Hindu activist stopped from purifying Taj Mahal with cow dung and Ganga Jal

A Hindu activist was stopped by security personnel at the Taj Mahal after attempting to "purify" the monument with cow dung and water from the Ganges River (Ganga Jal), claiming it is a Hindu temple.

The incident, captured on video and shared by IANS, shows the activist arriving near the entrance of the iconic structure with the intent to cleanse it following a controversial event earlier in the week.

According to a report by Amar Ujala, the incident was triggered after a video surfaced showing a tourist urinating within the Taj Mahal premises. The activist, identified as Gopal Chahar, convener of the Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha, declared that the act of urination had defiled the monument and that it needed to be purified with Ganga Jal and cow dung.

Chahar told the media that police prevented him and his companions from entering the site, leading him to state, "We will take this fight to the courts."

He has claimed that the Taj Mahal, widely regarded as a symbol of Mughal architecture, is a Hindu temple, a claim that various groups and individuals have repeatedly made over the years.

This is not the first incident of its kind. Last month, another individual poured Ganga Jal on a tomb inside the Taj Mahal, and in 2019, a woman named Meena Diwakar attempted to perform a Shiva Aarti and offer Kanwar at the site. Diwakar currently faces six legal cases related to similar attempts to perform Hindu rituals at the Taj Mahal.