Editing Ayodhya (section)

=== British period ===
In the 1850s, a group of Hindus attacked the Babri mosque, on the grounds that it was built over [[Ram Janmabhoomi|the birthplace]] of the Hindu deity [[Rama]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Christophe Jaffrelot |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iVsfVOTUnYEC&pg=PA92 |title=The Hindu Nationalist Movement and Indian Politics: 1925 to the 1990s: Strategies of Identity-building, Implantation and Mobilisation (with Special Reference to Central India) |publisher=Penguin Books India |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-14-024602-5 |page=92 |access-date=20 June 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230907214041/https://books.google.com/books?id=iVsfVOTUnYEC&pg=PA92 |archive-date=7 September 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref> To prevent further disputes, the British administrators divided the mosque premises between Hindus and Muslims.<ref>P. Carnegy: ''A Historical Sketch of Tehsil Fyzabad'', Lucknow 1870, cited by Harsh Narain, ''The Ayodhya Temple Mosque Dispute: Focus on Muslim Sources'', 1993, New Delhi, Penman Publications. {{ISBN|81-85504-16-4}} p.8-9, and by Peter Van der Veer ''Religious Nationalism'', p.153</ref>

Ayodhya was annexed in 1856 by the British rulers. The rulers of Awadh were [[Shia]], and the [[Sunni]] groups had already protested against the permissive attitude of the former government. The British intervened and crushed the Sunni resistance. In 1857, the British annexed Oudh (Awadh) and subsequently reorganised it into the [[United Provinces of Agra and Oudh]].{{sfn|Bakker, Ayodhya: A Hindu Jerusalem|1991}}

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