The footfall in Indian temples has skyrocketed astronomically in the last decade. All our major hubs have experienced an unprecedented surge of devotees and revenue. The construction of the Kashi Vishwanath corridor in Varanasi has seen an unprecedented surge in devotees, and from five million tourists who visited it in 2014, the numbers in 2026 are expected to cross 150 million. The four Dhams of Gangotri, Yamunotri, Kedarnath, and Badrinath saw over 52 lakh tourists visit these four shrines in 2025 between May and September, a far departure from five decades ago when a handful of pilgrims would often spend months negotiating the steep pathways that led up to these shrines.

But few places have seen the transformation that has taken place in Ayodhya, where the construction of the grand temple has drawn millions ever since it was inaugurated by Prime Minister Modi in 2024.

To several journalists who had congregated at Ayodhya in December 1992, the city appeared to be little more than a dusty, quiet pilgrimage town with thousands of small temples, maths and akharas. The Saryu River flowed past this quaint town, its waters feeding the large tracts of agricultural land that surrounded Ayodhya. Little did my colleagues and I realise that we would witness the pulling down of the Babri Masjid, which would permanently alter the political landscape of the country. Four years later, the BJP had emerged as the single-largest party in Parliament, laying the groundwork for coalition governments and, eventually, for an absolute majority government.

Overnight, once the Babri Masjid had been pummelled to the........

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