Chronology

1990

May: The President of the Ram Janambhoomi Samiti (Ram's birth place committee) M. Avaidhyanath has warned the country that construction work on a Ram temple at Ayodhya, the site of Lord Ram's birth place, in India's northern state of Uttar Pradesh, will start after June 8. This is when the 4-month period sought by the government to settle the dispute expires (Xinhua News Service, 05/21/90). In November last year, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP, World Hindu Council) held the foundation laying ceremony and indicated that construction of the temple would start on February 14, 1990. The VHP submitted a memorandum to the Prime Minister to this effect (see the December 1992 entry for a brief background on the Ayodhya dispute).

September: Police opened fire on Hindus during an attempt to demolish the Babri mosque. As a result, dozens of Hindu devotees were killed. The assault was led by the Hindu fundamentalist Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP, Indian Peoples Party) which has become a major party in recent years.

October: The government of V.P. Singh was toppled by a no-confidence vote in Parliament, in which Ayodhya was a major issue. Chandra Shekhar of the Janata Dal (Peoples Party, with 54 of the 495 seats) has become the new Prime Minister. Several hundred people have died since he took office, many of them in continuing clashes over Ayodhya.

December: At least 23 people died in some of the worst violence between Hindus and Muslims during the month.

1991

January: Iran's President Rafsanzani told visiting Indian Deputy Foreign Secretary M. Dubey that recent violence between Hindu extremists and Muslims was against Delhi's interests in its ties with Muslim states. "Once Indian Muslims feel safer, the Islamic world's co-operation with India will increase more than even before and this is useful to all" (BBC, 11/10/91).

The Persian Gulf crisis has deepened religious and political divisions in India between Hindus, the overwhelming majority, and the Muslim minority. A riot broke out near New Delhi when Muslims held a pro-Iraq rally. At least 10 people were killed.

February: The government has banned US military aircraft from re-fuelling in Bombay and Madras on their way from the Philippines to the Persian Gulf. The ban was apparently imposed after reports that Mr. Gandhi, who has opposed the re-fuelling on the grounds that it violates India's non-alignment, would withdraw his Congress (I) party's support for the government unless it was stopped. His move is actually aimed at pleasing 110 million Muslims who had abandoned their support for his party in recent elections. His party's traditional vote-bank of Brahmins (highest caste), Muslims and Harijans (Untouchables) is under siege from several quarters. The BJP has won over many Brahmins, who influence voting trends among many high-caste voters. Other parties are also wooing Muslims and Harijans.

June: Muslims in Uttar Pradesh, India's largest state, expressed fear and concern over the new BJP state government. Uttar Pradesh has been a bellwether for the nation and has provided 7 of 9 Prime Ministers since independence. Muslims fear that in the event of new riots, the government and Hindu-dominated police forces would be partial to Hindus, who account for 83% of the state's 139 million people. As an example, the Muslims point to the Provincial Armed Constabulary, a special state police unit often accused of selectively killing Muslims and burning their homes when riots have occurred (The Associated Press, 06/30/91).

August: A meeting of Muslim leaders, which might have been a show of unity against the BJP state government, ended with them outshouting each other and exposing rank disunity. The host was the Imam of Jama Masjid, Delhi's biggest mosque. But many from the Babri Mosque Action Committee saw the Imam's show as an exercise aimed at projecting himself as the sole leader of the Muslims -- a move that ran counter to a recent agreement among various Muslim leaders to put up a united front over issues like Ayodhya. It had also been resolved that differences should not be publicly aired and that any consultations with the government should be proceeded by talks among the community leadership (Saudi Gazette, 08/07/91).

November: During his visit to Tehran, the Indian Foreign Minister M. Solanki explained that the Indian administration has adopted new policies to safeguard the rights of minorities within the framework of "secularism". His Iranian counterpart Akbar Velayati noted that Muslims constitute a big minority in India and that the Islamic Republic is interested in the fate of Muslims, no matter where they are in the world (BBC, 11/12/91).

1992

September: As part of a $30 million program of the Jeddah-based Islamic Development Bank for the assistance of Muslims in India, the Board of Executive Directors agreed to provide a grant of $130,000 for the building of a vocational training center that will benefit male and female students in the state of Haryana. The state lacks any technical school that works under the supervision of the Islamic society.

