The Ayodhya Debate: Focus on the 'No Temple' Evidence

Koenraad Elst

Two sides to the story

In references to the question whether there really was a Hindu temple at the Ayodhya site later covered by the Babri Masjid, the focus is invariably on the case made by the Hindu side, viz. that there was a temple, and that different types of evidence confirm this. The standard question is: is this evidence for the temple demolition scenario valid? Have they succeeded in proving the existence of the temple? By contrast, the opponents of the temple hypothesis are but very rarely asked to put their evidence on the table.

Let us now look at the anti-temple argumentation (with due attention to the several non-archaeological types of evidence)[1] and in particular to its offer of positive evidence that the allegedly demolished Hindu temple never existed. Of course, some might argue that it is impossible to prove the non-existence of something, and that it is therefore unreasonable to demand such proof.[2] But this argument is not valid: if there was no temple and no temple destruction, then there must have been something else at the site, some other history preceding the building of the mosque, which is exactly as capable of leaving some written or archaeological testimony as a demolished temple would. There is no need to prove the temple's non-existence, it will do to prove the existence of something else at the site.

The disputed site is an elevated site near the centre of a city, quite well-known to a whole city population, so it is perfectly reasonable to expect the existence of testimonies of any alternative history of the site. Thus, the site may have been covered with a forest and the city records mention its felling to make way for a mosque; or the owner of some secular building standing at the site sold his real estate to the builder of the projected mosque at a fair price, vide the written sales contract. As much as the temple party is expected to provide evidence for the temple, the non-temple party must provide evidence for the alternative to the temple.

Now, a close scrutiny of the argumentation by the non-temple party, whether by the Babri Masjid Action Committee, by the scholars representing it during the government-sponsored scholars' debate of December-January 1990-91 (at least its last two meetings)[3] , or by independent scholars such as those of Jawaharlal Nehru University)[4] shows that none of them even formulates an alternative hypothesis. Not one of the numerous scholars who took up arms against the temple party has thought it necessary to explicitate even in the vaguest terms what exactly happened before a mosque was built at the site. Much less does any of them provide any kind of evidence for such an alternative scenario, eventhough positive proof for a non-temple scenario would be the best possible refutation of the temple scenario.

Vanquishing a straw man

The non-temple argumentation is confined to two types of evidence: arguments from silence, and attempts to find fault with pieces of evidence offered by the temple party.

Criticism of the pro-temple argument is usually directed against a straw man, not against the actual argumentation as presented by pro-temple scholars. A number of much-acclaimed anti-temple publications bravely announce in the introduction or on the cover that they will demolish every argument given (or "concocted" and "maliciously propagated") by the temple party, but then fail to address or even mention the main statements of the pro-temple party. Thus, Asghar Ali Engineer has published two anthologies of articles on this controversy[5] , but carefully leaves out the official as well as the competent non-official formulations of the pro-temple position; instead he includes only a few clumsy ones to create a semblance of even-handedness.

The most powerful non-official books by pro-temple scholars are simply never mentioned, let alone discussed.[6] Even the official argumentation offered by the scholars mandated by the Vishva Hindu Parishad during the government-sponsored debate is generally ignored.[7] Gyanendra Pandey manages to leave all this argumentation by professional historians totally unmentioned in three successive publications purporting to deal with the Hindu way of doing history during the Ayodhya controversy, focusing instead on some Hindi pamphlets by local religious personnel totally unacquainted with scholarly historiography.[8]

The same ignoring of the very argumentation which is purportedly refuted is found in the successive editions of S. Gopal's Anatomy of a Confrontation, for most foreign scholars the only accessible source about the Ayodhya conflict. Even the fact that a government- sponsored debate between historians mandated by both sides took place is obscured in most publications, and when it is at all mentioned, it is mostly to denounce the fact that the government had "collaborated with the communal forces" by giving them a hearing at all.