According to the Hindu holy book ‘Ramayan’, the Hindu god ‘Rama’ was born in Ayodhya. His father Dasharatha was the king of Ayodhya. Rama took birth in their house as Lord.
Rama is an important deity of Hindus. According to Hindu traditions, Sita was the wife of Rama. She is called ‘Sita Mata’. He belonged to Janakpur region of present day Nepal.
Rama and Sita had two children named ‘Lo’ and ‘Kush’. Ayodhya has dozens of temples, buildings and ghats named after Rama and his family members.
They are not very ancient and were mostly built during the Mughal rulers and Nawabs of Oudh. Ayodhya is located at a distance of 140 km to the east of Lucknow, the capital city of Uttar Pradesh.
It is a small town situated on the banks of river Ghaghra. Ghagra River is also known as ‘Srivu’. Hindus consider the Sriva river to be sacred.
Where was Babri Masjid located?
The Babri Masjid attributed to Mughal Emperor Zahiruddin Muhammad Babur was not built by Babur. Babur passed through this route during his campaigns in Oudh and Bengal against the Lodhi rulers. One of their commanders, Mir Baqi, built the Babri Masjid in 1528. This mosque was built on a high mound of mud in the center of the city.
It was the biggest mosque in the city. It had three large domes and an open section after the dome and courtyard. It had four walls on three sides. Prayers were offered in it continuously till 1949.
The area where the mosque was located had a Muslim population around it. Many neighborhoods were of mixed population. There were also many temples in the vicinity. But with the passage of time, the Muslim population here decreased.
When and why the Ram Mandir dispute started?
In 1885, during the British rule, Raghubar Das, a Sadhu of Ayodhya filed a petition in the District Court of Faizabad seeking permission to build a canopy outside the Babri Masjid, which was rejected by the court. Babri Masjid was not claimed at that time. In the early twentieth century, Hindu organizations such as the Hindu Maha Sabha and the RS had come into existence. Over time, it came to be said that this mosque was built at the place where Lord Rama was born. There is no historical evidence or reference for these claims. The Hindu side said that this mosque was built in its place by demolishing the Ram temple.
In the dark of the night of December 22, 1949, some sadhus of Ayodhya placed a small idol of Rama on the pulpit under the central dome of the Babri Masjid and the next morning spread a rumor that Lord Rama had ‘appeared’ at the place of his birth in the Babri Masjid. are done A few sadhus started chanting kirtan outside the mosque.
In the report filed by the police officer stationed outside the mosque, the names of the sadhus who kept the idol were recorded.
Local Collector KK Nair locked the Babri Masjid. The then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru directed Uttar Pradesh Congress Chief Minister GB Pant to remove the statue from the mosque. Pant replied to Nehru that riots would break out in Ayodhya if the statue was removed. The then Congress MP from Faizabad, Baba Raghodas, also strongly opposed the removal of the idol from the mosque.
Historian Irfan Habib, in an interview given a few years ago, said that after the partition of India, religious hatred was at its peak in the country. Hindu organizations were very active and the anti-Muslim atmosphere in the country was very bad. As a result, prayers could not be offered in the Babri Masjid from December 1949.
Collector KK Nair was elected as the first Member of Parliament of BJP’s predecessor party, Jan Sangh, a few years after his retirement.
In 1950, Gopal Wishard filed a petition in the Faizabad District Court to grant Hindus the right to worship the idol of Ram in the Babri Masjid.
In 1950, another Sadhu Param Hans Ramchandra Das also petitioned for permission to perform daily puja in the mosque.
In 1959, for the first time, a school of sadhus ‘Nirmohi Akhara’ filed a claim petition over the entire Babri Masjid compound.
In 1961, the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board petitioned to hand over the Babri Masjid to Muslims.
In 1986, when the Congress government was in power and Rajiv Gandhi was the prime minister, a sub-court in Faizabad ordered the mosque to be unlocked for worship by Hindu devotees.
It was at this time that parties like RSS, Vishwand Parishad and Bajrang Dal started a nationwide campaign to liberate Ram Janmabhoomi from Babri Masjid with the support of BBJP. Gradually this campaign began to gain momentum. It was the largest and most organized movement of its kind in independent India.
In 1989, a ownership case was filed in the Allahabad High Court in the name of Bhagwan Ram himself.
On 25 September 1990, senior BJP leader LK Advani started a Rath Yatra campaign from Somnath Temple in Gujarat to Ayodhya. Millions of Hindus participated in this campaign.
Breaking through heavy security in 1990, thousands of karsevaks, or volunteers, began arriving on foot in October to reach Ayodhya. At one stage it seemed that this mob might storm the Babri Masjid. At that time, Mulayam Singh was ruling the state. He ordered the use of force to disperse the Karsyuks, in which at least eight Karsyuks were killed.
Final March call
In December 1992, BJP leader LK Advani, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and senior leaders of Hindu organizations called for a final march to Ayodhya. Millions of Karsevaks from all over the country started arriving in Ayodhya. These Karsiuks were gathered in a field near the Babri Masjid.
On 6 September 1992, around ten in the morning, a mob of karsyuks attacked the Babri Masjid and within a few hours, the Babri Masjid was razed to the ground. At the same time, a temporary symbolic temple was built there, surrounded by tarpaulin and tin. The court ordered him to remain in the condition he was in.
Narasimha Rao’s Congress government acquired 27 acres of land adjacent to the disputed land and put up barbed wire fences around it.
On 30 September 2010, the Allahabad High Court, by a two-to-one majority, ordered that the land of the demolished Babri Masjid be divided into three parts and given equally to two Hindu parties and a Sunni Waqf Board.
On November 9, 2019, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled in favor of the Hindu side. The Supreme Court ordered the central government to set up a trust for the construction of the Ram temple. It also directed the government to provide the Sunni Waqf Board with five acres of land for a mosque at a ‘suitable’ location within Ayodhya.
On August 5, 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of the Ram Temple at the site of the Babri Masjid.
On January 22, 2024, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is officially inaugurating it at a grand function in Ayodhya.
The land for the mosque has been given in a village 25 km from Ayodhya city. It is still vacant after the verdict.