1990 political–religious rally in India
The Ram Rath Yatra was a political and religious rally that lasted from September to October 1990. It was organised by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its Hindu nationalist affiliates, and led by the then-president of the BJP, L. K. Advani. The purpose of the "yatra" was to support the agitation, led by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and its affiliates in the Sangh Parivar, to erect a temple to the Hindu deity Rama on the site of the Babri Masjid.
The "masjid", or mosque, had been built in the city of Ayodhya following the Mughal conquest of the region in 1528. According to hearsay, it was built over a temple dedicated to Rama, and stood on the site of his birth. In the 1980s, the VHP and other Sangh Parivar affiliates began an agitation to build a temple to Rama at the site, with the BJP lending political support to the movement. In 1990, the government of India led by V. P. Singh decided to implement some of the recommendations of the Mandal commission, and announced that twenty-seven percent of government jobs would be reserved for people from Other Backward Class. This announcement threatened the electoral constituency of the BJP, which decided to use the Ayodhya dispute to unite the Hindu vote by mobilising anti-Muslim sentiment.
In order to further this movement, the BJP announced a "rath yatra", or "chariot journey" across the country to Ayodhya. The procession was led by L. K. Advani, and involved thousands of "kar sevaks", or volunteers, from the Sangh Parivar. The "yatra" began in Somnath on 25 September 1990, and passed through hundreds of villages and cities. It traveled approximately 300 kilometers a day, and Advani often addressed six public rallies in a single day. The "yatra" caused an outpouring of both religious and militant sentiments among Hindus, and became one of the biggest and greatest mass movements in Indian history.
The "yatra" also triggered religious violence in its wake, with riots in cities across North India. As a result, Advani was arrested by the government of Bihar as the "yatra" passed through that state, and 150,000 of his supporters were also arrested by the government of Uttar Pradesh. Tens of thousands of activists nonetheless reached Ayodhya and attempted to storm the mosque, resulting in a pitched battle with security forces which left 20 dead. These events caused further Hindu-Muslim riots to break out across the country, in which hundreds were killed. Muslims were often the victims of these riots, particularly in the state of Uttar Pradesh. Following these riots, the BJP withdrew its support to the Union government, leading to early parliamentary elections. The BJP made significant gains in these elections, both at the national and the state level, on the back of religious polarisation caused by the "yatra".
Background and motivation.
In Hindu tradition, the birthplace of the deity Rama, known as "Ram Janmabhoomi", is considered a holy site. This site is often believed to be located in the city of Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh, at the place where the Babri Masjid stood. Historical evidence to support this belief is scarce, and several historians have stated that Ayodhya became a religious centre with a number of temples only in the 18th century AD. Additionally, the location of Ayodhya itself is a matter of dispute, since the city has shifted slightly over the millennia. Following the Mughal conquest of the region in 1528, a mosque was built in Ayodhya by the Mughal general Mir Baqi, who named it the "Babri Masjid" after the Mughal emperor Babur. According to hearsay, Baqi destroyed a pre-existing temple of Rama at the site. Limited historical evidence exists to support this theory, and the existence of the temple itself is a matter of controversy. Numerous historians have stated that there is limited evidence to support the notion that Rama was born at the precise location of the Babri Masjid, or that a temple to Rama once stood at the site.
For several centuries after the construction of the mosque, the site was used for religious purposes by both Hindus and Muslims. The first recorded claim that the mosque stood on the site of Rama's birth was made in 1822. Citing this claim, the Nirmohi Akhara, a Hindu sect, laid claim to the mosque, resulting in inter-communal violence in the period 1853–55. In 1949, an idol of Rama was surreptitiously placed inside the mosque, and an attempt was made to convince devotees that it had appeared miraculously. An official investigation concluded that the mosque had been desecrated and the idol placed there by three men, together with a large band of supporters. This caused an uproar among Muslim people who used the mosque, and the gates to the mosque were locked on the orders of the state government. In the 1980s a movement led by the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) began advocating demolishing the mosque and building a temple there dedicated to Rama, heightening religious tension across the country. In 1986, the district magistrate of Ayodhya ordered that the gates be opened once more, and Hindus be allowed access to the shrine. Following its poor performance in the 1984 parliamentary election, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) shifted toward a policy of more hardline Hindu nationalism, and lent its support to the demand that a temple be built at Ayodhya. On the strength of this agitation, the BJP won 86 Lok Sabha seats in 1989, a tally which made its support crucial to the National Front government.
In August 1990, then-Prime Minister V. P. Singh, acting on the recommendations of the Mandal Commission, decided to introduce a policy of reserving twenty-seven per cent of state level government posts for people from lower castes. The new policy was partially an attempt to trim the electoral support of the Bharatiya Janata Party. The core constituency of the BJP were people from upper castes, who had until then held a monopoly over government jobs. The new policy thus fed resentment among the upper-castes, and raised inter-caste tensions in some parts of the country. Mobilising Hindus around the Ayodhya dispute was seen by the BJP as a way to unite its electorate, by creating an issue around which all Hindus could be united against Muslims. This effort tied in well with the philosophy of the Sangh Parivar, which professed "cultural nationalism", and believed in the unity of the highly fragmented Hindu population. Since its founding in 1925, supported for the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) had been restricted to people of upper castes. The same was true of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, and its successor, the BJP, which acted as the political wing of the RSS. By supporting the Ram Janmabhoomi agitation, the BJP hoped to spread its influence outside this demographic.
