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Book Review
The Ayodhya dispute
AYODHYA — The case against the temple: Koenraad Elst; Voice of India, 2/18, Ansari Road, New Delhi-110002. Rs. 300.
THIS BOOK brings together a number of essays written by the author over the past seven years documenting the unprofessional interventions that have been made by professional historians in the debate on whether or not a temple once existed at the site where the Babri Masjid once stood.
The attempt by such historians to use their authority to shut everyone else out, for instance. And their attempt to whitewash the seamier side of the history of Islam in India, accompanied for good measure by the glib arguments to the effect that what the Muslims did to the Hindus was "no worse" than what the Hindus did to the Buddhists, or the Aryans to the "original inhabitants" of India; the unstated point being that Islam at any rate did not "do away with" Hinduism altogether.
As far as the specific case of Ayodhya is concerned, notwithstanding all the infirmities in the "case against the temple", there is no evidence that the Babri Masjid was built on a temple that then stood at the site. Had there been, Mr. Elst would not have failed to mention it.
On the other hand, his book establishes beyond reasonable doubt that thousands of other temples were plundered, desecrated or destroyed by Muslim raiders or rulers in medieval times, sometimes for the sheer fun of it. And that a number of mosques were deliberately built on the sites of destroyed temples.
As a nation we definitely need to find more satisfactory ways of coming to terms with the past than is proposed by Hindutvavadis. And there can be absolutely no excuse for the mean-mindedness with which they have been trying to make people suffer for sins committed by "them" hundreds of years ago. But that does not in any way excuse the use of fanciful arguments and even outright lies by people who preen themselves on their professional approach to history. This is in fact the main message of the book.
SUDHANSHU RANADE
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