Bharatpedia - User contributions [en]

YouTube poop

2023-10-02T13:00:50Z

KirstenCyv: Video genre

{{Short description|Video genre consisting of edited pre-existing media}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2019}}
{{Use American English|date=May 2020}}
A '''YouTube poop''' ('''YTP''') is a type of [[video mashup]] or edit created by remixing/editing pre-existing media sources often carrying [[Subculture|subcultural]] significance into a new video for humorous, satirical, obscene, absurd, and profane—as well as annoying, confusing, or dramatic purposes. YouTube poops are traditionally uploaded to the American [[video sharing website]] [[YouTube]], hence the name.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Blackard |first1=Cat |title=Break Yo' TV: YouTube Poop |url=https://consequenceofsound.net/2009/07/break-yo-tv-youtube-poop/ |website=Consequence of Sound |date=July 22, 2009 |access-date=July 22, 2009}}</ref>

==History==

===Precursors and influences===

YouTube Poop is a subset of [[remix culture]],<ref>{{harvtxt|Coppa|2022|page=4}}</ref> in which existing ideas and media are modified and reinterpreted to create new art and media in various contexts.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://techcrunch.com/2015/03/22/from-artistic-to-technological-mash-up/|title=Remixing Culture And Why The Art Of The Mash-Up Matters|first=Ben |last=Murray|date=March 22, 2015|newspaper=[[Tech Crunch]]}}</ref> Forms of remix culture have existed long before the internet, with DigitalTrends's Luke Dormehl listing the [[cut-up technique]] of [[William Burroughs]] and [[Sampling (music)|sampling]] in [[hip-hop]] as examples.<ref name=punk/> Dormehl also says that "aesthetically", YouTube Poop is similar to the "frenetic editing style" of [[MTV]] in the 1980s, which featured "fast, non-linear cuts" that focused less on character or plot than on evoking a feeling.<ref name=punk/>

YouTube Poop also draws on elements from the [[vidding]] scene,<ref name="Yale">{{cite web| title = YouTube Poop: Memes and Community|url=http://www.yalelawtech.org/fair-use-remix-culture/youtube-poop-meme-as-art-community| date = November 3, 2012| publisher = Yale University, Law and Technology| access-date = November 4, 2013| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160412222642/http://www.yalelawtech.org/fair-use-remix-culture/youtube-poop-meme-as-art-community| archive-date = April 12, 2016| url-status = live}}</ref> in which fans of a piece of media would create music videos using footage from the work.<ref>{{harvtxt|Coppa|2022|page=1}}</ref> Observers have also proposed influences from a more modern, internet-based practice similar to vidding, the [[Anime music video]] (AMV) – particularly from more comedic variations of the AMV.<ref name=ferrini/>

===Early history and "golden age"===

The genre began in the early 2000s.<ref name=statesman>{{Cite magazine |last=Tait |first=Amelia |date=2016-11-29 |title=The art of the YouTube Poop |url=https://www.newstatesman.com/science-tech/2016/11/art-youtube-poop |access-date=2023-07-13 |magazine=[[New Statesman]]}}</ref> The video regarded as the first YouTube poop is "The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 REMIXED!!!" (now commonly known as "I'D SAY HE'S HOT ON OUR TAIL") by the creator SuperYoshi, originally uploaded on December 22, 2004, preceding the creation of YouTube by a few months.<ref name=punk>{{Cite news|last=Dormehl|first=Luke|date=March 30, 2019|title=YouTube Poop is punk rock for the internet age, and you probably don't get it|work=Digital Trends|url=https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/youtube-poop-worthy-respect/|access-date=May 29, 2020}}</ref> It remixes clips from the 1989 animated television series ''[[The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3]]'' as a primary source,<ref name=punk/> using the video editing software [[Windows Movie Maker]].<ref name=halle>{{cite book|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Oc0fEAAAQBAJ&dq=%22i%27d+say+he%27s+hot+on+our+tail%22&pg=PT162|title= Visual Alterity: Seeing Difference in Cinema|chapter=Heterotactic Community Formation: YouTube Pooping|date=March 30, 2021|first=Randall|last=Halle|publisher=University of Illinois Press|isbn= 9780252052590|via=Google Books}}</ref> Media scholar Randall Halle suggests that the name "poop" as used to refer to videos like SuperYoshi's referred to the purported low quality of these early works.<ref name=halle/>

In the mid-2000s, YTP became one of the most popular types of video on YouTube.<ref name=pingas>{{cite magazine|url=https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/02/how-pingas-became-a-famous-sonic-the-hedgehog-meme.html|title=How Pingas Became One of Sonic the Hedgehog's Most Famous Memes|first=Brian|last=Feldman|date=February 10, 2020|access-date=December 21, 2020|magazine=[[New York Magazine]]}}</ref> YouTuber EmpLemon describes this era as being characterized by popular recurring memes and in-jokes in the community.<ref name=punk/> According to Halle, the 2010 video "jonathan swift returns from the dead to eat a cheese sandwich" has been cited as "a work that moved YTP towards artistry", with heavy use of video in video editing and other methods of distortion.<ref name=halle/>

===Decline in mainstream popularity===

The YouTube Poop genre declined in popularity during the 2010s.<ref name=statesman/> [[eMarketer]] principal analyst Nicole Perrin speculated that the reason why the genre had "fallen to the wayside" was as part of a larger YouTube "shift to glossier more corporate-friendly content."<ref name=green>{{Cite news |last=Greenburg |first=Zack O'Malley |title=YouTube Poop And The 'Sanic' Boom: Digesting The Strangest Slice Of Google's $15B Video Business |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2020/03/03/youtube-poop-and-the-sanic-boom-digesting-the-strangest-slice-of-googles-15b-video-business/ |access-date=2023-07-13|work=[[Forbes]]}}</ref>

Luke Dormehl wrote in 2019 in relation to this loss of mainstream popularity that "as with every other corner of the internet", YTP had undergone fragmentization from a large single community with a shared set of sources into a series of sub-communities, each with their own preferred source material. However, this has also allowed each individual sub-community to develop its own set of convoluted "references-within-references" even further.<ref name=punk/> Additionally, YTP has followed the general YouTube trend of increasing professionalization and editing, with lots of special effects and elaborate writing.<ref name=punk/><ref name=numerama>{{Cite news |work=[[Numerama]] |date=2020-02-02 |title=Grandeur et décadence du YouTube Poop, pilier de la culture mème française |language=fr-FR |url=https://www.numerama.com/pop-culture/602727-pilier-de-la-culture-meme-francaise-en-un-peu-plus-de-dix-ans-les-youtube-poop-ont-bien-change.html |access-date=2023-07-12}}</ref>

YTP has had a large influence on much of modern meme culture and internet culture as a whole.<ref name=punk/> Many stylistic traits of YTP have entered the editing vocabulary of mainstream YouTubers, such as rapid editing and sudden drastic changes in volume for comedic effect.<ref name=numerama/> Many mainstream YouTubers even hire YTP editors to edit their normal videos.<ref name=numerama/>

==Style and techniques==

===Structure, culture and subgenres===

Some videos may involve completely or partially repurposing sources to create or convey an often self-aware story, while others follow a [[non-linear narrative]], and some may contain no storyline at all, instead regarded among the lines of [[surreal humour|surreal humor]] and artistic experimentation.<ref name="Yale" /> To this degree, a YouTube poop may even consist solely of an existing video, sometimes modified, repeated in a slowed or remixed loop.<ref name="demorgen">{{cite news|title = Slow TV: Youtube doet het op zijn manier|first = Tommy|last = Van Damme|work = De Morgen|language = nl|date = November 8, 2013|access-date = November 18, 2013|url=http://www.demorgen.be/dm/nl/994/opmerkelijk/article/detail/1737136/2013/11/08/Slow-TV-Youtube-doet-het-op-zijn-manier.dhtml|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131111035914/http://www.demorgen.be/dm/nl/994/opmerkelijk/article/detail/1737136/2013/11/08/Slow-TV-Youtube-doet-het-op-zijn-manier.dhtml|archive-date = November 11, 2013|url-status = live}}</ref> Associate professor of [[cultural anthropology]] at [[Kansas State University]], [[Michael Wesch]], has defined YouTube poops as "absurdist remixes that ape and mock the lowest technical and aesthetic standards of [[remix culture]] to comment on remix culture itself".<ref name="EFF">{{cite web|title = In the matter of exemption to prohibition on circumvention of copyright protection systems for access control technologies|url=https://www.eff.org/files/filenode/2012_dmca_exemption_requests_Final_1.pdf|author = Electronic Frontier Foundation|author-link = Electronic Frontier Foundation|access-date = November 11, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160912135137/https://www.eff.org/files/filenode/2012_dmca_exemption_requests_final_1.pdf|archive-date = September 12, 2016|url-status = live}}</ref>

YTP can often be derivative in the sense that the work of one creator (or, within the community, ''pooper'') is sometimes used as the underlying work for another video; this can be recirculated and lead to the creation of "YTP tennis" videos, named for how they exist in rounds where the original video accumulates edits and alterations. [[Lawrence Lessig]], Professor of Law at [[Harvard Law School]], compared this aspect to a form of [[call and response]], here seen as being prominent within [[remix culture]].<ref name="Lessig">{{cite web| last = Lessig| first = Lawrence| title = REMIX at Computer History Museum|url=http://blip.tv/lessig/remix-at-computer-history-museum-1600233| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150804164854/http://blip.tv/lessig/remix-at-computer-history-museum-1600233| archive-date = August 4, 2015}}</ref>

A YTP "collab", or collaboration, is a common practice, and involves various creators joining together to produce a single, sometimes very long, video.<ref name=halle/>

A subgenre of YouTube poops is YouTube Poop Music Video (YTPMV), which involves clips from different forms of media remixed in a musical form, often in a fast-paced and editing-intensive manner.<ref name=ferrini>{{Cite news |last=Ferrini |first=Francesca |date=28 February 2023 |title=La storia degli AMV, gli Anime Music Video |language=it |quote=Vista la tipologia dei montaggi, possiamo ipotizzare che questo genere di video dalla comicità caotica e nonsense abbia avuto una grossa influenza sulle cosiddette YouTube Poop (abbreviate in YTP), create proprio in quel periodo. Pochi anni dopo nacquero le YTPMV, video comici con remix di musiche e scene di film, anime, videogiochi o talk-show, spesso fatti con un ottimo livello di editing e con un ritmo frenetico.|url= https://www.akibagamers.it/28-02-2023/storia-degli-amv-anime-music-video/}}</ref>

===Source material===

While essentially any audiovisual media is "fair game" for source material,<ref name=green/> some of the most sources of YouTube poops include [[Television program|television shows]], [[anime]], [[commercials]], other YouTube [[videos]].<ref name=burgFull/>
In particular, YouTube Poops often use 1990s cartoons, particularly critically disregarded ones such as ''[[The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!]]'' and ''[[Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog]]''.<ref>{{harvtxt|Burgess|Green|Jenkins|Hartley|2013|page=53}}</ref><ref name=pingas/> The work of children's poet [[Michael Rosen]] has also been used.<ref name=randall>{{Cite news |first=Harvey |last=Randall |date=2023-07-13 |title=The internet shitposted too close to the sun, and now we're getting a spiritual successor to the most cursed Zelda games of all time |language=en |work=PC Gamer |url=https://www.pcgamer.com/the-internet-shitposted-too-close-to-the-sun-and-now-were-getting-a-spiritual-successor-to-the-most-cursed-zelda-games-of-all-time/ |access-date=2023-07-13}}</ref> These diverse media sources, from different time periods and styles, are often combined in YTPs.<ref>{{harvtxt|Moran|2017|page=25}}</ref>

The [[cutscenes]] from Nintendo games released on the [[Philips CD-i]] - most notably ''[[Hotel Mario]]'', ''[[Link: The Faces of Evil and Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon]]'' - which have been widely criticized for their bizarre animation, voice acting, and scripts, are also frequently used, and have achieved more widespread notoriety as a result.<ref name="Yale" /><ref>{{Cite news |last=Donohoo |first=Timothy |date=2023-04-05 |title=Super Mario's Worst Game Will Never Be Rereleased by Nintendo |work=CBR |url=https://www.cbr.com/hotel-mario-worst-game-cdi-nintendo/ |access-date=2023-07-13}}</ref>

===Editing techniques===

A typical YouTube poop uses visual and auditory effects to alter the [[underlying work]], as well as rearrangement of individual clips.<ref name="Yale" /> The edits are often "abrupt and jarring", with lots of quick [[Cut (transition)|cut]]s and time stretching leading to an "often-frenetic" pace.<ref name=burgFull>{{harvtxt|Burgess|Green|Jenkins|Hartley|2013|pages=52–53}}</ref> Ruth Alexandra Moran interprets the style as producing "aesthetics of malfunction".<ref>{{harvtxt|Moran|2017|page=31}}</ref>

The most common type of rearrangement is "sentence-mixing", a form of editing in which dialogue is rearranged or chopped up to form new, often humorous or vulgar dialogue.<ref name=punk/><ref name=statesman/> One famous sentence-mix from the YouTube Poop "Robotnik Has a Viagra Overdose" by creator Stegblob takes a scene from ''Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog'' in which [[Doctor Robotnik]] accuses his henchmen of "snooping as usual" and cuts out everything but the second and third [[syllable]] to leave only the nonsensical word "pingas", which was construed to resemble the word "[[penis]]". Over the years, "Pingas" has since become one of the biggest memes related to the ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' franchise in general and has been referenced in both the [[Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics)|Archie comic]] and the ''[[Sonic Boom (TV series)|Sonic Boom]]'' television series.<ref name=pingas/> In an interview, ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog (film)|Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' co-star [[James Marsden]] was asked a question about the word, in which he erroneously guessed that it was Doctor Robotnik's original catchphrase.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-02-07 |title=James Marsden Takes the Ultimate Sonic Quiz |url=https://www.ign.com/videos/james-marsden-takes-the-ultimate-sonic-quiz |access-date=2023-07-13 |website=IGN |language=en}}</ref>

Some techniques are more abrasive, like the "stutter loop", in which a short clip of video is repeated over and over.<ref name=punk/><ref name=statesman/> An abrasive auditory trope is the sudden extreme increase in volume to shock the viewer, known as "ear-rape" or "ear rape".<ref name=statesman/><ref name=pingas/><ref name=numerama/> This term has entered general [[internet slang]] referring to a loud or unpleasant unexpected noise in any medium, intentional or otherwise.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2023-07-13 |title=Bungie wins lawsuit against Destiny 2 player, following racist harassment and threats to employee |work=Eurogamer.net |url=https://www.eurogamer.net/bungie-wins-lawsuit-against-destiny-2-player-following-racist-harassment-and-threats-to-employee |access-date=2023-07-13}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |first=Matt |last=Fowler|title=Wrestling Wrap Up: From 04/06 - 04/12 2010 |url=https://www.ign.com/articles/2010/04/13/wrestling-wrap-up-from-0406-0412-2010 |access-date=2023-07-13|work=IGN}}</ref>

==Copyright and fair use==
As YTP is a medium built on repurposing copyrighted media, it has been particularly vulnerable to copyright law.<ref name=punk/> YouTube poops have often been subject to copyright claims on YouTube.<ref name=statesman/> Political scientist and author Trajce Cvetkovski noted in 2013 that, despite [[Viacom (2005–2019)|Viacom]] filing a [[copyright infringement]] [[lawsuit]] against YouTube in 2007 explicitly concerning YouTube poops, in particular "The Sky Had a Weegee" by Hurricoaster, which features scenes from the animated series ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants]]'' episode "[[Shanghaied (SpongeBob SquarePants) |Shanghaied]]" and Weegee (a satiric caricature based on [[Nintendo]]'s [[Luigi]] as he appears in the DOS version of ''[[Mario Is Missing!]]''), it and many others have remained on YouTube.<ref>{{cite book| title = Copyright and Popular Media: Liberal Villains and Technological Change|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i7Bd0BTfmN4C&q=%22youtube+poop&pg=PT175| first = Trajce| last = Cvetkovski| page = 175| publisher = Palgrave Macmillan| year = 2013| isbn = 9781137172372| access-date = May 14, 2016| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190803124727/https://books.google.com/books?id=i7Bd0BTfmN4C&pg=PT175&dq=%22youtube+poop| archive-date = August 3, 2019| url-status = live|via=Google Books}}</ref>

Copyright law in the [[United Kingdom]] allows people to use copyrighted material for the purposes of [[parody]], [[pastiche]], and [[caricature]] without being seen as infringing on the copyright of the material.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2014/9780111116029|title=The Copyright and Rights in Performances (Quotation and Parody) Regulations 2014|work=legislation.gov.uk|access-date=August 26, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170127181904/http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2014/9780111116029|archive-date=January 27, 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> Copyright owners are only able to sue the parodist if the work is perceived as communicating hateful or discriminative messages, and modifying the intended purpose of the copyright owner's material. If the case is then taken to court, judges are advised in jurisdictional terms to decide whether the video meets these criteria.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-29408121|title=Parody copyright laws set to come into effect|date=October 20, 2014|work=[[BBC News]]|access-date=July 21, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180917183332/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-29408121|archive-date=September 17, 2018|url-status=live}}</ref>

==Individual responses==
[[File:Michael Rosen.jpg|thumb|248x248px|British children's poet [[Michael Rosen]] has issued multiple statements concerning his appearances in YouTube Poops.]]

British children's poet [[Michael Rosen]] issued a warning on his website in 2012, saying, "Quite a few people have fun taking my videos and making new versions of them, known as 'YouTube Poops'. Many of these are not suitable for young children. I am not responsible for either the words or pictures of these."<ref>{{cite web|author1=Rosen, Michael|author-link1=Michael Rosen|title=News - For Adults|url=http://www.michaelrosen.co.uk/foradults_news.html|website=michaelrosen.co.uk|access-date=25 October 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150311053545/http://www.michaelrosen.co.uk/foradults_news.html|archive-date=March 11, 2015 |date=29 May 2012|url-status=live}}</ref> Circa 2015, Rosen put a similar warning on his YouTube channel's "about" page.<ref>{{cite web|title=artificedesign - YouTube|url=https://www.youtube.com/user/artificedesign/about|website=YouTube|publisher=Michael Rosen|access-date=June 11, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160309160847/https://www.youtube.com/user/artificedesign/about|archive-date=March 9, 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> In 2021, a British teacher accidentally sent her students an extremely vulgar YouTube Poop of Rosen's poem "The Car Trip" instead of the original poem, mistaking it for the original.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Lovell |first=Joanna |date=2021-01-14 |title=Hull teacher shares vile parody video to class of nine year olds |url=https://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/news/hull-east-yorkshire-news/hull-teacher-michael-rosen-video-4884349 |access-date=2023-07-13|work= Hull Daily Mail}}</ref>

In 2019, Rosen claimed there were "about 4,000 YTPs" of Rosen performing his poems and stories.<ref>{{Cite tweet |last=Rosen |first=Michael |user=MichaelRosenYes|date=January 19, 2019 |title=A YouTube Poop - that is a mash-up of another YouTube vid. There are now about 4000 YTPs on YouTube of the videos that @J0e_R0sen makes of my poems and stories. Some are very funny and innocent, some are obscene, some are defamatory, some are racist, some are anti-semitic.|number=1086608646434361344 |access-date=2022-11-05}}</ref> He stated, "Some are very funny... I'm fond of the funny ones. I have tried to get the racist, antisemitic ones taken down."<ref>{{Cite tweet |last=Rosen |first=Michael |user=MichaelRosenYes |date=January 19, 2019 |title=Some are very funny. Some are not so funny but funny all the same. Some are naff. Some are foul, racist, antisemitic rubbish. I'm fond of the funny ones. I have tried to get the racist, antisemitic ones taken down. |number=1086606067042344960 |access-date=2022-11-05 }}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Animutation]]
* ''[[Cult Toons]]''
* ''[[Daffy Duck in Hollywood]]'' – a 1938 ''[[Merrie Melodies]]'' short with similarities to YouTube poop
* [[Downfall Parodies|''Downfall'' (2004 film) § Parodies]]
* [[Netdisaster]]
* [[Remix album]] – an album with remixes, first used in Harry Nilsson's album ''[[Aerial Pandemonium Ballet]]''
* ''[[Schichlegruber Doing the Lambeth Walk]]'' – a 1942 British propaganda short with similarities to YouTube poop
* [[Weird SoundCloud]]
* [[YTMND]]

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Bibliography==
*{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0NsWtPHNl88C | title=YouTube: Online Video and Participatory Culture | publisher=John Wiley & Sons | date=2013 | access-date=March 28, 2016 | first1=Jean |last1=Burgess |first2=Joshua |last2=Green |first3=Henry |last3=Jenkins |first4= John |last4=Hartley| author-link1=Jean Burgess |author-link3=Henry Jenkins |author-link4=John Hartley (academic)| isbn=9780745675350 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170303125741/https://books.google.com/books?id=0NsWtPHNl88C | archive-date=March 3, 2017 | url-status=live }}
* {{Cite journal |last=Coppa |first=Francesca |author-link=Francesca Coppa|title=Introduction: Vidding and the Rise of Remix Culture |date=2022 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3998/mpub.10069132.6 |journal=Vidding |pages=1–22 |series=A History |publisher=University of Michigan Press |doi=10.3998/mpub.10069132 |jstor=10.3998/mpub.10069132 |isbn=978-0-472-03852-7 |access-date=July 13, 2023}}
* {{Cite journal|title=Concepts of the database in contemporary media practice|first=Ruth Alexandra |last=Moran|date=April 1, 2017|doi=10.1386/iscc.8.1.21_1|url=https://intellectdiscover.com/content/journals/10.1386/iscc.8.1.21_1|journal= Interactions: Studies in Communication & Culture|volume=8|issue=1|pages=21–34}}

==External links==
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Yiga

2023-09-09T16:35:00Z

KirstenCyv: Wrote an inspiring article.

