Ram ke Naam

Ram ke Naam
In the Name of God
Directed by Anand Patwardhan
Produced by Anand Patwardhan
Release dates
  • September 1992 (Film South Asia)
Running time
 75 minutes
Country India
Language English, Hindi

Ram ke Naam (English: In the name of God) is a 1992 documentary by Indian filmmaker Anand Patwardhan. It explores the controversy around the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya prior to its demolition in 1992. It focuses on the campaign waged by the Hindu-nationalist Vishva Hindu Parishad to remove the mosque and build a temple in its place, as well as the communal violence that it triggered. The film was responsible for earning Patwardhan a wide recognition, and received multiple national and international awards.

Background

Main article: Ayodhya dispute

Following the Mughal invasion of the Indian subcontinent, Mir Baqi, a general of the emperor Babur, built a mosque at Ayodhya which he named after Babur. In Hindu mythology, Ayodhya is the birthplace of the god-king Rama.[1] Local traditions hold that a temple to Rama stood at the site and was demolished by Baqi. The site was used for religious purposes by people of both beliefs until 1949.[2][3] In that year, idols of Rama were surreptitiously placed inside the mosque. An uproar followed, and multiple civil suits were filed laying claim to the site. The site was declared to be in dispute, and the gates to the mosque were locked.[4]

In the 1980s, the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), a militant Hindu organisation, began a campaign to build a temple dedicated to Rama at the site, with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) backing the movement politically.[5][6][7] In September 1990, the BJP leader L. K. Advani began a "rath yatra," or chariot journey, to the city of Ayodhya in support of the movement. The journey triggered communal riots in several cities, leading to Advani's arrest by the government of Bihar. A large number of volunteers nonetheless reached Ayodhya, and attacked the mosque. This resulted in a pitched battle with government's paramilitary forces that ended with the death of several VHP volunteers.[8]

Synopsis

Ram ke Naam explores the campaign of the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) to demolish the mosque and build a temple to Rama in its place. The film begins with a clip of an organizer describing L.K. Advani's rath yatra in 1990. It then shows scenes from the yatra, with young men dressed in saffron seen in Ayodhya, followed by a video prepared by the VHP. The video depicts an incident at the temple in 1949, when an idol of Rama "appeared" inside the mosque. In the VHP's retelling, Rama is shown descending from the sky and miraculously appearing in the mosque, watched by astonished spectators, followed by a member of the VHP telling the same story.[9]

The documentary then shifts to interviews with various Muslim people in the area, who state that they have not received justice, and describe the destruction that occurred during communal riots in 1986. Patwardhan then interviews young male members of the VHP, who say that they will take Ayodhya by force if they need to. One of the men is unable to answer a question about historicity of Rama's date of birth. The film then shows Advani's yatra entering the state of Bihar, and several provocative speeches by politicians of the BJP. This is followed by an interview with a tax inspector, who was fired for objecting to irregularities in the tax returns of the VHP. The film concludes with a clip of people at a BJP rally attempting to justify the murder of Mahatma Gandhi by Nathuram Godse.[9]

Reception and analysis

The film received a positive reception from critics, and also received several national and international awards. A review in the magazine Manushi stated that the film was a reminder of "that rare commodity called truth," and went on to say that although the film might be considered to have flaws of a technical nature, it should be mandatory viewing for people who wished to understand the Ayodhya dispute.[9]

The VHP and its affiliates in the Sangh Parivar reacted with hostility to the film, stating that it was "anti-Hindu." In 1993 volunteers of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh prevented the documentary from being screened at a college in Mumbai.[10] In 2002, the VHP also prevented the movie from being screened at the American Museum of Natural History.[11][12] After a screening of the documentary at ILS Law College on December 27, 2014 was cancelled due to threats from right wing organisations, Patwardhan officially released the documentary on YouTube.[13]

Patwardhan was already fairly well known thanks to his earlier films, such as Prisoners of Conscience, which critiqued the state of emergency imposed by then-Prime minister Indira Gandhi. However, Ram ke Naam earned him a wide recognition for the first time.[14]

Awards

References

  1. ↑ Bhagat, Rasheeda (28 September 2010). "The Ayodhya Conundrum". The Hindu Business Line. Retrieved 29 September 2010.
  2. ↑ van der Veer, Peter (1987). "`God must be Liberated!' A Hindu Liberation Movement in Ayodhya". Modern Asian Studies 21 (2): 283–301. JSTOR 312648.
  3. ↑ Narain, Harsh (1993). The Ayodhya Temple Mosque Dispute: Focus on Muslim Sources. New Delhi: Penman Publications. pp. 8–9. ISBN 81-85504-16-4.
  4. ↑ "Timeline: Ayodhya holy site crisis". BBC News. Retrieved 19 March 2014.
  5. ↑ Guha, Ramachandra (2007). India after Gandhi: the history of the world's largest democracy (1st ed.). India: Picador. pp. 582–598. ISBN 978-0-330-39610-3.
  6. ↑ Katju, Manjari (2013). Vishva Hindu Parishad and Indian Politics. Orient Blackswan. pp. 88–112. ISBN 81-250-2476-X.
  7. ↑ Lochtefeld, James G. (1994). "The Vishva Hindu Parishad and the Roots of Hindu Militancy". Journal of the American Academy of Religion 62 (2): 587–602. JSTOR 1465279.
  8. ↑ Guha, Ramachandra (2007). India After Gandhi. MacMillan. pp. 633–659.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Pande, Mrinal (November 1992). "Ram Ke Naam Chronicle of a demolition Foretold". Manushi (73).
  10. ↑ Sen, Manjula (26 December 1993). "College Barred From Screening Film". The Times of India.
  11. ↑ Joshi, Namrata (9 August 2011). "Naked Man Outside Frame". Outlook. Retrieved 19 December 2014.
  12. ↑ Maclay, Kathleen. "Anand Patwardhan, the 'Michael Moore of India,' brings his hard-hitting documentary films to campus". UC Berkeley News. Retrieved 19 December 2014.
  13. ↑ "‘These right-wingers can’t decide what India should see’". Pune Mirror. Jan 7, 2015. Retrieved 7 January 2015.
  14. ↑ Lal, Vinay (March 2005). "Travails of the Nation Some Notes on Indian Documentaries". Third Text 19 (2). doi:10.1080/0952882042000328089.
  15. ↑ "40th National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Retrieved 2 March 2012.
  16. ↑ "Anand Patwardhan". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 23 November 2014.
  17. ↑ "YIDDF 1993". Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival. Retrieved 23 November 2014.

External links