In India, dueling houses of god

The holy city of Ayodhya contains plenty of Hindu temples, but only one has the potential to destabilize the current government. It is guarded by 360 state policemen and 120 members of the fierce paramilitary group, the Central Reserve Police Force. The faithful come by the hundreds each day to pass through three metal detectors, three frisks, and a caged walkway lined by 14 guard towers, under the gaze of nearly 50 machine-gun- toting guards.

Hindus call this place Ram Janmabhoomi, birthplace of their god Rama. Muslims say the site belongs to them, since Mughal conqueror Babur built a mosque here some 400 years ago. In December 1992, Hindu fanatics stormed the site and tore down the mosque, setting off riots around the nation that killed 2,000.

Decades of legal battles and court cases disputing the site's ownership are still pending, but some Hindu activists aren't waiting for the courts to make a decision. Stonemasons soon will have completed carving all the pillars and statues that are expected to make up a massive new Ram temple. Meanwhile, last week the All India Babri Masjid Action Committee, one of several groups formed to protect Muslim interests on the temple-mosque issue, announced its own plans to rebuild the demolished mosque. Stone-carving will begin Aug. 15 this year, the group said in a statement, but construction would begin only after the high court in Allahabad reaches a decision on ownership.

Beyond its disruptive nature, the dispute challenges the very notion on which India itself was founded: a society where all religions are equal, and no religion dominates.

"I think this hits at the very idea of India, the idea of a pluralist state that celebrates diversity," says Amitabh Mattoo, political scientist at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. "This nation was founded on the belief that you could resolve disputes through dialogue, through the rule of law. It was not a zero-sum game."

In addition to potentially sparking new riots, a rebuilding of the temple could destabilize the current coalition government led by the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party. One BJP leader, Home Minister L.K. Advani, is currently facing charges of inciting the 1992 riots. If convicted, he could discredit his party. In addition, some parties within the ruling coalition have vowed to withdraw their support of the government if the temple is built.

In some ways, momentum is already building for the temple. In January, at the Kumbh Mela religious festival on the banks of the Ganges River, the hard-line Hindu group Vishwa Hindu Parishad also raised the heat, giving the central government a year to remove legal barriers to building a full-scale temple at the site. The VHP vowed construction would begin in March 2002, no matter what the courts say.

The VHP's resolution drew predictable howls of protest from Muslims and secular-minded Indians alike, but also from other Hindu sects who prefer resolving the issue through the Indian court system.

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