Anubha Charan on Digging Up Holy Places

How far are we prepared to go to right a wrong that might have been committed five centuries ago? Even if the Archaeological Survey of India's interpretation of Ayodhya is correct [that a Hindu temple once existed on the site of the Babri Masjid mosque], can it justify the razing of the mosque as a process of 'getting even with history'? Monuments all over the world have been built on top of demolished religious structures, whether animist, Buddhist, Jain, Hindu, Jewish, Christian, or Muslim. What if it is found that the Taj Mahal...belonged to that category?

Anubha Charan. 2004. Digging Up India's Holy Places. History Today 54(1):4-6.