Sacred Space in Conflict in India: The Babri Masjid Affair

Abstract

The focus of this paper is on the demolition of a sacred space, the Babri Masjid, a sixteenth century mosque, in Ayodhya, India, in December 1992, an illegal albeit well‐organized act by the Hindu right. Drawing on postcolonial theory, and feminist geographical theory, and using a discourse analysis primarily of Hindu nationalist texts, and of significant action as text, the author examines the strategic construction and deployment of cultural meanings pertaining to space, and the engagement of social actors on that basis, towards political, violent ends. The author argues, firstly, that Hindu nationalist ideologues, notwithstanding pretensions to Hindu ‘authenticity,’ make use of Western thought to rewrite Hindu‐Muslim relations in antagonistic terms, and to signify these oppositional relations through sacred spatialities (mosque, temple, and Motherland as the body of the mother goddess Bharatmata). Secondly, in this framework, the Babri Masjid, one particular mosque, became a site of conflict because Hindu nationalists were able to transform it into a symbol of Muslim military invasions and Muslim male sexual aggression against Hindu femininity (as Motherland and Hindu women's bodies). Thirdly, Hindu nationalists, through a well‐orchestrated campaign, were able to convince a wider audience that these violations could only be avenged by the demolition of the Babri mosque (while also unofficially and inadvertently targeting Muslim women's bodies for sexual violation). Finally, this analysis should have wider implications for understanding the place of space, gender, sexuality, and sexual violation, in religio‐political and ethnic conflicts elsewhere.