We need both a mandir and a masjid in Ayodhya

There’s a mysterious lull in the run-up to the Ram Mandir-Babri Masjid verdict from the Allahabad high court. However, the voices of sanity call for a compromise. For millions of Hindus, the Ram Mandir is their Mecca, and hence, the offer must be gracefully made by the Muslims themselves. Then, the Hindus must also volunteer to build the Babri Masjid in the same 67-acre area and relinquish claims to any other mosque in Mathura, Varanasi or elsewhere.

This must be followed by a joint effort where Hindus and Muslims build both the Ram Mandir and the Masjid through joint kar seva. The supervising body ought not to be any political organisation but an inter-faith ecumenical committee consisting of people from all walks of life. Let it be called the Ram-Babri Ecumenical Complex for research on ways to lead a life based of mutual coexistence.

The presence of Ram is entrenched deeply in the minds of the vast majority of people of all faiths, and especially in the minds of the Muslims of Indonesia where Ramlilas are performed and witnessed with more enthusiasm than in India. The walled city of Delhi is alive with Muslim kids lined up to witness Ramlila. Ram is an ideal, a maryada purushottam to all, irrespective of caste, creed or faith. 

There is little doubt that the Hindu response to the problems faced by Indian Muslims, if articulated properly, will be positive. It will not only help remove many of the prejudices against them, but also create a proper environment for a meaningful and lasting understanding. In all this, the liberal Muslim intellectual’s role is of paramount importance. He must intervene to thwart the stratagems of politicians and give his community a chance for change.

Let’s take a leaf from Iqbal who once wrote: “Hai Ram ke wajood par Hindustan ko naaz, Ahl-e-nazar samajhtey hein us ko Imam-e-Hind!” Truly, Ram is not just a maryada purushottam but the Imam (spiritual representative) of India. In 2003, the Prayag Peeth Shankaracharya, Swami Madhawananda Saraswati, had agreed to the building of a temple and a mosque within the area in question in Ayodhya. Had this suggestion been acted upon then, the country would have been spared further strife in the name of religion and a long-drawn court case.

Of course, political parties may never want the problem to be resolved. They are part of the problem, and not the solution. The so-called Muslim leadership has also been responsible for allowing the Babri Masjid to snowball into a national issue and become a symbol of the community’s status in India. In fact, even before the kar sevaks, it was these so-called Muslim leaders who should be held accountable for the Masjid’s destruction. After 1992, Muslims suffered a collective sense humiliation — and Muslim leaders have to take a share of the blame.

Today, the Muslim community in India needs a new leadership, which is imbued with vision, courage and perspective. It needs leaders in the mould of Maulana Azad, APJ Abdul Kalam, Rafi Ahmed Kidwai, Dr Zakir Hussain and Saifuddin Kitchlew, to name a few. These men believed that minorities have as much responsibility in a secular democracy as the majority. Their vision led to Muslims being called not a minority, but India’s second majority. Such a leadership may yet arise from the educated lower middle class —  a group until now suppressed by the nation’s elite and the traditional Muslim clergy.