Harsh Narain
All relevant British
government records followed by the District Gazetteer Faizabad compiled
and published by the Congress government in 1960 declare with one voice
that the so-called Babari mosque at Ayodhya is standing on the debris of
a Ramjanmasthan temple demolished by the order of Babar in 1528.
Syed Shahabuddin, JNU historians, and. self-styled ‘secular’ scholars and
leaders are hotly contesting that the existence and demolition of such
a temple is a myth floated by the British in pursuance of their policy
of ‘divide and rule’. Syed Shahabuddin and many Muslim divines go
a step further and assert that neither Babar nor any other Muslim for that
matter would take into his head to erect a mosque by displacing a temple,
for, they argue, such a mosque would not be a mosque in the eye of the
Shari’ah and would be liable to demolition by the Muslims themselves.
With this idea
in mind, Syed Shahabuddin is going about proclaiming that, if it is shown
independently of the British sources that the Babari mosque has displaced
a temple, he would pull it down with his own hands and hand it over to
the Hindus.
The challenge
is worth taking, and I hereby do it with good grace, on behalf of those
who place truth above politics.
Well, granting
for the nonce that the Babari mosque cannot be shown to have displaced
a temple, there are certain other mosques which can indisputably be shown
to have done so. Is Syed Shahabuddin prepared to keep his word in the case
of such mosques? It is common knowledge that most of the mosques built
by the Muslim invaders stand on land grabbed or extorted from the Kafirs.
And what about the Ka’bah itself?
Sayyid Shahabuddin
Abdur Rahman, the well known Muslim historian who died in an accident recently,
modifies the stand of the Muslim divines thus: ‘It is also thinkable that
some mosque was erected close to or at a short distance from a temple demolished
for some special reason, but never was a mosque built on the site of a
temple anywhere.’ (See his Babri Masjid, 3rd print, Azamgarh: Darul
Musannifin Shibli Academy, 1987, p. 19.)
As regards the
verdict of the Shari’ah, it is true that there are theologico-juristic
rulings to the effect that no mosque can be built on land grabbed or illegally/illegitimately
acquired. See for example the great Fatawa-i Alamgiri, Vol. 16,
p 214. But the question is, Do they hold true for land acquired in Jihad
as well? The answer has to be an emphatic ‘No’. The Prophet has made it
clear that all land belongs to God or the Prophet (A’lamu ann’l-arza
li’llah-i wa rasul-i-hi), and, obviously, through the Prophet to the
Muslims (Bukhari, II, Kitab al-Jibad wa’s- Siyar, Hadith 406). Iqbal puts
the following words, in a Persian verse, into the mouth of Tariq, the great
conqueror of Spain : Har mulk mulk-i ma’st ki mulk-i Khuda-i ma’st.
That is, all land belongs to the Muslims, because it belongs to their God.
Ibn Taymiyyah, the 14th century theologian and jurist, argues that Jihad
simply restores lands to the Muslims, to whom they rightly belong.
This serves to vouchsafe to them the moral right to extort lands in Jihad
from others.
Thus, the argument from the Shari’ah
has no leg to stand upon.
Now, I proceed
to cite certain purely Muslim sources beyond the sphere of British influence
to show that the Babari mosque has displaced a Hindu temple-the Ramjanmasthan
temple, to be precise-wholly or partly.
First, an indirect
evidence. In an application dated November 30, 1858, filed by one
Muhammad Ashghar, Khatib and Mu’azzin, Babari Masjid, to initiate legal
proceedings against ‘Bairagiyan-i Janmasthan’, the Babari mosque has been
called ‘masjid-i Janmasthan’ and the courtyard near the arch and the pulpit
within the boundary of the mosque, ‘maqam Janmasthan ka’. The Bairagis
had raised a platform in the courtyard which the applicant wanted to be
dismantled. He has mentioned that the place of Janmasthan had been lying
unkempt/in disorder (parishan) for hundreds of years and that the
Hindus performed worship there (maqam Janmasthan ka sad-ha baras se
parishan para rahta tha. Ahl-i Hunud puja karte they). See Sayyid Shahabuddin
Abdur Rahman, op, cit., pp. 29-30. Well, if the Babari mosque is
the Janmasthan mosque, its courtyard is the Janmasthan, and the Hindus
had all along been carrying out their worship, all that implies that there
must have been some construction there as part of a (Janmasthan) temple,
which Mir Baqi partly demolished and partly converted into the existing
Babari mosque, with or without Babar’s approval. And the Hindus had no
alternative but to make do with the temple-less courtyard. Otherwise, it
is simply unthinkable that they might have been performing worship for
such a long time and on such a sacred place without a proper temple.
