ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a carefully researched analysis of the role of Ramkatha in harnessing the power of a sacred narrative and voicing debates that imbricate the figure of Ram with nationalist visions and Hindutva ideologies. The discourse of Ramkatha combined with the voice of Morari Bapu positions a range of localized narratives and themes by means of circulation of language, images, sounds and other goods, replete with affective and perceptual messages that are subsumed under a set of Hindu symbols. These identify and recast the glories of a mythical/historical kingdom while drawing on metaphors and idioms from religious stories and bring them into everyday conversations. Narratives and politics associated with Ram rajya, akhand Bharat, tirth-yatra, gau-raksha and havan overlap with and reinforce Hindu nationalism. My work demonstrates not only how the Ramkatha deploys new forms of community and political agency but also how it routinizes religious devotion and nationalist emotions through quotidian realms. Through a prism of three performative events, I focus on how the Ramkatha interlaces religious and nationalist themes together in an emotionally charged manner that its audiences feel a compelling sense of religious devotion that, additionally, has the nation as their object.
