The Babri Masjid, located in Ramkot Hill in Ayodhya in the Faridabad district in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, was completely demolished in a political rally in which close to 1.5 lakh people participated.  This triggered lots of riots all over the country and especially in places like Mumbai and Delhi where 2000 people lost their lives. This was because the mosque was demolished even after the rally organisers promised the Supreme Court that they would not touch the mosque.
It was Babur, the first Mughal Emperor of India, who instructed for the construction of the mosque during 1527. From then till about the early 1940s, the mosque was known as “Masjid – I- Janmasthan”, translated as birthplace’s mosque. Uttar Pradesh has lots of Muslims residents (around 31 million) and this mosque is one of the state’s largest ones. Built on a disputed site, this place finally came under the possession of Lord Ram’s devotees, as a result of numerous cases and petitions filed against the Muslims in the High Court. Lots of arguments and fights were conducted over Babri Masjid to discuss about the history of the site and to ascertain whether it was constructed over a Ram Temple. These discussions were called “Ayodhya Debate”.

History

Hindu Account

The first Mughal EmperorBabur, established his control and supremacy over the entire Northern India, as he won over Mewar’s Rajputana Kingdom and Chittodgad’s Hindu ruler, Rana Sangrama Singh during the Khanwa Battle. Mir Baqi, Emperor Babur’s trusted confidant and general took over as the governor of the Awadh region after the latter’s victory.

It was Mir Baqi who went on to demolish a temple dedicated to Lord Ram in Ayodhya and construct a mosque in its site. He named it Babri Masjid, after his ruler. Babur’s diary, known as the Baburnama doesn’t speak about this construction; however pages related to these years are currently missing from the diary. The Tarikh-i- Babari states that the army of Emperor Babur was responsible for the destruction of quite a lot of Chanderi Hindu temples during this time.

During the mosque’s destruction on 6th December 1992, close to 265 inscriptions were excavated from here and Judge confirmed that these were indeed Devnagri scripts that could be traced back to 11th and 12th centuries.

It was an unanimous decision of all three judges that the mosque was really constructed over a Hindu temple and one of the judges even went on to admit that this temple was partly demolished for building the mosque.

Jain Account

The Jain Samata Vahini, an organisation of the Jains, was of the opinion that excavations from the disputed site should have been Jain temple belonging to 6th century.

The General Secretary of this organisation, Sohan Mehta was of the view that the Babri Masjid was constructed over the ruins of an old Jain temple.  Mehta was sure that the excavation that was approved by the Allahabad High Court and that was to be conducted by the ASI to arrive at a conclusion in Babri Masjid – Ramjanmabhoomi case, would prove this fact.

Inscriptions written by Jain Monks belonging to 18th century prove that five important Jain Tirtankaras (Rishabhdeo, Ajitnath, Abhinandannath, Sumatinath and Ananthanth) had stayed in Ayodhya. In the years prior to 1527, this city was one of the five biggest hubs of Jainism and Buddhism.

Muslim Account

According to the Muslims, the existence of a Hindu temple at this site upon which the Masjid was constructed or the fact that a Hindu temple was destroyed, have no formal evidences or references. During 23rd December 1949, idols of Lord Ram were forcefully placed inside the mosque illegally by certain Hindu activists. The then Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, wrote to the CM of Uttar Pradesh, GB Pant to immediately remove these as through this illegal activity, Hindus were setting a bad example there. However, KK Nayar, then deputy commissioner of Faziabad, refused to do so. He agreed that while placing the idols inside the mosque forcefully might have been illegal, but there was no question of removing them from there as lots of sentiments and feelings were involved in this. During 2010, the High Court announced its final verdict, by giving 67%of the land to the Hindus and the remaining 33% to the Muslims. One of the main decisions that influenced the ruling in favour of the Hindus was the prank played by the Hindu activists of keeping the idols inside the mosque and trying to convert the masjid into a mandir.

The archaeological reports that were published by the Archaeological Survey of India were politically manipulated by the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh), VHP (Vishwa Hindu Parishad) and Hindu Munnani , according to Muslims and other critics. Though there was no evidence of the existence of Hindu temple in this site prior to the construction of the Masjid, these groups have been falsely claiming so.

