High stakes Building dispute is epicenter of India's religious

AYODHYA, India -- Mohammed Hashim is a chain-smoking tailor with no front teeth. For 34 years he has been a plaintiff in a court case that lies at the epicenter of India's Muslim-Hindu divide.

But as yet another chapter of this seemingly endless trial opens on Monday, Mohammed isn't holding his breath. He is 82 now, and is certain the case will outlive him by decades.

At stake is a plot of land in Ayodhya, a Hindu holy city 310 miles southeast of New Delhi. The dispute is whether Hindus should have it to build a temple to their god Rama, or Muslims should possess it to rebuild their Babri Mosque, torn down by a Hindu mob in 1992.

The trial has dragged on for more than half a century, but its roots date back 450 years. Ultimately the three High Court judges must decide whether a 16th-century Muslim conqueror built a mosque on the ruins of a temple marking the 7,000-year-old birthplace of Rama.

The modern-day battle has resulted, directly or indirectly, in thousands of deaths. Last year riots killed nearly 1,000 Muslims in western Gujarat state.

Largest Muslim minority

India, the world's most populous democracy, also has the world's largest Muslim minority. For many years it managed to keep tempers in check by adhering to the secular principles laid down by in India's constitution. But as Islamic fundamentalism has stirred in the region, so has Hindu nationalism. The religious divide also defines India's nuclear-tipped conflict with its Muslim-majority neighbor, Pakistan.

So the stakes before the court in Lucknow, the regional capital, are incalculably high.

In the latest development, the judges on Monday will read a report by government archaeologists who spent 4 1/2 months digging 33 trenches at what is left of the disputed shrine, a pile of rubble from the mosque and an idol of Rama under a tent.

A Hindu mob destroyed the mosque on Dec. 6, 1992, egged on by Hindu nationalists declaring they would take back the birthplace of their supreme god. More than 2,000 died in the nationwide sectarian violence that followed.

Muslims haven't prayed there since 1949, when Hindus installed an idol in the mosque. Government archaeologists barred Muslims from entering, and Muslims said they couldn't pray there anyway because of the idol.

Considering India's long history, and the way countless cultures have built atop the ruins of the last, what lay under the mosque could have been a Hindu temple, a Buddhist shrine, a house, a kitchen -- or all the above.

The Muslims hold that even if a Hindu temple had been destroyed there, no one can prove it was Rama's birthplace.

"A court of law cannot take note of something that happened 500 years ago, or 5,000 years ago," said Zafaryab Jilani, a lawyer for the Babri Action Committee. "If the Muslims give up on this issue, there will be no end to it," he said, referring to hundreds of mosques across India. "It's a question of survival."

The archaeological report is likely to produce more hearings, further delaying the main land ownership case. It could take years to hear from the dozens of witnesses waiting to testify.

Hindu nationalist groups affiliated with the prime minister's party have no patience for the court case.

Ashok Singhal is president of the World Hindu Council, which acknowledges its members tore down the mosque and attacked Muslims in Gujarat. At an Aug. 13 news conference at the Rama Birthplace Trust headquarters, he warned that "All Muslim leaders should think and review their claims" to the site.

"Bad days will come for them, like in Gujarat, if they do not give up their false claim," he roared.