Editor’s Note: A new ‘controversy’ has erupted with BJP’s Lok Sabha candidate for Bhopal seat, Sadhvi Pragya Thakur declaring that she is proud to have taken part in demolition of the Babri Masjid. While controversial, this is not a new sentiment. Earlier Shiv Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray too had expressed pride in Shiv Sainiks having taken part in demolition of the disputed structure at Ayodhya, even though many even in the BJP maintain that the demolition was unfortunate, with veteran leader LK Advani having termed 6th December 1992 as the saddest day of his life.

The declaration of pride or ‘shaurya’ related to demolition of Babri Masjid has been seen as a politically incorrect statement and people have been attacked and shamed for it. Even on the so-called ‘right wing’ platforms, this sentiment has not been given mainstream place. Around 3 years ago, an article written by someone who termed himself or herself “real liberal” was submitted to OpIndia, where the person explained why he or she celebrates demolition of Babri Masjid. It was not published on the main OpIndia website then and remained on our user generated chapter MyVoice. The fact that it was submitted anonymously shows how the person was afraid to express himself or herself.

However, given how many in the so-called liberal circles have been mainstreaming Hinduphobia, with even the oldest political party of India joining this onslaught, the current editorial team of OpIndia believes that it is time to drop ‘political correctness’ and counter this trend of shaming and attacking anyone with pro-Hindu beliefs. We are re-publishing that article on main OpIndia today, because such sentiments must not be censored or suppressed. They have to be heard, understood, and analysed.

Reproduced below is the article in question:

Why I will celebrate destruction of the Babri structure on 6th December

by ‘Real Liberal‘ in Opinions on 6 December, 2016

It is 6th December today. The day the disputed structure in Ayodhya was brought down by various Hindu activists in 1992. It is celebrated as Shaurya Divas by some and Black Day by others.

I did not tweet or share any Facebook update about the day, but was angered when saw some left-liberal guys going all hyper – as they do each year on this day – asking everyone to be ashamed and asking how can someone celebrate this day.

That’s when I decided to rather celebrate the day if these presumptuous pretentious hypocrites are going to keep asking everyone to be ashamed while not being ashamed of their own double standards.

Let us be clear – what someone is celebrating has to be defined by the person who is celebrating, not by the person who is passing judgments to prove himself superior on some random moral ground.

I give you an example – Taj Mahal was built by Shah Jahan (from Babur’s family incidentally) who had many wives; in fact, Shah Jahan married another woman after marrying Mumtaz Mahal, in whose loving memory and honour the Taj Mahal is believed to have been erected. Poor construction workers’ hands are believed to be cut so that they don’t create a replica of Taj elswhere. As a result, one can argue there is no love, but only lust and violence in this story.

And from the leftist worldview, construction of Taj Mahal was a show-off of wealth from an emperor to put down the poor in their place. Sahir Ludhiyanvi, an Urdu poet with known leftist leanings wrote – ek shenshaah ne daulat ka sahara le kar, hum gareebo ki mohabaat ka udaaya hai mazaak – an emperor has derided the way we poor people love by showing off his wealth. Basically Sahir is arguing that Taj Mahal is not the true symbol of love.

But does that mean that everyone celebrating Taj Mahal as a symbol of love is endorsing polygamy, patriarchy, violence and vulgar display of wealth and power? If a man gifts a replica of Taj Mahal to his wife or girlfriend, should he feel ashamed that he just endorsed those regressive and controversial views?

Of course not, it doesn’t matter how you – the critic – view the Taj Mahal. It matters how the person – who is celebrating the symbol of Taj Mahal – sees that structure.

Sahir Ludhiyanvi or even Subramanian Swamy may view Taj Mahal as a symbol of lust, violence and vulgarity, but the lover sees that as a symbol of love – and that’s all that matters.

And I see the Babri structure as a symbol of centuries of oppression that the Muslim invaders put Hindus of India under. And that’s all that matters, not your secular bullshit.

Babri structure was a symbol of brute power – of how the native culture was suppressed, how the widely revered Lord Ram was shown his place by the invaders, and how a new sociopolitical order was imposed on the society through beheading of gurus and demolition of temples.

Leftist historians imagine that most Muslims in today’s India are converts because the caste system didn’t give them justice. It is a modern fiction. None – not a single Islamic source – makes this argument. You read Baburnama to Akbarnama – and nowhere has any Islamic author made this claim. On the other hand, books and accounts of Muslim historians and chroniclers of those times document how villages after villages were plundered and blood flew in streets when the Hindus refused to accept Islam.

Babri structure was symbol of that tyranny and barbarism. It was a dark symbol. For me, it was not symbol of any syncretic Sufi culture, it was not a Durgah – even if we accept that modern fiction as reality – that our left-liberals love to imagine and romanticise.

By the way now that we are talking of caste – the favourite topic of left-liberals who keep stoking casteist fires to keep Hindus divided – I have another example other than Taj Mahal for them. I want to ask them why do they celebrate burning of Manusmriti?

Because they see Manusmriti as a symbol of oppression. A dark symbol of centuries of oppression of dalits. It doesn’t matter to them how others see it – many have argued and documented that even fake shlokas have been attributed to Manusmriti to make it look bad – but does it stop the leftists from celebrating burning of Manusmriti?

Quran has more horrible verses than Manusmriti is accused of, but the leftists allow the arguments of “context” and “interpretation” to justify those verses. They oppose burning of Quran but celebrate burning of Manusmriti.

Burning a book is an act of arson. It destroys property. It doesn’t take away a life, but it is an act of violence. Just like bringing down a dilapidated structure.

If burning of Manusmriti can be celebrated because YOU see it as symbol of oppression, demolition of Babri structure can be celebrated because WE see it as symbol of oppression.

Just like the beliefs of those who may consider Manusmriti as holy or Taj Mahal as gory doesn’t matter to you when you burn the book or love the monument, your beliefs don’t matter when I celebrate demolition of that structure at Ayodhya.

There is no shame in celebrating the bringing down of a structure that was symbol what we are seeing in Iraq and Syria right now. Babur was just like the ISIS, perhaps even more brutal and inhuman. Will the Yazidis (if they survive these barbarians) not demolish structures created by ISIS if they get the power to decide for themselves?

Even when talking of the modern times, Babri structure was also a symbol of how Muslims of India (as a political group) were unwilling to cede even a single inch of land to Hindus for peaceful co-existence. It was a symbol of how “secularism” in India meant that Muslims demand and Hindus compromise, even at the cost of their religious beliefs and self-respect. It was a symbol of one way street, of slavery, of an uneven relationship.

I celebrate destruction of that symbol.

I celebrate annihilation of brutality.

I celebrate restoration of equality.

I celebrate 6th December.

I celebrate self-respect.

I celebrate freedom.