INDIA BEGINS INAUGURATION OF TEMPLE AFTER YEARS OF DISPUTE

▶ Prime Minister Modi will officially open the multimillion-dollar Grand Ram complex in Ayodhya

The week-long inauguration of a temple built on a site revered by millions of Hindus as the birthplace of their deity Rama began in India yesterday.

A statue of the deity will be installed at the site of the grand Ram Temple in Ayodhya, which previously hosted a mosque.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the multimillion-dollar temple in a grand ceremony on Monday, in what he has called an “auspicious occasion” that calls for celebration.

About 7,000 people, including high-ranking officials, are expected to gather at the temple, a major part of which is still under construction, on a day seen as historic for the Hindu-majority but officially secular country of 1.4 billion.

More than 100 dignitaries from 55 countries have been invited to the ceremony.

The entire complex is due to be finished by December.

Mr Modi’s government has urged people, regardless of their religion, to light earthen lamps on Monday.

The Uttar Pradesh state government has announced schools and colleges will be closed that day, and the Railways Ministry said special trains will enable smooth travel for visitors from other parts of the country.

A representation of Rama, in the form of a five-year-old boy, will be placed in the temple’s inner sanctum. The statue is carved out of black stone and weighs about 200kg.

The Ram Temple is considered one of India’s most significant religious structures.

But it is also one of the most disputed, and has a long history of litigation, sectarian politics and violence.

The temple is built on a site where the 16th-century Babri Masjid mosque once stood, before being demolished in 1992 by Hindu hardliners.

The incident led to widespread violence and riots across the country, in which 2,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed.

Hindus have long claimed that the mosque, built by Babur, the founder of the Mughal dynasty in India, occupied the site of a temple dedicated to the birthplace of Rama.

In 2010, the Allahabad High Court in Uttar Pradesh ruled that the spot beneath the central dome of the demolished mosque was indeed the birthplace of the Hindu deity.

The court divided the disputed land into three parts, awarding one third to Hindu Maha Sabha, a Hindu nationalist group, one third to the Waqf board, which had overseen the mosque, and the final third to Nirmohi Akhada, a Hindu ascetics group.

All three parties appealed against the judgment in the Supreme Court, which in 2019 unanimously ruled that the disputed land be given to Hindus and directed the federal government to set up a trust to build a Ram Temple, while Muslims would be given land elsewhere for the construction of a mosque.

Construction began in 2020, and Mr Modi laid the foundation stone at the site in a televised ceremony.

About 7,000 people, including more than 100 dignitaries from 55 countries, are expected to attend the ceremonies