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6th December "Black Day"

I wanted to post the continuation of Thirst on the very next day but thought of putting it on hold for some other day. Actually I was looking for an appropriate day which will suite the topic of the post…and fortunately I didn’t have to wait for long, the day has come! Yes I am talking about today “6th December 2008”. Why is it so special? It is special because it all started on the same date 16 years before. It was “6th December 1992” when I was an 8 yrs old kid and wasn’t much aware of words like “Hindutva”, “Karseva”, ”Rath Yatra” and “Mandir Nirmaan” etc-etc. But on being a resident of Faizabad, I used to hear these words very often those days. Theses issues were the hot topics of discussion among the people, because the then opposition party BJP was organizing a “Rath Yatra(Rally)” across the country and now they were arriving to Ayodhya. The rally was led by BJP senior leader L K Advani along with VHP and Shiv Sena leaders and thousands of “Karsevaks (activists)”. That day the whole city was colored in saffron and the roads were flooded with the banners of BJP and other supporting parties. For me as a child, the day was as usual as other days so was planning to go out and play but my mom didn’t allow me to do so, I think she was afraid of something. Lots of people from my locality were going to attend that rally and everyone was wearing headband or a kind of ribbon and shawl on which “Jai Sri Ram” was written. I wasn’t aware of what is going on but could feel something which was making this day and the behavior of people bit different from other usual days in the city.
The rally was going to be held just beside the babri masjid. Around 1.5 lakhs people gathered at the rally place. On the same day The Muslim organizations like Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and Bombay Muslim Action Committee also carried on propaganda opposing the construction of a temple at Ayodhya.

According to L K Advani the main intension behind conducting this “Rath Yatra” was to unite all the hindus across the nation and to build “Ram Mandir” in Ayodhya. But no one knew when everything went out of control and made this day as a black day in the history of India. Yes you have heard right I call it “black day” and I don’t mind it calling it so.

According to one eyewitness there, From 9 a.m. in the morning, the religious programs like Bhajans and Kirtans (religious chants) began. At about 10:30 am, the leaders of RSS, Bajarang Dal and BJP began addressing the Karsevaks from the dais. The speeches were instigating and inflammatory. Advani and Joshi gave fiery speeches telling how the Babri Masjid is a blemish on Hindu culture. Vinay Katiyar and Sadhwi Ritambara went one step further and started giving instigating slogans like “Ek dhakka aur do, Babri Masjid tod do” (give on more blow and demolish Babri Masjid). The atmosphere was getting charged as the time for the Karseva (literally meaning: offering service with physical labour) was coming close. (Ninety per cent of the persons assembled there did not know what exactly Karseva meant). The speeches were made so as to charge those for some eruptive action.At 12 noon, some Karsevaks climbed atop the babri Masjid dome. There was a wave of extreme joy amongst the Karsevaks. They felt as if they were living in historical times and had conquered some fort. Before anyone realized what was happening, the Masjid was being attacked and there were outbursts of joy. From the dais, Mr. Advani told the Karsevaks to keep quiet once or twice, but in this appeal for peace, there was no suggestion to the Karsevaks to climb down. And in this peace appeals, there was no hint indicating that whatever was happening was condemnable. Joshi, Advani left the dais in next few moments, but Katiyar, Ritambara, Uma Bharati continued giving instigating slogans. What happened next is known to the world.

Some have celebrated it as a victory of Hindutva but in reality it came out as the horrifying, shameful defeat of almost 10,000 years of old culture which is all about tolerance, resilience and peace-loving. It took so many years for the great people like Mahatma Buddha, Vivekanand, Swami Paramhans, Nanak dev, Gandhi, Gaffar khan and many more others to build the calm and peaceful relationship among all the religions in India but in a moment these few selfish people have destroyed everything and given a bloody and insecure atmosphere to people of India.

In the response of this unfortunate event the flood of riots, killing innocent people, destroying the faith and relationships have come up in the form of terrorism. This has affected billion people of the nation. India is being blowing and ripped apart each and every moment in the name of black day. For the year of 2008 India is the second most affected nation by the terrorism and faced most number of terrorist activity in the world.

Recently the Mumbai attack happened that left around 200 people dead. And today’s headline is a Hijack alert for 3 airports of India. These days whenever you switch on the TV you will find it to be flooded with the number of news channels and all are having the same breaking news flashing related to some terror attacks. Everybody is living in fear today.

In my views, today whatever is happening in India related to terrorism is somewhere, somehow connected to that incident which took place exactly on the same day 16 years back.

