Thirty-three years after the Babri Masjid (mosque) in Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh was razed to the ground by a Hindutva mob, and over five years after the Supreme Court of India issued orders for allocation of a plot of land for construction of a mosque at Dhannipur, there is no sign of the mosque at the site.

The mosque remains on the drawing board, even as children use the plot of land as a playground and goats graze on the field.

Meanwhile, at the site in Ayodhya town where the Babri Masjid once stood, and which Hindu nationalists believe is Ram Janmabhoomi or the place where the Hindu deity Ram was born, a grand Ram temple was inaugurated on January 22, 2024 amid much pomp and ceremony. On November 25 this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi hoisted the “Dharma dhwaj” (flag of righteousness) atop the temple, marking the completion of its construction. Millions of Hindus have been flocking to the Ram temple from across the world over the past year.

In contrast, the scene at Dhannipur is desolate.

The Babri Masjid was built in 1528-29 by a military commander of the Mughal king Babar. According to Hindu nationalists, a pre-existing Ram temple was destroyed to make way for the mosque. The Hindu-Muslim dispute over the site, which began in the 19th century, took an ugly turn on December 6, 1992, when Hindutva activists........

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