Religion

India all set to inaugurate historic Hindu temple

New Delhi, Jan 22 (EFE).- India is all set for the historic inauguration of a controversial temple, where the Hindus claim their deity, Lord Ram, was born, over 30 years after a Hindu mob demolished a mosque that stood at the same place.

Thousands of worshipers, including several celebrities and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will be attending the temple consecration in Ayodhya, a city in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh on Monday.

Footage shared on local news channel, NDTV, showed Ayodhya’s streets packed with devotees dressed in saffron color, sacred to Hinduism.

The consecration ceremony, presided over by Modi, will begin around 12 pm, the prime minister’s office said in a statement on Sunday.

Thousands of saffron flags in honor of lord Ram flew not just in the streets of Ayodhya, but also in other cities of the country, including the capital, New Delhi.

Some states, such as Uttar Pradesh, central Madhya Pradesh, and the western states of Goa and Maharashtra, announced the closure of schools and businesses and declared Monday as a holiday.

In addition, the Indian government closed all its offices, public sector banks and financial institutions until the ceremony was over, local newspaper The Hindu reported.

Security around Ayodhya has been beefed up, especially around the temple.

Located on the banks of the Sarayu River, the temple stands on the ruins of the Babri Masjid, built in the 16th century by Mughal emperor Babar and razed in 1992 by a Hindu mob as part of a campaign led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s now-ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

The mosque’s demolition was followed by a wave of violence between Hindus and Muslims in which 2,000 people were killed, mostly belonging to the Muslim community, which in 2011 made up 14.2 percent of India’s population or 172 million people, according to the latest census.

Hindu nationalists argue that the mosque was constructed on top of an earlier temple, which marked the exact birthplace of the god Ram, a version the Supreme Court of India agreed to in 2019 and allowed the construction of a new temple. EFE

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