The Ayodhya dispute

The absent mosque, state of emergency and the jural deity

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2391071
AutoresDeepak Mehta (Shiv Nadar University, Greater Noida, UP, India, autor correspondente)
Ano2015
Volume20
Fascículo4
Páginas397-414
Data de publicação2015-12-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoJournal of Material Culture (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1359-1835 • E-ISSN: 1460-3586
EditoraSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1359183515607093
OpenAlexW2403897108
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas9
Referências citadas12

The Ayodhya dispute is located neither solely within the institutions of the nation state, nor within networks of religious associations, but at the crossroads of secular and religious culture in India. At its heart lies the place of the Hindu god Rama, constituted in law as a jural person. How do we understand the emergence of this jural deity in the dispute? Focusing on appellate judgments that addressed the demolition of the Babri Mosque on 6 December 1992, the article argues that the legal evaluation of specific claims rested on a contest over asymmetric temporalities. Prior to the demolition, judicial accounts referred to the site as a 'disputed area' or the 'Ayodhya dispute'. After the demolition, this literature named the disputed area as the Babri Masjid. It was as if the Hindu deity, Rama, would fill in the space of the absent mosque. The author shows how the presence of the deity rested on an understanding of the sublime that was simultaneously political and religious

Aesthetics · Archaeology · Demolition · Dispute resolution · Hinduism · Political science · Politics · Sociology · State (computer science · Sublime · Anthropological Studies and Insights · History · Law · Philosophy · Religion and Society Interactions · Religious studies · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies