January 22 marks a pivotal moment in the millennia-old civilisational history of India. The prana pratishtha of Shri RamLalla at the Ram mandir in Ayodhya will not only herald the return of Shri Ram after 500 years, but also mark the culmination of the struggle of the people to reclaim Bharat. The struggle for Ram Mandir in Ayodhya is the most consequential movement in the history of India after independence. It was not just a religious movement but also a political and social mobilisation against the post-colonial power structures where Brown Sahibs had simply replaced erstwhile foreign rulers. The anglicised urban elites, in alliance with the rural landed elites, dominated the levers of power after 1947, while the masses continued to remain disempowered. The elite project of reshaping the country in the image of secular-socialist dystopia produced only misery, disenchantment and marginalisation of the people’s culture and aspirations.
The intensity and widespread appeal of the Ram mandir movement were a reflection of the revolt against post-colonial power structures, old elites, and their manufactured cultural hegemony. The movement was the largest subaltern struggle of our times. It was the democratic uprising of the small towns and villages against the corridors of power to which they had no access. It was the uprising of the non-English-speaking majority against the intellectual and cultural hegemony of the tiny English-speaking elite who held the masses in contempt. It was the uprising of the newly emerging middle class seeking to create a political space for itself.
It was also the first time there was large-scale mobilisation of numerous smaller Dalit and OBC castes who had remained on the margins of various political movements, irrespective of their ideological moorings. The Ram mandir movement forged a new socio-political reality. It was for the first time that these castes appeared on the political map of the country and in the agenda of political parties. They were politicised and mobilised around a common Hindu identity. Their desire to see their caste narratives and history mainstreamed saw fulfilment in the Hindutva movement, which also saw a rapid expansion in its social constituency.
Unlike the fashionable rhetoric in the activist circles and academia living in its make-believe world, the appeal of a common Hindu identity has always been strong among the subaltern communities. The attempt to divert the struggle against the caste system and discrimination towards the anti-Hindu agenda was decisively defeated during the Ram mandir movement.
Shri Ram was the central deity in the medieval Bhakti movement that challenged social exclusion and still has a strong presence among the Dalit and backward castes through various sampradayas and traditions. It is interesting to note that in the calamitous medieval period, Shri Ram emerged as the central deity in the Bhakti movement to unite Hindus across castes and communities, and again, in the modern period, Shri Ram became the focal point around which all Hindu castes and communities united to reclaim their liberty after centuries of foreign depredations. This religio-political phenomenon can be attributed to Shri Ram being the Maryada Purushottam, a righteous warrior and an ideal King. It is not for nothing that the imagery of “Ram Rajya” moved the people during the anti-British struggle.
During the foreign Islamic rule of the Turks and Mughals, Ramcharitmanas, the Awadhi version of Ramayan, captured the imagination of the masses. For a common Hindu, sovereignty belonged to “Raja Ram” even in this darkest hour. And in the moment of despair, to find hope and to wage the struggle against the insurmountable odds, people rally around their king. And rallied around the king they did, whether during the struggle against the Turko-Mongol rule, British imperial rule or against the post-colonial elites. From Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj to Gandhi to the nameless karsevak, the valour of Shri Ram and the appeal of Ram Rajya have inspired warriors and reformers across centuries.
The consecration of the Ram mandir in Ayodhya is not just a religious ceremony but also symbolises the “return of the King”, the reclamation of the sovereignty of the Hindu Rashtra. The last time a temple existed in Ayodhya, Krishnadevaraya was emperor in the South, ruling over the Vijayanagara Empire, Nuno da Cunha was governor of Portuguese India, and Suleiman the Magnificent was inaugurating the era of Ottoman supremacy in West Asia. The rebirth of the Ram mandir in Ayodhya is happening at a time when India is rising again after centuries. The wheel of the time has turned again, and India is not only undergoing rapid economic transformation, but a popular sentiment of decolonisation is also sweeping among the youth. There is an upsurge of cultural consciousness and deepening interest in the religious and civilisational roots of modern India.
In more than one way, the struggle for Ram mandir led by the Hindutva movement was the vehicle of this modern India. Hindutva is Hindu modernity. Hindutva inherited the legacy of the Hindu proto-modernity and contemporary social and religious reform movements to imagine a modern Hindu nation. It sought to overcome the caste system and unite people towards a common goal of economic rejuvenation and civilisational renaissance. It is important to mention that the first brick of the Ram mandir in 1989 was laid by Kameshwar Chaupal, belonging to a Dalit caste, while a prime minister from a backward caste presided over the prana pratishtha at a time when India has a woman president from a tribal community. And at a time when more than 25 crore people have been uplifted from multidimensional poverty in just nine years. What we are witnessing is the forging of a new compact between the state and the people and the rise of a new modern republic in consonance with the ancient civilisation of Bharat.
The writer is national vice-president, BJP youth wing
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