New Ayodhya: Temple Town, Tinseltown

Two weeks before the Ram temple바카라�s consecration, Ayodhya resembles an event management firm rushing through last-minute preparations바카라�or a mythological film set under construction. Near its roads, buildings and temples spread soil, sand and stones. JCB machines rumble; cranes and forklifts saunter; construction workers plaster, paint, hammer. Over the last one-and-a-half years, the town has changed so much that several natives say, 바카라�It feels like we can바카라�t recognise our own home.바카라�

Dualities mark Ayodhya 2.0: what it shows and what it hides; what it was and what it will be. Not too long ago, many devout Hindus harked back to their 바카라�glorious past바카라�, the Ram rajya, to assuage their anxieties and hone their identities. But now, they can바카라�t wait for the future: Godot will arrive any moment, sitting atop the 바카라�sone ki chidiya바카라� flapping her wings. Or take their cynosure바카라�Lord Ram, both an infant (바카라�Ram lalla바카라�), someone to protect; and a warrior, Shri Ram, someone to pray to. Or the town바카라�s architecture: The divider on the Ram Janmabhoomi Path holds elegant lamp posts; the paints pop, the road glows. But if you enter a gulley shooting from the main bazaar, you바카라�ll discover Ayodhya 1.0: crowded, cramped, chaotic. The cars have grown; the lanes have not. If you stay here for long, you바카라�ll see a town drop its mask. A place tired of pretending, posing, posturing.

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Ayodhya derives its pluralism from Hindu temples and several Jain ones. And then, the mosques, whose exemplar, Babri Masjid, lived for 464 years. More than three decades later, its successor has slunk to a far-flung village, Dhannipur, on the Lucknow-Ayodhya highway, around 22 kilometres away from its original location. Finding it is not easy. It바카라�s not listed on Google Maps; the main road has no guiding boards for the Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation, the trust managing its construction. Only when you get there do you understand why. The five-acre plot, except for a mazaar, contains nothing. No workers, no bustle, no construction. Not a stone has been laid. If the Ram temple flaunts, then the Muhammad Bin Abdullah Masjid hides, the literal embodiment of a 바카라�real-estate consolation prize바카라�. Or like Ram banished Sita in the Ramayana, here the Supreme Court, the equivalent of the modern-day rule-making king, has banished a mosque.

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The shopkeepers on the glitzy Ram Janmabhoomi Path remember not just their former town바카라�바카라�old, dilapidated, congested바카라�바카라�but also their older selves. People who had no say in how their lives would upend. Before the renovation, around a year ago, Awadesh Kumar바카라�s shop and his house where he lived with his family, was 20 feet wide. But then the government widened the road, halved his store, and tossed him a paltry compensation.

Great development erupted great rents. Kumar used to pay Rs 1,000 monthly to his landlord, who hiked it to Rs 5,000. Deepak Rawat too had a shop here for the last 35 years바카라�twelve feet wide, six feet deep. Now? A hole in the wall. He got a lakh, and his landlord increased the rent from Rs 140 to Rs 1,000. The government offered him a six-by-six feet outlet, around two kilometres away, on a 30-year lease for around Rs 10 lakh. He declined. Many shopkeepers had to leave the town. Ayodhya 2.0: where not Lord Ram but his devotees have been exiled.

This story repeats in a depressing loop. Another retailer on the same road had two stores. He lost one; the other shrank in size. For the former, he got Rs 2.5 lakh, and for the latter, one lakh. 바카라�No shopkeeper is satisfied,바카라� he sighs. His friend Awadh Bihari, who has a 바카라�private job바카라�, says, 바카라�Ayodha will become more majestic, more developed, but its residents won바카라�t survive. Ek toh shraap hai Sita-ji ka, aur doosra is sarkar ka [once Sita-ji cursed the people of Ayodhya; now it바카라�s the government].바카라�

