Babri Masjid
- Also called:
- Mosque of Babur or Baburi Mosque
- Formerly:
- Masjid-i Janmasthan
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Babri Masjid, mosque in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, India. According to inscriptions on the site, it was built in the year 935 of the Islamic calendar (September 1528–September 1529 ce) by Mīr Bāqī, possibly a bey serving under the Mughal emperor Bābur. Along with the mosques at Sambhal and Panipat, it was one of three mosques said to have been constructed in the 16th century upon Bābur’s orders. It was destroyed in 1992 amid decades of tensions over the site between Muslims and Hindus.
The mosque was constructed in a style developed under the short-lived Lodī dynasty that preceded the Mughals: small with a single aisle arrangement of three domed bays along the wall of the qiblah. The gateway of the middle bay—a pīshṭāq emphasizing the building’s presence and importance—was considerably higher than those of the side bays.
The location of the mosque has been a source of contention between Muslims and Hindus, the latter asserting that it was built on top of Ram Janmabhoomi, the site they believe to be the birthplace of the Hindu deity Rama. The first recorded instance of conflict over the site between the religious communities was in 1853, during an era of sociopolitical transition throughout India. During the British raj, or direct British rule over the Indian subcontinent, separate areas of the site were set up for Muslims and for Hindus. In 1949, after India was partitioned and became independent, images of Rama were brought into the mosque. In the ensuing controversy, the site was closed off to both communities, but the images were not removed.
A campaign was launched in 1984 to remove the mosque and build a Hindu temple in its place. The movement gained momentum in the following years, leading to riots in 1990 and the collapse of India’s ruling coalition. This momentum helped sweep the Bharatiya Janata Party to power in several states, including in Uttar Pradesh, and on December 6, 1992, security forces stood by as activists destroyed the mosque. A series of court battles played out in the following decades. The land was divided between Hindus and Muslims in 2010 by the decision of a high court. That decision was appealed by both Hindu and Muslim litigants, and in 2019 the Supreme Court entrusted the site exclusively to Hindus.