[reference(http://www.sacw.net/new/rajwade092003.html)]

Thirst

Hi, For the sake of introduction, I am Himanshu Mishra, an Indian currently living in Hyderabad, for more information please click on my Profile. I have never ever written any blog before; this is my first ever blog so if I don't follow the so called "Blog-Culture", please forgive me.

I was thinking a lot about the title of my first blog, unfortunately not about the content. Because I always look for a start, I don't bother much about things come after start... (For some of you it may look like dumb!!)...can't help it, this is the way I think. And that's why I named it "Abhikrama", the commencement...'Abhikrama' is a word taken from 'Sanskrit' language and derived from 'Arambha', which means any beginning as in any effort, so as in English 'The Commencement'.

I was born in a small city named 'Faizabad', it is in Uttar Pradesh, North India, never heard of it right? But I am sure you must have heard of 'Ayodhya'...if you are an Indian, no matter what religion you follow. As I took the name of Ayodhya, some familiar names are started striking into your mind like 'Ramjanamabhoomi', 'Babri masjid', '6 December 1992', 'Riots', 'Hindu-Muslim' and etc-etc. Now you have got some idea about Faizabad. But that is not my intention to you to get familiar with 'Faizabad'. I just want you to get a clear picture of the words which I have mentioned above.

I will start with 'Ramjanmabhoomi', The Ramjanmabhoomi is called to be the birth place of 'Lord Rama', a Hindu mighty God, 'avatar' (incarnation) of Bhagvan 'Vishnu'. According to the Hindu and some historians view there was a temple on this place prior to 1528 and was demolished on the orders of Mughal invader 'Babur' and a mosque was built on its ruins. Countless disputes and lots of different views are there on this issue. And I am not at all interested in adding one more into this.

'Babri Masjid' was a mosque and built by 'Babur' in the 16th century. Babur was the first Mughal Emperor of India. The Babri masjid was one of the biggest mosques in Uttar Pradesh. Babri masjid was demolished by some Hindu Activists and nationalists. Countless disputes and activities started after this demolition.

Both of these unfortunate events have given millions of scars and stigma on the body of Indian common man. Those people have done whatever they wanted to do but now we are facing the consequences of their stupidity. I don't mind calling those activities as a stupidity because I can not find much appropriate word for these kind of acts. The acts which has been played for a chair and for few thousands of votes.

Countless 'Riots' occurred across the nation after the demolition of babri masjid in which more than 2000 people were killed. Riots broke out in many major Indian cities including Mumbai, Delhi and Hyderabad and now each and every city is affected by this. The flame was not only in India but also it was outside of India too and the most affected nation was Bangladesh and its people, who were from minority community. In the name of one mosque they have destroyed hundreds of temples and killed thousands of people. It has not stopped, it is going on but now it has taken a bigger, awful and horrible face named as 'HUJI' or 'Indian Mujahideen'. Here I am not comparing but trying to tell the consequences of one wrong step, which was taken on '6 December 1992'. Now they are killing people in India itself. Before placing a bomb they don't see whether it will hurt a Hindu or a Muslim, what they want is just the destruction of Unity and killing of humanity in India. This we all know so won't go deep into it.

What will we discuss here is about 'The similarity' between both the structures ('Ramjanmabhoomi' and 'Babri masjid'). Both of them are related to two different religions, but used for the same cause, which is to Pray to God. Both of them gave shelter to their devotees.
Very few of us know that Hindus and Muslims used to worship together in the disputed structure in the 19th century until about 1855. According to a British Historian, the Hindus and Muslims alike used to worship in the 'mosquetemple'. Since the British rule a railing has been put up to prevent dispute, within which, in the mosque the Muslims pray, while outside the fence the Hindus have raised a platform on which they make their offerings. The platform called "Ram Chabutara" prior to Independence, and used equally by both the religions to pray the God before the Britishes put the fence.

There is a well which both the Hindus and Muslims claim has miraculous properties. Many Hindu devotees came during the annual Ram festival 'Ram Navami’ to drink from the water well in the Babri Courtyard. It was believed drinking water from this well could cure a range of illnesses. But here again dispute in views comes into picture Hindu pilgrims believed that the Babri water well was the original well in the Ram Temple under the mosque. Ayodhya Muslims believed that the well was a gift from 'Allah', and was nowhere related to Ram mandir. What I say is, let the well came from anywhere or made by anyone but finally what matters is to quench the 'Thirst' of a common man.

My main intention behind creating this topic was to discuss about this 'Thirst', which I have mentioned above, more elaborately and in much appropriate manner.
That’s it for now.

Thirst continues…