Hindu Vivek Kendra
A RESOURCE CENTER FOR THE PROMOTION OF HINDUTVA
   

Frequently Asked Questions
on

Shri Rama Janmabhoomi Movement

     
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The case for the Shri Rama Janmabhoomi movement can be stated as follows:

 
1.

The issue is not one of bricks and mortar, i.e. it is not merely an issue of a temple. One more or one less temple does not give Ram bhakts any more or less opportunity to offer their prayers. The issue is related to our nationalism and our culture.

 
2.
The Hindus believe that the place where the Babri structure stood is the birthplace of Shri Ram. This belief has a continuous tradition of more than 3000 years, as has been established by the archaeological investigation at the site. Such a long belief has to make it into a fact.
 
3.
If the birthplace was somewhere else, there was no need for people to hold this place as sacred. After all, the Hindus of the time prior to 1000 BC did not imagine that in the 16th century AD the holy site would be vandalised.
 
4.
In 1528 AD, the temple that stood at the site was deliberately destroyed with an objective of constructing the Babri structure in its place. The purpose of the structure was not religious but political, and the purpose had also been intentionally offensive. The intention was to give the Hindus a continuous ocular demonstration that Islam was reigning supreme, even over Hinduism's holy places.
 
5.
As a second best option, within 50 years of the destruction of the temple at Shri Ram Janmabhoomi, the Hindus constructed a Ram Chabootar within the compound of the Babri structure. This was with an intention of keeping their claim to the site alive. Continuous pooja were being undertaken at the Chabootar. Now it is happening where the Shri Ram deity exists.
 
6.
Hindus have been making continuous effort, even going into battle, for the recovery of the site. In 1885, a judge of the British colonial regime accepted that the site was holy for the Hindus. In the post-independence period, too, legal cases have been continuing for the recovery of the site.
 
7.
During the time of the Chandrashekar government, in December 1991 a major effort at a solution through dialogue was started. Hindus have given historical, literary, archaeological and revenue records to establish the antiquity of the belief of their tradition, and the destruction of the temple in 1528.
 
8.
All these efforts were frustrated not so much by an obscurantist Muslim leadership, but by those in the intellectual community who wear the label of secularism on their sleeves.
 
9.
The issue has become politicised not because of the demand for the return of the site, but because of the denial of the holy significance of the site for the Hindus, and of the deliberate destruction of the temple in 1528. It has been politicised due to the programme of vote-bank politics.
 
10.
Shri Ram is epitomised as Maryada Purushottam (an ideal person) by the Hindus of the world, and many others. There has to be an appropriate monument at the site where it has been established that he was born. Otherwise, we will be denigrating his memory, and future generations will not have a source from where they can receive the necessary inspiration.