LUCKNOW, India — India has ramped up security ahead of a high court ruling Friday on a bitter religious dispute responsible for some of the bloodiest sectarian violence since independence.
The decision on the future of the Ayodhya mosque site -- and even more so the reaction to it -- poses a crucial test for India and its image as an emerging global player and a beacon of stability in a volatile region.
"The way the country handles this -- the aftermath -- will have a profound impact on the evolution of our country," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said earlier this month.
In 1992 the demolition of the 16th-century Babri Mosque in Ayodhya by Hindu activists sparked riots that killed more than 2,000 people, mostly Muslims, and propelled India's Hindu nationalists into the political mainstream.
Hindus say the mosque had been built by the Moghul emperor Babur on the site of a temple marking the birthplace of the Hindu warrior G-d Ram.
Ever since the destruction of the mosque 18 years ago the 47-acre (19-hectare) site has been cordoned off with barbed wire and steel fencing and guarded by troops.
Now a three-judge bench in the state capital Lucknow will rule on ownership of the site between Hindu and Muslim groups after rejecting an appeal last week to defer the tinderbox verdict.
Paramilitary troops are already out in force in northern Uttar Pradesh state.
"We now wait for Friday's verdict but no one should celebrate victory or raise protests against the ruling," said Zafaryab Jilani, lawyer for the Babri Masjid Action Committee, which wants the site handed to Muslims, India's largest religious minority.
The government and numerous religious leaders have urged both Hindus and Muslims to accept the court ruling, no matter which way it goes.
"The government appeals to all sections of society to maintain peace and order after the delivery of the judgement," Information Minister Ambika Soni said last week.
The drive to build a Ram temple on the ruins of the razed mosque remains a key political priority of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is currently the main opposition party in parliament.
India's chief Muslim cleric, Syed Ahmed Bukhari, has echoed the calls for calm, but also criticised hardline Hindu groups for shunning efforts to find an out-of-court compromise.
"One can only strike a compromise with those who want to resolve the dispute through sincere talks," Bukhari told AFP.
The high court decision can be challenged in India's Supreme Court.
"My estimate is that the case will reach the Supreme Court irrespective of who the court rules in favour of," said senior BJP leader L.K. Advani.
Mahant Gyan Das, a senior member of the Hindu trust seeking to build a Ram temple on the site, insisted that any violence resulting from the ruling would not come from the people of Ayodhya.
"The local population -- Hindus or Muslims -- would never create trouble. What we need to guard against is infiltration by mischief-makers from outside," Das told AFP.
The government has even gone so far as to take out newspaper ads warning against any knee-jerk reactions that might inflame communal tensions.
"There should be no attempt whatsoever made by any section of the people to provoke any other section or to indulge in any expression of emotion that would hurt the feelings of other people," the published appeal said.
India has avoided any major outbreak of Hindu-Muslim violence since riots in Gujarat in 2002.
The government is especially keen to keep a lid on any unrest ahead of the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, which begin on October 3, and the visit of US President Barack Obama in November.
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