Reporters Without Orders Ep 221: Targeting Gyanvapi mosque

Host Nidhi Suresh is joined by Aishwarya Iyer of Scroll who talks about her series on the Hindutva campaign around the Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh.

In her series, Aishwarya talks about the five Hindu women whose petitions demanding permission to pray at the mosque have propelled the campaign. She examines their links with a former Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Sohan Lal Arya who had filed a similar plea in 1995. “One common point for these women was their desire to attend prayers together in the premises,” Aishwarya says, “Their petition did not have anything regarding the Shivling but now it has motivated them to go deeper into the case.”

Nidhi and Aishwarya also discuss the sociocultural fallout of the communal campaign against Gyanvapi. “Only a person born and brought up in Varanasi can understand the loss of its beautiful culture,” Aishwarya argues while explaining how the targeting of the mosque has caused unease among the city’s Muslims.

This and a lot more as they talk about what made news, what didn’t, and what shouldn’t have.

Tune in.

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Watch a part of the conversation here:

Timecodes

00:00:00 - Introduction

00:00:36 - Gyanvapi mosque

00:17:10 - Sociocultural fallout

00:43:25 - Recommendations

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Produced and recorded by Tehreem Roshan, edited by Satish Kumar.