How the First Battle Over a Place of Worship Began in Ayodhya
Editor's Note: 'Ayodhya: City of Faith, City of Discord' is a comprehensive biography of the sleepy city of Ayodhya, which has been a place of reverence for many faiths for millennia, but has also been a place of violence, bloodshed and ill-will.
Ayodhya lodged itself permanently in the national consciousness with the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992. The destruction of the mosque was the climax of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement that has been at the heart of Indian politics for a quarter century.
Here is an…