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Gyanavapi Mosque…

Dt:  10/8/23

Gyanavapi Mosque…

-          Dr T.H.Chowdary*

-           

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)

END