'''Yiga''' may refer to:

*[[Joseph Magandaazi Yiga]] (born 1957), Ugandan businessman and entrepreneur
*A clan of assassins who are [[characters of the Legend of Zelda series]]
*[[Yiga Choeling Monastery]] in Ghum, West Bengal, India
* ''-yiga'', a [[semblative case]] suffix in the indigenous Australian Wagiman language

{{disambiguation}}

Aishwarya Chavan

2023-09-08T09:54:33Z

KirstenCyv: Article initiated.

'''Aishwarya Rajesh Chavan''' (18 October 1997)<ref>{{Cite web |title=Aishwarya Rajesh Chavan Profile |url=https://www.hockeyindia.org/players/aishwarya-rajesh-chavan-profile-1693 |access-date=2023-09-07 |website=Hockey India |language=en}}</ref> is an [[Indian people|Indian]] field hockey player and member of [[India women's national field hockey team|Indian women hockey team]]. She hails from Madhya Pradesh. She plays for Railway Sports Promotion Board in the domestic hockey tournaments. She plays as a forward.

== Hockey career ==
Aishwarya was part of the Madhya Pradesh team which won the 13th Hockey India Senior Women National Championship 2023 in Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Desk |first=The Bridge |title=Madhya Pradesh crowned senior women's national hockey champions |url=https://thebridge.in/hockey/madhya-pradesh-champions-senior-national-women-40027 |access-date=2023-09-07 |website=thebridge.in |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=Madhya Pradesh women's team scripts history, wins maiden national hockey title |work=The Times of India |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bhopal/madhya-pradesh-womens-team-scripts-history-wins-maiden-national-hockey-title/articleshow/98260246.cms?from=mdr |access-date=2023-09-07 |issn=0971-8257}}</ref> She scored the final goal in the final where they defeated Maharashtra 5–1.

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chavan, Aishwarya}}
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:1997 births]]
[[Category:Indian field hockey players]]
[[Category:Field hockey players from Madhya Pradesh]]
[[Category:Indian female field hockey players]]

Benniganahalli metro station

2023-07-18T09:23:40Z

KirstenCyv: Created an inspiring work.

{{Infobox station
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| type = [[Namma Metro]] station
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| address = 316, Old Madras Rd, next to Salarpuria, Pai Layout, Mahadevapura, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560016
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| line = {{color box|#{{rail color|Namma Metro|Purple}}; font-size:100%|[[Purple Line (Namma Metro)|'''Purple Line''']]|}}
| other = {{rint|bus|1}} [[Tin Factory junction|Tin Factory]] Bus stop towards [[Hebbal, Bangalore|Hebbal]] or towards [[Krishnarajapuram]]
| structure = [[Elevated]]
| platform = [[Side platform]] 
Platform-1 → [[Whitefield (Kadugodi) metro station|Whitefield (Kadugodi)]] Platform-2 → [[Kengeri metro station|Kengeri]]
| operator = [[Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd]] (BMRCL)
| depth =
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| electrified = 750 [[Volt|V]] [[Direct current|DC]] [[third rail]]
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| status = Under Construction
| code = TBC
| owned = [[Namma Metro]]
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| pass_system =
| mpassengers =
| services = {{Adjacent stations|system=Namma Metro|line2=Purple|left2=Krishnarajapuram|to-left2=Whitefield (Kadugodi)|note-mid2=''(extension by August 2023)''|right2=Baiyappanahalli}}
| map_type =
| map_dot_label =
| map_size =
| map_caption =
| route_map = {{BMR Purple Line}}
| mapframe = yes
| mapframe-zoom = 14
| map_state = collapsed
}}{{Short description|Upcoming Namma Metro station under Purple Line}}
'''Benniganahalli''' is an upcoming metro station on the east-west corridor of the [[Purple Line (Namma Metro)|Purple Line]] of [[Namma Metro]]. Around this station, holds the main Tin Factory Junction leading towards [[Baiyappanahalli metro station|Baiyappanahalli]] followed by some locations like Benniganahalli Lake, Tin Factory Bus Stop, Royal Heritage Apartments and many more.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Baiyappanahalli-Whitefield Metro stretch to have 13 stops |url=https://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/bengaluru/2017/sep/14/baiyappanahalli-whitefield-metro-stretch-to-have-13-stops-1656993.html |access-date=2022-06-21 |website=The New Indian Express}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Bengaluru Metro: Whitefield-Challaghatta Line Opening in August - TimesProperty |url=https://timesproperty.com/news/post/bengaluru-metro-whitefield-challaghatta-line-set-to-commence-operations-by-august-end-blid5154 |access-date=2023-07-18 |website=timesproperty.com}}</ref>

As per latest updates from BMRCL, the '''K.R.Puram - Baiyappanahalli''' along with the '''Kengeri - Challeghatta''' trial runs are likely to happen with 6 coaches from August 22, 2023 and are expected to commence operations from end of August 2023.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Trial run on Bengaluru's Baiyappanahalli - KR Puram metro line to begin from August 22: Report |url=https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/bengaluru-news/trial-run-on-bengalurus-baiyappanahalli-kr-puram-metro-line-to-begin-from-august-22-report-101689392176166.html |access-date=2023-07-16 |website=Hindustan Times |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Direct Metro Line from Whitefield to Challaghatta: Namma Metro To Start Trials on Missing Links on August 22 |url=https://www.timesnownews.com/bengaluru/direct-metro-line-from-whitefield-to-challaghatta-namma-metro-to-start-trials-on-missing-links-on-august-22-article-101757610 |access-date=2023-07-16 |website=TimesNow |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Trial runs on two Bengaluru Metro sections will commence on August 22: BMRCL |url=https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/startup/trial-runs-on-two-bengaluru-metro-sections-will-commence-on-august-22-bmrcl-10960761.html |access-date=2023-07-16 |website=Moneycontrol |language=en}}</ref>

==Station Layout==
'''''Station Layout - To Be Confirmed'''''
{|table border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=3
|style="border-bottom:solid 1px gray;border-top:solid 1px gray;" width=50 valign=top|'''G'''
|style="border-top:solid 1px gray;border-bottom:solid 1px gray;" width=100 valign=top|Street level
|style="border-top:solid 1px gray;border-bottom:solid 1px gray;" width=500 valign=top|Exit/Entrance
|-
|valign=top|'''L1'''
|valign=top|Mezzanine
|valign=top|Fare control, station agent, Metro Card vending machines, crossover 
|-
|style="border-top:solid 1px gray;border-bottom:solid 1px gray;" width=50 rowspan=4 valign=top|'''L2'''
|style="border-top:solid 1px gray;border-right:solid 2px black;border-left:solid 2px black;border-bottom:solid 2px black;text-align:center;" colspan=2|[[Side platform]]<nowiki> | Doors will open on the left </nowiki>{{access icon}}
|-
|style="border-bottom:solid 1px gray;" width=100|'''Platform 1''' '''Eastbound'''
|style="border-bottom:solid 1px gray;" width=500|Towards → [[Whitefield (Kadugodi) metro station|Whitefield (Kadugodi)]] next station is [[Krishnarajapuram metro station|Krishnarajapuram (KR Puram)]] '''''Change at the next station for '''{{color box|#{{rail color|Namma Metro|Blue}}; font-size:100%|[[Blue Line (Namma Metro)|'''Blue Line''']]|}}''
|-
|'''Platform 2''' '''Westbound'''
|Towards ← [[Kengeri metro station|Kengeri]] next station is [[Baiyappanahalli metro station|Baiyappanahalli]]
|-
|style="border-top:solid 2px black;border-right:solid 2px black;border-left:solid 2px black;border-bottom:solid 1px gray;" colspan=2 align=center|[[Side platform]]<nowiki> | Doors will open on the left </nowiki>{{access icon}}
|-
|style="border-bottom:solid 1px gray;" width=50 rowspan=2 valign=top|'''L2'''
|style="border-bottom:solid 1px gray;" width=100|
|style="border-bottom:solid 1px gray;" width=500|
|-
|}

==See also==
*[[Bangalore]]
*[[List of Namma Metro stations]]
*[[Transport in Karnataka]]
*[[List of metro systems]]
*[[Rapid transit in India|List of rapid transit systems in India]]
*[[Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation]]
{{Clear}}
{{Portal bar|Bangalore|Trains|Transport|Engineering}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://english.bmrc.co.in ''BMRCL English''] - BMRCL Official Website
* [http://www.urbanrail.net ''UrbanRail.Net''] – descriptions of all metro systems in the world, each with a schematic map showing all stations.

{{Namma Metro}}

__FORCETOC__

[[Category:Railway stations in India opened in 2023]]
[[Category:Namma Metro stations]]

Anees Fatima

2023-07-13T10:40:06Z

KirstenCyv: Designed an original page.

{{Short description|Indian politician (1901–1979)}}
{{EngvarB}}
{{Use dmy dates}}{{Use Indian English}}

{{Infobox person
| honorific_prefix = [[Lady]]
| name = Anees Fatima
| image = Anees Fatimah (née Karim), Lady Imam in 1924.png
| alt =
| caption = crop of photo by Bassano Ltd in 1924
| birth_name = Anees Karim Fatima
| birth_date = 1901
| death_date = 1979
| birth_place = [[Patna|Patna, Bihar]], [[British Raj|British India]]
| death_place = [[Patna|Patna, Bihar]], India
| children = 2
| occupation = [[Philanthropy|Philanthropist]], [[Resistance movement|Freedom Fighter]], [[Politician]]
| years_active = 1918 – 1970
| alma_mater = Badshah Nawaz Rizvi School
| spouse = [[Syed Ali Imam]]
| father =
| relatives = [[Syed Sultan Ahmed|Sir Sultan Ahmed]] (Cousin), [[Syed Hasan Imam]] (Brother-in-Law)
}}
'''Anees Fatima''' (1901 – 1979) also known as '''Lady Imam''' was an [[List of Indian independence activists|Indian freedom fighter]], [[Politician]], [[Philanthropy|Philanthropist]] and [[education]]ist from Patna, Bihar who played a significant role in the [[Decolonization|anti-colonial movement]] of [[Presidencies and provinces of British India|British India]] and is considered to be one of the founders of [[Bihar]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Fatima |first=Nikhat |title=Remembering Lady Anees Imam, One of the Founders of Modern Bihar |url=https://twocircles.net/2022sep29/447062.html |access-date=2023-07-11 |website=TwoCircles.net |language=en-US}}</ref> She was married to [[Syed Ali Imam|Sir Syed Ali Imam]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Anees Fatimah (née Karim), Lady Imam - National Portrait Gallery |url=https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp61574/anees-fatimah-nee-karim-lady-imam |access-date=2023-07-11 |website=www.npg.org.uk |language=en}}</ref>

==Early life==
Anees received her early education from Badshah Nawaz Rizvi School. From a younger age, she actively participated in India's freedom struggle and fought against social injustices and the practice of [[purdah]] among both [[Women in Hinduism|Hindu]] and [[Women in Islam|Muslim women]].<ref name=":0" />

==Career==
During the [[Non-cooperation movement|Non-Cooperation movement]] (1920–22), She organized large-scale protests against [[liquor |liquor shops]] in Patna with her daughter Mehmuda Sami. She was appointed to lead the committee sent by the [[All India Congress Committee|All India Congress]] to [[England]] to protest the [[Montagu–Chelmsford Reforms|Montague-Chelmsford Reforms]].<ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |title=Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms and Government of India Act, 1919 |url=https://selfstudyhistory.com/2015/01/29/montagu-chelmsford-reforms-and-government-of-india-act-1919/ |access-date=2023-07-11 |website=SELF STUDY HISTORY |language=en-US}}</ref> This distinction made her the first woman from Bihar to embark on a political journey to England. In addition, she was active in the [[Salt March|civil disobedience movement]] (1930–34) and led a procession of nearly 3,000 women in Patna in 1938, resulting in warrants being issued against her by the British.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />

Lady Imam was an independent candidate who contested and won the seat in the 1937 elections from Bihar. She was the first woman to be elected as an [[Member of the Legislative Assembly (India)|MLA]] from Bihar. She was a dedicated member of the Anjuman Tarraqi-e-Urdu, an organization that actively campaigned for the recognition of Urdu as the secondary language of Bihar.<ref name=":0" /> After independence, she supported the cause of education in Bihar and was an active member of the [[Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Library|Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library]] and the Bihar Government Urdu Library.

==Personal life==
[[File:Anees Fatimah (née Karim), Lady Imam; Sir Saiyid Ali Imam.jpg|thumb|Anees Fatimah and Sir Saiyid Ali Imam in 1921]]
She was married to [[Syed Ali Imam]] after the demise of his second wife, Mariam. In Ranchi, Bihar, Sir Syed Ali Imam commissioned the construction of a residence for the couple, designed in the style of a Scottish castle. It is referred to as "Anees Castle" by the local community,<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Gupta |first=Amitabha |title=A Castle in My Dreams |url=https://amitabhagupta.wordpress.com/2014/07/19/a-castle-in-my-dreams/ |access-date=2023-07-11 |website=Amitabha Gupta |language=en}}</ref> It is situated near the junction of Phulwari Sharif Road The construction of the castle was completed in 1932.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Eighty years after death, nobody cares for 'architect of Bihar' |url=https://www.deccanherald.com/content/327239/eighty-years-death-nobody-cares.html |access-date=2023-07-11 |website=Deccan Herald |language=en}}</ref> Unfortunately, Lady Anees Fatimah's husband passed away in the same year.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ahamed |first=Syed Naseer |title=Syed Ali Imam : Who stated that nationalism cannot be achieved by division and separation. |url=https://www.heritagetimes.in/syed-ali-imam/ |access-date=2023-07-11 |website=Heritage Times |language=en-US}}</ref> Subsequently, she dedicated herself to her political career.

==Legacy==
A locality known as Anisabad is named in her honor.<ref name=":0" />

==References==
{{Reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fatima, Anees}}

[[Category:1901 births]]
[[Category:1979 deaths]]
[[Category:Bihari politicians]]
[[Category:Indian Shia Muslims]]
[[Category:Politicians from Patna]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian women politicians]]

Bloomberg News

2023-05-14T23:55:49Z

KirstenCyv: Crafted a new article layout.

{{short description|International news agency based in New York City}}
{{about|the Bloomberg news agency|the current parent company|Bloomberg L.P.}}
{{Use mdy dates}}
{{Infobox company
| name = Bloomberg News
| logo = New Bloomberg Logo.svg
| former_name = Bloomberg Business News (1990–1997)
| type = [[Division (business)|Division]]
| founded = {{Start date and age|1990}}
| hq_location = [[731 Lexington Avenue]], [[New York City]], United States [[London]], United Kingdom [[Hong Kong]]
| key_people = [[John Micklethwait]] ([[Editor-in-chief]])
| industry = [[News agency]]
| founders = [[Michael Bloomberg]] [[Matthew Winkler (journalist)|Matthew Winkler]]
| owner = [[Michael Bloomberg]] (88%) and [[Bank of America]] (12%; through [[Merrill Lynch]])
| num_employees = 2,300
| parent = [[Bloomberg L.P.]]
| website = {{URL|https://www.bloomberg.com}}
| footnotes = <ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jbc11TKDTaYC&pg=209|title=Plunkett's E-Commerce and Internet Business Almanac|author=Jack W. Plunkett|year=2009|publisher=Plunkett Research, Ltd|page=209|isbn=9781593921156}}</ref>
}}
{{Michael Bloomberg series}}
'''Bloomberg News''' (originally '''Bloomberg Business News''') is an international [[news agency]] headquartered in [[New York City]] and a [[Division (business)|division]] of [[Bloomberg L.P.]] Content produced by Bloomberg News is disseminated through [[Bloomberg Terminal]]s, [[Bloomberg Television]], [[Bloomberg Radio]], ''[[Bloomberg Businessweek]]'', ''[[Bloomberg Markets]]'', Bloomberg.com, and Bloomberg's mobile platforms. Since 2015, [[John Micklethwait]] has served as [[editor-in-chief]].<ref name="Greenberg">{{cite magazine|url=https://www.wired.com/2015/09/bloombergs-future-future-news-everyone/|title=Bloomberg's Future Is the Future of News for Everyone|magazine=[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]]|author=Julia Greenberg|access-date=2019-02-16|issn=1059-1028}}</ref>

==History==
Bloomberg News was founded by [[Michael Bloomberg]] and [[Matthew Winkler (journalist)|Matthew Winkler]] in 1990 to deliver financial news reporting to Bloomberg Terminal subscribers.<ref name="Bodine">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9G-FWJIAOSEC|title=Make It New: Essays in the History of American Business|publisher=[[iUniverse]]|year=2004|author=Paul Bodine|pages=180–190|location=[[Lincoln, Nebraska]]|isbn=9780595309214|access-date=2013-03-15}}</ref>

The agency was established in 1990 with a team of six people.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.bloomberg.com/solutions/bloomberg_news/|title=Bloomberg Solutions|publisher=Bloomberg News|access-date=2013-05-14|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100624034259/http://www.bloomberg.com/solutions/bloomberg_news/|archive-date=2010-06-24}}</ref> Winkler was first editor-in-chief.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.theaustralian.com.au/media/cult-of-bloomberg-way-underpinned-by-accuracy/story-e6frg996-1226140375103|title=Cult of Bloomberg way underpinned by accuracy|newspaper=[[The Australian]]|access-date=2011-10-26}}</ref> In 2010, Bloomberg News included more than 2,300 [[editor]]s and [[reporter]]s in 72 countries and 146 news bureaus worldwide.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/pressroom/facts/|title=At A Glance|publisher=Bloomberg Press Room|access-date=2013-03-18|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120707114539/http://www.bloomberg.com/pressroom/facts/|archive-date=2012-07-07}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jomc.unc.edu/video/bloomberg-news-editor-in-chief-to-speak-oct-16-about-the-economy-and-the-presidential-election|title=Bloomberg News editor-in-chief speaks about the economy and the presidential election|publisher=UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communication|access-date=2013-03-18|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130224135451/http://www.jomc.unc.edu/video/bloomberg-news-editor-in-chief-to-speak-oct-16-about-the-economy-and-the-presidential-election|archive-date=2013-02-24}}</ref>

===Beginnings (1990–1995)===
Bloomberg Business News was created to expand the services offered through the terminals. According to Matthew Winkler, then a writer for ''[[The Wall Street Journal]]'', [[Michael Bloomberg]] telephoned him in November 1989 and asked, "What would it take to get into the news business?"<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://medium.com/damian-radcliffe/in-conversation-with-matthew-winkler-editor-in-chief-emeritus-and-co-founder-of-bloomberg-news-61e26e14d904|title=In conversation with Matthew Winkler, Editor-in-Chief Emeritus and co-founder of Bloomberg News|last=Radcliffe|first=Damian|website=Medium|language=en|access-date=2020-02-21}}</ref>

In his book, ''The Bloomberg Way'', Winkler recalls a conversation with Bloomberg about a hypothetical ethical dilemma which could have arisen from Bloomberg's interest in creating a newspaper:

<blockquote>"You have just published a story that says the chairman—and I mean chairman—of your biggest customer has taken $5 million from the corporate till. He is with his secretary at a Rio de Janeiro resort, and the secretary's spurned boyfriend calls to tip you off. You get an independent verification that the story is true. Then the phone rings. The customer's public-relations person says, 'Kill the story or we will return all the terminals we currently rent from you.{{'"}}

"What would you do?" Winkler asked.

