#Ram Temple Inauguration

[journalsmente]

K.Kavitha's Joyful Anticipation as Ayodhya's Grand Ram Temple Nears Completion

As the highly anticipated inauguration of the grand Ram Temple in Ayodhya approaches, K Kavitha, the daughter of former Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao, took to X timeline to express her elation.

In a heartfelt post written in Telugu, she described the upcoming installation of the idol of Sri Seetharama Chandra Swamy as a dream come true for millions of Hindus, extending warm wishes on behalf of Telangana.

Sharing her excitement, K Kavitha posted a video showcasing the under-construction Ram Temple. She highlighted the auspicious moment when the idol of Lord Ram will be installed in Ayodhya, emphasizing its significance for Hindus across the nation. The post resonated with the collective sentiment of Hindus eagerly awaiting the completion of this historic and sacred monument.

Meanwhile, progress on the Ram Temple construction is evident, particularly in the nearly finished sanctum sanctorum where the idol of Ram Lalla will be placed. Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust's general secretary, Champat Rai, shared images of the sanctum sanctorum, signaling that the consecration ceremony scheduled for January 22, 2024, is on track.

Amidst the final preparations, the Ram Temple Trust is set to make a crucial decision on December 15—choosing which of the three Ram Lalla idols being sculpted will be installed in the sanctum sanctorum. The ceremony is expected to draw distinguished guests, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, making it a momentous occasion for devotees and the nation as a whole.

[latent-thoughts]

The wait is over...

Shree Ram is coming home...

500 years of oppression, suppression, struggle, agitation, tears, mourning, resilience, and most importantly, hope and faith.

I've only seen about 35 years of it, but I've seen enough to know how important this day is for us Hindus. Here's why my mutuals are seeing this on their dash.

Today, Shree Ram, who's the 7th Avatar of our God Vishnu, will finally return to his birthplace in the ancient city of Ayodhya--the place where the original temple dedicated to him had stood for millennia. That temple had been demolished and desecrated on command of an Islamic invader called Babar in 1528, and a mosque was built atop its ruins. Hence the 500 year struggle to reclaim it, which reached a critical point when the mosque was finally demolished in 1992.

The process to reclaim this sacred place and rebuild the temple was no walk in the park. The issue went up to the Supreme Court of India, the highest court in the country, and finally, after the favourable verdict, the construction of the temple started in May 2020.

Today, Shree Ram Chandra, the righteous, just and kind king who ruled Ayodhya thousands of years ago, returns home. It's not just an event of religious importance, it's a day of civilizational and cultural importance.

We're reclaiming our heritage.

Jai Shree Ram!

Happy Dwitiya Diwali!

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A post shared by C H A R A N (@charannn7x__)

[townpostin]

Ghatshila Pandal Replicates Ayodhya's Ram Temple

BJP leader inaugurates Evergreen Ganesh Puja Committee’s creation Key Points: • Laldeeh’s Evergreen Ganesh Puja Committee builds Ayodhya-inspired pandal • BJP district secretary Geeta Murmu inaugurates grand structure • Event highlights cultural unity and religious traditions • Committee members welcome Murmu with floral bouquet GHATSHILA – A local puja committee has unveiled an Ayodhya-inspired…

[easterneyenews]

US-based Indian activist applauds initiative allowing diaspora contributions to Ram Mandir

Social activist Prem Bhandari had earlier appealed to prime minister Narendra Modi to allow members of the Indian diaspora across the world to contribute to the development of the Ram Temple in Uttar PradeshAsserting that there are over 3.5 crore Non-Resident Indians and Persons of Indian Origin around the world, he said that many of them would like to contribute to the development of the temple.

Read more- https://www.easterneye.biz/us-indian-activist-applauds-diaspora-contributions-to-ram-mandir/

[kkkabir-blog]

Ram Mandir Inauguration: Virat Kohli, Sachin Tendulkar, Amitabh Bachchan Among 8000 Invitees

https://thequotes.co.in/ram-mandir-inauguration-virat-kohli-sachin-tendulkar-amitabh-bachchan-among-8000-invitees/

[phenakistoskope]

remember, the inauguration of the ram temple isn't a mere matter of hindu religious grandstanding, it is also an event to signal investment opportunities for the further development of the neoliberal economy.

sure, the official story says that the temple was built from donations gathered from hindus and inexplicable well-wishers across the economic spectrum (the fundraising for this was notably, extremely threatening), but this is most likely a smokescreen for a complicated series of economic maneuvers carried out by the bjp, rss, vhp, and allied organisations.

we already know that the temple itself was built by the multi-national construction agency larsen and toubro, which really lays precedent for the exact form of investment this “development project” and its peripheral projects seek funding from, and to whom the profits accrued will go.

