#Babri Mosque

[probablyasocialecologist]

Where does this curious Hindutva-Zionist solidarity spring from? One origin is from the earliest Hindu nationalists who modelled their Hindu state on Zionism. Hindutva’s founder, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, supported majoritarian nationalism and the rooting out of all disintegrating forces. These included Muslims who supported electoral quotas for their community and left-wing internationalists. As a result, he even condoned the Nazis’ antisemitic legislation in two speeches in 1938 because, as he saw it: “a nation is formed by a majority living therein”. Yet Savarkar was not antisemitic himself. He often spoke favourably of the tiny Jewish-Indian minority because he considered it too insignificant to threaten Hindu cohesion. In fact, Savarkar praised Zionism as the perfection of ethno-nationalist thinking. The way Zionism seamlessly blended ethnic attachment to a motherland and religious attachment to a holy land was precisely what Savarkar wanted for the Hindus. This double attachment was far more powerful to his mind than the European model of “blood and soil” nationalism without sacred space. Today, Hindu nationalists perpetuate this legacy and still look to Zionism as a uniquely attractive political ideology. To Hindu nationalists, some Zionists were engaged in a project to reclaim their holy land from a Muslim population whose religious roots in the region were not as ancient as their own.

[...]

In 2018, Israel passed a law that rebranded the country as “the nation-state of the Jewish people” and delegitimised its non-Jewish citizens. Similarly, India’s controversial Citizenship Amendment Act in 2019 eased paths to citizenship for immigrants from several religious groups, but not Muslims. Coupled with rhetoric associating millions of Indian Muslims with illegal immigration, human rights groups argue that this law could be used to strip many Muslims of their Indian citizenship. Hindu nationalists have also stoked a culture war to consolidate “Hindu civilisation” and sweep away symbols of Islam. This is very much in keeping with the wish of Israel’s far right to rebuild Solomon’s Temple on the site of the holy Temple Mount in Jerusalem, where al-Aqsa mosque compound currently sits. In 1969, a Zionist extremist burned the south wing of al-Aqsa. And in 1980, the fundamentalist group Jewish Underground plotted to blow up the Dome of the Rock, an Islamic shrine at the centre of the compound. A similar project of demolishing mosques and building temples in their place was suggested by Savarkar and Golwalkar. Hindu nationalist organisations focused their attention on Babri Masjid mosque in Ayodha, since this was the mythical birthplace of the Hindu god, Ram.

[metamatar]

pretty good piece on how courts make these hindutva temple disputes worse

[krsnaradhika]

Quick note : Hindus did not demolish the Babri masjid. We deconstructed it. There's a difference in there. The report of KK Mohammad Sir and he himself in multiple interviews say that he stands with the OGness of Rama Lalaa on his birthplace. The mosque very much did have temple remains and the appearance of Rama Lalaa in there wasn't a right-wing move. The supreme court of India has anyway given land for the mosque at some distance from the janmabhoomi so it's a win-win for both the communities now ig. All the butthurt people crying over the deconstruction should also note that Rama Lalaa isn't some non-violence icon of our religion so kindly shut up. Saying that - "He wouldn't have wanted the temple because a mosque stood there once and y'all broke it" is plain stupidity because he himself said - "Janani janmabhoomishcha swargaadapi gariyasi." Both his mother and his motherland are more dear to him than any heaven. Shri Rama did hold up weapons in the favour of what is right when fighting numerous demons and proceeded to threaten the ocean into drying it lest it doesn't heed to him, after a three day penance. The prev governments here were very minority appeasing. One of them even got as far as to saying Shri Rama was fictional when we have plenty evidences of him being a venerated ancestor of ours. All of them fell on their fours when Rama Lalaa won his case in the supreme court. They don't give a shit about the majority sentiments here being oppressed (Hindus have a history of being oppressed even when we're in majority, in our homeland. Are we debating on that now? Oml). Babar should not have done what he did, so yeah like Hindus were just taking back what is rightfully ours. (For the sake of secularism and brotherhood, shouldn't they be understanding our sentiments as well? It has to go both ways, no?) We have been waiting for around 500 years for our god to come back to a palace from a tent and the pseudo-liberal meltdowns are personally very enjoyable to me. You should prolly save those tears for Mathura and Kashi case too. Ram mandir kisi ke baap ke paison se bana nahi hai. Hindus contributed to it. Temple towns were a thing in ancient India, still many of them exist in the south because the north has suffered voraciously due to invasions, never forget. No tax money has been used in the construction of the Rama temple. Hope that helps.

