imported>SquirrelCrown: Restored revision 1019172453 by GreenC bot (talk)

2021-08-29T07:45:51Z

Restored revision 1019172453 by GreenC bot (talk)

New page

{{EngvarB|date=January 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2014}}
[[File:Sadhvi Rithambara tying ‘Rakhi’ to the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, on the occasion of ‘Raksha Bandhan’, in New Delhi on August 10, 2014.jpg|thumb|right|Sadhvi Rithambara and prime minister Narendra Modi on the occasion of [[Raksha Bandhan]]]]
'''Sadhvi Nisha Rithambara''' is a Hindu nationalist ideologue<ref name=":4">{{Cite book|url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9780203379585|title=Appropriating Gender : Women's Activism and Politicized Religion in South Asia|last=Basu|first=Amrita|publisher=Routledge|year=1998|isbn=9780203379585|editor-last=Jeffery|editor-first=Patricia|location=New York|pages=15–26|chapter=Appropriating Gender|editor-last2=Basu|editor-first2=Amrita|chapter-url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9780203379585/chapters/10.4324/9780203379585-5|doi=10.4324/9780203379585-5}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.fulcrum.org/concern/monographs/xk81jk680|title=Hindu wife, Hindu nation: community, religion, and cultural nationalism|last=Sarkar|first=Tanika|publisher=Indiana University Press|year=2001|chapter=Aspects of Contemporary Hindutva Theology: The Voice of Sadhvi Rithambhara|chapter-url=https://www.fulcrum.org/epubs/n870zr08h}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Sangari|first=Kumkum|date=1993|title=Consent, Agency and Rhetorics of Incitement|journal=Economic and Political Weekly|volume=28|issue=18|pages=877|issn=0012-9976|jstor=4399675}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Sugirtharajah|first=Sharada|date=2002|title=Hinduism and Feminism: Some Concerns|journal=Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion|volume=18|issue=2|pages=104|issn=8755-4178|jstor=25002442}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=JAFFRELOT|first=CHRISTOPHE|date=2010|title=Abhinav Bharat, the Malegaon Blast and Hindu Nationalism: Resisting and Emulating Islamist Terrorism|journal=Economic and Political Weekly|volume=45|issue=36|pages=51–58|issn=0012-9976|jstor=25742046}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781315588292/|title=Indian Feminisms : Law, Patriarchies and Violence in India|last=Gangoli|first=Geetanjali|publisher=Routledge|year=2007|isbn=9781315588292|chapter=Conclusions|doi=10.4324/9781315588292|chapter-url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781315588292/chapters/10.4324/9781315588292-11}}</ref> and the founder-chairperson of [[Durga Vahini]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Kapur|first=Ratna|date=1996|title=Who Draws the Line? Feminist Reflections on Speech and Censorship|journal=Economic and Political Weekly|volume=31|issue=16/17|pages=WS19|issn=0012-9976|jstor=4404055}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Cossman|first1=Brenda|last2=Kapur|first2=Ratna|date=1996|title=Secularism: Bench-Marked by Hindu Right|journal=Economic and Political Weekly|volume=31|issue=38|pages=2627|issn=0012-9976|jstor=4404599}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Navlakha|first=Gautam|date=1995|title=Politics of Silhouetted Anger|journal=Economic and Political Weekly|volume=30|issue=7/8|pages=367|issn=0012-9976|jstor=4402404}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.rediff.com/news/2001/oct/19ayo2.htm|title=Babri mosque was a 450-year-old stigma: Giriraj Kishore |date=19 October 2001|work=[[Rediff.com]]|access-date=14 August 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.hindu.com/2007/01/08/stories/2007010805840300.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070121035406/http://www.hindu.com/2007/01/08/stories/2007010805840300.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=21 January 2007|title=Unite under RSS|date=8 January 2007|work=[[The Hindu]]|access-date=14 August 2009}}</ref>

