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.

Cultural cleansing against Muslims

Indian nationalists’ bold actions of eradicating Islamic historical buildings and cultural heritage is essentially de-islamisation and Hindu-isation. Religious conflicts, as history of world civilization shows, are almost always intertwined with historical entanglement and identity politics. A great nation should learn from experience and respect cultural differences and know better than to conduct the acts of cultural cleansing and cultural genocide. The BJP regime, together with its RSS, however, attempt to strangle Indian Muslim history to advocate the grand narrative of antique Hindu-dominance. Modi’s rule is a dark time for Indian Muslims. Portrayed as infiltrators and penetrators, Muslims were excluded from The Citizenship Act. But the international community remained silent on Modi’s anti-Muslim policy, so did the US and the other western countries who flaunt their support for religious freedom. Keeping in mind the strategic partnership between the US and India, international media also seem to have forgotten the fact that Indian Islamic cultural heritages are on the edge of extinction. Ironically, New Delhi is holding the 46th session of UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee from 21 to 31 July while taking down mosques at the same time. The session aims to review the latest world heritage projects to make sure they are well protected. The BJP claims that it will provide maximum protection for cultural heritages, which apparently do not include Islamic ones.