[bfpnola]

definitely a longer piece so these excerpts are far from showcasing everything this piece has to offer! read the whole thing on your own time, and in general, just check out jewish currents, an educational, leftist, anti-zionist jewish magazine!

Every August, the township of Edison, New Jersey—where one in five residents is of Indian origin—holds a parade to celebrate India’s Independence Day. In 2022, a long line of floats rolled through the streets, decked out in images of Hindu deities and colorful advertisements for local businesses. People cheered from the sidelines or joined the cavalcade, dancing to pulsing Bollywood music. In the middle of the procession came another kind of vehicle: A wheel loader, which looks like a small bulldozer, rumbled along the route bearing an image of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi aloft in its bucket. For South Asian Muslims, the meaning of the addition was hard to miss. A few months earlier, during the month of Ramadan, Indian government officials had sent bulldozers into Delhi’s Muslim neighborhoods, where they damaged a mosque and leveled homes and storefronts. The Washington Post called the bulldozer “a polarizing symbol of state power under Narendra Modi,” whose ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is increasingly enacting a program of Hindu supremacy and Muslim subjugation. In the weeks after the parade, one Muslim resident of Edison, who is of Indian origin, told The New York Times that he understood the bulldozer much as Jews would a swastika or Black Americans would a Klansman’s hood. Its inclusion underscored the parade’s other nods to the ideology known as Hindutva, which seeks to transform India into an ethnonationalist Hindu state. The event’s grand marshal was the BJP’s national spokesperson, Sambit Patra, who flew in from India. Other invitees were affiliated with the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS), the international arm of the Hindu nationalist paramilitary force Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), of which Modi is a longtime member.

...

On December 6th, 1992, a mob of 150,000 Hindus, many of whom were affiliated with the paramilitary group the RSS, gathered at the Babri Masjid, a centuries-old mosque that is one of the most contested sacred sites in the world. Over the preceding century, far-right Hindus had claimed that the mosque, located in the North Indian city of Ayodhya, was built not only upon the site where the Hindu deity Ram was born but atop the foundations of a demolished Hindu temple. The RSS and its affiliates had been campaigning to, in the words of a BJP minister, correct the “historical mistake” of the mosque’s existence, a task the mob completed that December afternoon. “They climbed on top of the domes and tombs,” one witness told NPR. “They were carrying hammers and these three-pronged spears from Hindu scripture. They started hacking at the mosque. By night, it was destroyed.” The demolition sparked riots that lasted months and killed an estimated 2,000 people across the country.

The destruction of the Babri Masjid was arguably Hindu nationalism’s greatest triumph to date. Since its establishment in 1925, the RSS—whose founders sought what one of them called a “military regeneration of the Hindus,” inspired by Mussolini’s Black Shirts and Nazi “race pride”—had been a marginal presence in India: Its members held no elected office, and it was temporarily designated a terrorist organization after one of its affiliates shot and killed Mohandas Gandhi in 1948. But the leveling of the Babri Masjid activated a virulently ethnonationalist base and paved the way for three decades of Hindutva ascendance. In 1998, the BJP formed a government for the first time; in 2014, it returned to power, winning a staggering 282 out of 543 seats in parliament and propelling Modi into India’s highest office. Since then, journalist Samanth Subramanian notes, all of the country’s governmental and civil society institutions “have been pressured to fall in line” with a Hindutva agenda—a phenomenon on full display in 2019, when the Supreme Court of India awarded the land where the Babri Masjid once stood to a government run by the very Hindu nationalists who illegally destroyed it. (Modi has since laid a foundation stone for a new Ram temple in Ayodhya, an event that a prominent RSS activist celebrated with a billboard in Times Square.) The Ayodhya verdict came in the same year that Modi stripped constitutional protections from residents of the Muslim-majority region of Kashmir and passed a law that creates a fast track to citizenship for non-Muslim immigrants, laying the groundwork for a religious test for Indian nationality. Under Modi, “the Hinduization of India is almost complete,” as journalist Yasmeen Serhan has written in The Atlantic.

