Berliner Boersenzeitung - Hindu pride and Muslim fears overshadow key Indian poll

EUR -
AED 3.846458
AFN 71.211176
ALL 97.412843
AMD 406.811894
ANG 1.887241
AOA 956.640935
ARS 1051.428592
AUD 1.608171
AWG 1.887622
AZN 1.787721
BAM 1.94682
BBD 2.114156
BDT 125.138011
BGN 1.955509
BHD 0.394704
BIF 3034.333258
BMD 1.047225
BND 1.407209
BOB 7.235625
BRL 6.090347
BSD 1.047075
BTN 88.4754
BWP 14.296058
BYN 3.427092
BYR 20525.602023
BZD 2.110863
CAD 1.463847
CDF 3005.534618
CHF 0.928583
CLF 0.03695
CLP 1019.567969
CNY 7.576459
CNH 7.597437
COP 4597.630131
CRC 532.296452
CUC 1.047225
CUP 27.751452
CVE 110.613091
CZK 25.354142
DJF 186.112546
DKK 7.458821
DOP 63.25565
DZD 139.901282
EGP 52.012714
ERN 15.708369
ETB 129.23088
FJD 2.379611
FKP 0.826592
GBP 0.831973
GEL 2.853676
GGP 0.826592
GHS 16.598349
GIP 0.826592
GMD 74.352935
GNF 9037.548191
GTQ 8.083713
GYD 219.089433
HKD 8.150638
HNL 26.363899
HRK 7.470124
HTG 137.485836
HUF 411.088281
IDR 16675.428446
ILS 3.890063
IMP 0.826592
INR 88.480582
IQD 1372.387829
IRR 44093.391567
ISK 146.108348
JEP 0.826592
JMD 166.302915
JOD 0.742584
JPY 161.458939
KES 135.614106
KGS 90.595555
KHR 4241.259434
KMF 491.829597
KPW 942.501737
KRW 1466.554465
KWD 0.322158
KYD 0.872675
KZT 519.294876
LAK 22997.052059
LBP 93778.962407
LKR 304.684618
LRD 188.762185
LSL 18.965252
LTL 3.092182
LVL 0.633456
LYD 5.115689
MAD 10.486854
MDL 19.069043
MGA 4891.586326
MKD 61.525564
MMK 3401.344628
MNT 3558.469111
MOP 8.394618
MRU 41.799981
MUR 48.593488
MVR 16.179757
MWK 1817.981712
MXN 21.385321
MYR 4.675828
MZN 66.925952
NAD 18.964918
NGN 1774.186923
NIO 38.527419
NOK 11.597222
NPR 141.561038
NZD 1.78822
OMR 0.403194
PAB 1.04717
PEN 3.974207
PGK 4.216653
PHP 61.815578
PKR 291.021899
PLN 4.344987
PYG 8218.776313
QAR 3.812683
RON 4.977038
RSD 116.989628
RUB 106.083365
RWF 1435.744917
SAR 3.931627
SBD 8.750118
SCR 14.091129
SDG 629.903184
SEK 11.589368
SGD 1.409667
SHP 0.826592
SLE 23.651533
SLL 21959.781063
SOS 598.485238
SRD 37.077012
STD 21675.434737
SVC 9.162736
SYP 2631.183058
SZL 18.975788
THB 36.383713
TJS 11.152657
TMT 3.675758
TND 3.301902
TOP 2.452702
TRY 36.169354
TTD 7.108213
TWD 34.046633
TZS 2777.615603
UAH 43.232448
UGX 3869.006119
USD 1.047225
UYU 44.622895
UZS 13488.252609
VES 48.454165
VND 26623.067216
VUV 124.328608
WST 2.923423
XAF 652.945238
XAG 0.034027
XAU 0.000392
XCD 2.830177
XDR 0.798815
XOF 651.373441
XPF 119.331742
YER 261.711912
ZAR 18.966175
ZMK 9426.275251
ZMW 28.876803
ZWL 337.205892
  • RBGPF

