'Hindu Vatican': How foreign media is viewing Ayodhya Ram Mandir

This event will obviously not only script the “epitaph” of a pluralistic India as embraced by the country’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru. (An observation made by a Washington-based columnist, Sadanand Dhume in the American business daily, Wall Street Journal.) There will also be other contexts emerging out of the opening of a Ram temple that has come after decades of fighting and riots that broke out across the country, in which 2,000 people lost their lives.

Besides the ongoing frenetic coverage by Indian media, several foreign news organisations are also covering the build-up to this massive religious spectacle expected to unfold in Ayodhya on January 22.

Here is how international media is currently covering this upcoming key event.

Shift in secular fabric

Most articles in foreign media seem to recognise that this event is clearly signalling a significant shift in India’s secular fabric. In his column in WSJ, Dhume analyses why Nehru’s secularism has failed so spectacularly and why India’s westernised elite miscalculated India’s religiosity. "For Nehru temples of modern India were large hydroelectric dams but for Modi, temples are…temples but somehow Nehru lost the battle of ideas in India," said Dhume in his social media post about the piece.

In his opinion piece titled ‘Modi, Ayodhya and the Fall of Nehru’s secular temple’, he points out that India’s rulers in New Delhi had always thought it best to steer politics away from religious passions keeping in mind the country’s vast diversity and fraught past…but the “Hindu nationalists now in power appear intent on reopening sectarian wounds by righting what they see as historical wrongs.”

Deepening religious fault-lines

While reporting on the temple opening in Ayodhya, most foreign newspapers seem to be zero in on the deepening of a “religious fault line” in India and the every-growing power of the BJP and the right-wing. And, refer to the Ram temple as deeply “ divisive” and "controversial".

An article in New York-based Bloomberg focuses on how the opening of a “controversial temple illustrates a religious fault line in India and how high Modi’s party has climbed”. The story begins with the “streets leading to India’s most contested religious site are going full throttle.” Swathes of the city of Ayodhya, which is getting a multi-billion dollar makeover before the temple opening, has been bulldozed to turn it into a ‘Hindu Vatican’, reports the BBC.

While Pakistani newspaper Dawn carries an AFP report that calls the Ram temple a “divisive” one that has come to symbolise the country’s rising tide of Hindu nationalism.

Time magazine carries a report on all there is to know about India unveiling its “controversial temple of Ram”. It quotes Michael Kugelman, the director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Center in Washington, as saying that the Ram Mandir revolves around some of the most divisive issues for religion and society in contemporary India. And that the temple consecration is “papering over incredibly traumatic and heavily contested events in India’s history.”

Rising tide of Hindu nationalism

Political commenters writing in foreign newspapers highlight how this event can be used to rouse more sentiments around the Hindu religion. And, how this can lead to further disturbing incidents in the future. In leading Hongkong newspaper, South China Morning Post, Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, a journalist and commentator focusing on Hindu nationalism, warned that India’s BJP is all set to ‘whip up’ Hindu nationalist sentiment with the Ayodhya temple opening.

The BJP “will use the occasion to whip up religious and cultural sentiment”, said Mukhopadhyay, who believed that it’s ‘a matter of time’ before other mosques give way to Hindu temples, with the ruling party timing it ‘to suit them most politically’.

Fear in Muslims

Most foreign agencies such as Reuters and AFP have given detailed reports of how Muslims in Ayodhya feel neglected and left out.

A Reuters report titled, ‘Temple promised by BJP transforms India’s Ayodhya but Muslims, some locals feel neglected’, talks of how the Muslim community in Ayodhya is full of “dread” over what the future holds for them.

According to the reports, Muslims living in the vicinity of the Ram temple fear that any incident could potentially escalate into a major event. And, some from the city's sizeable Muslim community of an estimated 350,000, have complained that they are not reaping the benefits of the boom that has hit the city with the construction of the temple.

At least a dozen Muslim men, who have lost family members in the riots that broke out three decades ago in Ayodhya said they planned to send their families to relatives outside the city ahead of the temple's opening ceremony.

An article in Guardian too drives home the sidelining of the Muslim community in Ayodha referring to the state government allotting Muslims a piece of land 25km away in a desolate patch far from the city centre, to build the mosque (after the demolition of the Babri Masjid) as ordered by the Supreme Court.

