India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has officially opened a magnificent temple dedicated to the Hindu God Ram in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, marking the end of a forty-year effort by Hindu far-right groups to construct the temple.
Known as Ram Mandir, the temple is being built on the site where a 16th-century mosque once stood until it was destroyed by Hindu far-right mobs in 1992, sparking widespread Hindu-Muslim violence that claimed over 2,000 lives, mostly Muslims.
Hindus assert that the Babri Masjid was constructed on the grounds of a temple during the reign of the first Mughal ruler Babar, on the land that is believed to be the birthplace of their primary deity Ram. Muslims had been offering prayers there until 1949 when Hindu priests allegedly placed idols inside the mosque.
In 2019, the Indian Supreme Court ruled in favor of a Hindu trust, granting them ownership of the land. The temple’s inauguration is viewed as a symbol of religious triumphalism, transforming India’s secular democracy into a Hindu-centric nation, further dividing politics in a way that is likely to benefit the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the upcoming general elections.
For a detailed timeline of the mosque-temple conflict, visit www.aljazeera.com