==Early life==
Sadhvi Rithambhara was born as Nisha Ritambara in a lower class, lower caste home at [[Doraha, Ludhiana|Doraha]] town in [[Ludhiana]] district of [[Punjab, India|Punjab]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/for-me-hinduism-connotes-nationalism-sadhvi-ritambhara/1/288875.html|title=Portrait of defiance|date=31 May 1995|publisher=[[India Today]]|access-date=20 March 2014 | first=N.K. | last=Singh}}</ref><ref name="B&P259">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ag7qRiZqYZoC|title=Right-wing women: from conservatives to extremists around the world|last=Ghosh|first=Bishnupriya|publisher=Routledge|year=2002|isbn=0-415-92778-1|editor-last=Bacchetta|editor-first=Paola|location=New York|chapter=Queering Hindutva : Unruly Bodies and Pleasures in Sadhavi Rithambara's Performances|doi=10.4324/9780203479711|editor-last2=Power|editor-first2=Margaret|chapter-url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9780203479711/chapters/10.4324/9780203479711-27}}</ref>

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.<ref name = B&P259/><ref name=":0">{{Citation|last=Jaffrelot|first=Christophe|chapter=The Vishva Hindu Parishad: Structures and Strategies|date=1999|pages=191–212|editor-last=Haynes|editor-first=Jeff|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK|language=en|doi=10.1007/978-1-349-27038-5_9|isbn=9781349270385|title=Religion, Globalization and Political Culture in the Third World}}</ref>

She entered the [[Sangh Parivar]] as a member of the [[Rashtriya Sevika Samiti]], the women's arm of the [[Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh]] (RSS).<ref name="B&P259" />

==Activism==
Rithambara gained public prominence through her roles in the [[Vishwa Hindu Parishad]] (VHP).<ref name="B&P259" /> In order to justify the involvement of ascetics (incl. herself) in mainstream politics, she went for a reconstruction of Hinduism through selective reading of Bhagvad Gita.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|url=https://www.questia.com/library/120087534/everyday-nationalism-women-of-the-hindu-right-in|title=Everyday Nationalism: Women of the Hindu Right in India|last=Menon|first=Kalyani Devaki|date=2010|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|isbn=9780812222340|chapter=Violent Dharma|jstor=j.ctt3fj1wh|chapter-url=https://www.degruyter.com/view/books/9780812202793/9780812202793.80/9780812202793.80.xml}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Make me a man! : masculinity, Hinduism, and nationalism in India|last=Banerjee|first=Sikata|publisher=State University of New York Press|year=2005|isbn=1423743857|location=Albany, NY|chapter=In the Crucible of Hindutva: Women and Masculine Hinduism|oclc=62750461}}</ref>

=== Hate speeches ===
During 1989–1992, Rithambara disseminated several public-speeches that urged for waging a war against Muslims;{{efn|One of her speech had called for the blood of all foreigners (read:Muslims) who did not pay tribute to their ancestors (read:Hindus).<ref>{{Cite book|chapter-url=https://www.questia.com/library/117286642/a-place-at-the-multicultural-table-the-development|jstor=j.ctt5hj9tk|title=A Place at the Multicultural Table: The Development of an American Hinduism|chapter= Forging an Official Hinduism in India : Hindu Umbrella Organizations|last=Kurien|first=Prema A.|date=2007|publisher=Rutgers University Press|isbn=9780813540559}}</ref>}} cassettes of those vitriolic outbursts were played at numerous temples and public places in India. Filled with rage and shrillness, the speeches heavily borrowed from gendered imagery; portraying the Hindu nation as a female body undergoing desecration by non-Hindus (and thus losing her morality), she drew parallels with rapes of Hindu women during partition<ref>{{Citation|last1=Basu|first1=Subho|title=Knowledge for Politics: Partisan Histories and Communal Mobilization in India and Pakistan|date=2005|work=Partisan Histories: The Past in Contemporary Global Politics|pages=111–126|editor-last=Friedman|editor-first=Max Paul|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan US|language=en|doi=10.1007/978-1-137-09150-5_7|isbn=9781137091505|last2=Das|first2=Suranjan|editor2-last=Kenney|editor2-first=Padraic}}</ref> and appealed to Hindu masculinity for reclaiming their lands, attracting large numbers of men, in the process.<ref name="B&P259" /><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Pant|first=Niraj|date=1 May 1997|title=Facilitating Genocide : Women as Fascist Educators in the Hindutva Movement|url=http://www.proxsa.org/resources/ghadar/v1n1/niraj.html|journal=Ghadar|volume=1|issue=1|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151025140744/http://www.proxsa.org/resources/ghadar/v1n1/niraj.html|archive-date=25 October 2015}}</ref><ref name=":4" /><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Niranjana|first=Seemanthini|date=1999-03-01|title=Off the Body: Further Considerations on Women, Sexuality and Agency|journal=Bulletin (Centre for Women's Development Studies)|language=en|volume=6|issue=1|pages=1–19|doi=10.1177/097152159900600101|s2cid=144543435|issn=0970-5899}}</ref>