In the Guardian report, a Muslim in Ayodhya is quoted as saying that despite all the injustices, they just want to move on and want peace. But, they feel that even if they stay quiet, every day the "situation for Muslims in Ayodhya gets worse and worse" and that "they will not stop till there are no Muslims left" in the city.

Modi’s political gambit

Most foreign newspaper articles, however, also focus on how the temple opening seems to be at the heart of Modi’s re-election bid and to show that they are the only party that cares for Hindus.

Qatar’s Al Jazeera in an article titled, ‘Has to be built: The temple at the heart of Modi’s India re-election bid’, states that for Modi’s BJP, the Ram Mandir, built on the ruins of the demolished Babri Masjid, represents a promise fulfilled – and a trap for opponents. For the BJP, the Congress decision not to attend is a chance to reinforce its narrative that it alone cares about the country’s Hindus, added the writer in this feature.

And concludes that when the Ram Mandir is consecrated on January 22, it will flag of an election campaign as well. Most reports talk about how the temple opening will resonate with Hindu voters in the upcoming election.

Neighbouring Nepal may have sent gifts for Lord Ram in his new temple in Ayodhya from his consort Sita’s birthplace, but The Himalayan Times carrying an AP story on the frenzied preparations in Ayodha also emphasises how the the temple's opening at "one of India's most contentious religious sites" ahead of the national polls scheduled for the spring is expected to give major momentum to Modi, as he aims for a record third-consecutive term. And, how Modi is doing this by drawing on the religious sentiments of Hindus, who make up about 80 per cent of India's population.

The Japan News feature a report on the preparations for Ram temple's opening but don't fail to mention that "Hindu nationalist" Bharatiya Janata Party has long pledged completion of the temple as one of its core aims.

'Emperor of Hindu hearts'

But, it is Kathmandu Post's sardonic opinion piece mocking Modi written by none other than Congressman Shashi Tharoor that takes a dig at Modi. Provocatively titled ‘India’s Hindu ‘emperor’ wants a third term’, as 2024 begins, Modi is being projected as a Hindu Hriday Samrat, an emperor of hindu hearts.

He writes about how after opening the Ram temple in Ayodhya, Modi will move on to inaugurate the BAPS Hindu Mandir in Abu Dhabi, which will give his party ammunition to leverage him as a Hindu hero.

Guardian in an article ‘Divine moment or political gimmick?’ reports on how India is gearing up to inaugurate huge Hindu temple. And quotes VHP members in the city, who want to turn Ayodhya into their own “Vatican city, the holiest site for all Hindus in the world" and how “Lord Ram will finally be returned to Ayodhya after 500 yeas of oppression".

Journalist refer to the timing of the temple opening as being significant. In a BBC story, journalist Soutik Biswas pointed out that critics say the timing of the opening leans more towards “political strategy than religious significance”. And that it is all about building a Hindu nationalist momentum ahead of the polls. After all, he argues, the movement to build a temple was a major factor in propelling the BJP to a prominent position in Indian politics.

The business boom

Some of the newspapers and channels have also focussed on how the Ram temple has triggered a business boom in Ayodhya, which has undergone a multi-billion dollar makeover, including getting a new airport and new railway station. Al Jazeera and Singapore’s Strait Times too carry a report on the business boom in the city and the soaring real estate prices.

UAE newspapers

UAE newspapers are talking more about the opening of a Hindu temple in the capital Abu Dhabi rather than the Ayodhya temple. In UAE’s government newspaper The National, there’s a report on “India's Hindu Ram Temple: History, Ayodhya dispute and legacy for Modi explained". It explains the entire dispute and how the temple has come about.

Gulf News has carried an opinion piece called India’s zeitgeist moment – the Ram Mandir inauguration - by Swati Chaturvedi, who is the author of ‘I Am a Troll: Inside the Secret World of the BJP’s Digital Army’. She writes about how India has been swept into an "unprecedented religious fervour" but she ends on a positive note saying that in her political reading “the new Hindu is still proud to be a citizen of a secular republic”.

“If — and it’s a big if — political parties don’t try to mobilise hate politics, India won’t change much despite the religious brouhaha", she says. “The by-product may be a victory at the hustings for the Modi-led BJP, as general elections are due in a couple of months. Post that, the political temperature will come down," she adds.