The Hindu : Digging up the past

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Mar 07, 2003

Opinion

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Digging up the past

THE ORDER OF the Allahabad High Court's Lucknow bench directing the Archaeological Survey of India to undertake excavation at the disputed site in Ayodhya has given a new momentum to the issue but cannot obviously be dismissed as totally irrelevant for the simple reason that one of the several issues framed in the bunch of title suits pending before it relates to the question whether a temple had existed before the Babri mosque (since demolished) was built. In deciding to go for such a physical verification, the Court would appear to be following up the findings or recommendations of the Canadian company that had conducted an elaborate radar-based survey of the site in dispute and this explains its decision to associate that firm in the excavation work by way of "assisting" the ASI. Interestingly, only recently, the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, spoke of "historical evidence" being available to prove that a temple had existed prior to the mosque. But the point is that what emerges from the proposed excavation, a process the ASI has been asked to complete within a month, can only be of partial relevance to the determination of the pending title suits and cannot by any reckoning be the clinching factor. Also, it is more than likely that expert opinion on whatever archaeological evidence is thrown up by the excavation is sharply divided — as it often happens — precluding any definitive conclusion on the basic issue in contention.

More fundamentally, there is the larger question whether prior existence or antiquity can be invoked as a legitimate and legally sustainable ground for reversing what are essentially historical events. Even assuming that the proposed excavation in Ayodhya establishes beyond doubt that a temple had in fact existed at the disputed site centuries ago, it cannot by itself be a sufficient ground for the case to be decided in favour of the Ramjanmabhoomi Nyas or other outfits of the majority community for them to build the Ram temple there. In any event, to the extent that this concept has been given a place by the High Court in its scheme for deciding the title suits, its excavation order, even if unintended, is bound to be seen by the Sangh Parivar, which makes no bones about its revanchist designs, as giving credence and support to its campaign for "liberating" the thousands of Hindu shrines in various parts of the country from the "hold" of the minority community, its high-profile priorities being those in Varanasi and Mathura. True, in the wake of the Ayodhya dispute, a special law was enacted to freeze the religious denominational status of all places of worship across the country, but the likes of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad have never concealed their utter contempt for the law of the land or for basic democratic values. If anything, they have become more brazen in their defiance of the law and provocative in their ways of pursuing their majoritarian agenda after the "successful" Gujarat experiment.

In the Ayodhya context, given the terrible injustice done to the Muslim community by an act of national outrage that brought down the Babri Masjid — even as the state stood exposed for its grave dereliction of Constitutional obligations — norms of fairness would require, ideally, the restoration of status quo ante, namely rebuilding the mosque at the same site. As of now and for various reasons, a political consensus has evolved nationwide that the adjudication route is the best bet and the judicial verdict (in the pending suits) must be taken as the final word. It is against this backdrop that the Vajpayee regime's recent pro-temple initiatives and not-so-subtle attempts to plead the VHP's cause in the Supreme Court by seeking to facilitate the transfer of the `undisputed land', even while the proceedings in the Allahabad High Court in the title suits are heading for the decisive stage, stand out as blatantly partisan. With the apex court reserving its orders on its pleas in this regard, it remains to be seen whether the Centre will have its way.

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