Changes between Initial Version and Version 1 of Ram Ke Naam

Timestamp:

Jun 28, 2012, 6:41:53 PM (12 years ago)

Author:

Trupti

Comment:

--

Ram Ke Naam

@@ +1 @@
+'''Ram Ke Naam'''
+
+
+aka In the Name of God
+1992 90’ col Hindi
+d/p/c Anand Patwardhan
+The 2nd part of Patwardan’s investigation of
+communalism in contemporary India (Una
+Mitterandi Yaad Pyari, 1989). The film, shot
+on 16mm, addresses the rise of a fanatic Hindu
+right wing and its exploitation of the Ayodhya
+temple in its bid for power. The Ramayana
+suggests Ayodhya was the God Ram’s
+birthplace. In 1528, one of the Mughal Emperor
+Babar’s noblemen built the Babri Masjid
+mosque there. In the late 19th C., both Hindus
+and Muslims began claiming the site as a place
+of worship. Since 1984, the Vishwa Hindu
+Parishad, a militant Hindu organisation allied
+with the BJP, rekindled and converted the old
+dispute into a nationwide political programme,
+affirming that the very spot where the mosque
+was built marks Ram’s birthplace. They called
+for the mosque to be demolished and for a
+Hindu temple to be erected instead. In 1990,
+the BJP’s leader, L.K. Advani, went on a ‘Rath
+Yatra’, a chariot procession from Somnath to
+Ayodhya, inciting violent communal riots en
+route. Advani’s arrest led to the downfall of V.P.
+Singh’s minority Janata Dal government and,
+later that year, to the violent Kar Seva
+(reconstruction) programme that saw, amid
+several killings, VHP men take over the
+mosque. Since then the Hindu fanatics have
+used the issue as a bargaining ploy against the
+ruling Congress regime. Patwardhan follows
+some of the infamous Rath Yatra and
+documents the Kar Seva itself, exposing the
+link between the local police and the militant
+mobs. Interviewing his subjects while
+operating the camera, Patwardhan has most of
+his speakers address the camera directly,
+revealing, often indirectly, their actual
+motivations. Patwardhan also includes the
+confession of the man who was employed to
+aggravate communal strife by placing idols in
+the temple and the remarkable statements of
+the priest in charge of the temple (who was
+later assassinated for his anti-communalist
+position).
+
+[[Film]]