Multiple things can be true at the same time: the demolition of a mosque by rioters was wrong. Period.
Indians condemned it at the time, and they continued to do so. Secondly, this mosque was built by the Mughal invader Babur (from present-day Uzbekistan), who invaded India in the 15th century. He bragged about the glory of Hindu temples and razing them to the ground.
There are two aspects here:
the whole of North India is full of temples that have been consistently pillaged, demolished + rebuilt. Its rinse and repeat. The construction of Hindu temples requires extensive ground excavation, and therefore, archaeological remains are easy to locate. Where temples have been demolished, the temples are continuously rebuilt on smaller scales by the local Hindu population.
A 1,000+ page Supreme Court judgment looks at the evidence for Hindu worship at this site.
The site is referred to as the “Mosque of the Birthplace of Ram.” Archaeological evidence demonstrates the remains of a temple. Documentation from the time of Babur refers to this site as “the birthplace of Lord Ram.” A commentator from Italy refers to Hindu celebrations on the day of Lord Ram’s birth.
Concurrently, the mosque was not a place of worship for Muslims since pre-1947.
The Western media keep pointing to Modi as leading a nationalistic Hindu identity and keep giving rise to a more authoritarian Hindu nationalist identity.
I am a lawyer, and going to the highest court in the land, which finds in your favour, and then building a temple, is the epitome of the rule of law.
If you were going to argue India is anti-secular, this might be the worst case to select.
The West’s antagonism completely ignores the fact that India is the birthplace of Hinduism and that Indic culture is inextricably linked to Hinduism. Hindus feel a sense of pride and overwhelming devotion separate from politics. No one has the right to belittle us.
What worries me is this:
The West do not understand that Islam thrives in India because Hinduism by its nature is tolerant and diverse. We do not care what you believe in. If we do not develop our own language to describe our social and cultural structure, then the West will continue to do so.
That is unacceptable.
In the future, I have absolutely no doubt that much private money will go into temple construction. In all our minds, this is not a bad thing b/c we are not going to apologise for being Hindu in our land anymore. Period.
Finally, I write as a practising Hindu, who does not pray to Lord Ram. But my fellow Indic brethren do and they should be permitted to do so in peace.