Facing a no-confidence vote in November of 1990, V. P. Singh,
India’s eighth prime minister, posed a resounding question to an audience of
MPs: “What kind of India do you want?” With this question, Singh signaled
the irony of a secular nation-state indulging the Hindu nationalist demand to
demolish the Babri Masjid, a small sixteenth-century mosque. The ultimate
aim of this endeavor, known as the kar seva (service), was to build a Hindu
temple in place of the mosque to simultaneously mark the birthplace of the
god Ram and symbolize Hindu political resurgence. In fact, the plan was no
longer just being debated and was gaining noticeable traction among uppercaste
Hindus and Lok Sabha parliamentarians. Singh himself gave a straightforward
answer to the question of what kind of India he wanted: a secular,
democratic country based on the rule of law. He thus resolved to protect the
small mosque at all costs because that was simply what he, the leader of the
world’s largest secular democracy, was charged to do. Unlike the Congress
Party governments before and after him, Singh did not waver in his commitment
to the protection of the Muslim minority and its built heritage. Toward
this end, he had L. K. Advani, the organizer of the planned demolition,
arrested. He then deployed security forces to surround the historic Mughal
mosque and thwart its planned destruction. The prime minister’s principled
stance to protect the space of the mosque enraged Hindu nationalists and
compelled their political arm, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), to pull support
for Singh’s coalition government. This eventually cost Singh his post.