To achieve its goals, the RSS has worked via a dense network of organizations that call themselves the “Sangh Parivar” (“joint family”) of Hindu nationalism. The BJP, which holds more seats in the Indian parliament than every other party combined, is the Sangh’s electoral face. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) is the movement’s cultural wing, responsible for “Hinduizing” Indian society at the grassroots level. The Bajrang Dal is the project’s militant arm, which enforces Hindu supremacy through violence. Dozens of other organizations contribute money and platforms to the Sangh. The sheer number of groups affords the Sangh what human rights activist Pranay Somayajula has referred to as a “tactical politics of plausible deniability,” in which the many degrees of separation between the governing elements and their vigilante partners shields the former from backlash. This explains how, until 2018, the CIA could describe the VHP and Bajrang Dal as “militant religious organizations”—a designation that applies to non-electoral groups exerting political pressure—even as successive US governments have maintained a warm relationship with their parliamentary counterpart, the BJP.

...

The most extreme figures in the Hindu nationalist and Zionist movements were especially frank about the nature of their partnership: “Whether you call them Palestinians, Afghans, or Pakistanis, the root of the problem for Hindus and Jews is Islam,” Bajrang Dal affiliate Rohit Vyasmaan told The New York Times of his friendly relationship with Mike Guzofsky, a member of a violent militant group connected to the infamous Jewish supremacist Meir Kahane’s Kach Party.

...

In 2003, Gary Ackerman—a Jewish former congressman who was awarded India’s third-highest civilian honor for helping to found the Congressional Caucus on India—told a gathering of AJC and AIPAC representatives and their Indian counterparts that “Israel [is] surrounded by 120 million Muslims,” while “India has 120 million [within].” Tom Lantos, another Jewish member of the caucus, likewise enjoined the two communities to collaborate: “We are drawn together by mindless, vicious, fanatic, Islamic terrorism.”

[hum-suffer]

Damn i m shocked that you people still have enough shame and audacity to call out Pakistan for the way they treated minorities with very few incidents which usually were bashed and trashed by Pakistani muslims as well. You guys literally demolished Babri mosque and celebrated when they made temple there. Your PM and the next potential PM targets muslims in every single speech. Open the comments section if you have guts so that i can take u to the cleaners.

Lmfao my replies are always open, maybe you don't have the courage to turn off anon.

The Babri masjid issue was solved in court. I don't seem to recall any Pakistani cases about the demolition of any Hindu temples.

Honestly, you're the same people who claim two wrongs don't make a right. If deconstruction of Babri masjid is wrong then demolishing and humiliating Hindu temples is wrong as well. You seem to forget many Hindus in India also condemned the deconstruction of Babri masjid.

And oh, stay shocked <3

[incorrectmahabharatquotes]

History denial (yes we were definitely colonized by the Muslim invaders who broke and looted our temples and forcefully converted and massacred many of our people, taking our temples back is a decolonization movement as pointed out by that other anon). Then Kashmir is an integral part of India denial... how can you even say that.

I'm myself a Hindu and a queer, and reading your views came as an unpleasant surprise. Please go do some reading, and educate yourself about how reclaiming temples isn't about hating other communities. Muslims and other minorities can and have been living in peace with Hindus for centuries. What the invaders did was wrong, and acknowledging that doesn't make Hindus Muslim haters.

You answered that other anon with no reasoning, just that whatever happened, happened before your time. All vibes no research or learning.

Unfollowing. I can make Mahabharat quotes myself.

Tipu Sultan famously destroyed temples as well as donated heavily to temples.

You tell me what to think of that.

Temples have been the site of politics since time immemorial. They were the storehouses of public engagement. And that's why they were attacked. And if we draw this logic to today: Religion is in itself politics. You cannot seperate your celebration of the Ram temple from what it really signifies: The destruction of what is presumed to be a mark of colonization.

Agreed, Muslim rulers did demolish temples. But you take one look at the bulldozer politics of today and tell me: Who is being held accountable here? Are the poor Pasmanda and lower caste muslims, who barely have enough space for themselves to live the descendants of Mahmud of Ghazni? Did they inherit the wealth of whatever was looted from the Somnath temple?

