Dispute Threatens Gandhi’s Political Base : Indian Rivals Battle Over Temple

A Muslim-Hindu dispute over an ancient temple here has developed into a violent conflict that threatens to erode Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s political base.

And the violence has spread into neighboring Pakistan, where a Muslim mob in Kunri, about 135 miles northeast of Karachi, last month burned and looted Hindu homes, temples and businesses.

A few days earlier, after similar violence in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, where a majority of the people are Muslim, Prime Minister Gandhi dismissed the state’s top elected official and in effect ordered the state placed under the control of the central government in New Delhi.

Town Regarded as Sacred

At the center of the dispute is a decaying, centuries-old temple that is one of nearly 4,000 such holy places in this town in the state of Uttar Pradesh in northern India. Followers of both religions regard the entire town as sacred.

Muslims claim the temple as the Barbari Mosque, built in 1528 by the Mogul Emperor Zahiruddin Babar. Hindus venerate it as the Ram Janmabhoomi, birthplace of the god Ram, hero of the Hindu epic Ramayana.

After simmering for several centuries, with periodic clashes under Mogul, British and independent Indian rule, the issue came to a head after a Feb. 1 ruling by a state judge, a Hindu, that Hindus may use the building as a temple until several longstanding lawsuits can be resolved.

Hindus celebrated with joyous processions from distant parts of India. Brahman priests entered the building and placed offerings before an idol of the god Ram.

“We were so very happy,” Uma Shankar Saraf, a Hindu leader, said. “The whole city was illuminated like Diwali (the Hindu festival of light, usually celebrated in October). We lit fireworks and distributed sweets.”

Bitter Reaction

Muslims reacted bitterly. Syed Shahabuddin, a member of Parliament who has emerged as a powerful new voice in the Muslim community, said: “For a Muslim, nothing could be more shocking, more insulting, than the sight of idol worship inside a mosque.”

Shahabuddin, who is president of the All-India Muslim Majlis-e-Mashawarat, a lobby composed of 20 of India’s largest Muslim organizations, called for a day of mourning, which was observed on Feb. 14. There were demonstrations and Muslim attacks on Hindus in several cities with large Muslim populations, including the old Walled City in New Delhi. A dozen people were killed and more than 1,000 were arrested.

A curfew was imposed in Muslim neighborhoods of New Delhi, Srinagar, Bhopal and Sehore. Here in Uttar Pradesh, the government banned all religious processions, rallies and public meetings. More than 100 state policemen are still stationed outside the disputed temple.

Minister Dismissed

After nearly a month of demonstrations and violence in the predominantly Muslim state of Jammu and Kashmir, Prime Minister Gandhi on March 7 ordered the dismissal of Chief Minister G. M. Shah, the state’s highest elected official, and imposed governor’s rule. Since the governor is appointed by Gandhi’s party, the move effectively places control of the state in the hands of the central government.

In the past, Gandhi avoided such drastic action, though it was taken often by his mother, Indira Gandhi, when she was prime minister. Gandhi told a reporter he was forced to make the change in leadership because Shah’s government could no longer control the riots sparked by the Ayodhya controversy.

“The handling of the riots, the government action--we thought it was not all right,” Gandhi said.

The dispute in this ancient city is much more significant than it is elsewhere. It was here, according to the Hindus, that Ram and his friend, the monkey god Hanuman, recruited a monkey army to fight the demon king of Ceylon.

Sensitive to Feelings

In interviews with Indian reporters, Gandhi has demonstrated his sensitivity to the delicate feelings involved in the Ayodhya temple dispute.

“Any place that has been holy to two communities, two places close by, is very problematic,” Gandhi has been quoted as saying. “We must be sure that the holy places of each religion are respected fully.”

In some ways the dispute exemplifies the religious debate that has characterized India since the beginnings, centuries ago, of Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism. And on another level it reflects a growing sense of alienation on the part of the Muslims. Of the Indian population, almost 800 million in all, slightly more than 83% are Hindu, about 11% Muslim.

