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Ayodhya verdict

Commendable restraint by both communities
2 October 2010, 18:00 PM
EDITORIAL
Normally, we should not have been making a comment on a court verdict in another country. Yet, since the sub-continental countries are, by and large, populated by Muslim and Hindu communities, it is natural for us at this end to be airing views on a matter of inter-religious import. The Allahabad High Court's judgment apportioning the Ayodhya site where Babri mosque stood since the Mughal emperor Babar's reign up until 1992, when it was demolished by Hindu extremists, to three parties to the case, is an extra-ordinary verdict from whichever perspective it is seen. In the first place, the court ruling has had to do with, and be deferential to, religious sentiments, spiritual beliefs, myths and differing narratives of history. Its legal import is to be discerned in the prescription of a solution it has provided based on the socio-communal-political dynamics which had been revolving around the Ayodhya issue. It is a very complex and highly emotive matter that came before Allahabad High Court for adjudication. The points of determination before the court had not so much to do with legal issues as with history and with the objective realities involving the relations of the two major communities in India. Indeed, the complexity of the issue as a whole is inherently so pronounced that both the Hindu and Muslim contestants have preferred appeals to the Supreme Court as they are not apparently content with the verdict of the High Court. The Supreme Court of India as the highest arbiter of justice in the country will deliver its judgment in time with the wisdom and legal finesse that it is widely reputed for. Status quo will be maintained for three months at the Ayodhya site and hopefully the Supreme Court will have disposed of the appeals in a way that will strengthen harmony between the two communities on stronger foundations. Historically, the followers of the two mighty religions -- Hinduism and Islam -- have lived and pursued their faiths side by side in peace until a bone of contention sprang up centring around Babri Mosque marked by an acrimony which needed to be resolved befitting the spirit of the 21st century so we reckon. The Hindus and Muslims rather than engaging in exchanging claims and counter claims as to who won and who lost through the verdict, both sides need to be positively circumspect and restrained in their reactions and attitudes. Through a crisis they should find ways to bring about a resurgence of harmony between the two communities for the greater good of India and of the whole region.

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