Saurabh Sharma and Rupam Jin

MUMBAI/LUCKNOW (Reuters India) – The latest Indian battleground between Hindu minority Muslims and Hindu majority Muslims is a court case that five Hindu women from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constituency filed against each other. This dispute concerns access to religious sites which were once contested.

A prominent Hindu hardline group, linked to Modi, supported the women and said that they wanted to ensure Hindus could pray to an idol of a goddess every day as well as relics they claim to be inside Varanasi’s most famous mosque.

Varanasi, one of Hinduism’s most sacred cities, is also home to the Gyanvapi Mosque – an Indian phenomenon that became common after the Mughal conquests of the area in the 16th and 17th century.

Since 1947 when India gained independence, religious disputes over the use of such sites has been a constant issue. However, they are becoming more frequent in recent years. India is home to around 13 percent of its 1.35 million Muslims.

Last week, Hindu groups submitted multiple cases to Indian courts about disputed areas in India. This is seen by some Muslims as an attempt to marginalize them, with Modi’s tacit blessing from the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party BJP.

The BJP says that it doesn’t incite religious tensions. It claims to be a party which promotes the advancement of all Indians.

Manju Vyas runs a beauty parlor in Varanasi on the River Ganges.

Four of her friends and she approached the court to proclaim the Gyanvapi Mosque “an illegal structure constructed by Islamic rulers following the destruction parts of a temple built in the 1600s.”

It was possible for hundreds of Hindu women, through a pre-existing law to ritually worship Sringar gauri one time a year at the mosque’s doorstep.

Vyas also claimed last year that Muslim men assaulted them when they stood next to the mosque for prayer, an accusation the mosque cleric rejected.

Vyas 46, stated that “Everybody, including the Muslims of Varanasi are aware that there was a temple before the mosque” and that the court had… video clips showing Hindu remains inside.

‘HISTORIC REVISIONISM’

A survey was authorized by the judge in the hearing of this plea to validate those claims. Reuters examined the survey report this week.

The report states that Hindu religious idols and relics for God Shiva, as well symbols, were discovered inside a tank and in the basement at the Gyanvapi Mosque.

Muslims who are members of the Gyanvapi mosque claim that court-appointed surveyors mistook a fountainhead found in the tank for a Hindu idol, and the motifs were Persian flowers.

Supreme Court granted permission for the survey to be used as evidence in order to permit proceedings to proceed.

Sohan Lal is the husband of one the five petitioners, and also a member in chief of Vishva Hindu Parishad – the World Hindu Council.

The VHP was the one that built a temple on the spot of an unresolved 16th-century mosque in Ayodhya three decades ago. This was after the former was destroyed by Hindus, who claimed it was built in the area where Lord Ram of Hinduism was born.

It was the 1992 incident that led to religious riots across India, which killed almost 2,000 Muslims and propelled the BJP to fame.

Top leaders from the BJP, as well as some historians of nationalist history, believe Muslim leaders during their 200-year reign destroyed Hindu temples to build mausoleums or mosques. This was part of an expansionist strategy.

According to a senior BJP leader from New Delhi who spoke under anonymity as the case is before a courtroom, the moment was right for Hindu heritage to be reclaimed. The challenge was not to spark religious violence.

He stated, “The new era in historical revisionism has started.”

Asaduddin Obaiddin Owaisi is the leader of a Muslim regional party. He also serves as a federal lawmaker.

He stated that the government was always looking up past events to distract people from pertinent issues like price rises, unemployment, and weak infrastructure.

Modi has been urged by some secular Hindus and Islamic scholars to ask litigants for the withdrawal of legal cases over religious site ownership in Varanasi.

Dhirendra Sharma (a Varanasi-based political scientist) said that Modi must stand up and declare ‘let begones be bygones. But this would harm his Hindu loyal vote base.

Modi’s Office did not respond immediately to my request for comment.