Ayodhya, my native place, a well known city located in Faizabad district (now Ayodhya) of Uttar Pradesh situated on the bank of river Saryu, it is the place where Lord Rama born, a place which is well described by Tulasidas Ji in his epic Ramcharitmanas, a place which attracts everyone by its spiritual environment, a city of temples, a city of god.
Today this city is suffering from a dispute and this Ayodhya Dispute is a big socio-religious debate in India. This dispute is famously known as “ Babri Masjid- Ram Janambhoomi dispute” and this dispute makes comeback in every election.
On this dispute our society is divided in to two different groups, Here I am not talking about the parties to the dispute i.e. Hindu and Muslim community but this division is based upon the ideology.
The first one is so called secular group they talks about secularism and they oppose the construction of temple on many grounds and the second one clearly demands the temple and they believe that construction of temple is necessary in Ayodhya because it is directly related with the faith of majority of population of India.
Today it has become a fashion in some elite class of people to criticise Hinduism and its culture and they do so on the ground of secularism but they have to understand true meaning of Secularism and they have to accept it that you cannot defeat spirituality by secularism. Secularism is good thing and everyone should be secular whether he is Hindu or Muslim or any other community, Everyone should respect the religion of each other and their status-their culture, that is secularism.
Secularism does not require you to forget you religion or to forgive your own culture. Even there is a famous saying that “Hinduism is the guarantee of secularism”, We follow the shlok “सर्वे भवन्तु सुखिनः,सर्वे सन्तु निरामयः”. It means in this world everyone should be happy irrespective of caste, class or religion.
So in the case of Ayodhya we all know that disputed place is the place where Lord Rama took birth and it is universal, it cannot be changed in any condition. In 2010 even the Allahabad High court accepted this fact in its judgement.
So it become clear that the demand of Ram mandir is obvious and we must need a Ram mandir in Ayodhya. But be very clear that for that purpose violence of any kind cannot be supported including the incident of 1992 and it was disappointing for any democratic country.
But it cannot take away the reasonableness of demand of temple on one of the holiest place of Hindus and the construction of temple is absolutely necessary.
Here the role of equity comes into the question and it says that we should understand the reasonableness of the matter and decision should be just, fair and reasonable.
No doubt mosque is also an important holy place for Muslims and there should be mosque for them, but why exact on that place? It is not an ordinary site. As per Hindu faith it is the birthplace of their lord Rama, one of the most worshiped god in the Hindu religion and it cannot be shifted on any condition because it is a matter of faith, emotion of millions of people but the situation of mosque can be easily shifted, It would not be a big deal for them.
There are many other mosque in India even some of them also made by Mughal rulers by destroying the temples and nobody is asking to restore them but Ayodhya has great significance, So we must understand the importance of temple in Ayodhya.
Some people also argue that “build Hospitals and Schools instead of temple or mosque” and according to them it is necessary to maintain the peace. So no doubt there should be Hospitals and Schools in the country but they must be made on the place where they are really required, there are many other sites where schools and hospitals can be constructed without any dispute, according to me constructing any schools or temple by breaking the emotions of millions of people is not a good thing.
Unfortunately, some people also raises question about the existence of Lord Rama and they demands proof for the same, so I admit it there is no proof of Lord Rama’s birth or his existence but we definitely have the proof that this site have been known as the birthplace of Rama since very long time which has been submitted to the court and also the report of archaeological survey makes it clear that there was temple in 15th century before mosque was established by the Mughal ruler Babur.
These evidences are enough to show the faith of people and nothing can be more important than the faith or emotion of the people of any society.
So in this article I am not supporting or taking the side of any special community but I am just supporting the rule of natural justice. The matter is in the court and I respect the court and its decision but we should also understand our role and responsibility in the society.
We all know that India is a democratic secular nation and “equality in diversity” is its beauty, we respect all the religion. To prove this secularism many time we become extra sensitive to the matter related to minority and ignores the majority, this kind of tendency defeats the value of secularism.
In secularism there should be equality and there should be understanding in each and every community of the country. We should respect the faith of each other and the construction of temple in Ayodhya would be a great example of this secularism.
So it is an appeal that Hindu and Muslim both should come forward and they both should contribute toward the construction of temple in Ayodhya, it would be a great example of brotherhood and peace in India.
Author: Harshit Upadhyay, LL.B(HONS.), 6th Sem, Lucknow University
