Hundreds of Hindu activists affiliated to India's ruling party rallied on Monday to protest a planned 'Jesus statue' that will rival Rio de Janeiro's Christ The Redeemer for size.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has long been accused of intolerance towards other religions and of wanting to remould officially secular India as a Hindu nation, which it denies.
The protests in the southern state of Karnataka were led by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the BJP's hardline parent organisation, and others clutching saffron flags as around 1,000 police stood by.
"We want to stop (the statue), since it goes against the spirit of communal harmony and encourages religious conversions which is rampantly carried out by Christian missionaries," Prabhakar Bhat, a top RSS functionary told Indian media.
Construction of the white granite statue 114 feet (34.7 metres) high - slightly shorter than the Rio monolith although the base will be bigger - stopped soon after it started last month after objections.
Many Hindus believe the hill where the statue is set to stand in the Christian-dominated village of Harobele is the abode of a Hindu deity, although no temple exists there.
The BJP-run state government accused the previous administration of the main opposition Congress party of illegally allotting the plot of land. Less than one percent of Karnataka's 65 million people are Christian, compared to around two percent in Hindu-majority India as a whole.
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