"Go with the story," Bloomberg replied. "Our lawyers will love the fees you generate."<ref name="winklerandsondag">{{cite book|author1=Matthew Winkler|author2=Jennifer Sondag|title=The Bloomberg Way|location=Hoboken, New Jersey|publisher=John Wiley & Sons, Inc.|year=2014|pages=xi–xii|isbn=978-1-118-84226-3}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last1=Winkler|first1=Matthew|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GNbnAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT8|title=The Bloomberg Way: A Guide for Reporters and Editors|last2=Sondag|first2=Jennifer|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-1-118-84233-1|language=en}}</ref></blockquote>

Winkler recalls this as his "deciding moment", the time at which he became willing to help Bloomberg build his news organization.<ref name="winklerandsondag"/><ref name=":0" />

The publication was created to provide concise, timely financial news.<ref name=Bloomberg>{{cite book|author=Michael Bloomberg|title=Bloomberg by Bloomberg|year=1997|publisher=John Wiley & Sons, Inc.|location=New York|isbn=0-471-15545-4|pages=[https://archive.org/details/bloombergbybloom00bloo/page/79 79–100]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/bloombergbybloom00bloo/page/79}}</ref> As a new company in 1990, Bloomberg hoped that the news service would spread the company name, sell more Bloomberg Terminals and end Bloomberg's reliance on the [[Dow Jones & Company|Dow Jones News Services]].<ref name="Bodine"/>

The creation of Bloomberg Business News required Winkler to open a Bloomberg office in [[Washington, D.C.]], to report about political effects on the business world. However, the Standing Committee of Correspondents (SCC) in Washington required Bloomberg News be formally accredited to act as a legitimate news source, a title that Bloomberg Business News only accomplished after agreeing to provide free terminals to major newspapers in exchange for news space in the publications.<ref name="Bodine"/> During this growth period Bloomberg News opened a small television station in New York, purchased New York radio station WNEW, launched fifteen-minute weekday business news programs for broadcast on [[PBS]], and opened offices in [[Hong Kong]] and [[Frankfurt, Germany]].<ref name="Bodine"/>

===1995–2000===
The initial goal of Bloomberg Business News to increase terminal sales was met by the mid-1990s and the company refocused the scope of its news service to rival the profitability of other media groups such as [[Reuters]] and [[Dow Jones & Company|Dow Jones]]. This led to the creation of Bloomberg's magazine, ''Bloomberg Personal,'' in 1995, which was carried in the Sunday edition of 18 U.S. papers.<ref name="Gale Group">{{cite book|last=Group|first=Gale|url=https://www.cengage.com/search/productOverview.do?Ntt=7805587867677144810625576211998284400&N=197+4294916723&Ntk=P_EPI|title=International Directory of Company Histories Vol. 126|publisher=St. James Press|year=2011|isbn=9781558628083|edition=Casebound|location=[[Farmington Hills, Michigan]]}}</ref> In 1994, Bloomberg launched a 24-hour financial news service through [[Bloomberg Television|Bloomberg Information Television]], which was broadcast on [[DirecTV]]. Bloomberg also launched a web site to provide the audio feed of its radio broadcasts.<ref name="Bodine"/> Bloomberg Business News was renamed Bloomberg News in 1997.{{Citation needed}}

===2000–2014===
In 2009 Bloomberg News and ''[[The Washington Post]]'' launched a global news service known as ''The Washington Post News Service with Bloomberg News'', to provide economic and political news.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Carr|first=David|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/28/business/media/28cbs.html|title=To Cover World, CBS Joins With a News Site|work=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=2020-02-21|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

In April 2014, Bloomberg News launched the ''Bloomberg Luxury'' lifestyle section of its paper.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://wwd.com/business-news/media/bloomberg-to-build-luxury-online-7653531/|title=Bloomberg to Build Luxury Online|magazine=[[Women's Wear Daily]]}}</ref> The section's content covers topics including travel, wine news, dining, auto news, gadgets, technology news, and more. It also highlights content from Bloomberg's quarterly lifestyle and luxury magazine, ''Pursuits''.{{Citation needed}}

===2015 refocus===
In 2015, an internal memo written by editor-in-chief [[John Micklethwait]] was leaked to the public. This memo indicated an intent to refocus the agency to better target its core audience, "the clever customer who is short of time," and better achieve the goal of being "the definitive 'chronicle of capitalism.'"<ref name="Greenberg" /> This change led to a reduction in reporting on general interest topics in favor of content related to business and economics.<ref name="Greenberg"/>

===2018 redesign and paywall===
In 2018, Micklethwait announced a new digital design for Bloomberg News. Bloomberg uses a metered [[paywall]] to charge visitors for content, limiting users to view 10 free articles per month with unlimited re-read option, and 30 minutes of Bloomberg Television watch per day with reset at local midnight time.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/bloombergs-new-paywall-will-charge-users-35-a-month-1525285030|title=Bloomberg's New Paywall Will Charge Users $35 a Month|newspaper=[[The Wall Street Journal]]|author=Benjamin Mullin|access-date=2019-02-16|language=en-US|issn=0099-9660}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Bloomberg subscriptions|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/subscriptions/abgw2m846tx8qks/|website=Bloomberg.com|publisher=[[Bloomberg News|Bloomberg]]|access-date=20 May 2020}}</ref>

=== Michael Bloomberg presidential campaign ===
In November 2019, as [[Michael Bloomberg]] announced [[Michael Bloomberg 2020 presidential campaign|his presidential campaign]], editor-in-chief [[John Micklethwait]] ordered his staff not to investigate their boss, nor any other [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] candidates, while investigations into [[Donald Trump]] would continue, "as the government of the day".<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/24/bloomberg-news-will-not-investigate-mike-bloomberg-or-his-democratic-rivals-during-primary.html |title=Bloomberg News will not investigate Mike Bloomberg or his Democratic rivals during primary |work=[[CNBC]] |first1=Lauren |last1=Hirsch |first2=Brian |last2=Schwartz |access-date=November 26, 2019}}</ref> Subsequent reporting said Micklethwait was referring to a team of specialized investigative reporters, as opposed to the overall political team, but he would not elaborate or issue a public clarification despite newsroom staff wishing for him to do so. Investigative journalists and political reporters operate separately but reporting indicates this distinction would not be clear to the general public.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Grynbaum|first=Michael M.|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/17/business/media/bloomberg-news-conflict-of-interest.html|title=Bloomberg News's Dilemma: How to Cover a Boss Seeking the Presidency|work=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=2020-02-27|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

Following Bloomberg's announcement, the ''[[Houston Chronicle]]'' dropped Bloomberg as a source for the 2020 Presidential campaign, saying that "journalists should not choose targets based on their political affiliation."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://thehill.com/homenews/media/474333-houston-chronicle-stops-using-bloomberg-news-wire-stories-for-campaign|title=Houston Chronicle stops using Bloomberg News wire stories for campaign coverage|first=Justin|last=Wise|website=[[The Hill (newspaper)|The Hill]]}}</ref> Former Bloomberg News DC Bureau Chief Megan Murphy also criticized the decision, saying it bars "talented reporters and editors from covering massive, crucial aspects of one of the defining elections of our time" and calling the decision to avoid coverage "not journalism".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://twitter.com/meganmurp/status/1198665230273974272|title=It is truly staggering that *any* editor would put their name on a memo that bars an army of unbelievably talented reporters and editors from covering massive, crucial aspects of one of the defining elections of our time. Staggering.|first=Megan|last=Murphy}}</ref> Responding to the controversy, [[Michael Bloomberg]] told CBS News: "We just have to learn to live with some things." He added that his reporters "get a paycheck. But with your paycheck comes some restrictions and responsibilities."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/bloomberg-news-reporters-accept-restrictions-67554419|title=Bloomberg: His news reporters need to accept restrictions|website=[[ABC News]]}}</ref>

Bloomberg suspended his campaign on March 4, 2020, the day after [[Super Tuesday]].

==Controversy==
===China coverage===
Bloomberg News received a 2012 [[George Polk Awards|George Polk Award]] for its series of stories about China's political elite, "Revolution to Riches."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.liu.edu/About/News/Univ-Ctr-PR/2013/February/UC_PR-Feb18-2|title=George Polk Awards|website=[[Long Island University]]|access-date=2018-01-26}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://topics.bloomberg.com/revolution-to-riches/|title=Revolution to Riches|publisher=Bloomberg News|access-date=2014-07-13|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121231142229/http://topics.bloomberg.com/revolution-to-riches|archive-date=2012-12-31}}</ref>

One story in the series focused on the family wealth of Chinese leader [[Xi Jinping]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-29/xi-jinping-millionaire-relations-reveal-fortunes-of-elite.html|title=Xi Jinping Millionaire Relations Reveal Fortunes of Elite|publisher=Bloomberg News|url-access=subscription|access-date=2014-11-09}}</ref> Journalist and author [[Howard W. French]] reported in the May/June 2014 issue of the ''[[Columbia Journalism Review]]'' that prior to publication of the Xi story, high-level Bloomberg officials met with Chinese diplomats twice without informing the journalists who were working on the story.<ref name="French">{{cite magazine|url=https://www.cjr.org/feature/bloombergs_folly.php|title=Bloomberg's Folly|magazine=[[Columbia Journalism Review]]|author=Howard W. French|access-date=2014-12-07}}</ref>

The first meeting was between Winkler and [[Zhang Yesui]], the [[Chinese ambassador to the United States]]. Zhang is said to have told Winkler, "If Bloomberg publishes this story, bad things will happen for Bloomberg in China. If Bloomberg does not publish the story, good things will happen for Bloomberg." The second meeting occurred shortly thereafter in New York and included Bloomberg Chairman [[Peter Grauer]], the company's then Chief Executive [[Daniel Doctoroff]], and an unnamed Chinese diplomat.

Around the time of the second meeting, during a lengthy conference call with Bloomberg reporters and editors, Doctoroff insisted on changes in the story that softened its impact by revising the language used to describe the Xi family's assets.<ref name="French"/>

After the Xi story appeared, terminal sales in China slowed because government officials ordered state enterprises not to subscribe. The Bloomberg News website was also blocked on Chinese servers, and the company was unable to get visas for journalists it wanted to send to China.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/18/world/asia/reporter-on-unpublished-bloomberg-article-is-suspended.html|title=Bloomberg News Suspends Reporter Whose Article on China Was Not Published|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|author1=Edward Wong|author2=Christine Haughney|issn=0362-4331|author-link1=Edward Wong|access-date=2019-02-16|language=en-US}}</ref>

In 2014, Grauer told the staff at the Bloomberg Hong Kong bureau that the company's sales team had done a "heroic job" of mending relations with Chinese officials who had indicated their displeasure about the publication of the Xi revelations. He also warned that if Bloomberg "were to do anything like" the Xi story again, the company would "be straight back in the shit-box."<ref name="French"/>

On October 29, 2013, during a conference call, Winkler told four Bloomberg journalists in Hong Kong that the findings of their major investigation into "the hidden financial ties between one of the wealthiest men in China and the families of top Chinese leaders" would not be published. Less than a week later, a second planned article "about the children of senior Chinese officials employed by foreign banks" was also killed, according to Bloomberg employees.<ref name="nytimes-2013-11-09">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/09/world/asia/bloomberg-news-is-said-to-curb-articles-that-might-anger-china.html|title=Bloomberg News Is Said to Curb Articles That Might Anger China|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|author=Edward Wong|issn=0362-4331|access-date=2019-02-16|language=en-US}}</ref>

Unnamed Bloomberg employees quoted by ''[[The New York Times]]'' said the decision not to publish was made by the company's top editors, led by Winkler. According to one employee, Winkler said, "If we run the story, we'll be kicked out of China."<ref name="nytimes-2013-11-09"/><ref name=":1">{{Cite news|last=Folkenflik|first=David|url=https://www.npr.org/2020/04/14/828565428/bloomberg-news-killed-investigation-fired-reporter-then-sought-to-silence-his-wi|title=Bloomberg News Killed Investigation, Fired Reporter, Then Sought To Silence His Wife|work=[[NPR]]|access-date=April 15, 2020}}</ref>

When contacted by the Times, Winkler said in an email that neither story had been killed. "'What you have is untrue,'" he wrote. "'The stories are active and not spiked.'" [[Laurie Hays]], the senior editor on the articles, "echoed" his statement. Winkler declined to discuss the conference call.<ref name="nytimes-2013-11-09"/>

The Winkler and Hays denials appeared in a story published by the Times on November 8, 2013. At a mayoral news conference four days later, Michael Bloomberg also denied the accusation. He "insisted" that Bloomberg News "did not do that; the editors said that was just not the case." Noting Winkler's response to the Times, he added, "No one thinks that we are wusses and not willing to stand up and write stories that are of interest to the public and that are factually correct." He also said that because he was mayor of New York, he was not involved in the operations of the news agency. "I've recused myself from anything to do with the company," he said.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/13/business/media/bloomberg-says-news-service-did-not-kill-articles-on-china.html|title=Bloomberg Says News Service Did Not Kill Articles on China|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|author=Ben Sisario|issn=0362-4331|author-link=Ben Sisario|access-date=2019-02-16|language=en-US}}</ref>

Three journalists left the company after news reports about the decision appeared --- reporter Michael Forsythe, editor and reporter [[Amanda Bennett]], and Ben Richardson, an editor at large for Asia news.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/03/another-bloomberg-editor-explains-why-he-has-resigned-over-its-china-coverage/359565/|title=Another Bloomberg Editor Explains Why He Has Resigned, Over Its China Coverage|magazine=[[The Atlantic]]|author=James Fallows|author-link=James Fallows}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/25/business/media/editor-leaves-bloomberg-citing-china-coverage.html|title=Editor Leaves Bloomberg, Citing China Coverage|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|author=Ravi Somaiya}}</ref> Forsythe was the lead writer on the Xi Jinping story.<ref name="French"/> Richardson said, "I left Bloomberg because of the way the story was mishandled, and because of how the company made misleading statements in the global press and senior executives disparaged the team that worked so hard to execute an incredibly demanding story." He also said that the company has threatened the journalists who worked on the story with legal action if they discuss the incident publicly.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://jimromenesko.com/2014/03/24/ben-richardson-quits-bloomberg-news-over-handling-of-investigative-piece/|title=Ben Richardson Quits Bloomberg News Over Handling of Investigative Piece|website=JimRomenesko.com|author=Jim Romenesko|author-link=Jim Romenesko|access-date=2014-06-01|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140602200811/http://jimromenesko.com/2014/03/24/ben-richardson-quits-bloomberg-news-over-handling-of-investigative-piece/|archive-date=2014-06-02}}</ref><ref name=":1" />

Taiwan-based [[Next Media Animation]] produced an animated cartoon ridiculing Winkler and Michael Bloomberg.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://sinosphere.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/08/animated-take-on-bloombergs-coverage-of-china/|title=Animated Take on Bloomberg's Coverage of China|work=Sinosphere Blog|via=The New York Times|author=Edward Wong|access-date=2019-02-16|language=en-US}}</ref>

According to French, Bloomberg's handling of the episode "has tainted its corporate identity and journalism brand to a degree that could last for years."<ref name="French"/>
===Super Micro Computer chip controversy===
On October 4, 2018, Bloomberg's [[Bloomberg Businessweek|''Businessweek'' magazine]] featured an article written by Jordan Robertson and Michael Riley, in which they claimed to have evidence that US companies who were clients of [[Supermicro|Super Micro Computer]] had experienced a series of [[Supply chain attack|supply chain attacks]]. The article claimed that the subsidiary of Super Micro Computer, [[Elemental Technologies]], had implanted a [[Computer chip|chip]] the size of a pencil tip onto their [[Motherboard|motherboards]] that allowed [[Cyberwarfare by China|China to gain access]] to the hardware. It also alleged, based on a quote from a source in the [[Federal government of the United States|US government]], that companies affected by these attacks included [[Amazon (company)|Amazon]] and [[Apple Inc.|Apple]].<ref>{{Cite news|title=The Big Hack: How China Used a Tiny Chip to Infiltrate U.S. Companies|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-10-04/the-big-hack-how-china-used-a-tiny-chip-to-infiltrate-america-s-top-companies|accessdate=2022-05-21|work=www.bloomberg.com|publisher=[[Bloomberg News|Bloomberg]]|language=en}}</ref> The stock price of Super Micro Computer sank by 40% on the day the article was released.

On October 9, 2018, [[Vice (magazine)|VICE]] released an interview with someone who said that he had mentioned the theoretical scenario to one of the authors of the article, Jordan Robertson, more than a year before its release.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The China stealth hacking report just took a major hit — from one of the story's sources|url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/yw9x7x/china-stealth-hacking-story-joe-fitzpatrick|accessdate=2022-05-21|work=www.vice.com|publisher=[[Vice (magazine)|Vice]]|language=en}}</ref>

Regarding the report, FBI Director Christopher Wray said<ref>{{Cite news |last=Haselton |first=Todd |title=FBI director on whether Apple and Amazon servers had Chinese spy chips: 'Be careful what you read' |work=[[CNBC]] |url=https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/10/fbi-director-wray-on-super-micro-servers-be-careful-what-you-read.html |access-date=2022-11-23}}</ref> in Senate on Oct. 10 "be careful what you read."

