Shocking: Mob Attacks Jain Temple Shouting Jai Sri Ram in Sagar, MP
A shocking video showing a mob vandalising a Jain temple while raising “Jai Shri Ram” slogans in Sagar, Madhya Pradesh has gone viral on social media. What exactly happened?
The destruction of religious & historic sites in India has been happening for several centuries due to religious, political, and cultural differences between 2 or more communities of India. These destructions often targeted religious minorities of the time. A recent such incident took place in Sagar, MP. Tension erupted on 5th January 2025, after a group allegedly associated with Hindutva ideology broke into a Jain temple and vandalized it on the previous night. Temple’s nearby CCTV footage recorded the whole incident. The video surfaced on social media on 6th January 2025 and has gone viral. The video shows a mob of men chanting “Jai Shri Ram” slogans while aggressively pelting stones at the Jain Temple, smashing its glass windows and damaging its interiors. Netizens shared the video on social media and made various comments. One user said, "After Muslims and Christians, now the Jain community is being targeted among the minorities." Later that same day i.e. 5th January 2025, Sagar MLA Shailendra Jain shared a video of the incident & condemned it. Jain expressed his concern over the rising tension between the Hindu & Jain communities and called the attack on the Jain Temple morally wrong. He accused the mobsters of having ulterior motives & agenda behind the attack and claimed that they would not succeed in it. He also urged the various communities, including Jains, Sonis, and others to live together in peace & brotherhood. But why did the mob attack the Jain Temple? According to the reports, during the construction of a Jain temple (Sagoroday) in the Badah Bazaar area, some young members of the Jain community, wearing masks, forcefully removed and vandalized the temple of the Jadia-Soni community’s Kuldevta (family deity). It is claimed that the temple is 200 years old. After this incident, the Jadia-Soni community people invaded the Jain temple and started vandalizing it. This caused chaos in the streets of Sagar. The police had turned the entire area into a cantonment. The administration imposed Section 163 in the area to restore peace. The police chased away anyone they could find, using sticks to disperse the crowd & violence. Later, a large number of Hindu mobs along with Hindu right-wing organizations gathered outside Kotwali police station and started demonstrating demanding the arrest of the perpetrators. The matter escalated further when the mobs learnt that the Kuldevta temple was being demolished because the Jain community wanted to build their religious site/temple at that location, urging the angry Hindu mob to attack and vandalise the Jain temple while chanting Jai Shri Ram. On 7th January 2024, a peace committee meeting was held. It was attended by Sagar MLA Shailendra Jain, members of the Jain and Jadia-Soni communities, and Sagar’s administrative & district officials. In the meeting, it was decided that 700 feet of land piece at the location where the Kuldevta temple was damaged would be reserved for the construction of a new Kuldevta temple. The remaining area will be used for the construction of a Jain temple. Both the Jadia-Soni community & the Jain community have agreed to this and proper documents for both sites are being prepared to avoid any further clashes.
