Temple Politics and Electoral Gambits: Modi's Strategy for 2024

( Source - X @narendramodi)

The demolition of Babri Mosque in Ayodhya marked the culmination of a long struggle of Hindus to take back the site from Muslims. Hindus believe that the Ram temple at Lord Ram's birthplace was demolished by Mir Baqi, the Uzbek commander of Mughal ruler Babar. Remarkably, Hindus have been contesting with authorities and the Muslim community for the last five hundred years. There are not many disputes over a piece of land that has survived for this long. BJP launched the movement to take back the site of Babri Mosque. They had a political motive, but it would be unfair to claim that they could imagine the success of their project. On 6 December 1991, the Babri Mosque was demolished. Interestingly the seeds of demolition were sown with the partition of India in 1947.

The Muslim population in undivided India was too high, and Muslims were united against Hindus despite their ethnic, sectarian, linguistic, and regional differences. And their faith-based unity led to the division of India. Once India lost one-third of this territory and population during the partition, there was no check on the religious and cultural hegemony of the majority community. They were in a much better position to protect the symbols of their faith and try to re-establish the glory, mostly imaginary, of their ancient faith.

Similarly, the division of India was the outcome of the invasions of Sindh in Northwestern India. Partition was a culmination of material and cultural colonization of the region for hundreds of years. It can also be described as a civilizational colonization, where the past identities of followers of a new faith were annihilated. And annihilation was so deeply rooted that people in affected regions hated their own past, their own forefathers, their own history, and their own cultural identity and subjected them to ridicule. Despite all assaults, India is one of the few civilizations apart from China that survived. History is the reason India views itself as a civilizational power as China does.

Even after the demolition of a controversial structure in Ayodhya, the temple could not be built. People waited for three more decades. Finally, the courts gave a verdict in favor of Hindus, Muslims were given another piece of land. It is also important to note that for Muslims Babri Mosque was just another Mosque among the tens of thousands they have in India, it had no religious significance or historical faith-based uniqueness. For Hindus, that site is the birthplace of Lord Ram. One of the central figures of their faith. The Muslim community had the opportunity to accept a compromise, strike a better deal, and acquire a land at the site of their choice, of the size of their choice to build the mosque, but they refused to compromise and insisted that devotion, faith, and history does not matter, and the Babri Mosque should stay.

Although many saner voices within the Muslim community suggested compromise for the amicable resolution of the long pending dispute. This allowed the right-wing wing Hindu nationalist party BJP and its Narendra Modi to manipulate the system and acquire the site through courts. The judgment was delivered in the favor of Hindus after a long case. It allowed the BJP to build a majestic temple and also build Ayodhya, a small dilapidated town in Uttar Pradesh, into a prominent city of Hindu faith.

A holy city for Hindus that every Indian must visit. People contributed around half a billion dollars to build a temple, and the government launched development programs worth 10 billion dollars, which included building a small new airport, wide roads, a new railway station, new railway lines, and highways connecting Ayodhya to nearby towns, among other things. Even private companies are looking forward to utilizing the travel opportunities and acquiring land to build hotels. As elections are approaching. India will choose its new parliamentarians in April - May 2024. The country will know about the new Prime Minister on 3 May 2024, if the Indian media prediction is correct, Modi will remain a PM, and that will be his third term. He will be inaugurating the half-built temple on 22 January 2024 as he wants to reap the maximum political benefits from the temple before the general elections. Whether temple politics will add to the political fortunes of Modi will be clear with the result of the general elections?