It’s close to sundown and a family is gathering in the courtyard of their home near the ancient Bokneshwar Mahadev temple in Tarpura village, Pithampur town of Madhya Pradesh’s Dhar district.

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi attends the inauguration of the grand temple of the Hindu god Lord Ram in Ayodhya, India, Jan. 22, 2024. India's Press Information Bureau/Handout via REUTERS ...

Critics call the temple a monument to India's eroding secularism. World. India's Modi inaugurates a long-promised but controversial Hindu temple in Ayodhya. January 22, 2024 1:27 PM ET. By .

The temple's consecration on Jan. 22 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the BJP's latest bid to show India is for Hindus, and Hindus alone.

Indian authorities should urgently act to prevent further escalation in communal violence following the consecration of a controversial Hindu temple in Uttar Pradesh state on January 22, 2024.

Naturally, India’s secularists see the rise of a Ram temple on the site of the Babri Mosque as confirmation of their own defeat, if not as a blasphemous conflation of Mr. Modi with Ram.