Encyclopedia of Islam

ayatollah

---

100,000 people displaced from their homes. In 

both 1992 and 2002, the victims were overwhelm-

ingly Muslim, making the identity of the site one 

of the most critical, yet intransigent, challenges to 

India’s multireligious polity. In 2003, the Indian 

Supreme Court ordered the Archaeological Survey 

of India (ASI) to conduct excavations of the site, 

but the results have proved too indefinite to bring 

about any resolution.

See also h

indUism

 

and

 i

slam

; m

Ughal

 

dynasty

.

Anna Bigelow

Further reading: Sarvepalli Gopal, ed., Anatomy of a 

Confrontation: The Rise of Communal Politics in India

(London: Zed Books, 1993); Sushil, Srivastava, The Dis-

puted Mosque: A Historical Inquiry (New Delhi: Vistaar 

Publications, 1991); Peter Van der Veer, Gods on Earth: 

Religious Experience and Identity in Ayodhya (Delhi: 

Oxford University Press, 1997).