[incorrectmahabharatquotes]

Genuinely curious, because you seem to hate the Ram Mandir... or how you think one party/ruling government is using it for political gain/votes or how it's wasting money etc.

What do you have to say about the Waqf board act? Or the infamous Shah Bano case and the way the Rajiv Gandhi government went against the decision of the Supreme Court to favour Muslim patriarchy. Or the fact that the Congress government banned books like the Satanic Verses to please a certain community. Is this not politics of appeasement?

You say that the ruling party is playing politics over religion, but hasn't every party done it? It's not like BJP was even hiding it, they've been campaigning for the Ram Mandir rebuilding for decades. It doesn't make it automatically a bad move.

Besides, Ram Mandir is built through devotee donations, so why so much vitriol against it? If Hindus are giving money to construct a temple, it's solely their own decision. I genuinely don't understand why there's so much hatred for it. If a community is reclaiming their holy land, which had been forcibly ruined and rebuilt into another type of building, it's not a bad thing. Plus, a big chunk of land was given to the Sunny Waqf board to build a beautiful mosque in Ayodhya itself, which has begun construction this year (iirc). Both communities will have their interests restored.

Why can't we move on and celebrate the Ram Mandir rebuilding and inauguration? Is decolonization and reclaiming of a place of cultural significance not important?

(I know that some people are being too aggressive about it, but the majority isn't. They're simply celebrating and praying. And some of them actually got attacked for it.)

Okay. Since you're genuinely curious, I'll answer this.

"Why am I criticising the current ruling party for playing politics of appeasement and not any of the other parties?" I'm criticizing them BECAUSE they're the ruling party. They have been in power for close to 10 years now. That's more than 1/3rd of my whole life. This is a hilarious question because I would've been criticizing the same action if it would've been taken by any other political party. I don't have a problem with the party, I have a problem with what they're doing. All citizens are SUPPOSED to do this, my friend. Criticizing your government on what they're doing wrong is a fundamental part of a democracy.

"Politics of appeasement." I hope you understand the difference between appeasement and religious nationalism. The ruling party isn't appeasing anyone. Their acts are guided by their political ideology of Hindutva. I fundamentally disagree with their ideology. I do not agree with them when they say being Hindu is integral to being an Indian. I do not believe in maintaining a Hindu hegemony in India. I simply refuse to accept an ideology that was LITERALLY INSPIRED BY FASCISM AND THE IDEAS OF RACIAL SUPERIORITY.

"What do you have to say about so-and-so?" You know, I would've criticised things I believe are harming our country and power when the governments you speak of were in power. Unfortunately, in certain cases I was not alive then to criticize them and in a few cases, I was a child and I did not know how to form complex sentences. I do not believe in essentialism, you understand? I do not believe that any religion or political party is essentially good or bad. I believe in judging them for what they do.

"They've been campaigning for the Ram Mandir for decades. It doesn't make it automatically a bad move." It's imperative for you to understand this, it is politically a good move and in all other ways a HORRIBLE move. They get the support of all the Hindus who make up the majority of the population? Decent political move. Who could begrudge them for using DIVIDE AND CONQUER as a strategy? But in doing so, what kind of monster have they created? Have they created a billion people who think religious-nationalism is an okay direction for the country's future? Is that a good move, I ask you.

"Ram mandir is built through devotee donations so it's okay." That's close to ₹1,800 crores. (Estimated amount because of course, there's no transparency in the donation system so that we know who donated what amount.) Do you seriously believe all that money came out of the pockets of average working class Indians? Or did the ultra wealthy businessmen fund this religious project and get massive tax breaks in the process? But yes, I'm sure there's no fuckery going on with the money because it's out of DEVOTION. That makes it okay, I guess.

Now we come to the part that is the worst part of this anon message, according to me.

"Reclamation and decolonization." You use these words so lightly and I find that offensive. These words are HIGHLY tied to power structures. Who has the power right now? Is it the mythic evil Islamic conquerors of 400 years ago? Or is it a political party that believes in hindu nationalism and is funded by the ultra wealthy billionaires because said party helps them get even richer? Who is reclaiming what here? I want you to ask yourself this. Can a powerful majority claim reclamation when they tear down a building to build another building there?

