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 an informal greeting,[7] as a symbol of adhering to Hindu faith,[8] or for projection of varied faith-centered emotions.[9][10][11]
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.[12][25]
Meaning
Jai Shri Ram means “hail Lord Ram” or “victory to Lord Ram”.[6] Ram (or Rama) is a major deity in Hinduism.[26]
Antecedents
Religious and social
“Jaya Sri Ram”, along with “Jaya Sita Ram”, “Jaya Ram” and “Sita Ram”, were used as mutual salutations by Ramanandi ascetics (called Bairagis).[27][28] “Ram Ram”, “Jai Ram ji ki” and “Jai Siya Ram” have been noted as common salutations in the Hindi heartland. (Sita or Siya is the name of Rama’s consort.)[29][6][30] “Rama” greetings have been traditionally used by people irrespective of religion.[31]
Photojournalist Prashant Panjiar wrote about how in the city Ayodhya female pilgrims always chant “Sita-Ram-Sita-Ram”, while the older male pilgrims prefer not to use Rama’s name at all. The traditional usage of “Jai” in a slogan was with “Siyavar Ramchandraji ki jai” (“Victory to Sita’s husband Rama”).[30]
Rama symbolism
The worship of Rama increased significantly in the 12th century, following the invasions of Muslim Turks.[23] The Ramayana became widely popular in the 16th century. It is argued that the story of Rama offers a “very powerful imaginative formulation of the divine king as the only being capable of combating evil”.[32] The concept of Ramrajya, “the rule of Ram”, was used by Gandhi to describe the ideal country free from the British.[23][33]
The most widely known political use of Ram began with Baba Ram Chandra‘s peasant movement in Awadh in the 1920s. He encouraged the use of “Sita-Ram” as opposed to the then widely used “Salaam” as a greeting, since the latter implied social inferiority. “Sita-Ram” soon became a rallying cry.[34]
Journalist Mrinal Pande states:[23]
The slogans raised… were never about Ram as an individual, let alone a warrior. They were about the duo: Bol Siyavar or Siyapat Ramchandra ki jai [victory to Ram, Sita’s husband].
1980s and forward
In the late 1980s, the slogan “Jai Shri Ram” was popularised by Ramanand Sagar‘s television series Ramayan, where it was used by Hanuman and the Vaanar Sena (monkey army) as a war cry when they fought the demon army of Ravan in order to free Sita.[35]
The nationalistic organisation Vishva Hindu Parishad and its Sangh Parivar allies, including the Bharatiya Janata Party, used it in their Ayodhya Ram Janmabhoomi movement.[35][36] Volunteers at Ayodhya at the time would write the slogan on their skin, using their own blood as ink to signify their devotion. The organizations also distributed a cassette named as Jai Shri Ram, containing songs like “Ram ji ki sena chali” (transl. the army of Rama is on the move) and “Aya samay jawano jago” (transl. the time has come for the martial youth to arise). All the songs in the cassette were set to the tunes of popular Bollywood songs.[37] Kar sevaks, led by the Sangh Parivar allies, chanted the slogan of “Jai Shri Ram” when laying a foundation east of the Babri Masjid in August 1992.[38] Members of Vishva Hindu Parishad also chanted the slogan of “Jai Siya Ram” in corridors of the Supreme Court in 1992.[39]
A 1995 essay published in Manushi, a journal edited by academic Madhu Kishwar, described how the Sangh Parivar’s usage of “Jai Shri Ram”, as opposed to “Sita-Ram”, lies in the fact that their violent ideas had “no use for a non-macho Ram.”[23] This also mobilised more people politically, since it was patriarchal. Further, the movement was exclusively associated with Ram’s birth, which had occurred many years before his marriage to Sita.[40]
Sociologist Jan Breman writes:[41]
It is a “Blut und Boden” (blood and soil) movement which aims to purify Bharat (the Motherland) from foreign elements…. The damage that the nation sustained is, to a significant extent, the consequence of the gentleness and indulgence that the people showed in the face of the repressive foreigners. The softness and femininity that came to be dominant in Hinduism, a change that was wrought by the cunning machinations of the enemy, now must make place for the original, masculine, powerful Hindu ethos. This explains the warlike, extremely aggressive character of the appeal for a national revival launched by the advocates of Hindutva. An interesting aside here is that the greeting “Jai Siya Ram” has been transformed into the battle cry “Jai Shri Ram” (“Long live Lord Ram”). The Hindu supreme god has assumed the form of a macho general. In the original meaning, “Siya Ram” had been a popular greeting of welcome in the countryside since time immemorial… The Hindu fanatics have now also banished her from the popular greeting by changing Siya to “Shri” (Lord), thereby suppressing the feminine element in favour of masculine virility and assertiveness.
— Jan Breman, “Ghettoization and Communal Politics: The Dynamics of Inclusion and Exclusion in the Hindutva Landscape”, Institutions and Inequalities: Essays in Honour of Andre Beteille
In December 2022, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi while giving a speech in Madhya Pradesh attacked BJP and RSS by raising the question “Why they always chants “Jai Shri Ram” and not “Jai Siya Ram”.[42][43] Reacting to his question, a minister in Madhya Pradesh and a senior BJP leader Narottam Mishra replied “I think Rahul Gandhi’s knowledge is only limited to children’s rhyme ‘Baa Baa Black Sheep’, the name of Ram is prefixed with ‘Shri’ which is also used for Lord Vishnu’s wife Lakshmi and Sita Ji”.[43] The BJP’s Amit Malviya also reacted to Rahul Gandhi’s attack by posting a video in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi started his Ram Mandir ceremony speech with “Jai Siya Ram”.[42][44]