Archaeologist calls upon Muslims to hand over Kashi, Mathura to Hindus

Mangaluru, Nov. 30: Famous with his articulation of facts related to archaeological excavations in Ayodhya, K K Mohammed who was part of the first ASI team that excavated the historical site at Ayodhya, has appealed to the Muslim community to voluntarily hand over the sites of Gyanvapi Mosque in Kashi and Krishna Janmasthan in Mathura to Hindus.

“They missed a (good) opportunity to do so at Ayodhya thanks to the influence that the Marxist historians had on them”, Times of INdia quoted Muhammad as saying.

We must strive for the united India rather than fight about it, Muhammad, who retired as regional director with ASI in 2012, said. Dwelling on his Madarsa schooling, Muhammad said his open mindedness that Abubakar his Islamic teacher showed in exposing them to Ramayana that helped shape his personality. “Hinduism is a greatly tolerant religion and because India is Hindu majority country, India remains secular in truest sense of the term” he said.

Espousing the need for capsuled course on Indian art, architecture, painting as part of Indian education system, Muhammad said a system bereft of these characteristics will not help the youth relate to their own culture. "We need to adopt Indian heroes such as Lord Ram, which Muslim countries have done", he said, adding it was such references that excavations threw up which tipped Supreme Court in vomming out with a 'fair judgment' on the case.

Expressing disappointment that the present BJP government had in a way belied expectations that one had about promoting Indian culture, Muhammad said it is imperative to market our heritage, Nepal and Sri Lanka are doing this far better than India with their world heritage sites, he said , adding that India with its Buddhist connection can have half the world's Buddhists tourists lining up on Indian shores if it followed Nepal and Sri Lanka lead.