Двое меня! И не разделяйте!
читать дальшеThe point is illustrated once more in the contrived controversy about the recent archaeological findings at the contentious temple/mosque site in Ayodhya, believed to be the birthplace of the deified hero Rama. Here, the supposed Hindu fundamentalists have been abiding by the findings of science, while the so-called secularists have been on the opposite side, the side of dogmatism and obscurantism.
The Hindu claim and the Muslim counterclaim to the disputed site have been sub judice at the High Court of Allahabad since 1950, weeks after Hindus had taken control of the mosque by installing statues of Rama, his wife Sita and his brother Lakshman. On 22 August 2003, after 53 years of judicial pussyfooting, the Archaeological Survey of India handed a highly sensitive report to the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court. The ASI had been mandated by the Court to excavate the foundation level underneath and around the demolished Babri Masjid in Ayodhya. This mosque, attributed to the Moghul dynasty�s founder Babar (1528) was deconstructed in 1992 by Hindu activists eager to see a temple built right there.
In the winter of 2002-2003, the Court had secretly ordered a search of the site with a ground-penetrating radar by the company Tojo Vikas International Ltd., which had gained fame with its role in the construction of the Delhi underground railway. Canadian geophysicist Claude Robillard concluded from the scans that �there is some structure under the mosque� (Rediff.com, 19 March 2003). The Court then ordered the archaeologists to verify these findings in greater detail. If you expected secularists to welcome this replacement of bickering between religious hotheads with the objectivity of a scientific investigation, the subsequent developments provide you with an opportunity to learn.
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When more temple remains were found in 1992, a cry went up among the Marxist academics that the sculptures had been stolen from museums and planted at the site. The central government (Congress) had the pieces locked away. During the scholars� debate in 1990-91, the VHP-mandated team had discovered no less than 4 documents on which references to the �birthplace temple� had been altered or removed, or which had been removed from public access (and those were only the ones where the foul play was discovered; who knows how many times the tampering succeeded?). Here the secularists had their great chance to get back at them and expose them in turn as cheaters who had planted false evidence. Yet, the minister in charge, Arjun Singh, though a militant secularist and eager to embarrass the Hindu activists, forewent the opportunity to have the sculptures investigated by international experts to certify the allegation of forgery. Once more, it was sheer bluff and the secularists didn�t want it subjected to scrutiny.
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In early 2003, the Court ordered the ASI to start excavations and either confirm or disprove the provisional conclusions of the radar scan. Strictly speaking, the existence or otherwise of the medieval temple never depended on the results of the radar scanning nor on the excavations: it had already been proven by a wealth of documentary and archaeological evidence, which in any other circumstance would have been deemed conclusive. It was only because of the brutal denial of the evidence by a group of vocal academics and allied politicians that the Court considered it wiser to come up with a new and as yet unchallenged type of evidence.
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We should be clear in our minds about what kind of evidence could be expected, as this digging took place at the foundations level. This is not where sculptures or furniture normally reside (though a few objects were found nonetheless) but where the unadorned foundations of walls and pillars have quietly survived the onslaught that destroyed the �over-ground� constructions they supported. Foundations do not by themselves inform us of the type of building they supported, whether secular or religious; but for that, we can rely on other types of evidence. The temple had never gone underground, had never been covered with layers of soil; instead, it had been demolished and its components removed, destroyed or re-used. Earlier layers, by contrast, may approximate the normal stratigraphic pattern better: a building layer covered with stray debris, then a new building layer, etc.
In the months when the digging took place, the newspapers reported new findings once in a while. Thus, �an ancient stone inscription in the Dev Nagari sсript and a foundation were discovered in the ongoing excavation in the acquired land in Ayodhya today�, while �stone pieces and a wall were found in other trenches� and �a human figure in terracotta, sand stone netting, decorated sand stone in three pieces were found in one trench� (The Hindu, 5 May 2003).
In this light it is understandable that a Babri Masjid supporter, Naved Yar Khan, approached the Supreme Court with a petition to prohibit all archaeological digging at the contentious site (which was rejected: �SC rejects plea against excavation�, The Hindu, 10 June 2003). The secularists had always opposed archaeological fact-finding at the site, arguing that this would open a Pandora�s box of similar initiatives at the literally thousands of mosque sites where temples used to stand. They typically omitted to mention their fear that in Ayodhya itself, this digging was sure to prove them wrong, as it now has.
