Hindu Temples: What Happened To Them

Hindu Temples: What Happened To Them

Hindu Temples – What Happened to Them is a two-volume book by Sita Ram Goel, Arun Shourie, Harsh Narain, Jay Dubashi and Ram Swarup. The first volume was published in spring 1990.

The first volume includes a list of 2000 mosques that it is claimed were built on Hindu temples, which it is asserted is based primarily on the books of Muslim historians of the period or the inscriptions of the mosques. The second volume excerpts from medieval histories and chronicles and from inscriptions concerning the destruction of Hindu, Jain and Buddhist temples. The authors claim that the material presented in this book are only the tip of an iceberg.

The book contains chapters about the Ayodhya debate. The Appendix of the first volume contains a list of temple-destructions and atrocities that the authors claim took place in Bangladesh in 1989. The book also criticizes "Marxist historians" and one of the appendices of the second volume includes a "questionnaire for the Marxist professors" that the authors sent to well-known Indian historian Romila Thapar.

In August 1990 while releasing the book "Hindu Temples – What Happened To Them", Bharatiya Janta Party leader L. K. Advani chided Goel for using strong language. There were proposals in November 1990 in Uttar Pradesh to ban the book.