Will Muslims lay the first brick for Ram temple’s foundation?

No issue has been flogged and branded more than the one concerning Ram Janam Bhoomi in Ayodhya.
Babri Masjid before its demolition
Babri Masjid before its demolition

No issue has been flogged and branded more than the one concerning Ram Janam Bhoomi in Ayodhya. Liberal and enlightened Hindus are unable to comprehend why their boorish, ultra-rightist Hindu brothers make a fuss over raising a Ram temple in Ayodhya, when recorded history is not on their side. Ram may be their God but that does not give them the right to appropriate the land of late Hashim Ansari and declare it as His birthplace. The dispute, meanwhile, hangs in infinite uncertainty as judges come and go and baby Ram waits to return to his cradle. One imagined for a moment that Chief Justice Khehar of the Supreme court, a devout Sikh, would understand Hindus’ strong religious sentiments and settle the matter but he has also disappointed.

It is an irony that we have reduced Hindus’ divine faith in Ram Lalla to a catfight over a plot of  land between late Hashim Mia and now his son Iqbal Ansari and the Mahants of Hanuman Garhi and Nirmohi Ahara. Babar, a Mughal invader, who is credited to have built a mosque 466 years ago over the disputed site is being pitted against a God who lives only in absolute faith. It is a mismatch of claims of all times. You cannot make Lord Ram beholden to Babar for his kindness to let Him re-visit his childhood memories. But Sunni Central Waqf Board thinks otherwise.

Ram is a creation of Hindus’ abiding belief in his being and given a form for intellectually less evolved people to relate easily to his persona of ultimate righteousness. He descended in Hindus’ faith when registration of land and concept of adverse possession did not exist. So, any attempt to allot or deny Him the title deed retrospectively will at best be a whacky real estate exercise.

Rationalists ask for Ram’s birth certificate. But how does one obtain it when His entity is timeless, ageless and borderless. It is actually irrelevant whether His abode in Ayodhya existed or  Babar constructed a mosque over its ruins to save on time and resources by using the temple’s material. The critical issue is whether there is any other place in India which Hindus identify as Ram’s birthplace. If their longing for Ram Lalla is so unwavering and sustained over thousands  of years, why not let them have it. For believers, there is no place for logic, legal reasoning and incontrovertible historical accounts. Then we wouldn’t have Sikhs bowing before Guru Granth Sahib in the Golden Temple, Muslims thronging to Kaaba, Mecca and Medina and Christians visiting Sephoria, where Virgin Mary spent her childhood and, Bethlehem, where Jesus was born.

The question then is whether India should be governed by religious belief or Indian laws. Any answer to this  will essentially be pretentious. Ram is a manifestation of faith ingrained in Hindus over centuries. His birthplace, therefore, cannot be determined by invoking democracy, secularism, legality or constitutional propriety. Whenever I travel to my home town Deoghar in Jharkhand, the site of one of Jyotirlingas, I
see thousands of devotees visiting the place every day to touch a piece of black stone, believed to be the idol of Lord Shiva. Being an atheist, I often wonder why there is such total submission before someone whom we have never seen. In the end, I accept what my mother says, that I am not gifted to believe. Hence, no amount of arguments in courts, archaeological findings, taunts or state violence will ever succeed in making Hindus alter their belief in the existence of Ram Lalla in Ayodhya.

It is time Muslims introspect how long they can stall this tsunami of faith from storming history. They need to show generosity and let Hindus raise a Ram temple even if they are required to transfer their own land. Surely, they will lose a place of worship but they can construct it elsewhere. Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Iraq, Egypt, Syria, Libya etc. routinely relocate mosques.

Iqbal Ansari has a unique opportunity to steal a moment in history and deliver the unbelievable to posterity. In doing so, he will earn eternal gratitude of millions of Hindus and  prove  a point to the Sunni Waqf Board, courts and the sceptics that ordinary people can also bequeath extraordinary legacies. But let him not insist on raising a mosque near the temple. Places of worship look ugly when policemen in helmets and armed with rifles patrol their premises. The sight of policemen guarding temples and mosques in Mathura and Kashi is simply  abhorring.

Amar Bhushan

Former special secretary, Research and Analysis Wing

amarbhushan@hotmail.com

Related Stories

No stories found.
The New Indian Express
www.newindianexpress.com