The rise of the proud, global Hindu
success was not what Hindus thought but how Muslims and other communities felt…” Translated into secularist politics, this implied that Hindus must live in a state of permanent magnanimity, and, in the realm of competitive politics, never assert themselves as Hindus. The Ayodhya movement challenged this pseudo-secularism — LK Advani’s coinage that acquired popularity in the 1990s — frontally.
Second, in attempting to re-establish the Hindu underpinnings of Indian nationhood, the Ayodhya movement brought the political Hindu to the centre stage of public life. There was undeniably an element of faith in the movement for a Ram temple, but its mass appeal owed almost entirely to a political context. There was the outbreak of separatism in the Kashmir and the expulsion of Hindu Kashmiris from the Valley, a momentous development that the secular parties chose to brush under the carpet. Then there was the Rajiv Gandhi government’s infamous U-turn on the Supreme Court’s Shah Bano judgment that sought to effect minor reforms in Muslim personal laws. These, plus the prevarication over the Ram temple and a tacit endorsement of the demolition of the Babri shrine on December 6, 1992, contributed significantly to the belief that Hindus must have a distinctive voice in politics to overcome the sectional veto. This manifested itself loosely in the elections of 1996, 1998 and 1999, and then more powerfully in 2014 and 2019.
Hindutva, as defined by Veer Savarkar in the 1920s and 1930s, was too ideological for popular tastes and its appeal was limited, especially when pitted against Mahatma Gandhi’s leadership of the national movement that resonated with Hindu symbolism. The new Hindutva that evolved after the post-liberalisation rise in living standards blended cultural pride with a sense of national assertiveness.
The Ayodhya movement was an important input in forging this new mentality and Narendra Modi became its icon. But whereas the first phase of the Ayodhya movement was defined by mass mobilisation, civil unrest and an outpouring of passion, its post-1996 articulation was marked by a quiet confidence that comes with the awareness that the main battle has been won. Ayodhya helped shape the transformation of the meek Hindu and the submissive Hindu into a proud Hindu and even a global Hindu, along the lines Swami Vivekananda had hoped for.
The monument to lord Ram, built on the site of an ancient temple, could yet become a powerful symbol of resurgent nationhood.