Ram ke Naam
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Ram ke Naam In the Name of God |
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| Directed by | Anand Patwardhan |
| Produced by | Anand Patwardhan |
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Release date
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Running time
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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. The film explores the campaign waged by the Hindu-nationalist Vishva Hindu Parishad to build a Ram temple at the site of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, as well as the communal violence that it triggered. A couple of months after Ram ke Naam was released, VHP activists demolished the Babri Masjid in 1992, provoking further violence. The film earned Patwardhan a wide recognition, and received several national and international awards.
In 1526 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. 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. 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.
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. 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.
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