December: A mob of thousands of Hindu militants stormed the Babri Mosque on 12/06/92 and demolished it with sledgehammers and their bare hands. Four Hindus were killed and at least 100 were injured by falling debris. Addressing the country, Prime Minister N. Rao spoke of "the grave threat that has been posed to the institutions, principles and ideals on which the constitutional structure of our republic has been built...is a matter of great shame and concern for all Indians" (The New York Times,12/7/92). "This is similar to what happened in Germany in the 30's", said V.P. Singh, former Prime Minister. Singh asserted that "First they created an enemy and then they kept working on them and working on them". He was arrested near Ayodhya while trying to lead a protest march against the Hindus.

Some 1,200 people were killed, according to official figures, in riots between Hindus and Muslims in a few days following the destruction of the mosque.

Just the week before the demolition, the Indian Supreme Court ruled that a Hindu temple should not be constructed on the land occupied in part by the mosque, and that the mosque itself should remain undamaged. Several Hindu leaders and the state government of Uttar Pradesh run by the BJP said they would obey the court's injunction. The leader of the BJP, L.K. Advani, resigned after taking moral responsibility for the attack.

In several cities in Bangladesh, thousands of protesters demonstrated against the destruction of the mosque. One person was killed by police fire, temples were attacked and Hindu businesses ransacked.

Pakistan reacted strongly and called for a countrywide strike today. The Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif expressed deep anguish over the attack and called on all Pakistanis to register their protest by closing all businesses and holding rallies (Times, 12/08/92). Some 40 people including 10 Hindus were killed in Pakistan during the protest. Sharif said Pakistan would seek assurances in the UN for the security of Muslims in India (UPI, 12/12/92). The Pakistani leader was in Dhaka where he met his Bangladeshi counterpart and Sri Lankan President R. Premadasa. The impromptu meeting was arranged after a summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) had to be postponed last week because India's Prime Minister could not attend. Premadasa is reported to have kept out of the controversy, but Bangladeshi leader Khaleda Zia is backing Sharif's plan to raise the issue in international meetings.

The Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) accused the Indian government of allowing Hindu extremists to demolish the Babri Mosque and demanded that it punish the culprits. "The entire Islamic World was shocked by the heinous and premeditated crime against an Islamic symbol of value, not to Muslims in India alone, but to Muslims everywhere", said Hamid al-Gabid, Secretary General of the OIC, which represents 50 nations with approximately a billion Muslims (The New York Times, 12/07/92).

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah A. Khomenei warned that Muslims should not tolerate such desecration. "The Muslims in Iran and elsewhere stand behind the Muslims in India and would never allow them to be subjected to such blatant oppression and insult", he said in a message read on Tehran radio (The Ethnic Newswatch, 12/11/92). Other Muslim countries including Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Afghanistan sent protest notes to New Delhi.

Japan expressed deep concern over the recent bloodshed in India stemming from animosity between Hindus and Muslims, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said in a news conference. The Japanese reaction coincided with reports that the number of people killed in 5 days of rioting across India exceeded 1,000 (Japan Economic Newswire, 12/11/91).

Brief Background on the Babri Mosque Issue

Hindus and the Muslims have been confronting each other over the issue of the Ram Janambhoomi-Babri Masjid (mosque) for many years. However, due to the government's mediation efforts, the dispute remained peaceful until December 1992.

At the very site selected for construction of the Ram temple stands the Babri mosque, believed by Hindus to have been built after the demolition of a Hindu temple by Babar who came from Central Asia and founded the Muslim Mughal dynasty in India in the early 16th century. Muslims say the claim is spurious and lacks historical evidence. Historians are divided: some point to the stone used in building the mosque -- it has carvings of Hindu deities, suggesting the mosque was built from the remains of a temple. But there is no evidence that the spot is the exact birthplace of Ram, the Hindu god incarnation.

A court threw out a lawsuit brought by a Hindu priest in 1885. In 1949, a statue of Ram was spirited into the mosque. A court ordered the mosque locked, thus preventing peoples of both religions from squabbling over it. In 1986 riots followed a court ruling that allowed Hindus to have access to the site for worship.

