Thread by @SaibBilaval

Things that changed in 🇮🇳 w Ram Janmabhoomi Movt/#Ayodhya/#BabriMasjid Demolition, a thread 🧵:

1. Daily, yearlong RW propaganda from the 80s onwards finally made most Hindu school kids esp in Hindi belt communal. 90s saw an increase in slurs & discrimination against Muslim kids

2. Post Kargil War, post-Godhra and pogrom, the victim community was blamed simply for their identity and targetting in all spheres of life escalated further.

3. Interfaith couples became unsafe on a larger scale than ever before.

4. Marginalised non-Muslim groups, mainly SCs, STs and OBCs were made to choose between being a saffron footsoldier or face caste violence.

5. Huge increases in open communal hate speech and dogwhistles, both during and apart from election time.

6. The bullying of judiciary by saffron elements.

7. More saffron sympathisers in bureaucracy reached senior posts after some decades of promotion.

8. Despite the Places of Worship Act, the campaign to make other historical sites became targets of communal demolition/"reclamation" gained huge steam.

9. The BJP received huge momentum in its journey to capture elected office nationally.

10. It put BJP well on its way to being to top national senior partner in any non-Congress alliance, something regional parties could no longer escape.

11. The most rabid of ringleaders were elected, mainstreamed and put in top leadership positions within BJP and later NDA.

12. Saffron rule in states promoted communal textbooks on a larger, public school scale.

13. "Hurt sentiments" started playing a larger role and nearly every non-BJP party started toeing the saffron line of "political correctness".

14. Minorities were permanently locked into a cycle of voting for the "lesser evil" as a captive vote bank taken for granted by secular parties as well as OBC regional parties. The en-bloc voting sometimes made a difference, sometimes didn't, bc their numbers alone not enough.

15. Certain media houses then and there were okay with embracing soft saffronism to begin with. We can see the result today.

So while there were countless communal incidents, atrocities, pogroms even before Ayodhya movt period, + lack of representation & systemic discrimination - we have to recognise the Ayodhya period as a diff phase, stepping stone before the undisputed majoritarian rule of today.

Most Muslims back then saw this as a sign of saffron rule eventually becoming nearly certain in the future:

https://twitter.com/SaibBilaval/status/1600079091406966785?t=E5bYYtH0MkTACGRLk1mNUA&s=19

Short reading list:

https://twitter.com/SaibBilaval/status/1600166561561862144?t=lORciHgmXuhlGuUTOuxvrw&s=19