Congress party and Places of Worship Act, 1991

Newsroom24x7 is republishing this piece with minor editing from Facebook’s India History group to meet the goal of building public awareness

Pic. shows the Gyanvapi mosque at Kashi by Jafar Memon in Nov 2018. . Similar mosques that were constructed over Hindu places of worship exist at Vidisha and Mathura (photo courtesy facebook)

In 1991 the Congress government brought before the parliament which passed the Places of Worship Act, 1991. The law prohibits any change in the religious character of a place of worship from as it existed on August 15, 1947. The law was passed since the country was getting restive over the existence of the Babri masjid over the birth place of Lord Rama the son of king Dasrath, who defeated the ruler of Sri Lanka…..
In times when Muslim rulers ruled over large parts of India, a lot of violence was done to many places of worship that were not Islamic. That violence which lasted over five centuries came to an end when the Marathas set up their rule over much of north India. In the decades that followed there has been increasing conflict over the liberation of places of Hindu worship from the control of Islamics. As the conflict peaked over the existence of the Babri masjid over the birth place of Lord Rama, the government sought to stop all future conflicts by passing the Places of Worship Act. This has ensured that a mosque exists over many locations that are considered particularly holy by Hindus. Many Hindus object to such protection to these mosques which were constructed as symbols of the victory of Islam over India. However, it has been emphasised by a section that it is best that people in India let bygones be bygones. Hindus, it has been stressed by some sections, should not even ask Muslims to apologise for the religious violence done to their places of worship by Islamist rulers. The Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee, in-charge of the Gyanvapi Masjid, has maintained that both Kashi Vishwanath Mandir and the Gyanvapi Masjid were constructed by Akbar to further his religious experiment, Din-e-Ilahi.

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