1993

July: The Saudi government recently issued instructions banning the employment of Hindus in the Kingdom. The move follows appeals by the Muslim community to prohibit the employment of Hindus in the wake of the destruction of the historical Babri Mosque and the massacre of Muslims in India. Henceforth, only Muslims and Christians from India would be employed. Big construction companies in Saudi Arabia have already started implementing the new instructions, the Egyptian newspaper Al-Nour reported. (07/17/93). An estimated 2 million Hindus are working in the Persian Gulf Arab states.

September: Muslims in India are split over their divorce law. Reformers and women groups oppose traditional Islamic practice. The reformers' attempt to make it more difficult for a husband to divorce his wife suffered a blow early this month when the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board of prominent theologians upheld the old traditions. The practice of instant divorce among Muslims was enshrined in the judicial code by the British Privy Council in 1939. Now it can only be changed by the Supreme Court or the Parliament.

October: Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khomenei told visiting Indian leader N. Rao to curb Hindu fanaticism and find a solution to the conflict in Kashmir. The Iranian leader also urged that the government of India rebuild the Babri Mosque (The Ethnic Newswatch, 10/01/93).

November: Muslims and lower caste Hindus set aside their religious differences in Uttar Pradesh to forge a political alliance to fight for their common advancement. They stunned the political establishment by winning the state elections this month, over the Hindu fundamentalist BJP.

1994

June: A circular issued by the Indian Army Headquarters barring defense personnel from offering regular Friday prayers during work has stirred a controversy, according to a report from the Press Trust of India (PTI). The All-India Muslim Forum has condemned the circular. The national convener of the Forum said that such a restriction is perhaps the first of its kind in any country and that it will badly shatter the faith of the Muslim community in the concept of secularism. He said the Friday prayers are one of the most essential Islamic practices and can be offered only in collective form. The Forum has already faxed a copy of the circular to the Prime Minister and parliamentary members (Xinhua News Agency, 06/14/94).

August: On India's independence day (August 15), eight Hindu activists were killed by police in Karnataka as they sought to hoist the Indian national flag on the grounds of a Muslim mosque (UPI, 10/25/94).

October: A dispute between Hindus and Muslims over language has led to riots, arson and the deaths of 17 people in Bangalore, the country's fast-growing capital of high technology in the south. The spark for two days of turmoil in Bangalore, India's version of the Silicon Valley and home to branch offices of many US computer and software companies, was a new 10-minute daily TV broadcast in Urdu, the idiom of the Mughal empire, which today is spoken by over 130 million Muslims in India and Pakistan.

The BJP in the south-central Karnataka state accused the ruling Congress of launching the Urdu newscast to pander Muslim voters before the state election next month. Ten minutes a day might not seem objectionable, since 9% of Karnataka's 45 million people classify themselves as Urdu-speakers, but language has often been a source of divisive, violent politics in India. In fact, it was the reason Karnataka, known then as Mysore, was created in 1956 from the Kannada-speaking areas of five southern states. For years, activists in the state have forced the government to cut back on the use of English, the language of India's old colonial master, Britain. They also remain militantly opposed to the penetration of Hindi, the Indo-European language the Constitution enshrines as India's official lingua franca (Los Angeles Times, 10/09/94).

Update 03/15/96

October 9: The Karnataka government has decided to withdraw the Urdu news bulletin from state television following the violence that has occurred in Banglore (see above) (Xinhua News Agency, 10/09/94).

October 24: India's Supreme Court has refused to advise the central government on a bitter religious dispute between Hindus and Muslims. The government had sought the court's advice on whether a Hindu temple had once existed at Ayodhya. However, the Supreme Court did uphold the government's takeover of the 67-acre site. In another ruling, former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kalyan Singh, a prominent BJP leader, was sentenced to one day in jail for building a platform at the disputed site in 1991 (Reuters, 10/24/94).

1995

February: The outlawed Vishwa Hindu Parishad has vowed to "liberate" three disputed religious sites including Ayodhya. The other two sites, at Varanasi and Mathura, also contain mosques that radical Hindus have threatened to destroy. The areas are currently under central government control (UPI, 02/25/95).

