Cut to 1992. Even prior, remember Rajiv Gandhi’s gift. In 1985, the Supreme Court, which ruled on the Shah Bano case, directed her husband—who had divorced her—to pay her maintenance. However, Muslim fundamentalists created a huge ruckus claiming that a divorced Muslim woman has no right to maintenance as per the Shariah. Duly scared, Rajiv Gandhi’s Muslim- appeasing government amended the Constitution so that it was in line with this injunction of Shariah. Hindus were outraged and began nationwide protests demanding the government to open the lock on the Ram temple so Hindus could worship there. Rajiv Gandhi who had mollified Muslims by bending the Constitution, now had to mollify Hindus. Additionally, he realized that Hindus had a valid point. Babri masjid wasn’t a scared place for Muslims on the lines of Mecca, Medina, Al Aksa, and Hazratbal. More importantly, both Islam and Christianity were religions alien to India. Muslim emperors of various dynasties who ruled India for nearly a thousand years destroyed thousands of temples. The Rama temple at Ayodhya was one such temple. When Babar’s general, Mir Baqi (or Banki) arrived at Ayodhya in 1528(1527) after defeating several Hindu kings, he had the mosque forcibly constructed on the edifice of the Rama temple, which was already destroyed. In our own time, the Babri masjid had no religious significance except for the fact that it was constructed four centuries ago.
Posted on: Sat, 19 Oct 2013 05:01:23 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015