NEW YORK: The controversial Monday’s inauguration of Ram Temple atop the ruins of Babri Mosque marks the culmination of a promise made by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BPJ) and allies, and serves as the “biggest political testament yet to Hindu supremacy over Indian Muslims,” according to US media.
Hindu militants stormed the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya in December 1992, climbing atop the building’s dome as they demolished it to clear the site for a Hindu temple.
The temple site was bitterly contested for decades, with both Hindus and Muslims laying claim to it, and was a flashpoint for country-wide riots that killed over 2,000 people, mostly Muslims.
A subsequent report commissioned by the Indian government found dozens of individuals—many of whom are now BJP political leaders—responsible for planning and encouraging the attacks.
The BJP benefited from stirring up Hindu nationalism around the Babri Mosque and, in 2014, swept into power, displacing the more pluralistic Indian Congress Party.
The BJP then launched to remake secular India into a Hindu supremacist state.
Following a second BJP national win in 2019, India’s top court, whose autonomy has been undercut by the Narendra Modi government—issued its final ruling that decided the fate of the Babri Mosque site. The Supreme Court termed the mosque’s destruction “an egregious violation of the rule of law” but nonetheless ruled that a Hindu temple could be constructed on its rubble.
Ram Temple’s Construction
Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone in August 2020 and will finish what his party, the BJP, and other Hindu supremacists, started more than thirty years ago by consecrating the Ram temple surrounded by his Hindu nationalist peers.
Still, the event will be marked by notable absences. Opposition Congress party’s leaders will skip the festivities in protest over what they rightly see as a consecration that is more a political ploy than a religious ceremony. Even some Hindu leaders agree, saying that the Ram temple cannot be consecrated since it remains incomplete and therefore violates Hindu scriptures. They also object to the attendance of divisive political figures like Narendra Modi.
