MORE than 20,000 Hindu nationalists yesterday began the long-threatened process of building a temple on a Muslim holy site, despite widespread fears that the work will trigger bloody inter-communal violence.
Hindu men in saffron turbans, many carrying traditional tridents symbolizing their religion, and women in colourful saris blew conch shells and rang bells as they started their purification ritual on the site in Ayodhya, about 350 miles east of New Delhi, yesterday.
There was a heavy police presence in the town to prevent any repetition of the rioting 10 years ago which began when a Hindu mob razed a 16th-century mosque on the site. Hindus believe that the site is the birthplace of the god Lord Rama.
The attack on the mosque started a vicious round of communal fighting which left an estimated 2,000 people dead.
Hindu extremists said building work would begin at the site in less than three weeks, despite a plea from their former ally, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the prime minister, to let the Supreme Court decide the issue.
Much of the new building has already been prepared in nearby Karsewakpuram, two miles from the planned temple. For years, dozens of artisans have been chiselling red sandstone pillars, arches and images of Hindu deities and plan to begin moving them to the site soon.
Roads in the region have been choked with people heading for the ceremonies and local authorities have made drinking water available to the travellers.
Ashok Singhal, head of the World Hindu Council said: "100,000 believers will march towards the temple site on March 15 and begin constructing the temple. The court has nothing to do with this piece of land."
The council has argued that the issue is an incontrovertible matter of faith.
The campaign to demolish the mosque followed a nationwide movement for the construction of a Hindu temple led by the current home minister, the hardline Lal K Advani. He travelled the length of India in a van mocked up as Rama's chariot, making fiery anti-Muslim speeches en route. Muslims comprise about 14 per cent and Hindus more than 80 per cent of India's more than 1 billion people.
The fervour of the campaign led to the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party's first election to office in 1997. Although its cobbled-together coalition lasted barely a fortnight, it formed a government a year later and has been in power since.
But with the BJP conceding defeat in the Uttar Pradesh elections yesterday, a move that is bound to dent its credibility as the dominant force in Indian politics, Hindu nationalists have vowed to whip up the Ayodhya issue once again.
Uttar Pradesh's BJP chief minister, Rajnath Singh, conceded defeat in the state that is his party's traditional power base, even as counting continued. Projections showed that the BJP was trailing badly behind the regional populist People's Party.
Another BJP administration was toppled by the opposition Congress party in the recently created hill state of Uttaranchal, while the BJP and its Akali Dal allies also lost to Congress in northern Punjab state, the Sikh homeland.
The poll results were worse than the BJP expected, though they will not result in the downfall of the federal coalition. Party MPs conceded that they will affect Mr Vajpayee's credibility as the BJP now rules only four of India's 29 states. National elections are not due until 2004.
The BJP tried to win votes in the state elections by emphasising its tough stand against Pakistan after last December's terrorist attack on the parliament in New Delhi.
Mr Vajpayee blamed Pakistan for the attack, deployed the army on the border and forced Islamabad to withdraw support to Islamic militants.
But most voters were more concerned with economic development, jobs and the availability of basic services such as electricity and roads.