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Ram, Ram. Which one?
WSN Network
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Having
engulfed the political domain over the decades, lumpenism now
threatens to stop debate and freedom of expression. With active
support from the right wing bodies, there is clamor for uniformity
and multiplicity of thought and dissent is under increasing strain. |
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 In the recent
past, Ram's legend and exploits have been more in the news for
political reasons than religious or historical - be it over Ayodya,
the Ram Setu or the recent controversy surrounding an essay by
eminent scholar AK Ramanujan. It was included in the BA Honours text
book for
Delhi University's second year history course. Ramanujan had shown
how the Ramayana is interpreted in different ways across India. This
was not to the liking of a certain intellectually bereft section of
India's rightists, and they reacted by vandalising university
premises. This showdown by self-appointed moral policemen is yet
another expression of their intolerance of liberal views. Although
they say Ramanujan's essay is anti-Hindu, the entire issue is
nothing but a carefully constructed controversy.
Acts of violence
and vandalism by the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the
student wing of the RSS, is nothing new, and that too in the
presence of the police and administration. Such attempts form the
part of their long-term agenda to impose a dominant hegemonic
Right-wing ideology that defines every aspect of Indian-ness in
their own way, at the expense of a secular democratic space. Any
form of plurality of thought, even within the same faith, is snuffed
out. The right to freedom of expression, even when constitutionally
guaranteed, acquires little significance in the face of such
institutionalized silencing, within or without the groups.
At the time of
the inclusion of the essay 'Three Hundred Ramayanas: Five Examples
and Three Thoughts on Translation' by the late Padmashri scholar AK
Ramanujan in the recommended reading list for Delhi University's
second year history BA Honours course, one would have thought that
the dissemination of various interpretations and narratives of the
Hindu epic would have pleased the ABVP. After all, Ramanujan's essay
in question illustrates and gives point-by-point analyses of the
great dynamism and variety in what the scholar describes as the
"telling" of the story of Ram within
India and across
the world. However, this plurality and multiplicity does not fit in
the paradigm of 'uniform nation, uniform civil code, uniform culture
and now the uniform Ramayana' of the RSS.
Not long back,
at the
Baroda University, an exhibition depicting Hindu gods and goddesses
was vandalised. That incident should also be seen in this context.
Right-wing conservative parties want to capture political power and
also the intellectual and cultural domain and redefine everything to
fit into their own paradigm. These acts have everything to do with
rewriting and redefining
India's
past from a particular perspective.
Issue of freedom
of expression cannot be solved through lumpenism.
India's
civil space is becoming anti-dialogue. And the facade of a secular
democratic political India is coming off.
7
May,
2008
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