The drive to build a Ram temple is an attempt to reinstate the guiding principles our ancient land, of justice and pluralism and negate the forces of religious compulsion and domination that the Babri Masjid signified.
The second millennium was a dark period in the religious and cultural history of the ancient land of Bharata (I use this name as the terminology India came much later). It was a time when alien invaders laid waste to the land, butchering Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists by the thousands and destroying hundreds of Hindu temples and Buddhist monasteries with the explicit aim of wiping out a civilization. The nadir of this dark period was 1528, when Mir Baqi, a general belonging to the army of Babur, the first Mughal emperor of India ground to dust an existing Ram temple at Ayodhya and erected a mosque in its place.
This was a singular, irrefutable act of evil with no justification whatsoever; a deliberate atrocity designed to humiliate, insult and demoralize Hindus by destroying the temple that symbolized Shri Ram, the very essence of Hindu tradition and morality—all done with the purpose that Hindus would then become easy fodder for conversion.
Despite modern technology and scientific advancements, the moral concept of right and wrong is still at the core of humanity—nothing can erase or change it. And the cosmos has its own ways and its own timeline in enforcing its rules of morality. Therefore almost 500 years later, a tenure that has seen the passage of two empires and ushered in a modern democracy, this grave historical wrong is being rectified.
On 22 January 2024, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi performs the Pran Pratistha ceremony leading to the installation of the idol of Shri Ram Lalla in Ayodhya, it will be a day of immense satisfaction and pride for all the right-thinking Hindus of India; a vindication of their faith and their non-violent way of life in a world that has seen religions fight wars and forcefully dominate over one another.
What is especially commendable is that in a land of over 80% Hindus, this religious controversy was ultimately settled not by brute force or coercive domination but by reference to the highest court in this land denoting the enlightened principles of Hinduism—a fact that I hope is not lost on the non-Hindu citizens of present-day India.
At this juncture it is important to recapitulate certain salient facts of the Ayodhya controversy to validate this momentous occasion and make the younger generations aware of the travails that Hindus went through to get here today.
The Ayodhya controversy was a standing example of a modern nation’s cruel insensitivity towards the Hindu community under the garb of a false secularism; it failed to empathise, assuage and do justice to the hurt and faith of the Hindus, despite overwhelming historical, cultural and archeological evidence.
Ayodhya has been irrevocably and definitively associated with the Hindu deity Shri Ram since time immemorial. The ancient epic Ramayana, whose oral tradition goes back to 5000 years BC, identifies Ayodhya as the capital of the Ikshvaku kings and the birthplace of Shri Ram. The celebrated Sanskrit poet Kalidasa (4th-5th century CE) refers to Ayodhya in his poem Raghuvamsa.
Negativists out to demean and trivialise the Hindu religion claimed that the legendary Ayodhya was a myth and Shri Ram was a mere caricature from a fairytale. Moreover, these scholars contended that modern Ayodhya came into existence only in the 4-5th century CE when the Gupta king Skandagupta moved his capital to Saket (site of present-day Ayodhya) and renamed it as Ayodhya.
Skandagupta is supposed to have consecrated 360 temples in Ayodhya and the subsequent 11th century Gahadavala dynasty erected numerous temples for Vishnu here that survived till the reign of Aurangzeb.
So even if we take this contorted timeline to be valid, it cannot negate the fact that Ayodhya was sacrosanct to Hindus for at least a thousand years before Babur’s general Mir Baqi allegedly demolished a Ram temple and erected a mosque in its place in 1528.
Circumstantial logic provokes a pertinent question: Of all the places in the vast expanse of India why did Mir Baqi home in on Ayodhya to build this mosque? Was it to symbolically and brutally stamp the domination of Islam on one of Hinduism’s most sacred site? The nefarious intention is self-evident.
Therefore, the historical veracity of Ayodhya as a venerable Hindu location for thousands of years prior to the Muslim invasion is incontrovertible; a reality which no twisted theory can deface.
Second archeological evidence lends credibility to the Hindu point of view. The final ASI report commissioned by the Supreme Court categorically concluded that a massive Hindu temple lay beneath the ruins of the area in dispute.
Thirdly, coming to the element of faith: historically, there is ample evidence to indicate continued Hindu obeisance at this site. In 1768, an Austrian priest, Joseph Tieffenthaler, who lived in India for over 30 years, averred in his book, “Description Historique Et Géographique De L’ Inde”, that Hindus routinely celebrated Ram Navami in front of a mosque. Analysing this ostensibly inexplicable behaviour, he wrote: “The reason is that here existed formerly a house in which Beschan (Vishnu) took birth in the form of Rama and where it is said his three brothers were also born. Subsequently Aurangzeb and some say Babar destroyed the place in order to prevent the heathens from practising their ceremonies. However, they have continued to practice their religious ceremonies in both the places knowing this to have been the birth place of Rama by going around it three times and prostrating on the ground.” (Translated from the French version).
In 1885, Mahant Raghubar Ram moved the courts for permission to erect a temple just outside the Babri-Masjid premises. Despite validating the claim of the petitioner, the judge dismissed the case citing the passage of time: “It is most unfortunate that a Masjid should have been built on land specially held sacred by the Hindus, but as that event occurred 356 years ago, it is too late now to agree with the grievances.” (Court verdict by Colonel F E A Chamier, district judge, Faizabad, 1886).
In short, the Hindu point of view was bolstered by tradition, archeological findings and historical documentation and yet Hindus were dragged over the coals to get their due.
To build a Ram temple at Ayodhya is a reiteration of all that is good and right and a reflection of the enlightened morals that has defined the culture of our ancient land. Who can have an argument against the glorification of deity who personifies the perfect man- a composite of empathy, justice and rectitude?
Paradoxical though it may seem, this almost militaristic drive to build a Ram temple is an attempt to reinstate the guiding principles our ancient land, of justice and pluralism and negate the forces of religious compulsion and domination that the Babri Masjid signified; a warning to the invaders and iconoclasts of tomorrow that evil will not stand: the righteousness of this ancient land will eventually prevail.
Shri Ram belongs to all, as the National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah recently said. The revered founder of Sikhism, Guru Nanak Devji visited Ayodhya in 1510-11 and in 1858, 25 Nihang Sikhs bravely entered the Babri Masjid, conducted prayers and wrote Shri Ram on the walls before the local police intervened.
So, this should not be a moment for political or religious polarization or to fulfil petty vendettas as some national political parties and those with religious affiliations have chosen to do. This is a call to all Indians regardless of their religion to rise above all worldly frailties and reaffirm their common identity as Indians who subscribe unhesitatingly to the moral values propounded by the man-God Shri Ram. For all must realise that this is what makes India the tolerant just society that it is today.