My second document
is the Hadiqah-i Shuhada by one Mirza Jan, an eyewitness as well
as active participant in the Jihad led by Amir Ali Amethawi during Wajid
Ali Shah’s regime in 1855 for recapture of Hanuman Garhi (a few hundred
yards from the Babari mosque) from the Hindus. The book was ready just
after the failure of the Jihad and saw the light of day in the following
year, viz. in 1856, at Lucknow. Ra’is Ahmad Jafari has included it as chapter
IX in his book entitled Wajid Ali Shah aur Un-ka Ahd (Lucknow: Kitab
Manzil, 1957), after, however, omitting what he considered unnecessary
but without adding a word from his side.
Now, let us see
what information we gather from it, germane to our enquiry. Mirza Jan states
that ‘wherever they found magnificent temples of the Hindus ever since
the establishment of Sayyid Salar Mas’ud Ghazi’s rule, the Muslim rulers
in India built mosques, monasteries, and inns, appointed mu’azzins, teachers,
and store-stewards, spread Islam vigorously, and vanquished the Kafirs.
Likewise, they cleared up Faizabad and Avadh, too, from the filth of reprobation
(infidelity), because it was a great centre of worship and capital of Rama’s
father. Where there stood the great temple (of Ramjanmasthan), there they
built a big mosque, and, where there was a small mandap (pavilion),
there they erected a camp mosque (masjid-i mukhtasar-i qanati).
The Janmasthan temple is the principal place of Rama’s incarnation, adjacent
to which is the Sita ki Rasoi. Hence, what a lofty mosque was built there
by king Babar in 923 A. H. (1528 A.D.), under the patronage of Musa Ashiqan!
The mosque is still known far and wide as the Sita ki Rasoi mosque.
And that temple is extant by its side (aur pahlu mein wah dair baqi
hai)’ (p. 247).
It must be borne
in mind that Mirza Jan claims to write all this on the basis of older records
(kutub-i sabiqah) and contemporary accounts.
My third document
is a chapter of the Muraqqah-i Khusrawi, otherwise known as the
Tarikh-i Avadh, by Shykh Azamat Ali Kakorawi Nami (1811-1893), who happened
to be an eyewitness to much that happened during Wajid Ali Shah’s regime.
The work was completed in 1869 but could Pot see the light of day for over
a century. Only one manuscript of it is extant and that is in the Tagore
Library of Lucknow University. A press copy of it was prepared by Dr. Zaki
Kakorawi for publication with the financial assistance of the Fakhruddin
Ali Ahmad Memorial Committee, U.P., Lucknow. The committee vetoed the publication
of its chapter dealing with the Jihad led by Amir Ali Amethawi for recapture
of Hanuman Garhi from the Bairagis, from its funds, on the ground that
its publication would not be opportune in view of the prevailing political
situation, with the result that Dr. Kakorawi had to publish the book minus
that chapter in 1986, for the first time. Later, however, lie published
the chapter separately, and independently of any financial or other assistance
from the committee in 1987 from the Markaz-i Adab-i Urdu 137, Shahganj,
Lucknow-3, under the title ‘Amir Ali Shahid aur Ma’rkah-i Hanuman Garhi’.
It is a pity that,
thanks to our thoughtless ‘secularism’ and waning sense of history, such
primary sources of medieval Indian history are presently in danger of suppression
or total extinction. Dr. Kakorawi himself laments that ‘suppression
of any part of any old composition or compilation like this can create
difficulties and misunderstandings for future historians and researchers’
(p. 3).
