Notes | Mirrored from Times of India: The Speaking Tree, Part 1 and Part 2 (2015).
The date of this document is not yet known. The blog posts (links above) are dated October 2015, but this interview notes: "In 1992, there was a serious problem caused by the demolition of the mosque in the city of Ayodhya which caused communal riots throughout the country. In response, the Baha’i community issued a statement that highlighted a central theme: “communal harmony—India’s greatest challenge.” In this statement, the whole issue of religious conflict and the importance of harmony and peacebuilding were emphasized in a 6 to 7 page statement written in English. This statement was later translated into most of the official languages of India. We distributed this to Ministers, bureaucrats, district county workers, the superintendent of police, NGOS, and faith communities."
The Ayodhya riots happened on 6 December 1992 (see background on Wikipedia, Ayodhya dispute and Communalism in South Asia) and the court decision was on 24 October 1994, and states "as 1993 began, communal violence returned to India" which would indicate that this document was likely written in 1993 or 1994. |