Only in the crazy times we live in can a Hindu temple in India be something controversial.
Not many heads of state walking around planet Earth in our days give out the same feeling to be writing history daily as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
After he elevated India to a relevant geopolitical player in the BRICS group and beyond, and presided over a Space Program that took the first Indian craft to soft land on the moon, Modi now will inaugurate the new, monumental Ram temple that is being called the ‘Hindu Vatican’.
Needless to say, Modi is also a controversial figure in the west, as he has championed a Hindu revival, with Hindu religious groups portraying tomorrow’s inauguration as the ‘peak of their awakening, after centuries of subjugation by Muslim and colonial powers’.
We recognize in the MSM reporting the same rationalizations about why the Hindus holding fast to their traditions as bad – it’s the same arguments they use to shame our Christian western societies into surrendering our own culture.
Just look at how Associated Press will report the upcoming inauguration:
“Three decades after Hindu mobs tore down a historical mosque, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the consecration of a grand Hindu temple at the same site on Monday in a political move to boost his party ahead of a crucial national vote.
Experts say the temple, dedicated to Hinduism’s most revered deity Lord Ram, will cement Modi’s legacy — enduring but also contentious — as one of India’s most consequential leaders, who has sought to transform the country from a secular democracy into an avowedly Hindu nation.”
Oh no, a temple in a mosque site! The horror!
While there’s no outright lie in the framing of the story, they choose to start the story at a convenient point: 1992. But the story of the temple site in the small northern city of Ayodhya goes back thousands of years.
The site has long been considered the birthplace of Lord Ram, and was holy ground to all Hindus. But in 1528 Muslim Mughals razed a Hindu temple at the spot and built the Babri mosque in its place.
So the story told by MSM is: a crime in 1992 is a horrible thing. The same crime in 1528 is not to be taken into consideration.
Modi turned the inauguration ceremony into a national event by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and is expected to resonate deeply with Hindu voters.
Modi is seen as responsible for restoring Hindu pride in India, where Muslims make up a little more than 14% of the population.
“’What is being done in Ayodhya, the kind of scale at which it is being built at the moment is actually going to make it look like the Hindu Vatican, and that is what is going to be publicized’, [author Nilanjan] Mukhopadhyay said. ‘Modi is not going to lose a single opportunity to try to sell the accomplishment of having built a temple’.”
The temple was built at an estimated cost of $217 million, funded solely by donations by Indian nationals.
“Muslim groups waged a decadeslong court battle for the restoration of Babri Mosque. The dispute ended in 2019 when, in a controversial decision, India’s Supreme Court called the mosque’s destruction ‘an egregious violation of the rule of law’, but granted the site to Hindus. The court granted Muslims a different plot of land in an isolated area.”
What’s controversial about it? Muslim claim is hundreds of years old, and the Hindu claim is thousands of years old. A separate plot is given to a new Mosque.
Modi rose to power in 2014, on a wave of Hindu revivalism and finally oversaw the long-promised building of the temple after attending its groundbreaking ceremony in 2020.
“In the lead-up to its opening, Modi asked people to celebrate across the country by lighting lamps at homes and in local shrines, saying the temple will be a symbol of ‘cultural, spiritual, and social unity’. His government has also announced a half-day closure of all its offices Monday to allow employees participate in the celebrations. Modi has released postage stamps on Ram Temple, and live screenings of the ceremony are planned across the country.”
Modi wrote in his X social media account: ‘The Lord has made me an instrument to represent all the people of India during the consecration’, as he begins 11 days of special rituals ahead of the inauguration.
By Paul Serran