scrweing your brain dude, stop having sex with your preteen
cousins and stop blowing up women and children in the name of islam, you
will be alright.
But these are the very important tenets of Hinduism. Are you saying Hindu is
a wrong religion?
Pundit, pujari inciting --> Hinduism.
> Preteen sex-----> Islam
Manu laying down the law that a man must marry a bride a third of his age.
Rama, daler etc all married 3 year old girls.
> Where is hinduism come into picture?
Please see above. Hinduism is what you claim Islam to be.