Apple's CEO [[Tim Cook]] denied the claim that the company had been affected in an interview with [[BuzzFeed News|Buzzfeed News]], stating: "This did not happen. There's no truth to this."<ref>{{Cite web|title=Apple CEO Tim Cook Is Calling For Bloomberg To Retract Its Chinese Spy Chip Story|url=https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/johnpaczkowski/apple-tim-cook-bloomberg-retraction/|accessdate=2022-05-21|work=www.buzzfeednews.com|publisher=[[BuzzFeed News]]|language=en}}</ref> Apple also released an official statement: "We did not uncover any unusual vulnerabilities in the servers we purchased from Super Micro when we updated the firmware and software according to our standard procedures."<ref>{{Cite web|title=What Businessweek got wrong about Apple |url=https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2018/10/what-businessweek-got-wrong-about-apple/|accessdate=2022-05-21|work=www.apple.com|language=en}}</ref> Apple's denials have also been supported by [[United States Department of Homeland Security|DHS]] and [[GCHQ]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=GCHQ, the UK's equivalent of the NSA, says it believes Apple's denial of spy chip claim|url=https://9to5mac.com/2018/10/05/spy-chip/|accessdate=2022-05-21|work=www.9to5mac.com|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Super Micro China super spy chip super scandal: US Homeland Security, UK spies back Amazon, Apple denials|url=https://www.theregister.com/2018/10/08/super_micro_us_uk_intelligence/|accessdate=2022-05-21|work=www.theregister.com|language=en}}</ref>

Pinwest, a media company founded in [[Silicon Valley]] and based in [[Beijing]], identified the chip mentioned in the article as a [[balun]]. Pinwest pointed out that its size made it impossible to implement any form of attack; it did not have the storage space required to store commands that would allow a [[hacker]] to infiltrate the hardware. They suggested that Businessweek had underestimated security standards employed by Amazon and Apple.<ref>{{Cite web|title=彭博社曝光的"间谍芯片"，我在淘宝1块钱就能买一个|url=https://www.pingwest.com/a/178013|accessdate=2022-05-21|work=www.pingwest.com|language=zh}}</ref>

Despite providing no further evidence, Bloomberg continued to claim that the article had been verified by its team. It has not been retracted.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Bloomberg stands by Chinese chip story as Apple, Amazon ratchet up denials|url=https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/10/bloomberg-stands-by-chinese-chip-story-as-apple-amazon-ratchet-up-denials/|accessdate=2022-05-21|work=www.arstechnica.com|language=en}}</ref>

===Vinci reporting fine===

On December 16, 2019, France's financial markets watchdog, the [[Autorité des marchés financiers (France)|Autorité des marchés financiers]] (AMF), fined Bloomberg €5,000,000 for a report based on a fake news release that triggered a plunge in the shares of French construction giant [[Vinci SA|Vinci]] and wiped billions off its market value. The AMF said Bloomberg distributed "information that it should have known was false" and that Bloomberg did not respect journalistic ethics "as no verification of the information was undertaken before publication".<ref>{{cite news|url= https://www.straitstimes.com/business/companies-markets/fake-news-report-costs-bloomberg-76m-in-fines |title= Fake news report costs Bloomberg $7.6m in fines|newspaper=The Straits Times|access-date=2019-12-23}}</ref>

==''Bloomberg Businessweek''==
{{see also| Bloomberg Businessweek}}
[[Bloomberg L.P.]] bought weekly business magazine ''Businessweek'' from [[McGraw-Hill]] in 2009.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/14/business/media/14bizweek.html|title=Bloomberg Buys BusinessWeek From McGraw-Hill|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|author1=Stephanie Clifford|author2=David Carr|author-link1=Stephanie Clifford|access-date=2013-03-18}}</ref> The company acquired the magazine to attract general business to its media audience composed primarily of terminal subscribers. Following the acquisition, ''Businessweek'' was renamed ''[[Bloomberg Businessweek]]''.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2009-10-12/bloomberg-wins-bidding-for-businessweek|title=Bloomberg Wins Bidding For BusinessWeek|magazine=[[Bloomberg Businessweek]]|author=Tom Lowry|url-access=subscription|access-date=2013-03-18}}</ref> Bloomberg Businessweek became a part of Bloomberg News after the acquisition from [[Bloomberg L.P.|Bloomberg L.P]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Bloomberg Businessweek|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/businessweek|url-status=live|website=Businessweek.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150128161521/http://www.bloomberg.com/businessweek |archive-date=January 28, 2015 }}</ref>

==Bloomberg Television==
{{see also| Bloomberg Television}}
[[Bloomberg Television]] is a 24-hour financial news television network. It was introduced in 1994 as a subscription service transmitted on satellite television provider [[DirecTV]], 13 hours a day, 7 days a week.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/bloomberg-l-p-history/|title=Bloomberg L.P. History|publisher=FundingUniverse|access-date=2013-03-19}}</ref> In 1995, the network entered the cable television market and by 2000, Bloomberg's 24-hour news programming was being aired to 200 million households.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/18/business/bloomberg-unit-to-announce-a-cable-deal.html|title=Bloomberg Unit To Announce A Cable Deal|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|author=Danny Hakim|access-date=2013-03-19}}</ref> [[Justin B. Smith|Justin Smith]] serves as CEO of the Bloomberg Media Group which includes Bloomberg Radio, Bloomberg Television and mobile, online and advertising-supported components of Bloomberg's media offerings.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.datacenterdynamics.com/focus/archive/2012/05/bloomberg-cloud-built-world-domination|title=Bloomberg: a cloud built for world domination|publisher=DatacenterDynamics|access-date=2013-03-19|url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121114181613/http://www.datacenterdynamics.com/focus/archive/2012/05/bloomberg-cloud-built-world-domination|archive-date=2012-11-14}}</ref>

==''Bloomberg Markets''==
{{see also| Bloomberg Markets}}
Originally launched in July 1992 under the title ''Bloomberg: A Magazine for Bloomberg Users'', ''[[Bloomberg Markets]]'' was a monthly magazine given to all Bloomberg Professional Service subscribers.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.prweek.com/article/168343|title=MEDIA: Bloomberg's mag to be launched in the UK high street|publisher=[[Haymarket Media Group#Haymarket Business Media|BrandRepublic]]|author=Ian Hall|access-date=2013-03-19}}</ref> In addition to providing international financial news to industry professionals, the magazine included points for navigating terminal functionality. In 2010, the magazine was redesigned in an effort to update its readership beyond terminal users.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.adweek.com/news/press/bloomberg-strikes-again-132453|title=MEDIA: Bloomberg Strikes Again|magazine=[[AdWeek]]|access-date=2013-03-19}}</ref> Ron Henkoff has served as editor of ''Bloomberg Markets'' since 1999<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bloomberglink.com/people/ronald-henkoff/|title=MEDIA: Ronald Henkoff|publisher=Bloomberg Link|access-date=2013-03-19|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121201162031/http://www.bloomberglink.com/people/ronald-henkoff/|archive-date=2012-12-01}}</ref> and Michael Dukmejian has served as the magazine's publisher since 2009.<ref>{{cite press release|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/2009/06/24/idUS188318+24-Jun-2009+PRN20090624|title=Michael Dukmejian Joins BLOOMBERG MARKETS Magazine As Publisher|publisher=[[Reuters]]|author=Angela Martin|access-date=2013-03-19|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121114155702/https://www.reuters.com/article/2009/06/24/idUS188318%2B24-Jun-2009%2BPRN20090624|archive-date=2012-11-14}}</ref>

==Bloomberg Opinion==
Bloomberg Opinion, formerly Bloomberg View, is an editorial division of Bloomberg News which launched in May 2011, and provides content from columnists, authors and editors about current news issues.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.politico.com/blogs/onmedia/0411/Bloomberg_View_reveals_columnists_ed_board.html|title=Bloomberg View reveals columnists, editorial board|publisher=[[Politico]]|access-date=2013-03-20}}</ref> Timothy L. O'Brien, a former New York Times reporter and editor, is senior executive editor of the division.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://talkingbiznews.com/media-news/obrien-named-editor-of-bloomberg-opinion/|title=O’Brien named editor of Bloomberg Opinion|newspaper=[[Talking Biz News]]|author=Chris Roush|access-date=2023-01-11}}</ref>

Bloomberg Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait admitted in an email to staffers that [[Michael Bloomberg]] controls the editorial output of the Opinion section, stating "our editorials have reflected his views".{{Citation needed}}

==Bloomberg Politics==
{{Update section}}

Bloomberg Politics provides political coverage via digital, print and broadcast media.<ref>{{cite press release|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/now/press-releases/bloomberg-announces-first-new-digitally-led-multi-platform-brand-bloomberg-politics/|title=Bloomberg Announces First New Digital-Led, Multi-Platform Brand: Bloomberg Politics|publisher=Bloomberg News|access-date=2014-09-23|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140506000905/http://www.bloomberg.com/now/press-releases/bloomberg-announces-first-new-digitally-led-multi-platform-brand-bloomberg-politics/|archive-date=2014-05-06}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/media/2014/08/8550157/mike-nizza-named-executive-editor-bloombergs-politics-site|title=Mike Nizza named executive editor of Bloomberg's politics site|publisher=[[Politico#State editions|Capital New York]]|author=Joe Pompeo|access-date=2014-09-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140909102603/http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/media/2014/08/8550157/mike-nizza-named-executive-editor-bloombergs-politics-site|archive-date=September 9, 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref> The multimedia venture, which debuted in October 2014, featured the daily television news program ''[[With All Due Respect (TV series)|With All Due Respect]]'', hosted by Bloomberg Politics Managing Editors [[Mark Halperin]] and [[John Heilemann]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2014/10/bloomberg-politics-kicks-off-196614.html|title=Bloomberg Politics kicks off|publisher=Politico|author=Hadas Gold|author-link=Hadas Gold|access-date=2014-10-16}}</ref> The program came to an end on December 2, 2016.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.politico.com/blogs/on-media/2016/11/bloomberg-to-end-with-all-due-respect-as-company-reorganizes-bloomberg-politics-231563|title=Bloomberg to end 'With All Due Respect' as company reorganizes Bloomberg Politics|publisher=Politico|author1=Kelsey Sutton|author2=Hadas Gold|author3=Joe Pompeo|access-date=2017-03-01}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/18/business/media/bloomberg-to-end-its-daily-politics-show.html|title=Bloomberg to End Its Daily Politics Show|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|author=Sydney Ember|issn=0362-4331|access-date=2019-02-16|language=en-US}}</ref>

In 2016, Bloomberg Politics produced a documentary on the [[2016 United States presidential election|2016 US presidential election]] called ''[[The Circus: Inside the Greatest Political Show on Earth]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://money.cnn.com/2015/12/15/media/showtime-campaign-documentary-the-circus/|title=Showtime creating weekly documentary series about 2016 election 'circus'|website=[[CNN Business|CNN Money]]|author=Brian Stelter|access-date=2018-01-26}}</ref>

== See also ==
* {{Portal-inline|Journalism}}
* {{Portal-inline|United States}}

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==External links==
* [https://www.bloomberg.com/news/ Bloomberg News] – Official website (Subscription needed to read articles)
* [https://www.bloomberg.com/ Bloomberg.com] – Official Bloomberg L.P. website
* [https://www.bloomberg.com/politics Bloomberg Politics] - Official politics website (Subscription needed to read articles)
* [http://www.hoovers.com/company-information/cs/company-profile.bloomberg_lp.cac75f34add153fa.html Hoover's Bloomberg L.P. Company Profile]

{{Bloomberg}}
{{News agencies}}
{{White House James S. Brady Press Briefing Room Seating Chart}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bloomberg News}}
[[Category:Bloomberg L.P.|News]]
[[Category:News agencies based in the United States]]
[[Category:Mass media companies based in New York City]]

Ayodhya dispute

2023-03-03T17:46:36Z

KirstenCyv: Started a fresh page.

{{short description|Political, historical and socio-religious debate in India, centred on land in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh}}

{{Use British English }}
{{Use dmy dates }}
[[File:Ayodhya disputed site map.png|thumb|Ayodhya disputed site map]]
The '''Ayodhya dispute''' is a political, historical, and socio-religious debate in India, centred on a plot of land in the city of [[Ayodhya]], [[Uttar Pradesh]]. The issues revolve around the control of a site traditionally regarded among Hindus to be the birthplace of their deity [[Rama]],<ref name=Tieffenthaler/> the history and location of the [[Babri Masjid]] mosque at the site, and whether a previous Hindu temple was demolished or modified to create the mosque.

The Babri Masjid was [[Demolition of the Babri Masjid|destroyed during a political rally]] on 6 December 1992 triggering riots all over the [[Indian subcontinent]].<ref>{{citation |last=Fuller |first=Christopher John |title=The Camphor Flame: Popular Hinduism and Society in India |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=To6XSeBUW3oC&pg=PA262 |year=2004 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=0-691-12048-X |page=262}}</ref><ref name="Guha2007-pages-582–598"/><ref>{{cite news |url=https://thewire.in/south-asia/pakistan-babri-majid-ayodhya-hindus |title=How the Babri Masjid Demolition Upended Tenuous Inter-Religious Ties in Pakistan |first=Haroon |last=Khalid |work=[[The Wire (India)]] |access-date=30 May 2020 |archive-date=15 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200815205948/https://thewire.in/south-asia/pakistan-babri-majid-ayodhya-hindus |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.themorningchronicle.in/as-a-reaction-to-babri-masjid-demolition-what-had-happened-in-pakistan-and-bangladesh-on-6-december-1992/ |title=As a reaction to Babri Masjid demolition, What had happened in Pakistan and Bangladesh on 6 December, 1992 |work=The Morning Chronicle (India) |access-date=30 May 2020 |archive-date=3 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210203234625/http://www.themorningchronicle.in/as-a-reaction-to-babri-masjid-demolition-what-had-happened-in-pakistan-and-bangladesh-on-6-december-1992/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Many attempts were thwarted previously, one of which led to the 1990 [[Ayodhya firing incident]].{{citation needed }} A subsequent land title case was lodged in the [[Allahabad High Court]], the verdict of which was pronounced on 30 September 2010. In the judgment, the three judges of the Allahabad High Court ruled that the {{convert|2.77|acre}} of Ayodhya land be divided into three parts, with one third going to the [[Rama|Ram Lalla]] or Infant Rama represented by the [[Vishva Hindu Parishad]],<ref>{{Cite web|title=Meet Triloki Nath Pandey - Ram Lalla's 'best friend'|url=https://www.freepressjournal.in/india/meet-triloki-nath-pandey-ram-lallas-best-friend|access-date=2021-01-31|website=Free Press Journal|language=en|archive-date=16 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211016000015/https://www.freepressjournal.in/india/meet-triloki-nath-pandey-ram-lallas-best-friend|url-status=live}}</ref> one third going to the [[Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board]], and the remaining third going to [[Nirmohi Akhara]], a Hindu [[religious denomination]]. While the three-judge bench was not unanimous that the disputed structure was constructed after demolition of a temple, it did agree that a temple structure predated the mosque at the same site.<ref name=BBC-16Oct19>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-50065277|title=Ayodhya dispute: The complex legal history of India's holy site|access-date=16 October 2019|work=BBC News|archive-date=17 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191017092145/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-50065277|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=AllahabadHC-30Sept10/>

The five-judge [[Supreme Court of India|Supreme Court]] bench heard the title dispute cases from August to October 2019.<ref name=BBC-16Oct19/><ref name="Press Trust of India">{{Cite news|url=https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/supreme-court-hearing-ends-in-ayodhya-dispute-orders-reserved/article29710840.ece|title=Supreme Court hearing ends in Ayodhya dispute; orders reserved|website=The Hindu Business Line|publisher=Press Trust of India|access-date=18 October 2019|archive-date=23 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191023101322/https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/supreme-court-hearing-ends-in-ayodhya-dispute-orders-reserved/article29710840.ece|url-status=live}}</ref> On 9 November 2019, the Supreme Court, headed by [[Chief Justice of India|Chief Justice]] [[Ranjan Gogoi]], announced [[2019 Supreme Court verdict on Ayodhya dispute|their verdict]]; it vacated the previous decision and ruled that the land belonged to the government based on tax records.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Ayodhya verdict: Supreme Court dismisses Shia Waqf Board's appeal, says land belongs to govt |newspaper=[[India Today]] |url=https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/ayodhya-ram-mandir-babri-masjid-verdict-supreme-court-dismisses-shia-waqf-board-s-appeal-says-land-belongs-to-govt-1617279-2019-11-09 |access-date=9 November 2019 |archive-date=9 November 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191109105049/https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/ayodhya-ram-mandir-babri-masjid-verdict-supreme-court-dismisses-shia-waqf-board-s-appeal-says-land-belongs-to-govt-1617279-2019-11-09 |url-status=live }}</ref> It further ordered the land to be handed over to a trust to build the Hindu temple. It also ordered the government to give an alternate five-acre tract of land to the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board to build the [[Ayodhya Mosque, Dhannipur|mosque]].<ref name=timesofindia-09Nov19Verdict/> {{Ayodhya debate}}

The [[Archaeological Survey of India]] during excavation of the site had found remains of a temple there which was later used as evidence in the Supreme Court of India.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Did you know seven evidences unearthed by ASI proved a temple existed at Ayodhya? Details here|url=https://www.timesnownews.com/amp/india/article/did-you-know-seven-evidences-unearthed-by-asi-proved-a-temple-existed-at-ayodhya-details-here/631910|work=[[Times Now]]|access-date=26 August 2020|archive-date=9 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200809040125/https://www.timesnownews.com/amp/india/article/did-you-know-seven-evidences-unearthed-by-asi-proved-a-temple-existed-at-ayodhya-details-here/631910|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|title=Ram temple existed before Babri mosque in Ayodhya: Archaeologist KK Muhammed|url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/ram-temple-existed-before-babri-mosque-in-ayodhya-archaeologist-kk-muhammed/articleshow/71391712.cms|last=Shekhar|first=Kumar Shakti|work=[[The Times of India]]|access-date=25 August 2020|archive-date=18 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230118221506/https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/ram-temple-existed-before-babri-mosque-in-ayodhya-archaeologist-kk-muhammed/articleshow/71391712.cms|url-status=live}}</ref>

On 5 February 2020, the [[Government of India]] made an announcement for a trust named as [[Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra]] to reconstruct a [[Ram Mandir, Ayodhya|Ram temple]] there.<ref name=indiatoday-05Feb20>{{Cite news |url=https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/ayodhya-ram-temple-trust-pm-narendra-modi-announces-in-lok-sabha-1643403-2020-02-05 |title=Sri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra: PM Modi announces formation of Ayodhya temple trust |first1=Poulomi |last1=Saha New |work=[[India Today]] |access-date=25 August 2020 |archive-date=6 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221106182232/https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/ayodhya-ram-temple-trust-pm-narendra-modi-announces-in-lok-sabha-1643403-2020-02-05 |url-status=live }}</ref> It also allocated an alternative site in [[Dhannipur]], Ayodhya to build a mosque to replace the Babri Masjid that was demolished in 1992.<ref name=timesofindia-09Nov19Verdict>{{Cite news |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/ayodhya-babri-masjid-ram-mandir-case-verdict-highlights-supreme-court-declared-verdict-on-ram-janmabhoomi-case/articleshow/71978918.cms |title=Ram Mandir verdict: Supreme Court verdict on Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid case |work=[[The Times of India]] |access-date=9 November 2019 |archive-date=9 November 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191109143026/https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/ayodhya-babri-masjid-ram-mandir-case-verdict-highlights-supreme-court-declared-verdict-on-ram-janmabhoomi-case/articleshow/71978918.cms |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://aajtak.intoday.in/video/ayodhya-ram-janambhoomi-land-for-masjid-in-dhannipur-watch-exact-location-via-maps-1-1161300.html |title=अयोध्या: मस्जिद के लिए धन्नीपुर में दी जाएगी जमीन, देखिए मैप |trans-title=Ayodhya: Land will be given for mosque in Dhanipur about 25km from Ramjanmabhoomi |work=[[Aaj Tak]] |access-date=27 August 2020}}</ref><ref name=timesofindia-07Feb20>{{Cite news |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/lucknow/obscure-dhannipur-village-basks-in-its-mosque-glory/articleshow/73994916.cms |title=Uttar Pradesh: Obscure Dhannipur village basks in its mosque glory |work=[[The Times of India]] |access-date=27 August 2020 |first1=Arshad Afzaal |last1=Khan |archive-date=9 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200809175029/https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/lucknow/obscure-dhannipur-village-basks-in-its-mosque-glory/articleshow/73994916.cms |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:Pandit Devi Deen Pandey Memorial in Sultanpur.png|thumb|Pandit Devi Deen Pandey Memorial in Sultanpur]]

==Religious background==
The land on which the medieval mosque, [[Babri Masjid]], stood is traditionally considered by Hindus to be the birthplace of the Hindu deity, [[Rama]], and is at the core of the Ayodhya dispute.<ref name="BBC Timeline">{{Cite news |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-south-asia-11436552 |title=Timeline: Ayodhya holy site crisis |work=[[BBC News]] |access-date=20 June 2018 |archive-date=10 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191210110209/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-south-asia-11436552 |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Ram Janmabhoomi (Rama's birthplace)===
{{Main|Ram Janmabhoomi}}
[[Rama]] is one of the most widely worshipped Hindu deities and is considered the seventh incarnation of god [[Vishnu]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Rama-Hindu-deity |title=Rama {{!}} Hindu deity |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |language=en |access-date=2 February 2019 |archive-date=2 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190202212921/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Rama-Hindu-deity |url-status=live }}</ref> According to the ''[[Ramayana]]'', Rama was a prince born in [[Ayodhya (Ramayana)|Ayodhya]] to parents [[Kausalya|Kaushalya]] and [[Dasharatha]] in the ''[[Treta Yuga]]'',<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.bl.uk/learning/cult/inside/gallery/4sons/foursons.html |title=King Dasaratha's four sons |website=bl.uk |access-date=2 February 2019 |archive-date=7 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190207085235/http://www.bl.uk/learning/cult/inside/gallery/4sons/foursons.html |url-status=live }}</ref> that is thousands of years before the ''[[Kali Yuga]]'' which is supposed to have begun in 3102 BCE according to the Hindu tradition.<ref name="Gopal et al 1990">{{cite journal |last1=Gopal |first1=Sarvepalli |last2=Thapar |first2=Romila |last3=Chandra |first3=Bipan |last4=Bhattacharya|first4=Sabyasachi |last5=Jaiswal |first5=Suvira |first6=Harbans |last6=Mukhia |first7=K. N. |last7=Panikkar |first8=R. |last8=Champakalakshmi |first9=Satish |last9=Saberwal |first10=B. D. |last10=Chattopadhyaya |first11=R. N. |last11=Verma |first12=K. |last12=Meenakshi |first13=Muzaffar |last13=Alam |first14=Dilbagh |last14=Singh |first15=Mridula |last15=Mukherjee |first16=Madhavan |last16=Palat |first17=Aditya |last17=Mukherjee |first18=S. F. |last18=Ratnagar |first19=Neeladri |last19=Bhattacharya |first20=K. K. |last20=Trivedi |first21=Yogesh |last21=Sharma |first22=Kunal |last22=Chakravarti |first23=Bhagwan |last23=Josh |first24=Rajan |last24=Gurukkal |first25=Himanshu |last25=Ray |title=The Political Abuse of History: Babri Masjid-Rama Janmabhumi Dispute |journal=Social Scientist |volume=18 |issue=1/2 |pages=76–81 |doi=10.2307/3517330 |jstor=3517330 |url=http://www.jstor.com/stable/3517330 |access-date=7 August 2020}}</ref>