Vividly organic and sexual imagery were used as well, from equating the Muslims with lemon in milk to comparing them with flies, who were allegedly mass-breeding to out-populate the Hindus.<ref name="B&P259" /><ref name=":3" /> With highly selective and vague historical sketches and blended in with ample mythology, they subsumed various classes and castes under a common banner of Hindu nationalism; some scholars have identified this agglomeration as the most valuable objective, fulfilled by Rithambara and associate women.<ref name="B&P259" />

Rithambara has been widely noted to be the single most powerful voice behind the whipping up of anti-Muslim sentiments across the nation, in the run-ups to the demolition of Babri Masjid; there was an overwhelming sense of passion, urgency and spontaneity, oft-accompanied by dramatic physical posturing, which instilled a non-rational collective feeling, among the audience.<ref name=":3" /><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Sarkar|first=Tanika|date=1993-12-01|title=The Women of the Hindutva brigade|journal=Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars|volume=25|issue=4|pages=16–24|doi=10.1080/14672715.1993.10416135|issn=0007-4810|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hfWQAiM5a7oC|title=The Violence of Development: The Political Economy of Gender|last=Butalia|first=Urvashi|date=2002|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=9781842772072|editor-last=Kapadia|editor-first=Karin|pages=228|language=en|chapter=Confrontation and Negotiation}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Loomba|first=Ania|date=1993|title=Dead Women Tell No Tales: Issues of Female Subjectivity, Subaltern Agency and Tradition in Colonial and Post-Colonial Writings on Widow Immolation in India|journal=History Workshop|issue=36|pages=223|issn=0309-2984|jstor=4289259}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Bharucha|first=Rustom|date=1995|title=Dismantling Men: Crisis of Male Identity in 'Father, Son and Holy War'|journal=Economic and Political Weekly|volume=30|issue=26|pages=1611|issn=0012-9976|jstor=4402945}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Chakravarti|first1=Uma|last2=Chowdhury|first2=Prem|last3=Dutta|first3=Pradip|last4=Hasan|first4=Zoya|last5=Sangari|first5=Kumkum|last6=Sarkar|first6=Tanika|date=1992|title=Khurja Riots 1990-91: Understanding the Conjuncture|journal=Economic and Political Weekly|volume=27|issue=18|pages=951|issn=0012-9976|jstor=4397832}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uywnx2IHH8cC|title=The Hindu Nationalist Movement and Indian Politics: 1925 to the 1990s : Strategies of Identity-building, Implantation and Mobilisation (with Special Reference to Central India)|last=Jaffrelot|first=Christophe|date=1996|publisher=Hurst|isbn=9781850653011|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=A Concise History of Modern India|last1=Metcalf|first1=Barbara D.|last2=Metcalf|first2=Thomas R.|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2012|isbn=9781139207805|chapter=Democratic India at the Turn of the Millennium: Prosperity, Poverty, Power|doi=10.1017/CBO9781139207805|chapter-url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/concise-history-of-modern-india/democratic-india-at-the-turn-of-the-millennium-prosperity-poverty-power/199E60170F792CB01F7C6B73FCAA9961}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Mazumdar|first=Sucheta|date=1995-03-01|title=Women on the March: Right-Wing Mobilization in Contemporary India|journal=Feminist Review|language=en|volume=49|issue=1|pages=1–28|doi=10.1057/fr.1995.1|s2cid=143731934|issn=1466-4380|url=https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/678f06a34ea152fb9298735ef5dddc0ae93607bb}}</ref> 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.<ref name="2009-08-18">{{cite book|title=Femmes et politique en Inde et au Népal|last=Lama-Rewal|first=Stéphanie T.|date=September 2004|publisher=Karthala Editions|isbn=2-84586-556-2|location=Paris|language=fr}}</ref>