March: The ruling Congress Party lost state elections in the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat while winning in the eastern state of Orissa. In Maharashtra, India's third largest state, a partnership of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Shiv Sena will form the government. The Shiv Sena is reported to have targeted Muslims during the rioting after the Ayodhya mosque demolition; its leader, Bal Thackeray openly admires Adolf Hitler. Analysts indicate that the Congress losses confirm rising disenchantment among its traditional support base, (e.g. the Muslims). Polls reveal that many Muslims are angry at the Congress' limited response to rising Hindu-Muslim tensions (Washington Post, 03/14/95).

March 21: Two people were killed and dozens wounded as violence broke out between Hindus and Muslims in the southern Indian city of Hubli, in Karnataka state. The clash arose as Hindus celebrating the end of the festival of Holi stopped their musical procession in front of a mosque (UPI, 03/21/95).

March 31: The Indian government has indicated that it will take action against Bal Thackeray, the leader of Maharashtra's ruling Shiv Sena. Thackeray has made a series of comments directed against the state's minority Muslim population. He has stated that illegal Bangladeshi Muslims were plotting to assassinate him and thus he ordered his party workers to "wipe out" the immigrant Muslim community. Thackeray does not hold any official position in the Maharashtra government although he publicly flaunts his position as a "remote control chief minister" (UPI, 03/31/95).

April: The screening of a controversial film about the Hindu-Muslim riots in India during December 1992 and January 1993 has been banned for a week in Bombay. The film, titled "Bombay" revolves around a Muslim woman and a Hindu man who fall in love and get married. The leader of the Indian Union Muslim League, G.M. Banatwalla, says that the film is anti-Muslim, as it shows Muslims as aggressive and hostile and the initiators of the riots. The film was withdrawn in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka following Muslim protests (Reuters, 04/07/95).

April 15: Leaders of the Muslim community urged fellow Muslims to boycott the film "Bombay" after a ban on the film's screening was lifted in Bombay. Police have deployed reserve units to prevent any communal violence (Reuters, 04/15/95).

April 15: Clashes between Hindus and Muslims in the southern state of Tamil Nadu have resulted in the deaths of two people. Eight others were injured while more than 60 people were arrested. The clashes were sparked by the bombing of a radical Hindu party's headquarters (UPI, 04/15/95).

June: Members of the All India Muslim Unity Forum met with Indian President Shankar Dayal Sharma and urged him to unconditionally release all "innocent people" detained under the country's Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act. They also wanted cases against Muslims registered during the Ayodhya riots to be withdrawn (BBC, 06/26/95).

July: The chief of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a fundamentalist Hindu group with close ties with the BJP, says that Muslims will not be subject to discrimination under the rule of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Professor Rajendra Singh also stated that the RSS did not support any special treatment for minorities. The BJP's election planks include the issues of a uniform civil code and polygamy -- matters that are of vital concern to the Muslim community (BBC, 07/19/95).

July 28: Tens of thousands of Muslims protested in New Delhi against the suffering of Muslims in Bosnia. They also burned an effigy of UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali. Diplomats indicate that Delhi's long-time ties with Moscow, a traditional ally of the Serbs, could have prevented it from taking a high-profile position in Bosnia (Reuters, 07/28/95).

July 28: Over 2000 demonstrators gathered in Bombay to protest the Maharashtra state government's proposal to ban the slaughter of bulls and buffaloes. All but two of India's states already have laws protecting cows which are sacred to the country's Hindu majority. The prohibition would severely affect Christians, Muslims, and some segments of the Dalits (untouchables) who consume beef (UPI, 07/28/95).

August: Four Hindu women have won their Supreme Court case against their husbands who converted to Islam and then remarried. The court ruled that the husbands had converted "only for the purpose of escaping the consequences of bigamy". It also directed the federal government to establish a uniform civil code by August 1996. Currently, Hindus, Muslims, Christians, and tribal groups are allowed to have their own laws to govern religion, marriage, and family life. Previous Indian leaders have backed down from establishing a uniform code in the face of protests from minority communities (Asiaweek, 08/18/95).

August 29: The city of Bombay has held back the release of Salman Rushdie's new novel, The Last Moor's Sigh, fearing that it could spark violence. A character in the book appears to be a thinly veiled parody of Bombay's right-wing Shiv Sena leader, Bal Thackeray. However, the book has been released in every other major Indian city (UPI, 08/29/95).

