The Taj Mahal, India’s symbol in the eyes of the world, is in grave danger Description | EC stories | The world

Thirty years after Hindu fanatics demolished a secular mosque in Ayodhya – an act that provoked bloody riots – the hegemon is targeting other Muslim sites. Taj MahalArchitectural jewelry and the symbol of India in the eyes of the world.

The 17th century Gnanavapi Mosque in Varanasi (formerly Varanasi) in Uttar Pradesh (northern) is under threat from Hindu (Hindu supremacist) supporters.

See: Donald Trump visited the Taj Mahal on the first day of his official agenda in India

Last week, according to press reports, a court-ordered excavation was carried out at the site of the mosque, in which the “Shiva Lingam”, a folic-shaped object, was found for the “identity” of Lord Shiva for his worshipers.

“It means the place where a temple is”Kaushal Kishore, the BJP’s internet minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist party, immediately finished in front of reporters. “Hindus can go to pray,” he added.

Muslims fear that the site of the Babri Masjid mosque in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, which was built in the 16th century, will suffer the same fate.

After the demolition of the mosque in 1992, inter-religious riots erupted in the worst riots in the history of independent India, and more than 2,000 people – mostly Muslims – lost their lives.

These events shook the secular base of the country, forcing Hindu nationalism into the dominant political force and paving the way for Modi’s election in 2014 as the head of a country of 200 million Muslims.

Anger and fragile nationalist pride

Since the 1980s, the BJP has supported the construction of a temple dedicated to Ram on the site of the mosque, and in 2020 Modi laid the foundation stone.

Hindu extremists have been congregating there ever since Taj MahalBuilt by the Mughals – who ruled most of the Indian subcontinent between the 16th and 11th centuries – and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

They are fighting for the right to pray there, arguing that the monument was built on the site of an ancient temple dedicated to Shiva.

According to Sanjay Jat, a spokesman for the Hindu Mahasabha – a radical Hindu organization – Taj Mahal It was built on top of a temple dedicated to Lord Shiva in Agra (Uttar Pradesh) which was “destroyed by the Mughal invaders”.

Samadhi – Established between 1631 and 1648 at the initiative of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan to commemorate his late wife Mumtaz. Mahal– Became a global symbol of eternal love and a major tourist attraction of the country, visited by millions of Indian and foreign visitors every year.

He said Taj Mahal Identifying India in the eyes of the whole world has always angered Hindu supremacists. Today, that hatred is expressed to the extent that it openly threatens their integrity.

“I will continue to fight for this until my death. We respect the courts, but, if necessary, we will destroy it Taj And we will prove that there is a temple at that place, ”Jat told AFP, acknowledging that the claim was baseless.

This month, a BJP member in Uttar Pradesh urged the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to open 25. Taj It is said that Hindu idols are placed in it.

ASI denied the existence of such materials and the court briefly rejected the request.

Audrey Trushke, an associate professor of South Asian history at Rutgers University in the United States, considers these claims to be “as reasonable as saying the earth is flat.”

No “coherent theory” has been proposed Taj MahalThe expert told AFP, “It is an expression of raging and weak nationalist pride, which does not allow anything non-Hindu to be Indian and seeks to destroy the Muslim contribution to Indian heritage.”