The insidious campaign to demolish mosques in India
Hindu nationalists are using the courts to try to “reclaim” Muslim holy sites
IN A CRAMPED home down a narrow alley in Varanasi, a hard-line Hindu activist flaunts a piece of mosque booty. It is a brick from the 16th-century Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, in north India. “I got it on December 6th 1992,” says Sohan Lal Arya, referring to the day the mosque was torn down by a Hindu nationalist mob. Mr Arya and other of its members, including leaders of the now-ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), claimed the mosque had been built on the birthplace of Ram, a Hindu god.
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This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline “What’s yours is mine”
From the December 2nd 2023 edition
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