Ayodhya : The Gods are Liberated

Ayodhya reverberates in India’ s religious and political landscape like no other city ever has or ever will. Situated on the banks of the Saryu River, Ayodhya was the capital of the kings of the solar (sun) dynasty, founded by Ikshvaku. Umesh Raghuvanshi writes about the various protagonists who took decisions based either on their faith or on personal agenda and ambition, over many millennia, to create and recreate the city— both literally and figuratively. The author traces Ayodhya back to the times the city was first mentioned in the scriptures many millennia ago, to the grand temple that once existed at Ram Janmabhoomi, to the building of the Babri Mosque by invaders who destroyed the temple, to the legal dispute between Hindus and Muslims, and to the present times, with the building of the Ram Lalla temple. The narrative ends with the defeat of the BJP candidate in Ayodhya during the 2024 General Elections. After India’ s Independence, the twists and turns that took place in Ayodhya created a new paradigm for India’ s politics and led to the rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party’ s brand of politics. This narrative provides an exhaustive chronicle of the legal battles— from the tria

Umesh Raghuvanshi, a distinguished journalist, serves as senior associate editor at the Hindustan Times in Lucknow, India. He previously worked at The Pioneer in the same city. He has reported extensively on the twists and turns that changed India and its politics, including the Ram Janmabhoomi movement. Raghuvanshi has an impressive academic background, having been a visiting scholar at the Graduate School of Journalism, University of California, Berkeley, USA, and a Metcalf Fellow at the Metcalf Institute of Marine and Environmental Reporting, University of Rhode Island, USA. His accolades