Also tell me one thing: why did the Supreme court not conclude on whether there was a temple structure under the mosque, and still give the go signal? Why was the government assigned priest murdered for stating that the Ram Mandir was purely political? Why were there many 'Ram Janmabhoomi' sites before the Babri Masjid issue? And this is not ancient history, dear anon, this was hardly a generation back.

All I ask of you is to engage critically with the world around you. Yes, celebrate Ram within your house, Mod S and I will not break into your house and laugh at you. But take one look around you as to how your celebrations are actually built on others' misery.

Oh, and by the way: if we as a nation were really decolonising.......why are massive corporations kicking Adivasis of their lands in Aarey, Hasdeo (where our dear Adani is trying to 'develop' coal mines), Gadchiroli, and many many many many places where displacement happens through casteist Panchayat meetings which are held under the supervision of the State (which are not done in the presence of the people actually affected by such projects).

In my head it means one thing: The Ram Mandir is only a carrot waved in front of us to distract us from the real State Violence that goes on. And personally, I think that's a very disrespectful way of using a god. Its actually.....saddening.

Thank you for protecting your peace and unfollowing us, though! I wish you farewell on your internet journey

-Mod G

---------

Hello, Anon-Who-Is Unfollowing-And-Have-Decided-to-Announce-Your-Departure-Because-You-Wanted-Our-Attention,

Well, you have my attention. But it seems like I don't have yours because you have somehow managed to only read one paragraph selectively and completely gloss over everything else.

If you had read what I said clearly, you would have clearly seen the part where I said that the political majority CANNOT claim reclamation because YOU ARE NOT OPPRESSED. YOU HAVE ALL THE POWER. Do you understand this? Or has any hint of nuance completely managed to escape you? YOU, AS A SELF-PROFESSED HINDU, ARE NOT BEING OPPRESSED FOR YOUR HINDU IDENTITY IN THIS COUNTRY. YOU IN NO WAY ARE EVEN A LITTLE BIT HARMED BY A TEMPLE BEING DESTROYED CENTURIES AGO.

You want to talk about decolonisation? Let's talk about how the term "Hindu" that you're so proud of is actually a very recent term and is actually only a thing because the European colonisers just wanted an easy religious box to put us all in. If you're really so gung-ho about decolonisation, please decolonize yourself fully and throw away this term too. While we're at it, let's also examine why your decolonisation efforts are so selective?

"I'm myself a Hindu and a queer". I notice you conveniently skipped over the "dalit" part of my identity that actually might have led to a massive difference in lived experience in this country. I also talked about reparation to the "lower" castes. You skipped that too.

What the invaders did was wrong, and what you're doing is wrong too. Their wrongs don't mean that you are automatically right.

I gave you all my reasoning, told you everything. You skimmed through them and paid attention to the only part that you wanted to focus on.

Thank you for unfollowing, I hope you have a good day.

-Mod S

[yato-dharmastato-jayah]

Dr. K. K. Muhammed, the Indian archaeologist who served as the Regional Director of the Archaeological Survey of India. He was heavily involved in the excavations done at the site of Babri masjid, and he was the first to ask Muslims to hand over the Babri Masjid area to Hindus after finding evidence that the mosque was built on the remains of a Hindu temple.

Please listen to what he has to say about Hindus.

[shehzadi]

more accounts of hindutva terrorism in india in the last 2 days:

beat a muslim youth and paraded him naked in telangana

razed another 40 muslim-owned shops in mumbai after previously razing 15 other muslim-owned shops on a different street in mumbai the day before

vandalised the store of an elderly muslim man in mumbai

brutally attacked the imam of a mosque in chattisgarh while chanting ‘jai shree ram’ and ‘hindustan mein rahna hoga jai shree ram kahna hoga’ (translates to ‘if you want to live in india, you will have to say glory to lord ram’)

attacked a 17-year-old dalit student because of his whatsapp status and forced him to chant ‘jai shree ram’ (translates to ‘glory/victory to lord ram’) in karnataka

beat up a christian couple for allegedly forcing people to convert in karnataka

police have also made a case against 62-year-old muhammad salim for ‘inciting riot’ because he protested alone during the live broadcast of ram mandir in kerala

and on top of all that (and these are only the recorded/reported crimes i could find), expect indian news channels and hindu nationalists to begin pedalling the ‘there was a temple there centuries ago before!!!!’ narrative again so they can repeat the babri masjid demolition with gyanvapi masjid, also in uttar pradesh because today (25.01.24) the archaeological survey of india (ASI) found ‘evidence’ of a pre-existing hindu temple. how interesting and not at all coincidental with the fact that elections are looming ahead and ram mandir was just inaugurated!!!

