Twenty Years Ago: Riots Sweep India After Babri Masjid Destruction

Douglas E. Curran/Agence France-Presse - Getty ImagesHindu fundamentalists shout and wave banners from the top the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya on Dec. 7, 1992. 

“India's towns and cities were swept by rioting between Muslims and Hindus on Monday, leaving more than 200 people dead and hundreds more injured a day after militant Hindus destroyed a 16th-century mosque in the northern town of Ayodhya,” Edward A. Gargan wrote in The New York Times.

“As the Indian Governmen t struggled to come to grips with the crisis, some ministers promised that the mosque would be rebuilt and others announced that some violent Hindu groups would be banned,” he wrote. “But the series of disjointed and uncoordinated statements by the officials seemed to reflect the paralysis of the Government, which remained apparently incapable of halting the rioting that claimed an increasing number of lives as the hours passed.”

Parsing what was actually happening around the country was difficult, because of a news blackout. “Details of the riots in India's towns and cities were difficult to come by as the Government-controlled news organizations - including All India Radio, the Press Trust of India news agency and the government television network - censored their reports,” he wrote. “It was thus impossible to tell in any particular city whether it was Hindus who attacked Muslims or Muslims who were assaulting Hindus.”

Much of India was in shock as news of the mosque's demolition spread and it became apparent that the Government had failed to defend the shrine. The country's leading newspapers spoke forcefully of “national shame,” “a betrayed nation,” and the need to save the republic from “the scourge of hate and bigotry.” Parliament Unable to Meet

But despite the editorial anguish, India remained very much unsure of itself this evening. The country's Parliament tried twice to convene Monday and failed both times as pandemonium engulfed the chamber.

The strife unleashed by the Hindu militants' attack poses a severe threat to India's constitutional foundations as a secular state.

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