Hindu extremists perform rituals near Taj Mahal claiming it as temple
Members of Hindu extremist group performed rituals facing India’s famed Muslim-era monument as part of wider campaign seeking to recast Islamic heritage as Hindu
NEW DELHI, India (MNTV) — Hindu extremists performed religious rituals and raised a saffron flag facing the Taj Mahal in northern India while claiming the world-famous Muslim monument was a Hindu temple, the latest attempt by Hindu nationalist groups to challenge the Islamic history of some of the country’s best-known heritage sites.
Members of the Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha performed aarti, a Hindu worship ritual, and offered water from the Ganges River at Mehtab Bagh, a protected Mughal-era garden directly across the Yamuna River from the Taj Mahal in Agra.
A video circulated on social media showed group official Ajju Chauhan conducting the rituals while facing the 17th-century mausoleum, which Mughal emperor Shah Jahan built for his wife Mumtaz Mahal.
“It was our Shiva temple; it is, and it will remain,” Chauhan said in the video, repeating a longstanding Hindu nationalist claim that the Taj Mahal was originally a temple dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva.
The Archaeological Survey of India, or ASI, which protects both the Taj Mahal and Mehtab Bagh, subsequently approached police over the unauthorized religious activity. Agra police said a criminal case had been registered following the agency’s complaint and an investigation was underway.
The ritual was not an isolated act of worship. The Hindu Mahasabha has repeatedly sought to perform Hindu ceremonies at or around the Taj Mahal while promoting the claim that the monument was once a Shiva temple called “Tejo Mahalaya.”
There is no accepted historical or archaeological evidence supporting that assertion. The Taj Mahal is internationally recognized as a Mughal monument commissioned by Shah Jahan in the 17th century and is designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The latest incident came only days after members of the same organization attempted to perform jalabhishek, a Hindu ritual involving the pouring of sacred water, at the Taj Mahal. Police stopped them and instead escorted the participants to a Hindu temple, where they were allowed to perform the ceremony.
Chauhan had also reportedly appeared near the monument about two weeks earlier with women carrying a kanwar, a vessel traditionally used by Hindu pilgrims to carry water from the Ganges during the Hindu holy month of Sawan.
The repeated attempts come amid a broader Hindu nationalist movement challenging the Muslim history of prominent mosques, monuments and other heritage sites across India.
Hindu groups have advanced claims that several celebrated Muslim-era structures were constructed over Hindu temples or should be restored to Hindu control. Some of the most politically charged campaigns have centered on the Gyanvapi Mosque in Varanasi and the Shahi Idgah Mosque in Mathura, while similar claims have been raised over other historic Muslim sites.
Such campaigns have gained greater prominence under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, as Hindu supremacist organizations push a version of Indian history that portrays centuries of Muslim rule primarily through the destruction or appropriation of Hindu religious sites.
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