Indian supreme court verdict could spark new wave of sectarian riots
between Hindus and Muslims
Leader of powerful
Hindu organisation has threatened nationwide protests if long-awaited ruling
"goes against Hindus' faith"
11th June 2018 10:21 GMT London
https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/the-battle-for-india
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Hindu
nationalists mark the anniversary of the 1992 demolition of the Babri Masjid
mosque at Ayodhya Photo: Deepak Gupta/Hindustan Times via Getty Images
The newly elected president of a
powerful Hindu organisation in India has threatened nationwide protests if the
supreme court, which is currently hearing a highly contested case over the
ownership of a site claimed by both Hindus and Muslims, issues a ruling that
“goes against Hindus’ faith”.
At the centre of the dispute is the
pilgrimage town of Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state and
one of its poorest. Hindus believe that Ayodhya is the birthplace of their god
Ram, as recounted in the Ramayana, the epic poem that tells his story. However,
Muslims claim it as the site of a 16th-century mosque, the Babri Masjid, which
was demolished by Hindu extremists in 1992, sparking riots that led to the death
of more than 2,000 people throughout the country.
The case over the site’s ownership
has been winding its way through the Indian legal system for decades and is
now, finally, approaching its conclusion.
Just days after his election in April
as the leader of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Association), Vishnu
Kokje pre-empted the supreme court’s verdict. On a visit to Ayodhya, he called
for a temple devoted to Ram to be built there. He reiterated the call last
month and told reporters that if the supreme court ruled against them, “Hindus
all over the country will start a movement to mount pressure on members of
parliament to pass a law…that paves the way for the construction” of the
temple.
The supreme court’s decision,
expected in the next few months, could prompt a new wave of sectarian riots in
a country that is increasingly hostile to its Muslim-minority population, which
numbers 172 million people.
Religious texts as
history
Since the election of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
government four years ago, official and non-governmental Indian agencies have
been charged with interpreting Hindu epics such as the Ramayana and other
mythologies as historical truth. Monuments and archaeological sites are
increasingly being used in this ideological battle. There have been numerous
overt and covert attempts to promote a Hindu fundamentalist ideology known as
Hindutva, particularly when it comes to history and archaeology, to prove that
ancient Hindu temples were razed to erect mosques.
In March, the news agency Reuters
revealed that the government of the prime minister, Narendra Modi, has set up a
committee of archaeologists, geologists, Sanskrit scholars and bureaucrats
tasked with rewriting Indian history to prove that today’s Hindus are directly
descended from the country’s first inhabitants. The culture minister, Mahesh
Sharma, told Reuters that he expects the committee’s findings to be taught in
schools. The ultimate aim is “to shape the national identity” to match the
government’s view that “India is a nation of and for Hindus”, Reuters reported.
Sharma believes that the committee’s
findings will counter British and Indian historians’ assertion that people from
Central Asia came to India around 4,000 years ago and influenced the country’s
culture. “I worship Ramayana and I think it is a historical document. People
who think it is fiction are absolutely wrong,” he said.
The Archaeological Survey of India
(ASI) has also been charged with promoting the government’s Hindu nationalist
agenda. In January 2017, the ASI held a meeting presided over by K.N. Dikshit,
a former director-general of the organisation. He later said: “I have been
asked to present a report that will help the government to rewrite certain
aspects of ancient history.” According to the minutes of that meeting, which
were cited by Reuters in its investigation in March, it was “essential to
establish a correlation” between ancient Hindu texts and archaeological
evidence to prove that Indian civilisation stretched back many thousands of
years.
The ideological and logistical thrust
of such a shift can be attributed to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (National
Volunteers’ Organisation), a Hindu right-wing militant organisation that has
targeted every academic institution in the country. “The true colour of Indian
history is saffron [which Hindutva followers favour], and to bring about
cultural changes, we have to rewrite history,” the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
told Reuters.
Some
Hindu nationalists claim that a Muslim emperor razed one of their temples to
make way for the Taj Mahal Rayilkhan
“Blot on Indian
culture”
Even the nation’s most famous monument, the Taj Mahal in Agra, has been
embroiled in this battle to rewrite history. Some Hindu historians have claimed
that the Unesco World Heritage site, built by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in
the 17th century as a tribute to his late wife Mumtaz, was originally a Hindu
temple known as Tejo Mahalaya. The claim was first made by the maverick
historian Purushottam Oak, who published a book, Taj Mahal: the True Story, in
1989. He alleged that Shah Jahan had seized a temple dedicated to the Hindu god
Shiva and converted it into a tomb for his wife.
