FIFTY-YEAR-OLD Mohammad Shahid's jaw clenched and unclenched as he watched a young man put up lights on the bare boundary wall of his home in Ayodhya's Tedhibazar, ahead of the grand opening of the Ram temple. The lights are mandatory, he has been told.
He cannot help but think of that day, over 31 years ago, when the house, located just two kilometres from where the Babri Masjid then stood, had been similarly decked up with lights. It was his sister's wedding in a few days. But the festivities ended in horror on December 6, 1992, after the illegal demolition of the Mughal-era mosque when Hindu mobs rampaged through Ayodhya, killing Muslims and setting fire to homes, including his.
Shahid's grandfather Abdul Gaffar Khan was the last Imam of the Babri Masjid. He died in 1990. "It is good that he did not live to see that day," Shahid states glumly. His father and his uncle (the Imam's sons) were among the 17 people killed that day.
The charred remains of an aara (sawing machine) gathering dust in his derelict yard are the only physical proof the family keeps of the violence. "There used to be a wood workshop here where my father worked along with preaching at the mosque across the street. He was in the workshop when we got news that they were burning pages of the Quran. We knew we had to run," he recalls.
While the rest of the family, including Shahid's deceased mother Taibunnisa Begum, managed to escape to their neighbour Haji Mehboob's house, his father and uncle got separated. The mob found them eventually, stabbed and burnt them alive in different locations. The wood workshop was reduced to cinders and rioters looted all they could from the house, including wedding gifts for his sister.
Esta historia es de la edición February 01, 2024 de Outlook.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor ? Conectar
Esta historia es de la edición February 01, 2024 de Outlook.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor? Conectar
Trump, Up And Charging
'Many countries are nervous about Donald Trump returning to power, but India is not one of them'
Post and Past the Oil in Azerbaijan
As the UN climate conference takes place in Baku, Azerbaijan traces the history of the hydrocarbon industry through the lens of postage stamps
Bhutto's Nehru Story
Nehru's principle of \"compromise and argument\" remains the only workable formula for South Asian leaders
Breathless on Bachchan
Cédric Dupire's documentary The Real Superstar is an irreverent, experimental archive of Amitabh Bachchan's life and his stardom
The Anaphora to Zeugma of the Queen's English
Shashi Tharoor's book is a logophile's candy shop, full of fun, surprises and insights
The Wind Knocked
THE wind knocked on the door. Hesitantly. Wanting to be let in. It had heard the murmuring of the flames. And knew that there was a fire. The wind sought shelter.
The Way Home
“We comfort ourselves by reliving memories of protection. Something closed must retain our memories, while leaving them their original value as images. Memories of the outside world will never have the same tonality as those of home and, by recalling these memories, we add to our store of dreams; we are never real historians, but always near poets, and our emotion is perhaps nothing but an expression of a poetry that was lost.”—Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Space
The War Artist
Cartoonist and journalist Joe Sacco is in search of the truths distorted by conventional narratives
Mining Adivasi Votes
If the BJP manages to win Jharkhand, it will be the third mineral-rich state after Odisha and Chhattisgarh that will fall into the party's kitty
Unequal Republic
Political parties make promises of equal represention to women, but patriarchy continues to dominate electoral democracy