The lions look confused or even bored in the photos but not unhappy. Sita and Akbar had been living together for years. Now in a captive breeding program in India’s eastern state of West Bengal, they are as married as animals can be.
But many of the people around them are upset. On Saturday, authorities suspended a senior forest official who had overseen the animals for naming the lioness Sita, after a revered Hindu goddess, and her companion Akbar, after a medieval Muslim emperor.
Amid an atmosphere of heightened religious and political tensions between Hindus and Muslims in the country, the names of the lions caused an outcry. Lakshman Bansal, an official of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, a far-right group linked to India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, said that when he read the names of the lions in a Bengali newspaper he “felt defiant”.
“It’s blasphemy,” Mr. Bansal said by phone. “And an attack on the religious beliefs of millions of Hindus.”
The Asiatic lions, along with other animals such as spectacled langurs, two leopards and four Indian antelopes, had been brought to the Bengal Safari Park from the nearby state of Tripura earlier this month.
Indian zoos have a long tradition of naming animals, especially tigers and other big cats, after warriors, kings and mythological figures. A cheetah in the central state of Madhya Pradesh is named Agni, after an ancient god of fire. At zoos across the country, wildlife officials said there were many other cats named after Sita and Akbar, who are among the most popular figures in Indian myth and history. Such names help to increase the popularity of animals among children and adults.
Heightened sensitivities between Hindus and Muslims play a role in the animal naming controversy. Since January 22, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated a huge Ram temple in Ayodhya, members of Mr Bansal’s VHP have been celebrating it as their own victory. In 1992, they led a mob that destroyed a Mughal-era mosque that stood where the new temple was built.
The real Akbar was not only a Muslim, but had roots in Central Asia and had wives of different faiths, including a Hindu princess. Today’s right-wing Hindu activists have campaigned against interfaith marriages, accusing Indian Muslim men of trying to attract, marry and convert Hindu women.
Mr. Bansal said that after reading the news, he immediately wrote a letter to the forest officials in West Bengal. When he failed to get a response, he went to court to file an application to demand, on behalf of Hindus around the world, that the name of the lioness be changed.
The case was initially brought before a judge, who expressed surprise and asked the petitioners’ lawyer if he was talking about land.
“No, your lord, of the lion, lion,” The said the lawyer emphatically.
“Lion!” said the judge. “So you challenged the naming of the lion,” continued the judge. At one point, he asked, “But what does it matter?”
Mr Bansal’s lawyers argued that the lions named Akbar and Sita could set a dangerous precedent: “Tomorrow, a donkey may be named after a deity.”
If the court was convinced of the danger of a slippery slope, it concluded a few days later that there was no justification for the big cats’ names and asked West Bengal government officials whether they would consider changing them.
And the court went one step further. In a hearing, Justice Saugata Bhattacharya said, “Sita is worshiped by a larger section of this country. Also, I am against naming the lion after Akbar. He was an efficient, successful and secular Mughal emperor.’
Under pressure, the state government in Tripura, where the animals were named before being transported to Bengal, decided to investigate how the names came about. His officers soon found references to Akbar and Sita in records. The official who was fired on Saturday, Prabin Lal Agrawal, had denied choosing the names.
Some people took to social media to call the situation absurd. One said he raised “a mocking previous’ and another said that at first she thought it was ‘a joke shared by a parody account.”
Shubhankar Dutta, a lawyer representing Mr. Bansal and other petitioners, said the next hearing was scheduled for early March and that he would like the judges to direct zoo officials to stop naming cats and tigers after religious figures. , at least in West Bengal.
