By Jeffrey Gettleman and Hari Kumar
In a moment of triumph that India’s Hindu nationalists had worked toward for years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday set the ceremonial cornerstone for a new Hindu temple at the site of a destroyed mosque in Ayodhya.
Hindus and Muslims have clashed over the Ayodhya site for decades, setting off waves of sectarian violence that has killed thousands. As Mr. Modi sat cross-legged and chanted mantras in front of a Hindu priest on Wednesday, part of the elaborate groundbreaking ceremony for the temple, it was the fulfillment of a promise to his Hindu political base and an unmistakable milestone in his efforts to shift India’s secular foundations toward a more overtly Hindu identity.
Millions of Indians watched the ceremony on television or on social media. But because of the coronavirus pandemic, the gathering in Ayodhya itself was more muted than originally planned, with the crowds kept away. Hindu priests chose Wednesday, and specifically at 12:44 p.m., as the most auspicious time to begin building the new temple.
With the television cameras rolling, Mr. Modi took center stage. He performed Hindu rituals, such as offering holy water and putting a red mark on his forehead, alongside some of India’s most avowed Hindu nationalists. They included Yogi Adityanath, the firebrand Hindu monk turned chief minister of Uttar Pradesh State, and Mohan Bhagwat, the leader of the R.S.S., a Hindu supremacist group, whose members helped tear down the mosque that used to stand in Ayodhya.