Re-defining the collective memory within contrasting religious groups: the case of babri masjid- ramjanmbhumi, Ayodhya.

Abstract

The space which surrounds us is not a void. It has various things placed in it which make an impact on the space which we inhabit. Not just things but air, wind, light, smell etc. These make space heterogeneous in character. Any small change in this heterogeneity changes the space. This is because every small thing in this space interacts with one another. This interaction produces us a memory as we ourselves are a part of that interaction as well. Memory is a very circumstantial occurrence. There is a particular setting belonging to particular occurrence which reminisces the particular memory. This is because we re-live that setting repeatedly finding relevance. Maybe this is why we stop-by across a house while strolling down a lane where we once lived and ponder upon losing the sense of both- time and place. However, we are not alone in this interaction. We are just a determinant of a larger conversation that is phenomenally occurring beyond our interaction, out of our control. This is what brings in the difference of nature. Aware of the constant presence and observance of the other determinants, we consciously interact with things. This is a peculiarity in which we survey each other. It is this peculiarity in us that makes the memory or the other determinant encrypted who is also possibly finding relevance in our shared space of heterogeneity. It is the interpretation of the self-survey where a particular aspect of memory is interpreted which may correspond to another’s interaction. Hence, we make friends, bonds or collectives. However, the rise of collective or the formation of group is a very circumstantial occurrence of everyday life. As we become the interpreters of our daily experience, our motives might turn into subsidiaries or eventually streamline into oblivion. The case may be otherwise as well. Whatever it is, any occurrence of such scale could be termed as an event. An event that happens all around. An event that is the very –ness of our memory. Unfolding of such events creates Cities and Urban spaces which exhibit their duality of spatial and trans-spatial by behaving as a discrete system. This system through its lawful internal working produces an output in the form of realized spatial order with its social logic and a social order with spatial logic. This thesis makes an effort to explore one such event in the case of Babri Mosque and Ramjanmabhumi, Ayodhya to explain the anomaly as transposition of social and spatial.