Babri Masjid demolition destroyed Hindu-Muslim relations: Poll

A large number of Indians believe that the demolition of Babri Masjid in 1991 strained the relations between Hindus and Muslims across the country, reported a poll conducted by Indo-Asian News Service.

The IANS-CVoter snap poll conducted using random sampling on December 5, 2021 had a sample size of 1942.

As many as 98.1 per cent of the respondents said that the incident damaged the relations between the two communities. However, while 59.3 per cent of these respondents further opined that the relations between the communities that had got damaged because of the incident is being healed with time, 38.8 per cent stated that the Hindu-Muslim relations were permanently damaged and divide continues to exits even 30 years after the Babri demolition. Only 1.9 per cent of those who participated in the survey said that the incident did not damage Hindu Muslim relations in India.

A clear manifestation of the impact of the Babri demolition on the Hindu-Muslim relations was widespread communal riots that took place in the aftermath of the incident. Religious hatred had engulfed the nation and communal riots in different states claimed more than 1,000 lives.

However, in the past few years, the number of serious communal riots has gone down and respondents in the same survey were equally divided on the reasons for the dip in communal violence in the country. While 30.8 per cent of the respondents said that exemplary punishment to rioters by the judiciary is the main reason for the reduced number of communal riots, 36.5 per cent of those, who participated in the survey said that cooler heads from both communities calming down inflamed passions is the prime reason for ebbing the communal violence and 32.7 per cent opined better law and order maintenance by police has brought down the occurrence of such horrific incidents.

Blame seems to be equally divided between the top leadership of the Congress and the BJP over the demolition of the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992.

Respondents were given the option to single out one among the three politicians who they considered more responsible for the demolition. Most analysts would have expected top BJP leaders to be blamed for the act. But the results were surprising.

The largest share of the blame went to former Prime Minister the late P.V. Narashima Rao, who was identified by 36.6 per cent of respondents as more responsible for the demolition. He was closely followed by BJP leader and former deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani. The surprise package was former Prime Minister the late Rajiv Gandhi, who was held more responsible for the act, even though he had been assassinated about 18 months before the actual demolition.

There doesn’t appear to be any deep polarisation on this issue across the party divides. While 32.4 per cent of NDA voters hold Advani responsible, 37.6 per cent of opposition voters hold him responsible. Similarly, while 36.1 per cent of NDA voters hold Rao responsible, 35.2 per cent of opposition hold him responsible. As mentioned earlier, Rajiv Gandhi had been assassinated in 1991. P.V. Narashima Rao was the prime minister at the time and L.K. Advani was actually present at the site when the disputed structure was brought down.