On Friday (February 2), the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) voiced disappointment over the Varanasi district court’s decision to allow Hindus to worship in the Vyas cellar of the Gyanvapi structure. The AIMPLB opined that the judgement was reached hurriedly. The Board intends to take the case to the Supreme Court. The AIMPLB, along with other Muslim organisations, emphasised the importance of implementing the Places of Worship Act of 1991 to avert disputes.
AIMPLB’s reaction comes after the Allahabad High Court today refused to stop puja at the Vyas Cellar in the Gyanvapi complex. The plea was moved by Anjuman Intezamia Masajid Committee challenging the Varanasi District Court’s January 31 order allowing Hindus to perform prayers in the Vyas Ji ka Tehkhana, the southern cellar of the Gyanvapi mosque.
Maulana Khalid Saifullah Rahmani, President of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, expressed dissatisfaction with the current development saying that the Muslim side was not given the chance by the court to present their side in detail. He further asserted that this has hurt the confidence of the Muslim ‘minority’ in the judiciary.
ज्ञानवापी केस को लेकर AIMPLB की प्रेस कॉन्फ्रेंस
— News18 Uttar Pradesh (@News18UP) February 2, 2024
'मंदिर गिराकर मस्जिद बनाने की बात गलत, इस्लाम में छीनी गई जमीन पर मस्जिद नहीं'- AIMPLB#Gyanvapicase #ASIsurvey #DistrictCourtVaranasi #GyanvapiUpdate #AIMPLB pic.twitter.com/uHA6X3nxpD
“The claim that a mandir was demolished to build a mosque is false. Islam does not allow taking away someone’s land to build a mosque. The court ruled on it in haste and the Muslim side was not even given a chance to put forth its arguments in detail. This has hurt the confidence of minorities in the judiciary,” Rahmani said in a press conference today.
Furthermore, the AIMPLB leader went on to claim that even in the Babri dispute verdict, the court accepted that the Ram Mandir was not razed to build a mosque, however, the apex court gave its verdict based on faith (Aastha) of one sect instead of facts.
Before this, Rahmani claimed that numerous Hindu temples more than thousands of years old are still standing despite several Muslim dynasties ruling the country. He further claimed that none of the Muslim invaders ever even scratched a brick of Hindu temples. “If they (Muslim rulers) thought that they would capture the places of worship of other religions, would these temples still exist,” Rahmani asserted.
Did Muslim ‘rulers’ never demolish a single Hindu temple?
Irony died a painful death when the AIMPLB president said that many Muslim dynasties ruled India but they never demolished the temples of other religions. The Kashi Vishwanath Temple alone was attacked many times during the reigns of different Muslim rulers. The temple was first attacked in the 12th century by Qutb al-Din Aibak with its peak damaged. The temple was again demolished during the reign of Sikandar Lodi (1489–1517). The ultimate attack on the Mandir was undertaken during the reign of Mughal tyrant Aurangzeb in 1669 CE. He demolished the temple and replaced it with the Gyanvapi Mosque.
While the AIMPLB leader says that Muslim rulers never intended to destroy the places of worship of other religions, the Islamic record of Maasir-i-Alamgiri mentions that on April 9, 1669, Aurangzeb had issued a ‘Farman’ decree, “to governors of all the provinces to demolish the schools and temples of the infidels and strongly put down their teachings and religious practices.” This is but one example of the numerous Hindu temples demolished on the orders of Muslim rulers.
Aurangzeb ordered destruction of temples at Kashi & Mathura.
— Nitin Gupta (@Nitin_Rivaldo) April 8, 2021
'Masir i Alamgiri' – By Mohd Saqi, Musta'idd Khan
Farman by Aurangzeb to destroy Kalkaji Temple.
Its only natural that 'Razakars' who waged Jihad 4 Nizam of Hyd in 48 will stand for d 'king of Jihadis' Aurangzeb! https://t.co/Ah8l0oJRyE pic.twitter.com/6GDirL7yBg
In an accidental moment of truth, even Marxist historian Irfan Habib admitted that several temples in Mathura and Varanasi were demolished by the Mughals to build Mosques on them. As reported earlier, the historian said in May 2022 “It is correct that Aurangzeb demolished the temple but it is not specified that it was Lord Shiva’s temple. It became a Shiv Temple after they found a Shivling. Aurangzeb demolished this temple in Varanasi. Another temple was demolished in Mathura. There’s no two ways about it. The question is can the government demolish something that was built in 1670? It is against India’s Monument Protection Act.”
Gyanvapi dispute and ASI report
The Gyanvapi controversy extends back decades, however, in the year 2021, five women namely – Rakhi Singh, Laxmi Devi, Sita Sahu, Manju Vyas, and Rekha Pathak, petitioned a local court for the right to unrestricted worship at the Maa Shringar Gauri Sthal, which is situated within the compound that has idols of Hindu gods.
In April 2022, the local court ordered a survey of the complex, which sparked protests. The survey concluded in May 2022. Meanwhile, the Hindu side said that the Shivling was found in the closing hours of the exercise, while the Muslim side denied this and claimed it to be a ‘fountain’. The court tightened security on the entire complex and ordered the sealing of the wuzukhana area within the disputed structure.
In 2023, the Varanasi district court ordered an in-depth survey of the structure by ASI to determine whether it was erected on top of an existing temple, stating that a scientific investigation was required to uncover the truth. The judge, however, excluded the section over which a dispute had occurred, which stays sealed.
On 25th January, the ASI released its Gyanvapi survey report. The nearly 800-page report provided a detailed account of the edifice and the artefacts discovered inside, establishing that it was a Hindu temple dedicated to Lord Shiva. The report detailed artefacts such as a Shivling, a miniature temple with deity sculptures, and statues of Hindu gods such as Vishnu, Krishna, and Ganesh that were buried in the structure’s cellars S1, S2, and S3. The cellars were found to be purposefully obstructed with rubble. The findings reveal that the site was once a temple before it was turned into a mosque.
Babri verdict
Similar unfounded claims that there existed no temple underneath the erstwhile Babri structure were peddled by propagandists ahead of the Pran Pratishtha ceremony of Ram Mandir on January 22 this year.
In a historic ruling in 2019, the Supreme Court settled the five-century-long dispute with a unanimous decision, allowing the entire 2.77-acre disputed site for the construction of a temple dedicated to Bhagwan Ram Lalla, one of the three claimants in the case.
The Supreme Court determined that the ASI report contained sufficient evidence to conclude that the Babri Masjid was not built on vacant ground. There was a structure that supported the disputed construction. The Supreme Court had stated that the underlying structure was not Islamic.
The apex court had stated that the ASI abstained from recording a finding on whether the mosque was built after demolishing a Hindu temple, and that title cannot be determined only based on the Archaeological Survey of India’s expert report. The title to the land should be determined according to established legal principles.
While the Muslim side failed to provide evidence to show possessory title, the Hindu side established unimpeded possession of the outer courtyard.