Well, what light
does our author, Shykh Muhammad Azamat Ali Kakorawi Nami, have to throw
on the issue of demolition versus non-existence of the Janmasthan temple?
The opening paragraph of his book is akin to the passage quoted above from
Mirza Jan’s Hadiqah-i Shuhada. I give below the paragraph in the
author’s own words, omitting very few details: ‘According to old records,
it has been a rule with the Muslim rulers from the first to build mosques,
monasteries, and inns, spread Islam, and put (a stop to) non-Islamic practices,
wherever they found prominence (of kufr). Accordingly, even as they cleared
up Mathura, Bindraban, etc., from the rubbish of non-Islamic practices,
the Babari mosque was built up in 923(?) A.H. under the patronage of Sayyid
Musa Ashiqan in the Janmasthan temple (butkhane Janmasthan mein)
in Faizabad-Avadh, which was a great place of (worship) and capital of
Rama’s father’ (p. 9). ‘Among the Hindus it was known as Sita ki
Rasoi’ (p. 10). The passage has certain gaps, thanks to the wretched condition
of the manuscript, which I have tried to fill within brackets.
Dr. Kakorawi has
appended to the book an excerpt from the Fasanah-i Ibrat by the
great early Urdu novelist. Mirza Rajab Ali Beg Surur (1787-1867), which
constitutes our fourth document. It says that ‘a great mosque was
built on the spot where Sita ki Rasoi is situated. During the regime of
Babar, the Hindus had no guts to be a match for the Muslims. The
mosque was built in 923(?) A.H. under the patronage of Sayyid Mir Ashiqan…
Aurangzeb built a mosque on the Hanuman Garhi… The Bairagis effaced the
mosque and erected a temple in its place. Then idols began to be worshipped
openly in the Babari mosque where the Sita ki Rasoi is situated,’ (pp.
71-72). The author adds that ‘formerly, it is Shykh Ali Hazin’s observation
which held good’ and quotes the following Persian couplet of the Shykh:
Bi-bin karamat-i butkhanah-i mara aiy Shaikh!
Ki chun kharab shawad khanah-i Khuda garded
Which means: O Shykh!
just witness the miracle of my house of idols, which, when desecrated,
or demolished, becomes the house of God (a mosque). So, purporting to mean
that formerly temples were demolished for construction of mosques, the
author, Surur, laments that ‘the times have so changed that now the mosque
was demolished for construction of a temple (on the Hanuman Garhi)’ (p.
72).
The forming four-fold
documentary evidence leads us to certain incontrovertible conclusions,
which can be stated as under:
1. That, in their
zeal to hit Hinduism and spread Islam, the Muslim rulers had the knack
of desecrating or demolishing Hindu temples and erecting mosques, etc.,
in their place-bigger mosques in place of bigger temples and smaller mosques
in place of smaller temples.
2. That there
did exist a temple called the temple of Janmasthan at Ayodhya, where Rama
is believed to have incarnated and that adjacent to it was what is called
Sita ki Rasoi, which might originally have been part of it.
3. That, like
Muslim rulers who desecrated Mathura, Vrindavana, etc., Babar chose Ayodhya
for spread of Islam and replacement of temples by mosques, thanks to its
supreme importance as a holy place of the Hindus, and in 1528, under the
patronage of Sayyid Mir Musa Ashiqan, got the so-called Babari mosque erected
in displacement of the Rama Janmasthan temple, certain relics of which
appear to have persisted at least till 1855.
4. That the Babari
mosque was also called ‘masjid-i Janmasthan’ and ‘masjid-i Sita ki Rasoi’
from long before 1855.
5. That the Hindus
had long been carrying on worship at the Rama Janmasthan even after the
replacement of the Janmasthan temple by the Babari mosque.
6. That the foregoing
facts are yielded by authentic Muslim records and have not been fabricated
by the much-maligned British to ‘divide and rule’.
These conclusions
are irresistible and should clinch the issue of demolition versus non-existence
of the Ramjanmasthan temp
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