British Account

Emperor Babur established his supremacy in Hindustan due to his victory in the Panipat Battle in 1526 and then went to Agra, where he defeated the Afghan House of Lodhi that had occupied Central Doab, eastern parts of United Provinces and Oudh. During 1527, he began his return journey from Central India and won in all the battles against rulers of Southern Oudh and started establishing his dominance all along the United Province up till Ayodhya, where he built a mosque during 1528. This was exactly the site that was famous for being the birth place of Lord Ram. Even after Babur passed away in 1530, the Afghan rulers were in control of the opposition party; however they too slowly succumbed in the Lucknow battle, during 1531.

Architecture

Some of the finest tombs, mosques, madrasas and other monuments that are located in the country, are the ones that were built by the Delhi Sultanate and the Mughal Empire. These two dynasties were real patrons of art and architecture and had a wonderful taste when it came to architecture. Most of the structures built by them have traces of styles that were introduced during the “later Tughlaq era”. All mosques constructed in India had a unique pattern and style. These were proofs of the exceptional talent of the local artisans during those times and the rich cultural heritage of the place where these mosques were constructed. Every regional or provincial mosque was influenced by the temple or dome structures in the local area and stood the test of time over the years, fighting against different climatic conditions, unique terrains and raw materials. This is why mosques in Bengal, Gujarat and Kashmir are so different from each other. Babri Masjid was constructed as per Jaunpur architectural pattern. This and the mosques built by the Delhi Sultanate are quite similar. This mosque was one of the first of its kind in the country and it was the front runner for many of the Mughal monuments that were built in the subsequent years.

Acoustic and Cooling System

Graham Pickford, who was the chief architect to Lord William Bentinck between 1828 and 1833, has volumes to say about the excellent acoustic system of the Babri Masjid. In his book, “Historic Structures Of Oudhe”, he has stated that a whisper uttered in the Mihrab of Babri Masjid, could be heard across the length and breadth of the central court to a distance of 200 feet.  He also states that the acoustics here were pretty advanced as not many technologies were existent during the 16th century and hence were visual delights for tourists.

The main wall in the Mihrab and lots of recesses that surround these walls were responsible for the acoustic excellence of the Babri Masjid. These acted as resonators so that people could hear clearly what was spoken in the Central Hall. Another contributing factor for the resonating quality that is evident in Babri Masjid is the material with which the mosque is constructed – sandstone.

The late Tughlaq style architectural pattern, in which Babri Masjid was constructed, contained various accessories like domes, cooling system, vaults, high ceilings, large grilled windows and the like. These systems helped to keep the mosque cool and naturally ventilated all through the day.

Demolition of Babri Masjid

A Kar Seva was planned on 6th December 1992. The meeting was attended by the bigwigs of RSS, LK Advani, Murali Manohar Joshi and Vinay Katiyar. The first two met at the latter’s residence and proceeded to the venue for the Seva. Advani and Joshi proceeded towards the venue and supervised all the formalities for the meeting. They then moved to Ram Katha Kunj, at a distance of 200m away. This was where the meeting was to he held and this was directly facing the disputed site.
At around 12 o clock in the afternoon, a teenage member of the Kar Sevak committee was found climbing on the Masjid and started breaking the external structure of the building. Media reports available during this time state that the senior leaders of the RSS, LK Advani, Murali Manohar Joshi and Vijay Raje Scindia made very soft appeals to the Kar Sevaks on top of the building to come down at the earliest. What was really disturbing was that these leaders did not make any serious commands to these members not to enter the masjid and not to break the structure. They only made soft attempts so that their names would not get damaged in the media reports. According to the reports available then, the action of the senior leaders were clear indications that they already had a hidden agenda to demolish the structure. The report also clearly stated that since all the leaders present there were iconic leaders of the RSS, they could have easily prevented the demolition if they really wanted to.

Demolition Planned in Advance

Maloy Krishna Dhar, former Joint Director of the Intelligence Bureau released a book during the year 2005 which stated that the Babri Masjid was demolished as a result of at least 10 months of advance planning by senior leaders of the RSS, VHP and BJP. The then Prime Minister, PV Narasimha Rao drew lots of criticism for his role in this. Dhar stated that he arranged for a meeting between the top notch leaders of these three organisations and this meeting was the place where these leaders met and prepared the blueprint of Pralaya Nrtiya (Destruction Dance) that was staged on the 6th December 1992. He was also confident that his boss was in possession of the tapes that held the conversation between the then PM, PV Narasimha Rao and Home Minister, SB Chavan. The demolition activity was considered by these leaders as the perfect opportunity to take the Hindutva movement to a different level altogether.