Keeping up with UP | Focus on Gyanvapi survey but Muslims ask ‘what about the Places of Worship Act?’
With the Places of Worship Act challenged in the Supreme Court, many mosque complexes have come under the scanner of Hindu groups claiming historical ownership
Sometime in the mid-1990s, a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) functionary in Mumbai had said, “The birthplaces of Ram, Krishna and the abode of Shiva (Kashi) will be liberated one day, notwithstanding the Places of Worship Act, 1991.”
The RSS functionary’s statement had sounded unbelievable at the time because the Narasimha Rao government in September 1991 had brought in the Places of Worship Act at a time when the Ram Janmabhoomi temple movement in Ayodhya was at its peak. The Act had provided for the “maintenance of the religious character of any place of worship as it existed on the 15th day of August 1947 or for the matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.”
Only the disputed shrine in Ayodhya was exempted from the provisions of the Act.
On December 6, 1992, the Babri Masjid was demolished. The trial in the Ayodhya case continued and eventually on November 9, 2019, the Supreme Court delivered its final judgement, handing over the disputed land to the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Kshetra Samiti trust to build the Ram Janmabhoomi temple. While delivering its verdict, the apex court reiterated the Places of Worship Act, saying it manifests the secular value of the Constitution and prohibits retrogression.
The Ram temple is near completion and is scheduled to be inaugurated in January 2024.
Meanwhile, the Places of Worship Act, too, has been challenged in the apex court on various grounds, including the plea that it takes away the right of judicial remedy to reclaim a place of worship. The court has asked the Centre to respond to the Public Interest Litigations and has granted time till October 31, 2023, to submit its reply.
As of today, the Kashi and Mathura shrines (considered by Hindus to be the abode of Shiva and the birthplace of Krishna, respectively), are very much on the agenda of the Sangh Parivar, and neither are exempted from the act’s provisions. In other words, the status quo of their religious character, as of August 15, 1947, has to be maintained.
However, Hindus who filed their first petition in the court in 1991 to reclaim Gyanvapi – the mosque complex in Kashi – believe that the twin temples of Kashi and Mathura existed before August 15, 1947 and thus would not contravene the above law.
At the same time, the Muslim community — including those who worship at the mosque — find solace in the Places of Worship Act, which prohibits conversion of religious places.
There is both hope and despair as the temple/mosque issue is hotly debated on the streets of Varanasi as a survey of the Gyanvapi mosque is underway and cases are pending in various courts. The case pertaining to the survey is listed for hearing on September 8.
On August 3, the Allahabad High Court gave the go-ahead for a scientific survey to be conducted by a team of experts from the ASI. Various Hindu groups have demanded a survey of the complex since 1991, a demand that was stiffly opposed by the Anjuman Islamia Masjid Committee (AIMC).
On September 2, the ASI sought eight more weeks to submit its report on the Gyanvapi mosque survey. October promises to be a crucial month.
Hopes raised
The ongoing survey has raised the hopes of many Hindus: With the Kashi-Vishwanath corridor ready, they believe ‘it’s anytime now’.
Pilgrims have thronged Kashi from across the country since Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Kashi Vishwanath corridor built with red stone on December 13, 2021.
Visitors cannot miss the cordoned off and heavily barricaded mosque in white, barely 30 metres away from the sanctum sanctorum.
Within a year of its opening, the Corridor had attracted 7.35 crores pilgrims from across the country. Over 1.57 crore pilgrims had visited it between July and August — the Hindu month of Sawan — and the numbers explain the pull of the new corridor.
Given the enthusiasm shown by pilgrims, it’s evident that the petitioners and stakeholders are pinning their hopes on the survey. Advocate Vijay Shankar Rastogi said the ongoing survey will provide scientific evidence of a temple pre-existing as a mosque.
"Yes, there is enough evidence in history to prove a temple was demolished to build a mosque. But only a survey can provide the scientific and pramanik (authoritative) evidence," Rastogi said.
A sense of despondency, on the other hand, has seemingly engulfed Muslims who after the demolition of the Babri mosque in Ayodhya had taken solace in the fact that the other two shrines, on the list of the Sangh Parivar, would remain protected.
Their confidence also stems from the fact that unlike in Ayodhya, temples existed in Kashi and Mathura. Scepticism about the situation prevails among the community.
SM Yasin, joint secretary of AIMC, questioned the comparison of Kashi and Ayodhya disputes. “No namaaz was offered in the Babri mosque after 1949, whereas Gyanvapi is a functional mosque where five-time namaaz is offered.”
