Articles
Gyanavapi Mosque…
Dt: 10/8/23
Gyanavapi Mosque…
- Dr T.H.Chowdary*
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Here are the observations of two great historians on Muslim conquests of India and their iconoclasm
Bloodiest Conquests:
"The Mohamedan conquest of India is probably the bloodiest story in history. It is a discouraging tale, for its evident moral is that civilization is a precarious thing, whose delicate complex of order and liberty, culture and peace may at any time be overthrown by barbarians invading from without or multiplying within"
-Will Durant: Story of Civilization
Aurangzeb: Kashi and Mathura:
“Aurangazeb’s purpose in building these mosques ( Kashi and Mathura) was the same intentionally offensive political purpose that moved the Russians to build their Cathedral in the city center at Warsaw. I must say that Aurangazeb was a veritable genius for picking out provocative sites. Aurangez and Phillip –II of Spain are a pair. They are incarnations of the gloomy fanatical vein in Christian, Muslim and Jewish family of religions………Perhaps the Poles were really kinder in destroying the Russians’ self discrediting monuments in Warsaw than you (Indians) have been in sparing Aurangazebs’s mosques.
– Arnold Toynbee,
The world famous historian and philosopher in his
Azad Memorial Lecture at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Mumbai -1963
2. Hundreds of temples which had been destroyed and in their very places mosques were constructed are listed in the two volumes : “Hindu Temples What Happened To Them” Vol-I (preliminary survey originally published in April 1990 , 7th reprint 2021) and Vol-II “The Islamic Evidence” (first published in 1991; 4th reprint 2016) both by Sri Sitaram Goel and published by the Voice of India , Daryagunj, Ansari Road, and the second book is “ Hindu Maszids” by Sri Praful Goradia former Rajya Sabha member published by Contemporary Target Praful Private Ltd 203-A Prakash House , 4379/4B Ansari Road, New Delhi -110002 in the year 2012 .
3. The Objection of the Muslim parties both in case of the Gyanavapi in Varanasi and Keshav Dev (Krishna) in Mathura does expose their unease at the discovery of truth, namely, a scientific survey by the Archeological Survey of India would establish the truth of the widely held belief that in hundreds of places mosques were built on sites of the destroyed temples. This was proved in the case of Babri structure in Ayodhya and we are now going to have a Hindu temple re-constructed there.
4. Regarding the Gyanavapi masjid which is believed to be over an existing destroyed Shiva temple by Aurangzeb in the year 1669 just as in the case of Babri structure, the matter is being litigated as to whether this is over a destroyed shiva temple. A survey was done by the Archeological Survey of India which found a Shivaling in the mosque premises . Because of further litigations the present position is that a local court has ordered scientific survey of the Vaju area. As before the Anjuman Intejamia Masjid (AIM) of Varanasi has gone to the three -tiers of court including the Supreme Court to stop a further scientific survey by the archeological department.
5. Earlier in the late 1940s and early 1950s, the Somnath temple in Dwaraka, Gujarat was reconstructed without any controversy. That was because close on the heels of the partition of India at the insistence of Muslims, India’s Muslims were not militant enough to militantly resist the reconstruction of Somnath temple as their guilt for partition was too recent an d there were no “secularists”; “left” , “liberals” and regional dynasts to support them then.
6. If the periodic convulsion regarding the masjids on destroyed temples is to be ended once for all, government of India should task the Archeological Survey Of India to conduct scientific survey of all the sites of the masjids believed to have been constructed on destroyed temple sites. This could be followed by constituting a Truth and Reconciliation Commission as in South Africa and Peru…
7. The National Integration Council has not achieved anything as over time, the Muslim parties in India backed by their traditional allies, the communist parties and later by the vote-seeking minority-courting regional parties not having any genuine interest to bring about national and emotional integration between Hindus and Muslims . Actually, such integration is impossible as the theology of Islam holds that kafirs, non-Muslims should either be converted or eliminated by jihads, and such a task is the duty of every true Muslim . ( In fact William Gladstone, the four times Prime Minister of England ( (b.1809 d.1898) ) waving the Holy Koran said in the House of Commons “as long as this book exists, there will be no peace in the world”.
8. It would be great if the Supreme Court of India which now and then becomes super- sensitive and active about communal issues especially between Hindus and Muslims finds time to think of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission and advise the GOI to constitute such a one without any delay and advise / direct the government of India to order the Archeological Survey of India to conduct a scientific survey of all disputed sites and submit their findings to it and the GOI. The establishment of truth will assuage Hindus’ grief and anger over the vandalism of foreign invaders and rulers in regard to their sacred places of worship and the arrogant denial of well documented iconoclasm . Reconciliation can come only after truth is established and accepted. (947 words)
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