Millions of people throughout India watched the opening of a massive Hindu temple on Monday, an event seen as the pinnacle of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist objectives months before he seeks a rare third term in office.

The Ram Janmabhoomi Mandir, a temple dedicated to Lord Ram, will be inaugurated in northern India’s Ayodhya after more than 30 years of preparation and is expected to give Modi’s election campaign a significant boost.

The Ram Mandir is realizing Modi’s aim of creating a “new India,” which many believe will transform the country into a distinctly Hindu nation.

For Modi’s adversaries, the temple’s inauguration marks the completion of a decades-long drive to distance India from the secular roots on which the country was built after independence.

“Today, our Lord Ram has arrived. After generations of waiting, our Ram has finally arrived. “After centuries of unprecedented patience, countless sacrifices, renunciations, and penances, our Lord Ram has arrived,” Modi declared from the newly-constructed temple, which was adorned with colourful flowers, before an audience of 7,000 people, including movie stars, top cricket players, and tycoons.

“Ram is not a dispute, Ram is the solution,” he said.

Monday’s ceremony fulfils a long-standing promise Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government made to voters, which helped drive them to power in 2014.

In a deadly 1992 attack that sparked the nation’s Hindu nationalist movement, violent Hindu hardliners destroyed a 16th-century mosque on the site of a temple that Modi and his political supporters had long promised to erect.

Modi Hails A New ‘Divine India’ As He Inaugurates Controversial Hindu Temple Ahead Of Nationwide Elections

The BJP and other right-wing parties pushed for the mosque’s demolition, which propelled the party into mainstream politics and helped it win a general election four years later.

In his speech, Modi made no direct mention of the Babri Masjid or the country’s Muslims, many of whom are deeply saddened by the events in Ayodhya. He did mention moving forward and “the beginning of a new time cycle.”

“From today, from this hallowed time, we must create the groundwork for the next 1,000 years. By moving forward with the temple construction, we are all taking a pledge to establish a national, capable, successful, beautiful, and divine India,” Modi stated.

On Monday, Modi presided over the Pran Pratishtha, or consecration ceremony, of an idol of Lord Ram, one of Hinduism’s most revered deities, within the temple’s sanctum sanctorum. The black stone statue depicted a young boy and was embellished with gold jewellery, gemstones, diamonds, and flowers.

Outside, military helicopters hovered over the temple and city, showering flower petals on the massive structure and hundreds of dignitaries below.

Mohan Bhagwat, chief of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the BJP’s right-wing parent organization, spoke at the occasion, stating that the temple “has become a symbol of a new India that will stand tall.”

“It has been said, and we know, that today in Ayodhya, along with Lord Ram, India’s self has returned,” he said.

Yogi Adityanath, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, where Ayodhya is located, and one of the country’s most polarising political figures, described the Ram Mandir as India’s “national temple” and an “important ritual of cultural reawakening.”

Saffron flags soared high all day, and marigold flowers adorned building doors as tens of thousands of believers marched through the ancient town’s streets in joyous processions.

“For 500 years, Lord Ram was living in a hut,” devotee Acharya Mohanjodaro Bharadwaj told CNN, alluding to the time the Mughal-era mosque was constructed. “Today Modi made him sit inside a temple, the whole country is celebrating it like it’s Diwali.”

Celebrations were held nationwide, with officials pushing people to celebrate in their homes and temples, ensuring it became a national event.

Uttar Pradesh proclaimed Monday a public holiday, with schools and liquor businesses closed throughout the state.

Modi Hails A New ‘Divine India’ As He Inaugurates Controversial Hindu Temple Ahead Of Nationwide Elections

Hundreds of Indian diaspora members gathered in New York on Sunday to celebrate the inauguration in front of a giant image of Lord Ram shown on a Times Square screen. Indian embassies around the world had watch parties.

While millions of Hindus hailed the unveiling of the long-awaited complex, which they regard as Ram’s birthplace, the country’s minority Muslim community saw it as a bitter reminder of religious tensions that they worry will worsen under Modi’s BJP rule.

The temple site was originally home to the Babri Masjid, a 16th-century mosque built during the Mughal Empire’s reign over India from 1526 to 1858.

However, the site has been debated for decades.

Many Hindus think the mosque was erected over the remnants of a Hindu temple that Babar, the first Mughal emperor in South Asia, purportedly demolished.

In 1992, right-wing organizations like the BJP and other groups supported Hindu hardliners who attacked the mosque, sparking widespread communal rioting that claimed over 2,000 lives nationwide.

The violence was among the most severe seen in India since the deadly battles that accompanied partition after independence in 1947.

In the years that followed, Hindu nationalists banded together to build the Ram Mandir on the site of the destroyed mosque, setting the groundwork for a decades-long emotional and political standoff.

In 2019, India’s Supreme Court permitted Hindus to build the temple on the contested site, effectively resolving the matter. It was viewed as a success by Modi and his supporters, but it was a setback for many Muslims, who saw the destruction of the Babri Masjid as a source of significant stress and historic loss.

Ayodhya is home to almost 3 million people, including approximately 500,000 Muslims, and some of them are concerned about attacks on the day of the temple’s opening.

Many people have expressed their support for one another on social media, with WhatsApp messages asking the community to avoid taking public transport for safety reasons.

Maulana Badshah Khan, 65, recently told CNN that he will remain home on Monday.

“The wounds left by the destruction of the Babri Mosque will never heal. Even if we are discouraged about expressing them,” Khan stated. “The temple holds the symbolic value of showing the Muslims their place in New India.”

‘Blurred lines’ between religion and government

Others have accused Modi of “weaponizing” the Hindu faith and exploiting the Ram Temple for political purposes.

“Objections include the fact that Modi is not a religious leader and thus unqualified to lead the ceremony, and that a Hindu temple cannot be consecrated until it is completed,” said a statement from Hindus for Human Rights, a US-based non-profit advocacy group.

Mr Modi “rushing through and fronting it himself is the latest attempt to weaponize Hinduism in the name of the BJP’s repressive nationalist ideology, ahead of national elections in May,” he said in the statement.

Modi came to office in 2014 with a promise to restructure the country’s economy and usher in a new era of growth, but he also actively promoted a Hindutva agenda, which holds that India should become a land for Hindus.

His promise to build the Ram Mandir contributed to the initial election win.

Modi Hails A New ‘Divine India’ As He Inaugurates Controversial Hindu Temple Ahead Of Nationwide Elections

Monday’s temple opening is expected to bolster Modi’s chances of winning a rare third term in a general election later this year, as he fulfilled his pledge to millions of voters.

In the lead-up to his inauguration, Modi fasted and prayed in an 11-day ceremony steeped in Hindu religious symbolism. As part of the festivities, Modi visited Lord Ram shrines and temples all around the country.”The Lord has made me an instrument to represent all the people of India during the consecration,” he stated in a taped message posted on his YouTube page.

On Sunday, Modi shared a video on social networking site X depicting himself walking into the sea and drowning at the Arulmigu Ramanathaswamy Temple in southern Tamil Nadu.

Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, author of “The Demolition and the Verdict,” a book about the 1992 mosque demolition, believes Modi’s decision to preside over Monday’s festivities demonstrates “Hindu hegemony” in India.

“Lines between politics and religions have gotten blurred,” he remarked of Modi’s participation in the ceremony in an officially secular country.

“They’ve also blurred the line between religion and the Indian state. You currently have an Indian prime minister who is partaking in a completely religious activity with the full support of the official machinery.

SOURCE – (CNN)