1. Hindu nationalism and the cultural forms of Indian politics -- 2. Prime time religion -- 3. The communicating thing and its public -- 4. A "split public" in the making and unmaking of the Ram Janmabhumi movement -- 5. Organization, performance, and symbol -- 6. Hindutva goes global -- Conclusion: How has television changed the context of politics in India? -- App. Background to the Babri Masjid dispute.

In January 1987, the Indian state-run television began broadcasting a Hindu epic in serial form, the Ramayan, to nationwide audiences, violating a decades-old taboo on religious partisanship. What resulted was the largest political campaign in post-independence times, around the symbol of Lord Ram, led by Hindu nationalists. The complexion of Indian politics was irrevocably changed thereafter. In this book, Arvind Rajagopal analyses this extraordinary series of events. While audiences may have thought they were harking back to an epic golden age, Hindu nationalist leaders were embracing the prospects of neo-liberalism and globalization. Television was the device that hinged these movements together, symbolizing the new possibilities of politics, at once more inclusive and authoritarian. Simultaneously, this study examines how the larger historical context was woven into and changed the character of Hindu nationalism.