The Ram Mandir will finally be inaugurated on January 22, 2024. The ceremony concludes a tale that began in 1528, when Mir Baqi (one of Babur’s generals) ostensibly pulled down a temple that marked the birthplace of Rama and constructed the Babri Masjid there.

Much water has flowed under the bridge since then. In 1858, a group of Nihang Sikhs wrote “Rama” inside the mosque and even constructed a “chabutra” in the courtyard. In 1885, a civil suit was filed in Faizabad, asking permission to build a temple there. In 1949, idols of Ram Lalla were left under the mosque's central dome, resulting in the appointment of a receiver and the gates being locked. Multiple suits were filed and languished until 1986, when the locks were opened. This paved the way for the mosque to be brought down by a rampaging mob in 1991. The dispute then wound its way through multiple courts, benches, and hearings (including detailed surveys by the Archaeological Survey of India) until a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court delivered the final verdict in 2019.

It cannot be argued that Islam did not destroy Hindu temples in India. We must shed political correctness when narrating the past because truth and reconciliation go hand in hand. Sita Ram Goel has estimated that around 3000 temples were destroyed and adds that the number could be ten times that. You need not go to Somnath, Ayodhya, Kashi, or Mathura to understand the trail of destruction. Visit the Quwwat-ul-Islam Mosque next to the Qutb Minar in Delhi. Outside is a plaque proudly announcing that it was built using parts recovered from the demolition of 27 Hindu and Jain temples.

Of course, one cannot attempt to right every wrong of history. But then, neither can one expect a wounded civilization to ignore all its open wounds. Any solution must lie somewhere in between. Thus, it baffles me to see the inability of India’s Muslim leaders to negotiate a reasonable settlement regarding a few key places that hold sentimental value for Hindus. It’s almost as though the silent and sober Muslim majority has meekly surrendered to a group of stubborn and antiquated leaders. Of course, there are those on the left who would point fingers at Hindus and accuse them of something similar. They forget that Hindu consolidation is a symptom—a reaction to the en-bloc tendencies of Indian Muslims.

Look at the world around us. Countries that once welcomed migration from Muslim regions are now finding ways to shut their doors and even expel. The rise of right-leaning parties in Europe and the groundswell of support for Trump in America should be eye-openers. Bharat, in its clumsy and messy way, has welcomed and assimilated all faiths through centuries. And Sanatan Dharma, with all its alleged faults, has been instrumental in establishing a plural ethos in this land. There is now a huge opportunity for the Muslims of India to lead the way in establishing a gentler, more flexible, updated, permissive, tolerant, and kinder version of Islam. Remember, it took 14 centuries from the birth of Christianity for its reformation. Islam is at that same inflexion point, around 14 centuries from its origin. The starting point of that reformation must be the ordinary Muslim wrestling back power from an obsolete leadership.

By adopting a rigid posture on the Babri Masjid issue, Indian Muslim leaders painted themselves into a corner. But the disputes in Varanasi and Mathura are no less contentious. It is well-established that the original Kashi Vishwanath temple was destroyed several times, with the final blow delivered by Aurangzeb, who built the Gyanvapi Mosque in its place. Similarly, the ancient Keshavnath temple in Mathura was replaced by the Shahi Idgah mosque. Anticipating several disputes regarding hundreds of spots, the Indian parliament passed the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act of 1991. The idea was to freeze the religious character of various places of worship using 1947 as a cutoff year. The intransigence of Muslim leadership regarding a few key spots now opens the possibility of judicial review or legislative reversal of that act. If that happens, it will open the floodgates to litigation regarding many more spots.

Do Indian Muslims really need to fight for the recognition of madrassas, control over a handful of dilapidated mosques, the right to wear hijabs in schools, preserving personal laws, or sustaining the Waqf board? Or should their fight be for greater opportunities, gender equality, and economic progress? It is said that strategically losing a few battles enables finding ways to win the war. I wonder: are mainstream Muslims missing the forest for the trees?

Indian Muslims have a key role to play in shaping geopolitics. It is often forgotten that Bharat spurred some of the greatest achievements of the Islamic world. The Persian mathematician Al-Khwarizmi's textbook on Indian arithmetic introduced India’s decimal-based positional number system to the West. Al-Biruni authored an analysis of Indian astronomy, predominantly translating the works of Aryabhatta. Under Caliph Harun al-Rashid, Indian medical knowledge of the Sushruta Samhita was taken to the rest of the world via translation. Indian crucible steel was the key element in crafting Damascus swords, and the Panchatantra was an indispensable text in training Persian bureaucracy. Why shouldn’t modern India’s Muslims rightfully be the spark in a global Islamic transformation? If Saudi Arabia and UAE can find ways to contemporize Islam, what is holding back India’s Muslims?

The Mahabharata describes Krishna’s message to the Kauravas: give up a mere five villages to the Pandavas and avoid extending the family feud. We know how Duryodhana’s refusal of a negotiated settlement turned out. In the Valmiki Ramayana, Rama says, “Every action should be pondered upon carefully. A well-considered action is always more effective.” The prana pratishtha of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya is an opportunity for mainstream Muslims to introspect: which battles are truly worth fighting?

--- The writer is an author of several works of fiction.