Articles
For How Long Will This Strife Continue
Dt: 21/3/24
For How Long Will This Strife Continue
Dr T.H. Chowdary*
Definitive opinions of some eminent persons about Islam:
(Excluding that of William Ewart Gladstone, three times Prime Minister of England between 1868 and 1894 for 14 years)
· Muslims’ invasions were not undertaken merely out of lust for loot or conquest- there is no doubt that striking a blow at the idolatry and polytheism of Hinduism and establishing Islam in India was also one of the aims.
· The Muslim invaders were all united by one common objective and that was to destroy the Hindu faith. Slavery was the fate of those Hindus captured in the holy war .
· Islam is a closed corporation and the distinction that it makes between Muslims and non-Muslims is a very real , very positive and very alienating distinction .
- Dr B.R.Ambedkar
"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" (Source: Story of Civilization ).
- Will Durant, Famous historian
“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. Aurangzeb 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 Aurangzeb’s mosques. (Source: Azad Memorial Lecture at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Mumbai -1963)
- Arnold Toynbee, famous historian, philosopher
It is very well recorded fact of history that the Islamic invaders - Arab, Afghan, Persian, Mughal had during their invasions of Bharat followed by their rule and forced conversion had desecrated and destroyed many temples and in many places, on the sites of the razed or partially destroyed temple sites constructed masjids or the partially destroyed or defaced temple structures had been converted into mosques. The Somnath temple in Saurashtra had been destroyed seven times and had been reconstructed six times . In 1947 Nov after the Muslim ruler of Junagadh had fled to Pakistan after acceding to that state, people liberated the territory from the ruler . Sardar Patel, the Dy Prime Minister, Kulapati K M Munshi and Works and Housing Minster N.V. Gadgil visited the site of Somnath temple. Sardar Patel declared that the temple would be reconstructed. The cabinet presided over by Jawaharlal Nehru decided to reconstruct the temple and restore it to its full glory by spending government money. Gandhiji intervened to decide that while government agencies may be involved in restoring the temple, the entire cost should be met by contributions of people ; it was so done . Therefore the restoration of the temples converted into masjids or destroyed totally had begun as a matter of cultural renaissance in independent Bharat. It should have been followed by restoration of all temples desecrated , destroyed and converted into mosques during Islamist invasions and rule. Unfortunately, this did not happen because there was no person like Sardar Patel who backed the idea. Jawaharlal Nehru was opposed to any such action.
2. The temple of Bhagwan Rama in his Janmabhoomi in Ayodhya was desecrated, destroyed partially and some of its structure was converted into a mosque by Babur’s General, Mir Baqui Tashkendi in 1528 . During the following centuries till and after independence in 1947 there had been 75 attempts to re-posess the site and rebuild Sri Ram’s temple. From 1949 onwards battles for possessing the site were in the courts. Muslim parties egged on by Marxist historians frustrated every attempt at peaceful mutually agreed solution . Finally, it had to be razed down in which attempts scores of people lost their lives . Muslim parties were taking this case from a lower court to higher court and to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court’s judgment in 2019 based upon the scientific surveys conducted by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) concluded that there was a temple which had been pulled down and in its place the partially destroyed structure was converted into a mosque and therefore the entire site was awarded to the Hindu parties. Now the restoration of the Sri Rama’s temple is complete as of 22 January 2024 – four hundred ninety six years after destruction.
3. The matter does not end there because already in Varanasi what is known as the Gyanavapi mosque is going through the same procedure of case after case in the lower court to the higher court and to the Supreme Court . The court may not soon decide the case despite the ASI’s scientifically conducted surveys establishing that the mosque is on the destroyed temple site . The litigation would continue and so would the strife.
4. Next in importance is the Keshav Dev (Lord Krishna ) temple in Mathura. It was also destroyed by the iconoclastic Muslims invaders and ruler. Even if the ASI tests prove that the mosque is over the destroyed temple, Krishna Janmabhoomi, Shahi-idgah Masjid litigation will go upto the Supreme Court. And it may take another 10-15 years for any decision to come,
5. Another case is that of the Bhojasala (Saraswati temple) in Dhar in Madhya Pradesh. This is also a case of a Hindu temple desecrated , partially destroyed and converted into a mosque . The present position is that while Muslims can have prayers on 52 Fridays in a year at the place, Hindus can have puja only once in an year ! This case is also now in the courts . The Indore bench of Madhya Pradesh High Court has ordered the ASI to conduct scientific survey and give a report . There will be no doubt that proofs will come that the mosque came on a Hindu temple site partially destroyed and converted into a mosque. Now this will also take another 15-20 years to be decided by the courts with involvement of the revanchist Muslim parties egged on by Marxist historians who are very well known for their anti-pathy to Hindu dharma and the “secularists” in Congress and communist parties ever patronizing Muslims for their votes.
6. There is a list of over 3000 temples spread all over India which had been destroyed and over which mosques had come up either by modifying the temple structures or total destruction and reconstruction into a mosque using part of the structures. Two eminent people researched and wrote about these Hindu masjids; destruction of the temples and their conversion into mosques. The two volumes “Hindu Temples: What Happened to Them? written by Sri Sitaram Goel, are a publication of Voice of India, Delhi have detailed information based upon Muslim historians’ writings. Similarly, a book titled , “Hindu Masjids” written by Praful Goradia, a former Rajay Sabha Member describes some of the important sites in Gujarat, MP, UP and Delhi with photographs and description of each of the temples converted into mosque. The most notorious of them is the Quwwat-al-Islam mosque, adjacent to the Qutub Minar in Mehrauli village of Delhi. This mosque came upon the site of twenty seven destroyed temples over some defaced structural members of the destroyed temples.
