Juberee Rahman @zuberee - Twitter Profile

About ten days ago, a century-old Hindu temple in Narowal district, #Pakistan (130 km from Lahore), was destroyed. A minority rights group blamed a group of Muslims; officials said the dilapidated structure had partially collapsed years earlier and fully crumbled due to rain. Pakistan’s Minority Affairs Minister stated there was no evidence of any communal attack on the temple and pledged its reconstruction. Indian media, right-wing Hindu group Bajrang Dal, and the foreign ministry strongly condemned the incident, demanded rebuilding, and fuelled social-media outrage. This stands in stark contrast to India’s response in 1992, when the #Hindutva-led demolition of the sixteenth-century #BabriMasjid in Ayodhya was met by the government and Hindu groups with a blunt dismissal of foreign protests as unwarranted interference in #India’s internal affairs. Some ordinary citizens—not the Pakistani state—were perhaps responsible for the destruction Narowal temple. But in India, especially BJP-ruled states, Hindutva activists and authorities have demolished thousands of #mosques, madrasas, Islamic shrines, and Muslim orphanages. Unofficial figures cite 537 such structures demolished in Uttarakhand state alone over the past one year as “illegal,” despite Muslim documentation. Twenty-seven years after a Hindu mob demolished the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya, India’s Supreme Court awarded the disputed site to Hindus, citing the religious belief that the Hindu god Ram had been born there, while acknowledging that there was no conclusive evidence that a temple had been demolished to construct the mosque. Similar claims now target Mathura’s Shahi Masjid (Krishna’s birthplace) and Darul Uloom Deoband (alleged Shiva temple ruins). Historian Richard Eaton estimated roughly 80 temples vandalized under medieval Muslim rule; Hindutva leaders claim 30,000 and threaten systematic reclamation. The rising Hindutva ideology is driving ongoing mosque demolitions aimed at erasing Islam and establishing a Hindu nation. Historian Richard Eaton estimates that roughly 80 temples were vandalised under medieval Muslim rule—a figure dwarfed by Hindutva leaders’ sweeping claim of 30,000. That inflated narrative has become a potent weapon for Hindu nationalist politics, fuelling demands for the systematic “reclamation” of mosques. They call for the demolition of thousands of mosques in India, yet react with outrage when even a single Hindu temple in Pakistan is damaged or destroyed. The stark double standard exposes a deeply selective outrage over religious heritage.