The ''Ayodhya Mahatmya'', described as a "pilgrimage manual" of Ayodhya,{{sfnp|van der Veer, Religious Nationalism|1994|loc=p. 218, footnote 48}}{{sfnp|Bakker, Ayodhya, Part I|1984|p=126}} traced the growth of the sect in the second millennium CE. The original recension of the text, dated to the period between 11th and 14th centuries,{{sfnp|Bakker, The rise of Ayodhya as a place of pilgrimage|1982|p=112}} mentions the ''janmasthana'' (birthplace) as a pilgrimage site.{{sfnp|Bakker, The rise of Ayodhya as a place of pilgrimage|1982|p=113}} A later recension adds many more places in Ayodhya and the entire fortified town, labelled ''Ramadurga'' ("Rama's fort"), as pilgrimage sites.{{sfnp|Bakker, The rise of Ayodhya as a place of pilgrimage|1982|pp=113–114}}{{refn|group=note|Scholar [[Hans T. Bakker]] has studied multilple surviving manuscripts of the ''Ayodhya Mahatmya'' and classified the recensions represented in them. He states that the text started as a "floating collection" of traditions from the 11th century onwards. The older recensions, which he calls "recension A" and "recension B", are believed to have been gathered between the 11th to 14th centuries, a version of which was included in the ''[[Skandapurana]]''. A later recension, which he labels "recension OA", represents the continued growth of the Ramaite tradition in later periods, especially after the "outburst of extreme emotional devotion and enthusiasm" generated from the time of [[Chaitanya Mahaprabhu|Chaitanya]] (1486–1533).{{sfnp|Bakker, The rise of Ayodhya as a place of pilgrimage|1982|pp=110–112}}{{sfnp|Bakker, Ayodhya, Part I|1984|pp=126–127, 135–137}}}}


===Babri Masjid (Mosque of Babur)===
{{Main|Babri Masjid}}
[[Babur]] was the first Mughal emperor of India and the founder of the [[Mughal Empire|Mughal empire]]. It is believed that one of his generals, [[Baqi Tashqandi|Mir Baqi]], built the Babri Masjid ("Babur's Mosque") in 1528 on his orders.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Flint |first=Colin |title=The Geography of War and Peace: From Death Camps to Diplomats |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2004 |isbn=9780195347517 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7Ms5N7NhGXIC&pg=PA165 |access-date=28 January 2019 |archive-date=14 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230414061243/https://books.google.com/books?id=7Ms5N7NhGXIC&pg=PA165 |url-status=live }}</ref> The belief came into currency since 1813–14, when the [[British East India Company|East India Company]]'s surveyor [[Francis Buchanan-Hamilton|Francis Buchanan]] reported that he found an inscription on the mosque walls which attested to this fact. He also recorded the local tradition, which believed that emperor [[Aurangzeb]] ({{reign|1658|1707}}) built the mosque after demolishing a temple dedicated to Rama.{{sfnp|Layton & Thomas, Destruction and Conservation|2003|pp=8–9}}{{sfnp|Kunal, Ayodhya Revisited|2016|loc=Chapter 5}}


Between 1528 and 1668, no text mentioned the presence of a mosque at the site.{{sfnp|Kunal, Ayodhya Revisited|2016|p=142}}
The earliest historical record of a mosque comes from [[Jai Singh II]], a Rajput noble in the Mughal court, who purchased the land of the mosque and the surrounding area in 1717. His documents show a three-domed structure resembling the mosque, which is however labelled the "birthplace" (''chhathi''). In the courtyard can be seen a platform (''chabutra'') to which Hindu devotees are shown circumambulating and worshipping.{{sfnp|Jain, Rama and Ayodhya|2013|pp=114–115}} All these details were corroborated by the Jesuit priest [[Joseph Tieffenthaler]] half a century later.{{sfnp|Jain, Rama and Ayodhya|2013|p=116}} Tieffenthaler also said that "The reason for this is that once upon a time, here was a house where Beschan [Vishnu] was born in the form of Ram."{{sfnp|Kunal, Ayodhya Revisited|2016|pp=xvi}}

The ''[[Baburnama]]'', Babur's diary in which he meticulously documented his life, bears no mention of either the construction of a mosque in Ayodhya or the destruction of a temple for it. Neither do his grandson Akbar's court documents, the ''[[Ain-i-Akbari]]'', nor his contemporary Hindu poet-saint [[Tulsidas]]' epic poem ''[[Ramcharitmanas]]'', dedicated to the Hindu god [[Rama]].<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://madrascourier.com/insight/babur-the-baburnama-the-masjid-that-bore-his-name/ |title=Babur, The Baburnama & The Masjid That Bore His Name |last=Venkatesh |first=Karthik |work=[[Madras Courier]] |access-date=29 January 2019 |archive-date=29 January 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190129122822/https://madrascourier.com/insight/babur-the-baburnama-the-masjid-that-bore-his-name/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Both the Hindus and Muslims are said to have worshipped at the "mosque-temple", Muslims inside the mosque and Hindus outside the mosque but inside the compound. In 1857 a British administrator had a railing erected between the two areas to prevent disputes.{{sfnp|van der Veer, Ayodhya and Somnath|1992|pp=97–98, footnote 25}}<ref name=outlookindia-01Dec17/><ref name=timesofindia-09Nov19Verdict/> In 1949, after India's independence, an idol of Ram was placed inside the mosque, which triggered the dispute.<ref name=outlookindia-01Dec17>{{Cite news |url=https://www.outlookindia.com/magazine/story/tracing-the-history-of-babri-masjid/299597 |title=Tracing The History Of Babri Masjid |newspaper=[[Outlook (Indian magazine)]] |access-date=2 February 2019 |archive-date=2 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190202212508/https://www.outlookindia.com/magazine/story/tracing-the-history-of-babri-masjid/299597 |url-status=live }} Note that this gives the date of the erection of the railing (which it calls a fence) as 1859, not 1857.</ref>

== Historical background ==

=== Gupta period ===
In Buddha's time (600 BCE) the present-day Ayodhya was called ''Saketa'' and it was one of the 6 largest cities of North India. During the Gupta times, either [[Kumaragupta]] or [[Skandagupta]] made it their capital, after which it came to be called Ayodhya. [[Kalidasa]] wrote [[Raghuvamsa]] here, and referred to ''Gopratara tirtha'' (Guptar Ghat), where Rama was believed to have entered the waters of [[Sarayu River (Ayodhya)|Saryu]] in his ascent to heaven. According to a local tradition recorded by Francis Buchanan and [[Alexander Cunningham]], Ayodhya became desolate after Rama's ascent to heaven and "Vikramaditya" revived it. (In ''Raghuvamsa'', Rama's son ''Kusa'' revived it.) [[Prabhavatigupta]], the daughter of [[Chandragupta II]], was a Rama devotee. Her son, [[Pravarasena II]] wrote ''Sethubandha'', in which Rama is regarded as identical to Vishnu. He also built a temple to Rama at Pravarapura (Paunar near [[Ramtek]]) in about 450 CE.{{sfnp|Jain, Rama and Ayodhya|2013|pp=3–5, 94–95}}

=== Gahadavala period ===
{{see also|Vishnu Hari inscription}}
After the Guptas, the capital of North India moved to [[Kannauj]] and Ayodhya fell into relative neglect. It was revived by the [[Gahadavala]]s, coming to power in the 11th century CE. The Gahadavalas were [[Vaishnavism|Vaishnavas]]. They built several [[Vishnu]] temples in Ayodhya, five of which survived till [[Aurangzeb|Aurangzeb's]] reign.<ref name=Paramasivan>
{{cite book |last=Paramasivan |first=Vasudha |chapter=Yah Ayodhya Vah Ayodhya: Earthly and Cosmic Journeys in the Anand-lahari |editor=Heidi R. M. Pauwels |title=Patronage and Popularisation, Pilgrimage and Procession |publisher=Otto Harrassowitz Verlag |year=2009 |isbn=978-3447057233 |pages=101–116 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kv0xPCZ6e9sC&pg=PA101}}
</ref> Indologist [[Hans T. Bakker]] concludes that there might have been a temple at the supposed birth spot of Rama built by the Gahadavalas.<ref name=Bakker>{{harvp|Bakker, Ayodhya: A Hindu Jerusalem|1991|p=91}}: "It was forbidden to build temples or monasteries of more than a certain dimension in the city, and the existing temples fell into decay and disappeared or were replaced by mosques. The latter took place with the temple on the supposed spot of Rama's birth, dating from the early eleventh century. This small temple was replaced by a mosque, the Babri Masjid, in 1528, during the reign of the first Moghul emperor, Babur, a deed which was to have far-reaching consequences."
</ref>{{refn|group=note|Indologist [[Hans T. Bakker]] has named the five temples as follows: ''Vishnu Hari'' temple at the Chakratirtha ghat, ''Harismriti'' temple at the Gopratara ghat, ''Chandra Hari'' temple on the west side of the Svargadwara ghat, ''Dharma Hari'' temple on the east side of the Svargadwara ghat, and a Vishnu temple at the [[Ram Janmabhoomi]] site. One of these temples was swept away by the [[Sarayu River (Ayodhya)|Sarayu river]], the fate of another (''Harismiriti'' temple) is unknown, but the other three were replaced by mosques, including the temple at the Janmabhoomi, according to Bakker.<ref>{{harvp|Jain, Rama and Ayodhya|2013|p=103}} citing {{harvp|Bakker, Ayodhya, Part I|1984|p=54}}</ref>}} In subsequent years, the cult of Rama developed within Vaishnavism, with Rama being regarded as the foremost avatar of Vishnu. Consequently, Ayodhya's importance as a pilgrimage centre grew. In particular, multiple versions of ''Ayodhya Mahatmya'' (magical powers of Ayodhya) prescribed the celebration of ''Ram Navami'' (the birthday of Rama).{{sfnp|Bakker, The rise of Ayodhya as a place of pilgrimage|1982}}

=== Mughal period ===

In modern times, a mosque was located at the supposed birth spot of Rama, which sat on a large mound in the centre of Ayodhya, called the ''Ramadurg'' or ''Ramkot'' (the fort of Rama). The mosque bore an inscription stating that it was built in 1528 by [[Mir Baqi]] on the orders of [[Babur]].

According to an early 20th century text by Maulvi Abdul Ghaffar and the surrounding historical sources examined by historian Harsh Narain,{{refn|group=note|Sources cited by Harsh Narain:
* {{cite book |first=Maulvi Abdul |last=Karim |title=Tarikh-i Parnia Madinatul Awliya |trans-title=History of Parnia city of Sufis|language=fa |location=Lucknow |year=1885 }}
* {{cite book |first=Maulvi Abdul |last=Ghaffar |title=Gumgamashtah Halat-i Ajodhya |trans-title=Forgotten Events of Ayodhya |language=ur |publisher=Nami Press |location=Lucknow |year=1981 |orig-year=first published prior to 1932 }}
* {{cite book |first=Avadh-vasi Lala |last=Sita Ram |title=Ayodhya ka Itihasa |trans-title=History of Ayodhya |language=hi |location=Allahabad |year=1932 }}}}
the young Babur came from Kabul to [[Awadh]] (Ayodhya) in disguise, dressed as a ''[[Qalandar (title)|Qalandar]]'' (Sufi ascetic), probably as part of a fact-finding mission. Here he met the Sufi saints ''Shah Jalal'' and ''Sayyid Musa Ashiqan'' and took a pledge in return for their blessings for conquering [[Hindustan]]. The pledge is not spelled out in the 1981 edition of Abdul Ghaffar's book, but it is made clear that it is in pursuance of this pledge that he got the Babri mosque constructed after conquering Hindustan.{{refn|{{harvp|Ghaffar|1981|pp=61–62}} quoted in {{harvp|Narain, The Ayodhya Temple Mosque Dispute|1993|pp=31–32}}}} The original book was written in Persian by Maulvi Abdul Karim, a spiritual descendant of Musa Ashiqan, and it was translated into Urdu by Abdul Ghaffar, his grandson, with additional commentary. The older editions of Abdul Ghaffar's book contain more detail, which seems to have been excised in the 1981 edition.

Lala Sita Ram of Ayodhya, who had access to the older edition in 1932, wrote, "The faqirs answered that they would bless him if he promised to build a mosque after demolishing the ''Janmasthan'' temple. Babur accepted the faqirs' offer and returned to his homeland."{{refn|{{harvp|Sita Ram|1932|p=151}} quoted in {{harvp|Narain, The Ayodhya Temple Mosque Dispute|1993|p=33}} and {{harvp|Dharam Veer Sharma|2010|loc=vol. 2, para. 17 (p. 281)}}}}<ref>{{harvp|van der Veer, 'God must be Liberated!'|1987|p=286}}; {{harvp|van der Veer|1989|pp=20–21}}</ref>

The fact that Babur came in the guise of a ''Qalandar'' is corroborated in Abdullah's ''Tarikh-i Dawudi'', where it is detailed that he met the Sultan [[Sikandar Lodhi]] in Delhi in the same disguise.{{sfnp|Narain, The Ayodhya Temple Mosque Dispute|1993|pp=33–34}} The inscription on the Babri mosque also names him as ''Babur Qalandar''.{{sfnp|Narain, The Ayodhya Temple Mosque Dispute|1993|p=34}} Musa Ashiqan's grave is situated close to the Babri mosque site, whose shrine uses two of the same type of black basalt columns used in the Babri mosque, indicative of his role in the destruction of the prior temple.<ref>{{harvp|Jain, Rama and Ayodhya|2013}}; {{harvp|van der Veer, 'God must be Liberated!'|1987|p=286}}</ref>

[[Tulsidas]], who began writing the [[Ramcharit Manas]] in Ayodhya on Rama's birthday in 1574 (coming there from his normal residence in [[Varanasi]]) mentioned the "great birthday festival" in Ayodhya but made no mention of a mosque at Rama's birthplace.{{sfnp|Jain, Rama and Ayodhya|2013|pp=165–166}} [[Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak]] (1551–1602), who wrote ''Akbarnama'', completing the third volume ''Ain-i Akbari'' in 1598, described the birthday festival in Ayodhya, the "residence of Rama" and the "holiest place of antiquity", but made no mention of a mosque.<ref>{{harvp|Narain, The Ayodhya Temple Mosque Dispute|1993|p=17}}; {{harvp|Jain, Rama and Ayodhya|2013|p=166}}</ref> [[William Finch (merchant)|William Finch]], the English traveller who visited Ayodhya around 1611, and wrote about the "ruins of the Ranichand [Ramachand] castle and houses" where Hindus believed the great God "took flesh upon him to see the ''tamasha'' of the world." He found ''pandas'' (Brahmin priests) in the ruins of the fort, who were recording the names of the pilgrims, a practice that was said to go back to antiquity. Again there was no mention of a mosque in his account.<ref name=Finch>{{harvp|Layton & Thomas, Destruction and Conservation|2003|p=8}}; {{harvp|Jain, Rama and Ayodhya|2013|pp=9, 120, 164}}</ref>

=== Late Mughal period ===
The first known report of a mosque appears in a book ''Sahifa-I-Chihil Nasaih Bahadur Shahi'', said to have been written by a daughter of the emperor [[Bahadur Shah I]] (1643–1712) and granddaughter of emperor [[Aurangzeb]], in the early 18th century. It mentioned mosques having been constructed after demolishing the "temples of the idolatrous Hindus situated at [[Mathura]], [[Banaras]] and Awadh etc." Hindus are said to have called these demolished temples in Awadh "''Sita Rasoi''" (Sita's kitchen) and "Hanuman's abode".<ref>{{harvp|Layton & Thomas, Destruction and Conservation|2003|p=8}}; {{harvp|Narain, The Ayodhya Temple Mosque Dispute|1993|pp=23–25}}</ref> While there was no mention of Babur in this account, the Ayodhya mosque had been juxtaposed with those built by Aurangzeb at Mathura and Banaras.{{citation needed}}

[[Jai Singh II]] (popularly called "Sawai Jai Singh", 1688–1743) purchased land and established ''Jaisinghpuras'' in all Hindu religious centres in North India, including Mathura, Vrindavan, Banaras, Allahabad, Ujjain and Ayodhya. The documents of these activities have been preserved in the Kapad-Dwar collection in the [[City Palace, Jaipur|City Palace Museum]] in [[Jaipur]]. [[Ram Nath|R. Nath]], who has examined these records, concludes that Jai Singh had acquired the land of ''Rama Janmasthan'' in 1717. The ownership of the land was vested in the deity. The hereditary title of the ownership was recognized and enforced by the Mughal State from 1717. He also found a letter from a ''gumastha'' Trilokchand, dated 1723, stating that, while under the Muslim administration people had been prevented from taking a ritual bath in the Saryu river, the establishment of the ''Jaisinghpura'' has removed all impediments.{{sfnp|Jain, Rama and Ayodhya|2013|pp=112–114}}

The Jesuit priest [[Joseph Tieffenthaler]], who visited Awadh in 1766–1771, wrote, "Emperor Aurangzebe got the fortress called Ramcot demolished and got a Muslim temple, with triple domes, constructed at the same place. Others say that it was constructed by 'Babor'. Fourteen black stone pillars of 5 span high, which had existed at the site of the fortress, are seen there. Twelve of these pillars now support the interior arcades of the mosque."{{sfnp|Jain, Rama and Ayodhya|2013|pp=120–121}} This ambiguity between Aurangzeb and Babur could be significant.{{refn|Some scholars argue that whatever Babur constructed was abandoned and was in ruins by the time of Akbar, and Hindus continued to worship there. The mosque seen in present times must have been constructed by Aurangzeb.|group=note}} Tieffenthaler also wrote that Hindus worshipped a square box raised 5 inches above the ground, which was said to be called the "''Bedi'', i.e., the cradle", and "The reason for this is that once upon a time, here was a house where Beschan [Vishnu] was born in the form of Ram." He recorded that Rama's birthday was celebrated every year, with a big gathering of people, which was "so famous in the entire India".<ref name=Tieffenthaler>{{harvp|Jain, Rama and Ayodhya|2013|p=121}}; {{harvp|Kunal, Ayodhya Revisited|2016|pp=xvi, 135–136}}; {{harvp|Layton & Thomas, Destruction and Conservation|2003|pp=8–9}}</ref>

== Beginnings of dispute ==
The first recorded instances of religious violence in Ayodhya occurred in the 1855. Certain "Sunnis claimed that the Bairagis of Hanumangarhi had destroyed a mosque that existed atop it. The Muslims charged on the Hanumangarhi but were repelled and routed. They hid inside the mosque of Babur that lay at a distance of less than a kilometre from Hanumangarhi."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Singh |first1=Valay |title=Ayodhya: City of Faith, City of Discord |publisher=Aleph |isbn=9789388292245}}</ref> The Babri mosque was attacked by Hindus in the process. Since then, local Hindu groups made occasional demands that they should have the possession of the site and that they should be allowed to build a temple on the site, all of which were denied by the colonial government. In 1946, an offshoot of the [[Hindu Mahasabha]] called ''Akhil Bharatiya Ramayana Mahasabha'' (ABRM) started an agitation for the possession of the site. In 1949, Sant [[Digvijay Nath]] of [[Gorakhnath Math]] joined the ABRM and organised a 9-day continuous recitation of [[Ramcharit Manas]], at the end of which the Hindu activists broke into the mosque and placed idols of Rama and Sita inside. People were led to believe that the idols had 'miraculously' appeared inside the mosque. The date of the event was 22 December 1949.<ref name="BBC Timeline"/><ref>{{harvp|Bacchetta, Sacred Space in Conflict|2000}}; {{harvp|Jha & Jha, Ayodhya: The Dark Night|2012}}</ref>

