33rd Anniversary of Babri Mosque Demolition: When Indian State & Supreme Court
shamelessly succumbed to Hindutva lies
Friends in
India and abroad wished to have a compilation of documentary evidence of how
Indian State and Supreme Court facilitated the Hindutva project of obliterating
a historic mosque at Ayodhya on December 6, 1992. The following description
examines the Hindutva lies with irrefutable facts which were shamelessly overlooked
by the rulers and highest judiciary of India.
Lie 1: Babri
mosque built after destroying Ram birthplace temple
The Hindutva
gang claimed that the new Ram temple was built on an ancient site of Hindu
worship; the Ram birthplace temple which was destroyed in the early 16th
century (1528-29) during the reign of the first Mughal emperor, Babar by one of
his commanders, Mir Baqi. Archaeological evidence proves the mosque had no
foundations of its own and was built upon a Hindu temple. They even identified
the exact place of birth of Ram; under the central dome (approximately
measuring 150 cm x 150 cm) of the Babri Mosque.
This lie
has been repeated by PM Modi many times since 2014 when he took over as PM of
India, latest being at Ayodhya on November 25, 2025, when he stated: “The
wounds of centuries are healing, the pain of centuries is finding an end today,
the resolution of centuries is achieving success today. Today marks the final
offering of a yajna whose fire burned for 500 years.”
[PM’s speech during
the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Mandir Dhwajarohan Utsav, November 25, 2025, https://www.pmindia.gov.in/en/news_updates/pms-speech-during-the-shri-ram-janmabhoomi-mandir-dhwajarohan-utsav/]
Truth 1: This
is a brazen lie propagated by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) with no
historical or legal proof, nor any corroboration even in the ‘Hindu’ narratives
of history. There is no mention of the destruction of Ram Temple even in the
writings of the most prominent Ram worshiper to date, Goswami Tulsidas
(1511-1623), who penned the Epic Ramcharitmanas (Lake of the Deeds of
Ram) in the Avadhi language in 1575-76. It was this work which made
Ram the most popular God in Northern India. According to the Hindutva version,
Ram’s birthplace temple was destroyed during 1528-1529. It would be surprising
indeed if the Ramcharitmanas, written almost 48 years after the so-called
destruction of Ram’s birthplace temple, did not mention such a momentous event.
Does Hindutva gang mean to argue that Goswami Tulsidas was a coward!
For RSS,
Aurobindo Ghosh, Swami Vivekananda, and Swami Dayanand Saraswati were the
saints who contributed immensely to the cause of Vedic religion and the growth
of the Hindu nation. None of these Vedic saints ever referred to this
destruction of Ram Temple at Ayodhya by Mughal King Babar or his agents in any
of their writings.
Today,
Ayodhya is referred to as one of the oldest holiest places for Hindus. It would
be interesting to know that Adi Shankaracharya (788-820), who toured India
preaching Vedas and refuting Buddhism and Jainism for more than a decade,
established 5 Peetams [main centers] at Badrinath in the
North, Puri in the East, Dwarka in the West and Sringeri and Kanchi in the
South for the revival of the Vedic religion but did not consider Ayodhya as one.
It is true
that traditionally, Hindus believe that Ram was born in the city of Ayodhya,
but the issue is whether he was born exactly under the central dome
(approximately measuring 150 cm x 150 cm) of the Babri Mosque as is claimed now
by Hindutva’s flag-bearers.
Moreover,
the Indian Supreme Court, in its 1,045-page Ayodhya Judgment (November 9,
2019), nowhere in the Judgment agreed with the claim that the Babri Mosque was
constructed after destroying any temple.
Indian
Supreme Court, in the said judgment made two other observations demolishing the
RSS claim on the Mosque. Firstly, it stated: “The exclusion of the Muslims
from worship and possession took place on the intervening night between 22/23
December 1949 when the mosque was desecrated by the installation of Hindu
idols. The ouster of the Muslims on that occasion was not through any lawful
authority but through an act which was calculated to deprive them of their
place of worship.” [Supreme Court Judgment dated November 9, 2019, pp.
921-22]
Secondly,
on pages 913-14, it stated that “On 6 December 1992, the structure of the
mosque was brought down and the mosque was destroyed. The destruction of the
mosque took place in breach of the order of status quo and an
assurance given to this Court. The destruction of the mosque and the
obliteration of the Islamic structure was an egregious violation of the rule of
law.”
However,
Mother India must be aghast to find Indian Supreme Court, despite all the above
findings, selling itself to the criminal Hindutva project of destroying a
historic building which was a protected monument under Article 49 of Indian
Constitution. In fact, what Hindutva criminals could not achieve on December 6,
1992, Supreme Court of India got them on November 9, 2019.
It is
worth mentioning here that RSS—which initiated the bloody, violent campaign to
build the Ram Temple at the end of the 1980s, never advanced this demand during
the period of its founding (1925) to the day of Independence. Even after
Independence, it was only in 1989 that the political appendage of the RSS, the
BJP, began to focus on this issue.
