The Guardian view on Modi in Ayodhya: an alarming new era for India | Editorial

The inauguration of the temple erased divisions between politics and religion in a theoretically secular state

Monday's inauguration of the new Ram Mandir in Ayodhya by India's prime minister, Narendra Modi, was a moment decades in the making. Yet it also cametoo early. Despite the grand spectacle of the ceremony, with celebrities, tycoons and politicians inattendance, the temple is still incomplete. There is an obvious explanation for this rushed endeavour, andit is not religious. India will go to the polls in late spring and while Mr Modi is all but guaranteed to win athird term, he wants a large majority for his BharatiyaJanata party (BJP).

Mr Modi rode to power, and has entrenched it, on the back of rightwing Hindu nationalism. On Monday he went beyond the exploitation of ethno-religious sentiment. He did not merely attend the ceremony; he carried out rituals. Religion and authoritarianism have proceeded hand-in-hand in recent years. But few strongmen have melded the political and religious to quite this degree. As his biographer, Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, observed, the event cast him as the high priest of Hinduism", disquieting some religious leaders.