According to Muslim leaders, the present troubles are only the latest in a series of setbacks they have suffered at the hands of the Hindu majority, which they describe as increasingly chauvinistic.

Included in the Muslim list of grievances is a settlement reached last year between Prime Minister Gandhi and Hindu leaders in the northeast state of Assam, where in 1983 more than 10,000 people were killed, most of them Muslims, in communal violence sparked by Muslim immigration from neighboring Bangladesh.

Muslim Voters Retaliated

The Muslims say the agreement favored the indigenous Hindu people of Assam, and in December the Muslims retaliated by forming a political party and voting in the state election against candidates put up by Gandhi’s Congress-I Party.

Traditionally, in Assam as in most other Indian states, Muslims have voted for the Congress Party, which is viewed as the party that protects minority interests.

But this was not the only instance of Muslims organizing to vote against the ruling party. Muslims in the state of Bihar handed Gandhi another shock, also in December, by electing Muslim leader Shahabuddin, a member of the opposition Janata Party. Never before had the Congress Party lost in that constituency.

Any lasting loss of Muslim support would be a serious blow to Gandhi and his party. His concern is reflected in a bill he is pushing in Parliament aimed at placating Muslims angered by another controversial court decision awarding alimony to a Muslim woman.

Under Islamic law, it is considered an insult for a woman to accept anything from her former husband, who has shamed her with divorce. It is considered the responsibility of the woman’s father and brothers to support her.

Seen as Religious Slap

Not all Muslims opposed the decision, but many saw it as a slap at the integrity of their religion, and furious demonstrations broke out, resulting in several deaths and many arrests.

To void the Supreme Court decision, Gandhi has proposed a new law. Still, Hindu leaders say it was a bad time for the court to challenge Muslim personal law. Muslim-Hindu relations were at their lowest ebb since independence in 1947, when British India was divided into two states, majority-Hindu India and majority-Muslim Pakistan.

The divorce law proposed by the Gandhi government, a bill that faces bitter debate in Parliament, would require the male members of a divorced Muslim woman’s family to support her after divorce. Traditional Muslims feel that this is more consistent with Islamic law.

But the Gandhi position has angered Hindu intellectuals, who see it as a violation of India’s secularism. It has also upset educated, moderate Muslims who favor alimony. One of the Muslim moderates, Arif Mohammed Khan, has resigned as Gandhi’s minister of state for power in a move aimed at protesting the position Gandhi has taken.

Denies Appeasement

Gandhi, meanwhile, has been forced to defend himself against charges that the bill is designed to appease the Muslim community.

“We don’t think the bill is an appeasement at all,” he said. “I have said on the floor of the house that, one, we want Muslims to have personal law, if they so want. Secondly, we feel that the rights of women have not really been affected.”

Muslims contend that there is a rising tide of Hindu nationalism. They argue that in each of the last six years there have been serious communal incidents leading to fatalities, mostly Muslim.

In 1980 in Moradbad, more than 1,000 were killed; in 1981 in Bihar, 48 were killed; in 1982 in Meerut, 32 were killed; in 1983 in Assam, more than 10,000 were killed; in 1984 in Bombay, 230 were killed; in 1985 in Ahmedabad, 215 were killed.

Muslims Feel Insecure

Also contributing to the Muslims’ feelings of insecurity is the increased prominence of Hindu interest groups, including the vehemently anti-Muslim Rashtriya Swayam Sevak (National Volunteers) and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council).

And the victory celebrations by Hindus after the Ayodhya temple was opened to their worshipers has not helped. Hindu revelers chanted the inflammatory slogan, “We are 700 million strong,” and this is only a slight exaggeration of their strength, which is estimated at 600 million throughout India.

According to a widely circulated report, the chief minister (governor) in Uttar Pradesh was consulted by the Hindu judge before he ruled that Hindus could enter the temple.