Mahant Nritya Gopal Das is the president of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teertha Kshetra Trust and the Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas, which were established to oversee the construction of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. He is also the pithadhishwa (head) of Sri Maniram Das Ki Chavani, Ayodhya’s largest temple. He was a key figure in the Ram Temple construction movement and is one of the defendants in the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition case.
PERSONAL INFORMATION
Nritya Gopal Das was born on Saturday, June 11, 1938, in the village of Kerhala/Kahola in Mathura, Western Uttar Pradesh. He came from a Brahmin family.
Ganga Ram (father) and Ram Devi (mother) gave birth to him (mother).
EDUCATION
Nritya enrolled in Lala Ram College in Mathura to study commerce in 1953. However, dissatisfied with the traditional education provided in college, he dropped out and moved to Ayodhya. In Ayodhya, he became a disciple of Mahant Ram Manohar Das, who initiated him into the Diksha Sanskar’ (the guru giving his disciple a mantra or an initiation) and encouraged him to learn Sanskrit. As a result, he earned a B.A. (Shastri) from Sampurnanand Sanskrit University in Varanasi. In 1965, at the age of 27, he was appointed as a mahant (a religious superior) in a grand ceremony in Ayodhya.
PHYSICAL APPEARANCE
Height (approx.): 5′ 7″
Hair Colour: White
Eye Colour: Black
CONTROVERSIES
Nritya was one of the defendants in the Babri Masjid demolition case in 1992. A Special CBI court in Lucknow acquitted him and 31 other defendants in the Babri Masjid demolition case on September 30, 2020, including BJP veterans LK Advani and MM Joshi. The judge stated during the verdict in the case that there is no conclusive evidence that they were involved in the conspiracy. Furthermore, the court stated that the demolition of the Babri Masjid structure was not planned in advance.
In his book “Hindu Nationalism in India and the Politics of Fear,” Dibyesh Anand, a British-Indian professor, recounted his personal interview with Mahant Das in 2005, where he explained a derogatory statement made by Mahant Das. An excerpt from the book follows:
An interesting incident occurred during my personal session with the Ram Janmabhumi Temple movement’s leader, Nritya Gopal Das (Personal Interview 2005e). My given name and surname do not reveal the caste into which I was born. Assuming I was a Non Resident Hindu Indian (a category that is frequently seen as a constituency for Hindu nationalism), Das began with a rehearsed story about how Hindus and Muslims are brothers and that if Muslims give up certain mosques, India will be at peace. I emphasised that I was from a Brahmin family on the advice of a friendly sadhu, and Nritya Gopal Das’ tone changed. He became more friendly and open, lamenting that it is not only Muslims who are to blame, but also “neechi jaati ke log” (lower caste people). “More than a half-dozen senior sadhus who work directly with the Vishwa Hindu paridhad opened up many avenues of discussion with the mere mention of “Brahmin” identity.”
