In The Name Of Ram

India Today presents the Ayodhya almanac, 25 years after the demolition of the BabriMasjid and as the Supreme Court begins hearing the case again

- Ajit Kumar Jha

 YOU COULD CALL IT DIVINE COINCIDENCE. The Supreme Court’s hearings on the title suits began a day before the 25th anniversary of the Babri Masjid demolition, which tore the nation asunder and left over 2,000 people dead in riots across the country. The memory and collective guilt of that national shame—and doing justice to both the perpetrators and the victims—must guide the courts.

The Ayodhya dispute has existed almost as long as independent India itself. The legal battle between Hindus and Muslims in Ayodhya began in 1949 as a title dispute. By the 1980s, the case had shot to centre stage, riding a wave of identity politics. In the early 1990s, the dispute gained popular support and took the shape of a movement, which culminated in the demolition of the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992.