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During the making of Ram Ke Naam, we had followed L K Advani’s air-conditioned Toyota truck, dressed up by a Bollywood set designer to resemble Lord Ram’s war chariot. The rath yatra traversed the Indian countryside, whipping up Hindu frenzy to build a Ram temple on the exact location of the Babri mosque in Ayodhya. In the wake of their anti-Muslim slogans, clashes erupted all along the route and many were killed. Finally, Advani was arrested in Bihar and the rath yatra halted, but kar sevaks continued on to Ayodhya for their day of action on October 30, 1990.
The entrance of the Babri Masjid bore an inscription that it was built by Mir Baqi, commander of the Mughal emperor Babur in 1528. Up to this point in time, the Valmiki Ramayana was known only to scholars and priests who knew Sanskrit and Lord Ram was not a popular deity. Later, in the 16th century, Tulsidas composed his Ramcharitmanas in the Awadhi dialect of Hindi, making his Ramayana accessible to ordinary people for the very first time. For his efforts, Tulsidas, a poor Brahmin orphan, was attacked by the Brahmin orthodoxy and is said to have taken refuge in mosques to write his epic. During the reign of Emperor Akbar, as Tulsidas’s Ramcharitmanas became popular through recitals and folk performances known as Ram Leelas, Ram temples began to be built.