Sasanka Perera and Pooja Kalita’s research in Ayodhya focuses on how dynamics of placemaking take place in the context of issues of memory, erasure, local and national politics, bureaucratic measures, and matters of faith. Sabin Ninglekhu takes Ayodhya as a key node through which to investigate the bureaucratic mechanisms that drive urban development projects, particularly the formation of the Ayodhya–Faizabad Development Authority in 1984 and the Ramayana Circuit pilgrimage/heritage project : ‘Tracing Ram’s footsteps’, which was inaugurated in 2014 to connects Janakpur (Nepal) to Ayodhya. By looking at these projects in the context of erasure and bureaucracy, Ninglekhu inquires deeply into the political and discursive origins of placemaking projects that have been gaining rapid ascendency in more recent times, with an emphasis on their (un)intended effects, such as physical demolition of commercial and residential buildings or the conversion of minority local communities into ‘placeless’ non-citizens. Christiane Brosius has worked on the early media representations of the remaking of the Ram temple, the destruction of the Babri Mosque, in propaganda videos of the Hindu Right (Brosius 2004, Empowering Visions. Anthem Press, London). She is returning to more current representations of the ”Mandir-Masjid”-controversy in the context or urban transformation and popular visual culture.

Ayodhya, a city located in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India, is best known today as the ALLEGED birthplace of the god Ram. According to what could largely be linked to Hindu nationalist rhetoric, this “birthplace” was demolished when the Babri Masjid was built in 1528/1529 CE by Mir Baqi, commander of the Mughal emperor Babur. On December 6, 1992, the mosque was destroyed by so-called kar sevaks, who defined themselves as warriors defending the restoration of the alleged Ram temple. In 2024, the Ram Temple, built on the ruins of the mosque, was opened to the public. This is also part of a larger urban transformation of Ayodhya as a pilgrimage city dedicated to Ram. Ayodhya is also one of the seven most important places in the Hindu pilgrim circuit.

Perhaps lesser known is that Ayodhya was also a major Buddhist site as part of the famed Kosala Kingdom in ancient India. Buddhist texts refer to Buddha visiting the city in his lifetime. As a result, it also became a Buddhist pilgrimage site, even though the centrality of that importance has diminished in recent times. But it remains a part of the pilgrim circuit of some Buddhist pilgrimages.