Harsh Mander: Temples, mosques, courts and the judgements of history

In Sambhal, a Muslim-majority medieval town in Western Uttar Pradesh, six men have died after being gunned down on November 24 and many more injured. The police fired on protesters agitated by a survey of the Shahi Jama Masjid. The survey, set up to investigate if centuries earlier the mosque had been built after demolishing a Hindu temple, had been ordered by a local court. The judge was not constrained by the prohibitions imposed by The Places of Worship Act, 1991, that the religious character of no place of worship could be changed from what prevailed on the day India became free.

Sambhal was briefly the capital both of the Lodi dynasty and of the first Mughal emperor Babar. During the short reign of the emperor Babar from 1526- 30, three major mosques were built. One was in Ayodhya, the second in Panipat and the third in Sambhal. The mosque in Ayodhya became the locus of a nationwide militant movement that charred India’s secular democracy and in significant ways transmuted the course of the Indian republic. Three decades after the mob demolition of the Babri Masjid, Hindutva activists now are seeking to light similar fires in Sambhal.

Advocate Hari Shankar Jain, also a lawyer...

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