The views
of two RSS luminaries who initiated the Ram Temple movement reveal the
preposterousness of the claim that Ram himself was born under the dome.
Rama Vilas
Vedanti, a prominent Hindu clergyman of the Ram Birthplace Trust (an RSS
front), stated, “We will build a temple at Ramjanam Bhoomi even if Lord Rama
says he was not born there” [Outlook, Delhi, 7 July 2003).
Similarly, L. K. Advani, who rode a chariot (Rath Yatra) as part of an
aggressive Ram Temple campaign in 1990 said, “It did not matter whether the
historical Rama was actually born at the spot in Ayodhya. What mattered was
that Hindus believed that he was born there. Faith took precedence over
history” [The Hindustan Times, Delhi, 20 July 2003.]
Lie 2: Ram
Temple at the site of the Babri Mosque was essential to seek ‘restorative
justice’
According to RSS the Ram Mandir has great
symbolic and emotional resonance for Hindus in contemporary times and that the
trauma that this destruction brought has been passed down through generations
and continues to impact the psyche of Hindus and contributed historically and
continues to contribute to Hindu-Muslim tensions in India to this day.
Truth 2: According
to this logic, the rule by rulers with Muslim names in India was the Islamic
rule of idol-breakers. This narrative of Muslim history developed only at the
beginning of the 19th century is in absolute contradiction with
historical facts and even common sense. To understand the lies behind this
fabricated Medieval past, one needs to examine the nature of this ‘Muslim’
rule.
Despite the ‘Muslim’ rule of almost one
thousand years, approximately 75% of Indians did not convert to Islam, as was
made clear by the first Census held by the British in 1871-72 when even
ceremonial ‘Muslim’ rule was over. Hindus and Sikhs constituted 73.5 percent of
the population, and Muslims numbered 21.5 percent only. [Memorandum on the Census Of
British India of 1871-72: Presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of
Her Majesty London, George Edward Eyre and William Spottiswoode, Her
Majesty's Stationary Office 1875, 16.]
In fact, this rule was also the rule of the
Hindu High Castes. According to contemporary ‘Hindu’ narratives, Aurangzeb
never faced Shivaji in the battlefield; these were his two Rajput commanders,
Jay Singh I and Jai Singh II, who fought against Shivaji on Aurangzeb’s behalf.
Akbar personally never fought any battle against Rana Pratap of Mewar; Man
Singh, brother-in-law of Akbar fought all battles against Rana. The Deewan
Ala (prime minister) of both Shahjahan and Aurangzeb was Raghunath
Bahadur, a Kayasth Hindu. [‘Fallacy of the
Hindutva project’ May 4, 2022, Chennai, link: https://frontline.thehindu.com/cover-story/fallacy-of-the-hindutva-project-aurangzeb-mughals-islamophobia/article38484103.ece]
It is
nobody’s argument that Aurangzeb or many other ‘Muslim’ rulers were not
religious bigots or tolerant. Aurangzeb did not spare his father, brothers, and
many smaller ‘Muslim’ kingdoms of his times. There are also contemporary
records that prove that Aurangzeb donated lands, money, and resources to many
temples throughout India. Anybody who has visited Delhi’s Red Fort must have
seen two temples; Jain Lal Mandir [Red Temple] and Gauri Shanker Temple, just
across the Red Fort towards Chandni Chowk side. These temples were built before
the rule of Aurangzeb and continued to function during his time and later.
Lie 3: According
to RSS building of the Ram Temple was an important event for Hindus of all
traditions
Truth 3: They did
not explain to the Nation why 4 Shankaracharyas of the Peetams (out
of 5) established by Adi Shankaracharya boycotted the inauguration of the Ram
Temple at Ayodhya. The most revered living Hindu saints of the Sanatan
Dharm declared Ayodhya’s inauguration to be in contravention of Vedic
scriptures, calling it Hinduism done for petty electoral gains.
It was sad
to see RSS run roughshod over the diversity of Hinduism. In its attempt to
prove the homogenous character of Hindus, it turned a debate on the nature of
the Ayodhya inauguration into Hindus versus others. The founder of Arya Samaj,
Swami Dayanand Saraswati (1824-83), is glorified by RSS as a pillar of the
Hindu nation. But Swami was an ardent opponent of the Brahmanical rituals like Pran
Pratishtha, putting life into a lifeless idol (in Ayodhya case by Prime
Minister Modi) and did not mince words in decrying this very ritual. He stated
(in Satyarth Prakash or Light of Truth, chapter 11), “The fact of the matter
is that the All-pervading Spirit [God] can neither come into an idol, nor,
leave it. If your mantras are efficacious that you can summon God, why can you
not infuse life into your dead son by the force of the very same mantras? Again
why can you not bide the soul depart from the body of your enemy? There is not
a single verse in the Vedas to sanction the invocation of the Deity and
vitalization of the idol, likewise, there is nothing to indicate that it is
right to invoke idols, to bathe them, install them in temples, and apply sandal
paste to them.”
