Jammu and Kashmir is a union territory in northern India. It comprises two major regions: Jammu and the Kashmir Valley. A third region, Ladakh, along with Jammu and Kashmir, was a part of the state of Jammu and Kashmir until 2019. After the abrogation of Article 370, the state was broken into two: Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh. The region is known for breathtaking landscapes with a history going back to the Indus Valley Civilization, with evidence of various empires — Gandhara, Mauryan, Kushan, Gupta, Mughal, and Dogra — ruling the area.
The region has been a bone of contention between India and Pakistan since its 1947 accession to India. The two countries fought a war that resulted in the establishment of the Line of Control (LoC) and divided the region into Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan-administered Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan. Both Pakistan and China lay claims to parts of Indian-administered Kashmir and Ladakh.
The region has faced decades of insurgency, particularly since the 1980s, fueled by political alienation, human rights concerns, and economic disparities, leading to a cycle of violence and counterinsurgency operations.
In 2024, elections were held in the region after nearly a decade, restoring an elected government. Omar Abdullah took office as Chief Minister, while Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha continues to serve as the Centre’s representative, overseeing administrative affairs.
Why the political party leaders focus on the ram mandir for making in the Ayodhya it is very important for our country, I generally
My father’s village is in the present day Pakistan. If in his loving memory I visit Pakistan and wish to see the place “where my father was born”, I will be disappointed. The place must have changed beyond recognition even for the locals in, say, last twenty years, and my father was born “somewhere” in that village 100 years ago!
Within a hundred years the probability to “pinpoint” a courtyard where my father was born has become ZERO, because no one from my grandparents’ time is alive and living there who could guide me to where that family “actually lived”.
The point I am trying to make is, no matter how earnestly we revere lord Ram, we as fair people can only be sure that He was born “somewhere” in Ayodhya. If SOME Hindus are jumping up and down and shouting “HERE, HERE, this is THE COMPOUND where lord Ram was born”, then we can be sure that they are being, self-righteous, ignorant, arrogant, spiteful to the extent of being violent against some people (read Muslims) who were the occupants of THAT COMPOUND till recently.
Since the emotions of the two communities have been inflamed to dangerous extent by the demolition of the Babri mosque, senior and responsible leaders from both sides should agree to declare “that FORCIBLY emptied compound” as a NO TRESPASS ZONE for both communities. Mr Mohan Bhagwat should take an initiative in THAT direction rather than harping that a Ram Mandir should be constructed EXACTLY in that compound.
It might very well be that that was no mosque, no namaz was being offered there, and it was just a dilapidated structure which the Hindu zealots pulled down. That well might be true. But this truth should have been established in the courts and thereby told to the opposite side BEFORE it was demolished WITHOUT ANY LEGAL PERMISSION.
The last badge that the structure carried read, MOSQUE. No one can deny that.
It will be like an ostrich hiding its head in sand and believing that no danger exists, to say that this is “a land ownership case”. It WAS, before the demolition of the structure that stood on that land. Now it is the case of two people’s incensed religious feelings.
In my humble opinion, the only way to break the impasse is to carry forward that “no trespass zone” idea. Let us first drop the word ‘Babar’ or ‘Babri’. Let us bring in a name that is revered by the Muslims just as “Ram” is by the Hindus. Muhammad. And let us construct a hospital for the poor there — because both communities have ample numbers of the poor. How about this:
RAM-MUHAMMAD NATIONAL HOSPITAL FOR THE POOR?
(Actually personally I wouldn’t mind even a football ground, because both peoples play football)