Will the Ayodhya verdict widen the rift or bring India together?

One of India's most fractious, deadly and long-standing disputes was adjudicated on Saturday, but will it lead to the healing of old wounds and reconciliation among communities?

Leaders of political and religious groups are voicing optimism that the decision by India's top court to give Hindus the right to build a temple at the site of a 16th-century mosque demolished by mobs in 1992 in the northern town of Ayodhya will finally provide closure. Celebrations by Hindu right-wing groups have been muted.

While some Muslim leaders and organisations have expressed dismay, many say they accept the verdict and hope that with it there will be an end to the fighting.

The unanimous judgement by five of the Supreme Court's senior-most judges seems to be based not only on evidence before it but the reality on the ground and the perceptions of India's majority faith. The Supreme Court said the demolition of the Babri mosque by Hindu mobs in 1992 was unlawful.

However, oral and documentary evidence led the court to conclude that Hindus had believed the site of the Babri mosque to be the holy site where their god Ram was born even before the mosque was constructed.

It said the contentious religious ground should go to the Hindus, that the government should oversee the construction of a temple and that Muslims should be given an alternate site on which they could build a mosque. Is everyone happy with the verdict?

Many Muslims - religious and political leaders among them - looked at the verdict with a degree of nonchalance and appealed for peace, saying they hoped it would put an end to a long, bitter and divisive saga.

Muslims are a substantial minority of about 14 percent of India's primarily Hindu 1.3 billion population and they have been feeling increasingly vulnerable since Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist BJP came to power in 2014 and returned with a massive majority in 2019.

The Ayodhya issue has dominated India's political and social discourse over the past three decades. The BJP became a political force in the 1990s on the back of the movement demanding the Ram temple be built at the site.

The country has seen several Hindu-Muslim riots sparked by the Ayodhya dispute in which a majority of victims have been Muslims. The demolition of the mosque also led to bombings by Islamist terrorists.

"Let them build what they want to in Ayodhya. We want no more bitterness and violence. We just want peace to get along with our lives," said a young Muslim software professional based in Delhi.

"Even if you will give us 100 acres at an alternate site, that will be of no use ... The site of the mosque is not replaceable," All India Muslim Personal Law Board member Kamal Farooqui said. It is likely that the Muslim petitioner may press for a review of the verdict, which means that the legal battle may not yet be over.

Asaduddin Owaisi, leader of the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen Muslim party, expressed concern, saying the top court was "supreme but not infallible" and describing its judgement as a victory of "faith over facts." "Modi 2.0 is to make India a Hindu Rashtra ëNationû and the road of that vision begins at Ayodhya," Owaisi said.

Top leaders of the BJP and its ideological fountainhead the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) have welcomed the judgement but called for restraint in any celebrations by their cadre.

"Many generations have suffered because of this dispute, but after this verdict we should take a pledge that new generations will come together to build a new India," Modi said in an address to the nation.

Arun Anand, chief executive of the RSS-affiliated Indraprastha Vishwa Samvad Kendra, said with the top court's verdict the matter could now have final closure.

"There are some leaders who want to divide, but we hope that the new progressive leadership will emerge from the Muslims so there is mainstreaming of community and building of our Indian society," Anand said.

"Lord Ram is a national icon in India whereas Babur, a Mughal invader who destroyed the temple to build a mosque, represented a divisive mindset," Anand said.

"We wanted the issue to end, this has happened," RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat said at a briefing. Asked if the RSS would now take up other Hindu claims, Bhagwat said the RSS is not about launching agitations. What then is the view from the middle?

"Unfortunately this judgement has not succeeded in bringing a fair reconciliation. It strengthens the majoritarianism tendencies in our democracy and it pushes the task of reconciliation to a much later date," political scientist turned politician Yogendra Yadav said.

The relations between India's two biggest communities and the country's future depends on actions of leaders who must seek reconciliation to put this conflict firmly in the past, commentator Biju Dominic wrote in the Mint newspaper.

"It will depend a lot on the actions and words of leaders on either side and more so of those on the winning side. Will they rise to the occasion and act like true statesmen? We wait with bated breath to find out."    (dpa)