Repentant Babri mosque demolisher who turned his back on Hindu nationalism

Abhijit Deshpande was an 18-year-old, first-year undergraduate student from the western Indian state of Maharashtra when India’s Hindu nationalists demolished the Babri mosque in north India’s Ayodhya town on December 6, 1992. He was present at the site, along with thousands of other kar sevaks (volunteers) from different parts of the country.

The demolition was over by midnight when all the kar sevaks were asked to gather at one point to see an idol of Lord Ram supposedly found while destroying the mosque. It was highlighted as proof of a pre-existing Ram temple on the land where the Babri mosque was built in the 16th century.

On his way back to Maharashtra by train, Deshpande noticed all the stations were completely empty, and trains had no passengers other than the kar sevaks. There was a curfew all around when he reached his home district of Parbhani in Maharashtra. Reports of riots came pouring in.

He felt disturbed. It was the beginning of a transformation that took about a decade. It saw him not only quitting the Hindu nationalist camp but also denouncing religion and ideology altogether and becoming an atheist.

On January 22, as the idol of Lord Ram was consecrated in the newly-built Ram Temple on that Ayodhya land where once stood Babri masjid – in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and with full State patronage – Deshpande was upset and disturbed.

“They are not constructing (a) Ram Mandir. They are destroying India’s constitutional pillars and social fabric and building a Hindu Rashtra. They are constructing enmity,” Deshpande, currently an associate professor of Marathi language at the KJ Somaiya College of Arts and Commerce, tells TRT World.

He added that India’s freedom struggle was about unifying India divided into many religions, languages, and practices. “But the Ram Temple consecration with full State backing signifies the destruction of the unity that freedom fighters achieved with years of struggle,” he says.

Deshpande is not the lone kar sevak who participated in the December 6, 1992 event but later repented and rejected the Hindu nationalist ideology. Balbir Singh, who was from the north Indian state of Haryana, was disturbed after playing an active role in the demolition, went soul searching, and converted to Islam in just about six months.

Singh took the name of Mohammad Amir and pledged to build or renovate 100 mosques to atone for what he considered his sins. He was found dead, under mysterious circumstances, at his home in the south Indian city of Hyderabad in 2021. By then, he had already helped build or renovate several dozen mosques.

Just like Amir, Deshpande, too, was part of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the parent organisation of PM Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The BJP and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), an RSS affiliate, were at the forefront of the Ram Temple movement that peaked during 1990-92. It is the leaders of the VHP who now control the government-constituted Trust that is building the Ram Temple.

Born in a family of Hindu nationalists – both his parents and uncle were kar sevak or Ram Temple volunteers – Deshpande was a member of the RSS since his teens. In 1992, when the RSS family of organisations called for a gathering at Ayodhya, he was a seasoned leader in the RSS in his home district.

He reached Ayodhya town on December 2 along with hundreds of others from his district and roamed the town for the next few days, including visiting the Babri masjid site. On December 6, he reached the venue around 4 pm, when the destruction was already in full swing.

“It was an organised destruction. I had no idea of this. I saw all the tools necessary for the destruction were there. Kar sevaks were called in in batches to take part in it. Our turn came after some time, and then we were sent to one of the camps, and the next batch joined the demolition. By midnight, we were told the demolition was complete,” Deshpande says.

After his return to Maharashtra, the chain of events kept bothering him. He started growing a distance with the RSS from the time he went to Mumbai for post-graduate studies. During his university days in Mumbai, he used his free time to visit a library and read about India’s history, religion, culture, and philosophy. Through these studies, he realised they were told lies about India at the RSS shakha or daily units.

“We are told India is all about Hinduism, and Hinduism is all about the Vedic period. However, through my studies, I realised that Jain, Buddhist, and Charvaka philosophies were a rejection of and reaction to the Vedic system. India is not just about Hinduism and the Vedic period. But they are destroying Indian diversity in a planned way,” Deshpande says.

He was deeply influenced by Buddhist, Jain, and Charvaka philosophy, spiritual leaders and reformers like Sant Kabir and Sant Tukaram, and social reformers-politicians like Jyotiba Phule, Mohandas Gandhi, and B R Ambedkar.

By 2005, his book, Ek Tha Kar Sevak (There Was A Kar Sevak) was published, in which he introspected and sharply criticised the Hindu nationalist action and politics.

“Coming out of the Hindu nationalist fold was not easy, as my family and friends were deeply linked to the RSS and the Ram Temple movement. It was through an intellectual and emotional process that I broke away. My realisation and conviction did not permit me to associate with an ideology of hatred, and any ideology for that matter,” Deshpande says.