7. If the strife due to the Bharatiyas wishing to re-possess temples converted into mosques and Muslim parties egged on by Marxists and “secularists” ( Congress and regional parties competing for Muslim votes ) is to be mitigated, if not ended once for all, it is best that the NDA parties resolve to task the ASI to have a project to complete a scientific survey and submit reports within say, 2 years in respect of every Hindu temple destroyed and desecrated and converted into a mosque. If the task is too much , about 300 Hindu masjids like those in Varanasi , Mathura, Dhar, Kannauj, Siddhpur, Ajmir, Rajamahendravaram, Dravaram…. May be surveyed and reports submitted by the ASI. Based upon these reports, the Union government may legislate for handing over these sites ( along with the structures there on) to Hindu Trusts ( like in Ayodhya) for reconstruction and restoration of temples .
8. As long as mosques stand on sites of destroyed temples, so long will Hindus remember and recall the Islamists’ vandalism and fondly wish to repossess the sites and rebuild the temples as in Somnath and Ayodhya. These “Hindu masjids” are standing monuments to Islamist conquests and supremacy and Hindu defeats and inferiority and so are psychologically haunting and tormenting and perpetuative of Hindu-Muslim divide and so must be done away with. Therefore the “Places of Worship Act of 1991” which was legislated by a minority-appeasing Congress government at the height of Hindu-Muslim strife over Ram Ratha Yathra must be repealed.
9. The third action must be to constitute a Truth and Reconciliation Commission as in South Africa and Peru to establish the truth or otherwise of the extent of atrocities committed ( like slaughter of defeated Hindus, enslavement the vanquished; forced conversions, rape and “harem”-isation of women) during Islamic invasions and rule.
10. Present generation of Muslims ( and their descendants) must not cherish and glorify the barbaric, genocide and iconoclastic accomplishments of the Arab-Afghan-Persian-Mongol (Mughal) invader rulers. Muslim organisations, societies and political parties (IUML, AIMIM, AIUDF etc) must regret and apologise for what their foreign invaders and rulers perpetuated on the indigenous people . Post the second world war (1939-45) Germany apologized to Jews ( and paid reparations ); USSR apologized to the Poles for their massacre of Poland’s (POW) Generals in the Katyn forest, Japan apologized to Korea for use of Korean women for “comfort” of its soldiers; the Pope apologized in 1972 (500th year of Columbus “discovery” of America) for the near-extermination of the natives in the Americas. The white European settler rulers of South Africa apologized to the black, natives in 1994 after the ruling minority whites conceded native black majority rule. Bharat’s Muslim citizens should likewise distance themselves from the bestial record of Muslim invaders, conquerors and rulers in India.
11. One more action to relieve Hindus of the pain of Islamic zoolum i.e oppression is discarding Muslim names for Hindu cities and towns and restoring their former names like Prayaga (Allahabad), Induru ( Nizamabad), Manukota ( Mahabubabad), Palamuru (Mahbubnagar) and so on . Countries that gained freedom from foreign rule proudly restored their former names: Myanmar (Burma), Sri Lanka ( Ceylon), Zimbabwe ( Rhodesia), Ghana (Gold Coast), Namibia (S-W Africa). Even Pakistan did this – Campbellpur became Attock; Lyallpur became Faisalabad. Bharat should free itself from the shame by having its ancient and historic names restored in place of names imposed by Islamic conquerors.
12. To conclude: Muslims rioted and voted for the division of Bharat to create the Islamic state(s) of Pakistan ( and Bangladesh) to have political freedom to develop their Islamic culture without let and hindrance by Hindus. Hindus in the remnant Bharat should have the same freedom to live in and develop sanatan dharmic culture unhindered and un-vetoed. Unlike Islam and Christianity Hindu dharma stands for universal brotherhood and freedom of faith and worship to every individual and tolerance of other peaceful, non-aggressive, non-proselytizing faiths. Hindu dharma allows in fact, encourages reform and change in social structure and relations, in peaceful discussion and dialogue in Vidvat Sabhas, assemblies of the intelligentsia. Therefore Bharatiyas during and after the elections to the Lok Sabha in this year 2024 must resolve:
· ASI to conduct scientific survey of at least 300/ 350 sites of Hindu-masjids i.e, sites where temples were destroyed or structurally altered to become mosques in view to hand them over to Hindu Trusts as in Somnath and Ayodhya.
· Constitute Truth and Reconciliation Commission ( Replacing the inconsequential National Integration Council) so that the atrocities committed are confessed forgiveness is sought and given and amity is forged.
· Repeal the 1991 Places of Worship Act.
· Extend the rights given to religious minorities (Art 30 of the Constitution) to Hindus also
· Non-use of governments ( Union and States) revenue / funds for the benefit of minority religions like salaries to Pastors, Imams, Muezzins, subsidies for pilgrimages of Muslims and Christians, construction of churches, mosques, Haj Houses, religion-denominated finance corporations.
· Extend freedom to Hindus as for Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Parsis etc., to administer and manage their places of worship i.e, temples. ( 2,070 words)
END