[mahoutoons]

i'm sure my non indian followers are confused about why i'm suddenly reblogging stuff about a temple. so let me explain.

on 22nd january, 2024, the ram mandir in ayodhya was inaugrated. it was believed to be built on the birthplace of the lord ram, a hindu god. celebrations were everywhere. not just in india, but abroad, the indian hindu diaspora also celebrated the opening of the temple. saffron flags and chants of "jai shri ram" were everywhere.

so, what's the problem?

the first is that this temple was built on the side of a 500 year old mosque, which was demolished by hindu extremists in 1992. you're probably going to hear that this mosque was built on the site of a demolished temple originally, and they're just reclaiming it. but that is a lie. in fact, the supreme court claims that there was no evidence of a temple under the babri masjid. in fact, that is one of the longest run s@nghi misinformation campaigns. once upon a time, the demolition of the babri masjid was seen as a national shame, the actions of a few fringe hindu nationalists. but now, its a celebrated almost mainstream event, which does not hold promise for where this country is headed.

oh, but hindus are just celebrating a place of worship being opened on what they believe to be a holy site, right? wrong. its not just about the celebrations, but how the treatment of religious minorities in india would get worse. it was already pretty bad, especially under our current fascist government, but now we're seeing churches and mosques being vandalized with saffron flags and chants of "jai shri ram", muslim owned shops being burned, crowds calling for the demilition of more mosques, muslim owned properties being subject to more violence than ever, and honestly many more that could be happening as we speak.

india has always been a hellhole for religious minorities and it has been more so ever since m0di gained power. but the building of this temple is just going to make things so much worse, especially for indian muslims. remember that when you see someone celebrating the ram mandir, this is what they're celebrating. this is what they're turning a blind eye to and even encouraging.

with all this in mind, i encourage non indians to steer clear of anyone celebrating the ram mandir. i don't care if its their religion, i don't care if they're "just celebrating", what they're celebrating is a temple built on the site of a demolished mosque and with the blood of many. don't buy their "500 years of struggle" bs, its a lie.

[hindulivesmatter]

Never saw someone as stupid as Janaknandini Singh and here's why -

No ram mandir isn't built on "destroyed mosque" it is built on destroyed mandir, so you can let the guilt go.

"does this deserve to be celebrated?"

Yup, we have our ancestors fight for it for 500 years, it didn't come easy, it cost our blood. The original demolition of Ram Mandir - must've costed a lot lot lot more. Babri wasn't meant to be a scared site bruh it was the symbol of victory over us infidels, according to that genocidal maniacs own word - "I have come to this land to fight the holy war against infidels" - babarnama. That mosque wasn't supposed to be there anyway. It was ram Janambhoomi, always has been, always will be.

"would ram ji would've wanted it"

Hell yes.

Standing up and asking ONE temple is causing you to lose your sense of identity, take on more guilt, wish it were the same with invaders and their fans who KNOW 40 thousand to 60 thousand hindu and jain temples have been razed to the ground.

That entire thing was embarrassing, peace and coexistence is important but Hindus shouldn't be the one bending and breaking their backs offering it. It shouldn't be us people compromising. All the damn time. It doesn't happen that way grow a damn backbone

Nice, anon. Spitting facts today. I like it.

[curtwilde]

Leaving all religious debates aside, Babri Masjid was one of the very few surviving structures from the Sultanate. By destroying Babri Masjid they destroyed the third oldest mosque in the country, evidence of our country's glorious architectural history. Even if, and assuming it is true which is a massive leap of faith, even if a temple had existed there before, does destroying the Babri and giving 18 billion to a Danish company to build a collossal structure over it bring back the original temple? Is this your decolonization?

[onetimetwotimesthreetimess]

There will never be anything more despicable than building and celebrating, and forcing a nation to celebrate on the taxpayers money, a temple build on the mass graves of Muslims. The Hindu nationalist state, has proved again that this nation belongs to only Hindus.

