Sadhvi Rithambara

Sadhvi Nisha Rithambara is a Hindu nationalist ideologue[1][2][3][4][5][6] and the founder-chairperson of Durga Vahini.[7][8][9][10][11]

Sadhvi Rithambara and prime minister Narendra Modi on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan

Early life

Sadhvi Rithambhara was born as Nisha Ritambara in at Doraha town in Ludhiana district of Punjab.[12][13]

She got her diksha from Swami Paramanand, at the age of sixteen and having become his disciple, followed him to his ashram in Haridwar and then, in his tours across India, while being primarily trained in oratory.[13][14]

She entered the Sangh Parivar as a member of the Rashtriya Sevika Samiti, the women's arm of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).[13]

Activism

Sadhvi Rithambara gained public prominence through her roles in the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP).[13] She established several Shelters for women support and empowerment and her first ashram was started in Jwala Nagar, Delhi, 2003. [15] In her ashram, for the safety of women, arrangements have been made for the training of horse riding, gun handling, aerial firing, karate etc. She also runs orphanages and ashrams for widows. Their ashrams are in places like Delhi and Himachal Pradesh[16]

People also address her by calling her Didi and Maa.

Speeches

During 1989–1992, Sadhvi Rithambara disseminated several powerful public speeches urging Hindus not to settle with there faith and interests being compromised and take a stand against it. Many consider them as Hate speeches but the courts haven't been too particular about the allegations. She played a major role in the Movement for A temple at the place of birth of Lord Rama; In the process, addressing several large scale rallies which brought her to the star light of the campaigns involving BJP and other Right-wing institutions and controversies too.

She was one of the three key women leaders of the movement, the other two being Uma Bharati and Vijayaraje Scindia; their leadership was largely responsible for the involvement of women in the movement and the form it took.[17]

Scholars note that she operated far outside the traditional boundaries of feminine domains.

Election campaigns

Sadhvi Rithambara's skills at oratory made her a star-campaigner for Bharatiya Janata Party in both the 1989 and 1991 Lok Sabha elections and several state-legislature elections.[18]

Demolition of Babri Majid

On 6 December 1992, a large group of Vishva Hindu Parishad activists and allied organisations demolished the Babri Masjid mosque in Uttar Pradesh. [19][20]

Sadhvi Rithambara was present during the demolition, cheering the crowd[21] whilst standing atop the terrace of the Masjid.[22][lower-alpha 1] Three days after the demolition, she was arrested on grounds of inciting communal tension.[24]

The Liberhan Commission that probed the Babri Masjid demolition held Sadhvi Ritambhara along with sixty-eight others of being individually culpable for leading the country "to the brink of communal discord" for their role in the demolition of the Babri Masjid on 6 December 1992.[25]

A CBI court framed criminal charges against Sadhvi Rithambara in May, 2017.[26]

On 30 September 2020, she along with other 32 accused people, were acquitted in the Babri Masjid Demolition Case by CBI special court.

Later activities

She retreated from her public role, soon after the demolition and kept a relatively low profile for a few years.[13]

In 1993, Sadhvi Rithambara attempted to establish an ashram near Vrindavan and Mathura on land that the Uttar Pradesh BJP government had granted her for a minimal fee.[14]However, the proposal fell through as the Kalyan Singh-led government was dismissed, and she was not allowed to take possession of the land by the subsequent Mulayam Singh Yadav led state government. In 2002, the state government led by Chief Minister Ram Prakash Gupta granted 17 hectares of land in the area, valued at Rupee 200 million, to her Paramshaktipeth trust for 99 years for an annual fee of one rupee for this philanthropic cause.[27][28] Besides cultivating devotion in women, the Vrindavan Ashram has also imparted training in karate, horse-riding, handling air guns and pistols, with the stated aim of relieving the women from their traditional societal roles and making them confident and self-reliant.[29] She also manages ashrams for unwanted infants, ladies and widows in Indore, Delhi and Himachal Pradesh.[28]

In April 1995, Sadhvi Rithambara was arrested in Indore for inciting communal passions, after she referred to Mother Teresa as a "magician", in the course of a speech denouncing Christian missionaries, who she alleged were converting Hindus. Rithambara's address and similar factors sparked off a riot and led to several arson, leading to the arrest of 169 people. During the 1995 Gujarat elections, she returned to the campaigning fold for BJP. During her addresses, she also alleged about the Hindu-phobic attitude of Congress (I); this helped in mobilizing public electoral sentiments.

