Ayodhya: Past and Present, by Sutapa Mukherjee

HarperCollins

presents

Ayodhya
Past and Present

by Sutapa Mukherjee

A book that gives voice to the people of Ayodhya
who have been caught in one of modern India’s most turbulent crossfires

‘Sutapa Mukherjee’s vignettes of the movement will enrich our understanding of how the town of Ayodhya saw and imbibed the Ram hurricane.’
—Swapan Dasgupta

‘Breaks new ground by its detailed examination of the changing relationship between Hindus and Muslims in this historic city.’
—Zoya Hasan

‘This is by far the most elaborate and incisive account of the Ayodhya controversy, taking us into the minds of the participants and others, and the growth of its diverse movements.’
—Rajiv Dhawan

 

PB | Non-fiction | 296 pp | Rs 499

Releasing 5 December 2022
Available Wherever Books Are Sold

Author Sutapa Mukherjee says, “Ayodhya: Past and Present is the post-Independence story of a town told by its residents from different castes, classes and religions.

Over the last thirty years, most of the Hindu adolescents who participated with joy, mirth and excitement in bringing down the Babri Masjid, have become responsible householders and businessmen now. Looking back, they pragmatically analyse their roles. Some feel a sense of detachment. Others feel proud and victorious. This book is about their losses and triumphs. It is also about the emotions and tribulations of those from other religions, who actively or passively participated in or watched the unfolding events. This is an epic tale of the people of Ayodhya and people for Ayodhya.”

Swati Chopra, Associate Publisher, HarperCollins India, says, “The story of Ram’s Ayodhya goes back in time; the story of the Ramjanmabhoomi Movement in Ayodhya is a more recent phenomenon. In this book, veteran journalist Sutapa Mukherjee provides a masterful account of the latter while dipping into the former to provide necessary context. We publish in time for the thirtieth anniversary of the event that changed Ayodhya, and in many ways India, forever – the demolition of the Babri Masjid – which the book chronicles in great detail, as it does the story of the town and its people thereafter. Necessary reading for anyone who is interested in contemporary Indian politics and Ayodhya’s imprint on it.”

*

ABOUT THE BOOK

10.30 a.m., 9 November 2019:  A five-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court of India unanimously ruled that the land where the Babri Masjid once stood in Ayodhya belongs to the lord, Ram Lalla. The decision was expected to end the conflict between Hindus and Muslims in India, who have been asserting their religious rights over the 2.77 acres of disputed land for five centuries. But Ayodhya still remains a divided city.

Journalist Sutapa Mukerjee has frequented the town since 1998. After the apex court decree, she returned to the land now gifted to Lord Ram and reconnected with the locals. Her narrative takes off from the historic 2019 Supreme Court judgment, traces the milestones of the seventy-year-long legal battle for the disputed land and even goes back a few centuries to give cultural and civilizational context to the conflict in Ayodhya, before culminating in a ground-zero account of the Babri Masjid demolition.

Ayodhya: Past and Present gives voice—through innumerable personal interviews—to the people of the pilgrim town, both the movers and shakers of the Mandir–Masjid tussle as well as the commoners caught in the crossfire. A history of Ayodhya, the book brings alive the reality of this once-quaint town that is on its way to becoming a commercialized pilgrimage destination.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sutapa Mukherjee has worked as a full-time journalist with The Pioneer and Outlook, and as a stringer with Associated Press, Agece France-Presse and BBC online. She has written widely on various subjects that include politics, gender issues, wildlife, travel and lifestyle.

 

PRAISE FOR THE BOOK

‘A momentous phenomenon that redefined India, the Ayodhya movement also incorporated ordinary people and their stories. These, alas, tend to either get relegated to footnotes or completely forgotten in the mega-narrative. Sutapa Mukherjee has rescued many of these forgotten voices from the condescension of history. Her vignettes of the movement will enrich our understanding of how the town of Ayodhya saw and imbibed the Ram hurricane.’

—Swapan Dasgupta, politician and columnist

‘Sutapa Mukherjee’s well-informed and illuminating book revisits the contemporary history of Ayodhya and its complex layers of unity and divisions. It breaks new ground by its detailed examination of the changing relationship between Hindus and Muslims in this historic city. Extensive interviews and conversations with activists of the Ram Temple movement and ordinary people demonstrate the vagaries of the social and economic changes taking place in Ayodhya. This passionate, engaged account is a must-read for those interested in understanding the problems of essentializing ideologies and grand narratives that ignore lived realities.’

—Zoya Hasan, professor emerita, Jawaharlal Nehru University

‘This is by far the most elaborate and incisive account of the Ayodhya controversy, taking us into the minds of the participants and others, and the growth of its diverse movements. Written in an amiable, accessible style and resonant with details, this book is a must-read for those interested in controversies around Ayodhya. The sleepy town of Ayodhya—some 79.8 sq. km with 4,51,000 people (according to the 2011 census)—will never be the same, even for the victors squabbling over the sports of legal victory. The book rightly ends with what it calls the “obvious prediction”: “Yeh toh jhanki hai, Kashi, Mathura baaki hai (This is only the trailer, Kashi and Mathura are still left).”’

—Rajiv Dhawan, senior advocate and author

 

*

For reviews, excerpts, interviews and more information, please contact Shivendra Singh at
shivendra.singh@harpercollins.co.in