Places of Worship Act now seems redundant - Hindustan Times
close_game
close_game

Places of Worship Act now seems redundant

Sep 16, 2022 07:42 PM IST

While a protracted legal battle over the Gyanvapi mosque may help preserve the status quo, it may not provide a sustainable resolution. If India is to avoid religious strife and maintain social harmony, solutions will have to come from the people

It was not a Nehruvian secularist but Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat who declared that one can’t go looking for a shivling under every mosque. And yet, there has been a spate of litigation, including ongoing ones in Mathura and Varanasi, arguing that where mosques stand today, temples once did. Litigious enthusiasts have not spared even the Qutub Minar and the Taj Mahal. And unless community leaders step in to mediate and stop this spiral, we could be entering a difficult period of social strife. In effect, the 1991 Places of Worship Act appears redundant or, at the very least, ineffective as an instrument to contain this fallout.

This week the Varanasi district court ruled that the petition demanding the right to daily worship inside the Gyanvapi complex was not in violation of the Places of Worship Act because it was not asking for the mosque to be reclassified as a temple. (PTI) PREMIUM
This week the Varanasi district court ruled that the petition demanding the right to daily worship inside the Gyanvapi complex was not in violation of the Places of Worship Act because it was not asking for the mosque to be reclassified as a temple. (PTI)

The law, passed in 1991 by the Narasimha Rao-led Congress government, sought to freeze the status quo on mosques, temples, churches and gurdwaras as they were when India became independent. In effect, the law ensured that you couldn’t convert a religious place of worship into one of another faith. The singular exception, under Section 5 of the act, was made for Ayodhya, the epicentre of the Ram Janmabhoomi agitation.

The other exemption was for “... ancient and historical monuments or an archaeological site…”. When the Qutub Minar was dragged to court, citing this exemption, civil judge Neha Sharma rejected the plea for the restoration of Hindu and Jain deities by underlining that monuments, though exempted by the act, were not places of worship and could not be suddenly converted into sites of religious services.

But don’t think that the last word on this issue has been spoken. The Qutub Minar decision was challenged, and a Delhi court has deferred its verdict to later this month. This is precisely the slippery slope we will be sliding down unless a one-time resolution is arrived at, setting the boundaries for all future disputes. In any case, the act can be amended in Parliament. Or, it can be read down or re-interpreted by the Supreme Court (SC). So Muslim or Hindu groups looking to resolve religious disputes within the ambit of this law are either wasting their time or dashing their hopes.

When the SC delivered the Ayodhya verdict in favour of a temple in 2019, it quoted this law as a guarantee against random “retrogression.” It praised Parliament’s approach, calling the legislation a “...constitutional basis for healing the injustices of the past by providing the confidence to every religious community that their places of worship will be preserved and that their character will not be altered”.

Justice DY Chandrachud, who was on the Ayodhya bench, also led the three-judge SC bench that decided to refer the petition by Hindu women to pray within the Gyanvapi mosque complex back to a Varanasi district court. Many lawyers have questioned why the judges, in effect, breathed life into a petition that appeared to have been in contravention of the 1991 law. Justice Chandrachud explained the court’s decision by saying that ascertaining the religious nature of a site was not barred by the law. Suppose there is a cross in another part of an agiary (fire temple) complex, he posited hypothetically. “Does the presence of the agiary make the cross an agiary? Does the presence of a cross make the agiary a place of Christian worship? There this hybrid character… is not unknown in India.”

This week the Varanasi district court ruled that the petition demanding the right to daily worship inside the Gyanvapi complex was not in violation of the Places of Worship Act because it was not asking for the mosque to be reclassified as a temple. Out on the streets, however, as Hindu groups celebrated the legal victory, the proclamations were different. “This is the foundation stone for a temple,” the husband of one of the Hindu petitioners, Sohan Lal Arya, declared.

Muslim groups have, so far, decided to keep fighting legally. While a protracted legal battle may help preserve the status quo, it may not provide a sustainable resolution. If India is to avoid religious strife and maintain social harmony, solutions will have to come from the people. The courts cannot settle every dispute piecemeal and politicians are incentivised to keep conflicts at a low simmer. It is for the communities then – and for their religious and civil society heads -- to start an inter-faith dialogue or commission once-and-for-all to lay mutually agreeable terms. Either that, or we need a modern-day Mahatma Gandhi to find in the language of faith a dictionary for reconciliation.

We cannot move forward if we keep fighting over the past.

Barkha Dutt is an award-winning journalist and author The views expressed are personal

Unveiling 'Elections 2024: The Big Picture', a fresh segment in HT's talk show 'The Interview with Kumkum Chadha', where leaders across the political spectrum discuss the upcoming general elections. Watch Now!

Continue reading with HT Premium Subscription

Daily E Paper I Premium Articles I Brunch E Magazine I Daily Infographics
freemium
SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
Share this article
  • ABOUT THE AUTHOR
    author-default-90x90

    Barkha Dutt is consulting editor, NDTV, and founding member, Ideas Collective. She tweets as @BDUTT.

SHARE
Story Saved
Live Score
OPEN APP
Saved Articles
Following
My Reads
Sign out
New Delhi 0C
Friday, March 29, 2024
Start 14 Days Free Trial Subscribe Now
Follow Us On