Hindus offer prayers at a mosque in Modi’s region after court permits

Right-wing Hindu groups have been making a claim on the 17th-century mosque close to a prominent temple in Varanasi for years. Hindu devotees have started worshipping inside a 17th-century mosque in Varanasi, India, shortly after a court order allowed them access to the disputed site. The Gyanvapi Mosque in Varanasi is one of several Muslim places of worship that right-wing Hindu groups, supported by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), have sought to reclaim for years. Varanasi is Modi’s parliamentary constituency in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state, which is also under the governance of the BJP. On Wednesday, a local court ruled that Hindu worshippers could offer prayers in the basement of the building and directed the authorities to make suitable arrangements for worshippers within a week. Indian media reports indicated that family members of Hindu priests commenced prayers in the mosque’s basement in the early hours of Thursday.

#WATCH | A priest offers prayers at ‘Vyas Ji ka Tehkhana’ inside Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi, after District court order.
Visuals confirmed by Vishnu Shankar Jain, the lawyer for the Hindu side in the Gyanvapi case

Akhlaq Ahmad, the lawyer representing the Muslim petitioners, stated that the court order would be appealed. The Gyanvapi Mosque was constructed during the Mughal Empire in a city where Hindus from across the country cremate their relatives by the Ganges river. Hindu worshippers claim that the mosque was built over a temple dedicated to the Hindu deity Shiva. Last month, the Archaeological Survey of India indicated that a survey of the site seemed to support the belief that it originally housed a temple. Strengthened right-wing Hindu groups have staked a claim to several Muslim places of worship, asserting that they were constructed on top of ancient temples during Mughal rule.

Centuries-old mosque razed in Indian capital

Meanwhile, bulldozers have demolished a centuries-old mosque in India’s capital, according to a member of the building’s managing committee. The Masjid Akhonji in New Delhi, believed by its caretakers to be about 600 years old, was housing 22 students enrolled in an Islamic boarding school. It was destroyed on Tuesday in a forested area of Mehrauli, an affluent neighborhood with centuries-old ruins predating modern Delhi.

Imam Zakir Hussain stated that Masjid Akhonji, which accommodated Madrasa Bahrul Uloom and the graves of revered figures, was completely demolished. Mohammad Zaffar, a member of the mosque’s managing committee, informed the Agence France-Presse news agency that they did not receive any prior notice before the demolition was carried out “in the dark of the night”. He mentioned that many graves in the mosque compound were also desecrated, and nobody was allowed to take out copies of the Quran or other materials from inside the mosque before it was razed. Zaffar expressed his distress, stating, “Many of our revered figures and my own ancestors were buried there. There is no trace of the graves now.” He further mentioned that the debris from both the mosque and the graves was removed and dumped elsewhere. Officials stated that the demolition was part of an effort to remove “illegal” structures from a forest reserve. Calls for India to establish Hindu supremacy have grown significantly louder since Modi assumed office in 2014, causing its approximately 200-million-strong Muslim minority, the world’s third-largest Muslim population, to feel increasingly concerned about their future.

Last week, Modi presided over a grand inauguration ceremony for a Hindu temple constructed on the former grounds of another Mughal-era mosque in the nearby city of Ayodhya. Hindu extremists had demolished the Babri Mosque in 1992 in a campaign spearheaded by members of Modi’s party, triggering sectarian riots that resulted in the deaths of 2,000 people nationwide, most of whom were Muslims. The 35-year-long legal battle over the fate of the Babri site concluded in 2019 when India’s top court allowed the construction of a temple dedicated to the deity Ram, who, according to Hindu scripture, was born in the city. The consecration of the Ram temple by Modi fulfilled a 35-year-old pledge of the BJP and has been portrayed by the party and its affiliates as a reawakening of Hinduism. It also took place months ahead of national elections scheduled for May and is anticipated to enhance Modi’s chances of securing a third term. Critics accuse Modi of promoting a pro-Hindu agenda and fostering discrimination against Muslims, though he denies that his government engages in such practices.

“Accept the truth. Engage in dialogue and let the judiciary decide,” a senior leader of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the BJP’s far-right ideological mentor, told Reuters news agency in an interview. “Whether we should consider them mosques or not, the people of the country and the world should think about it. They should stand with the truth or they should stand with the wrong?”