BBC World Service and now witness history. Today we're taking you back to the 6th of December

1992 and to the Indian City of Aeothia. When a religious dispute led to a large group

of Hindu activists destroying a 16th century mosque known as the Babri Mustard. It caused

widespread communal violence in the country and changed the face of Indian politics. Praveen

Jan was working as a journalist when it happened. He spoke to Ignor Quar in 2019.

The Indian government imposed emergency rule on the state of Uttar Pradesh tonight after

tens of thousands of Hindu militants demolished a mosque with their bare hands. The Indian

Prime Minister has warned of intercomunal violence and says the country is in grave crisis.

The Babri mosque in Aeothia was built in the 1500s by the Mughal rule of Babar. But many

Hindus believe it had been built on top of the birthplace of the revered Hindu god, Lord

Ram. In the 1980s a Hindu extremist organisation Vishwa Hindu Parishad actively started a campaign

to build a temple honoring Lord Ram there. And on the 6th of December 1992 along with their

political mouthpiece the Bharti Ajantaparti they were given permission to hold a prayer meeting

at the site involving more than 100,000 religious volunteers called Karsavaks.

Photojournalist Praveen Jan had gone to Aeothia to cover this event for the pioneer newspaper.

The Supreme Court had ordered that on the 6th of December only a symbolic religious ceremony

would be allowed. This means that they were allowed to bring sand from the banks of

Rivasaru and conduct a ceremony in front of the Babri mosque, the location that is considered

the birthplace of Lord Ram. But what happened on the day was very different from what most

people had expected. At first it seemed that the discipline would hold

out. Hindu holy men waited patiently for the ceremony to start. Most of the vast crowd

were kept well away from the ground in front of the distributed mosque. But then suddenly

...