“Then what about the Places of Worship Act 1991? It clearly states that the status quo of the religious character of any shrine would stay,” Yasin said when asked about a temple possibly pre-dating a mosque.
The survey is not going to decide the title of the shrine, Yasin claims.
Advocate Akhlaque Ahmad said the lawsuit was not maintainable under the Places of Worship Act.
But the Hindu side is clear as they say that unlike in Ayodhya Hindu inscriptions have reportedly been found on one of the walls of the mosque.
Legal Battle
As many as 22 cases are pending in various courts from Varanasi to the Supreme Court.
A legal battle to “reclaim” the temple began in 1991 when, for the first time Pandit Somnath Vyas, Vijay Shankar Rastogi and others, filed a petition in a local court in Varanasi on behalf of the deity — Swayambhu Jyotirlinga Bhagwan Vishweshwar — seeking permission to worship in the Gyanvapi area.
The petitioners claimed that the Muslims had occupied parts of the temple complex and built a mosque there.
After the demolition of the mosque, the VHP-RSS temporarily shelved their “Kashi andolan” (movement) while the legal cases went into abeyance.
Rastogi explained the 22-year-long hiatus: "The matter is pending in various courts and there was a stay for almost 22 years from 1998 to 2020. The cases were revived after the apex court in 2021 limited the validity of the stays for six months.”
In fact, on December 10, 2019, an application was filed in the court of the civil judge, requesting a survey of the entire Gyanvapi compound by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to verify the claims of the Hindu community that the mosque was built in 1664 on the ruins of an ancient Shiva temple and settle the ownership issue. This was opposed by AIMC, which manages the Gyanvapi mosque.
In August 2021, five women plaintiffs moved a local court in Varanasi seeking permission to worship the idols of Shringar Gauri and other deities in the Gyanvapi compound daily.
Their contention was that they were given only one hour in a year — on the Chaturthi of Chaitra Navratri — to worship Shringar Gauri.
The matter went up to the Supreme Court, which directed the Varanasi district judge to decide if it was maintainable.
District judge Ajay Krishna Vishwesha, on September 12, 2022, observed, “According to the pleadings of the plaintiffs, they were worshipping Maa Shringar Gauri, Lord Hanuman, Lord Ganesha at the disputed site incessantly since a long time till 1993. After 1993, they were allowed to worship the above-mentioned Gods only once a year under the regulations of the state of Uttar Pradesh. Thus, according to the plaintiffs, they worshipped Maa Shringar Gauri and others at the disputed place regularly even after 15 August 1947. Therefore, the Places of Worship Act, 1991 does not operate as a bar on the suit of the plaintiff and the suit of the plaintiffs is not barred by section 9 of the Act.”
Rekha Pathak, one of the plaintiffs, said: “Since my childhood in the 1970s, I have been going regularly with my parents to worship Shringar Gauri. Earlier we used to perform puja from inside the barricading, while now we do it from outside.”
Advocate Ahmad, quoted earlier, disputed it, insisting no 'puja' has ever been performed on the outer wall of the Masjid. In fact, prayers are offered almost 25-30 feet away from the mosque.
A mention of a wall on the western side of the mosque with Hindu deities has been made by Rana PB Singh and Pravin S Rana, in their research paper on ‘The Kashi Vishwanath, Varanasi: Construction, Destruction and Resurrection to Heritagisation’, published in 2022.
It says, “In 1669, the temple was demolished by the order of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, and today, the Gyanvapi mosque stands (71 high minarets) on its site. As it would have been only a little additional trouble for Aurangzeb to order the demolition of the entire temple, one can only assume that the back portion was consciously spared as a warning and insult to the feelings of the city’s Hindu population.”
“[A] century later in 1780, by the patronage of Queen Ahilyabai Holkar of Indore, the present temple of Vishwanatha was completed. By the 19th century, the whole area surrounding the Vishwanatha temple became the sanctuary of gods and godlings attached to Lord Shiva and his family,” they write.
Singh and Rana are both professors at Banaras Hindu University and have cited Puranic as well as other historically researched sources.
When asked since when women have been worshipping Shringar Gauri on the outer wall of the mosque, Yasin said: “There are two walls- inner and outer- in the mosque. The Shringar Gauri sthal is nearly 25 ft away from the Gyanvapi Mosque. This place, (where Hindus offer prayers once a year), is outside the barricaded area of the mosque."
From her perch in Lucknow, HT’s resident editor Sunita Aron highlights important issues related to Uttar Pradesh
One Subscription.
Get 360° coverage—from daily headlines
to 100 year archives.
HT App & Website
