Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 38 views

    Shri Ram Mandir & The Struggle For Cultural Identity

    Uploaded by

    BE POSSITIVE RAIEE
    The document discusses the cultural identity of Ayodhya, India and the struggle over building a Ram Mandir temple. It begins by introducing Ram and the cultural and religious significance of both his name and the temple in Ayodhya. It then outlines the history of the dispute over the Babri Mosque/Ram Janmabhoomi site. The document argues that cultural Hinduism became intertwined with cultural identity in India. It notes that while Ayodhya's culture includes many religions, the building of the Ram Mandir symbolizes the cultural identity of the Hindu majority population. In the end, the temple construction in Ayodhya represents the embodiments of cultural Hinduism at the national level after a long

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Shri Ram Mandir & The Struggle For Cultural Identity

    Uploaded by

    BE POSSITIVE RAIEE
    38 views7 pages
    The document discusses the cultural identity of Ayodhya, India and the struggle over building a Ram Mandir temple. It begins by introducing Ram and the cultural and religious significance of both his name and the temple in Ayodhya. It then outlines the history of the dispute over the Babri Mosque/Ram Janmabhoomi site. The document argues that cultural Hinduism became intertwined with cultural identity in India. It notes that while Ayodhya's culture includes many religions, the building of the Ram Mandir symbolizes the cultural identity of the Hindu majority population. In the end, the temple construction in Ayodhya represents the embodiments of cultural Hinduism at the national level after a long

    Original Description:

    x

    Original Title

    Bunu

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    The document discusses the cultural identity of Ayodhya, India and the struggle over building a Ram Mandir temple. It begins by introducing Ram and the cultural and religious significance of both his name and the temple in Ayodhya. It then outlines the history of the dispute over the Babri Mosque/Ram Janmabhoomi site. The document argues that cultural Hinduism became intertwined with cultural identity in India. It notes that while Ayodhya's culture includes many religions, the building of the Ram Mandir symbolizes the cultural identity of the Hindu majority population. In the end, the temple construction in Ayodhya represents the embodiments of cultural Hinduism at the national level after a long

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    38 views7 pages

    Shri Ram Mandir & The Struggle For Cultural Identity

    Uploaded by

    BE POSSITIVE RAIEE
    The document discusses the cultural identity of Ayodhya, India and the struggle over building a Ram Mandir temple. It begins by introducing Ram and the cultural and religious significance of both his name and the temple in Ayodhya. It then outlines the history of the dispute over the Babri Mosque/Ram Janmabhoomi site. The document argues that cultural Hinduism became intertwined with cultural identity in India. It notes that while Ayodhya's culture includes many religions, the building of the Ram Mandir symbolizes the cultural identity of the Hindu majority population. In the end, the temple construction in Ayodhya represents the embodiments of cultural Hinduism at the national level after a long

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 7

    Shri Ram Mandir & the Struggle for

    Cultural Identity
    CULTURAL IDENTITY RECASTED AS CULTURAL
    HINDUISM
    A. INTRODUCTION

    "Rama is the embodiment of righteousness, he is virtue incarnate, truthful, and of unfailing


    prowess. He is the Ruler of the entire humanity.”– Ramayana by Maharishi Valmiki.1

    Valmiki Ramayana is the greatest


    Figure Location of one of the seventh sacred place of India, Sri Ram
    civilizational heritage of the world that Mandir, Ayodhya

    shows the heroic character of Ram who


    is the incarnation of God. The almighty
    king Ram and his kingdom depict the
    ideal realm in the human world that
    protects the human world and destroys
    the demons by following the way of
    truth, justice, and law. Day by day there
    came so many vernacular translations
    of Ramayana some enforce the social,
    some religious, whereas some show the
    political fabric of that treatise. India is
    the former center of devotion and
    heritage. So, here Rama is not just a
    name and a mandir is not just a simple
    structure both are emotion and psyche
    of the minds of the people here. This is
    SOURCE Kumar, S. and Singh, R.P., 2018.
    not solely buzzworthy or dooms
    worthy matter but it is the cultural identity of the people in a different religion. So, somehow
    the ‘bhumi puja’ of Ram mandir, 5th Aug. 2020 in Ayodhya became the largest cultural
    program of Secular India, contains the majority Hindu population2.

    In this paper, the struggle for cultural identity will be discussed. And How does political
    ideology involve in making the cultural Hinduism as the incarnation of cultural identity will
    also be considered here?

    1 Srinivasan P. (2020), “Wait Is Over, Rama Is Home In 'Unconquerable' Ayodhya”,


    culture Swarajya
    2 Srinivasan P. (2020), “Wait Is Over, Rama Is Home In 'Unconquerable' Ayodhya”,

    culture Swarajya

    [1]
    B. CULTURAL IDENTITY OF AYODHYA

    Based on ethnicity, nationality, language, religion, and gender when we define a group of
    people or individuals; that is cultural identity. And this not come befree the people born, it
    comes from the behavioural practice achieved from society and ancestors. People themselves
    only create this identity and do fight to preserve it in the core of the society. From
    Table- Chronology of struggle for cultural identity in Ayodhya

    SOURCE- Kumar, S. and Singh, R.P., 2018

    [2]
    archaeological settings or historical evidence Ayodhya is profoundly an important pilgrimage
    center for Hindu, as well as Muslim and other religions also with due respect of different time
    periods. In the table, the struggle from So, the main controversy of Babri Mosque/Rama
    Janmabhoomi was centric on the same pivotal land in the past century. This land dispute finally
    solved after so many struggles in 2019 by a supreme court judgment, by deciding to establish
    ram temple in the disputed land and allot another 5-acre land for masjid built up.