바카라�But whether I die or vanish, I바카라�ll still vote for the BJP,바카라� swears the shopkeeper. 바카라�I never thought that I바카라�d see something so significant in my life [the Ram temple].바카라� Amid a flurry of complaints against the government, he slips this in: 바카라�Vikas is happening. On that there바카라�s no doubt.바카라� Rawat elaborates, 바카라�I바카라�ve witnessed what happened in 1992. My friend, Rajendra Dharkar, was shot dead [in the 1990 Ayodhya firing].바카라� Dharkar was a kar sevak just like Rawat and the shopkeeper. They had joined the RSS as adolescents; Rawat rose to become a shakha pramukh. 바카라�My grandfather and father couldn바카라�t see the Ram temple,바카라� he says. 바카라�Even I didn바카라�t expect to see it. So, as a Sanatani, nothing makes me happier. And no matter how much Ayodhya changes, if something else doesn바카라�t, we바카라�ll be happy: our honour.바카라�

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Some changes look more incongruous than others. Take Lata Mangeshkar Chowk, half-a-kilometre away from the Sarayu River. It바카라�s the kind of landmark you바카라�d see in Mumbai:  Mohammed Rafi Chowk (Bandra), Kaifi Azmi Park (Juhu). But Ayodhya and Lata di? Inaugurated on her 93rd birthday, it contains a 14-tonne, 40-feet veena. But neither the stats nor the statue reveal anything, for this is a Chowk you see with your ears. One song after the other, all dedicated to Lord Ram, sung by Mangeshkar.

Entry to the Chowk is banned. 바카라�It was open to the public for the first few months,바카라� says the security guard. 바카라�But they trashed it, clicked selfies, and made reels with their girlfriends. Does it suit a religious place like this, which has Saraswati-ji바카라�s veena? So, the government banned everyone from entering.바카라� Just like it banned the sale of liquor and meat in the town.

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At the Ram Janmabhoomi temple, an ironic and surreal sight greets you바카라�construction workers standing on wooden scaffoldings finishing a metallic roof, busy re-building a once dismantled site. These are the real designers of this movie set: the modern-day kar sevaks wearing 바카라�L&T바카라� jackets. L&T (Larsen & Toubro), the multinational conglomerate, is overseeing the temple바카라�s construction and design free of cost. The temple complex comprises two distinct bhakts: the devotees and the corporations; the latter luring the former. Opposite a canopy, Life Insurance Corporation offers free water (and a suggestion: 바카라�Keep your family safe with guaranteed income바카라�). So does Punjab National Bank (바카라�PNB Education Loan: Realise all your dreams바카라�interest rate starts at 8.2%바카라�). The trifecta of capitalism, nationalism, and masculinity marks the entire town. Campa Cola (acquired by Reliance Industries Limited in 2022) promises customers 바카라�Naye India ka apna thanda바카라�.  And in some hoardings, Hanuman has six-pack abs, a brawny God chiselled to perfection.

The Ram temple is closed to the public, but a makeshift devotional area where cameras are forbidden, allows visitors to pray, facing the idols of infant Ram, Laxman, Bharat, and Shatrughan. A Bank of Baroda banner occupies three-fourth of the opposite wall. But the one by Canara Bank catches your attention because it displays an image: Hanuman kneeling in front of Ram accompanied by Laxman and...Sita바카라�the first glimpse of her in this town.

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If income inequality defines India, then 바카라�mandir inequality바카라� defines Ayodhya 2.0. Early in the morning, at the Dhobi temple, there바카라�s no one else except for a priest, Ram Lal Das, blind in the left eye. A curtain covers a room that houses a Ram lalla idol. A student, Hari Om, lives in the temple (which also doubles up as a hostel for the Dhobi caste students). Hoping to become a primary school teacher, he바카라�s enrolled in a local college studying 바카라�BTC바카라�. When asked about its full-form; Om smiles, says he doesn바카라�t know. Another temple, Nishad, lies beside a busy road whose main gate is locked; four kids fly kites inside. Less than 100 metres away stands the Maurya temple바카라�cement bags, wooden planks, and scattered pipes litter the floor. Like the Dhobi temple, it functions as a hostel for the Maurya community students.

