Why PM's Ayodhya event is a statement on Sangh’s larger ideological vision, triumph

The Dhwajarohan Utsav in Ayodhya on Tuesday (November 25), in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat beside him, hoisted a giant saffron flag atop the Ram temple, was the last of the declared rituals associated with the construction and inauguration of the shrine.

It, however, was more conspicuous for standing out as a ceremony which underscored the de facto transformation of India as a Hindu Rashtra, at least in the eyes of the Sangh Parivar. Modi termed the flag, called Dharma Dhwaja, the ensign of Indian resurrection.

He further added that this flag proclaims Satyameva Jayate Nanritam or truth alone triumphs, not untruth. Modi’s declaration of what is essentially a religious flag, calling out the national motto inscribed on the national emblem is extremely problematic, especially given that India is a secular nation and due separation between the State and religion must be maintained, for constitutional as well as political reasons.

Formal completion of Ram temple

While the Ram temple has witnessed two rounds of Pran Prathista or consecration ceremonies, the first on January 22, 2024 performed by Modi and the second on June 5 this year, even as construction of the temple complex remained underway, this ceremony marks the formal, architectural, and ritual completion of the entire temple structure, proclaiming its sovereignty and spiritual activation.

It is worth recalling that the January 2024 ceremony was held in the temple that was not fully ready, with the sole intention of giving the Bharatiya Janata Party a major push in the impending parliamentary elections.

Also Read: What is Dhwajarohan ceremony at Ram Temple in Ayodhya?

In the eight-year-long agitation for the Ram temple from 1984 to 1992, Modi did not play any significant role. His only publicly known visit to the temple town was in late 1991 as part of the party’s Kanyakumari to Srinagar 'Ekta Yatra' led by Murli Manohar Joshi.

That yatra had no connection with the Ayodhya issue and was instead undertaken to draw attention to the party’s position on rising militancy in Kashmir and the PV Narasimha Rao government’s “failure” to curb it.

Modi’s first ‘Ayodhya-connect’

Modi eventually secured an 'Ayodhya-connect' primarily due to the Godhra carnage and subsequent 2002 Gujarat riots. Readers would recall that Modi emerged as a national figure only after this gory chapter was written following the attack on the Sabarmati Express when a batch of kar sevaks was returning to their homes from Ayodhya after participating in a Vishwa Hindu Parishad campaign to pressure the government.

Also Read: PM Modi hoists saffron flag at Ayodhya Ram Temple, says 'pain of centuries put to rest'

Probably because participation in the Ram Janmabhoomi Andolan did not feature in his political CV, Modi has, after becoming Prime Minister, not let a significant opportunity pass by in which he could imprint his name in the story of the Ram temple.

Lead role in 3 events at Ayodhya

The event, enacted around the unfurling of the saffron flagand telecast to millions of viewers on TV and messaged to mobile phones, was the thirdat the same site in which he played the lead role. Before this ritual, he first performed Bhoomi Pujan, or brick laying ceremony in August 2020. The consecration ceremony followed in January 2024.

In all three ceremonies, Bhagwat was by Modi’s side, almost playing second fiddle in religious rituals. All three functions were duly publicised by both official and private media, emphasising the role of Modi, almost depicting him as the person who “delivered” the Ram temple eventually after the “centuries-long” struggle.

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Importantly, in his speech after the flag-hoisting ceremony was over, Modi linked the civil works for the temple with the Sangh Parivar’s version of the struggle and agitation for building the Ram temple at the site of the Babri Masjid after demolishing it.

Modi’s precise words are noteworthy: With the temple’s completion, “centuries-old wounds are being healed, centuries of pain are finding respite, and a centuries-old resolve is attaining fulfilment today”.

The history

It has to be noted that the agitation for building a Ram temple in Ayodhya at the site of the existing mosque structure was launched by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh affiliate, the VHP, only in 1984. Prior to that, there is historical evidence of conflict around the Babri Masjid, for the first time, only in the 1850s which also eventually led to litigation from a Hindu party.

Between then and December 1949, when the idol of Ram Lalla was conspiratorially installed beneath the central dome of the mosque, there were violent clashes between the Hindu and Muslim communities in the 1930s.

Despite the absence of evidence of clashes from 1528 onwards, when the Babri Masjid was believed to have been built, Modi used official facilities to publicise untruth.

Also Read: India slams Pakistan over remarks on PM Modi’s saffron flag hoisting at Ram Temple

Paradoxically, despite incessantly publicising that the struggle for the Ram temple had been waged for the past 500 years, the BJP and other organisations of the Sangh Parivar did not officially pledge support for this agitation till as late as June 1989.

