India’s highest court is currently reviewing multiple petitions challenging a longstanding law that protects the original character and identity of religious sites as they were in 1947 when the country gained independence. Enacted in 1991, this law prohibits the alteration or conversion of any place of worship and bars courts from adjudicating disputes regarding its status, except for the Babri Masjid case, which was specifically exempted.
The Babri Masjid, a mosque dating back to the 16th century, was at the center of a long-standing conflict that culminated in its destruction by a Hindu mob in 1992. A court ruling in 2019 granted the site to Hindus for the construction of a temple, reigniting discussions about India’s religious and secular divisions.
The current petitions, including one from a member of Prime Minister Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), argue that the 1991 law infringes on religious freedom and constitutional secularism. This hearing takes place amidst Hindu groups filing lawsuits challenging the status of numerous mosques, claiming they were built on the remains of demolished Hindu temples.
While many, including opposition leaders and Muslim organizations, defend the law as essential for safeguarding the places of worship of religious minorities in a predominantly Hindu nation, they also question the historical evidence presented by the petitioners in support of their claims. They argue that repealing or weakening the law could lead to a flood of similar disputes and exacerbate religious tensions, particularly between Hindus and Muslims.
Recently, a court in Rajasthan accepted a petition alleging the existence of a temple beneath the revered Ajmer Sharif shrine. The law, introduced in 1991, mandates the preservation of the religious character of all places of worship as it was on the day of India’s independence, in response to growing demands to build a temple at the Babri Masjid site in Ayodhya, which had incited violent riots and casualties nationwide.
The violence served as a stark reminder of the religious conflicts witnessed during the partition in 1947. The BJP strongly opposed the bill, accusing it of appeasing minorities and deepening the divide between Hindus and Muslims. Apart from archaeological sites, the law’s only exception was the Babri Masjid due to pre-independence legal challenges. Despite the law, Hindu extremists demolished the mosque shortly after its enactment, leading the Supreme Court to deem the demolition illegal and award the disputed land to Hindu groups in 2019. Er stellte auch fest, dass das Gesetz von 1991 Untersuchungen zum Status eines Gotteshauses bis zum 15. August 1947 nicht verhinderte, solange es nicht versuchte, es zu ändern.
Viele haben dies seitdem kritisiert, wobei der ehemalige Beamte Harsh Mander sagte, dass es „die Schleusen für diese Reihe von Gerichtsentscheidungen geöffnet hat, die dem Gesetz von 1991 zuwiderlaufen“.
„Wenn Sie die Untersuchung einer Moschee zulassen, um festzustellen, ob darunter ein Tempel lag, dann aber Handlungen zur Wiederherstellung eines Tempels an diesem Ort verbieten, ist dies ein sicheres Rezept zur Förderung von Ressentiments, Hass und Angst, die sich jahrelang in bitteren Feindseligkeiten zwischen Menschen unterschiedlichen Glaubens entladen könnten“, schrieb Herr Mander.
Kritiker weisen auch darauf hin, dass die historische Natur der Stätten es schwer machen wird, divergierende Ansprüche abschließend festzustellen, was Raum für bittere interreligiöse Kämpfe und Gewalt lässt.
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