Omar Rashid 
New Delhi: The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) officials on Friday (December 20) have conducted a survey of a small temple in a Muslim locality in Sambhal, Uttar Pradesh that was recently revived by the police and administration after being unused for the past several years.
Weeks after five Muslim men were killed during a controversial survey of the Shahi Jama Masjid in the Uttar Pradesh city, officials recently opened the dormant temple, got it cleaned, installed a priest, restarted puja and even put up CCTV cameras at the site. The administration also cleaned a small well found near the temple in Khaggu Sarai area of Sambhal.
The administration had claimed that they stumbled upon the temple during an anti-encroachment drive.
Soon after the temple was refurbished and opened for prayers, the administration ran a narrative that the temple had been shut since 1978 when communal violence forced the Hindus living in the locality to move out. The local Hindus, however, debunked this theory and said that the temple was always in their control even when they had gradually moved out of the locality.
The temple was functioning and open till 2006, said Dharmendra Rastogi, whose family had locked the structure and built a wall around it as protective cover before they sold their property and moved to another locality. The Hindus stated that they did not face any coercion from the Muslims and had in fact locked the temple as they could not maintain it while living elsewhere.
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The temple, whose age or origins are unknown, was reopened by additional superintendent of police Shrish Chandra and deputy superintendent of police Anuj Chaudhary, who removed dirt and dust from the shivling and an idol of Hanuman. Officer Chaudhary, whose role in the November 24 violence came under question, even rang the bell in the temple. Following the re-opening of the said temple, the district magistrate wrote to the ASI requesting the agency to determine the age of the structure.
Three idols of Hindu deities – Ganesh, Parvati (broken) and Lakshmi – were found in the well located near the temple.
On December 20, a four-member team of the ASI visited Sambhal and surveyed 24 Hindu sites – wells, temples and teerths (holy places). This included the temple revived by the police and district administration.
Sambhal district magistrate Rajender Pensiya said the ASI team inspected five holy places and 19 wells. The survey went on for eight-ten hours on December 20. On December 21, officials of the state archaeology department conducted another survey of sites in Sambhal.
“The ASI will submit its report to us,” said Pensiya, adding that a day prior to the survey, revenue officials had taken measurements of the sites. Among those wells and holy sites surveyed by the ASI team were Bhadrak ashram, Swarg deep, Chakrapan and the Prachin teerth Shamshan mandir, said the district magistrate.
The Supreme Court recently halted proceedings in suits seeking control over religious places, including the Sambhal Jama Masjid where a hurriedly-conducted survey at the orders of a local court turned bloody.
On December 12, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court led by Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna, while hearing petitions challenging The Places of Worship Act, 1991, directed that courts in the country not register any new suits claiming other religious places. The apex court also barred courts from passing any effective interim orders or final orders, including directions for surveys, in the pending suits, till further notice.
While the apex court’s decision came as a relief to the caretakers of numerous mosques across the country, in Sambhal the communal pot keeps burning with attention shifting from mosques to temples as the administration is now running a campaign to revive Hindu religious places, including those in Muslim localities with little Hindu population.
Mani Bhushan Tiwari, an engineer of the Sambhal municipality, said that they were running a campaign ‘Sambhal Teerth’ in the city with the aim of reviving pilgrimage sites and temples and renovating them. “We have also started digging at several places and made a plan for their beautification,” he told news agency ANI.
A court in Sambhal had on November 19 ordered a survey of the Mughal-era mosque after taking cognisance of an application by some Hindu activists, who filed a suit claiming that the Islamic religious site built during the time of Emperor Babur was originally a prominent Hindu temple dedicated to the prophesied avatar of Vishnu, Kalki.
Top political figures of the Uttar Pradesh government led by chief minister Adityanath himself have endorsed this perception, both in the state assembly as well as in public meetings.
Speaking in the assembly on December 16, Adityanath said that even Baburnama mentions that a “Hari Har mandir was demolished and a dancha (structure) was erected in its place,” in Sambhal. “Our puranas also say that Bhagwan Shri Hari Vishnu’s tenth avatar would be in Sambhal,” said Adityanath, providing a boost to the claim of the Hindu petitioners.
On December 20, while addressing a function in Ayodhya, Adityanath referred to the alleged demolition of temples in Varanasi, Mathura, Ayodhya and Sambhal, to target Muslim rulers of the past. Those who had harmed or defiled Hindu temples had their dynasties ruined, he said.
“Those from Aurangzeb’s family, his descendants today, are driving rickshaws in Kolkata. Had they done good acts and not demolished temples, would they be driving rickshaws,” he asked.