Places of Worship Act: The rule of foreign Muslim rulers in the country lasted for about 650 years. During this, about 40 thousand temples were broken selectively in the country. It is alleged that after independence, when the turn came for the restoration of these temples, the hands of the Hindus were tied by making the Worship Act.

After a long wait of about 500 years, the process of construction of Shri Ram temple in Ayodhya started. Today the dispute of Babri Masjid and Ram Janmabhoomi has become a matter of history. But there are still many such temples and mosques in our country, whose dispute is not over yet. Surprisingly, most of these disputed religious places are located in North India. Whereas in South India you will see very few such ancient temples, which were demolished and mosques were built there. This is because.. because during 800 years the Muslim invaders who carried out countless attacks on India. They could not establish their influence on South India in the way they encroached in North India.

Mosques built by demolishing temples in India 

As a result of this, mosques were built in place of or near many ancient temples of North India. Now there are many religious places in India, where there is a mosque with a temple or a temple with a mosque. Now you should think whether this is just a coincidence or the invaders from outside used this experiment to impose their civilization on the majority of the people of India.

For example, 500 years ago the Babri Masjid was replaced by the Ram temple in Ayodhya, the center of Hindu faith. But no damage was done to the hundreds of years old Sri Sita Rama Chandra Swamy temple dedicated to Lord Rama and his wife Sita in Telangana. Similarly, some people claim that the Jyotirlinga of Lord Shiva you see in Kashi Vishwanath temple, its original form is not present there but at the place where a mosque was built on the orders of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb three and a half hundred years ago. was given. But unlike in Tamil Nadu, the 800-year-old Rameshwar temple dedicated to Lord Shiva was never damaged.

Temple was also destroyed in Kashi

After Ayodhya, Kashi Vishwanath is seen as the biggest center of faith of Hindus. This is because Ayodhya is the city of Lord Rama and Kashi i.e. Varanasi is considered as the city of Lord Shiva. But like Ayodhya, here too there is a dispute regarding the temple and the mosque. The Hindu side claims that a mosque was built by Aurangzeb where the original Jyotirlinga dedicated to Lord Shiva exists, which is today known as the Gyanvapi Masjid. Gyan Vapi means the pond or well of knowledge.

In this case, a new petition has been filed in the Supreme Court, in which it has been said that the Shivling which is claimed to be found in the Wuzukhana of Gyanvapi Masjid, should be investigated by Carbon Dating and Ground Penetrating Radar System so that it can be found that this fountain Is it Shivling?

It has also been demanded in this petition that Hindu devotees should be given the right to worship the Shivling in the Wuzukhana. The portion of the wuzukhana should be handed over to the Shree Kashi Vishwanath Trust till a decision is taken in this matter.

Why were the hands of Hindus tied by making Worship Act?

The Supreme Court will hear the matter on July 21. But in the midst of this hearing, the question is also arising whether this matter will come under the purview of the Places of Worship Act i.e. Places of Worship Act made in the year 1991 or not. Under this law, the status quo is applicable on 15 August 1947 at religious places in the country. Only the Ayodhya case has been considered an exception to this. Therefore, today the big question is that after the claim of getting Shivling, what will be the new situation under the law in this case?

To know the answer to this question, we talked to the constitutional analysts. Apart from this, we also got help from law experts. During this we came to know two things. Firstly, if the Shivling and other evidence proves to be true that the Gyanvapi Masjid is situated at the site of the temple, then this 1991 Act will not become a major obstacle in this matter. From this it will be clear that on 15th August 1947 also the Shivling was present at the site of the mosque, which strengthens the claim of the temple. Secondly, offering Namaz in a public place does not make any place a religious place. Therefore, to say that Namaz is being offered in this complex since 1947 and it is a mosque, this claim will not legally last long in the court.

By the way, it is a great contradiction that there are historical documents of the demolition of Kashi Vishwanath temple by the Mughal ruler Aurangzeb. Despite this, for hundreds of years, this debate has been going on in our country whether there was a temple at this place or not?

Qutubuddin Aibak did the first attack on Kashi

Whereas the truth is that with the arrival of Muslim invaders in India, the attacks on Kashi Vishwanath temple started. It was first attacked by Qutbuddin Aibak in the 12th century. The spire of the temple was broken in this attack. But even after this the worship continued. In the year 1585, King Todarmal got the Kashi Vishwanath temple rebuilt. He is considered one of the nine gems of Akbar. In the year 1669, on the orders of Aurangzeb, this temple was completely demolished and a mosque was built there. In the year 1780, Queen Ahilya-Bai of Malwa built a new temple next to the Gyanvapi complex, which we know today as Kashi Vishwanath Temple.

However, Kashi Vishwanath Temple is not the only temple which was damaged during the rule of Delhi Sultanate and Mughals. This started the suppression of temples in India after the year 1192, when Prithviraj Chauhan was defeated by Mohammad Ghori in the second battle of Tarain. After winning this battle, Mohammad Ghori established the Delhi Sultanate and after this the process of destroying the temples started.

