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TIME: Almanac 1990
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1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso
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1990-09-19
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WORLD, Page 53World NotesINDIABattle of the Bricks
With India's voters set to go to the polls next week, the
country's attention was focused less on politics than on a
religious dispute over the future of a 16th century mosque in the
North Indian town of Ayodhya. Militant Hindu groups claim that
India's Mogul conquerors built the mosque after destroying a temple
marking the birthplace of the Hindu god Rama. The militants demand
that a temple to Rama be built on the spot. India's Muslim minority
fiercely objects to the plan. As tension has mounted in recent
weeks, at least 400 people, most of them Muslims, have been killed
in communal rioting.
With Hindus accounting for 83% of India's 833 million people,
Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi permitted the militants to lay the
foundation stone for the new temple last week. The Hindu extremists
are the vanguard of a growing movement led by the Bharatiya Janata
Party. Its aim: to establish a Hindu Rashtra -- Hindu Nation.