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Hearings Conclude Over India’s Most-Controversial Religious Site

A dispute over ownership of 2.77 acres of land in Ayodhya has been India’s most politically divisive and emotive row for decades.

Hearings Conclude Over India’s Most-Controversial Religious Site
People gather at a ghat on the Saratu river in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, India. (Photographer: Prashanth Vishwanathan/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- India’s top court Wednesday concluded hearing 40 days of arguments over the ownership of land in the northern city of Ayodhya that is at the heart of a long-drawn and polarizing religious dispute over the construction of a temple on the site of a demolished mosque.

The dispute over ownership of the 2.77 acres of land in Ayodhya has been India’s most politically divisive and emotive row for decades. The promise of building a grand temple to the Hindu god Ram at the Ayodhya site is a key part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi‘s Hindu nationalist agenda. It was one of the campaign promises that propelled him to re-election this year.

The court did not give a date for the verdict.

To contact the reporter on this story: Upmanyu Trivedi in New Delhi at utrivedi2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Unni Krishnan at ukrishnan2@bloomberg.net, Ruth Pollard, Muneeza Naqvi

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