GROUND REPORT
6 Dec. 20 years later. Life as usual.
By Virendra Nath Bhatt Read More >
FIRST PERSON ACCOUNT Babri Masjid demolition – Through the lens
By Jeemon Jacob Read More >
NORTHEAST Assam doesn't want to turn into Ayodhya
By Ratnadip Choudhury Read More >
JAMMU & KASHMIR Babri Masjid demolition has never been an emotional issue in Kashmir
By Riyaz Wani Read More >
MUMBAI Fall in Ayodhya, wounded in Mumbra
By Sunaina Kumar Read More >
PHOTO Remembering 6 December 1992
By Vijay Pandey View Gallery >
BLOG Babri demolition – a predictable tragedy in retrospect
By Harsh Gupta Read More >
PODCAST
Twenty Years After Babri...
SOME EVENTS in history leave a deep scar on the collective conscience of a nation. The demolition of the Babri Masjid on 6 December 1992 and the nationwide communal riots that followed make up perhaps one of the darkest chapters in modern Indian history. Twenty years later, a lot has changed. There have been attempts at collective healing. There have been exhortations to move on. The post-Babri generation forms the youth brigade of India today. TEHELKA asked some of these men and women in their 20s what Ayodhya means to them.
Gursimranjeet Khamba, 26 Stand-up comedian, Mumbai ‘Much like other key events in Indian history, like the 1984 pogrom, I remember Ayodhya too being jarringly glossed over in our history books. Twenty years on, I feel part of the struggle is to remind and educate young people on what exactly happened and its impact on our socio-cultural fabric’
Lenin Kumar, 25 President, JNU, New Delhi ‘Not only was the communal campaign incorrect but it created scapegoats of the Muslim community and led the communal forces to power. It’s extremely important for the Left in this country to destroy the communal forces’
Neel Debdutt Paul, 26 Journalist ‘Being six years old at that time, I couldn’t comprehend what had happened, but I remember the sense of palpable sensation of dread and fear. I hope the 6th of December continues to be a reminder to the whole country of that dread. Though the cynic in me appreciates how unrealistic that sounds in the context of our fractured communities’
Anshul Tiwari, 24 Editor, Youth Ki Awaaz, ‘A lot of political and non-political view is to move on but in a country like India forgetting this incident will further harm the idea of plurality that’s the base of India’s nationhood’
Amit Kumar, 26 Student, Delhi University ‘The repercussion
was that
Hindu fascism
entered into our
mass psychology. If
not challenged, the
result can be no way less
than what happened
in Hitler’s Germany’
Umar Khalid, 24 Student, JNU, Delhi ‘It was a message
for the
Muslims. The
events that ensued
revealed how
all the institutions of the
State came together to
deliver this message repeatedly
in brutal ways’
Alsaba Akhtar, 22 Student, TISS, Mumbai
‘The riots led to an increasing insecurity and ghettoisation of the Muslim community. The Sachar Committee report was valuable but one is yet to see the actual implementation’
Nandini Dey, 22 Activist, NCPRI, Delhi
‘It is shameful
that 20 years
after the demolition
and 10
years after the Gujarat
riots, much of middle-
class India is able to
value efficiency and honesty
above human life’
Smrithi Sundareshan, 22 Filmmaker, Delhi
‘We are a bunch of hypocrites, which is why we have failed to learn from India’s communal past’
Pragun Bashisht, 23 Student, Delhi University ‘Babri Masjid is
a metaphorical
monument that
reminds us how
fragile is India’s plural
identity, because it
laid bare the fact that the
majority thinks Hinduism
is a superior religion’
Nabeela Jamshed, 24 Author, Delhi
‘This generation is too reasonable to ignore the fact that communal harmony is beautiful and economically sound’
Ashish Mandhwani, 25 Student, JNU, Delhi
‘The onus is on
the current
generation to
ensure that such
mistakes are not repeated.
Ayodhya is a big
black mark, but then the
darkest nights give way
to the brightest days’
