The destruction of the Babri Masjid at Ayodhya in December 1992 is a watershed in the politics of independent India. This book narrates how Ayodhya’s inhabitants experienced the events that led up to and followed the destruction. It argues that the chain of events they describe is the end-product of a century’s efforts to convert Hindus into a ‘proper’ modern nation and a conventional ethnic majority. Woven into the narrative is an analysis of the culture of communal conflict, the nature of organized mass violence, and the political psychology of Hindu nationalism.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Ashis Nandy
Ashis Nandy is senior fellow, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi. He has written over fifteen books, including The Intimate Enemy: Loss and Recovery of Self under Colonialism (Oxford, 1983), Traditions, Tyranny, and Utopias: Essays in the Politics of Awareness (Oxford, 1987) and an ambiguous Journey to the City: The Village and Other Odd Ruins of the Self in the Indian Imagination (Oxford, 2001).
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Shail Mayaram
Shail Mayaram is Senior Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi. She is the author of Against History, Against State: Counterperspectives from the Margins (2003) and Resisting Regimes: Myth, Memory and the Shaping of a Muslim Identity (1997).
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