Ayodhya/Lucknow, India – Wearing her hijab, Yusra Hussain stood in line to enter a makeshift temple to the Hindu god Ram in Ayodhya, the northern Indian city believed to be his birthplace. What followed is engraved in her mind.
I was mocking [at] “And he scoffed,” the 32-year-old said. “People started chanting Jai Shri Ram [victory to Lord Ram]. “I had a feeling of aggressive triumph.”
That was eight years ago. On Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate an unfinished Ram temple built in place of the temporary shrine visited by Hussein, amid nationwide frenzy over the dedication that has left the country of 1.4 billion people and a nearly $4 trillion economy , into chaos. Virtual inertia.
The stock market is closed, government offices are open only half the day, and cinema halls offer live showings of religious ceremonies that Modi's opponents say he has hijacked ahead of national elections expected to start in March.
Major public hospitals announced they would reduce their services for the day to allow staff to enjoy the celebrations, although some have since backed away from these announcements.
News channels and popular discourse miss any reference to the fact that the temple arises on the same spot where the 16th-century Babri Mosque was demolished by a Hindu nationalist mob on a gray winter morning in December 1992.
Hussain, a freelance journalist based in the city of Lucknow, 120 kilometers east of Ayodhya, said she fears that the “victory” she witnessed during her first visit to the temple city “may get worse in the future.” days”.
“In fact, after Ayodhya, there may be a ripple effect on other disputed places like Mathura and Kashi,” she said. Mathura and Varanasi – Modi's parliamentary constituency also known locally as Kashi – are also home to historic mosques that the prime minister's Bharatiya Janata Party and its Hindu majority allies say were built on ruined temples.
For many of India's 200 million Muslims, the state-sponsored ceremony around the temple's dedication is the latest in a series of painful realizations – especially since Modi took office in 2014 – that the democracy they call home no longer seems to care about them. .
The increasing religious polarization in the country affects not only their safety and security, but also their political influence in the upcoming national elections. Muslims constitute more than 20% of the population in 101 of the 543 directly elected parliamentary constituencies in India. Indian secularism was based on Hindus and Muslims – the two largest communities in the country – voting on economic or non-religious issues.
This means that although Indian Muslims do not constitute a homogeneous voting bloc, the Indian community has had a limited but certain ability to influence electoral outcomes for much of India's 77-year journey of independence. This is particularly true of the northern states of Uttar Pradesh – home to Ayodhya, Varanasi, Mathura, and Lucknow – and Bihar, as well as the eastern states of West Bengal and Assam, home to some of India's largest Muslim populations.
As religious sentiment rises, and if the Hindu majority unites behind a party like the Bharatiya Janata Party, as often happened in recent elections, this equation no longer exists.
“The 2024 elections could be a one-sided affair in favor of the BJP,” said Hussain Afsar, Yusra’s father who is also a Lucknow-based journalist.
At the heart of Modi's religious playing field is the Ram Temple, which is being unveiled while still under construction, despite opposition from some top Hindu seers who have accused the prime minister of timing his dedication to maximize electoral gains.
Hindus and Muslims have coexisted with each other for hundreds of years alongside mosques and temples in India. “Both places of worship are culturally and historically important for all Indians,” Lucknow-based social activist Tahira Hassan said. “I don't think any Muslim has a problem with the temple. The problem arises when religion and places of worship are used to polarize society, create hostility and religion is used to create tensions.”
Since January 12, Modi has been fasting and visiting a series of temples dressed in saffron robes, blurring the lines between prime minister and monk. On Monday, Modi will join priests and selected dignitaries in a 30-minute ceremony at the temple. The Congress Party, the country's largest opposition party, will be absent from the event.
“The use of religion in politics is what people care about,” Hassan said.
The temple is being built at an estimated cost of 11.8 billion Indian rupees ($142 million). “This will be the new Vatican for Hindus,” said Vijay Mishra, an astrologer and priest who commutes between Ayodhya and Lucknow.
But it is only the focus of a broader revival and expansion of the city of Ayodhya, where Modi opened a new airport and railway station in December. The city increasingly extends to the neighboring city of Faizabad, named after a Muslim courtier.
Also adjacent to Ayodhya is the village of Dhanipur, where the Indian Supreme Court, in a 2019 ruling, asked the government to give land to the Muslim community to build a mosque. This was the same ruling that granted 2.7 acres (one hectare) of disputed land to a trust for the construction of a Ram Temple where the Babri Mosque once stood.
“Our plan is to build a hospital and a mosque,” said Athar Hussain, coordinator of the foundation tasked with building a mosque in Dhanipur.
He added: “We may not have the money yet, but we will raise it eventually.” Hussain, who is not related to Yamna and her father, admitted that the Supreme Court ruling, and the subsequent rapid construction of the Ram temple, had left many Muslims in despair. But he added: “There's not much we can do about it.”
This sense of resignation extends to many Muslims, some of whom, like Yumna, hold community leaders responsible as well.
“We have reconciled with the construction of a Hindu temple in Ayodhya, but the Islamic leadership has begun to raise hopes that the secular constitution will take care of the interests of minorities and return the disputed lands,” she said.
She said that expectations reached their peak when, in 2018, the Supreme Court attempted to arbitrate between representatives of local communities. These efforts have failed.
However, Hussain, the Dhanipur Mosque project coordinator, remains hopeful that the Indian judiciary will not allow the Ayodhya model to be replicated in Mathura and Varanasi.
Last week, the Supreme Court stayed a Supreme Court ruling ordering a study of the 17th-century Shahi Idgah Mosque in Mathura to find out whether it was built over the remains of a temple.
“We hope it stays that way,” Hussein said.
