The new Ram Mandir that will take the place of the mosque that was destroyed by a group of militant Hindus more than thirty years ago in the Indian town of Ayodhya was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Some people view the inauguration as a deeply spiritual occasion. Many Hindus hold that the popular deity Lord Ram was born in Ayodhya, and the construction of the temple, following more than a century of controversy, has been celebrated as both Ram’s return to his proper location and India’s liberation from the shackles of previous religious domination.

It was described by Modi as the realization of “the dream that many have cherished for years.” Having spent the previous eleven days according to a certain purifying process to prepare, Modi took center stage at the Prana Pratishtha on Monday during the ceremonies to consecrate the temple and present offerings and blessings to the idol of the youthful Lord Ram installed in the inner sanctum.

8,000 dignitaries, including politicians, diplomats, Bollywood celebrities, and holy figures, attended the Ram temple’s national consecration, while thousands of pilgrims traveled from all across the nation to Ayodhya to express their love for Lord Ram and the newly constructed temple. Along with a $3 billion government-funded makeover, the town was decorated with flowers, saffron flags, Ram pictures, and Modi billboards.

Driver Arjun Kumar, 22, has been trekking the 466 miles (750 km) to Ayodhya for the past 20 days as part of a pilgrimage. He remarked, “I think of it as the most significant journey of my life.” “A lot of my friends were hesitant to travel here, but since we are devotees of Lord Ram and Narendra Modi, nobody can defeat us. I believe that all Hindus should come to this location to declare that we own this nation and that nobody can stop us.

Following the ceremony, worshippers gathered near Ram Mandir. Gujarati herbal medicine vendor Bharat Patel, 52, said: “When I arrived here and saw the temple, I broke down in tears.” I can say that this felt like bliss. For Hindus everywhere, this is a time of pride.

Others chose not to attend the event, claiming that Modi was using it as a political ploy ahead of the spring elections, in which he is expected to run for a third term in office.

The building of a Ram Temple in Ayodhya has been at the center of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) political ambition to establish Hindu supremacy in India. The demolition of the mosque in 1992 opened the door for Hindu nationalism to become the dominant political force it is today.

The temple won’t be finished until the following year, which is why several revered Hindu leaders are against its early opening. In addition to Modi, the two other participants in Monday’s temple consecration ceremony were Mohan Bagwat, the leader of the right-wing Hindu paramilitary group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, which gave rise to the BJP, and Yogi Adityanath, the hardline Hindu monk and chief minister of Uttar Pradesh.

The prime minister’s close alignment with the Ram temple, according to Kapil Komireddi, author of Malevolent Republic: A Short History of New India, is a sign of the BJP’s threat to India as a secular republic whose constitution enshrines all religions as equal.

According to Komireddi, “This is a purely political spectacle, the result of a 40-year political project—one that has been achieved through great violence.” It is also the pinnacle of the Modi cult of personality and the apex of Hinduism as the official religion of India. This strikes me as a depressing time for India.

Conflicts concerning Ayodhya’s sacred location stretch back more than a century. The Mughal emperor Babur, one of the Muslim rulers of India for about 500 years, constructed a mosque there in 1528, called Babri Masjid. However, Hindus thereafter started to fight for the right to worship at the site they thought to be the birthplace of Lord Ram.

Up until 1949, Muslims worshipped at Babri Masjid. Then, a small, radical Hindu organization raised the matter, claiming that a temple had once stood at the location and promising to “liberate” the land and rebuild it. The mosque’s gates were sealed after a Ram idol was allegedly brought inside by a Hindu priest.

In the 1980s, right-wing Hindu parties redoubled their efforts to retake Ayodhya and establish a temple there. By 1990, the leaders of the BJP, a newly formed political party at the time, had thrown their support behind the cause and were organizing marches towards Ayodhya.

Several prominent BJP members were present when a crowd marched into Ayodhya in December 1992 and started demolishing the mosque with sledgehammers, axes, and iron rods, bringing it down in a matter of hours.

The Hindu side was granted land ownership by the Supreme Court in November 2019, notwithstanding the court ruling that the damage was unlawful. No one has been found guilty of the demolition or the carnage that ensued in Ayodhya, which claimed the lives of 17 Muslims in the town and sparked nationwide riots that claimed over 2,000 lives.

The opening of the temple on Monday marked “one of the most important days in India’s history” and the conclusion of a cause that 75-year-old Hindu priest Shri Mahant Dharamdas Akhil, a student of the priest who is said to have installed the Ram statue in the mosque in 1949, had dedicated his life to.

He was a petitioner in the supreme court lawsuit and one of those who participated in the 1992 demolition of the Babri Masjid, which he justified as a “just cause.” He said that “God’s intervention” was involved in the structure’s collapse in addition to our actions. “From now on, this Ram temple will rank among the most significant locations in Hinduism worldwide.”

However, Monday’s celebration merely rekindled old grief and anxiety for the Muslims of Ayodhya, many of whom lost relatives or had their homes damaged in 1992 amid the violence that broke out around the demolition of the mosque.

The 44-year-old shopkeeper Abdul Wahid Qureshi remembered that day in 1992 when a right-wing Hindu mob rampaged through his neighborhood, murdering any Muslims who stood in their way. His neighbor, a thin old guy, was among those who perished when he was burned alive inside his house. The only reason Qureshi survived the violence was because a nearby Hindu family provided them with refuge.

He remarked, “I will never forget those graphic scenes.” “They destroyed everything that even slightly resembled a Muslim. Everything for us Muslims in Ayodhya changed on that day. After a few weeks, we went back, and my father had succeeded in building a new home. However, that sense of security has vanished since then.

As hundreds of thousands of strangers continued to pour into Ayodhya, many Muslims, according to Qureshi, were afraid they would be targeted again. When the temple festivities began, half of the Muslim families were empty. “I feel like I’m back in 1992,” he remarked. As with all the Muslims present, I fear for our future once the dignitaries go and the security is relaxed.

Anwari Begum, whose husband was murdered and his limbs severed by the mob in 1992, claimed she never got justice for his passing. However, she added, “I have come to terms with it for the greater good.” “I will stop requesting justice for my husband’s death if the temple’s construction brings peace to this area.”

SOURCE: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/22/modi-inaugurates-hindu-temple-on-site-of-razed-mosque-in-india