Ayodhya's Muslims sigh, shake their heads, and hope to move on

With the ostentatious inauguration of the Ram Mandir by Prime Minister Narendra Modi scheduled for Monday (January 22), Ayodhya is expectedly intoxicated with a heady cocktail of religious fervour and Hindutva grandstanding.

Yet, the streets and by-lanes located close to the temple’s outer iron fencing present an image in contrast with gun-toting khaki-clad cops of Uttar Pradesh’s Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) stationed at every step and residents of the area’s two Muslim-dominated localities going about their daily lives tentatively with an ominous air filled with fear and anxiety.

In sheer numerical terms, the Hindus far outnumber Muslims in Ayodhya town. The estimated 5,000 Muslim residents of the town are only a minuscule percentage of the otherwise robust population of 4 lakh that the religious minority has across the erstwhile Faizabad district, which was renamed Ayodhya a few years back.

Skewed population

This disparity between the small population of the community in Ayodhya town and their significant concentration elsewhere within the district of the same name wasn’t always so.

Locals recall that a slow migration of Muslims from the temple town began shortly after BJP stalwart LK Advani’s hate and bigotry spewing Ram Rath Yatra began trudging from Somnath towards Ayodhya in September 1980 with the avowed aim of ‘Mandir wahin banayenge’ ('we will build the temple only there').

Over two years later, on December 6, 1992, when charged Hindu mobs of the Sangh Parivar, mobilised by the likes of Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Ashok Singhal, Sadhvi Rithambhara, Uma Bharti, Vinay Katiyar, Mahant Nritya Gopal Das and others, eventually razed the Babri Masjid, just as the late Atal Behari Vajpayee had famously instructed “even the ground” (zameen ko samtal karna padega), that slow migration turned into a full blown exodus.

In the over three decades since the demolition of the Babri Masjid and the escalation of Hindutva politics, the Muslim population of Ayodhya town thinned – perhaps a portentous acquiescence to a doomed fate that the community had resigned itself to while the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title suit remained pending before the Supreme Court.

Uncertain future

With the court finally ruling in favour of Ram Lalla Virajman, paving way for his temple’s construction and the consecration that is scheduled for Monday, the few Muslims who continue to reside in Ayodhya town now nervously stare at an uncertain future, their only abiding hope being “sab shanti se ho jaye ("may everything go off peacefully") so that they can “move on”.

As one walks around the temple town, it is evident that the khaki-clad exceed by hundreds, if not thousands, the Muslims residing in the localities close to the temple. Two such localities where heightened police presence and the resultant scepticism and nervousness within the Muslim community are palpable are Daurai Kuan and Dharam Kanta Panjitola.

The local administration and police, predictably and, perhaps, rightly, maintain that the heavy bandobast (security deployment) is simply because these localities are closer to the outer periphery of the new temple and Monday is expected to witness massive VIP movement in the town, including that of the event’s principal showstopper, Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Growing concerns

However, residents of the area wonder if the cops would have been present in similar numbers if the localities around the temple were populated only by the Hindu majority.

Allegations of constant intimidation by the administration and the local BJP leaders and workers fly thick and fast as do expressions of fear among Muslims of losing their ancestral homes that are located in these areas.

Locals recall, in hushed voices, how in the immediate aftermath of the Babri Masjid’s demolition, Hindutva hotheads had gone on a rampage around the town, vandalising other smaller mosques as well as commercial establishments and homes of the minority community in these very areas.

Fear of losing home

A few houses, local Muslims residents claim, have already been pulled down on the pretext of beautification and landscaping of the area around the temple; though thankfully, after payment of compensation to the Muslim owners, who, perhaps, had no choice but to accept and “move on”.

Most elderly Muslim residents choose to maintain a studied silence on the goings on but the younger lot is vocal in expressing apprehensions of what awaits their community.

“The house of one of our neighbours was demolished a few days back and I will not be surprised if our turn comes next...I don’t know where my parents and I will go,” observed a 16-year-old, while pointing towards the debris of a house close by.

Another school-going girl drew this scribe’s attention towards the huge contingent of policemen patrolling down the road. “We are constantly being watched,” she remarked reluctantly while an elderly woman concurred but refused to divulge her identity. “We have been told not to entertain any guests and to inform the police immediately if any guests do come to stay with us," she said.

'Categorial assurance'

Mohammad Azam Qadri, who heads the local sub-committee of UP Sunni Central Waqf Board, however, tried to underplay the tensions that otherwise rent the air.

Stating that the local administration had assured Muslims of “complete safety”, Qadri said, “I personally conveyed the apprehensions of the people of this locality through a formal written application to the Inspector General of Police…I was given a categorical assurance that no Muslim living here will be harassed.”

The Sunni Waqf Board member, however, admitted that given the scars of what his community faced in Ayodhya after the Babri Masjid’s demolition – excesses that were compounded by a “partisan administration” that remained mute spectator to the destruction and mayhem – “there is fear” among Muslims of Ayodhya today, too. “If the administration and the police are strict, vigilant and unbiased, then we have nothing to fear,” Qadri added, expressing hope that his expectation isn’t too much.

Qadri also clarified that the demolition of houses and commercial establishments – owned by both Hindus and Muslims – in the area over the past year or so were done “in conformity” with the government’s rules of acquisition. Displaced persons were “duly paid compensation” without any discrimination based on faith, he said.

Mosque on target

Panjitola resident Meraj (36) makes kharauns, a special wooden footwear worn by Hindu religious priests. His small house-cum-workshop is right behind a portion of the Ram Mandir’s outer fencing.

Cops perched on tall watch-towers nearby keep constant vigil on this area, making Meraj’s 70-year old mother, Mehrunissa, “scared to even sit freely outside” her home. “I keep praying to Allah for our safety,” she said. Meraj added: “We don’t know what will happen tomorrow."

An old mosque on the main road in the locality "has been on the VHP’s (Vishva Hindu Parishad, an RSS affiliate) target” and local Muslims claim several attempts have been made by members of the Hindu far-right organisation “to take it over”.

Mehrunissa said the VHP had forced an official of the mosque to sell the place of worship “but residents of this area protested”, following which the sale was stalled.

Wooing prominent faces

Locals say the administration has managed to “win over some prominent Muslims of the area”, including Iqbal Ansari, the son of the late Hashim Ansari, the main Muslim petitioner in the Babri Masjid title suit for over six decades.

Iqbal gained prominence only as son of the “oldest Muslim litigant in the Babri case”. But, his recent averments hailing Ram Mandir and welcoming Modi to inaugurate it have earned him the taint of being “totally compromised”.

For the BJP and the wider Sangh Parivar, Iqbal Ansari’s statements are the vocalisation of “acceptance” by the entire Muslim community of Ram Lalla’s ownership rights over the site where the Babri Masjid once stood.

'Ideal Muslim'

Iqbal’s repeated calls exclusively to Muslims to maintain peace and harmony as well as the high praise he has recently begun to heap on Modi are being widely hailed as the validation of everything that the BJP and the Sangh Parivar have said and done with respect to the Ram Mandir – be it its construction now or the Babri Masjid’s demolition then.

In exchange, the prodigal son of Hashim Ansari is being projected within Ayodhya and beyond by the saffron brigade as the “ideal Indian Muslim”.

The narrative, obviously, would not have been as rosy had other Muslims of Ayodhya been allowed to speak freely and given the same screen-time by media outlets as Iqbal.