Babri Masjid to Ram Temple: A timeline of events in Ayodhya

India’s nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi has hailed the opening of a temple dedicated to the Hindu god Ram as a "new era" for India, but for most Muslims in the country and elsewhere, the grand building has come at a price.

It has been built at the site where a 16th-century mosque was demolished by a Hindu mob three decades ago, triggering communal riots that killed more than 2,000 people across India. Most of the dead were Muslims.

After years of legal disputes, the Supreme Court in 2019 ruled in favour of Hindus, declaring the site as theirs and securing a victory for Hindu groups and Modi's BJP.

Here, we look at the chronological account of events spanning from the construction of the mosque to the establishment of the Ram Temple.

The genesis

The roots of the conflict date back to the 16th century when the Babri mosque was constructed in Ayodhya during the reign of the first Mughal emperor Babur.

The Mughal dynasty ruled over vast swathes of the sub-continent from 1526 till they were defeated by British colonisers in 1857.

In 1853, a Hindu sect – the Nirmohi Akhara – laid claim to the site of the mosque, saying that the Muslim place of worship was built after the demolition of a Hindu temple.

The legal dispute over this site began in 1885 when a monk sought permission to build a Ram temple on the land adjacent to the Babri mosque. However, the district magistrate rejected his request. He approached a higher court, but this plea was also dismissed.

Modern dispute

On December 23, 1949 – two years after India gained Independence from British rule – idols of Ram were placed inside the Babri Mosque by Hindu radicals.

Fearing a breakdown of law and order, the then-state government declared the mosque premises a "disputed property", sealing the gates and disallowing Muslims from praying.

Subsequently, from 1950 to 1961, several civil suits unfolded, addressing various issues, such as Hindu parties asserting their rights and a Muslim group seeking both declaration and possession of the contested land.

Rise of Hindu right-wing

In the 1980s, during Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's tenure, a local court ordered the site open for Hindu worshippers.

It also granted permission to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), a right-wing Hindu organisation based on Hindu nationalism, for the ‘shilanayas’ (foundation laying ceremony) near the contested site.

The rise of the Hindu right-wing took a troubling turn in 1990 when the leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), LK Advani, fueled communal tensions by spearheading a nationwide campaign for the construction of a Ram temple at the site of the Babri Mosque. This campaign led to widespread communal unrest.

Two years later, in 1992, a Hindu mob demolished the mosque, reducing it to rubble and triggering riots across the country, resulting in the tragic loss of approximately 2,000 lives.

In 1993, the Indian Government took a significant step by issuing an ordinance to acquire 67.7 acres of land in Ayodhya, including the site and surrounding areas. The repercussions continued in 1994 when the Supreme Court affirmed the constitutionality of the acquisition of certain areas in Ayodhya.

The court argued that every religious immovable property could be subject to acquisition. The court determined that offering prayers at a mosque was not inherently integral to Islam unless the mosque held specific significance.

Criticism followed for deeming the mosque a non-essential place of worship.

Temple run in 2000s

In 2003, the Archaeological Survey of India initiated a survey and excavation of the land beneath the disputed site as directed by the Allahabad High Court. The survey allegedly found remnants of a 10th-century Hindu temple. However, these claims were disputed by many archaeologists and the Muslim community.

In 2010, a significant ruling by three judges of the Allahabad High Court declared that Hindus and Muslims should share the disputed site. The court stipulated that two-thirds of the site should be allocated to Hindu groups, with the remaining portion assigned to the Muslim group.

However, a year later, India's Supreme Court intervened, suspending the High Court ruling in response to appeals from both Hindu and Muslim groups.

In 2019, the Supreme Court ruled that the land must be handed over to a trust for overseeing the construction of a Hindu temple.

Simultaneously, a separate piece of land in Ayodhya is designated for Muslim groups. The Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board accepts the five acres allocated by the state government for building a mosque in Sohawal tehsil of Ayodhya.

And on August 5, 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for the proposed Ram temple at Ayodhya.