Babri Masjid, 1992

Ram Temple, 2024

A bit of context for those who don’t know about the issue:

Babri Masjid, was a mosque in Ayodhya, India. It was built in the 16th century by the Mughal Empire. Babri Masjid was a holy place for the Muslims in the country. There’s a history of communalism (created by the British Empire) between Hindus (the majority religion) and Muslims (the minority) in the country.

In 1992, Babri Masjid was attacked and demolished by Hindu extremists who believed that the mosque was built on the site of birthplace of Ram (Hindu god). Thousands of people lost their lives. Thousands of Muslims were killed in cold blood by a hyper-nationalist state.

In 2010, after decades of Muslims fighting for justice, the Allahabad High Court upheld the claim that the mosque was built on Ram’s birth place. Muslims were also awarded one-third area of the site for the construction of a mosque. However, thr decision was subsequently appealed by all parties to the Indian Supreme Court, wherein a five judge bench heard a title suit from August to October 2019. On 9 November 2019, the Supreme Court quashed the lower court's judgement and ordered the entire site to be handed over to a trust to build the Hindu temple.

Today, 22nd January, 2024, marks the inaugural of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya. On a site that is so deeply entrenched within a community’s blood, pain and trauma. While these Hindu nationalists celebrate, every Muslim in the country feels more scared. Muslims in India have always been unlawfully detained, persecuted, punished and killed throughout the past seven decades but it has only worsened ever since BJP, the ruling party came in power. Celebrities, sportsperson, politicians and millions of people travelled to Ayodhya to celebrate this tremendous failure of the state.

Today, the Indian constitution lies under those thousands grave.

If any one of you celebrated, I hope you understand the gravity of your actions. I hope you understand what you all set in motion. I hope that one day, you understand and that there is no redemption for you after that.

I hope you all rot in hell.

Here’s a short poem by Rabindranath Tagore about an old god, a new temple, an arrogant king and many hungry and homeless ordinary people.

[krsnaradhika]

If speaking for decolonisation of Hindu temples in India and Hindu cultural renaissance, as well as the welfare of the Jews as they face anti-semitism in every other post I see, is fascist and zionist to you, block me. If the revival of Ram mandir is a matter of mourning and shame because the Babri was deconstructed in the process as it did not have any right to stand there by demolishing the place of worship of the Hindus, do not ever contact me again. I'm not the person you're gonna like and imma tell you one more thing - I have no more fucks to give. You take our land, you give it back. The janmabhoomi cannot be shifted but the mosque could and it has, my dude. So will the Gyanvapi and Shahi Eidgah of Kashi and Mathura respectively, because they were seized from us. Because they belong to our Shiva and Keshava and nobody has the right to tell us otherwise. If speaking against Mughal holocausts and genocides against Hindus offends you in any way and leads you into believing that I'm spreading communal hatred because you have by far assumed that I'm Islamophobic, and that Hinduphobia does not exist in and outside India, go no contact with me. Yeah that's it for now. I might edit this post later as I remember more pseudo-liberal agenda and protests against the Rama temple despite the supreme court favouring it in all ways. Despite all these evidences many of you say that it could have been a hospital or school because hey, we can trash on Hinduism all we like. The place isn't anything else because Parasaran sir said - "Once a temple, always a temple." Suggest all those things for the land granted for the other place of worship, if you dare. Wouldn't say that it's genius or even remotely decent either but do go ahead, y'all like to teach us stuff more than anything else. All this Hinduphobia I see here, fills me with more adrenaline to sprinkle salt on your cuts and burns. Have a good time my lovelies.

[beta-lactam-allergic]

I watched the ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Commission, to avoid confusion with other news agencies with same abbreviation) coverage of the opening of the Ram Mandir tonight (22nd January 2024).

The ABC coverage did not once mention that Ram Mandir is built on the site Hindus believe to be the birthplace of Rama. That this site is one of the most sacred sites in Hinduism.

If I had not followed this story over several years through other sources & just got my insight from that one news story, I would be under the impression that rabid Hindus destroyed a mosque for no reason & built a Hindu Temple on top of the mosque site for no reason other than to hate on Muslims. People who watch that story with no prior knowledge will be under the impression that the Babri Masjid mosque was built on a completely greenfield site. They would have no idea that it was built on the site of a pre-existing Temple to Rama. That the Mughal Empire destroyed an actively used Temple for the religion that their native subjects practiced, so as to put a structure of their own introduced faith on top of that site.

