Ayodhya: PM lays foundation stone for a temple at Ram Janmabhoomi site, Bhumi Poojan performed

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  Ayodhya: PM lays foundation stone for a temple at Ram Janmabhoomi site, Bhumi Poojan performed

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Background –

1. A bench of five judges in the leadership of CJI Ranjan Gogoi gave the decision to provide the disputed land at Babri Masjid/Ram Janmabhumi compound to ‘Ram Lala Virajman’.
2. The other four judges were Justice Nazeem, Justice Chandrachud, Justice Bobade, Justice Ashok Bhushan
3. This decision revert the decision of Allahabad High Court given in 2010 which distributed the land to the three parties equally.
4. Three parties – Sunni Muslim Waqf Board, Ram Lala Virajman, Nirmohi Akhara.

History  –

1. Thousand years ago – According to Hindu Mythology Lord Rama born in Ayodhya at the disputed place.
2. Proof of temple made in ancient (10th century) times has been found to ASI. Statue built at the time of Vikramaditya is available (in Orcha now).
3. Although SC accepted that, they don’t know what was there from 12th century to 16th century.
4. 1528-29 – Babar’s General Mir Baqi built mosque.
5. No signs of ‘Namaz’ till 19th century.
6. In 1853, a group of armed Hindu ascetics belonging to the Nirmohi Akhara occupied the site and claimed ownership of the structure.
7. Periodic violence erupted in the next two years, and the civil administration had to step in, refusing permission to build a temple or to use it as a place of worship.
8. In 1855, after a Hindu-Muslim clash, a boundary wall was constructed to avoid further disputes.
9. It divided the mosque premises into two courtyards; the Muslims offered prayers in the inner courtyard. The Hindus offered their prayers on a raised platform, known as "Ram Chabutara", in the outer courtyard.
10. In 1883, the Hindus launched an effort to construct a temple on the platform. After Muslim protests, the Deputy Commissioner prohibited any temple construction on 19 January 1885.
11. On 27 January 1885, Raghubar Das, the Hindu mahant (priest) of the Ram Chabutara filed a civil suit before the Faizabad Sub-Judge. In response, the mutawalli (Muslim trustee) of the mosque argued that the entire land belonged to the mosque.
12. On 24 December 1885, the Sub Judge Pandit Hari Kishan Singh dismissed the suit.
13. On 18 March 1886, the District Judge F.E.A. Chamier also dismissed an appeal against the lower court judgment. He agreed that the mosque was built on the land considered sacred by the Hindus, but ordered maintenance of status quo, since it was "too late now to remedy the grievance". 
14. A subsequent appeal before the Judicial Commissioner W. Young was also dismissed on 1 November 1886.
15. On 27 March 1934, a Hindu–Muslim riot occurred in Ayodhya, triggered by cow slaughter in the nearby Shahjahanpur village. The walls made around the Masjid in British period and one of the domes of the Masjid were damaged during the riots.
16. In 1936, the United Provinces government enacted U.P. Muslim Waqf Act for the better administration of waqf properties in the state. In accordance with this act, the Babri Masjid and its adjacent graveyard (Ganj-e-Saheedan Qabristan) were registered as Waqf no. 26 Faizabad with the UP Sunni Central Board of Waqfs. The Shias disputed the Sunni ownership of the mosque, claiming that the site belonged to them because Mir Baqi was a Shia.
17. The Commissioner of Waqfs initiated an inquiry into the dispute. The inquiry concluded that the mosque belonged to the Sunnis, since it was commissioned by Babur, who was a Sunni. 
18. In December 1949, the Hindu organisation Akhil Bharatiya Ramayana Mahasabha organised a non-stop 9-day recitation of the Ramacharitamanas just outside the mosque.
19. At the end of this event, on the night of 22–23 December 1949, a group of 50–60 people entered the mosque and placed idols of Rama and Sita there. On the morning of 23 December, the event organisers asked Hindu devotees to come to the mosque for a darshan.
20. As thousands of Hindus started visiting the place, the Government declared the mosque a disputed area and locked its gates.
21. Home Minister V. Patel and PM Nehru directed the state's CM G. B. Pant and UP Home Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri to have the idols removed from the mosque premises. Pant issued orders to remove the idols, but Faizabad's deputy commissioner K. K. Nayar feared that the Hindus would retaliate and pleaded inability to carry out the orders.
22. On 16 January 1950, Gopal Singh Visharad filed a civil suit in the Faizabad Court, asking that Hindus be allowed to worship Rama and Sita at the place.
23. In 1959, the Nirmohi Akhara filed another lawsuit demanding possession of the mosque. 
