Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
and then, in early 2013, a Kashmiri man convicted for involvement in a 2001 attack on
Parliament was also hanged, heightening - once again - tensions between the countries.
Communal Tension
While Kashmir is the site of India's most persistent conflict, religion-based confrontation
further south may be its most insidious. One of the most violent episodes occurred in
1992, when Hindu extremists destroyed a mosque, the Babri Masjid, in Ayodhya, Uttar
Pradesh, revered by Hindus as the birthplace of Rama. The Hindu-revivalist BJP, then the
main opposition, did little to discourage the acts, and rioting in the north killed thousands.
The BJP grew in popularity and won elections in 1998 and 1999. Prime Minister Atal
Bihari Vajpayee appeared moderate, but many BJP members and supporters took a more
belligerent posture. In 2002, when 58 Hindus died in a suspicious train fire, more than
2000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed in subsequent riots; according to the nonprofit
Human Rights Watch, some BJP government officials were directly involved.
The year 2008 was one of India's darkest: bomb blasts in Jaipur, Ahmedabad and Delhi
each killed dozens of people. Investigations pointed at hardline Islamist groups. Tensions
seemed to be cooling in 2010, when a court stated that the Ayodhya site would be split
between Hindus and Muslims and the response was peaceful. The ruling was suspended
by the Supreme Court in 2011 after appeals by both Hindus and Muslims. But blasts in
Mumbai and Delhi in 2011 were reminders that extremism isn't dead.