[[Jawaharlal Nehru]] insisted that the idols should be removed. However, the local official [[K. K. K. Nair]], known for his Hindu nationalist connections, refused to carry out orders, claiming that it would lead to communal riots. The police locked the gates so that the public (Hindus as well as Muslims) could not enter. However, the idols remained inside and priests were allowed entry to perform daily worship. So, the mosque had been converted into a ''de facto'' temple. Both the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board and the ABRM filed civil suits in a local court staking their respective claims to the site. The land was declared to be under dispute, and the gates remained locked.{{sfnp|van der Veer, Ayodhya and Somnath|1992|pp=98–99}}

[[Christophe Jaffrelot]] has called the [[Gorakhnath Math|Gorakhnath]] wing of Hindu nationalism 'the other saffron', which has maintained its existence separately from the mainstream Hindu nationalism of the [[Sangh Parivar]]. After the [[Vishva Hindu Parishad]] was formed in 1964 and started agitating for the Babri Masjid site, the two strands of 'saffron politics' came together.<ref name=othersaffron>{{cite news |first=Christophe |last=Jaffrelot |author-link=Christophe Jaffrelot |title=The other saffron |newspaper=[[Indian Express]] |url=http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/the-other-saffron/99/ |access-date=8 December 2014 |archive-date=8 October 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141008195641/http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/the-other-saffron/99/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
The district magistrate Nair, who refused to carry out orders, was eventually dismissed, but he became a local hero and subsequently a politician of the [[Bharatiya Jana Sangh]].{{sfnp|van der Veer, Ayodhya and Somnath|1992|loc=p. 99, footnote 28}}

==Demolition of the Babri Mosque==
{{Main|Demolition of the Babri Masjid}}
{{Further|Ram Rath Yatra}}
In the 1980s, the [[Vishwa Hindu Parishad]] (VHP), belonging to the mainstream [[Hindutva|Hindu nationalist]] family [[Sangh Parivar]], launched a new movement to "reclaim" the site for Hindus and to erect a temple dedicated to the infant Rama (Ramlala) at this spot. The [[Bharatiya Janata Party]] (BJP), formed in 1980 from the remnants of the [[Jana Sangh]], became the political face of the campaign. In 1986, a district judge ruled that the gates would be reopened and Hindus permitted to worship inside, providing a major boost to the movement.<ref name="BBC Timeline"/> In September 1990, BJP leader [[L. K. Advani]] began a "''[[Ram Rath Yatra|rath yatra]]''" (pilgrimage procession) to Ayodhya in order to generate support for the movement. Advani later stated in his memoirs, "If Muslims are entitled to an Islamic atmosphere in [[Mecca]], and if Christians are entitled to a Christian atmosphere in the [[Holy See|Vatican]], why is it wrong for the Hindus to expect a Hindu atmosphere in Ayodhya?" The yatra resulted in communal riots in many cities in its wake, prompting the government of [[Bihar]] to arrest Advani. In spite of this, a large number of '[[Kar Sevak|kar sevaks]]' or Sangh Parivar activists reached Ayodhya and tried to attack the mosque. They were stopped by the [[Uttar Pradesh police]] and the paramilitary forces, resulting in a pitched battle in which several ''kar sevaks'' were killed. Accusing the central government led by [[V. P. Singh|V.P. Singh]] of being weak, the BJP withdrew its support, necessitating fresh elections. In these elections, the BJP won a majority in the [[Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly|Uttar Pradesh legislative assembly]] increased its share of seats in the [[Lok Sabha]].<ref name="Guha2007-pages-633–659">{{cite book|last=Guha|first=Ramachandra |title=India After Gandhi|year=2007|publisher=MacMillan|pages=633–659}}</ref>

On 6 December 1992, the VHP and its associates, including the BJP, organised a rally involving 150,000 VHP and BJP ''kar sevaks'' at the site of the mosque. The ceremonies included speeches by the BJP leaders such as Advani, [[Murli Manohar Joshi]] and [[Uma Bharti]].<ref name=Tully>{{cite news |last=Tully |first=Mark |title=Tearing down the Babri Masjid |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/2528025.stm |newspaper=BBC News |access-date=9 December 2008 |archive-date=27 September 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100927032603/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/2528025.stm |url-status=live }}</ref> The mob grew restive through the duration of the speeches, and stormed the mosque shortly after noon. A police cordon placed there to protect the mosque was heavily outnumbered. The mosque was attacked with a number of improvised tools, and brought to the ground in a few hours.<ref name="Guha2007-pages-582–598">{{cite book |last=Guha |first=Ramachandra |title=India After Gandhi |year=2007 |publisher=MacMillan |pages=582–598}}</ref><ref name=NDTV>{{cite news |url=http://www.ndtv.com/news/india/report_sequence_of_events_on_december_6.php |title=Report: Sequence of events on December 6 |work=[[NDTV]] |access-date=20 June 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131104100817/http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/report-sequence-of-events-on-december-6-11977 |archive-date=4 November 2013 }}</ref> This occurred despite a commitment from the state government to the [[Indian Supreme Court]] that the mosque would not be harmed.<ref name=Tully/><ref name="newindpress.com">{{cite news |url=http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEH20050130092611&Page=H&Title=Top+Stories&Topic=0 |title=Babri Masjid demolition was planned 10 months in advance |newspaper=[[New Indian Express]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080117234145/http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEH20050130092611&Page=H&Title=Top+Stories&Topic=0 |archive-date=17 January 2008 |url-status=dead }}</ref> More than 2000 people were killed in the [[riot]]s following the demolition.<ref name="BBC Timeline"/> Riots broke out in many major Indian cities including [[Mumbai]], [[Bhopal]], [[Delhi]] and [[Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh|Hyderabad]].<ref name=nelson-telegraph-uk>{{cite news |last=Nelson |first=Dean |title=India braced for violence ahead of Muslim v Hindu Ayodhya verdict |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/8032688/India-braced-for-violence-ahead-of-Muslim-v-Hindu-Ayodhya-verdict.html |newspaper=The Telegraph |location=London |access-date=3 April 2018 |archive-date=25 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180625225322/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/8032688/India-braced-for-violence-ahead-of-Muslim-v-Hindu-Ayodhya-verdict.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

On 16 December 1992, the [[Liberhan Commission]] was set up by the Government of India to probe the circumstances that led to the demolition of the Babri Mosque.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.hindu.com/2004/03/12/stories/2004031201161300.htm |title=Six more months for Liberhan Commission |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071204082633/http://www.hindu.com/2004/03/12/stories/2004031201161300.htm |work=[[The Hindu]] |archive-date=4 December 2007}}.</ref> It was the longest running commission in India's history with several extensions granted by various governments. The report found a number of people culpable in the demolition, including BJP leaders like [[Atal Bihari Vajpayee]], Lal Krishna Advani, [[Murli Manohar Joshi]], then Uttar Pradesh chief minister [[Kalyan Singh]], [[Pramod Mahajan]], [[Uma Bharti]] and [[Vijayaraje Scindia]], as well as VHP leaders like [[Giriraj Kishore]] and [[Ashok Singhal]]. Other prominent political leaders indicted by the commission include late [[Shiv Sena]] chief [[Bal Thackeray]] and former RSS leader [[K. N. Govindacharya]]. Relying on the testimonies of several eyewitnesses, the report stated that many of these leaders had made provocative speeches at the rally that provoked the demolition. It also stated that they could have stopped the demolition if they had so wished.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_vajpayee-advani-severely-indicted-by-liberhan-commission_1315927 |title=Vajpayee, Advani severely indicted by Liberhan Commission – India – DNA |publisher=Dnaindia.com |access-date=3 October 2010 |archive-date=21 January 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120121030207/http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_vajpayee-advani-severely-indicted-by-liberhan-commission_1315927 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Many Muslim organisations have continued to express outrage at the destruction of the disputed structure. In July 2005, terrorists [[2005 Ram Janmabhoomi attack in Ayodhya|attacked]] the makeshift temple at the site of the destroyed mosque. In 2007, M. N. Gopal Das, the then head of the Ram temple, received phone calls making threats against his life.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2007-11-22/india/27982914_1_mahant-nritya-gopal-das-islam-security |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121018213644/http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2007-11-22/india/27982914_1_mahant-nritya-gopal-das-islam-security |url-status=dead |archive-date=18 October 2012 |work=[[The Times of India]] |title=Ram Janambhoomi trust chief threatened}}</ref> Many terror attacks by banned jihadi outfits like [[Indian Mujahideen]] cited the demolition of Babri Mosque as an excuse for terrorist attacks.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?268602 |title=The Latest 'Indian Mujahideen Mail' |first1=B. |last1=Raman |work=[[Outlook (Indian magazine)]] |access-date=11 June 2012 |archive-date=25 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181225031352/https://www.outlookindia.com/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.indianexpress.com/news/blast-a-revenge-for-babri-mail/361167/1 |title=Blast a revenge for Babri: mail |work=The Indian Express |first1=Amitabh |last1=Sinha |access-date=7 May 2011 |archive-date=25 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181225031327/http://archive.indianexpress.com/static/sorry/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/country,,MARP,,BGD,,469f3869c,0.html |title=Refworld | Chronology for Hindus in Bangladesh |publisher=UNHCR |access-date=11 June 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121018084907/http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/country%2C%2CMARP%2C%2CBGD%2C%2C469f3869c%2C0.html |archive-date=18 October 2012 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/country,,MRGI,,BGD,,49749d572d,0.html |title=Refworld | World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples – Bangladesh : Hindus |publisher=UNHCR |access-date=11 June 2012 |archive-date=18 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121018084914/http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/country,,MRGI,,BGD,,49749d572d,0.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

==Post-independence==
Several years later mosques were built in the Faizabad district, in which the pilgrim city of Ayodhya falls. Ayodhya itself has a small Muslim population, though there are substantial numbers of Muslims 7 km away at District Headquarters – Faizabad.
Since 1949, by Indian Government order, Muslims were not permitted to be closer than 200 yards away to the site; the main gate remained locked, though Hindu pilgrims were allowed to enter through a side door.
The 1986 [[Allahabad High Court]] ordered the opening of the main gate and restored the site in full to the Hindus. Hindu groups later requested modifications to the Babri Mosque, and drew up plans for a new grand Temple with Government permissions; riots between Hindu and Muslim groups took place as a result, and the dispute became sub-judice. The political, historical and socio-religious debate over the history and location of the Babri Mosque, is known as the Ayodhya dispute.

===Excavations===
{{main|Archaeology of Ayodhya}}
In 2003, by the order of an Indian High Court, the [[Archaeological Survey of India]] (ASI) was asked to conduct a more in-depth study and an [[Excavation (archaeology)|excavation]] to ascertain whether the type of structure that was beneath the rubble indicated definite proof of a temple under the mosque.<ref name="Layers of truth">{{cite journal |author=R. Prasannan |title=Layers of truth |journal=The Week |url=http://www.the-week.com/23sep07/events1.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050323101829/http://www.the-week.com/23sep07/events1.htm |archive-date=23 March 2005}}</ref> However, it could not be ascertained if it was a Rama temple, as the remnants had more resemblance to a [[Shiva]] temple.<ref name="Layers of truth"/> In the words of ASI researchers, they discovered "distinctive features associated with... temples of north India". Excavations further yielded:
{{blockquote|stone and decorated bricks as well as mutilated sculpture of a divine couple and carved architectural features, including foliage patterns, [[amalaka]], [[kapota-pali]] ["dove-house" crown-work], doorjamb with semi-circular shrine pilaster, broken octagonal shaft of black schist pillar, lotus motif, circular shrine having ''[[pranala]]'' (water [[Chute (gravity)|chute]]) in the north and 50 pillar bases in association with a huge structure<ref>{{cite news |title=Evidence of temple found: ASI |url=http://www.tribuneindia.com/2003/20030826/main6.htm |newspaper=The Tribune |date=2003-08-25 |access-date=4 August 2010 |archive-date=11 April 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090411193402/http://www.tribuneindia.com/2003/20030826/main6.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>}}

One of the judges of the Allahabad High Court in 2010 criticised the independent experts who had appeared on behalf of the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board including [[Suvira Jaiswal]], Supriya Verma, Shireen F. Ratnagar and Jaya Menon. The witnesses withered under scrutiny and were discovered to have made "reckless and irresponsible kind of statements". He also pointed out that the independent witnesses were all connected, while adding that their opinions were offered without making a proper investigation, research or study into the subject.<ref name=exposed/>

[[Udit Raj]]'s Buddha Education Foundation claimed that the structure excavated by ASI in 2003 was a Buddhist [[stupa]] destroyed during and after the Muslim invasion of India.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.sunday-guardian.com/investigation/buddhist-body-lays-claim-to-disputed-ayodhya-site |title=Buddhist body lays claim to the disputed Ayodhya site |newspaper=Sunday Guardian |author=Nitish K. Singh |access-date=3 August 2015 |archive-date=5 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170205020218/http://www.sunday-guardian.com/investigation/buddhist-body-lays-claim-to-disputed-ayodhya-site |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The excavations by the ASI were used as evidence by the court that the predating structure was a massive Hindu religious building.<ref name="Tribune">{{cite news |url=http://www.tribuneindia.com/2003/20030826/main6.htm |last=Suryamurthy |first=R |title=ASI findings may not resolve title dispute |newspaper=The Tribune |access-date=4 August 2010 |archive-date=11 April 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090411193402/http://www.tribuneindia.com/2003/20030826/main6.htm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20050323101829/http://www.the-week.com/23sep07/events1.htm Prasannan, R. (7 September 2003) "Ayodhya: Layers of truth"] ''The Week'' (India), from [[Web Archive]]</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/aug/25ayo1.htm |title=Proof of temple found at Ayodhya: ASI report |work=Rediff.com |access-date=26 November 2017 |archive-date=26 September 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100926043755/http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/aug/25ayo1.htm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=exposed>{{cite news |url=http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2010-10-09/india/28254384_1_asi-excavations-experts-waqf-board |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121104114435/http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2010-10-09/india/28254384_1_asi-excavations-experts-waqf-board |url-status=dead |archive-date=4 November 2012 |newspaper=[[The Times of India]] |title=How Allahabad HC exposed 'experts' espousing Masjid cause }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://elegalix.allahabadhighcourt.in/elegalix/ayodhyafiles/hondvsj-gist-vol1.pdf |title=Issues For Briefing |publisher=Allahabad High Court |access-date=11 June 2012 |archive-date=25 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181225023953/http://elegalix.allahabadhighcourt.in/elegalix/ayodhyafiles/hondvsj-gist-vol1.pdf%20 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Aligarh Historians Society has criticized both the ASI and the Allahabad High Court Judgement on several grounds. First, Justice Agarwal concluded that inscriptions on the Babri Masjid that attribute the Masjid to Babar are not genuine in favor of an omission in account by Fr. Joseph Tieffenthaler to conclude that Mir Baki does not exist and the mosque was constructed by [[Aurangzeb]] instead of [[Babur]]. However, omissions of this kind "are hardly every given credence" in history. Moreover, Justice Agarwal wrongly concludes that Mir Baqi is a fictional character because he could not find the person ‘Mir Baqi Isfahani’ or ‘Mir Baqi’ in Babur's Memoirs. Habib et al. (2010) argue that `Baqi Tashkandi` and `Baqi Shagawal` are the same person as `Mir Baqi` on the inscriptions. Similarly, ASI professionalism has been criticized for not tabulating the contrarian evidence like animal bones and glazed pottery in spite of explicit instructions from the courts. ASI has also been criticized for ignoring or selecting loose group of brickbats as pillar bases to support their theory of temple beneath the mosque.<ref name="Habib et al (2010)">{{cite book |last1=Habib |first1=Irfan |title=History & Judgement of Allahabad High Court in Ramjanmabhumi and Babri Masjid Case |url=https://archive.org/details/HistoryJudgementOfAllahabadHighCourtInRamjanmabhumibabriMasjidCase/mode/2up |work=Aligarh Historians Society |access-date=8 August 2020 }}</ref>

===Title cases===
In 1950, Gopal Singh Visharad filed a [[Quiet title|title suit]] with the [[Allahabad High Court]] seeking injunction to offer 'puja' (worship) at the disputed site. A similar suit was filed shortly after but later withdrawn by Paramhans Das of Ayodhya.<ref>{{cite news |last=Das |first=Anil |title=Chronolgy of Ayodhya's Ram Janambhoomi-Babri Masjid title suit issue |url=http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/66354/20100928/ayodhya-supreme-court-babri-masjid-ram-temple.htm |newspaper=International Business Times |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101001232319/http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/66354/20100928/ayodhya-supreme-court-babri-masjid-ram-temple.htm |archive-date=1 October 2010 |url-status=dead}}</ref> In 1959, the Nirmohi Akhara, a Hindu religious institution,<ref>{{cite news |last=Muralidharan |first=Sukumar |title=Temple Interrupted |url=http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1907/19070040.htm |newspaper=Frontline |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100930141742/http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1907/19070040.htm |archive-date=30 September 2010 |url-status=usurped}}</ref> filed a third title suit seeking direction to hand over the charge of the disputed site, claiming to be its custodian. A fourth suit was filed by the [[Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board]] for declaration and possession of the site. The Allahabad high court bench, comprising justices S. U. Khan, Sudhir Agarwal and D. V. Sharma, began hearing the case in April 2002, which it would complete by 2010.<ref name=dna/> In 2003, the [[Archaeological Survey of India]] began a court-ordered survey to determine if a temple to Lord Rama existed on the site; the survey said there was evidence of a temple beneath the mosque, but this was disputed by Muslims.<ref name=dna/> After the [[Supreme Court of India|Supreme Court]] dismissed a plea to defer the High Court verdict,<ref name=dna>{{cite news |title=Time-line of Ayodhya dispute and slew of legal suits |url=http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_time-line-of-ayodhya-dispute-and-slew-of-legal-suits_1444808 |newspaper=DNA India |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101002041107/http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_time-line-of-ayodhya-dispute-and-slew-of-legal-suits_1444808 |archive-date=2 October 2010 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Venkatesan |first=J. |title=Ayodhya verdict tomorrow |url=http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article800650.ece |newspaper=The Hindu |location=Chennai, India |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101001085642/http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article800650.ece |archive-date=1 October 2010 |url-status=live}}</ref> on 30 September 2010, the High Court of Allahabad, the three-member bench ruled that the disputed land be split into three parts. The site of the Ramlala idol would go to the party representing ''Ram Lalla Virajman'' (the installed Infant Ram deity), [[Nirmohi Akhara]] to get Sita Rasoi and Ram Chabutara, and the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board to get the rest. The court also ruled that the status quo should be maintained for three months.<ref>{{cite news |title=India holy site 'split between Hindus and Muslims' |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11441890 |work=BBC News |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101001042438/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11441890 |archive-date=1 October 2010 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=AllahabadHC-30Sept10>{{cite web |first1=Sibghat Ullah |last1=Khan |first2=Sudhir |last2=Agarwal |first3=Dharam Veer |last3= Sharma |title=Decision of the hon'ble special full bench hearing Ayodhya matters |url=http://elegalix.allahabadhighcourt.in/elegalix/DisplayAyodhyaBenchLandingPage.do |work=[[Allahabad High Court]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140827003623/http://elegalix.allahabadhighcourt.in/elegalix/DisplayAyodhyaBenchLandingPage.do |archive-date=27 August 2014 }}</ref> All the three parties appealed against the division of disputed land in the [[Supreme Court of India|Supreme Court]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Court orders 3-way division of disputed Ayodhya land |url=http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article804632.ece?homepage=true |newspaper=The Hindu |location=Chennai, India |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101003104001/http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article804632.ece?homepage=true |archive-date=3 October 2010 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://scobserver.clpr.org.in/cases/babri-masjid-ram-janmabhoomi-case/ |title=Ayodhya Dispute Case Background |website=Supreme Court Observer |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180106063612/http://scobserver.clpr.org.in/cases/babri-masjid-ram-janmabhoomi-case/ |archive-date=6 January 2018 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Supreme Court verdict==
{{Main|2019 Supreme Court verdict on Ayodhya dispute}}
The Supreme Court (SC) held final hearing on the case from 6 August 2019<ref name=indiatoday-06Aug19>{{Cite news |url=https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/ayodhya-dispute-supreme-court-hearing-ram-janmabhoomi-babri-masjid-1577628-2019-08-06 |title=Ayodhya dispute: Supreme Court to commence day-to-day hearing today |work=[[India Today]] |access-date=25 August 2019 |agency=Press Trust of India |archive-date=25 August 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190825045218/https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/ayodhya-dispute-supreme-court-hearing-ram-janmabhoomi-babri-masjid-1577628-2019-08-06 |url-status=live }}</ref> to 16 October 2019.<ref name="Press Trust of India"/> The bench reserved the final judgment and granted three days to contesting parties to file written notes on 'moulding of relief' or narrowing down the issues on which the court is required to adjudicate.<ref name="Ayodhya case: SC concludes hearing">{{cite web |url=https://m.timesofindia.com/india/ayodhya-case-sc-concludes-hearing-in-ram-janmbhoomi-babri-masjid-land-dispute-reserves-order/amp_articleshow/71614121.cms |title=Ayodhya case: SC concludes hearing |work=[[The Times of India]] |access-date=16 October 2019 |archive-date=17 October 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191017124526/https://m.timesofindia.com/india/ayodhya-case-sc-concludes-hearing-in-ram-janmbhoomi-babri-masjid-land-dispute-reserves-order/amp_articleshow/71614121.cms |url-status=live }}</ref>

