How inclusion of Ram Janmasthan as a party to Babri Masjid dispute gave Hindu side the upper hand
In July 1989, the long-running Ayodhya dispute took an unexpected turn when two new entities became parties to the case – Ram Lalla, the infant Ram deity and Ram Janmasthan, the assumed birthplace of Ram.
The dispute is essentially a title suit – a claim of ownership – over 2.77 acres of land on which stood a 16th-century mosque called Babri Masjid. Since 1885, the Nirmohi Akhara, an order of Hindu ascetics, had claimed the site was the birthplace of Ram and the mosque had been built by demolishing a Ram temple.
In 1949, a mob had surreptitiously placed an idol of Ram under the central dome of the mosque. In January 1950, the first suit was filed in Faizabad court by a leader of the Hindu Mahasabha, seeking permission to build a temple. Forty years later, the deity himself was made a party of the case, when a leader of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad filed a petition on its behalf, presenting himself as the deity’s “sakha” or friend.…
SEE ALSO:
- ‘RSS Thinks Ram Temple Will Soon be Built in Ayodhya, Next Targets Will be Varanasi and Mathura’ (Aug 22, 2019, News18)
https://www.news18.com/news/india/rss-thinks-ram-temple-will-soon-be-built-in-ayodhya-next-targets-will-be-varanasi-and-mathura-2278649.html - Book Release: Story of Babri Masjid – pictorial history of Babri Masjid (Aug 20, 2019, TCN)
http://twocircles.net/2019aug20/432768.html - Activists on Way to Ayodhya for Event on Communal Harmony Detained by UP Police (Aug 17, 2019, The Wire)
https://thewire.in/rights/activists-ayodhya-event-communal-harmony-detained-up-police - Six students arrested for showing a film on campus (Aug 21, 2019, Sabrang India)
https://www.sabrangindia.in/article/six-students-arrested-showing-film-campus
