Ram Janmabhoomi
Ram Janmabhoomi refers to a tract of land in the North Indian city of Ayodhya which is claimed to be the birthplace of Lord Rama. Archeological Survey of India (ASI), after conducting excavations at the site reported that prior to 1528, filed a report that stated that a temple stood at this site before the arrival of Mughals who constructed Babri Mosque at its present site. Critics of the report claim that the "presence of animal bones throughout as well as of the use of 'surkhi' and lime mortar" that was found by ASI are all characteristic of Muslim presence, which they claim "rule out the possibility of a Hindu temple having been there beneath the mosque".
From 1528 to 1992 this was the site of the Babri Mosque. The mosque was razed in December 6, 1992 by a mob of some 150,000 nationalist Hindus supported by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the nationalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), after a political rally developed into a riot despite a commitment to the Indian Supreme Court by the rally organisers that the mosque would not be harmed.
The Sangh Parivaar, along with VHP and the main Indian opposition party, the Bharatiya Janata Party, sought to erect a temple dedicated to Lord Rama at this site. Nobel Laureate novelist V. S. Naipaul has praised Hindu nationalists for "reclaiming India's Hindu heritage". Naipaul added that the destruction of Babri structure was an act of historical balancing and the reclaiming of the Ramjanmabhoomi was a "welcome sign that Hindu pride was re-asserting itself".
The 1986 edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica stated that "Rama’s birthplace is marked by a mosque, erected by the Moghul emperor Babar in 1528 on the site claimed of an earlier temple".
Archaeological excavations at the site by the Archeological Survey of India reported the existence of a 10th century temple. " The report stated that scientific dating indicated human activity at the site as far back to the 17th century BC.
On 30 September 2010, Allahabad High Court ruled that the 2.7 acres disputed land in Ayodhya, on which the Babri Masjid stood before it was demolished on December 6, 1992, will be divided into three parts: the site of the Ramlala idol to Lord Ram, Nirmohi Akhara gets Sita Rasoi and Ram Chabutara, Sunni Wakf Board gets a third.
Read more about this topic: Conversion Of Non-Muslim Places Of Worship Into Mosques, Hindu, Jain and Buddhist Temples
Famous quotes containing the word ram:
“At one time or another, almost every politician needs an honest man so badly that, like a ravenous wolf, he breaks into a sheep-fold: not to devour the ram he has stolen, however, but rather to conceal himself behind its wooly back.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)