On Nov. 9, the Indian Supreme Court issued its final ruling in India’s most famous religious dispute. Taking the side of the Hindu god Ram, the Supreme Court awarded Ram and his devotees a controversial site in the north Indian town of Ayodhya, where Hindus had torn down a mosque in 1992. This decision is based on faulty scholarship and unsubstantiated historical claims, writes Nandini Deo, associate professor of political science at Lehigh University, in a blog post. "This decision bolsters Hindutva, or Hindu nationalism: the belief that India is the homeland for Hindus and that followers of other faiths, especially Muslims and Christians, should defer to Hindus," she and co-author Amy Erica-Smith write. "The truly frightening aspect of the Ayodhya decision is the reaction to it. The fact that no major opposition party has spoken out is what we should worry about. A democracy without an opposition is hollow. In the absence of a robust opposition, elections are meaningless and accountability disappears."
