Throughout India, the flags that dominated Republic Day have been saffron, the colour of Hindu nationalism. That’s as a result of Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated a grand Ram temple 4 days earlier within the northern metropolis of Ayodhya on the positioning of a demolished mosque, a potent image of the nation’s flip towards a Hindu-centric republic.

The web site of the brand new temple has a fraught historical past. About 30 years in the past, when Modi was a Hindu nationalist chief in western India, he galvanized the movement to destroy the Babri Masjid, the centuries-old mosque that had stood on the spot. He gave speeches in assist of changing the mosque with a temple to the Hindu god Ram, who believers assume was born there.

On Dec. 6, 1992, a Hindu mob destroyed the mosque with axes, hammers and their naked fingers as safety forces stood by and watched. Though a court docket dominated the violence was “an egregious violation of the rule of law,” nobody was held to account for it. More than 1,000 individuals have been killed within the communal carnage that adopted. Then, in 2019, the Supreme Court dominated in favor of the Hindus to construct the Ram temple, whereas Muslims got a plot of land elsewhere. I wrote an essay in The Post from the perspective of a household that had been displaced throughout the 1992 anti-Muslim violence — mine.

The temple inauguration was an enormous victory for Modi, coming simply months earlier than nationwide elections on this Hindu-majority nation. It was attended by former judges, movie stars and different nationwide luminaries. Public figures posted pictures of Lord Ram on their social media with the caption “Jai Shri Ram” — Glory to Lord Ram. The dedication of the brand new temple overshadowed Republic Day.

The preamble to India’s structure states that India is a “sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic.” But in Modi’s India, the secular half has been minimized. Life-size cutouts of the prime minister standing with Lord Ram and wearing saffron are in every single place. He is offered to the nation as a “modern-day Ram” who has restored Hindu pleasure.

The nationwide vacation was nonetheless celebrated formally by the Indian state: French President Emmanuel Macron got here as a state visitor for the Republic Day parade within the nationwide capital. He had tea with Modi at a vacationer spot in Jaipur, took selfies with him and visited the mausoleum of a Muslim saint to expertise the range of India. (The French department of Amnesty International criticized the go to, warning about “the regime’s authoritarian excesses.”)

The Modi authorities promoted the temple inauguration on Instagram by posting a duplicate of the unique preamble to the structure, with out the phrases “socialist” and “secular.” The advocates of a “Hindu India” have traditionally been important of the phrase “secular,” which was added in 1976 to guard the pursuits of minorities. In their worldview, it’s appeasement. (While India’s 1.4 billion inhabitants is 80 p.c Hindu, it additionally has a Muslim minority of greater than 200 million individuals.)

As I drove round Mumbai the weekend of Republic Day, the Indian tricolor was a uncommon sight. Instead, in my favourite eating places and alongside the roads and seashore was the saffron flag.

Republic Day mornings often start with condominium complexes coming collectively to hoist the nationwide flag with Hindi-language songs blaring by loudspeakers, paying tribute to heroes of our freedom wrestle from the British and the unity of the Indian individuals. This Republic Day, that music was principally lacking, drowned out by the “Jai Shri Ram” cacophony on information channels, social media and loudspeakers.

Before the vacation, within the northern state of Chhattisgarh, a video circulating on X (previously Twitter) confirmed a younger Muslim priest with blood on his face limping towards the police station. A mob with saffron flags attacked him shouting, “If you want to stay in India, you will have to chant Glory to Lord Ram.”

In Mira Road, a neighborhood with a large Muslim inhabitants in Mumbai, mobs carrying saffron flags, sticks and swords, went on a rampage after the temple dedication, attacking shopkeepers, residents and drivers, chanting “Jai Shri Ram.” Muslim retailers have been ransacked. Shops and automobiles with saffron flags have been spared. Many of the Muslim households had relocated to the world after the 1992 riots, however now it appeared that the mob was again. On WhatsApp, fearful Muslim households shared a video of a younger Muslim lady in an abaya pressured to chant “Jai Shri Ram” by a mob.

On the temple inauguration day, an structure scholar I do know hung India’s nationwide tricolor flag within the veranda of her home. Two hours later, the secretary of her neighborhood affiliation warned the household that if they didn’t take away the flag, they might be reported to the police for “anti-national” exercise. On her WhatsApp, a neighbor posted: “If you have a problem with the saffron flag, why don’t you move to Pakistan?”

This Republic Day, the feelings enshrined within the Indian structure have been decidedly out of style. “Jai Shri Ram” was the slogan of the day. The films enjoying in theaters as Republic Day specials, our social media, our public icons and our mainstream media have been in sync with a Hindu nationalist India the place a historic crime was given a resplendent, celebratory makeover. As hate crimes trended on social media within the background of the Ram temple inauguration, militant supremacists basked within the state-envisioned saffron makeover. The imaginative and prescient of Hindu nationalism, the street map to Hindu supremacy, was totally unveiled.