Lie 4: According
to the Hindutva narrative Ayodhya represents a five hundred years long war
between Hindus and Muslims of India
Those who
defend demolition of Babri mosque argue that though sometimes presented as
being a recent conflict, the fact is that this site has a long history of
Hindus and Sikhs attempting to reclaim it, dating back to the early 19th
century. Furthermore, the conflict has been ongoing regardless of the political
party in power following India’s independence.
Truth 4: Ayodhya is
presented as a place of perennial war between Hindus and Muslims, and the central
dome of the Babri Mosque claimed to be the exact place where Ram was born, are
modern ‘constructs’ as we will see in the following.
There
cannot be a shoddier lie than this that Ayodhya was a place of perpetual war between
Hindus against Muslims. During India’s War of Independence 1857, Ayodhya was
the place where Maulvis and Mahants and ordinary Hindus and Muslims stood
united in rebelling against the British rule and kissed the hangman’s noose
together. Maulana Ameer Ali was a famous Maulvi of Ayodhya, and when
Ayodhya’s well-known Hanuman Garhi’s (Hanuman Temple) priest, Baba Ramcharan
Das, took the lead in organizing the armed resistance to the British rule. Both
of them were captured and hanged together on the same tree. In another instance
of the glorious unity of Hindus and Muslims against the colonial rule at
Ayodhya, Acchhan Khan and Shambhu Prasad Shukla led the army of Raja Devibaksh
Singh in the area. Due to the treachery of Hindu and Muslim lackeys of the
British, they were captured and killed together. The British rulers hated this
unity and created narratives of perennial Hindu-Muslim conflict not only in
Ayodhya but the whole of India.
Iqbal a renowned poet much maligned by the
Hindutva ideologues whose poetry has been removed from textbooks wrote a
peerless poem in praise of Ram in 1908 titled “Imam-e-Hind”. For Iqbal, Ram was not merely a Hindu God but
“Imam-e-Hind” (spiritual leader of India). The first two lines of the poem
read: Hai Raam ke wajood pe Hindustaan ko naaz/
Ahl-e-Nazar samajhte hain us ko Imam-e-Hind
(India is proud of the existence of Ram
Spiritual people consider him prelate of India).
The
flag-bearers of Hindutva working overtime to undo a composite and all-inclusive
India are using the Sikh factor as a bluff to legitimize its illegal project.
Sikhs who do not believe in idol worship of Ram or any other Hindu
God/Goddesses; we are told that on 28 November 1858, a Nihang Sikh [member of a
warrior order within Sikhism] organized Pooja [worship]
and havan [a Brahmanical ritual offering of grains, pure ghee
and other such items to fire] in the Babri Mosque. It is unbelievable for a
Sikh to perform Brahmanical rituals and would invite immediate
ex-communication. Why Hindus at that time did not enter the Mosque is a
mystery!
Aggrieved
Muslims chose legal recourse and not community mobilization, but judiciary
betrayed.
Hindutva
gang must understand that Ram was never the cause of perpetual conflict between
Hindus and Muslims till RSS invented it as a convenient tool for religious
polarization. Muslims of Ayodhya stopped going to Babri Mosque once the idol of
Ram Lalla (child Ram) was smuggled into the Babri Mosque on the night of 22/23
December 1949 with the connivance of local senior officials. Local Muslims did
not try to break into the usurped Mosque, and there was no bloodshed engineered
by Muslims of Ayodhya who were in substantial numbers in Faizabad, now
rechristened as Ayodhya Dham despite the Indian Supreme Court declaring that
“the mosque was desecrated by the installation of Hindu idols.”
RSS and
its affiliates instead of being ashamed of the carnage celebrate the demolition
on December 6 as Shauriya Divas, day of bravery. The criminals succeeded since
1990, RSS and its appendages had organized an aggressive campaign for
demolishing the Babri Mosque, targeting Indian Muslims as Baber-zade/Haram-zade
(children of Babar/illegitimate children). For more than two years, Hindus in
India and abroad were asked to come to Ayodhya to tear down the mosque as kar-sevaks.
Babri
mosque demolition was not Hindu-Muslim fight but RSS versus Indian state
Did
Muslims call for counter-mobilization to save the mosque or reach the site on
December 6 to confront the Hindutva goons? Never! In fact, they trusted the RSS
to honor the commitment made to the then-Indian Prime Minister, P. V. Narasimha
Rao and the Indian Supreme Court that its appendages and cadres would not harm
the mosque. RSS reneged on all commitments shamelessly. Indian State and
judiciary remained silent spectators. How brazenly Indian Muslims were cheated
would be evident by the fact that Rao promised to rebuild Babri Mosque at its
original place twice (once in Parliament and second time while addressing the
nation from Red Fort on August 15, 1993), which were reneged too!
Shamsul
Islam
December
6, 2025
http://du-in.academia.edu/ShamsulIslam
Facebook:
https://facebook.com/shamsul.islam.332
Twitter: @shamsforjustice
http://shamsforpeace.blogspot.com/
Email: notoinjustice@gmail.com
Link for procuring Shamsul Islam’s books in English, Hindi & Urdu:
https://tinyurl.com/shams-books