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

==== Election campaigns ====
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.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal|last=Dyke|first=Virginia Van|date=1997|title=General Elections, 1996: Political Sadhus and Limits to Religious Mobilisation in North India|journal=Economic and Political Weekly|volume=32|issue=49|pages=3150, 3151|issn=0012-9976|jstor=4406155}}</ref>

=== Demolition of Babri Majid ===
Rithambara was present during the demolition, cheering the crowd<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Tharu|first1=Susie|last2=Niranjana|first2=Tejaswini|date=1994|title=Problems for a Contemporary Theory of Gender|journal=Social Scientist|volume=22|issue=3/4|pages=105|doi=10.2307/3517624|issn=0970-0293|jstor=3517624}}</ref> whilst standing atop the terrace of the Masjid.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Bhattacharya|first=Malini|date=1994|title=Women in Dark Times: Gender, Culture and Politics|journal=Social Scientist|volume=22|issue=3/4|pages=6|doi=10.2307/3517620|issn=0970-0293|jstor=3517620}}</ref>{{efn|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].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.rediff.com/us/2002/jul/27us.htm|title=Protestors confront Sadhvi Rithambara in New York|website=www.rediff.com|access-date=2019-11-17}}</ref>}} Three days after the demolition, she was arrested on grounds of inciting communal tension.<ref name=":1" />

==== Legal Trials ====
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.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2009-11-24/news/27649631_1_bjp-leaders-justice-m-s-liberhan-liberhan-commission|title=Vajpayee, Thackeray, Advani in Liberhan's culpability list|date=24 November 2009|publisher=Economic Times|access-date=20 March 2014}}</ref>

A CBI court framed criminal charges against Rithambara in May, 2017.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.livemint.com/Politics/WlOdZyE2ZWbV0sNoPwFybJ/Babri-Masjid-case-Advani-Murli-Manohar-Joshi-Uma-Bharti-a.html|title=Babri Masjid case: Advani, Bharti, Joshi charged with criminal conspiracy|last=Mittal|first=Priyanka|date=2017-05-30|website=Livemint.com|language=en|access-date=2019-11-17}}</ref>

On 30 September 2020, she along with other 32 accused people, were acquitted in the [[Demolition of the Babri Masjid|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.<ref name="B&P259" />

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.<ref name=":0" /> 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 [[hectare]]s of land in the area, valued at [[Indian rupee|Rupee]] 200 million, to her ''Paramshaktipeth'' trust for 99 years for an annual fee of one rupee for this philanthropic cause.<ref>{{cite news|title=No charges: Sadhvi Rithambara given prime land|date=15 July 2000|publisher=[[The Statesman (India)|The Statesman]]}}</ref><ref name="Statesmen_2000b">{{cite news|title=Opp spanner in Rithambara's ashram works|date=19 July 2000|publisher=[[The Statesman (India)|The Statesman]]}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite news|title=Sadhvi Rithambara Ashram trains women in martial arts!|date=16 July 2007|publisher=[[Hindustan Times]]}}</ref> She also runs ashrams for unwanted infants, ladies and widows in Indore, [[Delhi]] and [[Himachal Pradesh]].<ref name="Statesmen_2000b" />

In April 1995, 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 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 and alleged about a Hindu-phobic attitude of Congress (I); this helped in mobilizing public electoral sentiments, especially that VHP was banned in Gujarat.<ref name=":1" /> She was arrested, soon after.<ref name=":2" />

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rithambara, Sadhvi}}
[[Category:Hindu activists]]
[[Category:20th-century Hindu religious leaders]]
[[Category:Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh members]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Hindu nuns]]
[[Category:Vishva Hindu Parishad members]]
[[Category:Durga Vahini members]]
[[Category:People from Ludhiana]]
[[Category:Far-right politicians in India]]
[[Category:Year of birth missing (living people)]]

Sadhvi Rithambara - Revision history

imported>SquirrelCrown: Restored revision 1019172453 by GreenC bot (talk)