After my arrival in Delhi I went to visit my Kashmiri friend Ishmael again.
There, in his livingroom, I witnessed, on TV, the one event which would come to haunt India for years to come, leading to acts of unspeakable violence , countless deaths and suffering.
On December 6, 1992 thousands of fanatical Hindus demolished the Babri mosque in Ayodhya.
It was kind of fascinating to watch, how in just one day this building was being reduced to rubble with hand tools only. Having no idea of the consequences, knowing nothing about those conflicts, I just watched the show. Ishmael of course was not so indifferent. “This is not good, this is not good!“ he kept repeating.
Basically those fanatical Hindus believed that at the site where the mosque had been built in the 16th century by Mughal emperor Babur, there had been a Hindu temple before, indicating the birthplace of Rama, the quintessential righteous king in Hindu mythology, the 7th avatar of Lord Vishnu and a god in his own right, and that this temple was destroyed to make space for the mosque by the Muslims then, and now they wanted to rebuild the Hindu temple in honour of Lord Rama and had to therefore destroy the mosque first.
So basically some religious beliefs shrouded in mythology leading to sectarian strife, riots and countless human suffering.
Pretty similar footage to what I saw on TV in Delhi
I have always admired the Indian masses, how relatively peacefully they live together in such densely populated quarters, and I think that if us Germans had to live under those conditions we would be constantly at each other´s throat.
But sometimes the pressure also gets too much in India and the lid blows off the pressure cooker.
The beauty of today is that you can research all kinds of stuff on the internet and so I did some research and found out things I was not aware of while being in India myself, because whenever incidents like Ayodhya happen, the Indian government wants the media to not tell the full story in order to prevent more violence.
So while on TV I saw only pictures of the mob destroying the mosque, already in Ayodhya the houses of the Muslim community were attacked and Muslims were killed.
On youtube you can watch interviews with people who lost family members on that dreadful day and also with people who came there for Kar seva, such an innocent word, meaning voluntary religious service, just in that case it meant tearing down the mosque first in order to build a temple in its place afterwards.
I also found an interesting article about a guy who was one of the first to attack the mosque, later converted to Islam and wants to rebuild 100 mosques to atone for his sins.
So in the following weeks more riots occured in India and some areas became off-limits for tourists, for example Agra, home of world-famous Taj Mahal, with a sizeable Muslim population, was sealed off for tourists for a few days.
“No you can´t go there, there is curfew!“ was the reply I got from the tourist office in Delhi.
Luckily the situation in the Pahar Ganj area in New Delhi, where I was staying remained calm, so when my friend Anja finally arrived from Germany, she was relieved to learn that apparently at least in Delhi the situation was quiet.
Of course she was not amused when I told her that Agra was under curfew, because she definitely wanted to see the Taj Mahal, this monument of eternal love. Having been to India and not having seen the Taj would have been to her like going to Egypt and not visiting the pyramids.
Me, I could not care less about the Taj. Having read about all the hassles and troubles occuring in India´s number one tourist destination, I dreaded going to such a touristy place, imagining all sorts of problems with touts and scammers..
So if it had not been for Anja I would have been to India without seeing the Taj Mahal, so what.
But because she insisted, we, after a few days in Delhi, doing some sightseeing there, went to Agra after we got news that the curfew had been lifted.
I have now combined all my Pakistan travel stories into one chapter, which can be found here.
For more adventurous stories check out my blog @likedeeler
For more inspiring stories and a group of inspiring and supportive people check out @ecotrain.
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Interesting thoughts. India is a remarkable place.
I did a little bit of history and I know some nice things about the Indian masses. Thier peaceful coexistence in those thickly populated areas where they are found is amazing. There is bound to be conflict sometimes though.
They are human's of course.
Very nice article. When I go to Delhi, I always take lodgings in Pahar Ganj too.