An Indian court has ruled to give Hindu worshippers the go-ahead to pray at a disputed mosque that right-wing Hindu groups have been trying to claim for decades.
The Gyanvapi mosque, which is a 17th-century site located in the Indian city of Varanasi, is one of several Muslim places of worship that are being sought by the groups. They are backed by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Varanasi is the prime minister's parliamentary constituency in Uttar Pradesh, which is the country's most populous state that is also governed by the BJP. A local court on Wednesday ruled that Hindu worshippers are able to pray in the building's basement. It also ordered authorities to "make proper arrangements" for worshippers within a week.
Local media reports noted that family members of Hindu priests started praying in the mosque's basement in the early hours of Thursday. The lawyer who is representing Muslim petitioners, Akhlaq Ahmad, said that they would appeal the court's latest order, as per Aljazeera.
The disputed Gyanvapi Mosque was first built during the Mughal Empire in a city where Hindus from across the nation cremate relatives by the Ganges river. Hindu worshippers have argued that the mosque replaced a temple to the Hindu deity Shiva.
The Archaeological Survey of India said last month that a survey of the site appeared to corroborate the belief that it was initially home to a temple. For years, right-wing Hindu groups have laid claim to various Muslim sites of worship that they claim were built atop ancient temples during Mughal rule.
A member of the building's managing committee said that meanwhile, bulldozers knocked down a centuries-old mosque in the capital of the nation. On the other hand, another mosque, the Masjid Akhonji, is located in New Delhi. Its caretakers say that it is roughly 600 years old and was home to 22 students who were enrolled in an Islamic boarding school.
The Indian court's ruling also allowed Vedic chants and the tinkle of prayer bells to ring out in the southern cellar of the Gyanvapi Mosque for the first time in three decades. After the prayers, they held elaborate morning rituals, offerings, and afternoon aarti, according to the Times of India.
Allowing Hindu Worshippers To Pray
By the time that evening aarti began, there was already a long queue of devotees found outside of the basement of the mosque. They were all eager to get a look at the presiding deity through a small window of the building. However, the administration did not allow anyone except members of Shailendra Vyas' family and the designated priest to enter.
The mosque has been subjected to dozens of legal petitions by Hindus since 2021, which focused on who has the right to pray inside. The mosque committee has been fighting those legal challenges, arguing that the mosque has been used solely by Muslims for hundreds of years.
They also said that it was protected by the Places of Worship Act, which was enacted shortly after the country's independence. It froze the status of all religious places of worship as they existed on Aug. 15, 1947, while also prohibiting their conversion to any other faith, said The Guardian.
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