"Rath Yatra".
Etymology and philosophy.
As a part of its support for the Ram Janmabhoomi agitation, the BJP organised a "rath yatra", or "chariot journey" across the country to Ayodhya in 1990. The "yatra" was led by then-BJP President L. K. Advani. The Sanskrit word "Yatra" is variously translated as "journey," "procession," or "pilgrimage": the idea of pilgrimage is a significant one in Hindu traditions. The term "Rath Yatra" refers to a procession involving a "rath", or chariot, a frequent occurrence at religious sites. In recent decades, displays of strength by Hindu nationalist groups have often been described as "yatras", and the idea of the pilgrimage itself has often been harnessed by Hindu nationalists to mobilise support. The city of Ayodhya, in particular, is a place of pilgrimage in the Hindu tradition, because it is seen as a site where a devotee may obtain eternal salvation, a belief used to inspire support for the "Ram Rath Yatra". Hindu pilgrimages have traditionally been spaces where caste and gender barriers have been broken to a limited extent. Thus the BJP, seeking to unite its electorate, which was divided by caste-based discrimination, found the imagery of a pilgrimage useful. Furthermore, pilgrimages or processions frequently involve an assertion of dominance over a physical space, which was also relevant to the Ayodhya dispute; the ultimate aim of the "yatra" was to support the agitation of the VHP and its Sangh Parivar affiliates to erect a temple to the Hindu deity Rama on the site of the Babri Masjid.
Route and imagery.
Advani, then the president of the BJP, announced the "yatra" on 12 September 1990. The "rath yatra" began on 25 September 1990, seeking to capitalise on the massive protests across north India against the reservation bill. The "yatra" was supposed to be 10,000 kilometres long, and was planned with the intention of converging on Ayodhya and forcing the government to hand over the site to the Hindutva forces for the construction of a temple. The "yatra" began at the Hindu holy city of Somnath, and was planned to go through the states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Bihar, before reaching the city of Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh. Both Somnath and Ayodhya had political significance to the Hindu nationalist movement, because of their association with the legacy of Muslim invaders and rulers. Ayodhya, in particular, was seen as the symbol of Hindu humiliation at the hands of Muslim rulers. Additionally, the BJP wished to draw a parallel between its effort to build a temple in Ayodhya, and the reconstruction of the Somnath temple, undertaken by the Indian National Congress (INC)-led government of India in the 1950s.
The imagery of the procession was designed to represent religious themes. The "chariot" was escorted by activists dressed as mythological deities, and the people marching with the chariot sang songs and raised slogans that had religious themes. A few people marched with the "rath" the entire way, but a much larger number attended rallies at each stop. The "rath" itself was an air-conditioned converted Toyota redesigned to be a chariot. Historian Ramachandra Guha stated that the imagery of the "yatra" was "religious, allusive, militant, masculine, and anti-Muslim." The yatra itself was preceded by an intense propaganda campaign carried out by volunteers of the Bajrang Dal and the VHP. Along the entire route of the "yatra" they distributed pamphlets and posters describing the proposed temple, and vilifying Muslims. VHP leaders made speeches in which they stated that Hindus of past years had shown "impotence" in allowing their holy sites to be taken over by Muslims, and asked them to be more aggressive in the present instance.
Initial stages.
The "yatra" was flagged off in Somnath with scenes of "frenzied religious sentiments and militant national fervour." Supporters presented Advani with several gifts, including Saffrom flags, a sword, and a bow-and-arrow. Supporters chanted religious hymns as well as battle-cries.
The "yatra" began one of the most significant mass movements in Indian history. Advani covered an average of per day, and he typically addressed six rallies in a day. The "rath" passed through about 600 villages in Gujarat, and 50 rallies were held. In the village of Jetpur, Hindu nationalist activists donated a jar full of their own blood to Advani as a symbol of their faith. After Gujarat, the caravan went to Maharashtra, where activist fervour was even stronger because of the support of the Shiv Sena, a radical Hindu nationalist party. The "yatra" then passed through Telangana (then within Andhra Pradesh), in an attempt to mobilise supporters in an area where the BJP had little electoral strength, followed by Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. The level of popular mobilisation in each state was higher than the press had previously expected, and the "yatra" began to receive more national news coverage. Slogans coined by the followers included "Garv se kaho, ham Hindu hein!" ("Say with pride that we are Hindus!") An editorial in a national newspaper stated: ;templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" / ;At every village all along its route ... crowds ranging from hundreds to thousands turned out to see him. In the towns they clambered on to roofs to catch a glimpse of the bespectacled man on the ‘Rath’.
Advani's speeches during the "yatra" addressed Hindu nationalist themes. He portrayed the Ayodhya dispute as a fight between Rama and the Mughal emperor Babur, and stated that no Hindu could live in peace until a temple had been built on the site of the Babri Masjid. Militant sentiments were visible throughout the rally, as Advani was presented with bows and arrows, tridents, maces, daggers,