    -0.5000

    59.69

    -0.84%

  • SCS

    -0.0300

    13.04

    -0.23%

  • CMSC

    0.1200

    24.64

    +0.49%

  • GSK

    0.3500

    33.7

    +1.04%

  • NGG

    -0.1700

    63.1

    -0.27%

  • BTI

    -0.1000

    36.98

    -0.27%

  • VOD

    -0.1000

    8.84

    -1.13%

  • RIO

    0.1800

    62.57

    +0.29%

  • RYCEF

    0.1800

    6.79

    +2.65%

  • RELX

    0.6500

    45.76

    +1.42%

  • BP

    0.4400

    29.52

    +1.49%

  • BCE

    -0.3200

    26.68

    -1.2%

  • BCC

    2.9500

    140.36

    +2.1%

  • JRI

    0.0000

    13.23

    0%

  • AZN

    1.0600

    64.26

    +1.65%

  • CMSD

    0.1850

    24.445

    +0.76%

Hindu pride and Muslim fears overshadow key Indian poll
Hindu pride and Muslim fears overshadow key Indian poll

Hindu pride and Muslim fears overshadow key Indian poll

Hindu worshippers from across India gather each morning to pray in Ayodhya, near where a historic mosque was torn down three decades ago by religious zealots -- triggering inter-faith riots that killed thousands of people.

Text size:

The demolition of the centuries-old Babri Masjid shook the country's secular foundations and paved the way for the rise of Hindu nationalism as its dominant political force.

Workers are now erecting a Hindu shrine where the mosque once stood, and Muslims fear a coming election in India's most populous state could see such endeavours repeated elsewhere.

"This is no ordinary temple," Anil Mishra, a member of the trust overseeing the construction project, told AFP.

"This is a national temple that carries the emotions and feelings of the masses."

In a cordoned off area nearby, a crowd of devotees chant mantras to Ram, one of the most worshipped deities in the Hindu pantheon, who is said to have been born at the site thousands of years ago.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party was instrumental in campaigning against the mosque, built by the Muslim Mughal dynasty which ruled much of the Indian subcontinent centuries ago.

Since its 1992 destruction, the party has enthusiastically backed the construction of a temple to Ram in its stead and the rejuvenation of several other religious sites.

It is now banking on efforts to style itself as the custodian of India's majority faith to secure re-election in Uttar Pradesh when the state of more than 200 million people votes in marathon seven-week polls starting Thursday.

- 'They have jailed young Muslims' -

Political analysts say Uttar Pradesh is a petri dish for hardline Hindu governance and the blunt edge of the BJP's efforts to refashion secular India into a Hindu nation.

Its chief minister, Yogi Adityanath, has been accused of encouraging vigilante violence against the state's Muslim population and introducing discriminatory laws to marginalise the community.

The saffron-robed hardliner, 49, is known for his inflammatory religious rhetoric and is considered a possible successor to Modi, more than two decades his senior.

His administration has introduced a law to make interfaith marriages more difficult and closed Muslim-run slaughterhouses to protect cows -- a sacred animal in Hinduism -- while critics say it has turned a blind eye to mob violence directed at those accused of eating beef.

The city of Mathura, near the capital New Delhi, is popularly held to be the birthplace of Krishna -- another senior god -- and Hindu hardliners claim another Mughal-era mosque there was partially built over a temple to the deity.

Comments from senior BJP figures have foreshadowed another looming religious confrontation in the city.

"Grand temple construction ongoing in Ayodhya...(now) getting ready for Mathura," Yogi's deputy Keshav Prasad Maurya said last month.

Muslims in the city are already angry after years of discrimination under the BJP and fearful of what another election victory could bring.

"They have jailed young Muslims for treason, are stopping us from eating what we want and have compounded our job losses by shutting meat shops and restaurants," said resident Mohammad Yameen.

- 'National pride and self-respect' -

Uttar Pradesh has struggled through India's recent economic downturn, with widespread unemployment in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

But the BJP has managed to galvanise support from legions of the Hindu faithful who have praised the party for delivering on its promise to build the Ayodhya temple.

"We are really happy and hope that it is a grand structure," said Kusum Gupta, 59, a pilgrim who travelled more than 1,000 kilometres (600 miles) to visit the site.

Champat Rai, another member of the trust managing the temple work, said its construction was the culmination of "500 years of struggle" and rivalled India's independence from the British in national significance.

The temple will be "a symbol of national pride and self-respect", Rai told AFP, adding that the mosque's demolition had symbolically cast off the historical shackles of Muslim rule during the Mughal dynasty.

"No other country in the world keeps the symbols of its slavery alive," he said.

An army of construction workers have toiled around the clock since Modi laid the foundation stone at a ceremony 18 months ago.

One of them, 23-year-old Manikandan, told AFP it was the "luckiest day" of his life when he was asked to help build the temple.

"What else could you ask for as a Hindu?"

(F.Schuster--BBZ)