Thread by @nalinmehta

🧵Ayodhya,Kashi,#Ujjain:@narendramodi's focus on refurbishing major temples is deeply linked with idea of ‘New India’ that PM heralds as radical break with the past. In 5 ways.

First, look at this table (part1) on some temple projects viz @PMOIndia @BJP4India govt,2014-2021.1/n

2. Part 2 of Temples Data Table is here👇Combining religiosity,cultural identity & Hindu-ness with a new unapologetic cultural nationalism; and deeply rooted in Hindu cultural symbols, this cultural play reaches out to many religious Hindus beyond core Hindutva supporters 2/n

3. On temple 🛕🛕 projects: Beyond symbolism & reordering of ritual economies,it carries within it a much deeper remaking of the political economy.

There are 5 key features of this shift.

I have summarised them here 👇 @news18dotcom @CNNnews18 3/n

bit.ly/3MTxhKx

4. Point 1-The #Modi-#Nehru contrast:Modi’s fronting of so many temple projects is direct contrast with Nehru’s firm opposition to the state playing any role in reconstructing Somnath temple in 1951.

More in my @firstpost piece here:
bit.ly/3eBJM0m

@TheNewBJP

🔺Nehru’s opposition to govt rebuilding 🛕temples — as opposed to his famous positioning of dams as the “temples of modern India”—was framed in a state that,constitutionally,was not yet ‘secular’.The words ‘secular’ and ‘socialist’ added to Preamble by Indira Gandhi in 1976 5/n

6. 🔺🔺Point 2: Focus on temples is wide ranging—with a deep focus on infrastructure, development & domestic tourism as much as it is on cultural nationalism. See data tables in this thread above 👆& some context 👇 6/n

7.Political strategy underpinned by economic religious tourism logic.UP govt says Agra gets highest foreign tourists (over 2m foreigners,83.5m Indians,2019). But Prayagraj (289.1m - Kumbh, 2019),Ayodhya (over 30m), Govardhan (16.9m)Vrindavan (16m) get more domestic pilgrims 7/n

8. Even in non-Kumbh Mela years, Prayagraj draws a substantial number of tourists: 49.4 million in 2018, for instance.

Note: Regional Tourism Offices data is from @uptourismgov. Thanks to @pra0902 for pointing me to this data while writing on ths trend for @TheNewBJP 8/n

9. Point 3. Creating new transport linkages is a vital cog of this strategy, beyond redevelopment of the sights themselves. Tourism numbers also underlie Central govt plan (currently under discussion) to eventually connect Delhi-Ayodhya via high-speed bullet train. 9/n

🔺At natl level, 15 thematic circuits being developed as part of a New Swadesh Darshan Scheme include a Ramayana Circuit as well as a Buddhist Circuit. Eg. IRCTC launched Sri Ramayana Express,spcl tourist vegetarian train for pilgrims to Ramayana places in 18 days. 10/n

In UP @myogiadityanath @UPCMOffice 1st budget as CM, 2017, pushed Rs 1,240 cr fr Ram,Krishna,Buddha circuits. In 2019–2020,his govt allocated over Rs 300 cr to Ayodhya, Rs 125 crore to UP Brij Tirtha, Rs 200 cr fr roads to #Kashi Vishwanath temple 11/n
bit.ly/3yN2aKy

12. Hinduness, soft power: Where China uses Mandarin & cultural tools for soft power projection, @BJP4India is seeking, in this push, to deploy cultural power of Hinduism for India’s global branding. An example of this is Modi regime’s celebration of #Yoga since 2014 12/n

13. This is a positioning of India as fount of Hindu civilisation vis-a-vis say,a Sinic/Chinese or Western civilisation. It is rooted in alternative civilisational notion of India as a Hindu power,steeped in ‘parampara’/ tradition.More in @TheNewBJP 13/n bit.ly/3MTxhKx

14. The play here probably in the sense that Samuel Huntington meant when he wrote The Clash of Civilizations in '93,arguing that praxis of local politics would shift to ‘politics of ethnicity’, while that of global politics would shift to the ‘politics of civilizations' 14/n

15. Temple projects, reordering of ritual economy & explicit focus on cultural markers segue seamlessly into PM Modi’s other signature projects that reorder the visual geography of the nation. 15/n

16. Delhi's New Central Vist,new Parliament building all physical manifestations of larger reordering.This shift in India’s visual geography is long-term,systemic and intrinsically linked to an alternative conceptual idea of the nation that is fundamentally different from Nehru’s

IDetailed long read on why temples are central to @narendramodi @PMOIndia's idea of 'New India and the cultural powerplay inherent inherent in recent developments is in @firstpost here 👇

firstpost.com/opinion-news-e…

@TheNewBJP @WestlandBooks @JBhattacharji @karthikavk @CNNnews18