Yesterday, a decades-long dream of Hindu nationalism culminated with the inauguration of a large temple dedicated to the god Rama, in Ayodhya. To make it a reality, the 16th century Babur mosque was razed on December 9, 1992 by tens of thousands of militants from Hindu supremacist organizations.
That campaign of agitation, which ended with clubs, swords and tridents, had been led by the previous leader of the ruling BJP, A.K. Advani. His successor, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, broke an eleven-day fast yesterday before prostrating before Rama. The stone idol had been placed on the altar hours earlier, cradled by the Brahmins and bathed in honey, milk, flowers and cow urine. All this in order to activate their powers, according to their beliefs, to be able to answer – from today – the prayers of the faithful.
A helicopter also flew over the seven thousand guests – among them, the two richest men in India, Gautam Adani and the actor Amitabh Bachchan or the cricketer Sachin Tendulkar – and sprinkled the historicist white stone temple with petals , which occupies less than a tenth of the twenty-five expropriated hectares.
The religious pretext actually marks the beginning of Narendra Modi’s campaign for his re-election, in the April elections. In fact, the temple is far from being finished, which has been criticized by some religious figures. Its first floor, as well as the spire that will crown it, will not be finished before the end of next year.
However, the absolute priority of the work has accelerated the deadlines, since the Supreme Court ruled definitively on the case in 2019. Its ruling caused consternation, as it considered that the demolition of the mosque of the first emperor Mughal by an armed mob had been “flagrant illegality” to, immediately afterwards, reward its instigators with everything they demanded.
As supposed compensation, the magistrates arranged for the Muslim congregation to receive a plot for another mosque, more than thirty kilometers away. A new humiliation and absurdity, as evidenced by the fact that not a single ingot has been placed there.
The black stone idol that was consecrated yesterday represents Rama as a five-year-old boy, but with the dimensions of a giant. The building is completely new, since, contrary to what some believers and not a few demagogues have ventured for decades, there was no temple under the mosque of the first Mughal emperor. In any case, remains of older mosques. The hypothesis was not far-fetched, even if it could be malicious, since there is historical evidence of cases of mosques built over temples, or of Hindu temples over Buddhist ones, depending on the power of the moment.
On that fateful December 9, 1992, in addition to the Mughal temple, 25 other mosques and 250 Muslim homes or businesses were destroyed. These only had to mourn dozens of dead and wounded – burned, mutilated or lynched – because most had fled Ayodhya before the announced avalanche of Hindu militants sent from other parts of India. However, the barbarism at Ayodhya led to a bloodbath across the country, with more than 2,000 Muslims dead, in addition to hundreds of Hindus (mostly among the aggressors, although several fanatics after the domes they were hammering collapsed). Bombay was the city that suffered the most, with a veritable pogrom that forced thousands of Muslims to leave mixed neighborhoods and gave wings to several no less gruesome reprisal attacks.
Hindu supremacism, which in 1987 had only two MPs, had found its claim. Before embracing Ayodhya he had achieved relative success in other pilgrimages to set foot in Kashmir or bless villages with water from the Ganges.
Who is now waiting for the blessing of the electorate is Modi, despite the fact that he has not had to put a single rupee into the work, financed by donations. The Indian government and that of the state of Uttar Pradesh have indeed participated in the financing of Ayodhya’s new airport, as well as its new railway station.
Among the 80% Hindu population of India, there are millions who waited with anticipation for yesterday. A climate fueled for weeks by practically all the media, which encourage the expression of emotion.
All this in a republic that according to its Constitution is secular and non-confessional, but which, after ten years of Modi, is already something else.