The final judgement in the Supreme Court was declared on 9 November 2019.<ref name="timesofindia.indiatimes.com">{{Cite news |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/ayodhya-verdict-live-updates-supreme-court-verdict-on-ram-mandir-babri-masjid-dispute/liveblog/71978224.cms |title=Ayodhya verdict live updates: Supreme Court delivers judgement on Ram Mandir-Babri Masjid case |work=[[The Times of India]] |language=en |access-date=2019-11-09 |archive-date=10 November 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191110001744/https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/ayodhya-verdict-live-updates-supreme-court-verdict-on-ram-mandir-babri-masjid-dispute/liveblog/71978224.cms |url-status=live }}</ref> The Supreme Court ordered the land to be handed over to a trust to build the Hindu temple. It also ordered the government to give an alternate 5 acres of land to the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board for the purpose of building a mosque.<ref name=timesofindia-09Nov19Verdict/> The court has said in its verdict that the Nirmohi Akhara is not a [[shebait]] or devotee of the deity Ram Lalla and the Akhara's suit was barred by limitation.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/no-regret-over-sc-saying-nirmohi-akhara-not-shebait-of-deity-ram-lalla-outfit/articleshow/71981069.cms |title=No regret over SC saying Nirmohi Akhara not 'shebait' of deity Ram Lalla: Outfit |work=The Times of India |access-date=9 November 2019 |archive-date=9 November 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191109143542/https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/no-regret-over-sc-saying-nirmohi-akhara-not-shebait-of-deity-ram-lalla-outfit/articleshow/71981069.cms |url-status=live }}</ref>

The Supreme Court dismissed all 18 petitions seeking review of the verdict on 12 December 2019.<ref name=economictimes-12Dec19>{{cite news |title=Supreme Court dismisses all Ayodhya review petitions |url=https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/supreme-court-dismisses-all-ayodhya-review-petitions/articleshow/72491089.cms |access-date=12 December 2019 |agency=The Economic Times |archive-date=27 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200327091302/https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/supreme-court-dismisses-all-ayodhya-review-petitions/articleshow/72491089.cms |url-status=live }}</ref>

==Timeline==
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!width="60"|Year
!| Date
!|Event<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/1844930.stm 'Timeline: Ayodhya crisis'] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081210004223/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/1844930.stm }}, ''BBC News'', 17 October 2003.</ref>
|-
|1528|| ||According to the inscription on its walls, the Babri Masjid constructed on orders of emperor [[Babur]]. Local tradition says it was built after demolishing (the ruins of) a temple at the birth spot of Rama.<ref name=Bakker/><ref name="BBC Timeline"/>
|-
|1611|| ||English merchant [[William Finch (merchant)|William Finch]] recorded Rama's castle and houses being visited by pilgrims.<ref name=Finch/>
|-
|1717|| ||Rajput noble [[Jai Singh II]] purchased the land of the mosque and vested it in the deity. Hindus worship Rama idols outside the mosque.{{sfnp|Jain, Rama and Ayodhya|2013|pp=114–115}}
|-
|1768|| ||Jesuit priest [[Joseph Tieffenthaler]] witnessed the mosque and recorded the local tradition that it was built by [[Aurangzeb]], while some said Babur built it.<ref name=Tieffenthaler/>
|-
|1853|| ||The first recorded communal clashes over the site date to this year.
|-
|1857 (or 1859)|| ||The colonial [[British raj|British administration]] put a fence around the site, denominating separate areas of worship for Hindus and Muslims. That is how it stood for about 90 years.<ref name=timesofindia-09Nov19Verdict/><ref name=outlookindia-01Dec17/>
|-
|1949|| December || Idols were placed inside the mosque. Both sides to the dispute filed [[civil suit]]s. The government locked the gates, saying the matter was ''[[sub judice]]'' and declared the area disputed. The civil suits were filed for ownership of the Plot no 583 of the area.
|-
|1961|| ||Case filed in Indian courts against forceful occupation of the Babri Mosque and placing of idols within it.
|-
|1984|| ||The movement to build a temple at the site, which Hindus claimed was the birthplace of [[Lord Ram]], gathered momentum when Hindu groups formed a committee to spearhead the construction of a temple at the [[Ramjanmabhoomi]] site.
|-
|1986|| ||A district judge ordered the gates of the mosque to be opened after 37 years (see 1949 above) and allowed Hindus to worship inside the "disputed structure". A Babri Mosque Action Committee was formed as Muslims protested the move to allow Hindu prayers at the site. The gates were opened in less than an hour after the court decision.
|-
|1989|| ||The clamour for building a Ram temple was growing. In February, VHP proclaimed that a Shila or a stone will be established for construction of temple near the area. In November, the [[Vishwa Hindu Parishad]] laid foundations of a temple on land adjacent to the "disputed structure" in presence of Home Minister Boota Singh and then Chief Minister ND Tiwari. There were sporadic clashes in the country such as Bhagalpur in Bihar.
|-
|1990|| || V P Singh became the Prime Minister of India with support of BJP which had won 58 seats in the election, a massive improvement from its last tally of 2 seats. The then BJP president [[Lal Krishna Advani]] took out a cross-country rathyatra to garner support for the move to build a Ram temple at the site. On 23 October, he was arrested in Bihar during the yatra, following which BJP took back its support to the government. Chandrashekhar became the Prime Minister of India with support of the Congress. On 30 October, many were [[Ayodhya firing incident|gunned down by the police]] on orders of the then Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister [[Mulayam Singh Yadav]], when they gathered in Ayodhya as participants of the Rath-Yatra; their bodies were thrown in the river Saryu.<ref>{{cite news |title=1990 decision to order firing on 'kar sevaks' painful, Mulayam Singh Yadav says |url=http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-07-16/india/40611404_1_up-bjp-kar-sevaks-ayodhya |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130719061454/http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-07-16/india/40611404_1_up-bjp-kar-sevaks-ayodhya |url-status=dead |archive-date=19 July 2013 |newspaper=[[The Times of India]] }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Mulayam warns rioters, recalls order to shoot kar sevaks |url=http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-11-01/india/43591469_1_mulayam-samajwadi-party-riot-victims |archive-url=https://archive.today/20140818173730/http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-11-01/india/43591469_1_mulayam-samajwadi-party-riot-victims |url-status=dead |archive-date=18 August 2014 |newspaper=[[The Times of India]] |access-date=18 August 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Mulayam indulging in votebank politics through Ayodhya Kar Sevak firing comment: JD (U) |newspaper=Business Standard News |url=http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ani/mulayam-indulging-in-votebank-politics-through-ayodhya-kar-sevak-firing-comment-jd-u-113071600294_1.html |access-date=9 November 2013 |archive-date=25 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181225050755/https://www.business-standard.com/news-ani?time=1545714475 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.frontline.in/static/html/fl2022/stories/20031107007900600.htm |title=Taming of the VHP |newspaper=Frontline |access-date=9 November 2013 |archive-date=9 November 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131109140411/http://www.frontline.in/static/html/fl2022/stories/20031107007900600.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>
|-
|1991|| ||Congress came to power at center after elections in 1991, while BJP became major opposition party in center and came to power in many states such as Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. Kalyan Singh became the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. State government acquired 2.77 acre land in the area and gave it on lease to RamJanmBhoomi Nyas Trust. The Allahbad High Court stopped any permanent construction activity in the area. Kalyan Singh publicly supported the movement while Central Government took no action to curb the increasing tensions. In spite of the High Court judgement, disputed area was leveled.
|-
|1992|| || Kalyan Singh took steps to support the movement such as making entry into area easier, promising no firing on Karsevaks, opposing decision of central government to send Central Police force in the area, etc. In July, several thousand Karsevaks assembled in the area and the work for maintenance of temple started. This activity was stopped after intervention of the prime minister. Meetings started between Babri Masjid Action Committee and VHP leaders in presence of the home minister. On 30 October, Dharam Sansad of VHP proclaimed in Delhi that the talks have failed and Karseva will presume from 6 December. Central Government was considering the deployment of central police forces in the area and dissolution of state government but in the end decided against it. The case was being heard in the Supreme Court which told that State Government is responsible for ensuring law and order in the area. The government was discussing it in Cabinet Committee meeting and Rashtriya Ekta Parishad. BJP boycotted the Parishad. The Allahbad High Court was hearing the matter of legality of structure of foundation laid in 1989.
|-
|1992||6 December||The Babri Mosque was demolished by a gathering of near 200,000 Karsevaks. [[Mumbai Riots|Communal riots]] across the [[Indian subcontinent]] followed.
|-
|1992||16 December||Ten days after the demolition, the Congress government at the centre, headed by [[PV Narasimha Rao]], set up a commission of inquiry under [[Justice Liberhan]].
|-
|1993|| ||Three months after being constituted, the Liberhan Commission began investigations into who and what led to the demolition of the Babri Mosque.
|-
|2001|| ||Tensions rose on the anniversary of the demolition of the mosque as the VHP reaffirmed its resolve to build a temple at the site.
|-
|2002||27 February||At least 58 people were killed in Godhra, Gujarat, in an [[Godhra train burning|attack on a train]] believed to be carrying Hindu volunteers from Ayodhya. [[2002 Gujarat violence|Riots]] followed in the state and over 2000 people were unofficially reported to have died in these.
|-
|2003|| ||The court ordered a survey to find out whether a temple to Lord Ram existed on the site. In August, the survey presented evidence of a temple under the mosque. Muslim groups disputed the findings.
|-
|2003||September||A court ruled that seven Hindu leaders, including some prominent BJP leaders, should stand trial for inciting the destruction of the Babri Mosque.
|-
|2004||November||An Uttar Pradesh court ruled that an earlier order which exonerated LK Advani for his role in the destruction of the mosque should be reviewed.
|-
|2007|| ||The Supreme Court refused to admit a [[review petition]] on the Ayodhya dispute.
|-
|2009|| ||The Liberhan Commission, which was instituted ten days after the demolition of the Babri Mosque in 1992, submitted its report on 30 June — almost 17 years after it began its inquiry. Its contents were not made public.
|-
|2010||{{nowrap|30 September}} ||The Allahabad High Court pronounces its verdict on four title suits relating to the Ayodhya dispute on 30 September 2010. Ayodhya land to be divided into three parts. ⅓ goes to [[Ram Lalla]] represented by [[Hindu Maha Sabha]], ⅓ to [[Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board]], ⅓ goes to [[Nirmohi Akhara]].<ref name="hin2">{{cite news |last=Venkatesan |first=J. |title=Ayodhya verdict tomorrow |url=http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article800650.ece |newspaper=The Hindu |location=Chennai, India | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101001085642/http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article800650.ece | archive-date=1 October 2010 | url-status=live}}</ref>
|-
|2010||December||The [[Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha]] and [[Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board]] moved to the [[Supreme Court of India]], challenging part of the [[Allahabad High Court]]’s verdict.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Hindu-Mahasabha-moves-SC-against-part-of-Ayodhya-verdict/728205 |title=Hindu Mahasabha moves SC against part of Ayodhya verdict |work=The Indian Express |access-date=23 December 2010 |archive-date=29 December 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101229070618/http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Hindu-Mahasabha-moves-SC-against-part-of-Ayodhya-verdict/728205 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_sunni-waqf-board-moves-supreme-court-against-high-court-s-ayodhya-order_1481376 |title=Sunni Waqf Board moves Supreme Court against high court's Ayodhya order |publisher=Dnaindia.com |access-date=23 December 2010 |archive-date=12 February 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110212185639/http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_sunni-waqf-board-moves-supreme-court-against-high-court-s-ayodhya-order_1481376 |url-status=live }}</ref>
|-
|2011||9 May|| [[Supreme Court of India]] stayed the High Court order splitting the disputed site in three parts and said that status quo will remain.
|- 16 October
|2019
|6 August
|The 5-judge Constitution bench, headed by Chief Justice [[Ranjan Gogoi]], of Supreme Court started final hearing on the case.<ref name=indiatoday-06Aug19/>
|-
|2019
|16 October
|Final hearing in the Supreme Court ends. The bench reserved the final judgment. The bench granted three days to contesting parties to file written notes on 'moulding of relief' or narrowing down the issues on which the court is required to adjudicate.<ref name="Ayodhya case: SC concludes hearing"/>
|-
|2019
|9 November
|Final judgment delivered.<ref name="timesofindia.indiatimes.com"/> The Supreme Court ordered the land to be handed over to a trust to build the Ram temple. It also ordered the government to give 5 acres of land inside Ayodhya city limits to the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board for the purpose of building a mosque.<ref name=timesofindia-09Nov19Verdict/>
|-
|2019
|12 December
|All petitions seeking review of the verdict dismissed by the Supreme Court.<ref name=economictimes-12Dec19/>
|-
|2020
|5 February
|The Government of India made an announcement for a trust to build a [[Ram Mandir, Ayodhya|Ram temple]] there.<ref name=indiatoday-05Feb20/> It also allocated an alternative site in [[Dhannipur]], Ayodhya to build a mosque to replace the demolished Babri Masjid.
|}

==See also==
{{Portal|India|Islam|Hinduism}}
* [[Communalism (South Asia)]]
* [[Conversion of non-Islamic places of worship into mosques]]
* ''[[Ram ke Naam]]'' – a documentary on the Ayodhya dispute by [[Anand Patwardhan]]
* [[Temple Mount]] – similarly disputed location in Jerusalem

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite web |last=Sharma |first=Dharam Veer |title=Judgement in OOS No. 4 of 1989 (Decision of Hon'ble Special Full Bench hearing Ayodhya Matters) |publisher=Allahabad High Court |url=http://elegalix.allahabadhighcourt.in/elegalix/DisplayAyodhyaBenchLandingPage.do |access-date=27 December 2014 |ref={{sfnref|Dharam Veer Sharma|2010}} |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140827003623/http://elegalix.allahabadhighcourt.in/elegalix/DisplayAyodhyaBenchLandingPage.do |archive-date=27 August 2014 }}
*{{Cite news
| title = How Guru Nanak played a 'role' in Ayodhya verdict
| last = Garg
| first = Abhinav
| newspaper = [[The Times of India]]
| url = https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/how-guru-nanak-played-a-role-in-ayodhya-verdict/articleshow/71999559.cms?from=mdr
| date = 12 November 2019
| access-date = 7 August 2020
| archive-date = 28 September 2020
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200928040232/https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/how-guru-nanak-played-a-role-in-ayodhya-verdict/articleshow/71999559.cms?from=mdr
| url-status = live
}}
* {{cite journal |last=Bacchetta |first=Paola |title=Sacred Space in Conflict in India: The Babri Masjid Affair |journal=Growth and Change |volume=31 |issue=2 |year=2000 |pages=255–284 |doi=10.1111/0017-4815.00128 |ref={{sfnref|Bacchetta, Sacred Space in Conflict|2000}}}}
* {{citation |last=Bakker |first=Hans |author-link=Hans T. Bakker |title=The rise of Ayodhya as a place of pilgrimage |journal=Indo-Iranian Journal |volume=24 |number=2 |year=1982 |pages=103–126 |doi=10.1163/000000082790081267 |ref={{sfnref|Bakker, The rise of Ayodhya as a place of pilgrimage|1982}}}}
* {{cite book |first=Hans T. |last=Bakker |author-link=Hans T. Bakker |title=Ayodhya, Part I: The History of Ayodhya from the 7th century BC to the middle of the 18th century |year=1984 |publisher=Institute of Indian Studies, University of Groningen |url=https://archive.org/details/AyodhyaHansBakkerPart1/page/n0 |oclc=769116023 |ref={{sfnref|Bakker, Ayodhya, Part I|1984}} }}
* {{citation |last=Bakker |first=Hans |title=Ayodhya: A Hindu Jerusalem |journal=Numen |volume=38 |pages=80–109 |number=1 |year=1991 |jstor=3270005 |ref={{sfnref|Bakker, Ayodhya: A Hindu Jerusalem|1991}}}}
* {{citation |last=Jain |first=Meenakshi |author-link=Meenakshi Jain |title=Rama and Ayodhya |publisher=Aryan Books |location=New Delhi |year=2013 |isbn=978-8173054518 |ref={{sfnref|Jain, Rama and Ayodhya|2013}}}}
* {{cite book |last1=Jha |first1=Krishna |last2=Jha |first2=Dhirendra K. |title=Ayodhya: The Dark Night |publisher=HarperCollins India |year=2012 |isbn=978-93-5029-600-4 |ref={{sfnref|Jha & Jha, Ayodhya: The Dark Night|2012}}}}
* {{citation |first=Kishore |last=Kunal |author-link=Kishore Kunal |title=Ayodhya Revisited |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gKKaDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA335 |publisher=Prabhat Prakashan |year=2016 |isbn=978-81-8430-357-5 |pages=335– |ref={{sfnref|Kunal, Ayodhya Revisited|2016}} }}
* {{cite book|last=Lal|first=B. B.|author-link=B. B. Lal|title=Rāma, His Historicity, Mandir, and Setu: Evidence of Literature, Archaeology, and Other Sciences|publisher=Aryan Books|year=2008|isbn=978-81-7305-345-0|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vYBwPgAACAAJ}}
* {{cite book |last1=Layton |first=R. |last2=Thomas |first2=P. |chapter=Introduction |editor1-last=Layton |editor1-first=R. |editor2-last=Stone |editor2-first=P. |editor3-last=Thomas |editor3-first=J. |title=Destruction and Conservation of Cultural Property |publisher=Routledge |year=2003 |isbn=978-1134604975 |pages=1–21 |ref={{sfnref|Layton & Thomas, Destruction and Conservation|2003}}}}
** {{cite book |last=Lal |first=B. B. |author-link=B. B. Lal |chapter=A note on the excavations at Ayodhya with reference to the Mandir-Masjid issue |editor1-last=Layton |editor1-first=R. |editor2-last=Stone |editor2-first=P. |editor3-last=Thomas |editor3-first=J. |title=Destruction and Conservation of Cultural Property |publisher=Routledge |year=2003 |isbn=978-1134604975 |pages=117–126}}
** {{cite book |last=Sharma |first=Ram Sharan |author-link=Ram Sharan Sharma |chapter=The Ayodhya issue |editor1=R. Layton |editor2=P. Stone |editor3=J. Thomas |title=Destruction and Conservation of Cultural Property |publisher=Routledge |year=2003 |isbn=978-1134604975 |pages=127–138}}
* {{cite book |last=Narain |first=Harsh |year=1993 |title=The Ayodhya Temple Mosque Dispute: Focus on Muslim Sources |location=Delhi |publisher=Penman Publishers |url=https://archive.org/details/TheAyodhyaTempleMosqueDisputeHarshNarain |ref={{sfnref|Narain, The Ayodhya Temple Mosque Dispute|1993}} }}
* {{cite book |first=R. |last=Nath |author-link=Ram Nath |title=Babari Masjid of Ayodhya |location=Jaipur |publisher=The Historical Research Documentation program |year=1990}}
* {{cite news |last=Ratnagar |first=Shereen |title=Archaeology at the Heart of a Political Confrontation: The Case of Ayodhya |journal=Current Anthropology |volume=45 |number=2 |pages=239–259 |doi=10.1086/381044 |jstor=10.1086/381044 |ref=Rat04 |url=https://www.asia-europe.uni-heidelberg.de/fileadmin/Documents/Professorships/Visual_and_Media_Anthropology/ForUS/381044.pdf |access-date=19 November 2018 |archive-date=7 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200807205912/https://www.asia-europe.uni-heidelberg.de/fileadmin/Documents/Professorships/Visual_and_Media_Anthropology/ForUS/381044.pdf |url-status=live }}
* {{cite journal |last=van der Veer |first=Peter |title='God must be Liberated!' A Hindu Liberation Movement in Ayodhya |journal=Modern Asian Studies |volume=21 |issue=2|pages=283–301 |year=1987 |jstor=312648 |doi=10.1017/s0026749x00013810 |ref={{sfnref|van der Veer, 'God must be Liberated!'|1987}}}}
* {{cite book |last=van der Veer |first=Peter |title=Gods on Earth: The Management of Religious Experience and Identity in a North Indian Pilgrimage Centre |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1989 |isbn=978-0485195101 }}
* {{cite journal |last=van der Veer |first=Peter |title=Ayodhya and Somnath: Eternal Shrines, Contested Histories |journal=Social Research |volume=59 |pages=85–109 |number=1 |jstor=40970685 |ref={{sfnref|van der Veer, Ayodhya and Somnath|1992}}}}
* {{citation |last=van der Veer |first=Peter |title=Religious Nationalism: Hindus and Muslims in India |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p29ArJ7j6zgC |year=1994 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-08256-4 |ref={{sfnref|van der Veer, Religious Nationalism|1994}} }}
{{refend}}

