Religious diversity & communalism

Story hook

It is 6 December 1992, Ayodhya. Around 1.5 lakh kar sevaks gather at the Babri Masjid — a 16th-century mosque built by Mir Baqi, commander of Mughal emperor Babur, on a site Hindu groups claim was the Ram Janmabhoomi. By mid-afternoon, the mosque is reduced to rubble. Communal riots erupt across India — Mumbai (900+ deaths in two phases), Surat, Delhi, Bhopal. Around 2,000 people die nationwide in the immediate aftermath. The Liberhan Commission (1992-2009) takes 17 years to report and finds 68 people, including senior BJP leaders, culpable for the demolition.

On 9 November 2019, a 5-judge bench of the Supreme Court in M. Siddiq v. Mahant Suresh Das delivers a unanimous verdict: the disputed site goes to the Hindu side for a Ram Temple, while 5 acres are allotted to the Sunni Waqf Board elsewhere in Ayodhya. The verdict also holds the 1992 demolition unlawful. On 22 January 2024, the consecrated Ram Mandir is inaugurated by PM Modi — a moment of joy for many, anguish for others, and a sociological event that has reshaped the Indian religious-political landscape.

In between — the Mumbai blasts (1993), Gujarat 2002, Kandhamal 2008, Muzaffarnagar 2013, Delhi 2020, Manipur 2023, the Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 + its rollout 2024, multiple "love jihad" laws, "halal" + "azaan" controversies — religious diversity has been simultaneously India's defining feature and the fault line that keeps exam-relevant material on the GS-I and Essay paper.

Why this matters for UPSC

Religious diversity + communalism is a near-perennial GS-I + GS-II

• Essay topic. Mains GS-I has asked it explicitly in 2014 ("communalism and regionalism"), 2016 ("composite culture + communal harmony"), 2017 ("communalism arising due to identity attachment"), and 2020 ("communalism as a threat to Indian society"). The same theme reappears under "secularism" (Polity), "minority rights" (Polity), and "globalisation + identity" (Society).

Prelims tests via Articles 25-28, NCM, classification of minorities, key commission reports (Sachar 2006, Ranganath Misra 2007), and PoA analogues.