Three decades before this, the RSS had passed a resolution in 1959 stating that in the past, temples were “converted into mosques" by "intolerant and tyrannical foreign aggressors and rulers in Bharat". The issue, however, was not raised or mentioned subsequently.

In subsequent years, as the movement gathered momentum and especially after the November 9, 2019 Supreme Court judgement in the Ayodhya case, the official narrative of the Sangh Parivar, as reiterated by Modi, presented the agitation as a part of the five centuries-old-struggle with greater purpose.

Social outreach

Instinctively, Modi constantly tries to widen political support and, in this speech too, he had selectively chosen words of gratitude for every person and social group that supported the Ram temple project in any manner. Donors, construction workers, craftpersons, sculptors, supervisors - none were left unnamed.

Social outreach has been an integral characteristic of the Ram temple agitation. The Shilanyas ceremony in November 1989, which provided massive impetus to the temple campaign, was performed by a Dalit leader of the VHP from Bihar, Kameshwar Chaupal.

Subsequently, a BJP lawmaker in the state, he was eventually made a member of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teertha Kshetra Trust, formed to oversee the construction of the Ram temple, and served in that capacity till he passed away earlier this year.

Also Read: RJD, Congress favour infiltrators, dislike Lord Ram due to vote-bank politics: Modi

Similarly, Modi had words for saints and deities across social identities: Maharishi Vashisht, Maharishi Valmiki, Maharishi Vishwamitra, Maharishi Agastya, Nishadraj, Sharbari, and Hanuman, to whom shrines have also been constructed within the same Ram temple complex.

Importantly, in his speech, delivered on a religious occasion, Modi mentioned that diverse social communities had been the focus of the government’s developmental programmes. He named women, Dalits, OBCs, EBCs, tribals, the deprived, peasants, workers, and the youth as being recipients and beneficiaries of State largesse and schemes.

Yet, religious minorities were not explicitly named. Like on previous similar occasions, it will again be said in Modi’s defence that categories like works, farmers, deprived, and youth include people across religious communities and that neither the government nor Modi discriminates against any community.

Treating mythology as history

Depicting history to suit their political objectives has been an integral part of the Sangh Parivar’s strategy. Lord Ram and other characters of the Ramayana were also referred to by Modi as historical characters.

Modi asserted that “if the country is to move forward, it must take pride in its heritage”. But history, which makes up a nation’s past, cannot include mythology, as is done by the Sangh Parivar and by Modi too, including in this speech.

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In his insightful book, Hindutva and Violence: VD Savarkar and the Politics of History, academic Vinayak Chaturvedi drew attention to the concept of “history in full” as ideated by Savarkar. He wrote that the Hindutva ideologue turned to mythology and the epic tradition when conceptualising this history in full.

Savarkar’s influence on Modi

When Modi speaks about mythology and epic traditions and presents these as history, we comprehend the source or framework of his articulation and extent of Savarkar’s influence on him.

Like Savarkar, for Modi, Hindutva is “not a word but a history”. But Hindutva is “not a spiritual or religious history”, it is “a history in full”.

It is this imagination of history which directs Modi’s anger towards those in whose understanding Lord Ram is not considered a “real” character but an imaginary one.

For Modi, this is evidence of “mentality of slavery”, another new-fangled idea that he now attacks. Although his recent tirade against (Lord) Macaulay spilled over to his Dhwajarohan Utsav speech too, examination of this idea will have to wait for another day.

Also Read: Chandrachud gives 'clarification' on ‘Babri Masjid desecration’ remark

In its place, the idea of this ceremony underscoring the effective conversion of India into a Hindu State gets established by Modi’s formulation, that the act of hoisting the Dharma Dhwaja with the three symbols – sun (representing Lord Ram’s Suryavanshi lineage), sacred Om (carrier of spiritual vibration), and Kovidar tree motif (denoting purity, prosperity, and Ram Rajya), marks the “return of our memory. This is the renaissance of our identity. This is the re-proclamation of our self-respecting civilisation”.

In a secular and diverse nation, on the basis of religious and linguistic identity, such declarations betray little but exclusivist and majoritarian intentions.

(The Federal seeks to present views and opinions from all sides of the spectrum. The information, ideas or opinions in the articles are of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Federal)

(The writer is an author and journalist based in Delhi-NCR. His latest book is The Demolition, The Verdict and The Temple: The Definitive Book on the Ram Mandir Project, and he is also the author of Narendra Modi: The Man, The Times. His X handle is @NilanjanUdwin.)