Varanasi Gyanvapi dispute | Carbon dating the faith

After months of silence, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath set the cat among the pigeons with his comments on the Gyanvapi mosque, which abuts the Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi. Talking to a news outlet on July 31—even as the Allahabad High Court was set to adjudicate on a proposed Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) mapping of the mosque complex—Yogi declared, “If we call it a mosque, there will be a disputeâæ. There should be an admission from the Muslims that there has been a historical mistake and that we need a solution. What is a trishul (trident) doing inside a mosque? We did not put it there. There is a jyotirlinga, and dev pratimas (idols of gods)....”On August 3, the Allahabad HC allowed the ASI access saying a “scientific survey is necessary in the interests of justice” while dismissing the plea of the Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee (AIMC). The latter oversees the affairs of the the 17th century mosque complex and had appealed for a stay on a Varanasi court’s order for such a survey. The lower court’s order had, in turn, come in response to an August 2021 petition by five women devotees claiming the presence of Hindu idols inside the mosque complex and their right to worship it. Last year, after a complicated legal tangle, the Supreme Court had stayed a video survey and referred the matter back to the local court (see below A Kashi Conundrum). Yogi’s statement also hinted that the BJP may pitch the issue aggressively as the 2024 general election nears, similar to how they raised the heat on Ayodhya in 2019. Party sources confirm the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) too is backing Yogi. BJP leaders and sants of several hues have already come out with statements defending Yogi. Mahant Ravindra Puri, president of the Akhil Bharatiya Akhara Parishad, a governing body of Hindu seers, says, “Give us Gyanvapi and we’ll build another mosque for you (the Muslims). Their religious leaders should show a big heart, lead by example so that future generations can feel proud of themselves. The Muslim clerics should hand over Gyanvapi to Hindu devotees so we can proceed with mutual consent.”On the other side, Lok Sabha MP and chief of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), Asaduddin Owaisi, says, “CM Adityanath knows the Muslims have opposed the ASI survey in the Allahabad High Court and that a judgment on it was due anytime in the next few days. Even then, he put out such a controversial statementâæthis is overreach.”Maulana Mohammad Suleman, a founding member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB), too, feels that the Uttar Pradesh CM should not have issued such a statement in a case involving a religious place of such significance, especially when the matter is sub judice. “Yogiji’s one-sided statements seem to be an attempt to divide society in time for the 2024 election,” he says.The Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi, along with the Shahi Idgah mosque in Mathura, have been on the Sangh Parivar’s radar for several decades now. After the Babri Masjid demolition of 1992, they have pitched them unambiguously as ‘unfinished business’, as evinced in the slogan ‘Kashi Mathura baaki hai’. The renewed clamour in Varanasi—incidentally Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Lok Sabha constituency—started after the favourable decision of the apex court in the Ayodhya temple case in 2019. In the Gyanvapi case, the Hindu petitioners contend that a part of an older temple had been demolished by Mughal emperor Aurangzeb in the 17th century to build the mosque. The Muslim side’s plea says the mosque predates Aurangzeb and “has been there for thousands of years”.The issue has drawn sharp reactions across the spectrum, right from Yogi’s former deputy CM Swami Prasad Maurya to BSP chief Mayawati. Maurya, who switched sides from the BJP to the Samajwadi Party (SP) before the 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly election, felt ASI surveys shouldn’t be limited to Gyanvapi and referred to an alleged Buddhist shrine being demolished to build the Badrinath temple. Mayawati has been more circumspect, cautioning all sides about going down this road in her tweets and warning of a “political conspiracy” to stoke passions before the general election.The ruling party seems set on its path. State BJP spokesperson Rakesh Tripathi says, “Whatever Yogiji says is the truth. We believe his words are based on historical facts.” It’s a line that has paid the BJP rich dividends in the past, and there’s no reason for them to believe things have changed.

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