What a Millennial Muslim wants: Babri Masjid Demolition

Call me a cat who shuts it’s eyes and hopes no one is watching her. I am all for peace, I don’t want any Hindu or Muslim to argue over the Ram Mandir again..ever again

Babri Masjid Demolition is a still a raw wound that hurts older muslims, every now and then. It’s the pain, our parents have never forgotten, and we millennial Muslim may not understand. I was too young and too little to understand the rioting that followed and infamous Mumbai Blast. I know something had happened. Because after that my parents were very cautious, and always scared.

If humiliation was the agenda, then that’s achieved

Older Muslims feel deep humiliation from that episode. Especially, when they were told that a few of vandalizers had peed on stones, and howled foul curses as they brought the history monument down. — It was a holy place of worship for God’s sake.

Again, as millennial Muslim, who has scrolled through the comments section on Youtube and Instagram, I am not really surprised by the depth of the hate and creative vocabulary of these abusers. But our parents grew up in a decent times, so you can understand..

I for one is happy with the ratification by the Supreme Court of India on November 9, 2019. “End this debate. Just build a mosque elsewhere,” is what I told my father too.

But one of my older uncles told me that, it’s not that simple. This was some kind of accepting defeat, like open invitation to vandalized or erased down historic mosques or monuments, and to discredit anything “Muslim” as ‘not belonging to India’. Those could be Muslim religious historic sites, towns and cities named by and after Muslim rulers, Muslim cultural things and the like.. Back in 2010, I had a different Idea of Secular and religiously tolerant India. I was very proud of it. And I would have protested against my uncle’s delusional No-Land-for-Muslims-theory. But in 2021, I think I have finally come to understand what he meant — this the insecurity most muslims in India live with.

If only the Mosque could be picked from the Ram Jamabhoomi and placed elsewhere without destroying

I would have preferred is the historic mosque to shifted like the Tippu’s Armory, and a temple coming up in a place where it belongs. That would be a sophisticated solution to a very crude problem. I hate to admit., but my uncle is right. Problem is not about building the Ram Mandir on the sacred location. The problem was to make Muslims pay the price for humiliation caused by their barbaric ancestors who destroyed the temples and build a mosques across the country. I am did not made this up.

Time and again, we are reminded by right-wing leaders and pseudo historians like Abhijit Chavda that “Barbaric” Muslim rulers — destroyed India, and for some reason Karma is yet to be served. As long as these vicious cycle of generational vengeance against humiliation lives on, Hindu and Muslim in India will continue to fight (even where logical solutions can be brought about). I mean, talking about Karma, the social-economic status of Muslims in India really sad.(It’s said, it’s even worse that the Dalits)May be Karma did it’s job.

The Hindus got the Ram Mandhir, What do Muslims get?

The Grand Mosque

After the ratification by the Supreme Court of India on November 9, 2019, there is going to be a the grand mosque complex in Dhannipur village, 22 km from the original site.

Dhannipur is a muslim dominated area, so a mosque there made sense. UP Govt suggested a Mosque-cum-community centre and Mulsim intellects (not religious leaders) see this as “first monument to be built to cherish defeat” (Ghazala Wahab in her article on Scroll.in)

Extract:

The structure is not meant for the locals, but for the thousands of tourists who will come from across the world to see what was built in lieu of the mosque that was clawed down brick by brick by a frenzied mob.

When I read this article, I realize the cycle of humiliation isn’t going to end. It could be imposed my a right-wing political party’s agenda, or minority groups’(muslim in the context) need to play the victim card and uphold the injustice made to them.

As much as I want the Hindu-Muslim conflict conversation to end in India. I don’t see that happening in near future. After Babri-Masjid and Ayodhya, there will always be something, something from the past that awaits justice from Muslims and Hindus, and others. This whole thing of pulling out something from the past — just to justify something in the present is not going to go anywhere. My idea of Ideal India (which of course is derived from Gandhiji’s India) — it feels like a fading memory now.