The national flag that dominated Republic Day across India was saffron, the color of Hindu nationalism. That’s because Prime Minister Narendra Modi four days earlier inaugurated the grand Ram temple on the site of a destroyed mosque in northern Ayodhya, a powerful symbol of the country’s transformation into a predominantly Hindu republic. .
The new temple site has a complicated history. Nearly 30 years ago, when Prime Minister Modi was the leader of Hindu nationalists in western India, he galvanized a movement to demolish Babri Masjid, the centuries-old mosque that stood on the site. He gave a speech in support of replacing the mosque with a temple dedicated to the Hindu god Ram, which believers believe was born there.
On December 6, 1992, a Hindu mob destroyed a mosque with axes, hammers, and their bare hands while security forces stood by and watched. The court ruled that the violence was a “gross violation of the rule of law,” but no one was held accountable. More than 1,000 people died in the genocide that followed. And in 2019, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Hindus regarding the construction of the Ram Temple, and Muslims were given separate land. I wrote an essay for the Post from the perspective of a family displaced by the anti-Muslim violence of 1992, my family.
The temple’s inauguration was a major victory for Modi, coming months before national elections in the Hindu-majority country. Former judges, movie stars and other national figures were in attendance. Celebrities posted images of Lord Ram on social media with the caption ‘Jai Shri Ram’ (Glory to Lord Ram). The dedication ceremony of the new temple overshadowed Republic Day.
The Preamble to the Indian Constitution states that India is a “sovereign nation”. A socialist, secular, democratic republic. ” But in Modi’s India, the secular part has been kept to a minimum. There are life-sized cutouts of the Prime Minister all over the place wearing saffron clothes and standing by Lord Ram’s side. He was introduced to the country as the ‘Modern Ram’ who restored Hindu pride.
The national holiday is still officially celebrated by the Indian state, and French President Emmanuel Macron was a state guest at the Republic Day parade in the capital. He experienced India’s diversity by having tea with Prime Minister Modi at tourist spots in Jaipur, posing for selfies, and visiting the mausoleums of Muslim saints. (Amnesty International’s French branch criticized the visit and warned of “the regime’s authoritarian excesses”.)
The Modi government promoted the temple’s inauguration by posting a copy of the preamble of the constitution on Instagram, without the words “socialist” and “secular.” Defenders of “Hindu India” have historically criticized the word “secular,” which was added in 1976 to protect minority interests. In their worldview, it is appeasement. (80 percent of India’s 1.4 billion people are Hindus, but there is also a Muslim minority of more than 200 million people.)
The Indian tricolor flag was an unusual sight as I drove around Mumbai over the Republic Day weekend. Instead, saffron flags were flown at my favorite restaurants, along the roads, and on the beaches.
Republic Day morning typically begins with apartment complexes uniting to hoist the national flag and blaring Hindi songs from loudspeakers to pay homage to the heroes of the British freedom struggle and the unity of the Indian people. On Republic Day this year, the music was all but gone, drowned out by the cacophony of “Jai Shri Ram” blaring from news channels, social media and loudspeakers.
Before the holidays, in the northern state of Chhattisgarh, Video circulating on X (formerly Twitter) showed a young Muslim priest with blood running down his face limping towards a police station. A mob carrying saffron flags attacked him, shouting, “If you want to remain in India, you must chant glory to Lord Ram.”
A mob carrying saffron flags, sticks and swords went on a rampage in Mira Road, a predominantly Muslim area of Mumbai, after a temple dedication ceremony, attacking shopkeepers, residents and drivers while chanting “Jai Shri Ram”. . Muslim shops were looted. Shops and vehicles displaying saffron flags escaped damage. Many Muslim families had moved to the area after the 1992 riots, but now it appeared the mob was returning. Horrified Muslim families shared a video on WhatsApp of a young Muslim woman wearing an abaya forcing a mob to chant “Jai Shri Ram.”
On the day of the temple’s inauguration, an architecture student of mine hung the Indian tricolor flag on his balcony. Two hours later, the secretary of her neighborhood association warned her family that if they did not remove the flag, they would be reported to the police for “anti-national” activities. A neighbor posted on her WhatsApp: “If you have a problem with the saffron flag, why not move to Pakistan?”
On this Republic Day, the sentiments enshrined in the Indian Constitution have clearly become obsolete. “Jai Shri Ram” was the slogan of the day. Movies being screened in theaters as Republic Day specials, social media, public icons, and mainstream media align themselves with a Hindu-supremacist India where historic crimes are given a gloriously celebratory image. I did. As hate crimes trended on social media in the backdrop of the inauguration of Ram temple, extremist supremacists were reveling in the state’s envisioned saffron makeover. The vision of Hindu nationalism, the path to Hindu supremacy, has become fully clear.