24. On 18 December 1961, the Sunni Central Waqf Board also filed a lawsuit, demanding possession of the site and removal of idols from the mosque premises.
25. Book Name – ‘Yuddh Mein Ayodhya’ by Hemand Sharma
26. In April 1984, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) initiated a campaign to gather public support for Hindu access to the Babri Masjid and other structures that had been allegedly built over Hindu shrines.
27. To raise public awareness, VHP planned nationwide rath yatras (chariot processions), the first of which took place in September–October 1984, from Sitamarhi to Ayodhya.
28. The campaign was temporarily suspended after assassination of Indira Gandhi, but revived in from 25 places on 23 October 1985.
29. On 25 January 1986, a 28-year-old local lawyer Umesh Chandra Pandey, appealed to a court to remove the restrictions on Hindu worship in the Babri Masjid premises.
30. Subsequently, the Rajiv Gandhi government ordered the locks on the Babri Masjid gates to be removed.
31. Earlier, the only Hindu ceremony permitted at the site was a Hindu priest performing an annual puja. After the ruling, all Hindus were given access to the site, and the mosque gained some function as a Hindu temple.
32. Communal tension in the region worsened when the VHP received permission to perform a shilanyas (stone-laying ceremony) at the disputed site before the national election in November 1989. 
33. A senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, L K Advani, started a rath yatra, embarking on a 10,000 km journey starting from the south and heading towards Ayodhya.
34. On 6 December 1992, BJP, VHP and RSS leaders gathered at the site to offer prayers and perform a symbolic kar seva.
35. At noon, a teenage Kar Sevak (volunteer) was "vaulted" on to the dome and that signalled the breaking of the outer cordon. Soon after, a large number of kar sevaks demolished the mosque.
36. In 2003, by the order of an Indian court, the Archaeological Survey of India  (ASI) was asked to conduct a more in-depth study and an excavation to ascertain the type of structure that was beneath the rubble.
37. The excavation was conducted from 12 March 2003 to 7 August 2003, resulting in 1360 discoveries. The ASI submitted its 500 + pages report to the Allahabad high court.
38. The summary of the ASI report indicated what appears to be the presence of a 10th-century shrine under the mosque.[
39. According to the ASI team, the human activity at the site dates back to the 13th century BC. 
40. The next few layers date back to the Shunga period (second-first century BC) and the Kushan period.
41. During the early medieval period (11–12th century), a but short-lived huge structure of nearly 50 metres north-south orientation was constructed.
42. On the remains of this structure, another massive structure was constructed: this structure had at least three structural phases and three successive floors attached with it. The report concluded that it was over the top of this construction that the disputed structure was constructed during the early 16th century.
43. Muslim groups immediately disputed the ASI findings. The Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust (Sahmat) criticised the report saying that it said that "presence of animal bones throughout as well as of the use of 'surkhi' and lime mortar" that was found by ASI are all characteristic of Muslim presence "that rule out the possibility of a Hindu temple having been there beneath the mosque.“
44. Syed Rabe Hasan Nadvi, chairman of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) alleged that ASI failed to mention any evidence of a temple in its interim reports and only revealed it in the final report which was submitted during a time of national tension, making the report highly suspect.
45. The Allahabad High Court, however, upheld the ASI's findings.
46. A land title case on the site was lodged in the Allahabad High Court, the verdicts of which was pronounced on 30 September 2010. 
47. In their verdict, the three judges of The Allahabad High Court ruled that the 2.77 acres (1.12 ha) of Ayodhya land be divided into 3 parts, with 1/3 going to the Ram Lalla or Infant Lord Rama represented by the Hindu Maha Sabha for the construction of the Ram temple, 1/3 going to the Islamic Sunni Waqf Board and the remaining 1/3 going to a Hindu religious denomination Nirmohi Akhara. 
48. The excavations by the Archaeological Survey of India were heavily used as evidence by the court that the predating structure was a massive Hindu religious building.
49. The five judges Supreme Court bench heard the title dispute cases from August to October 2019.
50. On 9 November 2019, the Supreme Court ordered the land to be handed over to a trust to build the Hindu temple. It also ordered to the government to give alternate 5 acre land to Sunni Waqf Board to build the mosque.

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