Thirty-two years ago, on December 6, 1992, mobs descended on the Babri Masjid in the northern Indian city of Ayodhya, destroyed the 600-year-old structure brick by brick, and provoking riots in which more than 2,000 people, predominantly Muslims, were killed. The mob was driven by a Hindu nationalist campaign to reclaim the mosque for Hindus.

Their wish was ultimately fulfilled in 2023, when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi consecrated an enormous Hindu temple built directly on top of the destroyed mosque, in effect sanctifying the site of an anti-Muslim pogrom.

The Supreme Court of India’s 2019 ruling permitting the construction of the temple blatantly disregarded India’s Places of Worship Act, which prohibits changing the character of religious structures as they have existed since August 15, 1947. The ruling opened a can of worms in which the state-backed mob violence, lawfare, and Hindu nationalist furor that marked the Babri Masjid saga have become India’s norm.

To understand India today, one must understand the destruction of the Babri Masjid.