India’s PM Modi shuts down country for televised opening of ’Hindu Vatican’

India’s prime minister shut down schools and the stock market to focus the country’s attention on the opening of a vast new Hindu temple built atop a razed mosque. The sprawling Ram Mandir complex in the northern city of Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, has been dubbed the Hindu Vatican and is said to mark the birthplace of Ram, one of the faith’s most revered deities. It is built on land previously occupied by a 16th-Century mosque before it was destroyed by Hindu mobs in 1992. #modi #india #politics Subscribe to The Telegraph with our special offer: just £1 for 3 months. Start your free trial now: Get the latest headlines: and are websites of The Telegraph, the UK’s best-selling quality daily newspaper providing news and analysis on UK an