India Hates, but for the Love of Ram

How the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya has become BJP’s ticket to winning the 2024 elections

Postcolonial India has seen the rise of Islamophobia proliferate on an unprecedented scale, suggestively as a direct result of the two nation theory proposed by Muhammad Ali Jinnah, which proposes that Hindus and Muslims have always been at odds with each other, and popularised by British colonial rule. In contemporary times, religious polarisation due to various hate propagandas has become a lived reality for the people of India. The last time such a ferocious attack took place under the guise of ‘Hindi-Hindu-Hindustan’, South Asia saw the scattering of India on the basis of religion, resulting in the formation of Pakistan, and later, Bangladesh, as separate nations.

It is because of the vehemence harboured by communal tensions originating in modern Indian history, that contemporary India sees widespread hate along religious lines. The manifestation of this can be seen most prominently by the consecration of the Ram Mandir or Temple in Ayodhya earlier this year by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which was one of the agendas on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s manifesto when they first came to power in 2014. Not only is this immersion in religion by a political party, especially one in power, unusual, it is also something that attacks the idea of secularism enshrined in the preamble of the Indian constitution. This is unsurprising given the BJP’s alignment to right wing ideology, with imposing a Uniform Civil Code, abolishing the special status of Kashmir and making India a Hindu nation state.

 The BJP’s close ties with Hindu organisations such as the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Hindu Mahasabha have always been out in the open. However, in 1990, LK Advani, a prominent member of the party, led a procession that lasted a month which called for the building of a Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, the place which has been described as the birthplace of the Hindu deity, Ram. This marked the BJP’s confirmed turn to Hindutva ideology as Advani took a resolution in Palampur in India that said that the BJP will not rest until a temple was built at the birthplace of Ram. While this celebration was met with fervour from the people of India because mythology has been cemented as history in the country, it also rendered Ram, the deity, and his story, the Ramayana, as a part of Indian popular imagination and historical fact. The declaration of the BJP, the vow of honoring the God’s birthplace, resulted in what became the largest communal riot in India post the partition. The cause of this was the fact that some of the karsevaks, those who were devoted to the cause of the temple in Ayodhya, demolished the 16th century Babri Mosque there, for they believed that a Muslim site of worship could not coexist on the same land where Ram was allegedly born in 1154 BC.

This sparked widespread riots across the country after which the BJP allowed for the politicisation of Islamophobia, which ultimately led to their historic victory in 2014, and then in 2019. After that, Islamophobia has been on an unprecedented rise with barbaric laws like the CAA-NRC, the beef ban, demolishing of mosques on Hindu festivals and the scrapping of Article 370 which removed Jammu and Kashmir’s special status and incorporated it into the Indian state. The people of Kashmir continue to fight for freedom from occupation due to the heavy military deployment by India and how they are killed in bombings and pelting on a

 daily basis. Given that Kashmir has a large Muslim population, the Indian state has consistently taken away freedoms from them under the guise of ‘protecting’ them from an unfounded threat of terrorists recruiting them for missions that are potentially dangerous to national security.

This current political scenario has co-opted Ram from the popular imagination and uses him to ensure that Muslims feel threatened in India, by making them chant “Jai Shree Ram” which translates to “Long Live Ram!” as a way of asserting superiority over them. Many instances of killing Muslims by Hindu extremist groups have also come to light, if and when they refuse to praise Ram. In Uttar Pradesh, especially, instances of communal violence have become extremely evident with the state turning a blind eye to the barbaric activities of Hindu extremist groups. In a few instances, state sanctions have also been proclaimed but none of those issues have gone through legal proceedings or trials in order to be proved.

The consecration of the Ram Mandir took place on the 22nd of January, 2024, which was celebrated as a national event in the country. It was a star studded event and people who align with the Hindutva ideology literally coloured the country with saffron. However, the high priests from important Hindu pilgrimage sites were not invited to this event, simply because they were not happy with the temple being opened. While they did want a temple for the longest time, it was well known that they wanted one through legal proceedings without demolishing any mosques. Further, they also knew that the BJP was inaugurating an incomplete temple which was not just inauspicious, but against the Hindu scriptures. It became evident that the BJP was rushing this affair to fight the April general elections with the proclamation that they did everything they promised, and that they did not care about the

religion, or God, as long as their political agenda was fulfilled.

The consecration was met with vehement opposition from many people in the country, but given that the majority of the Hindu fold was impressed with the BJP’s work, it became solidified that their hold over the country remained strong. Even if they lose the upcoming elections by a stroke of luck or strategic planning on the part of the Congress and its coalition of the Left wing, there is little doubt that there has been irreversible damage done to the hearts of people who have given up communal harmony for communal violence, accepting it as the way of the world. The political scene now shows how this communal violence has also translated into unrelenting support for Israel in the ongoing genocide by the BJP and its supporters, the killing of people on suspicion of being Muslim, atrocities against marginalised castes and women and consistent hate mongering on social media platforms in the name of “patriotism”. Anyone who cannot agree with the BJP’s Hindutva politics is now anti-national in India, a label that is bestowed on them by media houses owned by the state, politicians, the police and even social media influencers who are promoted by the party.

Hindutva is the fulcrum and the bedrock of the BJP’s political agenda. With that becoming glorified in the country, there is little doubt regarding who comes out as the victorious, and who comes out as the vanquished in these elections. There is only a glimmer of hope that people will also remember the atrocities that we have lived through over the past ten years and people will make an informed decision about voting for those who uphold constitutional values.