Last October, a BJP member of the
Uttar Pradesh government, Sangeet Som, called the Taj Mahal “a blot on Indian
culture… he [Shah Jahan] wanted to wipe out Hindus. If these people are part of
our history, then it is very sad, and we will change this history.” The
controversial chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath, who serves as
the head priest of a Hindu temple in Gorakhpur, said the Taj Mahal does not
“reflect Indian culture” and foreign dignitaries visiting the state have
recently been given copies of the Bhagavad Gita, a Hindu text, rather than
replicas of the famous monument. “Given a chance, we will install statues of
[the Hindu deities]… Gauri, Ganesh and Nandi in every mosque,” Adityanath said
three years ago at a meeting of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad.
An Uttar Pradesh tourism brochure,
recently issued by the state government, omits the Taj Mahal from its list of
sites to visit and instead includes the temple in Gorakhpur. It also outlines
plans for new attractions, such as a tour of locations related to the Ramayana.
However, specialists from the ASI
have dismissed claims that the Taj Mahal was built on the site of a Hindu
temple. Last August, the ASI told a court in Agra that it had not found any
traces of such a building at the site. The testimony was part of a hearing
examining a petition by six Hindu lawyers who demanded the right to pray at the
site, as Muslims are allowed to do at the mosque on the premises. The ASI told
the court that a 2005 case over the ownership of the Taj Mahal is already being
considered by the courts. (The completion of this is likely to take many more
years.) Bhuvan Vikrama, the ASI’s superintending archaeologist in Agra,
rejected the lawyers’ petition. “Our written statement called the claims
‘concocted’,” he told The Art Newspaper, adding that the case is proceeding
despite the ASI’s protestations.
Following its public disavowal of the
history of the Taj Mahal that is now being promoted by the highest levels of
government, the ASI has itself come under fire for its administration of the
monument. In May, the supreme court slammed it for not preventing the
discolouration of the Taj Mahal caused by an infestation of insects breeding in
the heavily polluted Yamuna river adjoining the site, as well as pollution from
industries and vehicles in Agra. “This situation would not have arisen if the
ASI [had] done its job. We are surprised by the way the ASI is defending
itself. You [the central government] please consider if the ASI is needed there
or not,” the judge said. The court was provoked by the failure of the ASI to
put in place preventive measures after the first case to protect the Taj was
filed 34 years ago.
Meanwhile, at Ayodhya, the ASI has
conducted three surveys since Indian independence, the most recent being in
2003. In 1975, an ASI report found traces of continuous human habitation at the
site dating back to the 13th century BC. It also found pillars and other
structures that were of Hindu origin, but not any evidence of a temple or its
destruction to make way for a mosque. Early in the 20th century, the British
art historian E.B. Havell noted that the presence of Hindu or Buddhist traces
of architecture in Islamic buildings could reflect the use of local artisans in
their construction rather than any iconoclasm on the part of Muslim rulers.
Hindu
militants destroying the Babri Masjid mosque at Ayodhya in 1992 Photo:
Reuters/Sunil Malhotra
Sectarian flashpoint
In 2003, excavations were ordered by an court in Allahabad that was
hearing a case filed by Hindus and Muslims after the destruction of the Babri
Masjid mosque—the same case that has now reached the supreme court. An
archaeological team under Buddha Mani, who later retired as an ASI additional
director-general, found remnants of a large temple under the mosque and
continuity of use from the tenth to the 16th centuries. The structure had
remains with “distinctive features associated with temples of north India”, the
team reported.
However, other archaeologists
criticised the team’s conclusions on technical grounds. In 2003, an earlier BJP
coalition governed India, and the ASI is a government agency overseen by the
Human Resource Development ministry. In 2003, this ministry was led by Murli
Manohar Joshi, who himself stood accused of inciting zealots to demolish the
Babri Masjid mosque in 1992. The Allahabad court later directed the ASI to
replace Mani as leader of the excavation team, which it did.
The supreme court is now charged with
adjudicating on the title deeds for the site of the mosque, and will not
examine the location’s antiquity. Whatever the decision, it will have huge
ramifications for Hindus and Muslims alike.
Appeared
in The Art Newspaper, 302 June 2018
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