==Further reading==
{{refbegin|40em}}
* {{cite book |editor-last=Bajaj |editor-first=Jitendra |title=Ayodhya and the Future of India |year=1993 |location=Madras |publisher=Centre for Policy Studies}}
* Dubashi, Jay (1992). The Road to Ayodhya. Delhi: South Asia Books.
* {{cite book |editor-last=Engineer |editor-first=Asghar Ali |title=Babri Masjid Ramjanambhumi Controversy |publisher=Ajanta Publications |location=Delhi |year=1990}}
* {{cite book |last=Hassner |first=Ron E. |title=War on Sacred Grounds |year=2009 |location=Ithaca |publisher=Cornell University Press |url=http://www.waronsacredgrounds.com/ |access-date=2 February 2010 |archive-date=6 October 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101006002851/http://www.waronsacredgrounds.com/ |url-status=live }}
* Jain, Meenakshi ''The Battle for Rama: Case of the Temple at Ayodhya'' (Aryan Books International, 2017), {{ISBN|8173055793}}.
* {{cite book |last1=Nandy |first1=A. |author-link1=Ashis Nandy |first2=S. |last2=Trivedy |first3=S. |last3=Mayaram |first4=Achyut |last4=Yagnik |title=Creating a Nationality: The Ramjanmabhumi Movement and Fear of the Self |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1998 |isbn=0-19-564271-6}}
* {{Cite book |last=Pollet |first=Ag |title=Indian Epic Values: Rāmāyaṇa and Its Impact : Proceedings of the 8th International Rāmāyaṇa Conference, Leuven, 6–8 July 1991 |publisher=Peeters Publishers |isbn=9789068317015 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EVnK3q48dL0C&pg=PA28 }}
* {{cite book |editor-last=Sharma |editor-first=Ram Sharan |title=Communal History and Rama's Ayodhya |editor-link=Ram Sharan Sharma |publisher=People's Publishing House |edition=2nd |year=1999 |location=Delhi}}
* {{cite book |last=Srivastava |first=Sushil |title=Disputed Mosque, A historical inquiry |url=https://archive.org/details/disputedmosqueh00sriv |url-access=registration |publisher=Vistaar Publication |location=New Delhi |year=1991 |isbn=9788170362128 }}
* {{cite book |editor-last=Thacktson |editor-first=Wheeler M. |title=Baburnama: Memoirs of Babur, Prince and Emperor |year=1996 |location=New York and London |publisher=Oxford University Press}}
* {{cite book |last=Thapar |first=Romila |author-link=Romila Thapar |chapter=A Historical Perspective on the Story of Rama |editor=Thapar, Romila |title=Cultural Pasts: Essays in Early Indian History |location=New Delhi |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2000 |isbn=0-19-564050-0 }}
{{Refend}}

==External links==
* [https://www.newsnation.in/india/news/ayodhya-verdict-134-years-of-ram-janmabhoomi-babri-masjid-dispute-a-brief-timeline-243519.html Ayodhya Verdict Live Updates]
* [http://twocircles.net/?q=2010oct05/nirmohi_akhara_ready_outofcourt_settlement.html Nirmohi Akhara ready for out-of-court settlement] – TCN News
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20140827003623/http://elegalix.allahabadhighcourt.in/elegalix/DisplayAyodhyaBenchLandingPage.do Ram Janmabhoomi Babri Masjid – Ayodhya Bench: Gist of Judgments] at ''[[Allahabad High Court]]''
* {{cite news |last=Emmanuel |first=Dominic |title=The Mumbai bomb blasts and the Ayodhya tangle |newspaper=National Catholic Reporter |url=http://www.nationalcatholicreporter.org/globalpers/gp082703.htm |access-date=7 December 2014}}

{{Faizabad division topics}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ayodhya Debate}}
[[Category:Ayodhya dispute| ]]
[[Category:History of Uttar Pradesh (1947–present)]]
[[Category:Religious controversies in India]]

Baluster

2023-01-17T13:36:50Z

KirstenCyv: Wrote an enlightening manuscript.

{{Short description|Architectural element; vertical moulded shaft}}
[[Image:Orna138-Docken-Baluster.png|thumb|upright|Illustration of various examples of balusters, in ''A Handbook of Ornament'', by Franz S. Meyer]]
[[Image:Illustration Punica granatum2.jpg|thumb|upright|The term derives from the swelling form of the half-open flower of ''[[Punica granatum]]'', in Italian ''balaustra'']]

A '''baluster''' is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or [[lathe]]-turned form found in [[stairways]], [[parapet]]s, and other architectural features. In [[furniture]] construction it is known as a '''[[spindle (furniture)|spindle]]'''. Common materials used in its construction are wood, stone, and less frequently metal and ceramic. A group of balusters supporting a [[handrail]], [[coping (architecture)|coping]], or ornamental detail are known as a '''balustrade'''.<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=1|wstitle=Baluster|volume=3|page=297}}</ref><ref>"A row of balusters surmounted by a rail or coping" 1644. ''[[OED]]''; {{cite web|url=http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/balustrade?view=uk|title=AskOxford|access-date=2007-06-26|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929100157/http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/balustrade?view=uk|archive-date=2007-09-29}}</ref>

The term '''baluster shaft''' is used to describe forms such as a candlestick, upright furniture support, and the stem of a brass chandelier.{{citation needed}}

The term '''banister''' (also bannister) refers to a baluster or to the system of balusters and handrail of a stairway.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/banister?view=uk |title=AskOxford |access-date=2007-06-26 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929095709/http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/banister?view=uk |archive-date=2007-09-29 }}</ref> It may be used to include its supporting structures, such as a supporting [[newel]] post.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thefreedictionary.com/banister|title=banister|access-date=28 April 2018|via=The Free Dictionary}}</ref>

==Etymology==
According to the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'', "baluster" is derived through the {{lang-fr|balustre}}, from {{lang-it|balaustro}}, from ''balaustra'', "pomegranate flower" [from a resemblance to the swelling form of the half-open flower (''illustration, below right'')],<ref>The early sixteenth-century theoretical writer Diego da Sangredo (''Medidas del Romano'', 1526) detected this derivation, N. Llewellyn noted, in "Two notes on Diego da Sangredo: 2. The baluster and the pomegranate flower", in ''[[Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes]]'' '''40''' (1977:240-300); [[Paul Davies (art historian)|Paul Davies]] and [[David Hemsoll]]'s detailed history, "Renaissance Balusters and the Antique", in ''[[Architectural History (journal)|Architectural History]]'' '''26''' (1983:1–23, 117–122) p.8 notes uses of the word in fifteenth-century documents and explores its connotations for sixteenth-century designers, pp 12ff.</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Balaústre: o que é, como usar, onde comprar? Veja + exemplos lindos!|url=https://balaustres.com.br/balaustre/|access-date=2021-11-21|website=Balaústres|language=pt-BR}}</ref> from [[Latin language|Latin]] ''balaustrium'', from [[Ancient Greek language|Greek]] βαλαύστριον (''balaustrion'').

==History==
The earliest examples of balusters are those shown in the [[bas-relief]]s representing the [[Assyria]]n palaces, where they were employed as functional window balustrades and apparently had [[Ionic order|Ionic]] capitals.<ref name="EB1911"/> As an architectural element alone the balustrade did not seem to have been known to either the [[Ancient Greece|Greeks]] or the [[Ancient Rome|Romans]],<ref name="EB1911"/><ref>Wittkower 1974</ref> but baluster forms are familiar in the legs of chairs and tables represented in Roman bas-reliefs,<ref>Davies and Hemsoll 1983:2.</ref> where the original legs or the models for cast bronze ones were shaped on the lathe, or in Antique marble candelabra, formed as a series of stacked bulbous and disc-shaped elements, both kinds of sources familiar to [[Quattrocento]] designers.

The application to architecture was a feature of the early [[Renaissance architecture]]: late fifteenth-century examples are found in the balconies of palaces at [[Venice]] and [[Verona]]. These quattrocento balustrades are likely to be following yet-unidentified [[Gothic architecture|Gothic precedents]]. They form balustrades of [[colonette]]s<ref>A ''colonette'' is a miniature column, used decoratively.</ref> as an alternative to miniature arcading.

[[File:Balustrade in San Zeno, Verona.JPG|thumb|left|Stone balusters in the [[Basilica of San Zeno, Verona]] (constructed 967–1398 AD)]]

[[Rudolf Wittkower]] withheld judgement as to the inventor of the baluster<ref>H. Siebenhüner, in tracing the baluster's career, found its origin in the profile of the round base of [[Donatello]]'s ''Judith and Holofernes'', ''c'' 1460 (Siebenhüner, "Docke", in Reallexikon zur Deutsche Kunstgeschichte'' vol. 4 1988:102-107)</ref> and credited [[Giuliano da Sangallo]] with using it consistently as early as the balustrade on the [[Terrace (building)|terrace]] and stairs at the [[Medici]] villa at [[Poggio a Caiano]] (''c'' 1480),<ref>Davies and Hemsol 1983 note the earliest uses of both types of baluster in fictive classicising thrones and architecture in paintings. They instance an earlier use in real architecture on the main façade of the [[Palazzo Ducale, Urbino]], where [[Luciano Laurana]] was employed (p. 6 and pl. 3j).</ref> and used balustrades in his reconstructions of antique structures. Sangallo passed the motif to [[Donato Bramante|Bramante]] (his [[San Pietro in Montorio#The Tempietto|Tempietto]], 1502) and [[Michelangelo]], through whom balustrades gained wide currency in the 16th century.

Wittkower distinguished two types, one symmetrical in profile that inverted one bulbous vase-shape over another, separating them with a cushionlike [[torus]] or a concave ring, and the other a simple vase shape, whose employment by Michelangelo at the [[Campidoglio]] steps (''c'' 1546), noted by Wittkower, was preceded by very early vasiform balusters in a balustrade round the drum of [[Santa Maria delle Grazie (Milan)|Santa Maria delle Grazie]] (''c'' 1482), and railings in the cathedrals of [[Aquileia]] (''c'' 1495) and [[Parma]], in the cortile of San Damaso, Vatican, and [[Antonio da Sangallo the Younger|Antonio da Sangallo]]'s crowning balustrade on the [[Santa Casa]] at Loreto installed in 1535, and liberally in his model for the [[Basilica of Saint Peter]].<ref>These earlier appearances were adduced by Davies and Hemsol 1983:7f.</ref> Because of its low [[center of gravity]], this "vase-baluster" may be given the modern term "dropped baluster".<ref>Davies and Hemsol 1983:1.</ref>

==Materials used==
[[File:Bradbury Building, interior, ironwork.jpg|thumb|right|Ornate [[cast iron]]<ref>[https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2003-jul-30-fi-bradbury30-story.html Hong Kong Investor With Eye on the Past Acquires Landmark Bradbury Building, ''Los Angeles Times'']</ref> [[filigree]] balustrades in the [[Bradbury Building]] in downtown [[Los Angeles]], California]]

Balusters may be made of [[carved stone]], [[cast stone]], [[plaster]], [[polymer]], [[polyurethane]]/[[polystyrene]], [[polyvinyl chloride]] (PVC), [[precast concrete]], [[wood]] or [[wrought iron]]. Cast-stone balusters were a development of the 18th century in Great Britain (see [[Coade stone]]), and [[cast iron]] balusters a development largely of the 1840s.{{citation needed}} As balusters and balustrades have evolved, they can now be made from various materials with a few popular choices being timber, glass and stainless steel.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Balustrades - Glass, Steel & Timber |url=https://smartbalustrades.co.uk/balustrades/ |access-date=2022-12-01 |website=SMART Balustrades |language=en-GB}}</ref>

==Profiles and style changes==
[[File:Archaeological Journal, Volume 1, 0043b.png|thumb|left|upright=0.6|Drawing of a baluster column in the article [https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Archaeological_Journal/Volume_1/Anglo-Saxon_Architecture "Anglo-Saxon Architecture"] in the ''Archaeological Journal'', Volume 1 (1845)]]

The baluster, being a [[Turning|turned structure]], tends to follow design precedents that were set in woodworking and ceramic practices, where the [[Lathe|turner's lathe]] and the [[potter's wheel]] are ancient tools. The profile a baluster takes is often diagnostic of a particular style of architecture or furniture, and may offer a rough guide to date of a design, though not of a particular example.

Some complicated [[Mannerism|Mannerist]] baluster forms can be read as a vase set upon another vase. The high shoulders and bold, rhythmic shapes of the [[Baroque]] vase and baluster forms are distinctly different from the sober baluster forms of [[Abdurroufmollaclassicism]], which look to other precedents, like Greek [[amphora]]s. The distinctive twist-turned designs of balusters in oak and walnut English and Dutch<ref>Twist-turned legs on a backstool feature prominently in a conversation piece of a couple in an elaborately fashionable Dutch interior, painted by Eglon van der Neer (1678): [[:File:Elegant Couple in an Interior 1678 Eglon van der Neer.jpg|illustration]].</ref> seventeenth-century furniture, which took as their prototype the [[Solomonic column]] that was given prominence by [[Bernini]], fell out of style after the 1710s.

Once it had been taken from the lathe, a turned wood baluster could be split and applied to an architectural surface, or to one in which architectonic themes were more freely treated, as on cabinets made in Italy, Spain and Northern Europe from the sixteenth through the seventeenth centuries.<ref>The architectural invention of the applied half-baluster, with a caveat concerning "the fallacy of first recorded appearances", by [[Filippino Lippi]] in the painted architecture ''all'antica'' of his ''St. Philip revealing the Demon'' in the Strozzi Chapel, [[Santa Maria Novella]], Florence, and in Michelangelo's planned use in the Medici Chapel, is explored by Paul Joannides, "Michelangelo, Filippino Lippi and the Half-Baluster", ''The Burlington Magazine'' '''123''' No. 936 (March 1981:152–154).</ref> Modern baluster design is also in use for example in designs influenced by the [[Arts and Crafts movement]] in a 1905 row of houses in Etchingham Park Road Finchley London England.

Outside Europe, the baluster column appeared as a new motif in [[Mughal architecture]], introduced in [[Shah Jahan]]'s interventions in two of the three great fortress-palaces, the [[Red Fort of Agra]] and [[Delhi]],<ref>"There are no free-standing baluster columns of Shah Jahan's reign in the Fort at [[Lahore]]", according to [[Ebba Koch]] ("The Baluster Column: A European Motif in Mughal Architecture and Its Meaning", ''Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes'', '''45''' (1982:251–262) p. 252) but balustrades are a feature of all three.</ref> in the early seventeenth century. Foliate baluster columns with naturalistic foliate capitals, unexampled in previous Indo-Islamic architecture according to [[Ebba Koch]], rapidly became one of the most widely used forms of supporting shaft in Northern and Central India in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.<ref>Ebba Koch 1982:251–262.</ref>

The modern term '''baluster shaft''' is applied to the shaft dividing a window in [[Anglo-Saxons|Saxon]] architecture. In the south transept of [[St Albans Cathedral|the Abbey in St Albans]], England, are some of these shafts, supposed to have been taken from the old Saxon church. [[Norman architecture|Norman]] bases and capitals have been added, together with plain cylindrical Norman shafts.<ref name="EB1911"/>

Balusters are normally separated by at least the same measurement as the size of the square bottom section. Placing balusters too far apart diminishes their aesthetic appeal, and the structural integrity of the balustrade they form. Balustrades normally terminate in heavy [[newel]] posts, columns, and building walls for structural support.

Balusters may be formed in several ways. Wood and stone can be shaped on the lathe, wood can be cut from square or rectangular section boards, while concrete, plaster, iron, and plastics are usually formed by molding and casting. Turned patterns or old examples are used for the molds.

==Gallery==
<gallery widths="200" heights="200" class="center">
File:Muzeum Kapitolinskie.JPG|A vasiform balustrade crowns [[Michelangelo]]'s [[Palazzo dei Conservatori]] on the [[Campidoglio]] (Rome)
File:Arts and Crafts Balusters 1905 Etchingham Park Road Finchley London.JPG|Balusters influenced by the [[Arts and Crafts movement]] in a 1905 row of houses in [[Etchingham Park Road]] ([[Finchley]], London)
File:BrownUniversity-OrwigMusicBuilding.jpg|Ornate upper [[bronze]] balustrade, lower vasiform stone balustrade, and bronze central rail supported by decorative bronze metalwork at [[Brown University]]'s Orwig Music Library
File:Balustrade.jpg|Balustrade of turned wood balusters of [[Quema House|Quema Ancestral House]] a typical [[bahay na bato]]
File:Balustrade vom Schloss Veitshöchheim.jpg|Stone balustrade at [[Schloss Veitshöchheim]] near [[Würzburg]], Germany
File:Serpent Balustrade (38652343971).jpg|Balustrade in the form of a serpent, [[Mueang Chiang Mai]], [[Chiang Mai]], Thailand
File:Balustrade of Saint Servatius bridge.JPG|Bronze balustrade, formerly of Saint Servatius bridge of 1836, now in [[Maastricht]], Netherlands
File:Wrought iron baluster installation before and after (8) (5079407807).jpg|Simple balustrade of turned wood balusters of a style common in North America
File:Chiesa di San Gaetano balaustra del presbiterio Brescia.jpg|Marble balustrade in [[San Gaetano, Brescia]], Italy
File:Florence Truelson, Stairway Balustrade, c. 1937, NGA 24871.jpg|alt=Watercolor of wooden balustrade|Stairway Balustrade by Florence Truelson, 1937 ([[National Gallery of Art]]), USA
File:FR Carskie Siolo, Galeria Camerona, 2013.08.10, fot. I. Nowicka (41) corr.jpg|The balustrade of Cameron's Gallery at [[Tsarskoye Selo]], Russia
</gallery>

==See also==
* [[Bollard]]
* [[Guard rail]]
* [[Handrail]]

== Citations==
{{Reflist|2}}

== General and cited references ==
* {{Cite book |last=Wittkower |first=Rudolf |year=1974 |chapter=Chapter Three: The Renaissance Caluster and Palladio |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/palladioenglishp0000witt_x6l5/page/40/mode/2up |title=Palladio and English Palladianism |url=https://archive.org/details/palladioenglishp0000witt_x6l5 |url-access=registration |others=Margot Wittkower (foreword) |location=London |publisher=Thames and Hudson |isbn=9780500850015 |oclc=905449767}} (Links are to the 1983 American edition.)

==External links==

{{Room}}

[[Category:Architectural elements]]
[[Category:Garden features]]
[[Category:Stairways]]
[[Category:Pedestrian infrastructure]]
[[Category:Architectural history]]
[[Category:Ironmongery]]

Princely States

2022-07-24T05:32:16Z

KirstenCyv: Finished writing a new contribution.

#REDIRECT [[Princely state]]