India school defends re-enacting Babri mosque demolition Published duration 17 December 2019

image copyright Getty Images image caption Right-wing Hindu mobs tore down the 16th Century mosque 25 years ago

An Indian school has defended its students' re-enactment of one of the most divisive episodes in the country's history - the demolition of the Babri mosque by Hindu mobs in 1992.

A video that shows them cheering while bringing down a huge poster of the mosque went viral on Monday.

School officials told BBC Hindi they were trying to promote national "pride" among the students.

A union minister and a lieutenant governor were present at the event.

"The demolition of the structure is a historical event," the school's managing trustee, Kalladka Prabhakar Bhat, told BBC Hindi's Imran Qureshi.

The video spread quickly online after it was tweeted by Lavanya Ballal, a member of the main opposition Congress party.

The re-enactment happened on Sunday during the annual sports and cultural celebration at the Sri Rama Vidyakendra High School - a private school - in the southern city of Mangalore.

Sadanand Gowda, a union minister from the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Kiran Bedi, a retired policewoman-turned-politician who is now a lieutenant governor, were chief guests at the event.

Police have registered a complaint against five school officials, including Mr Bhat, following a complaint by a local resident.

In the video, you can hear a narrator who refers to the enthusiasm with which the students carry out the demolition. "They start demolishing the structure with anything they can get their hands on," the narrator says. The children can then be seen bringing down the poster as they cheer and jump.

Mr Bhat defended it, saying the school picks a major event to re-enact each year. He said one year, they had re-enacted India's Moon mission.

"Nothing was said against Muslims. There was no need even to speak about it. It only showed the demolition," he added.

Mr Bhat is a member of the Hindu nationalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). He is also an influential leader in the coastal districts of Karnataka, an area considered to be a Hindu right-wing stronghold.

He said by re-enacting the demolition "children will learn how to live for the country. It will also show them how they should remove the insults to the nation. It's not to promote anything anti-Muslim".

media caption The BBC's Vikas Pandey explains the historic Supreme Court verdict in Ayodhya holy site dispute,

But the incident has drawn sharp criticism. Speaking to BBC Hindi, sociologist and commentator Shiv Vishwanathan called it "obscene".

"It affects the innocence of children," he said. "When children see mass phenomenon, a part of it is internalised as truth. Demagoguery becomes demography. Education is presented as propaganda and it harms the innocence of the child.''

He added that he found it surprising how "nowadays you find such events, which show complete contempt for any democratic principles or pluralism or history and people seem to think it's normal."

Hindu mobs tore down the 16th Century Babri mosque in 1992, sparking riots that killed nearly 2,000 people.

The site, located in the city of Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh state, had been disputed since 1949 - while Muslims say they have worshipped there for generations, many Hindus believe it is the birthplace of a revered deity, Lord Ram.

The dispute was decided last month when India's Supreme Court ruled that the site of Ayodhya should be given to Hindus who want a temple built there. The court said Muslims would get another plot of land to construct a mosque.