The way the ABC framed that story wasn't balanced. They could have mentioned the sites sacredness to Hinduism whilst still talking about the riots that killed thousands started by Hindus. Neither Hindus nor Muslims were saints in this, nor were either wholly bad, but you wouldn't know that from the way the story was framed.

[beardedmrbean]

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has inaugurated a grand temple to Hindu god Ram in the flashpoint city of Ayodhya.

He said it heralded "a new era" for India - the temple replaces a 16th-Century mosque torn down by Hindu mobs in 1992, sparking riots in which nearly 2,000 people died.

Top film stars and cricketers were among guests at the event in Ayodhya.

But some Hindu seers and most of the opposition boycotted it, saying Mr Modi was using it for political gain.

General elections are due in India in the next few months and Mr Modi's political rivals say the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will be seeking votes in the temple's name in a country where 80% of the population is Hindu.

Critics have also accused the government of exploiting a religious celebration in a country which - according to its constitution - is secular. For Muslims, India's biggest minority, the event evoked fear and painful memories, members of the community in Ayodhya told the BBC in the run-up to Monday's ceremony.

Televised live, it showed Mr Modi performing religious rituals inside the temple's sanctum along with priests and Mohan Bhagwat, head of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) - the ideological fountainhead of Hindu nationalist parties.

The complex history of India's Ayodhya holy site

Transforming a flashpoint holy city into the ‘Hindu Vatican’

"Today's date will go down in history," Mr Modi said after the event. "After years of struggle and countless sacrifices, Lord Ram has arrived [home]. I want to congratulate every citizen of the country on this historic occasion."

The temple has been constructed at a cost of $217m (£170m), funded from private donations. Only the ground floor was opened - the rest is expected to be completed by the end of the year. The construction work is part of a revamp for the city, estimated to cost more than $3bn.

The building of the Ram temple in Ayodhya fulfils a decades-long Hindu nationalist pledge. Many Hindus believe the Babri mosque was built by Muslim invaders on the ruins of a temple where the Hindu god was born.

The movement to build the temple helped propel the BJP into political prominence in the 1990s.

There was a festive atmosphere as tens of thousands of chanting Hindu devotees waved flags and beat drums - military helicopters showered flower petals on the temple. Saffron flags with pictures of Lord Ram line streets in the city festooned with marigolds, as do banners with the faces of Mr Modi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

Some of India's biggest celebrities, including Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan and cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, attended.

Temple rises from ruins of one of India’s darkest days

Listen: The temple at the heart of Modi's India re-election bid

Transforming a flashpoint holy city into the ‘Hindu Vatican’

In many other northern cities Hindus lit lamps, and saffron flags carrying images of Ram are fluttering on rooftops, including in several parts of Delhi. Cinemas screened the event, and big screens relayed pictures from Ayodhya to town squares and residential neighbourhoods.

The ceremony, called Pran Pratishtha, which loosely translates from Sanskrit into "establishment of life force", lasted about an hour. Hindus believe that chanting mantras and performing rituals around a fire will infuse sacred life in an idol or a photograph of a deity.

Several domestic TV stations built huge sets by the side of the river Saryu, a tributary of the Ganges, just behind the temple, and provided wall-to-wall coverage of the event, some proclaiming the moment of consecration as the start of "Ram Rajya" (Lord Ram's rule) in India.

Hindus celebrated the inauguration in other countries too. Massive billboards of Lord Ram graced Times Square in New York, where a group of devotees braved the freezing weather to gather in the middle of the night.

Temples all across the United Kingdom - where Indians are one of the largest diaspora groups - marked the event. Colourful posters had been shared inviting devotees to honour the occasion and celebrations involved flowers, sweets and music. There were also some celebrations in Muslim-majority Dubai - where Indians are a significant population - but from Indian news reports these appeared more muted than elsewhere.

In 2019, the Supreme Court gave the disputed land to Hindus after a protracted legal battle followed the mosque's demolition. Muslims were given a plot outside the city for a mosque but have yet to build one.

One member of the community the BBC spoke to in Ayodhya ahead of Monday's inauguration agreed that Hindus have the right to build the temple after the Supreme Court gave them the site.