"They tore down the temple and built a mosque there" And now you've torn down the mosque and built a temple there. Congratulations, you've won the game. Where do we go from here? Will everyone be happy now? Has peace been restored? A great evil destroyed? What story are we telling ourselves here? Will the religious fanaticism go away now? Will the hatred that has been cultivated in the hearts of Hindus against Muslims be sated? Or will it find more avenues to spread itself?

Decolonizing the mind, right? I wonder why we're only focused on decolonizing against the islamic past and not anything else. But it's okay that India is currently colonising Kashmir. We don't believe in decolonisation when it comes to Kashmir. We don't believe in decolonizing from the system of capitalism that is choking the lives out of us. HELL, WE DON'T EVEN BELIEVE IN RECLAMATION SEEING HOW WE HAVE A PROBLEM WITH GIVING THE BARE MINIMUM RESERVATION TO CERTAIN COMMUNITIES AS A REPARATION FOR THE HARM THEY'VE HISTORICALLY AND CURRENTLY SUFFERED AND ARE STILL SUFFERING.

I don't want people to talk to me about reclamation, reparation and decolonisation before they accept their own hypocrisy.

Anon, you say have so much vitriol and hate towards a mandir. I should let people celebrate. Did I stop you personally from celebrating? Did I beat up somebody for trying to shove their religious agenda on me? All I did was talk about how sad I am that this is what we've decided to do with our country's resources. Why is one voice of dissent such a big deal to you? Do you want me to shut up and fall in line? Will that be acceptable?

- Mod S

[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!!!

[metamatar]

The fact that rahul gandhi is actually following shri ram's principles, he's doing the yatra, meeting the people of the country, hearing their grievances and on the other hand the people who release rapists from jail and garland them are going to inaugurate the temple for maryada purushottam... what a irony.

(BTW I'm not a supporter of any party but I do think the gandhi family are at least morally superior.)

valmiki's ram, the most authoritative ramayana in modern hinduism tried to kill his wife bc he suspected her of being unfaithful. why would you come on my blog to do this. i suggest no one use epics at the centre of the most virulent reactionary forces in the country cf ram rajya, ram mandir to be guiding principles. much less an epic that textually justifies the subjection of women and dalits. free yrself from brahman morality.

[mariacallous]

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Ram temple in Ayodhya in the key northern state of Uttar Pradesh in January in hopes it would earn him a massive victory in the national election that concluded in June. That didn’t happen—at least not to the extent that Modi, his Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and their ideological fountainhead Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) expected.

In what has widely been described as a shock result, the BJP won merely 240 seats in the 543-seat parliament, after setting a target of 400 seats. Modi has formed a government but only with support from other parties.

Like any election result, the outcome had multiple causes that will take time to fully sort out. But one thing is already clear: Modi failed in his long-running bid to homogenize India’s Hindus across castes and cultures and consolidate their vote for his political benefit.

In 2014, Modi came to power on the back of religious nationalism and security issues, and he continued that trend in 2019. This year, in the absence of any urgent security threat from regional rival Pakistan and rising concerns over unemployment, inflation, and authoritarianism, Modi banked on the RSS’s homogenization strategy.

The Ram temple was built on a site long disputed with Muslims, where a 16th-century mosque stood until December 1992, when a group of Hindu nationalists razed it to the ground allegedly on the BJP’s provocation. Experts said the BJP had envisaged the temple would instill pride in Hindus, feed their Muslim animosity, and bring them under the Hindu umbrella to choose Modi.

Even though, by and large, the Hindu community seemed to have been pleased with the inauguration of the temple, that didn’t translate into votes for Modi across the Hindu hierarchy. Instead, the results exposed the weaknesses of the homogenization exercise.

Hartosh Singh Bal, an Indian journalist and the executive editor of the Caravan, said there is “diversity in Hinduism” and the election results prove that it can’t be “papered over by directing attention and hatred outwards” toward Muslims. This election proves that “Hindus are not a monolith” and that “various segments of Hinduism have a successful chance of taking on the BJP,” he added in reference to tactical voting by lower castes in Uttar Pradesh against the BJP.

Karthick Ram Manoharan, a political scientist at the National Law School of India University in Bengaluru, said that in Tamil Nadu, a state in southern India with the second-biggest economy in the country, the BJP did not win a single seat out of a total of 39.

“Hindus are the absolute majority in Tamil Nadu, but they still mostly vote for the secular Dravidian parties,” Manoharan said in reference to local parties that have emerged out of social movements opposed to an upper-caste Hindu order that the BJP and RSS have been long accused of nurturing and propagating.

