Event Thursday: Manufacturing Consent for Hindu Rashtra (Rule): How the Virtual Ramjanmabhoomi Movement Operates as Political Religion
Thursday, September 26, 2024, 5:30pm-6:30pm
Eaton Humanities 250
Dheepa Sundaram, University of Denver
On November 9, 2019, the Indian Supreme Court (ISC) rendered a decision granting Hindus the right to build a Rama temple on the location of Babri Masjid razed by Hindu extremists in 1992. This talk explores the broad contours of the ISC judgement, how Facebook and Twitter communities discuss it, and why this matters politically in India. Prof. Sundaram shows how the ISC’s judgement becomes possible through the production of a mediatized, transnational, Hindu belief community (e.g. social media, blogs, and the sharing of journal/televised news pieces) that takes shape through a virtual/digital network of likes, shares, and hashtags.