India is bracing for a historic verdict Friday on whether Hindus or Muslims have rights to a disputed religious site, in a test of whether the issue will stir passions as it did in 1992, when a mosque at the site was destroyed by a Hindu mob and an estimated 2,000 people died in rioting that followed.
Since then, the Babri Masjid, a mosque in the town of Ayodhya in the state of Uttar Pradesh, has come to represent the deep and violent divisions that occasionally erupt within India’s multifaith democracy.