22nd December 1949, can’t be forgotten or erased of, as a conspiracy that began with the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi in 1948 culminated in the execution of the Ayodhya strategy. Late that night, a little known sadhu, Abhiram Das, and his followers entered the Babri Masjid and planted an idol of Lord Rama inside it. It is known that Hindu Mahasabha had a role in placing the idol in the mosque, the larger plot and chain of events that led to that act of demolishing the masjid has never been subjected to rigorous scrutiny.
Sometimes the buried narrative too can be of help in understanding the gory nature of any crime. There was a liaison between Mahasabhaites and the Congress- an association which Jawaharlal Nehru sought to break in his cautious battle with Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and the right-wing forces.
On the morning of 23rd December 1949, the FIR (First Information Report) registered by Ayodhya Police following the planting of the idol of Lord Rama in Babri Masjid on the night before had named Abhiram Das as prime accused. In course of time, many Hindu devotees had started calling him Ramjanmabhoomi Uddharak. The historical facts associated with the developments in 1949 had slipped into obscurity. The propaganda of Hindu Mahasabha and RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) – that the idol had never been planted and Lord Rama had manifested himself at his place of birth- had gained ground among devout Hindus largely delinking Abhiram Das from what he had done in the dark hours of that fateful night.
Booklets and pamphlets written by Hindu communalists during the intervening period had flooded the shops of Ayodhya and had gone a long way in reinforcing the myth of ‘Divine Exercise’. For legal reasons, even those who had a role in that surreptitious act found it convenient to let the myth grow and capture popular imagination. The laws, after all, could catch human conspiracies, but a divine exercise was beyond its reach. Yet, Abhiram Das continued to remain till his death Ramjanmabhoomi Uddharak or Uddharak Baba.
As the trespassers walked towards the mosque, the muezzin jumped out of darkness. Before the adversaries could discover his presence, he dashed straight towards Abhiram Das, a little known priest, the variability who was holding the idol in his hands and leading the group of intruders. He grabbed Abhiram Das from behind and almost snatched the idol from him. But the sadhu quickly freed himself and, together with his friends, retaliated fiercely. Heavy blows began raining from all directions. Soon, the muezzin realised that he was no match to the men and that he alone would not be able to stop them.
At that time, many in Ayodhya, as in several other parts of country, had seen things differently. The communal frenzy which had accompanied the partition of India had intensely brutalised the atmosphere. No less important was the role played by organisations which saw the immediate aftermath of partition as an opportunity to derail the secular project of independent India. The conspirators associated with there’s organisations and the conspiracies they hatched had resulted in major national tragedies by the onset of 20 century.
The surreptitious occupation of the Babri Masjid was an act planned by the same set of people who planned the brutal assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. It was a reflection of the same brutalised atmosphere that saw Gandhi being murdered. Neither the conspirators nor their underlying objectives were different. In both instances, the conspirators belonged to the Hindu Mahasabha leadership- some of the prime movers of the planting of the idol had been the prime accused in he Gandhi murder case- and their objective this time too was to destabilise the secular harmony and wrest the political centre stage from Congress by provoking large scale Hindu mobilisation in the name of Lord Rama.
The planting of idol was an event so remarkable that it changed the political discourse in India though it continues to be treated as a localised crime committed spontaneously by a handful of local people led, of course by Abhiram Das, a local sadhu; Or the other propaganda as Lord Rama had manifested himself at the place of his birth. It was, however, a well planned conspiracy involving national, Provincial, and local level leaders of Hindu Mahasabha undertaken with the objective of reviving the party’s political fortune by destabilisng the secular atmosphere of India.
unbeatenknight 