****
The Hindu claim and the Muslim counterclaim to the disputed site have been sub judice at the High Court of Allahabad since 1950, weeks after Hindus had taken control of the mosque by installing statues of Rama, his wife Sita and his brother Lakshman. On 22 August 2003, after 53 years of judicial pussyfooting, the Archaeological Survey of India handed a highly sensitive report to the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court. The ASI had been mandated by the Court to excavate the foundation level underneath and around the demolished Babri Masjid in Ayodhya. This mosque, attributed to the Moghul dynasty�s founder Babar (1528) was deconstructed in 1992 by Hindu activists eager to see a temple built right there.
In the winter of 2002-2003, the Court had secretly ordered a search of the site with a ground-penetrating radar by the company Tojo Vikas International Ltd., which had gained fame with its role in the construction of the Delhi underground railway. Canadian geophysicist Claude Robillard concluded from the scans that �there is some structure under the mosque� (Rediff.com, 19 March 2003). The Court then ordered the archaeologists to verify these findings in greater detail. If you expected secularists to welcome this replacement of bickering between religious hotheads with the objectivity of a scientific investigation, the subsequent developments provide you with an opportunity to learn.
***
When more temple remains were found in 1992, a cry went up among the Marxist academics that the sculptures had been stolen from museums and planted at the site. The central government (Congress) had the pieces locked away. During the scholars� debate in 1990-91, the VHP-mandated team had discovered no less than 4 documents on which references to the �birthplace temple� had been altered or removed, or which had been removed from public access (and those were only the ones where the foul play was discovered; who knows how many times the tampering succeeded?). Here the secularists had their great chance to get back at them and expose them in turn as cheaters who had planted false evidence. Yet, the minister in charge, Arjun Singh, though a militant secularist and eager to embarrass the Hindu activists, forewent the opportunity to have the sculptures investigated by international experts to certify the allegation of forgery. Once more, it was sheer bluff and the secularists didn�t want it subjected to scrutiny.
***
In early 2003, the Court ordered the ASI to start excavations and either confirm or disprove the provisional conclusions of the radar scan. Strictly speaking, the existence or otherwise of the medieval temple never depended on the results of the radar scanning nor on the excavations: it had already been proven by a wealth of documentary and archaeological evidence, which in any other circumstance would have been deemed conclusive. It was only because of the brutal denial of the evidence by a group of vocal academics and allied politicians that the Court considered it wiser to come up with a new and as yet unchallenged type of evidence.
***
We should be clear in our minds about what kind of evidence could be expected, as this digging took place at the foundations level. This is not where sculptures or furniture normally reside (though a few objects were found nonetheless) but where the unadorned foundations of walls and pillars have quietly survived the onslaught that destroyed the �over-ground� constructions they supported. Foundations do not by themselves inform us of the type of building they supported, whether secular or religious; but for that, we can rely on other types of evidence. The temple had never gone underground, had never been covered with layers of soil; instead, it had been demolished and its components removed, destroyed or re-used. Earlier layers, by contrast, may approximate the normal stratigraphic pattern better: a building layer covered with stray debris, then a new building layer, etc.
In the months when the digging took place, the newspapers reported new findings once in a while. Thus, �an ancient stone inscription in the Dev Nagari sсript and a foundation were discovered in the ongoing excavation in the acquired land in Ayodhya today�, while �stone pieces and a wall were found in other trenches� and �a human figure in terracotta, sand stone netting, decorated sand stone in three pieces were found in one trench� (The Hindu, 5 May 2003).
In this light it is understandable that a Babri Masjid supporter, Naved Yar Khan, approached the Supreme Court with a petition to prohibit all archaeological digging at the contentious site (which was rejected: �SC rejects plea against excavation�, The Hindu, 10 June 2003). The secularists had always opposed archaeological fact-finding at the site, arguing that this would open a Pandora�s box of similar initiatives at the literally thousands of mosque sites where temples used to stand. They typically omitted to mention their fear that in Ayodhya itself, this digging was sure to prove them wrong, as it now has.
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@темы: Ayodhya