ASI Survey Report on Gyanvapi Mosque has been published yesterday 25.01.204 on the eve of 75th Republic Day of India. As it was expected, the report reveals that a large Hindu temple structure existed before the current structure of Gyanvapi Mosque was built.
It is widely admitted that Aurangzeb built the mosque in September, 1669. As per the contentions of the Hindu community and others, it was built after demolishing a temple, the marks of which in many aspects still exist and perhaps the ASI Survey Report on Gyanvapi Mosque is based on this majority hypothesis. The mosque was called Gyanvapi on the basis of its location adjoining a sacred water body Gyan Vapi “Well of Knowledge”. This sacred water boy i.e. well namely Gyan Vapi is very ancient as they say.
The mosque has been a center of communal clashes during the colonial rule also but from 1984, Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) and other organizations associated with Sangh Parivar have intensified their efforts to demolish the mosque and built a temple there. The strategy of the Hindu party has been filing applications in courts lobbying their cause through the judiciary and other effective means. Therefore, a title dispute suit was filed by three local Hindus in Varanasi Civil Court on behalf of three Hindu deities – Shiva, Shrinagar Gauri and Ganesha for handing over the entire mosque area to the dominated community for constructing their place of worship. Despite the Places of Worship (Special Provisions Act) 1991 in force prohibiting courts from entertaining any litigation, recently after the BJP Government gained grounds, the supporters of rightwing ideology are trying their best to realize their vested interests and the officers and executives of ASI (Archeology Survey of India) are being used for the policy that is not based on equality, justice and secularism, which we celebrate each year. Let us see what ASI Survey Report on Gyanvapi Mosque entails hereinafter.
Ram Chandra Shukla, Author of the masterpiece “History of Hindi Literature”
Dargah Shahe Mardan, Alipur, New Delhi
Hamid Siddiqui: Director – MOI Portal
Leave a Reply