On the other end of the town lives Shri Pal Das, a priest at the Prajapati temple. Shri mentions the Yadav temple, whose front gate, like Nishad바카라�s, is shut. A few years ago, he says, heavy rains almost demolished it. 바카라�Ayodhya didn바카라�t have caste-based temples once, but according to sampradaya  [community]바카라�바카라�such as Ranopali, Dashrath Mahal, Badi Chhawni,바카라� Shri explains. 바카라�But when the SC and the OBC [Scheduled Caste and Other Backward Caste] people came here, they couldn바카라�t stay the night in the king바카라�s or communities바카라� temples.바카라� So, long before independence, they built temples for their own castes (and sub-castes), he adds, turning them into assured shelters.

Shri unfurls their list, several on the same road: 바카라�Kumhar temple, Vishwakarma temple, Chandrawanshi temple, Pandav temple, Kaurav temple, Bhumihar temple바카라� and, even, 바카라�Mishra temple, Chaubey temple, Tiwari temple바카라�. He and his elder brother, Surya Pal Das sip chai and talk. 바카라�There has been no change here, except the Ram temple,바카라� says Shri. 바카라�The change inside is 0.0.바카라� He discusses the disruption of solace in Ayodhya, its imminent (economic and social) segregations, and the Babri Masjid tussle hinged on the 바카라�kabza바카라�, by the Hindus, and the 바카라�dhaancha바카라�, of the Muslims.

바카라�Now Ayodhya won바카라�t be a town of devotees but businessmen. It has 1,100 registered temples; in the future, that바카라�ll come down to one.바카라� And all this, Shri adds, is by design. 바카라�Because business can thrive in just one place. If it splashes,바카라� he smiles, 바카라�the income will shrink.바카라� As plush hotels begin to dominate the area, as the Ram temple complex spawns its own fiscal jungle, as large investments spread and stay, temples like Prajapati, say the brothers, will become rubble under the bulldozer of (uniform and imposed) 바카라�development바카라�. Or, all mandirs are equal but some mandirs more equal than others. 바카라�It바카라�s like someone made Ayodhya drape a jacket of gold but snatched away its soul,바카라� says Surya.

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Parallel to the mazaar at the plot allotted for the Muhammad Bin Abdullah Masjid, about 30 feet away, a dozen children play a game that seems like cricket. Turns out, it바카라�s 바카라�dibbi danda바카라�. A match is underway, where a kid heaves a saffron plastic bat. Sometimes they bet money바카라�바카라�Rs 5, Rs 10바카라�바카라�sometimes play for free. It바카라�s the only thing in this plot that animates with vitality and life. A distant second? A small poster on the mazaar wall displaying the mosque바카라�s model: 바카라�A masterpiece in making바카라�.

Back in Ayodhya, less than two kilometres away from the Ram Janmabhoomi temple, is a series of small, dilapidated mosques whose front gates are shut. Noor Masjid is not among them. It is said to be somewhere in the area, but hard to locate. An old woman points to a desolate corner in a field overwhelmed by wild grass and says, 바카라�There used to be another mosque there, but it was destroyed last year.바카라� She clarifies, 바카라�Not because of any other reason but heavy rains.바카라� Just like the Yadav temple. A young Muslim man says philosophically, 바카라�People are people바카라�despite their different religions. When it rains, it drenches us all.바카라�

Turns out, Noor Masjid바카라�s main gate is locked too. Four minarets rise from its roof, and a saffron flag flutters on an adjacent terrace with 바카라�Om바카라� written on it. A teenager called Shahrukh Ali, when asked about the other mosques in Ayodhya, is only able to name one. Like the old woman, he mentions the nearby mosque demolished in the rain but doesn바카라�t know much beyond it. Are there other mosque(s) around? 바카라�There바카라�s one on the Tedhi Bazaar Chowk, but it바카라�s small.바카라� Does he know a big mosque here? 바카라�Big [mosque],바카라� he pauses for a second. 바카라�Big mosque바카라�Babri Masjid.바카라� 

(This appeared in the print as 'Temple Town, Tinseltown')