"We did not accept that decision happily, but what can we do," he said. Another man said he was happy Hindus are building the temple - "but we are also sad because it was built after destroying a mosque".

The new three-storey temple - made with pink sandstone and anchored by black granite - stretches across 7.2 acres in a 70-acre complex. A 51-inch (4.25-ft) statue of the deity, specially commissioned for the temple, was unveiled last week. The idol has been placed on a marble pedestal in the sanctum sanctorum.

Thousands of police were deployed for Monday's event, despite Mr Modi having appealed to pilgrims not to turn up and to watch the ceremony on television. In many states a full or half day holiday was called, with schools and colleges closed and stock markets shut.

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But a sour note was struck with some top religious seers saying that as the temple was not yet complete, it was against Hinduism to perform the rituals there, and many opposition leaders deciding to stay away.

Some opposition-ruled states also announced their own plans for the day - West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said she would pray at the iconic temple to goddess Kali in Kolkata and then lead an all-faith rally. The eastern state of Odisha (Orissa) unveiled huge plans to bring pilgrims to the Jagannath temple in Puri, one of the holiest sites for Hindus.

Authorities say they expect more than 150,000 visitors per day once the temple in Ayodhya is fully ready.

To accommodate this expected rush, new hotels are being built and existing ones spruced up as part of a major makeover and in recent weeks, a new airport and railway station have opened.

Officials say they are building a "world-class city where people come as pilgrims and tourists", but many local people have told the BBC that their homes, shops and "structures of religious nature" have been either completely or partially demolished to expand roads and set up other facilities.

[jobaaj]

The 500-year wait is over! Lord Ram is home!! Check out the full timeline:🔽🔽 - 1528: According to the history books, Babur's general Mir Baq was in charge of constructing the Babri masjid at the place where Lord Ram was born. The old temple was destroyed to construct the mosque.

- 1530-65: Unverified reports suggest communal violence over the Mandir-Masjid debate and Akbar, the then Mughal ruler, set up a common platform for worship. - 1853-85: After almost 330 years, communal violence erupts again. The British Empire sets up partitions and Mahant Das’s plea to build a canopy above the platform is denied. - 1949: The turning point comes when the idol of Lord Ram appears from inside the mosque. According to Muslims, the idol was placed inside the mosque by a radical Hindu outfit. As both parties file multiple lawsuits, the situation gets more complicated.

- 1950-61: Multiple lawsuits are filed and other parties join the fray with both sides claiming the land as theirs. - 1983-1989: The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) starts a nationwide move to build a temple and legal tensions flare up. Muslims set up the Babri Masjid Committee and the former VP of the VHP files a suit on behalf of Lord Ram to get possession and the first stone for the temple is laid. - 1990: BJP leader Lal Krishna Advani’s Rath Yatra from Somnath to Ayodhya saw thousands of volunteers march as they partially damaged the mosque in a scuffle that left scores dead. - 1992: The bloodiest event in the Mandir-Masjid dispute as Hindu volunteers demolish the mosque and a bloody battle erupts throughout the nation. Over 2,000 were reported dead. A small tent is set up where the idol is placed for worship. - 2002: PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee sets up an Ayodhya cell and the Allahabad HC judges begin determining ownership of the site. - 2003: The Archaeological Survey of India begins surveying the area and a survey reveals the existence of a temple’s remains beneath the mosque. Muslims challenge the findings as tensions continue. - 2010: The disputed land is split into 3 parts where one went to the Hindus, another to the Muslims, and the final one to the Nirmohi Akhara. - 2011: All 3 parties approach the Supreme Court to challenge the Allahabad HC’s judgment and the SC issues a stay on the order. - 2015-18: The SC removes all irrelevant parties from the lawsuit as the matter gets more sensitive during that time. - 2019: After a failed mediation attempt, a five-judge bench announces a judgment in favor of the Hindus, and the Muslims are allotted 5 acres for the construction of another mosque. - 2020: PM Narendra Modi lays the foundation stone for the construction alongside a commemorative plaque and a special postage stamp. - 22nd January 2024: The temple is officially consecrated and Lord Ram, who has been in a tent since 1992, is unveiled for worship in a state-of-the-art temple. Follow Jobaaj Stories (the Media arm of Jobaaj.com Group) for more.