500 Years To Victory

 Shri Ram is one of the most revered and beloved deities for over a billion followers of Hinduism and various Indic religions. Recognized as the 7th avatar of Bhagwan Vishnu, Shri Ram serves as a symbol of divine virtues. His character embodies the ideals of sacrifice, compassion, leadership, loyalty, and fierce bravery, inspiring Hindus across millennia to emulate these qualities in their own lives.

 Mughal ruler Babur, and his commander Mir Baqi demolished the Hindu temple at the birthplace of Shri Ram, in the city of Ayodhya. This was in the year 1528. The Babri mosque was built on top of it, using the material from the destroyed temple, including the temple pillars, to perpetuate Islam and decimate the culture and religion of the native Hindu population. However, Hindus  continued to pray to Shri Ram on a mud platform at that location even though their temple had been demolished.

 Many foreign travelers like William Finch (1611), Thomas Herbert (1634) wrote detailed accounts and referred to the ruins at the Ayodhya site in their travel diaries.

 A Rajput Emperor Raja Jaisingh II purchased that land at the site (1717) and the official documents show the mosque was present at that time. A Jesuit missionary Joseph Tiefenthaler, who visited the site (1766 and 1771), wrote that  Babur had demolished "the house" considered as the birthplace of Rama by Hindus and that a mosque was constructed in its place, and that the Hindus continued to offer prayers there.

 Francis Buchanan visited the site (1810), and stated that the structure destroyed was indeed a temple dedicated to Bhagwan Ram. Many subsequent sources state that the mosque was constructed after demolishing a temple. H.R. Neville, the editor of the Faizabad District Gazetteer (1870), wrote that the Janmasthan (birthplace of Shri Ram) temple "was destroyed by Babur and replaced by a mosque." In 1853, a group of  Hindu ascetics visited the Babri mosque, and reclaimed ownership of the property. In 1883, the Hindus launched a dedicated effort to construct a temple at the birthplace of Shri Ram. However, the lower and higher courts in 1886, were in favor of maintaining status quo. Hindus, through centuries, never gave up their rights and continued to offer prayers at the site.

 In December 1949, deities of Shri Rama and Sita appeared in the mosque at which point, the government declared the mosque a disputed area and locked its gates to prevent any disturbance between local Hindus and Muslims. In the 1980s, the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) and other Hindu groups and political parties launched a campaign to construct the Ram Janmabhoomi Mandir ("Ram birthplace temple") at the site. In 1985, the Rajiv Gandhi government allowed Hindus to access the site for prayers. In November 1990, the anti-Hindu local government in the state of Uttar Pradesh ordered the police to open fire on unarmed Hindu devotees who had gathered at Ayodhya demanding the construction of Shri Ram temple. Hundreds of innocent devotees were dragged out of their homes and executed on orders of the government. Bodies were disposed off by the police without respect to the dead, some of them being buried, the others being disposed off in the river. On 6th December 1992, Hindu devotees having endured hundreds of years of injustice and government highhandedness and appeasement of the muslim population, demolished the disputed mosque.

 In 2003, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) conducted excavations of the site on court orders. The ASI report findings indicated the presence of a 10th-century North Indian style temple under the mosque which were upheld by the courts. In 2009, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) released its election manifesto, repeating its promise to construct a temple of Bhagwan Ram at the site. In 2010, the Allahabad High Court ruled that the 2.77 acres (1.12 ha) of disputed land be divided into 3 parts between the 3 litigant parties, which was immediately challenged by all 3 of them. A ‘five-judge’ Supreme Court bench heard the title dispute cases from August to October 2019. On 9 November 2019, the Supreme Court ordered the land to be handed over to a trust to build the Hindu temple. It also ordered the government to give alternate 5 acre land to Sunni Waqf Board to build the mosque. On 5 February 2020, the trust known as Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra was created by the government of India.

On January 22nd 2024, the inauguration of the Ram Janmabhoomi Mandir and the consecration (Pran Pratistha) of Shri Ram will be conducted at Ayodhya, the birthplace of Shri Ram . Finally Bhagwan Ram will rightfully reside at his official birthplace site in a grand temple, with all the grandeur he deserves.