In March, just a month before voting began, I witnessed saffron-colored flags expressing support for Modi’s party jutting out from rooftops and windows in tightly packed homes in western Uttar Pradesh. Some people I spoke to said that BJP workers had decided to adorn the neighborhoods as they pleased, but underneath the flag-waving, a large-scale discontent was brewing over a lack of employment opportunities.

The upper-caste youth seemed confused, if not yet disenchanted, with Modi and in the absence of industry and strong local economies once again mourned the loss of government jobs to affirmative action. (The Indian Constitution reserves almost half of all state jobs for people from lower castes and others who confront a generational disadvantage and historical discrimination.)

Meanwhile, Dalits, who sit at the bottom of India’s Hindu hierarchy, in hamlets nearby who depend on the quota for their dignity and livelihood were quietly recalibrating their options. The mood was starkly different from 2014 and 2019 when I visited some of the Dalit-dominated parliamentary seats in Uttar Pradesh. Back then, Dalits I met were upbeat and decisively pro-Modi. They said they supported him since they believed that he might raise their stature in the Hindu hierarchy.

But 10 years later, they suspected the BJP was plotting to weaken the constitution, the only assurance of rights for marginalized communities in a country where upper-caste Hindus continue to hold social capital and economic power.

Recent comments by BJP leaders that if Modi won 400 seats, he would change the constitution spread anxiety among lower castes that the party intended to scrap the reservation system. The BJP repeatedly denied this, but the suspicion that it is first a party for upper-caste Hindus is deep-rooted among lower castes, and experts believe the comments were part of the BJP’s political strategy.

“They were testing the waters to see what would be the reaction,” said Sushil Kumar Pandey, an assistant professor of history at Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University in Lucknow and the author of Caste and Politics in Democracy.

“The opposition picked it up and campaigned on it, telling people a change in the constitution could mean losing your livelihood, your jobs,” Pandey added. “That worked at a time [when] people were also scared of privatization” and in government-run sectors.

For Dalits, it was about more than jobs. The Indian Constitution is nearly worshipped by the community and celebrated en masse on the birth anniversary of the Indian intellectual who wrote it. B.R. Ambedkar was no fan of Ram and advocated against the caste discrimination inherent in Hinduism all his life, even converting to Buddhism when he felt there was no escaping caste-based prejudice. While he couldn’t annihilate the caste system, he ensured that the constitution offered lower castes a quota in government jobs to gradually uplift them.

In his honor, and as an ode to the progressive document, Dalits sing songs in praise of the constitution and hail it as the upholder of their dignity in a society where they continue to be belittled. Any change to the text was unacceptable. “Their cultural identity is linked to this book,” said Ravish Kumar, a journalist and the host of a popular YouTube news show.

In the south, too, there was a fear of culturally being subsumed by a Hindi-speaking upper-caste elite. Indian federal units, or states, were defined in the 1950s on the basis of language, and to this day south Indians identify themselves on the basis of the language they speak. The Ram temple had no resonance in the southern states, particularly in electorally significant Tamil Nadu, with the highest number of seats regionally. Tamils were wary that the RSS’s homogenization agenda would drown out their cultural ethos and impose a secondary status on the Tamil language.

Manoharan, the political scientist, said that in Tamil Nadu, it was “not so much religious but fear of cultural homogeneity” and “a language policy which will give importance to Hindi speakers over Tamil speakers and upper-caste Tamils over other backward castes.”

In a state where “88 percent people come from so-called lower castes” and “69 percent have jobs under affirmative action through a special act,” people were also extremely worried that the BJP may “water down” the employment quota promised in the constitution, Manoharan added.

The southern Indian states have a longer history of resistance to upper-caste domination, a higher literacy rate, better economies, and a tradition of secular politics. While the BJP maintained its tally of 29 seats from the last election, it is being seen as a poor result considering the inroads the RSS has made in the south.

For instance, in the southwestern state of Kerala, the RSS has more than 5,000 shakhas, or branches, second in number only to Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state—yet “despite the fact that the RSS has thousands of training grounds in Kerala, they are unable to get influence,” said K.M. Sajad Ibrahim, a professor of political science at University of Kerala. “That’s because while religion is important, communal harmony is more important to people here. BJP tries to create tensions, and that doesn’t work here.”