    C. CULTURAL HINDUISM AND CULTURAL IDENTITY

    People were waiting for this auspicious ceremony for so many years or people made to be
    waited by someone it is impossible to give a clear idea. Though religion and politics are totally
    two different matter nowadays both are becoming the two sides of the same coin. It has not
    started just now with this bhumi puja. But in India, this Hindu Nationalism started in 1915 with
    the emerge of All India Hindu Sabha, which only cared for social, political, the educational
    interests of the Hindu people. In 1921 it changed its name to Akhil Bhartiya Hindu Mahasabha.
    In 1937 V.D. Savarkar became the new president of Hindu Mahasabha. The race of culture and
    civilization; that he named as ‘Sanskriti’ was the foundation concept of ‘Cultural Hinduism’ or
    ‘Hindutva’3. But the Mahasabha failed to sign a mark in the post-colonial Indian political
    history. Later under the presidency of M. S. Golwalkar (1940), the Rashtriya Swayamsevak
    Sangh (RSS, 1925) worked on over individualization based on Hindutva. After post-
    independence RSS has been banned for thrice in the chapter of Indian political regime. The
    third time due to the demolition of the Babri mosque. Under the superintendency of Dr. Shyama
    Prasad Mookerjee Bhartiya Jan Sangh (1951) later Bhartiya Janata Party (1980) take over the
    idea of Hindu nationalism by disregarding the idea of inclusive secular nationalism. Before the
    1991 parliamentary electoral campaign, they were beating around the platform of constructing
    a Ram temple in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh. Next to next every election campaign, the main
    theme of Hindutva manifesto was “We believe that Cultural Nationalism—for which
    Indianness, Bharatiyata and Hindutva are synonyms—is the basis of our national identity.”4 In
    addition, it reaffirmed its commitment to the construction of a Ram temple at Ayodhya. As
    Maryada Purushottam, Ram is an inspiring cultural symbol of India. His birthplace in Ayodhya
    is also associated with the religious sentiments of crores of Hindus”. At last in 2014 BJP (Hindu

    3
    Katju, Manjari. (2019) "The History of Hindu Nationalism." The Oxford History of
    Hinduism: Modern Hinduism
    4 Bharatiya Janata Party (2004). Vision Document

    [3]
    Nationalism) came in the saddle of the state power with a slogan of ‘collective effort, inclusive
    growth’.5 Now Sri Ram mandir the cultural identity got the embodiments of cultural Hinduism
    at the national level.

    The epitome of my argument here is, cultural identity is the recognition of an individual or
    group of common people or of a place in society. If we think for Ayodhya; it holds the culture
    of so many religions, languages, ethnicity. But in Ayodhya, only Sri Ram Mandir got the
    cultural identity. It’s not because it got the support of saffron idealism or cultural Hinduism.
    It’s because of population majority; culture of majority population matters. This article is not
    opposing the supreme court judgment, this is only portraying the facts based on literature. So,
    Ayodhya’s cultural identity is mainly based on the religion specification; and after the long
    struggle for cultural identity Sri Ram Mandir got the identity in its place.

    5 Katju, Manjari. (2019) "The History of Hindu Nationalism." The Oxford History of
    Hinduism: Modern Hinduism

    [4]
    D. REFERENCES

    • Ahmad, A. (1993). Culture, Community, Nation: On the Ruins of Ayodhya. Social


    Scientist, 21(7/8), 17-48. doi:10.2307/3520344
    • Bharatiya Janata Party (2004). Vision Document, <http://www.bjp.org/en/documents/
    vision-document?u=vision-document-2004> (accessed on 13th Aug 2020).
    • Cultural Identity in A Dictionary of Media and Communication, Oxford reference.
    Retrieved from https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/ authority. 2011
    0803095 652855 on 13th Aug., 2020
    • Katju, Manjari. (2019) "The History of Hindu Nationalism." The Oxford History of
    Hinduism: Modern Hinduism (2019): 203.
    • Kumar, S. and Singh, R.P., (2018). Sacred-heritage city development and planning in
    India: a study of Ayodhya. Urban and regional planning and development: 20th
    century forms and 21st century transformations. Springer, Dordrecht, New York,
    pp.301-320.
    • Mehta, D., (2018). The Ayodhya dispute: Law’s imagination and the functions of the
    status quo. Violence and the Quest for Justice in South Asia, p.291.
    • Srinivasan P. (2020), “Wait Is Over, Rama Is Home In 'Unconquerable' Ayodhya”,
    culture Swarajya, retrieved from https://swarajyamag.com/culture/wait-is-over-rama-
    is-home-in-unconquerable-ayodhya on 10.08.20 at 19:54.

    [5]
    AUTHOR BIO: Co-Authorship
    1. Goutami Sadhukhan 2. Ananya Sadhukhan
    B.Sc. 3rd year Mathematics honours, Masters in Regional Planning
    St. Xavier college, autonomist School of Planning and Architecture,
    Kolkata, New Delhi, 110002
    Contact: 7386384383 Contact: 8448625707
    Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected]

    [6]

    You might also like