Why is the Taj Mahal crumbling?

Cracks in the marble façade of the Taj Mahal are fuelling claims that the Indian government is choosing to look the other way as the much-loved monument crumbles.

The Taj Mahal is a Unesco World Heritage site and international symbol of India. But the marble mausoleum in Uttar Pradesh has "long been a source of political point-scoring", said The Times, and there are suggestions that Hindu nationalism could be contributing to its declining health.

Tear of marble

The Taj Mahal is India's most famous building, attracting around eight million visitors each year. It was built in the 17th century by Emperor Shah Jahan, as a mausoleum for his favourite queen, Mumtaz Mahal, who had died giving birth to their 14th child.

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The emperor used marble from Rajasthan, which was believed to have a unique quality – it appears pink in the morning, white in the afternoon, and milky in the evening. Rabindranath Tagore, a renowned Indian poet, described the Taj Mahal as "a tear of marble… on the cheek of time".

However, recent photographs on social media have "fuelled concerns" that the monument is "crumbling", said The Times. The images include a leaking dome, cracks in the walls and a tree sprouting from a pillar.

"Semi-precious" stones "inlaid through the walls" are also "grappling with the ravages of time", Shakeel Chauhan, national general secretary of the Tourist Guide Federation of India, told The Times of India.

Damage caused by airborne pollution has also long been a concern, said the BBC. Environmentalists have been "particularly concerned" about a major oil refinery 30 miles away from the Taj Mahal emitting sulphur dioxide and other pollutants, which combine with moisture in the atmosphere to cause corrosive rain.

Go-slow?

The tree spotted emerging from a pillar at the Taj Mahal is a peepul, a variety of fig considered sacred by Hindus – symbolic, for those pointing the finger of blame for the monument's decline on the growing influence of Hindu extremists.

There is a "pervasive influence" of Hindu nationalism in the "highest echelons" of Indian politics, said La Croix, and "an intent to establish a Hindu hegemony at the expense of religious minorities", a policy known as Hindutva.

Some Hindu fringe groups have "set their sights" on the Taj Mahal, which they believe that was built on the site of a shrine to the Hindu deity Shiva, said France24. "It was destroyed by Mughal invaders so that a mosque could be built there," Sanjay Jat, spokesman for the organisation Hindu Mahasabha, told the news website.

But that claim was disputed by Audrey Truschke, an associate professor of South Asian history with Rutgers University. The theory is "about as reasonable as the proposals that the Earth is flat", she said, and speaks to a "frenzied and fragile nationalist pride that does not allow anything non-Hindu to be Indian" and "demands to erase Muslim parts of Indian heritage".

Although responsibility for the monument lies with the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), political opponents of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist BJP, accuse the party of turning a blind eye to the neglect. In a post on X translated by the Deccan Herald, Uttar Pradesh's former chief minister, Akhilesh Yadav, claimed: "The BJP government and its dormant departments have completely failed to maintain the Taj Mahal."

The ASI told The Times of India that there are "no serious structural issues" with the site, and on the allegations of "laxity, corruption, and mismanagement of funds" for its upkeep, it said maintenance funds are regularly audited and "no concerns have been raised in these audits".