ABSTRACT
On 10 March 2018, Desh Ratan Nigam, a lawyer and RSS thinker, went viral on Indian media for his passionate argument that the Taj Mahal was a Hindu temple, built in 1000 CE, which according to him could be proved from ‘symbols of Hinduism all over the place’. He further argued that even the Delhi Jama Masjid was originally a Yamuna temple since edifice entrances on raised platforms were not a part of ‘Islamic architecture’. While this incident was eventually disregarded, the idea of mosques being built on ‘demolished’ temple grounds because of similarities with temples is a sour sentiment that haunts India today, a harrowing example being the Babri Masjid episode. It is imperative, therefore, to understand what constitutes a mosque or a temple or any other sacred space in a pluralistic society like that of India, which has witnessed a symbiotic existence of varied religions. This chapter will address this impaired understanding of sacred spaces by arguing for a need to step away from compartmentalization of religious architecture into ‘Muslim’, ‘Hindu’, ‘Christian’, and so on and so forth, by exploring a culturally appropriate approach that reflects realities of specific societies.
