The Disputed Mosque: A Historical Inquiry PDF
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Disputed Mosque A historical inquiry Sushil Srivastava Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2020 with funding from Public.Resource.Org https://archive.org/details/disputedmosquehiOOsush The Disputed Mosque The Disputed Mosque A Historical Inquiry Susfiil Srivastava Vistaar Publications New Delhi For Bibi Copyright © Sushil Srivastava, 1991 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilised in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. First published in 1991 by Vistaar Publications (A division of Sage Publications India Pvt Ltd) 32, M-Block Market, Greater Kailash-I New Delhi 110 048 Published by Tejeshwar Singh for Vistaar Publications, phototypeset by Pagewell Photosetters, Pondicherry, and printed at Chaman Offset Printers. ISBN: 81-7036-212-1 (pbk.) Contents List of Plates and Maps 6 Preface 7 One: Introduction 11 Two: Genesis of the Conflict 20 Three: British Policy and Religious Revivalism in Avadh 34 Four: Ayodhya: A Historical Sketch 51 Five: Did Babur Build the Masjid? 67 Six: The Location of the Ramjanambhoomi Temple 97 Seven: Buddhist Stupa? 113 Eight: Conclusion 125 Glossary 132 Appendix: The ‘Nazul’ Lands of Faizabad and Ayodhya 135 Bibliography 139 List of PUttes and Mops A. Plates (Between pp. 72-73) 1. A black-stone pillar standing in Faizabad Cantonment which is identical to the contro¬ versial pillar in the Babri Masjid. 2. One face of the black-stone pillar showing the intricate carvings. 3. The dancing woman carved on one of the faces of the black-stone pillar. 4. The controversial black-stone pillar at the head of the grave of the local saint, Musa Aashikan, in Ayodhya. 5. The baked-mud structure situated on the em¬ bankment along the River Ghagra at Ayodhya. 6. A mosque in ruins at the Treta-ke-Thakur, Ayodhya. 1. The Kaikeyee Bhawan, Ayodhya (situated north of Kaushalya Bhawan and north-east of the Babri Masjid). 8. The Babri Masjid as seen from the west. 9. The ruined mosque, said to have been erected by Aurangzeb, at Swargaddwar, Ayodhya. B. Maps 1. Babar's March and Encampment on 28 March 1528 68 2. Places of Worship in Ayodhya 103 Preface This work is the outcome of several discussions with friends who encouraged me to explore the Babri Masjid-Ramjanambhoomi controversy. In early 1986, some of us began to feel very strongly that the communal situation in North India had gone beyond redemption. We felt strange and insecure in a society where religious animosity had reached unmanageable proportions. A few friends belonging to the minority communities expressed the fear that religious minorities would have no future in India if the majority refused to make any adjustments. I felt very disturbed, all the more so because of my profession and the discipline to which I belong. As a historian, I saw the present as the direct outcome of the past. In the absence of a defined sense of nationalism and with limited economic opportunities, people had tended to associate themselves with narrow sectarian groups. I was convinced that contemporary Indian society was passing through a period of transition and this had made adjustments and readjustments between social, political, economic and religious groups necessary and inevitable. I had, therefore, great hope for the future. It is clear, however, that these hopes will be fulfilled only if people can be made to understand the past, free of any personal biases. It is, therefore, necessary to record objectively the story of human progress. In short, I felt obliged as a social scientist and as a citizen of India to undertake a rational and objective study of a problem that had unnecessarily come to divide the people of this great land. The idea of undertaking research on the Babri Masjid- Ramjanambhoomi developed during a visit that my family and I paid to Karvi-Chitrakoot in the Banda district of Uttar Pradesh. In Chitrakoot, we visited the nearly forgotten temple of Balaji Thakur and were surprised to see that it had the architectural 7 The Disputed Mosque design of a mosque. (My son, Taasi, thought that he was inside a mosque.) Struck by this, we asked the priest about the history of the structure. He told us that the temple had been constructed at the behest of the Mughal Emperor, Aurangzeb. The priest showed us the firman issued by Aurangzeb, with the royal seal. It assigned a few revenue-free villages for the maintenance of the temple. The priest also informed us that the construction of the temple had taken place under the personal supervision of an officer of Aurangzeb. This explained the unusual architecture of the temple. We were puzzled when the priests of some other temples in Chitrakoot told us that Aurangzeb had attempted to destroy their temples during his military campaign in the area. Some priests even showed us dents on some of the idols which they claimed had been made by Aurangzeb himself. They described the miraculous powers of the idols which they called upon to save themselves from the Emperor’s onslaught. All this was puzzling because historical records showed that Aurangzeb had never gone to Chitrakoot. There is evidence that Aurangzeb had led a military campaign to Kalinjar, more than a hundred miles from Chitrakoot, but it is surprising that no contemporary of Aurangzeb had recorded the visit of the Mughal Emperor to a place of such religious importance as Chitrakoot. Mehr Afshan Farooqi, a scholar of medieval Indian history, realised how common but baseless myths enhance communal hatred and immediately started persuading me to popularise the historical truth. I therefore thought of attacking the established distortions in history and decided to write in local newspapers and newsmagazines about how popular myths distorted historical perspectives. My friends, Sumita and Ajit Parmar,. the editor of Probe India, suggested an extensive study of the Ayodhya controversy. My experience of collecting data on Babri Masjid-Ramja- nambhoomi was an unforgettable one. While my students were interested in what I had to say, my academic friends and teachers, with only a few exceptions, were unsympathetic. Professor B.N.S. Yadav, however, was keen to understand how communal hatred had developed in an area where no such tensions had ever been known. He agreed that Ayodhya’s importance as a centre of 8
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