Paper short abstract:

Since the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992 Hindu radicals continue to claim that the Hindu god Ram was born on the site of the demolished mosque and demand the construction of a temple for Ram in Ayodhya. The Ramjanmabhoomi campaign was launched in the 1980s by Hindu nationalists belonging to the Sangh Parivar whose intention it was to mobilize the Hindu population for Hindu nationalist interests. The campaign propagated a hegemonic articulation of Hindu values and a moral order which opposes the secular project of the Indian nation state, legitimates existing hierarchies and oppression and represents the interests of the dominant power-holders and majorities.

Paper long abstract:

Since the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992 Hindu radicals continue to claim that the Hindu god Ram was born on the site of the demolished mosque and demand the construction of a temple for Ram in Ayodhya. The Ramjanmabhoomi campaign was launched in the 1980s by Hindu nationalists belonging to the Sangh Parivar whose intention it was to mobilize the Hindu population for Hindu nationalist interests. The campaign propagated a hegemonic articulation of Hindu values and a moral order which opposes the secular project of the Indian nation state, legitimates existing hierarchies and oppression and represents the interests of the dominant power-holders and majorities.

This paper examines how Ayodhya was constructed as a sacred Hindu site during the RSS-Ramjanmabhoomi campaign in the 1980s which tried to ideologically build on and to politically exploit several religious values and traditions. The Hindu epic Ramayana turned out to be the most readily available narrative through which the envisioned moral order could be articulated and propagated. The social and cultural forces involved in the sometimes violent agitations discriminating all non-Hindus and aimed towards the installation of a divine Hindu rashtra have to be analysed within the specific historical constellations of the 1980s. These included fundamental social and cultural changes such as the contestation of social hierarchies as well as gender and family norms. The construction of a new sacred place devoted to Ram also intended to integrate an Indian nation seemingly threatened by globalization and separatism.