India: Hindu nationalists call for banning 'beef eaters' in temples

Bollywood actors Ranbir Kapoor, Aia Bhatt and director Ayan Mukerji wanted to visit the Mahakaleshwar temple.

Only the last was finally able.

Here, during the promotion of the film Brahmaster, in Bombay on August 6, 2022. © Sujit Jaiswal / AFP

Text by: Côme Bastin Follow

3 mins

In India, a very famous couple of actors were prevented from going to a temple because of a decade-old tweet in which one of them said to eat beef, a sin for certain branches of the Hinduism.

Extremists then organized a demonstration in front of the sacred place which degenerated into clashes with the police.

Now, controversy is flooding social networks, with some demanding that beef eaters be banned from temples.

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From our correspondent in Bangalore,

It happened Tuesday, September 6 in the state of Madhya Pradesh, in central India.

Actor Ranbir Kapoor and actress Alia Bhatt, a Bollywood couple who married last April, wanted to visit the Mahakaleshwar temple, one of the most sacred among the god Shiva.

The problem is that since their last film

Brahmastra

, Ranbir Kapoor has been in the crosshairs of extremists.

Reason: He tweeted in 2011 that he sometimes likes to eat beef, which is considered a sin.

The Bajrang Dal, the youth wing of the Hindu nationalist movement VHP,

then staged a protest

outside the temple.

About fifty activists, according to the local press,

forced the couple to backtrack

 before being later dispersed by the police.

Bajrang Dal men protest ahead of film actor couple Ranbir Kapoor-Alia Bhatt's visit to Ujjain's Mahakal Temple, over Kapoor's 2011 statement on beef eating.

Holding black flags, the protestors gathered outside the temple's VVIP Gate.

@NewIndianXpress @TheMornStandard @santwana99 pic.twitter.com/VAQPSOx6o2

— Anuraag Singh (@anuraag_niebpl) September 6, 2022

Networks inundated with calls to ban beef eaters in temples

The controversy then exploded at the national level and on the internet.

The media echo it because they are stars of Indian cinema and above all because nothing can filter the good from the bad worshipers in a temple.

Far from backtracking, Hindu nationalist groups are moving the confrontation to social networks.

Tweets rained down demanding that beef eaters be banned in temples, even if no one explains concretely how to do it, and calling for a boycott of the film.

Chakrapani Maharaj, leader of the extremist

All India Hindu Mahasabha

movement says that unless celebrities publicly apologize, Hindu organizations around the world will ban them from temples.

On the other hand, Internet users are indignant at this campaign, especially since for some Hindus, eating beef is considered normal.

 Also to listen: 

Regional elections, Hindu nationalists attack West Bengal

The instrumentalization of Hinduism for political purposes

Since

the coming to power of the Hindu nationalist party BJP, of Prime Minister Narendra Modi

, the Hindu nationalist movements no longer feel limited and try to impose a monolithic and extremist reading of religion.

But not all Hindus recognize themselves in it, as it is a diverse and protean spirituality.

Moreover, this extremism is politically recuperated.

In this case,

parliamentary elections are

approaching in Madhya Pradesh, a stronghold of the BJP.

This is how the Minister of Culture of this State justified Thursday a demonstration against the actors in the name of respect for believers.

She took the opportunity to announce that identity cards would now be required at the entrance to certain Hindu festivities, to prevent Muslims from taking advantage of them to charm and convert young Hindus.

What trigger a new controversy.

 Also to listen: 

The excesses of Hindu nationalist power in India

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