B

Baba

In its literal meaning, an affectionate
term of address meaning “father.”
Although this can be used to address
any older man, it is most commonly
applied to ascetics, either in speaking of
them as a class or as a respectful way to
address a particular one.

Babar’s Mosque

See Babri Masjid.

Babri Masjid

(“Babar’s Mosque”) Mosque built in
1528 on the outskirts of the city of
Ayodhya, which was constructed at the
order of Mir Baqi, a general of the
Moghul emperor Babar (1483–1530).
The site has long been a source of con-
troversy between the Hindu and Muslim
communities, and British sources
recorded conflicts there in 1855 and

1934. Local tradition holds that the
      mosque was built on the birthplace of
      the Hindu deity Rama, and that it was
      constructed only after demolishing the
      Hindu temple there, although there is
      little hard evidence for the latter claim. A
      few months after India gained indepen-
      dence in 1947, several local Hindus sur-
      reptitiously installed images of the child
      Rama, his wife Sita, and his brother
      Lakshmana; they spread the tale that
      the images had miraculously appeared
      in a ball of light. The government had
      only recently quieted the Hindu-Muslim
      massacres that accompanied the divi-
      sion of British India into India and
      Pakistan, and it was reluctant to rein-
      flame religious passions. Its solution was
      to padlock the compound’s gates and

send the case to the courts for resolu-

tion, where it languished for almost

forty years.

The early 1980s saw renewed contro-

versy over the site, when the Hindu reli-

gious organization Vishva Hindu

Parishad(VHP) first began calling for its

“liberation” and proclaiming that the

existing structure was an insult to all

Hindus. This campaign portrayed the

mosque as a symbol of Muslim icono-

clasm. Moreover, it depicted govern-

ment efforts to protect the mosque as an

attempt to appease the Muslim commu-

nity and retain their votes. In 1986 the

VHP’s drive to liberate the site was aided

by the national government headed by

Rajiv Gandhi, which in a patent attempt

to claim Hindu support, unlocked the

compound’s gates so that Hindus could

worshipon the site.

The pressure intensified as the

decade progressed, culminating in a

series of campaigns to begin construct-

ing a Hindu temple on the site. Many of

these campaigns coincided with national

elections, and the emotion they generat-

ed helped benefit the electoral fortunes

of the Bharatiya Janata Party, a political

party with close ties to the VHP.

Eventually, on December 6, 1992, the

mosque was demolished. The whole

operation was carefully planned; the

demolition teams were highly trained,

and the first thing they did was to

destroy all the television cameras there

to prevent any media coverage by out-

siders. It was carried out with the bless-

ing of the state government, which

made no attempt to protect the build-

ing. The demolition was followed by

riots, particularly in the state of

Maharashtra, in which over three

thousand people were killed, most of

them Muslims.

Even after the destruction of the

Babri Masjid, the site remained a bone

of contention. Immediately following

the demolition, Prime Minister P. V.

Narasimha Rao promised to rebuild the

mosque on the same spot, but he did

nothing to accomplish this during his

time in office. Various Hindu groups,

Baba