Saba Khalid, a mother of two who recently started a small export business, recalled that her grandfather never missed the evening news on the national broadcaster Doordarshan, and no one was allowed to talk or make any noise when it came on.

On 6 December 1992, Khalid was 10 years old when a newscaster announced the Babri Masjid had been demolished in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, just over 100 km east of their home in Lucknow. The hush that descended that day was not on account of avoiding her grandfather’s wrath but mortal fear.

They were the only Muslim family in a Hindu neighbourhood, something they had never been conscious of before. Their grandfather said no one was to leave the house. They stayed inside for days, “quiet as mice”.

“My daadi went into shock. I’m getting goosebumps as I’m telling you this. There was news of killings and trains being set on fire. We had never been scared for our lives before, but suddenly, we were terrified. I cannot describe this feeling to you,” said Khalid.

“Thankfully, we were surrounded by Hindus who were not radical, but things changed that day,” she said. “For the first time, I felt us and them. We were alienated.”

As a child, Khalid did not understand the religious or political significance of the demolition of the 16th-century mosque, which the Hindu right said was built by a Muslim ruler on the spot where god Ram was born, or that it was the darkest phase for Hindu-Muslim unity since the Partition.

Her only thought was, why were people killing each other over an old mosque? It was only as an adult that she began to understand that it was a “show of power by like-minded people of one religion to show their supremacy”.

“I realised it much later, but it took a huge hit on my psyche,” said Khalid. “It was an old monument.


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