Legal Title to Sacred Places

Case: Visharad v. Ahmad, O.O.S., No. 1 of 1989, All. H.C., 4 (2010) (Khan, J.)

Case Synopsis: The Ayodhya dispute concerns a 1500 sq. ft. plot of land claimed simultaneously by Hindus as the birthplace of Ram (one of several claimed as such), Muslims as the site of a 600 year old Mosque, and Buddhists as a site of ancient relics pre-dating the prior two claims. A site of violent contestation since the 12th century, this module examines the 19th-21st century adjudication of claims within India’s courts on who “owns” sacred places.

The case focuses on the landmark decision made on September 2010, when the Allahabad High Court in India delivered its decision on the legal title and ownership. The majority held that the property in question be split three ways, with one portion going to the Muslims and two portions going to two of the Hindu parties. The decision was based on the central claim put forward by the Hindu parties that images, and the birthplace, were juridical entities who could be given legal title to the property and also that the disputed site was a place of worship for Hindus and a core ingredient of the Hindu faith.

This case originates in the work of Ratna Kapur. For an extended synopsis of the case see Aparna Chandra’s summary below.

Photo of advertisement for building the Ram Janambhoomi mandir in Jodhpur, Rajasthan (1990), courtesy Peter Gottschalk

Sources

Brief Summary

Brief Summary of Visharad v. Ahmad by Aparna Chandra

Issues of Briefing

Issues of Briefing for Visharad v. Ahmad

Judgment of Justice Khan

Judgment of Justice Khan in Visharad v. Ahmad

Judgment of Justice Agarwal

Judgment of Justice Agarwal in Visharad v. Ahmad

Judgment of Supreme Court in Ayodhya land dispute case

Full judgement of Supreme Court in the Ayodhya land dispute case

Analyses

Hindu Majoritarianism

Kapur, Ratna. 2014. ‘The “Ayodhya” Case: Hindu Majoritarianism and the Right to Religious Liberty’. Maryland Journal of International Law 29 (1): 305–65.

Context

Introduction to Ayodhya

Jaffrelot, Christophe. 2015. ‘Ayodhya Issue’. In The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity, and Nationalism, edited by John Stone, Rutledge M. Dennis, Polly S. Rizova, Anthony D. Smith, and Xiaoshou Hou, 1–3. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Hindu Law and False Religion

De Roover, Jakob. 2011. ‘Secular Law and the Realm of False Religion’. In After Secular Law, edited by Winnifred Fallers Sullivan, Robert A. Yelle, and Mateo Taussig-Rubbo, 44–61. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

A Decades Long Hindu Nationalist Dream is About to be Achieved. What Does This Mean?

Mogul, Rhea. 2024. “India’s Ram Mandir: A Decades Long Hindu Nationalist Dream Is …” CNN.

A Temple to a Top Hindu Deity Was Built Over a Destroyed Mosque in India. Here Is Why It Matters

Banerjee, Biswajeet, and Vineeta Deepak. 2024.“A Temple to a Top Hindu Deity Was Built over a Destroyed Mosque in India. Here Is Why It Matters.” AP News.