A crowd mobilized by the Ayodhya movement demolishes the Babri Masjid, a mosque built in 1528, claiming the site as Rama's birthplace; riots across India kill about two thousand people, and the dispute runs through the courts until the Supreme Court awards the site for a temple in 2019.
Tagged: Hindu Hindu Reform Movements
The Event
- Date
- 1992 (exact)
- Also called
- Ayodhya demolition
- Era
- Modern; Standard periodization of Hindu history
- Location
- Ayodhya; today Uttar Pradesh, India
- Traditions
- Hinduism
- Streams
- Hindu Reform Movements
- Key figures
- L. K. Advani
How the Tradition Tells It
The demolition is remembered in opposed ways in India: by its supporters as the recovery of Rama's birthplace from a mosque raised over a temple, and by its critics as an illegal act of majoritarian violence against a place of worship and the rule of law; the Archaeological Survey's excavation report and the Supreme Court's 2019 judgment both stand in the public record.
Connections
- RSS founded; carried forward
Primary Sources
- Liberhan Commission report (2009)
- Supreme Court of India, Ayodhya judgment (2019)
Secondary Sources
- Guha, India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy (HarperCollins, 2007)
- Doniger, The Hindus: An Alternative History (Penguin, 2009)
Provenance: HIST-0339; confidence 0.95; accessed 2026-10-27.
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