Anti-mosque campaigning in India
Anti-mosque campaigning in India refers to a series of assertions predominantly advanced by right-wing and far-right Hindu organisations, alleging that numerous present-day mosque sites were originally the locations of Hindu temples. These claims are widely regarded as politically motivated and surface during electoral periods. They are also interpreted as manifestations of the broader Hindutva ideology espoused by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a right-wing Hindutva paramilitary organisation, and the Bharatiya Janata Party, India’s current ruling political party.
History
Following the partition of India, two weeks before his assassination, Mahatma Gandhi conducted a six-day fast in part to demand evacuation of mosques occupied by non-Muslims.In 1991, the Places of Worship Act was passed to ban conversion of any worship place and to provide "for the maintenance of the religious character of any place of worship as it existed on the 15th day of August, 1947."
Major incidents
Gyanvapi Mosque
The Gyanvapi Mosque was constructed in 1678. In 1991, a suit was filed claiming that mosque had been built on the site of a supposed Kashi Vishwanath temple. In 2024, a district court in Varanasi passed an order to allow Hindus to worship in a previously sealed basement inside the mosque. The verdict came following a report by the Archeological Survey of India, which determined that a "large Hindu temple" existed in the location prior to the construction of the mosque. The management committee of the mosque vehemently denied the claims. S. M. Yasin, the joint secretary of the mosque committee said, "Now we have no hope of justice in this country."1992 Babri Masjid demolition
The claim that the Babri Masjid, or Babri Mosque, was built on a site near the birthplace of the Hindu deity Rama was first made by Joseph Tiefenthaler, a Jesuit missionary. In 1788, Johann Barnoulli translated his account from French. In 1822 Hafizullah, an official of the Faizabad law court suggested that the Babri mosque was built on birthplace of Rama. In 1853, Bairagi Brahmins, a group of upper-caste Hindu ascetics claimed that the mosque was built on the site of the "Ramjanmabhoomi temple," which was supposedly destroyed by Babur, leading to a series of clashes between Hindus and Muslims at Ayodhya in 1855. Afterwards, a compromise was made that allowed Hindus to worship Rama on a chabootra close to the mosque. In 1883, a local pandit requested the construction of a temple on the chabootra, but the British denied the request due to its closeness to the mosque. In 1949, after Indian independence, idols of Rama and Sita were surreptitiously installed inside the mosque, which led to the closure of the mosque by the authorities.The demand for the temple was revived in the 1980s and early 1990s by the Vishva Hindu Parishad and the Bharatiya Janata Party. The demands led to a high-profile political rally which culminated in the demolition of the mosque by a far-right Hindu mob on 6 December 1992, with the goal of forcibly constructing a Hindu temple on the disputed site. Following the demolition, a report by the ASI claimed a temple had once existed on the site, though the claim was disputed by archaeologists and Muslim communities. Under the premiership of Narendra Modi, the Ram Mandir, or Ram Temple, was consecrated on 22 January 2024, ahead of the Indian general election later that year.