Powerful piece by @PragyaTiwari, who comes from Ayodhya UP, on how the 'Rashtra mandir' came about - "the people need bread but they also need roses."
THREAD https://www.thequint.com/voices/opinion/ayodhya-ram-mandir-bhumi-pujan-5-august-home-town

2. "The articulation of the ideas for a new India appealed to the baser instincts that man has been vulnerable to since times immemorial—pride in the idea of a superior and aggressive civilisation, wrath against the common enemy..."

3. "... the common emeny (presented variously and often interchangeably as Muslims, neighbouring states, and the ideological left)..."

4 "...envy of the real privileges of the urban elite and the imagined appeasement of minorities, lust for blood, greed for a greater share of the economic pie, a gluttonous appetite for outrage, and slothful groupthink."

5. "The polarization ... was cemented irrevocably by the meteoric rise of social media. Seeded ideas of identity morphed into the fanatic fervor of captive minds and thus began the process of normalizing distrust, hatred, and violence against minorities and dissenters."

6. "Ayodhya – a real place with real people. It also happens to be my ancestral home town – an impressionistic medley of dialect, food, songs, folklores, traditions, difficulties, eccentricities, peculiarities, humour and micro-histories that run in my bloodstream."

7/7 "The town I love and belong to does not resemble the gaudy images on television screens. It is a quiet and dignified town,bathed in a serenity that belies its modern history. When the mosque was demolished, Ayodhya also lost precious small temples in its vicinity."
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