Jai Shri Ram[a] (IAST: Jaya Śrī Rāma) is an expression in Indic languages, translating as "Glory to Lord Rama" or "Victory to Lord Rama".[6] The proclamation has been used by Hindus as a symbol of adhering to Hindu faith,[7] or for projection of varied faith-centered emotions.[8][9][10]
The expression was used by the Indian Hindu nationalist organisations Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and their allies, which embraced the slogan in the late 20th century as a tool for increasing the visibility of Hinduism in public spaces, before going on to use it as a battle cry. The slogan has since been employed in connection with the perpetration of communal violence against people of other faiths.[11][24]
Kalam Husain, an eyewitness told us that a mob consisting of brahmins, bhumihars, rajputs, kurmis and chamars (SC) looted and burnt all the houses of 150 Muslims belonging to 36 families living in Ashogi. They were shouting slogan 'Jai Sri Ram'.
In the days that followed, wave upon wave of violence swept through the state. The attackers were Hindus, many of them highly politicized, shouting Hindu-right slogans, such as 'Jai Sri Ram' (a religious invocation wrenched from its original devotional and peaceful meaning) and 'Jai Sri Hanuman' (a monkey god portrayed by the right as aggressive), along with 'Kill, Destroy!', 'Slaughter!'
The vigilantes had seized more than Rs30,000 worth of beef and contaminated it with phenyl. They also beat up the driver, threw him face down into the Musi river, and forced him to chant 'Jai Sri Ram! (Victory to [the Hindu deity] Ram!)' before finally letting him go.
BBC chant
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).Tully 2017
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).Similar songs that called for Hindus to kill those who do not chant "Jai Shri Ram!" or "Hail Lord Ram," a slogan that has become a battle cry for Hindu nationalists...
They chanted Hindu nationalist songs and slogans throughout the entire voyage, all the while harassing Muslim passengers. One family was even made to get off the train for refusing to utter the kar sevaks' war cry: "Jai Shri Ram!" (Glory to Lord Ram!). More abuse occurred at the stop in Godhra: a Muslim shopkeeper was also ordered to shout "Jai Shri Ram!" He refused, and was assaulted until the kar sevaks turned on a Muslim woman with her two daughters.
Through a hole in the wall he had seen how adults and children were beaten and kicked to death. The hunters forced their catch to shout 'Jai Shri Ram'. "I can't hear you. Louder, say it louder...". "Oh, merciful Allah, Jai Shri Ram". And then came the last kick, final cut or was the body, soaked with petrol, set alight.
The taunts about circumcision, the desecration of Qurans and mosques, the demolition of dargahs, the forced shouting of 'Jai Shri Ram' before being cut into pieces.
Sarkar 1999
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).The Bajrang Dal thugs often openly declare that anyone who criticises the destruction of the Babri Masjid will have to go to Pakistan, while in the selectively curfew-bound Muslim pockets of Seelampur in east Delhi, the police had rounded up all Muslim men in some areas, beaten them up unless they agreed to say Jai Shri Ram, and even pulled out the beard of a Muslim gentleman.
In the anti-Muslim riots in Surat and Bombay after December 6, 1992, the victims were forced to utter Jai Shri Ram ("Hail to Lord Rama") before they were killed or raped (Engineer 1993, 263; S. Chandra 1993a, 1883).
In light of Gandhi's significance, many were surprised and bewildered when, on December 6, 1992, thousands of Hindu volunteers broke through police cordons and demolished the Babri mosque in the holy city of Ayodhya in North India. Many were armed with tridents, the traditional iconographic weapon of Shiva and were led by Hindu holy men chanting "Jai Shri Ram" (Victory to Ram).
Women were raped and then burned alive; men were made to shout "Jai Shri Ram" and then cut to pieces; children were not spared. According to records later submitted in court, Jafri was stripped and paraded naked before the attackers cut off his fingers and legs and dragged his body into a burning pyre.
If mobs successfully entered Muslim compounds, they killed the men, raped the women before killing them and burned the residences to the ground. Surviving eyewitnesses have reported widely that Muslim victims were made to speak Jai Shri Ram ("Hail Lord Ram") and Vande Mataram ("Hail to the Mother") before being killed.
Unlike his first innings, when the cow was used as a political animal to lynch unarmed Muslim and Dalit men, this time Muslim, Dalit and even Christian men have been assaulted and forced to chant "Jai Shri Ram". From Jharkhand to Assam, from Mumbai to Delhi, neither small-town India nor the big metropolises are safe from these lynch mobs.
Scroll800Yrs19
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