Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the consecration on Monday of a grand temple to the Hindu god Lord Ram on a site believed to be his birthplace, in a celebratory event for the Hindu majority of the world’s most populous nation.
Hindu groups, Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its affiliates have portrayed the temple opening as part of a Hindu renaissance after past centuries of subjugation by Muslim invaders and colonial powers.
The temple in the city of Ayodhya has been a contentious issue that helped catapult the BJP to prominence and power, and deliver on its 35-year-old promise, which analysts say should help Modi as he seeks a rare third term in an election due by May.
For decades, the temple site was bitterly contested by Hindus and minority Muslims, leading to nationwide riots in 1992 that killed 2,000 people, mainly Muslims, police say, after a Hindu mob destroyed a 16th-century mosque that had stood there.
India’s Hindus say the site is the birthplace of Lord Ram, and was holy to them long before Muslim Mughals razed a temple at the spot to build the Babri Masjid, or mosque, in 1528.
In 2019, the Supreme Court handed over the land to Hindus and ordered allotment of a separate plot to Muslims where construction of a new mosque is yet to begin.
