[nukkad] Ayodhya

["Mahesh chandra gupta" <>]

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The following is picked up from another list because the author is 
a renowned scholar who, being a foreigner, gives views that are 
less likely to be tainted by personal views of the parties 
concerned. The purpose of posting it on this list is purely 
academic and is not aimed at propagating or denegrating any 
particular view or religion. Also, I do not believe this interview 
is copy-righted, or that its reproduction is illegal or, at least, 
successfully challengeable.

MC Gupta
=====================================================================

  Dear Friends,
Following are Dr. Elst's responses with regards to Ayodhya Temple 
Dispute. In the next post I will post follow up of this discussion 
on IndiaPolicy egroup.
parag

Date: 28th August 2002.

Prof. G.C.ASNANI, MSc., Ph.D. (United Nations Service, Retd.)
822, Sindh Colony, Aundh, Pune - 411 007 (INDIA)
Tel: 91-20-588-0347. URL: http://personal.vsnl.com/asnani
E-mail: - asnani@giaspn01.vsnl.net.in

Forwarded Message:

Koenraad Elst vs Psecs

Cross-posted from IndiaPolicy group:

Thanks, Dr. Subroto Roy, for the invitation. My name is Koenraad 
Elst, Ph.D. in Asian Studies (can't help it, that's what the 
degree is called) of Catholic University Leuven, Belgium. And 
currently active as a columnist and independent scholar.

Q. It is said that the act of destruction by Babar was not a 
religious one, but had a political motive? Please comment.

The dichotomy between religion and politics in this case is false, 
as Islam is an intrisically political religion aiming at the 
creation of an Islamic state ultimately spanning the whole world. 
This is a squeamish claim made by some Hindutva spokesmen who want 
to avoid the conflict with Islam by presenting the destruction of 
non-Islamic places of worship as "un-Islamic". In reality, from 
the Prophet's own destruction of the idols in the Kaaba onwards, 
the forcible take-over of non-Muslim places of worship is 
intrinsic to the Islamic scheme of world conquest. There is no 
point in discussing the rights and wrongs of Ayodhya with people 
who don't have the honesty and moral courage to face facts, such 
as the continent-spanning and millennium-spanning fact that the 
expansion of Islam in North Africa, Europe and Asia was marked by 
many thousands of forcible expropriations (with or without 
destruction of the building) of places of worship. After that, we 
can agree or disagree about!
what to do at disputed sites today, but this preliminary respect 
for historical facts is indispensible.

Q. Has it never occurred to the Hindu Protagonists that mixing 
religion with politics is a lethal mixture for the health of the 
Nation and that it should be eschewed totally?

See above. It is nor was for the Hindu protagonists to mix 
religion and politics, that mixing is an accomplished fact 
bequeathed to modern India by the Sultanate and Moghul regimes. To 
be sure, over and above the Islamic legacy, modern "secularists" 
have necessarily added a lot more of this mixing. Thus, unlike in 
secular states, Indian are classified by religion, and their 
membership of this or that religion gives them different rights 
and subjection to different law systems. My criterion for 
qualifying someone as a secularist in modern India is whether you 
are actively working for a Common Civil Code, bedrock and 
intrinsic property of a secular state.

Q. Does the destruction of the Babri structure not mean that the 
concept that `two wrongs make a right' is accepted?

When a thief steals your money, and you manage to recover it from 
him, you don't have "two wrongs", you have a wrong and then the 
rectification of that wrong. Admittedly, things get messy when 
people go after thieves themselves to recover their stolen goods 
in an act of "private justice", so there is a problem of procedure 
here. But not one of principle.

Q. In destroying the Babri structure, does it not mean that the 
present-day Muslims are being asked to pay a price for the 
mistakes of those who indulged in vandalism and destruction?

In withholding from the Hindus access to their sacred sites in 
Ayodhya, Mathura and Varanasi, you also make present-day Hindus 
pay the price for the defeat of their ancestors by those who 
indulged in vandalism and destruction. If punishing the progeny of 
the perpetrators is indeed undesirable, punishing the progeny of 
the victims is even more undesirable. But I agree that in 
practice, this redressing of old wrongs should not be overdone. 
Indeed I am sure that the organized Hindu movement and a fortiori 
Hindu society as a whole will be satisfied with the hand-over of 
those places of worship where the site itself is the object of 
veneration, which cuts the number from many thousands to a 
handful.

Q. You say that there was neither intention nor any plan to 
destroy the Babri structure on December 6, 1992 at Ayodhya. How 
can you expect anyone to believe this in the light of what 
actually happened?

There is really no mystery here. For most participants, the 
demolition was unplanned. But for a determined core, it was indeed 
planned and technically prepared. After taking the initiative, the 
vanguard enlisted the unprepared but enthusiastic masses for the 
unskilled labour. For an investigative journalist, or indeed for 
anyone who has a mouth underneath his nose, it should be feasible 
to go and enquire about just who took the initiative and did the 
preparation. One of the wonders of the world, or at least of 
Indian "secularism", is that none of India's papers has come out 
with an investigative report on the whodunit question of the 
demolition. The reason seems to be that secularist papers are less 
interested in informing than in moulding public opinion. In this 
case they had their minds set on propagating the line that LK 
Advani and other top Hindu nationalist leaders were behind the 
demolition. Which I, as one who did make enquiries, can deny with 
full confidence.

Well, that's enough discussion material, I presume.

Kind regards,
KE



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