The BJP managed to gain one seat for the first time in Kerala, but that isn’t being attributed to its ideological success or expansion of homogenization project but to the winning candidate’s personal appeal. Suresh Gopi, the winning candidate, is a popular movie star.

In many states in the Hindi belt and even in the south, the BJP did well. The upper castes and urban voters are standing firmly behind Modi. Kumar, the journalist, said it would be foolhardy to dismiss Modi—and the bigger Hindutva, or Hindu nationalist, forces backing him—just yet. He said Hindutva hasn’t lost and only faced a setback. “The BJP was trying to dominate caste politics with Hindutva,” he said, “but the election result shows that dominance has cracked.” However, he added, “it has only cracked—the ideology still has wide-scale acceptance.”

Everyone else Foreign Policy spoke to concurred but added that Hindus are far too diverse to be homogenized. Manoharan said the results exposed the weakness of the homogenization agenda and its faulty premise. “Hindutva’s aim for homogeneity is confounded precisely by a structural feature of the religion-culture it seeks to defend—caste,” he said.

[sivavakkiyar]

The demand for a caste census continues to gain popularity. After Bihar published the results of its case census in October, pressure is growing on the Karnataka government to release its findings. Andhra Pradesh has started its caste census and there are increasing calls for a similar exercise in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

With direct implications for reservations in education and public sector jobs, welfare provisions and political mobilisation, caste censuses could be decisive to uncovering power relations in the country.

The 2024 general elections are due soon and a caste census may momentarily seem to have diminished in importance, given the gains made by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance with inauguration of the Ram temple in January. But its significance will doubtless become apparent after the election when the challenges of poverty, unemployment and related issues of resource distribution rise to the fore.

So far, the focus in caste census discussions has largely been on ascertaining the populations of caste communities and tackling problems related to the multiplicity of jati names. How people identify themselves is shaped by a complex mix of tradition, personal beliefs political positioning and the influence of community organisations. Understanding identities is, therefore, a weighty task.

At the same time, equal attention must be paid to the opportunity presented by the exercise to measure land ownership by caste. Caste censuses can reveal crucial patterns in how power in India is enmeshed in land. Most importantly, the caste census has the potential to bring land reform back to political agendas.

[hindulivesmatter]

That Pakistani girlie had me laughing my ass off for 10 minutes. She's so delusional omggg!!!

It's sad though, when we google Ram Mandir the only articles that show up are presenting half-baked story, deliberately hiding facts and fulfilling the leftist narrative.

Anyone who's gonna look over stories are gonna make the conclusion - wait, Hindus are unstable nationalists (derogatory) who are oppressing The Minority™. I still don't know why they're doing it - what are they gaining from painting wrong picture?????? Why do they want the world to hate Hindus so bad they've gone so far to resort to historical revisionism and erasure.

Note - Sikhs and Jains have been tremendous helpful in our struggle to reclaim this one temple. They understand why Ram Mandir is important to India not just Hindus. They understand Babri Masjid wasn't a place of Worship it was a monument of Slavery.

PS - many christian organisations have donated to ram mandir as well as muslim organisations too.

The only ones pissed off are Leftists who want to brainwash others into being hateful bigots by any means even if it means revisionism and erasure.

Pakistani girl was so delusional. A textbook example of what happens when you only consume media from Al Jazeera.

Biased media in India for the win😔. Not to mention even foreign media outlets covered the inauguration with skewed headlines.

According to Anand Ranganathan, "Taxidermy fetish is what it is". Literally that.

I always find it funny when they call people like me a bigot, like, you can have your opinion? I genuinely don't care? Why are you coming into my blog, an awareness blog and calling me a fascist freak? That's not very "peaceful" of you lmao.

You're so real for this anon.

[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.

[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.

[anixknowsnothin]

is there some kind of a celebration in india rn? what's happening?

hi Edith!! India is a secular country but a majority of us are Hindus (those who believe in Hinduism which is a very old religion)

We have holy texts, one of them being the Ramayana, which is about our deity Ram. There are many temples built after him, especially in Ayodhya, the city he was born in.

When Babur, the first Mughal emperor of India, arrived, he constructed Babri Masjid, a mosque that many believe was constructed on top of Ram Janmabhoomi, the exact site where Ram Ji was born. In 1992, it was demolished by a Hindu nationalist group and in 2019, the Supreme Court gave the ruling that a Hindu temple would be made on this land and a mosque will be constructed on another site. Now, the temple has been constructed and today was the inauguration of the Ram Mandir (translates to Ram Temple) and the entire country is celebrating!