Sorrow’s shadow on Ram Temple gaiety

Late philosopher Ramchandra Gandhi after the Babri Masjid was demolished on December 6 1992 struggled to articulate the sorrow and significance of the cataclysmic event in Ayodhya He was immersed in thought on the sundrenched lawns of Delhirsquos India International Centre ICC even as I waited to take notes on his perception of whether the demolition reflected a fundamental change in the Indian psycheThe philosopher intoned it was believed Hindus never kill a saint but they assassinated Mahatma Gandhi it was believed Hindus never destroy a place of worship but they have now demolished the Babri Masjid He became distraught as laughter erupted at a lunch party 200300 feet away He said ldquoCan they be so indifferent to the tragedy that has befallen the nationrdquoI was reminded of my conversation with Gandhi on the day Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged people to celebrate Deepawali on January 22 the day the Ram Temple in Ayodhya will be inaugurated Modi was drawing an obvious parallel Deepawali marked the return of Lord Ram from exile to which he had been unjustifiably banished to deny him the throne rightfully his And now in 2024 the idol of Ram Lalla will be installed at the spot where he was believed to have been bornmdashand from where a Mughal general was said to have evicted his idol for building the Babri MasjidThe setting right of this injustice perpetrated in the 16th century is no less deserving of the festival of lights Modi was suggestingYet all the lights of January 22 cannot dispel the shadow of sorrow from falling on the celebration of the Ram Temple This sorrow will arise from the memory of how an imagined grievance was popularised But this was what the Archaeological Survey of India found a good four centuries before the Babri Masjid was constructed there had existed at its site a nonIslamic structure dating to the 12th century The reason for the destruction of this structure could not be ascertained let alone any evidence surfacing that it was destroyed to build the Babri Masjid Even the remnants of the 12th century structure were not used to construct the Babri MasjidThe conclusion shone as brightly as Diwali lights the Mughals did not evict Ram Lalla to build the Babri Masjid There was thus no injustice done to Lord Ram or Hindus Is it possible to set right an instance of injustice that did not to begin with take placeThe Supreme Court in its judgment on the Ayodhya title dispute said ldquoThe exclusion of the Muslims from worship and possession of the Babri Masjid took place on the intervening night between 2223 December 1949 when the mosque was desecrated by the installation of Hindu idols The ouster of the Muslims on that occasion washellip through an act which was calculated to deprive them of their place of worshiprdquoThere will be sorrow on January 22 at the thought that the Supreme Court still allowed the Ram Temple to be built at the spot where the Babri Masjid once stoodIt is the consecration of this temple the Prime Minister will grace a temple built on the land unjustifiably wrested from Muslims The injustice done to Muslims in 1992 will now be portrayed as the justice for which Hindus waited for centuries About this fact those who will celebrate on January 22 will feign ignorance or remain indifferent as were those at IIC in the winter of 1992 Nor will the media highlight the irony of celebrating injustice as justice on January 22But the injustice will be remembered in silence in sorrow as many will be reminded of the nights spent in terror during the Ram Janmabhoomi campaign and about the thousands who died in the riots that broke out following the demolition of the Babri Masjid Their fear then provided them a glimpse of what it could mean to be secondclass citizensFor one entire day on January 22 Muslims will experience yet another attribute of secondclass citizenshipmdashbeing excluded from a nationwide celebration True they will not join the January 22 rejoicing of their own volition for to do so would subliminally imply participating in the bonfire of their pride and dignity They will feel isolated forlorn and vulnerableThey might have participated in the jamboree of January 22 had they been sure that Ayodhya would be the last instance of righting the imagined wrongs of history But they already know there will be soon discovered a nonIslamic structure below the Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi as will also be the case with the Shahi Idgah mosque in Mathura at a later date Already a cry has risen from no one less than the Maharashtra chief minister to lsquoliberatersquo the Haji Malang dargah that is now claimed to have been a templeThe sorrow on January 22 will also mourn the future in advanceFor Ramchandra Gandhi the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi his grandfather and the demolition of the Babri Masjid represented the moral fall of Indians He could have never imagined that the fall would be trumpeted as ldquofreedom from the slave mentalityrdquo of the pastThe writer is a senior journalistSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper