The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a powerful Hindu group, has claimed that several mosques in India were built over demolished Hindu temples, indicating a hardening stance in a long-running sectarian dispute. This comes just days after a huge temple was inaugurated on the site of a razed mosque. The RSS, the ideological parent of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu-nationalist party, made these comments following the consecration of the temple on the site of the 16th-century Babri mosque that was demolished by a Hindu mob in 1992.
The dispute over claims to holy sites has divided Hindu-majority India since independence from British rule in 1947. Amid the festivities surrounding the temple inauguration in the city of Ayodhya, a lawyer for Hindu petitioners claimed that the Archaeological Survey of India had found a 17th-century mosque in Varanasi, Modi’s parliamentary constituency, was built over a destroyed Hindu temple. The Archaeological Survey did not respond to a request for comment on this claim.
In an interview with Reuters, senior RSS leader Indresh Kumar raised questions about whether the mosques in Varanasi, Ayodhya, and two other locations were mosques at all, and suggested that the truth should be accepted and left for the judiciary to decide. He emphasized that this was not an anti-Islam movement, but rather a quest for truth that should be welcomed by the world.
In response, Muslim groups are disputing the assertions of Hindu groups in court. The chairman of the Sunni Central Waqf Board in Uttar Pradesh expressed confidence in the judiciary and emphasized the desire to maintain harmony and peaceful coexistence while preserving monuments.
The opening of the Ayodhya temple marked the fulfillment of a 35-year-old pledge by Modi’s party, ahead of a general election. The razing of the Ayodhya mosque in 1992 led to riots across India, resulting in the deaths of at least 2,000 people, mostly Muslims.
The dispute is also related to Indian law, which bars the conversion of any place of worship and generally upholds the religious character of places of worship as they existed at the time of independence. However, the Supreme Court is currently hearing challenges to this law.
The RSS’ Kumar, who is also the chief patron of the group’s Muslim wing, mentioned that Islamic law requires that mosques be constructed on undisputed land, or that the land should be donated by someone who has bought it, or that the people building the mosque should buy it.