It’s time to walk away from Ayodhya

Saba Naqvi

I am happy to report that Ram, Sita and Lakshman arrived in Ayodhya in a helicopter for Diwali. Seriously. If you don’t believe me, please see the front page of the Delhi edition of The Indian Express on Diwali. Actors playing the part of Ram, Sita and Lakshman were brought to Ayodhya in a chopper for a three-day grand Diwali celebration, whereupon they were photographed with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Governor Ram Naik, looking pleased as punch.

Actually they were among the 380 artistes from across India and the globe (including Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Malaysia) that travelled to Ayodhya at the cost of the state government to take part in the three-day celebration. 

I have to give it to Yogi. He’s already taken Uttar Pradesh to such heights that it has apparently broken a Guinness record. Two lakh diyas were lit along the banks of the Saryu river at Ayodhya, really quite a lovely sight, and that in itself was a world record. 

By now, most of us who follow the news would know that this lighting diya record is a uniquely Indian category. Before Uttar Pradesh, the record was held by jailed dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim. His dera lit 1.5 lakh diyas at an event on September 23 last year. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that things go better for Uttar Pradesh than they did for the dera. So far, we have some assurances: a huge Ram statue will come up at Ayodhya and the Taj Mahal will not be demolished (even though it’s been built on a Shiva temple according to BJP’s one-time Ayodhya hero Vinay Katiyar). 

I personally have nothing against statues, lighting lamps and doing day-long yagnas. The Chief Minister has said he has bought true Ram Rajya and, till now, there was only Ravana Raj. What I do have a problem with is with children dying in a hospital in Gorakhpur but no matter, maybe the Gods will now hear all our prayers for the poor, the meek, and the helpless. 

Meanwhile, the UP Government does occasionally look like a sequence from a religious tableaux, but that’s fine with me as well. As a kid, I loved extended all-night Ram Leelas in my neighbourhood. 

What I do resent is the manufactured battle that is about to (again) begin over the Ram mandir issue. Essential for any battle to engage the population is that two sides fight. I don’t see any purpose in the representatives of the Muslim community trying to fight a battle they have already lost. It would be wiser to make a tactical retreat and say, Dear Yogiji, please build thousands more temples, have statues in every neighbourhood, we respect your religious wishes and with dignity we walk away from the entire Ram temple issue. Do build a great Ram mandir there and pray for prosperity and justice for all. A nice parting shot would be: can we contribute a small token towards the Ram mandir? 

Problem is no one listens to me, least of all the clerics of the Muslim community, who like to present themselves as the sole spokespersons. Let’s take the argument at face value that the correct thing in such a sensitive matter is to wait for a court verdict. Here’s the thing. Even if the verdict is in favour of the Muslim community, we know no mosque can be built on that barren piece of land (although I agree that a moral and constitutional point would have been made).

But Ayodhya in the meantime is a trap that the Muslim community is repeatedly asked to walk into just for the optics that it creates. It’s actually a damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-don’t situation. It would suit the Hindutva forces to project this as a battle against bearded Muslims who resent Hindu faith and are incapable of generosity towards Lord Ram. Don’t give them the pleasure. Don’t play the part of the Muslim stereotype. Just walk away. Remember that the Ram temple issue only has traction if it can be posited as a victory over Muslims. 

The twin cities of Faizabad-Ayodhya are a few hours drive from Mustafabad village, where my father’s hereditary rambling village home is located. Four days after the Babri demolition, I had driven to Ayodhya, where I found the lock on the door of an old man’s home that I was searching out. I was pretty heart-broken back then to learn that he had fled.

The man I was searching for not far from the rubble of the mosque was Ansar Hussain, who had been the caretaker of Sundar Bhawan, one of the many Ram temples in Ayodhya, for 45 years. It was a curious arrangement for a devout Muslim to look after a mandir for so many decades, but that is also how life often was in the Awadh belt. But after the demolition, Hussain and his Muslim neighbours had all vanished; I would later hear that Hussain returned after some months and resumed looking after the Sita-Ram mandir till his death about a decade ago. Let’s not open those wounds again.