Court splits holy site for Muslims and Hindus

AN Indian court ruled a disputed holy site that sparked bloody riots in the past should be divided between the Hindu and Muslim communities.

But in its compromise ruling, the court gave Hindus control over the area where the now-demolished Babri Mosque stood – and where a makeshift tent-shrine to the Hindu god Rama now rests.

While both Muslim and Hindu lawyers vowed to appeal, immediate reaction to the ruling was muted and it seemed unlikely to spark violence, as the government had feared.

Hindus rushed to give thanks at temples in Ayodhya, where the atmosphere was peaceful.

“It is very clear the case will go to the Supreme Court. It is not our final victory,” said Nitya Gopal Das, president of a Hindu trust involved in the suit.

In Lucknow, where the decision was read, shops were closed, streets were deserted and police were on patrol. And in Mumbai – a flash point for previous Hindu-Muslim violence over the temple dispute – Hindu and Muslim groups appealed for peace.

“We hope all problems regarding matters with Hindus and Muslims can be settled in this amicable way,” said Haji Arfat, a leader of the Hindu fundamentalist Maharashtra Navnirman Sena.

The verdict was seen by some as an opportunity for communal reconciliation in India, which many say has moved on from the past with a younger generation more interested in their education and mobile phones than communal divisions.

The chief minister of Gujarat state, which has seen some of the worst religious riots, welcomed the ruling as clearing the path for building the Rama temple.

“The judgment will also act as a catalytic agent in strengthening the country’s unity,” said Narendra Modi, who was Gujarat’s chief minister in 2002 when Hindu mobs rampaged through Muslim neighbourhoods in riots that left about 1,000 people dead, most of them Muslims. Those riots were triggered by a fire that killed 60 passengers on a train packed with Hindu pilgrims. The cause of the blaze was unclear, but Hindu extremists blamed Muslims.

The conflict over the 64-acre compound in Ayodhya – 550km east of New Delhi – also sparked deadly violence between Hindus and Muslims that has challenged India’s ethos as a secular, multicultural democracy.

Some 2,000 people were killed in 1992 when Hindu hard-liners razed the Babri Mosque.

Hindus say the site is the birthplace of Rama, and that a temple to the god once stood there before the mosque.

They want to build a new, enormous temple to Rama, while the Muslims want to rebuild the mosque.

The ruling would almost certainly force both groups to scale down those plans.