Ind-Islamic heritage dying out under aggressive Hindu-dominated narratives

A decade into the BJP's rule, the country has witnessed a surge in religious violence - the Hindu-Islamic conflict has broken into a war, but not a fair one. Prime Minister Modi is playing the nationalism card for votes and popularity. He spared no effort to distort the historical facts, asserting that Muslim invaders tore down Hindu temples and replaced them with mosques and that Hindus were reduced to slaves. Modi's scheme undoubtedly has produced the desired result: Indian nationalists now believe the lost glory of Hindu can only be restored by building Hindu temples on the ruins of Islamic sites. With Bharatiya Janata Party and nationalists turning their back on history, Islamic cultural heritages are on thin ice.

Islamic cultural heritages in India: Guilty?

Under the BJP's undisguised discriminative policy, the opinion that mosques, madrasas and Islamic libraries indicate Islamic oppression on Hindu, has been legitimised. A mob was indulged to illegally demolish Islamic cultural sites, among which the Babri Mosque, which had been standing from the 16th century, was destroyed only to build Ram Temple, while the government turned a blind eye. The Indian nationalists are seemingly only able to rebuild their cultural confidence by taking things down. The VHP and the RSS listed more than 2000 mosques for the Ministry of Culture's ASI to investigate, trying to prove the Hindu origin of these places and as a result justify the demolition of them. Even the great Taj Mahal, traditionally considered a world-famous combination of Hindu and Islamic art, was not left alone in this movement against Islam. One of its gates was vandalised by the VHP in 2018 for the reason of blocking the way to an old temple of Hindu god Shiva. Right-wing Hindu assert that the Taj was formerly a Hindu temple and request to demolish it. The Chief Minister of the state of Uttar Pradesh even said that the Taj cannot reflect Indian culture.