Ayodhya from the margins: Three contrarian snapshots from the temple town in the eye of the storm

The Ram Mandir agitation, legal battle and now construction, have been a backdrop to my life as a journalist. This is partly because of my engagement with issues of identity and pluralism and then two decades spent covering the Bharatiya Janata Party, where I had to routinely follow temple politics and the long winding title and criminal cases.

The landscape where the agitation took place was also where my father’s ancestral village in Awadh is located, a few hours’ drive from Ayodhya. Relatives are scattered in towns and hamlets in these parts. The Ram Janmabhoomi issue would cast a shadow on all their lives and force them to snap out of their Nehruvian and composite culture reverie and see an idea of India fall apart.

On August 5, the foundation for a temple will be laid. It will be the most significant emblem of the Hindu Rashtra that is in the process of being constructed. The temple is expected to be completed by 2023 and will be the backdrop to the next General Election in 2024.

But although Ayodhya has been the epicentre of a majoritarian project, it exists in a terrain that has many other stories to tell. Over the years, making multiple trips...

Read more

from Scroll.in https://ift.tt/2DnDS09
via IFTTT