What was that TV show that changed Hinduism

During 1987 and 1988, Indian state TV broadcast a series that adapted the epic Hindu poem the Ramayana for a modern audience. Some believe this set the path for a national Hindu consciousness, writes Rahul Verma.

Over the course of 18 months in 1987 and 1988, Sagar’s telling of the epic through 78 weekly 45-minute episodes – broadcast on Sunday mornings on India’s only TV channel, Doordarshan – became the most successful TV show in Indian history, with popular episodes watched by a staggering 80 million to 100 million people, an eighth of the population.

Trains would stop at stations, buses would stop and passengers would disembark to find a roadside place with a TV – Arvind Rajagopal

The Ramayana’s special place in India’s cultural memory explains why the TV series became a phenomenon, but no one could have predicted that the Ramayan would become a participatory, weekly act of devotion. As Arvind Rajagopal, professor of media studies at NYU and author of the book Politics After Television, explains, in cities across northern India public life ground to a halt.

“Trains would stop at stations, buses would stop, and passengers would disembark to find a roadside place with a TV – the crowds were so big, people would be unable to see or hear the TV but the point was about being present, being there.”

The show changed Govil’s life. “Wherever I went people wanted to touch my feet and touch me, there was so much adulation and admiration, people would start crying out of happiness. I have a newspaper clipping of when I visited Varanasi in my costume: the headline says ‘One Million People Gather to Look At Lord Ram’,” he recalls.

‘Ramayan Fever’ gripped the nation. On Sunday, August 7, 1988, one week after the series finished, journalist Shailaja Bajpai wrote in the Indian Express (p16): “Never before, and maybe never again, will there be another quite like it. From Kanyakumari to Kashmir, from Gujarat to Gorakhpur, millions have stood, sat and kneeled to watch it.

Millions more have fought, shoved and keeled over, watching it.”

The broadcast of the Ramayana was the first major rupture of the secular consensus, it catered to the devout and ritualistic – Rajagopal

The TV show is credited as the catalyst in sparking a Hindu awakening across India, and bringing Hindu nationalism to the forefront of public and political spheres. Until the Ramayan was broadcast, religious TV programming was limited because India is a secular state, with all religions treated equally, as Rajagopal explains.

“The broadcast of the Ramayana was the first major rupture of the secular consensus, it catered to the devout and ritualistic. The popular response was devotional, but the activity of political parties was necessary to translate that into something political.”

In a 2000 interview with India’s Frontline magazine, Rajagopal said that when the Indian government began broadcasting the Ramayan to nationwide audiences, “This violated a decades-old taboo on religious partisanship, and Hindu nationalists made the most of the opportunity.

What resulted was perhaps the largest campaign in post-Independence times, irrevocably changing the complexion of Indian politics. The telecast of a religious epic to popular acclaim created the sense of a nation coming together, seeming to confirm the idea of Hindu awakening.”

While it was the Congress government of the time that sought to capture Hindu votes by broadcasting the Ramayan on state TV channel Doordarshan, it is the Hindu nationalist party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), that has reaped the benefits.

The BJP, currently led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, convincingly won general elections in India in 2014 and 2019, and led coalition governments from 1998 to 2004.

Holy land

During and after the Ramayan’s broadcast, the Sangh Parivar (family of Hindu nationalist organisations), spotted the chance to capitalise on a Hindu awakening and construct a national Hindu consciousness, as well as unifying diverse Hindu groups and establishing the idea of a golden era of Hindu rule – ‘Ram Rajya’ or Kingdom of Ram.

During the series’ transmission there was a controversy over a mosque, the Babri Masjid, in the city of Ayodhya – with Hindu nationalists claiming it was built on the site of Lord Ram’s birthplace.