The inauguration of the Ram Mandir marks a significant chapter in India’s  history. The temple's construction replaced the 16th-Century Babri masjid, which was demolished by Hindu mobs in 1992, leading to nationwide riots and the tragic loss of nearly 2,000 lives, after the Supreme court allowed it. 

In December 2023, reporter Shweta Desai travelled to Ayodhya before the temple’s inauguration on January 22, 2023. In this episode of the Suno India Show, Shweta talks to a community living just behind the newly constructed Ram Mandir and listens to the local communities, Hindus, Muslims, and the Bahujans who have lived around the disputed site for years as friends and experienced the communal fallout of one of the most polarising political campaigns of modern India.