A DISPUTED holy site in northern India claimed by both Muslims and Hindus, and over which deadly riots have frequently erupted, is to be divided between them, a court decreed yesterday in a controversial judgment following six decades of acrimonious legal wrangling.
A three-judge bench of the Allahabad High Court in northern Uttar Pradesh state ruled that the Muslim community would get one-third of the 64-acre contested plot at Ayodhya, a small temple town 600km east of New Delhi, and the two contesting Hindu communities would split the rest.
The verdict, which could serve to appease the two religious groups in one of India’s most divisive and emotive cases, was delivered amid high tension in the state capital Lucknow. More than 200,000 police and paramilitaries were deployed across the country to guard against the outbreak of communal violence following the ruling.
There were no immediate reports of violence. A lawyer for the Muslim community said the ruling would be appealed in the Supreme Court.
In 1992 Hindu zealots tore down a mosque built in 1528 on the disputed plot at Ayodhya by India’s first Mughal King Babar, claiming the Muslim potentate had built it after razing a temple that marked the exact birthplace of Ram, their revered god.
Within hours of the mosque’s demolition, sectarian riots broke out across India. These were especially fierce in the western port city of Bombay (later called Mumbai) in which more than 2,000 people, mostly Muslims, died.
The long simmering Ayodhya dispute – riddled with legal, religious, mythological and archaeological complexities – was successfully exploited for electoral gain by India’s main opposition Hindu nationalist Bhartiya Janata Party. The strategy worked: the party gained federal power in 1998 and again a year later.
The dispute severely embittered relations between India’s Hindu majority and Muslims, who comprise about 13 per cent of the country’s population of 1.2 billion.
Yesterday’s judgment, which ran to more than 10,000 pages, upheld the Hindus’ contention that the site under the dome of the demolished mosque was the precise birthplace of Ram. The judgment was based on historical and archaeological evidence, and on the “collective faith” of believers over centuries.
Hindu groups campaigning to build a Ram temple at the disputed Ayodhya site said the court verdict dividing the plot was a “matter of great joy”.
“I am very happy the court has accepted the historic fact and this is a matter of great happiness for Hindus,” said Nritya Gopaldas Maharaj, president of Ram Janam Bhoomi trust, one of the main proponents behind building the Ram temple.
“The judgment can begin a process of reconciliation” Kamal Farooqi of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board said.
The verdict in the contentious case came as thousands of foreign athletes poured into New Delhi for the Commonwealth Games that open on Sunday, raising fears of unrest.
Indian leaders appealed for calm, with prime minister Manmohan Singh declaring there “should be no attempt by any section of the people to provoke any other section or to indulge in any expression of emotion that would hurt the feelings of other people”.
All parties to the dispute and their associates made a similar appeal, knowing that the verdict would almost certainly be referred to the Supreme Court. A final decision could still be years away.