The Babri Masjid (also known as "Babar's Mosque") was a mosque in Ayodhya , India.
Mir Baqi, a commander of the Moghul emperor Babar (1483–1530), had the mosque erected on the outskirts of Ayodhya in 1528.
- The location has historically been a source of contention between Hindu and Muslim populations, with confrontations reported in 1855 and 1934, according to British records.
Local legend claims that the mosque was erected over the Hindu god Rama's birthplace, and that it was only built after the Hindu temple there was demolished, but there is little factual evidence for this assertion.
- Several local Hindus secretly erected pictures of the infant Rama, his wife Sita, and his brother Lakshmana a few months after India won independence in 1947, spreading the story that the figures had magically emerged in a ball of light.
- The government had only just put a stop to the Hindu-Muslim killings that followed the partition of British India into India and Pakistan, and it didn't want to rekindle religious fervor.
- Its response was to barricade the compound's gates and refer the matter to the courts, where it sat for almost four decades.
The site was once again the subject of debate in the early 1980s, when the Hindu religious group Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) called for its "freedom" and said that the current building was an insult to all Hindus.
- The mosque was presented as a symbol of Muslim iconoclasm in this ad.
- Furthermore, it portrayed the government's attempts to preserve the mosque as a ploy to placate the Muslim population in order to keep their votes.
- The VHP's campaign to free the monument was helped in 1986 by the national government, led by Rajiv Gandhi, who opened the compound's gates so that Hindus may pray on the site in a clear bid to gain Hindu support.
- As the decade passed, the demand became stronger, culminating in a series of efforts to commence construction on the site of a Hindu temple.
- Many of these efforts coincided with national elections, and the resulting passion aided the Bharatiya Janata Party, a political party with strong connections to the VHP, in winning elections.
The mosque was eventually destroyed on December 6, 1992.
- The whole operation was well organized; the demolition crews were well-trained, and the first thing they did was destroy all of the television cameras on the premises to prevent any outside media coverage.
- It was done with the approval of the state administration, who made little effort to preserve the structure.
- The destruction was followed by riots, especially in Maharashtra, which resulted in the deaths of nearly three thousand persons, the majority of them were Muslims.
- The site of the Babri Masjid remained a source of controversy even after it was demolished.
Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao pledged to reconstruct the mosque on the same site immediately after it was demolished, but he failed to do so during his term in power.
Various Hindu organizations, including traditional religious authorities such as the Shankaracharyas, have called for the Ram Janam Bhumi temple to be built on the site.
- The administration, expecting nothing but difficulty, had referred the case back to the courts for settlement.
- The judicial process has as of now culminated in a verdict and settlement allowing the reconstruction of a Hindu Ram temple, and a relocation was negotiated for a Mosque for Muslims to also pray and worship as well.
Sarvepalli Gopal's Anatomy of a Confrontation was published in 1991, and Christophe Jaffrelot's The Hindu Nationalist Movement in India was published in 1996.
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