The inauguration of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi temple in Ayodhya by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the presence of a galaxy of celebrities—with millions of devotees watching around the world—is the triumphant finale of 500 years of struggle by Hindus and 38 years of concerted agitation by the Sangh Parivar. This is a historic turning point in the modern identity of India. It is a political victory for the BJP and a significant milestone for Prime Minister Modi.
It has thrown up many questions too. Will it be a major plank in the coming Lok Sabha elections? Has it disrupted or ruptured the opposition INDIA formation’s efforts to challenge the Modi government? Has it etched forever the reputation of the RSS, on its centenary eve, for reviving, disciplining and organising Hindu society as never before? Will it establish Narendra Modi as the greatest ‘Hindu hriday samrat’ for having ushered modern India’s golden age?
These are all aspects the country will debate for a long time to come. We are so close to the unfolding of this era that it is difficult to pass an impassioned opinion. Because there is history, there are facts, and there are feelings of gain and loss among the two major communities, with their associated emotional sagas that are still raw in our memory.
The Muslims, at least a major segment of them, may be presumed to be among those who have not yet accepted the demolition of the Babri structure and the Supreme Court’s judgement handing over the entire Ram Janmasthan land to Hindus. The alternative mosque in the five-acre compensation land awarded to Muslims on the outskirts of Ayodhya is yet to come up. While millions of Hindus throughout the entire nation and indeed the world celebrated January 22 as a second Deepavali, at least for a section of the Muslim community it is perhaps more a day of mourning. And this has opened a ray of hope and a campaign theme for the Congress-Left combine in the coming polls.
Chants such as “Jo Ram ko Ayodhya laya hai, usko hum fir Dilli layenge (He who brought Ram back to Ayodhya, we will bring back to Delhi)” are reverberating around the country. The day was celebrated with the lighting of lamps in almost all temples across the world and thousands of celebrities from all walks of life flooding the social media space with emotive exhortations.
The Ram Janmabhoomi movement started as a small political intervention by the BJP in 1988, when it officially decided to back it at its Palampur Resolution. The revival started by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Ram Janmabhoomi Andolan Samiti headed by ex-Congress leader Dau Dayal Khanna had not made many national headlines till then. However, the presence of VHP leader Ashok Singhal had an electrifying impact. In the mid-1980s, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi unwittingly hit a hornet’s nest by opening the locks at the Janmasthan as compensation to Hindus after the passing of a constitutional amendment favouring Muslims following the Shah Bano judgement.
India’s first prime minister had put a lid on agitated Hindu sentiments immediately after independence when the Ram Lalla idol appeared at the Janmasthan; but Faizabad District Magistrate K K Nair refused to remove the idols and the litigation began. During the British era, Hindus had made violent attempts in 1758 and 1857 to liberate the place. It started in 1528, when Babur’s commander-in-chief Mir Baqi is by an overwhelming consensus thought to have demolished an existing Ram temple to build the Babri mosque. There are voluminous records of the demolition of temples and universities in Persian documentation of the Muslim invasion, and in Ganeshi Lal Verma’s Conversion of Hindu Temples in Medieval India 1000-1800 AD, Sita Ram Goel’s Hindu Temples: What Happened to Them, William Dalrymple’s City of Djinns, Wilhelm von Pochhammer’s India’s Road to Nationhood, and Meenakshi Jain’s The Flight of Deities and Rebirth of Temples.
In the 1970s and ’80s, B B Lal of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) excavated portions of the Janmasthan premises and unearthed idols, broken terracotta motifs and pillars that were identified as the remains of a pre-existing temple structure. ASI’s K K Muhammed listed these excavations in his autobiography. All of these became evidences for the Supreme Court to arrive at its conclusion in 2019. The Muslim side could not produce any primary or secondary evidence to dispute these facts.
Today, it is clear the pran pratishtha at the temple has massively altered the political narrative. The INDIA parties, except for the Congress and the Left, made significant changes from their initial response to the invitation to participate at the event. The Shiva Sena, Samajwadi Party, Trinamool Congress, NCP and JDU positively responded to the invite. Within the Congress, there were dissenting noises against the official line. Can the Congress afford to be bracketed as an anti-Hindu party? The BJP is immensely pleased by the confusion in the opposition ranks. For the BJP, it is a fulfilment of its promise in the 2014 and 2019 manifestos to facilitate the building of the temple through a court verdict or negotiated settlement.
The Somnath-to-Ayodhya rath yatra of L K Advani in 1991 and four other rath yatras led by Murli Manohar Joshi, Advani, Sikander Bakht and Vijaya Raje Scindia in 1992—that culminated in the demolition of disputed structure—had already created a mass build-up in favour of the temple.
Two things are clear. First, Hindus had never accepted the humiliation. Second, post-independence history has witnessed repeated attempts by Indian nationalists to redefine, revive and rewrite Indian polity on the mosaic of cultural nationalism, which is the core of BJP ideology. Many had thought that the rebuilding of the Somnath temple would be the beginning of this new interpretation. But then the sudden demise of Sardar Patel and the presence of Jawaharlal Nehru prevented it.
Like the Ram Shila Abhiyan of the 1990s—which had the slogan “Ek rupaya dedo Ram Shila ke naam par (Give a rupee in the name of Ram Shila)”—the Akshat offering of rice has reached many homes in India now. This is being seen as a prime trigger for the 2024 election campaign. The ceremony showed its national impact. The economic impact of the Ayodhya movement is clear from the projections of development activities in Uttar Pradesh and the exploding pilgrimage tourism that is expected to be a major GDP propellant. India is assuming the leadership of a resurgent Hindu cultural ecology. The country will never be the same again.
R Balashankar
Former National Convener, BJP’s Intellectual Cell, Former Editor of Organiser, and current member of the BJP’s all-India training and publication dept
(Views are personal)