The consecration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya was at a very basic level considered to be a closure to what had been a dispute that had dominated the politics and culture in India at least from the 1980s. The dispute, adjudicated by the Supreme Court, after years of mass mobilisation, was sought to be put to rest under the sharp sunshine of a January day in Ayodhya. The city is poised to be a pilgrimage centre, and the throng of devotees since the consecration has been in record breaking numbers.
Closure is never far from calls for new beginnings. And Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech at the occasion spoke of a new mantra — ‘Dev se desh; Ram se rashtra’ (from God to country, and from Ram to nation), a reference to bridging the divides of religion, caste, creed and region in India. The fact that the Ram Temple was built after a Supreme Court verdict was also underlined in Mr. Modi’s speech, as “restoring the trust of the people in justice”.
Mindful of the dispute that presaged the construction of the temple (Babri Masjid, which stood on the land, was demolished on December 6, 1992 by kar sevaks), he said the opening of the temple was a moment not just of ‘vijay’ (victory) but also of ‘vinay’ (humility), and invited those who opposed the Ram Janmabhoomi movement to “visit the temple and experience the feeling”. The Ram Temple, on the date of its consecration, therefore, was already being seen as more than a house of faith by the BJP and the Sangh Parivar. The consecration was seen by many as an exercise that would establish an RSS-centric cosmology — cultural nationalism and a sacred geography in India.
The signs that this would happen were visible right at the onset when the design of the temple was finalised by the Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust. A public subscription for funds for construction yielded more than the ₹1,800 crore — it was set to be the most expensive temple in India.
While built largely in the north Indian Nagara style with Shikharas (tower over the sanctum sanctorum) and not Gopurams (tall tower at the entrance of a temple), it also has references to the Dravidian style of temple design in the perimeter wall. The granite blocks have been sourced from Karnataka and Telangana, while pink sandstones have been sourced from Bans Paharpur in Rajasthan.
Civilisational arc
Mr. Modi’s 11-day ‘anushsthan’, or religious undertaking of fasts and austerity, before the consecration ceremony, took him to the Veerabhadra Temple in Lepakshi, Andhra Pradesh; the Thriprayar Sree Ramaswami Temple in Kerala; Srirangam’s Sri Ranganatha Temple; and the Ramanathaswamy Temple in Rameswaram. It drew a civilisational arc around the Ramayana, encircling a sacred geography from the north to the south of India, the latter a political landscape where other ideologies have robustly challenged the BJP narrative.
The gist
These visits also tied in with Mr. Modi’s ideas of a civilisational continuity between the north and the south of India, which has seen two iterations of the Kashi-Tamil sangamam (an annual month-long exchange programme aimed at reaffirming the links between Tamil Nadu and Varanasi).
By appointing as jajmans (those empowered to conduct sacred rituals) Kashi Domraja Anil Chaudhary, the keeper of the flame at Manikarnika Ghat in Varanasi; Mahadev Gaikwad, considered the representative of the 315 nomadic and 198 denotified tribes; and Anil Mishra, a member of the Ram Janmabhoomi Teertha Kshetra Trust, and his wife Usha Mishra for the consecration rituals, alongside Mr. Modi, subaltern political Hinduism was given full play.
The responses to the invitations issued to presidents of various political parties in India for the consecration ceremony also gave indications of the nature of politics which will inform at least the next electoral cycle. Political scientists, however, view the consecration ceremony and everything it entails in more transformational terms as the advent of India’s ‘Second Republic’.
“It (consecration of the Ram Temple) not only inaugurates India’s ‘Second Republic’, it also extends the arc of a more inclusive, participatory and subalternised political Hinduism, drawing a new line — a Ram rekha— redefining the relationship between the state and religion,” says Professor Ashwani Kumar of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences. “This is not a simple culmination of historically unfinished project of ‘decolonisation of the Indian mind’ or release from ‘the slavery of the spirit’; this will potentially alter and reshape the existing caste, class and religious fault lines and redefine the westernised secularist and modernist ideals of Indian democracy, making it more humanist, nativist, vernacular, and cosmopolitan simultaneously.”
‘Re-renaissance’ of India
Mr. Kumar terms it a “re-renaissance” of India but says it comes with its own warning labels that it should not “burn anyone”. The idea that we are at the start of a ‘Second Republic’ is the most ambitious of the Ram Temple’s expected outcomes. It was hinted at by Mr. Modi during his address on the birth anniversary of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, celebrated as ‘Parakram Diwas’ on January 23.
“Over the last few years, since January 23 was declared as Parakram Divas, the significant festival of Republic Day now begins from January 23 and continues until January 30, the death anniversary of Bapu. Now, the grand spiritual festival of January 22 (consecration of Ram Temple in Ayodhya) has also been added to this celebration of Republic Day. These last few days of January are becoming highly inspiring for our spiritual and cultural consciousness, as well as our democracy and patriotism,” he said. It was a clear allusion to the widening of the ambit of India’s celebration of its Republic Day, to include the consecration of a place of faith.
It is no secret that the Ram Janmabhoomi movement, from the 1980s, altered the politics of India, with Mandal politics of caste identity being cited as its counter point. The scale of its consecration has, however, made it a symbol of a more fundamental change in Indian polity, a departure from the past, with few guidelines to negotiate what lies ahead.
