New era for India? Modi consecrates Ayodhya temple on site of former mosque
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India's prime minister calls it a "new era". Narendra Modi has consecrated the Ayodhya temple in the nation's most populous state of Uttar Pradesh, fulfilling a decades-old promise to build a proper shrine to the Hindu deity Ram on the site where a Moghul-era mosque was torn down by Hindu nationalists in 1992. That destruction sparked deadly riots that killed some 2,000 people, mainly Muslims.
Are we witnessing a turning point for secularism in the world’s largest democracy?
The ceremony is viewed by many as the unofficial kick-off of the campaign by Modi's BJP in its quest for a third term in power. How much will identity politics matter during the five weeks of voting that kick off across the country in April?
More broadly, in an India where growth is soaring, where technology now reaches the most remote village, but where nearly two-thirds of citizens still live outside cities, how are values evolving?
Produced by Alessandro Xenos, Rebecca Gnignati and Imen Mellaz.
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