Click to play videoOver the last two months, CNN-IBN has brought you 60 moments that we believe have defined India in the last 60 years. Now, we have chosen the top 10 moments, based on the views you've posted on IBNLive.com, we have chosen 10 Defining Moments. Here's the eighth in the series: the Babri Masjid, its demolition, and the carnage that happened after that.
New Delhi: It was more than just a 16th century mosque instead it was a symbol of Indian secularism.
When the Babri Masjid was demolished on December 6 1992, it was as if a dream died. The dream that Hindus and Muslims would always live in peace in India, that the Muslim would be safe in India, that the sacrifice of Gandhi would not be in vain.
As the walls of the Babri Masjid came crashing down an era ended in Indian public life.
Hindus had for long claimed this mosque site. It was the Congress government of Rajiv Gandhi, which allowed the shilanyas ceremony, or foundation - laying ceremony, to take place in 1989.
In 1990, L K Advani began his famous rath yatra to Ayodhya creating what has been described as a Hindu mass movement.
Ten thousand kar sevaks organised by the VHP converged on Ayodhya on December 6 1992.
The three domes of the Babri Masjid were torn down. The Centre watched helplessly.
More than 20,000 troops stationed near the city were never alerted. BJP and VHP leaders were heard shouting jai shri ram and ek dhakka aur do as the structure of a secular dream collapsed into rubble.
Hindu Muslim riots erupted across India. Over 2000 perished. In Mumbai the cycle of vengeance led to the Mumbai blasts of 1993 when so called Muslim terror exploded for the first time in India.
The demolition of the Babri Masjid was a turning point in Hindu Muslim relations in India, a moment when all truths about religious coexistence suddenly seemed false. This was a defining moment in Indian history.
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