Notes
  1. Contemporary news reports noted her exhorting Hindu volunteers through sloganing -- 'Ek dhakka aur do, Babri Masjid tor do [Give one more push, bring down Babri Masjid].[23]

References
  1. Basu, Amrita (1998). "Appropriating Gender". In Jeffery, Patricia; Basu, Amrita (eds.). Appropriating Gender : Women's Activism and Politicized Religion in South Asia. New York: Routledge. pp. 15–26. doi:10.4324/9780203379585-5. ISBN 9780203379585.
  2. Sarkar, Tanika (2001). "Aspects of Contemporary Hindutva Theology: The Voice of Sadhvi Rithambhara". Hindu wife, Hindu nation: community, religion, and cultural nationalism. Indiana University Press.
  3. Sangari, Kumkum (1993). "Consent, Agency and Rhetorics of Incitement". Economic and Political Weekly. 28 (18): 877. ISSN 0012-9976. JSTOR 4399675.
  4. Sugirtharajah, Sharada (2002). "Hinduism and Feminism: Some Concerns". Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion. 18 (2): 104. ISSN 8755-4178. JSTOR 25002442.
  5. JAFFRELOT, CHRISTOPHE (2010). "Abhinav Bharat, the Malegaon Blast and Hindu Nationalism: Resisting and Emulating Islamist Terrorism". Economic and Political Weekly. 45 (36): 51–58. ISSN 0012-9976. JSTOR 25742046.
  6. Gangoli, Geetanjali (2007). "Conclusions". Indian Feminisms : Law, Patriarchies and Violence in India. Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781315588292. ISBN 9781315588292.
  7. Kapur, Ratna (1996). "Who Draws the Line? Feminist Reflections on Speech and Censorship". Economic and Political Weekly. 31 (16/17): WS19. ISSN 0012-9976. JSTOR 4404055.
  8. Cossman, Brenda; Kapur, Ratna (1996). "Secularism: Bench-Marked by Hindu Right". Economic and Political Weekly. 31 (38): 2627. ISSN 0012-9976. JSTOR 4404599.
  9. Navlakha, Gautam (1995). "Politics of Silhouetted Anger". Economic and Political Weekly. 30 (7/8): 367. ISSN 0012-9976. JSTOR 4402404.
  10. "Babri mosque was a 450-year-old stigma: Giriraj Kishore". Rediff.com. 19 October 2001. Retrieved 14 August 2009.
  11. "Unite under RSS". The Hindu. 8 January 2007. Archived from the original on 21 January 2007. Retrieved 14 August 2009.
  12. Singh, N.K. (31 May 1995). "Portrait of defiance". India Today. Retrieved 20 March 2014.
  13. Ghosh, Bishnupriya (2002). "Queering Hindutva : Unruly Bodies and Pleasures in Sadhavi Rithambara's Performances". In Bacchetta, Paola; Power, Margaret (eds.). Right-wing women: from conservatives to extremists around the world. New York: Routledge. doi:10.4324/9780203479711. ISBN 0-415-92778-1.
  14. Jaffrelot, Christophe (1999), "The Vishva Hindu Parishad: Structures and Strategies", in Haynes, Jeff (ed.), Religion, Globalization and Political Culture in the Third World, Palgrave Macmillan UK, pp. 191–212, doi:10.1007/978-1-349-27038-5_9, ISBN 9781349270385
  15. Vatsalya Gram.
  16. Vaatsalya Gram.
  17. Lama-Rewal, Stéphanie T. (September 2004). Femmes et politique en Inde et au Népal (in French). Paris: Karthala Editions. ISBN 2-84586-556-2.
  18. Dyke, Virginia Van (1997). "General Elections, 1996: Political Sadhus and Limits to Religious Mobilisation in North India". Economic and Political Weekly. 32 (49): 3150, 3151. ISSN 0012-9976. JSTOR 4406155.
  19. Khalid, Haroon (14 November 2019). "How the Babri Masjid Demolition Upended Tenuous Inter-Religious Ties in Pakistan". The Wire. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
  20. "As a reaction to Babri Masjid demolition, What had happened in Pakistan and Bangladesh on 6 December, 1992". The Morning Chronicle. 6 December 2018. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
  21. Tharu, Susie; Niranjana, Tejaswini (1994). "Problems for a Contemporary Theory of Gender". Social Scientist. 22 (3/4): 105. doi:10.2307/3517624. ISSN 0970-0293. JSTOR 3517624.
  22. Bhattacharya, Malini (1994). "Women in Dark Times: Gender, Culture and Politics". Social Scientist. 22 (3/4): 6. doi:10.2307/3517620. ISSN 0970-0293. JSTOR 3517620.
  23. "Protestors confront Sadhvi Rithambara in New York". rediff.com. Retrieved 17 November 2019.
  24. Jaffrelot, Christophe (1996). The Hindu Nationalist Movement and Indian Politics: 1925 to the 1990s : Strategies of Identity-building, Implantation and Mobilisation (with Special Reference to Central India). Hurst. ISBN 9781850653011.
  25. "Vajpayee, Thackeray, Advani in Liberhan's culpability list". The Economic Times. 24 November 2009. Retrieved 20 March 2014.
  26. Mittal, Priyanka (30 May 2017). "Babri Masjid case: Advani, Bharti, Joshi charged with criminal conspiracy". Livemint.com. Retrieved 17 November 2019.
  27. "No charges: Sadhvi Rithambara given prime land". India: The Statesman (India)The Statesman. 15 July 2000.
  28. "Opp spanner in Rithambara's ashram works". India: The Statesman (India)The Statesman. 19 July 2000.
  29. "Sadhvi Rithambara Ashram trains women in martial arts!". Hindustan Times. 16 July 2007.
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