India’s internal security is jeopardised by Sambhal-like incidents

The pattern leading to Sambhal warrants scrutiny.

The death of three persons in Sambhal, Uttar Pradesh on Sunday (November 24) during violent clashes that erupted over a court-ordered survey of a local mosque augurs ill for India’s internal security and societal harmony. A fourth died on Monday and scores, including police personnel, were injured

The Supreme Court will hear the petition of the Sambhal Jama Masjid Committee today (November 29) and the bench will be led by Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna. It is expected that an objective and impartial magisterial investigation will be ordered.

If the local police are indeed found to be guilty of firing on the protesters, as claimed by the family members of the victims – this would be a very serious transgression of the core principles of policing and dealing with citizen protests. Endorsing the guardian-turning-predator practice has dire implications for the democratic impulse and India's constitutional fidelity.

A familiar story

The trigger for the Sambhal violence is the familiar ‘mandir-masjid’ controversy symbolized by the destruction of the Babri mosque in December 1992 and the subsequent 2019 Ayodhya title suit. While it was hoped that the inauguration of the grand Ram Mandir would signal closure of this issue, a slow fuse was lit by the 2023 Chandrachud judgment which allowed for using ‘non-invasive technology’ to ascertain what lay beneath existing places of worship – almost always mosques.

Some sections of the lower judiciary in the Hindi heartland have been extra efficient in passing swift orders when approached by zealous petitioners and the Sambhal tragedy is illustrative of this trend.

The petition was filed in the district and sessions court on November 19 claiming that the 16th century Jama Masjid in Sambhal was built on the site of an ancient Hindu temple. The petition was heard with unusual alacrity and a survey ordered that very day. Within a few hours the court ordered survey commenced and this was enabled by an enthusiastic district administration that escorted the survey team to the mosque.

Risk to India’s internal security

While the exact chronology of events between Tuesday (November 19) and the Sunday (November 24) tragedy will be investigated – the pattern leading to  Sambhal warrants scrutiny,  for it has the potential to irreparably degrade India’s societal ozone layer and related internal security fabric.

Stoking the Hindu-Muslim divide for electoral gain has become a central feature of the current Indian political discourse and practice and the Babri Masjid – Ayodhya temple trajectory has now been consolidated with the outcome of the recent Maharashtra elections. The elastic interpretation of constitutional tenets and legal provisions in relation to places of worship that favours the majority Hindu sentiment by the highest court has allowed the lower judiciary to introduce a subjective tenor to their orders. And when these orders are executed with remarkable zeal by an executive already sensitized to the dominant political ethos – tragedies like Sambhal are waiting to happen.

Even as the Supreme Court is hearing the Sambhal petition, a Rajasthan court in Jodhpur issued notice on Wednesday (November 27) in a law-suit related to the highly revered Khwaaja Moinuddinn Chishti shrine in Ajmer. A Hindu group has claimed that a temple lay under the Sufi shrine and has sought worshipping rights. The court has scheduled the next hearing for December 20 and the ASI (Archaeological Survey of India) has been made a party to the case. The Ajmer shrine is revered by both Muslims and Hindus and has a wide following in the subcontinent and beyond.

Similar cases are being pursued in courts in Varanasi (Gyanvapi masjid) and Mathura (Shahi Eidgah) and the potential for protests and local violence – either spontaneous or engineered - remains high and this will steadily degrade the internal security index of the country.

Heed Mohan Bhagwat’s sage counsel

If India aspires to be a vibrant economy and a credible major power in the run up to 2047 – this cannot be realized if the internal security fabric of the country is progressively corroded by vitiating   societal harmony and fanning religious divisiveness.

Excavating every major masjid to find an ancient temple is a recipe for perpetual domestic turmoil and RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s sage counsel must be heeded by those entrusted with the governance of the country. In June 2022 he sagaciously queried if there was a need to hunt for a ‘shiv ling’ under every mosque and the sub-text to his organization was self-evident.

PS: What if a petition is filed claiming that a Buddhist stupa lies beneath the Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi and an empathetic trial court judge orders a survey?