Jai Shri Ram

Not to be confused with Jai Siya Ram.

A statue of Rama in Ayodhya

Jai Shri Ram[a] (IAST: Jaya Śrī Rāma) is an expression in Indic languages, translating to "Glory to Lord Rama" or "Victory to Lord Rama".[6] The proclamation has been used by Hindus as a symbol of adhering to the 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, especially Muslims. [11][24]

  1. ^ a b Engineer, Asghar Ali (14 November 1992). "Sitamarhi on Fire". Economic and Political Weekly. 27 (46): 2462–2464. ISSN 0012-9976. JSTOR 4399118. Archived from the original on 20 April 2021. Retrieved 16 February 2021. 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'.
  2. ^ a b Nussbaum, Martha C. (18 August 2008). "The Clash Within: Democracy and the Hindu Right". Journal of Human Development. 9 (3). Routledge: 357–375. doi:10.1080/14649880802236565. ISSN 1464-9888. S2CID 144724807. Archived from the original on 20 April 2021. Retrieved 16 February 2021. 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!'
  3. ^ a b Staples, James (7 November 2019). "Blurring Bovine Boundaries: Cow Politics and the Everyday in South India". South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies. 42 (6). Routledge: 1125–1140. doi:10.1080/00856401.2019.1669951. ISSN 0085-6401. S2CID 210542995. Archived from the original on 7 December 2021. Retrieved 16 February 2021. 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.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference BBC chant was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Tully 2017 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ "The Hindu chant that became a murder cry". BBC News. 10 July 2019. Archived from the original on 7 August 2019. Retrieved 4 February 2020.
  7. ^ Poonam, Snigdha (13 February 2020). "The 3 Most Polarizing Words in India". Foreign Policy. Archived from the original on 4 August 2020. Retrieved 1 August 2020.
  8. ^ Ramachandran, Tanisha (1 March 2014). "A call to multiple arms! protesting the commoditization of hindu imagery in western society". Material Religion. 10 (1): 54–75. doi:10.2752/175183414X13909887177547. ISSN 1743-2200. S2CID 198533567.
  9. ^ "Modi's party will grow stronger in West Bengal". Emerald Expert Briefings. 20 August 2019. doi:10.1108/OXAN-DB245910. ISSN 2633-304X. S2CID 241847468.
  10. ^ Dasgupta, Amlan (2006). Bakhle, Janaki (ed.). "Rhythm and Rivalry". Economic and Political Weekly. 41 (36): 3861–3863. ISSN 0012-9976. JSTOR 4418675.
  11. ^ "In India, hate-filled songs are a weapon to target Muslims". AP News. 22 April 2022. 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...
  12. ^ Jaffrelot, Christophe (4 January 2003). "Communal Riots in Gujarat: The State at Risk?" (PDF). Heidelberg Papers in South Asian and Comparative Politics (17). Heidelberg University: 3. doi:10.11588/heidok.00004127. ISSN 1617-5069. Archived (PDF) from the original on 4 December 2013. Retrieved 16 February 2021. 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.
  13. ^ Breman, Jan (17 April 1993). "Anti-Muslim Pogrom in Surat". Economic and Political Weekly. 28 (16): 737–741. ISSN 0012-9976. JSTOR 4399608. Archived from the original on 20 April 2021. Retrieved 16 February 2021. 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.
  14. ^ Menon, Nivedita (6–12 July 2002). "Surviving Gujarat 2002". Economic and Political Weekly. 37 (27): 2676–2678. ISSN 0012-9976. JSTOR 4412315. Archived from the original on 20 April 2021. Retrieved 16 February 2021. 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.
  15. ^ Cite error: The named reference Sarkar 1999 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  16. ^ Sarkar, Sumit (30 January 1993). "The Fascism of the Sangh Parivar". Economic and Political Weekly. 28 (5): 163–167. ISSN 0012-9976. JSTOR 4399339. Archived from the original on 7 December 2021. Retrieved 16 February 2021 – via Academia.edu. 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.
  17. ^ Ludden, David (April 1996). Contesting the Nation: Religion, Community, and the Politics of Democracy in India. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 259. ISBN 978-0-8122-1585-4. Archived from the original on 1 August 2020. Retrieved 16 February 2021 – via Google Books. 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).
  18. ^ Rambachan, Anantanand (20 April 2017). "The Coexistence of Violence and Nonviolence in Hinduism". Journal of Ecumenical Studies. 52 (1). University of Pennsylvania Press: 96–104. doi:10.1353/ecu.2017.0001. ISSN 2162-3937. S2CID 151615231. Archived from the original on 4 December 2021. Retrieved 16 February 2021. 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).
  19. ^ Gudipaty, Nagamallika (2017), "Television, Political Imagery, and Elections in India", in Ngwainmbi, Emmanuel K. (ed.), Citizenship, Democracies, and Media Engagement among Emerging Economies and Marginalized Communities, Springer International, pp. 117–145, doi:10.1007/978-3-319-56215-5_6, ISBN 978-3-319-56215-5, archived from the original on 4 October 2022, retrieved 16 February 2021 – via Google Books, 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.
  20. ^ Ghassem-Fachandi, Parvis (1 August 2009). "Bandh in Ahmedabad". Violence: Ethnographic Encounters. Berg. ISBN 978-1-84788-418-3. Archived from the original on 14 November 2020. Retrieved 16 February 2021. 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.
  21. ^ Salam, Ziya Us (16 August 2019). ""Jai Shri Ram": The new battle cry". Frontline. Archived from the original on 23 January 2021. Retrieved 16 February 2021. 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.
  22. ^ Cite error: The named reference Scroll800Yrs19 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  23. ^ "Tensions That Roiled English City Have Roots in India". nytimes com. Archived from the original on 4 October 2022. Retrieved 2 October 2022. "[On 17 September 2022] more than 300 people gathered for an unplanned demonstration [in Leicester, England] ... Some chanted, 'Jai Shri Ram'"
  24. ^ [1][2][3][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23]


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