Pilgrimage Space, Hinduization of Space, Hindutva Politics of Space, and the Case of Ayodhyā as a Religious and Religiopolitical Hotspot

In this article I analyze aspects of religious geography in the mobilization by Hindu nationalists in India in the 1980s and 1990s and how Hindu nationalism and Hindu religious geography were merged in the case of the Ayodhyā conflict. Ayodhyā was consciously changed from a pilgrimage center (tīrtha...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Jacobsen, Knut A. 1956- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Brill 2023
In: Numen
Year: 2023, Volume: 70, Issue: 1, Pages: 95-112
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Ayodhya / Pilgrimage / Hotspot / Hindutva / Religious policy / Religious geography / History 1983-1992
IxTheo Classification:AD Sociology of religion; religious policy
AF Geography of religion
AX Inter-religious relations
BJ Islam
BK Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism
KBM Asia
KCD Hagiography; saints
TK Recent history
Further subjects:B Hindu pilgrimage
B Hindu Nationalism
B religious geography
B Ayodhyā
B religious hotspot
Online Access: Presumably Free Access
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Summary:In this article I analyze aspects of religious geography in the mobilization by Hindu nationalists in India in the 1980s and 1990s and how Hindu nationalism and Hindu religious geography were merged in the case of the Ayodhyā conflict. Ayodhyā was consciously changed from a pilgrimage center (tīrtha) of diminishing religious importance into a religiopolitical hotspot by political forces. The potential for a Hindu–Muslim conflict and for mobilizing support for their vision of a Hinduized India was probably what made the place attractive for Hindu nationalists. The article argues that Hindu nationalism exploited the views of territoriality of traditions of pilgrimage and salvific space and merged these with their political nationalist agenda, and that it was this blending of views of space from the pilgrimage traditions, ideas of national territory, and Hindu nationalists’ ideas of a homogeneous Hindu nation with aggressive political agitation that turned Ayodhyā into a religiopolitical hotspot.
ISSN:1568-5276
Contains:Enthalten in: Numen
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1163/15685276-12341677