First of all, from the year 1192 to 1290, the slave dynasty ruled India. This was followed by the Khilji dynasty from 1290 to 1320, the Tughlaq dynasty from 1320 to 1415, the Sayyid dynasty from 1415 to 1451, the Lodi dynasty from 1451 to 1526 and the Mughals ruled India from 1526 to 1857. During this thousands of temples were destroyed.

40 thousand temples destroyed in 665 years

Historian Sitaram Goyal has written a book on it, titled, Hindu Temples – What Happened to Them. In this book, he has told that there was Islamic rule in India for about 665 years and during this time more than 40 thousand temples were destroyed. That is, according to this, on an average 5 temples were demolished every month and mosques and tombs were built in their place.

It is also written in this book that today there are more than 1800 mosques, tombs and other religious places in the country, where the remains of Hindu temples are clearly visible. Today we will try to prove this suppression of temples through historical documents.

First of all, you should know about the decree, which was issued on 3 September 1667. At that time Aurangzeb had ordered one thousand of his soldiers to break the Kalkaji temple located in Delhi. After this decree, on 12 September 1667, the general of Aurangzeb informs him that the order to destroy the temple, which he had received, has been implemented. Not only this, Aurangzeb’s general also writes in his reply that while demolishing the Kalkaji temple, the people of the Brahmin community protested, who were immediately taken prisoner.

Aurangzeb destroyed the most temples

 

A few days after the destruction of the Kalkaji temple, on 26 September 1667, another decree is issued by Aurangzeb, in which it is written that thousands of Hindu devotees are reaching the Sheetla Mata temple in Ajmer. Therefore, these people should be stopped from going to the temple and worshiping there.

Apart from this, on 9 April 1669, Aurangzeb orders the destruction of the temples built in Banaras, Multan and Thatta. It is also written in this that the demolition of these temples will deepen the roots of Islamic rule in India and will also expand the religion of Islam in India.

This is a historical document, which was issued on 18 April 1669 by a courtier of Aurangzeb. Originally it was written in Persian but it has also been translated into Hindi and submitted to the court.

It is written in it that Aurangzeb has received news that in some provinces of Multan and Banaras, stupid Brahmins teach their junk books in school. Hindu and Muslim students and inquisitors come to these schools to read their bullying knowledge, science.

The decrees were issued by the Mughal rule.

After hearing this, the king of religion has issued a decree in the name of the subedars that they should demolish the temples and schools of the infidels at their will. They have also been strictly instructed that they should stop reading all kinds of idol worship related scriptures and also stop worshiping idols. After this, Aurangzeb is informed that after his order, the Kashi Vishwanath temple has been demolished on 2 September 1669.

That is, a historical document itself confirms that the Kashi Vishwanath temple was damaged only on the orders of Aurangzeb. Similarly, in the year 1670 also, a decree was issued by Aurangzeb, in which Keshav Rai temple of Mathura was ordered to be demolished. It is written in this decree that in the month of Ramzan in 1670, the Mughal ruler Aurangzeb ordered the destruction of the famous Keshav Rai temple of Mathura. It was built by Raja Bir Singh Bundela of Orchha at that time for 33 lakh rupees.

In this area of ​​Katra Keshavdev is the birthplace of Lord Shri Krishna, which is spread over 13 acres of land and its ownership is with Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi Trust. The royal Idgah built on the orders of Aurangzeb is also present in about 2 decimal 5 acres of this land. Which is constantly demanded to be removed. The Hindu side argues that this Idgah is built above the sanctum sanctorum of Shri Krishna.

Demolition of temples done after searching in Rajasthan

Similarly, in the year 1671, Aurangeb decrees the destruction of the Jagannath Rai temple of Udaipur and on 29 January 1680, honors his general Hasan Ali Khan with the title of Bahadur ‘Alamgir-shahi, who destroyed 172 temples of Udaipur. Apart from this, Aurangzeb’s decree of 22 February 1680 mentions the destruction of 63 temples of Chittor. On 1 June 1681, Aurangzeb orders the demolition of Jagannath Puri temple.

Hindus were being subjected to so much atrocities during the Islamic period that they could not even save the temples, except for the reconstruction, and apart from the destruction of the temples, Jizya tax was being collected from the Hindus. Fireworks and music were being banned. In such a situation, it was a crime for the Hindus to even think about getting the reconstruction done at this time and after the establishment of British power in India, more difficulties had arisen for the Hindus.

We told about all these documents so that you can understand how Hindu temples were targeted during the rule of Delhi Sultanate and Mughals. These things are also proved by historical documents, but the Places of Worship Act which was enacted in our country for Muslim appeasement, created a challenge in front of the restoration of Hindu temples. That is, the temples that were broken under Islamic rule cannot return to their original form even today. Nothing could be sadder than this.

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