K. K. Muhammed Sāhib is once again in the news with his straight-from-the-hip “lie bullets”.
In 2019 the Times of India in its 1st October edition reported his double claim:
1) He was the only Muslim member of the team that excavated at Ayodhya initially in 1976-77 under BB Lal. To quote: “I was a member of the excavation team and the only Muslim who had participated in the excavation.”
2) BB Lal in these excavations found the remains of a Ram Temple. He claimed, “When we went inside, I saw 12 pillars of the mosque which were made from temple remains.”
A few days later, in fact on 12th October 2019, the same newspaper printed my rebuttal that as per his Personal File and CV this was not a fact and that even the Archaeological Survey of India Report of that year fails to mention his name as a member of the said team.
On the 14th TOI rebutted me by claiming that BB Lal in an “email” remembers KK Mohammad to have been “in the team”. But the same report quoted two or three other former officials to the effect that KK Mohammad was actually there as one of the trainee students of the Institute of Archaeology, Delhi!
Being the “only Muslim member of the team team” and being on the site as a student are two different things!
But now in 2024, as the Ayodhya temple is being consecrated, KK once again started repeating his wrong claims, and many English and Malayalam and English newspapers and channels in Kerala are forwarding his tall claims.
Today I was asked by a channel from Kerala the same questions put up by Professor Malavika Binny, the history chair at Kannur University and this is what I replied:
The two assertions that need to be countered are: a) that Mr KK Mohammad was a part of the team that BB Lal led to excavate the Ayodhya site in 1976-77; and b) that BB Lal categorically confirmed the presence of a temple at the place of the mosque.
Let me start by pointing out that BB Lal excavated at Ayodhya over three seasons: 1969-70; 1976-77 and 1979-80. Although, in spite of many demands to publish the entire report of the excavation, he just came up with interim reports. The entire full report of the excavations never came out. However brief reports of each season did find place in the annual Archaeological Survey of India Reports (ASIR / or simply IAR) of these particular years. You may access these reports either in the ASI library or anywhere else: IAR 1969-70, pages 40-41; IAR 1976-77, pages 52-53; IAR 1979-80, pages 76-77.
These are also available on the ASI website and anyone can download them or simply read them. None of these reports make a mention of a) any sort of temple remains (pillars, bases etc). There is no allusion even to anything of that sort. b) None of these reports make any mention of any K. K. Muhammed as part of the teams involved in these excavations. It was only and only when Mr LK Advani’s rath yatra was making headlines due to their trail of riots and mayhem from 1990 to 1992, leading to the demolition of the mosque of Mīr Baqi at Ayodhya that suddenly BB Lal wrote an article in an RSS mouthpiece and remembered that he had “encountered” pillar bases of a temple at the site near the mosque! From 1970 to 1991 he did not mention his “find”! His memory returned only when the political Ayodhya movement heated up! Why did he not report such an important find in any ASI journals or publications? Why did he get it published in an RSS mouthpiece known for its rantings and unsubstantiated claims?
So to say now, after decades that BB Lal’s excavations found (even a lame claim) for the existence of a temple, or even any other structure is not only a travesty of truth, but a blatant lie.
As for the assertion of Mr K. K. Muhammed being a “part of the team”: it is at best a fantasy and at worst a totally misleading assertion. It was in 2019 that Mr Mohammad suddenly remembered that he was a part of the team of BB Lal in 1976-77. In that particular year he was at the Department of History and his personal file (accessed by me as the Chairman Department of History in 2019) makes it clear that he was very much at Aligarh with no leave taken at all! In an interview to the Times of India in October 2019 he claimed that he was a part of the team led by Lal, and that he was the “only Muslim member” and that he “saw” for himself the remains of a temple! And when I countered him on that in an interview published in TOI, that as per the official records, he never left Aligarh and that none of the ASI Reports cited above mentions him as a member of the team.
It was then that suddenly BB Lal, who had made no mention of Mr Mohammad as part of his team, in an “email from London” suddenly remembered that yes he was! The TOI dated 14 October 2019, however had statements of three others, two of whom actually contradicted the statement of Mohammad that he was “part of the team led by BB Lal. Ramakant Chaturvedi, who reportedly retired as Director Municipal Museum, Gwalior in 2007, was quoted as saying that yes Mohammad was there, but “as a student” from School of Archaeology at Delhi. Ashok Pandey, retired Superintendent Archaeology, Bhopal clarified that Mohammad along with 10 other students of the School of Archaeology, were there as part of 2 month on hand “training”. A photographer who retired from ASI in 2005, claimed that K. K. Muhammed was “the only Muslim” in that team! After the publication of this news in TOI, K. K. Muhammed changed his statement and then started claiming that yes he was their as a “trainee student”!
To be a “member of the team led by BB Lal” and be one casual visitor as a student are two different things! I have already pointed out that when he is supposed to be “enrolled” in the Institute, he was actually at Aligarh. His personal file which I accessed in October 2019, is very clear on that! In short, the claim that he was a member of the team led by BB Lal which excavated at Ayodhya in 1976-77 is totally a false statement which is being forwarded now with an intent of getting some political gain! Hope he does get compensated for his desperate efforts in manufacturing a non-existent past.
Another assertion of KK Mohammad is that but for leftists like Irfan Habib and Romila Thapar, the matter would have been amicably solved and that Muslims “should have themselves in a goodwill gesture, handed over the site to the Hindus!
My answer to the first is: Are DV Sharma, the former Incharge of Agra Circle and historian R Nath also “left”? Both were vehemently critical of KK Mohammad and his lies! In fact DV wrote two books on this!
For the second my response is: There would have been no controversy if the Muslims would have unilaterally submitted, is at best his personal opinion. Everyone has a right to have his or her opinions. K. K. Muhammed is most welcome to hold his own views. Having been a student of history I can not speculate what would have happened if this had not happened. To me the entire case in the courts was a matter of whose property it was. Even the Supreme Court ultimately did not find even an iota of evidence as to whether there was a temple there or not: the matter was decided on majoritarian faith! Perhaps K. K. Muhammed is also referring to the majoritarian bullying before which he believes that the weak minorities should have submitted. No concrete evidence was ever produced.
Secondly, as per our Acts of Parliament, the nature of the monument as at the time of Independence is to be maintained, and that is what anlso our Constitution is all about. The case of this dispute had been in the courts much before even the parents of Professor Irfan Habib were even married! Neither was he in any way a party to it. The case in the High Court in favour of not harming a heritage structure was being fought between those who wanted to remove it by force (which they ultimately did in 1992) and a host of others led by the Babri Masjid Action Committee.
Habib was asked his opinion as a leading historian and he gave his advice. The structure removed forcibly was representative of an age, it was a part of our heritage and the Constitution was guaranteeing its existence. Perhaps history will not forget or forgive people who try to twist facts for their personal benefits. None of the evidence collected by the historians was ever contradicted by any court. Actually if you read the Supreme Court judgement, it endorses what historians like Habib had been saying. It however pointed out towards the criminality of those who destroyed the mosque and the communal harmony of the country.
This was originally posted by Professor Ali Nadeem Rezavi on Facebook
