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").[24] A popular greeting invoking Ram is "Jai Ram ji ki" and "Ram-Ram".[6][24]
"Rama" greetings have been traditionally used by people irrespective of religion.[25]
The worship of Rama increased significantly in the 12th century, following the invasions of Muslim Turks.[22] 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".[26] The concept of Ramrajya, "the rule of Ram", was used by Gandhi to describe the ideal country free from the British.[22][27]
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.[28]In the late 1980's, the slogan "Jai Shri Ram" was popularised by Ramanand Sagar's television series Ramayan, where it was used by Hanuman and the monkey army as a war cry when they fought the demon army of Ravan in order to free Sita.[29]
The nationalistic organisation Vishva Hindu Parishad and its Sangh Parivar allies, including the Bharatiya Janata Party, used it in their Ayodhya Ram Janmabhoomi movement.[29][30] 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.[31] Kar sevaks, led by the Sangh Parivar allies, chanted the slogan when laying a foundation east of the Babri Masjid in August 1992.[32]
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."[22] 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.[33]
The Hindu nationalist portrayal of Ram is warrior-like, as opposed to the traditional "tender, almost effeminate" Ram that has been in popular perception.[34] Sociologist Jan Breman writes:[35]
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.
