Making Sense of the Ayodhya Verdict

Of the Supreme Court’s judgment in the Babri Masjid title suit, it can be said that its silences speak just as loudly as its words. That to truly understand the essence of the Court’s judgment, we need to not only understand what it is actually saying but also what it is choosing not to say.

Having granted the title to the disputed 2.77 acre property to the deity “Bhagwan Shri Ram Virajman” and its guardians, one wonders why the Court felt the need to issue the eight directions that it did. After all, this is essentially a title suit (pending since 1949) between a range of Hindu and Muslim parties claiming the land on which the Babri Masjid stood, and if the Court is certain that the title to the property belongs to the deity, we must ask why it should be concerned with what happens to the property thereafter.