Press release from the ALL INDIA CONFEDERATION OF SC/ST ORGANISATIONS

Neither Hindus nor Muslims are entitled to the disputed land at Ayodhya. SLP filed in Supreme Court claming the title for the Buddhists.

New Delhi, 7th January, 2011

Dr. Udit Raj, Chairman of Buddha Education Foundation and the All India Confederation of SC/ST Organisations, told the press that Special Leave Petition (SLP) no. DC 466/2011 has been filed in the Supreme Court against the judgment of Allahabad High Court, Lucknow Bench in the much disputed matter of Ayodhya.

Prof. Ravi Verma Kumar – Senior Advocate, Nitin Meshram – Junior Advocate and E.C. Vidyasagar – Advocate on Record are the team which is defending the matter in Supreme Court. Shri Sangh Priya Gautam, Advocate – Former Union Minister is extending full cooperation in this matter.

The High Court had dismissed our petition in 2003 saying that relief was not sought against any of the parties in the suit. The Buddhists in India now challenge the legality and constitutionality of impugned judgment delivered on 30.9.2010. Not only disputed land but construction before the existence of Babri Mosque belong to Bauddh Vihar. Justice Sudhir Aggarwal held that Kasauti Pillars of disputed structure, strongly resemble Buddhists pillars of those seen at Varanasi (page no. 4690 of Volume 19). Justice S. U. Khan held that Carnegy has mentioned that the Kasauti Pillars, which were used in the construction of mosque, strongly resembled Buddhist Pillars which he had seen at Banaras. Accordingly, it is also possible that they were also ruins of some Buddhist religious place on and around the land on which the mosque was constructed and some material thereof was used in the construction of mosque (page no. 246). It is worthwhile to mention that P. Carnegy, was an officiating commissioner and Settlement Officer of Faizabad District as well as a British archaeologist. He found that the Kasauti pillars of disputed structure had a strong resemblance with the Bauddh Vihar of Sarnath, Varanasi. He submitted this report in 1870.

Dr. Udit Raj said that Buddhists are the necessary parties wherever history and culture are concerned. Prof. Wilson observed that the Chinese traveler Hwen Thsang found no less than 20 Buddhist monasteries with 3000 monks at Ajudhia in the 7th century. Fa-hein, another great Chinese traveler, recorded in Chinese language which was later translated into English, found that king Prasenjeet, the ruler of Kosal (also known as Ayodhya) was an ardent follower of Buddha.The Archeological Survey of India submitted its report in 2003 and found that there is circular shrine beneath the disputed structure. After this, the Allahabad High Court ordered for further collection of evidences but, so far, it has not been done. It is most likely that this shrine is of Buddhists. It says that 50 pillar bases in association of huge structure are indicative of remains which are distinctive features found associated with temples of North India. This itself supports that it could be a Buddhist place because temples of North India connotes to Hindus, Jain and Buddhists as well. Objecting to the finding of ASI, the Sunni Central Board of Waqfs – plaintiff number 1 O.O.S. No. 4 of 1989 said that the short report on inscription one of which is in Nagari, and are in Arabic, show how casual and preconceived in its notion was the ASI. The first is not to be dated with any certitude to the 11th century : its time range could be 7th-12th centuries, and it could be a Pali record of Buddhist provenance —- a piece of evidence negativing the presence of Hindu temple.

In the whole litigation, Hindus have not been in a position to prove that Lord Rama was born here. At the most, they have evidence that the idol was placed stealthily on 22nd and 23rd December, 1949. Thus, there is no historical and archeological evidence in their support. Similarly, Muslims have also failed to name the organisation and person who built the Babri Mosque. On the basis of mere prayer offered there, they are claiming the title of the land. The Babri Mosque structure does not resemble the mosques spread over the country including the mosques built by Babar. This Babri Mosque lacks in vazoo and minarettes. The Allahabad High Court has wrongly given land to Hindus, Muslims and Nirmohi Akhara.

On the basis of above facts, Buddhists and Ambedkarites are the real claimants of this land. The Supreme Court has been urged to decide the matter on the basis of Constitution and the rule of law. And if it happens, this communal dispute will be settled forever.

(B. Mandal) Media Incharge

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Thus, we have people defending the opposition to Hussain saying he “hurt Hindu sentiments” by painting Hindu goddesses in the nude, without outrightly condemning the threats he faces or the violence he has had to face at his exhibitions.

Then you have those opposed to Taslima Nasrin saying that what she said about Islam and the Prophet is factually incorrect when discussing the violence her article provoked.

Others object to comparing Hussain and Nasrin because they think the calibre of the work is so different, one cannot compare them.

I may think Hussain’s paintings are superior to Nasrin’s writings, but that is neither here nor there as far as this debate is concerned. On the debate aired on NDTV today, only Javed Anand seems to have understood this and kept forecefully reiterating this point.

Everyone has their own opinion on the quality of the work. But that is not the point. The point is that they (Hussain and Nasrin) should be free to express through their paintings and writings what they want to and we should be free to criticise their expression, without resorting to violence and threating a person’s safety or destroying their work.

As for our “sentiments” (what an awful word) these days, whether Hindu or Muslim, they seem to be remarkably weak, wishy washy creatures. Time to start working on these easily outraged emotions perhaps, before we start attacking people for what they write and paint.

On Hussain’s being granted Qatari citizenship Umm, who lives in Doha, has said it best.

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Seven years ago, when Buddhist scholar and former monk Stephen Batchelor embarked on a search for the real Siddhartha Gautama, rooting through over 6,000 pages of the Pali Canon—the oldest set of texts on his teachings, which provide glimpses into his social and political world—perhaps he didn’t even dream of the Buddha that would emerge from his research. Far from the picture we have of Siddhartha as a prince who grew up in a palace, who renounced it all and became the Buddha, attracting the rich and powerful as well as hundreds of monks and nuns by his teachings, until one day he just lay down and died, Batchelor’s portrait of the Buddha “is not that simple”. In his new book, Confessions of a Buddhist Atheist, to be out in the US early March, this author of eight other books on Buddhism claims the Buddha was a man whose teachings were regarded by his contemporaries as not only radical, but “queer” enough for him to be denounced by one of his own former disciples as a “fake”, who not only managed to win the patronage of the three most powerful political figures of his time, but was worldly enough to survive in the midst of court intrigues, murders and betrayals, effectively quelling a rebellion within his own flock before he was done in by the ambitions of his own family.

link

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What surprises me is the eerie silence of the Muslim ulema in the subcontinent (particularly in India) in their condemnation of this cowardly act of appalling brutality. Where are those who leave no opportunity to condemn what is inconvenient to them, no matter how comfortable it might be to Islam in general and Muslims in particular? What happens to all those voices which grow louder at times of trivial issues which they think place Islam in danger? What more danger can await a religion than accusation of the kind which we see after such heinous atrocities? When can the Islamic ulemas realize that acts such as these are the ones which actually put Islam in danger.

The rest at Dr. Khan’s blog.

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