December: On December 6, the third anniversary of the destruction of the Babri Masjid mosque, thousands of armed troops

patrolled the city of Ayodhya. More than 400 Hindu and Muslim fundamentalists were rounded up as they headed to the ruins of the mosque to offer prayers. The government also imposed a ban on the assembly of more than five people in Ayodhya in order to avert a renewal of Hindu-Muslim violence. Over 1200 people were killed during riots in India after Hindus destroyed the mosque in 1992 (UPI, 12/06/95).

In the southern city of Madurai, Muslim mobs set fire to a bus and threw stones at several shops owned by Hindus. Many opposition members of Parliament also staged a walkout to protest what they believe is the government's inability to resolve the Ayodhya dispute (UPI, 12/06/95).

December 7: More than 17 people were injured during clashes between Hindus and Muslims in the city of Aligarh, in Uttar Pradesh state (UPI, 12/07/95).

Risk Assessment

Despite a constitution that guarantees equality for all citizens, discrimination is widespread against Muslims, partly because the government has traditionally been dominated by upper caste Hindus. Muslims constitute around 14% of the country's population, yet they occupy only about 3% of government and public sector jobs (Moneyclips, 04/09/94). Further, in 1994, Muslims were reported as receiving only 2% of industrial licenses and 3.7% of available financial assistance (Washington Post, 03/12/94).

The difficulties Muslims face in improving their economic and social status have been exacerbated by the rise of Hindu fundamentalism during the past decade. According to Ashish Nandy of the Center for the Study of Developing Societies, support for the right-wing Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party is, like Hindu nationalism itself, a phenomenon found chiefly within the urban middle class, not among rural masses, who make up more than 70% of India's voters. Nandy says Hindu nationalists fear not only Muslims but all minorities in their midst, and consequently feel they must achieve a control similar to that once exercised by India's colonial master, the British, in order to feel secure in their own country. He states that "They [Hindu nationalists] are a part of the majority that has developed a minority complex. They think like a minority, and they behave like minority" (The Toronto Star, 11/06/90).

The rise of Hindu fundamentalism is also viewed by some analysts as a reaction to the growth in Muslim fundamentalism. The growing wealth of Muslim nations in the Middle East and the spread of the Islamic faith have combined with the perceived pandering of Indian politicians to Muslim voters, and even the Sikh independence movement in Punjab, to add fuel to Hindu nationalist fires.

Until recently, the Muslims were not politically organized. They were a traditional vote-bank of the Congress (I) party. Of the 528 members of the Lok Sabha, the more powerful house of India's bicameral parliament, 23 members - or 4.4% - are Muslims.

However, after the destruction of the Babri Masjid mosque in Ayodhya, Muslims seemed to realign themselves in a new political equation with lower caste Hindus, who form the majority of Indian population. Growing Muslim disenchantment has already contributed to losses by the Congress Party in states such as Maharashtra and Gujarat. The inability of the federal government to follow a decisive policy on the Ayodhya issue has not only contributed to Muslim discontent but it has also ensured that the issue remains as a constant source of Hindu-Muslim tensions. The right-wing Hindu nationalist movement was partly discredited following the destruction of the Babri Masjid mosque but Hindu parties have begun to reassert themselves through electoral victories at the state level. The future of Hindu-Muslims relations is dependent on a number of factors including the ability of centrist parties such as the Congress to reassert themselves and the mobilization potential of coalitions between Muslims, other minority groups, and low caste Hindus.

References

1. Girdner, Eddie J., "India: Burning Fundamentalism and the Politics of Caste", Asian Profile, June 1992.

2. Gold, Daniel, "Organized Hinduisms: From Vedic Truth to Hindu Nation", Asian Profile, June 1992.

3. Keesings Record of World Events, 1990-94.

4. Malik, I.H., "Beyond Ayodhya: Implications for Regional Security in South Asia," Asian Affairs, Vol.XXIV, Oct' 93.

5. Mumtaz Ahmed, "Islamic Fundamentalism in South Asia: The Jamaat-i-Islami and the Tablighi Jamaat", in Marty, M.E. & R. Scott Appleby (eds), Fundamentalisms Observed (Chicago & London: The University of Chicago Press, 1991).

6. Nexis Library Information, 1990-95.

7. Puri, Balraj, "Indian Muslims since Partition", Economic and Political Weekly, October 02, 1993.

8. World Directory of Minorities