The Little Magazine RamRam

8/3/2019 The Little Magazine RamRam

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VOLUME VII: ISSUE 5&6

RAM RAM!

ASHIS N ANDY

CHANDAN MITRA

G.N. DEVY

GULZAR

INDIRA P ARTHASARATHY

J AYANTA M AHAPATRA

JOY GOSWAMI

K.B. SRIDEVI

K. S ATCHIDANANDAN

K ETAN MEHTA

K UNWAR N ARAIN

L AL SINGH DIL

M ANEKA G ANDHI

MEGHNAD DESAI

MEENA ALEXANDER

N ABANEETA DEV SEN

PRALAYAN

PUDHUMAIPITHAN

R AJEE SETH

R AJENDRA Y ADAV

R AM R AHMAN

SHIBRAM CHAKRABORTY

SITANSHU Y ASHASCHANDRA

SITARAM Y ECHURI

SUBRAMANIAN SWAMY

S YEDA H AMEED

VOLGA


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Once again, India is heading into an election and the Hindutva groups are marching out

with Rama for a mascot. But it’s not like the Nineties, when he had crowded everything else off the political gaming board. And after the election, he will be allowed to recede

into the background. His name is a powerful talisman, not a mere political plaything.

Myth as reality is just too hot to handle.

But like homoeopathy, Rama’s name works even in small, manageable doses. Between

elections, Rama is routinely pressed into service. In the last five years, the god-hero has

been invoked to justify the movement against the Sethusamudram project, the beating

of affluent urban women in Karnataka by the Rama Sene and the witch-hunt against

M.F. Husain for depicting Sita in the nude. These are only the most prominent in a rather

long list of incidents in which the name of Rama was not taken in vain. Naked violenceeasily brushed aside opposition from civil society institutions while the State studiously

kept out of harm’s way.

This rather grim picture is now changing for the better because society at large is taking

a stand. The middle class is organising in new ways against the curtailment of freedoms

and the voter wants to see development in his neighbourhood, not a temple in faraway

Ayodhya. But in the meantime, the cultural damage has been done. The Ramayana is no

longer what it was — an appealing, accessible, layered tale which travelled all over South

Asia and Southeast Asia because every identity, whether Vaishnava or Buddhist, whether

Chhotanagpur village woman or Sumatran prince, was free to interpret and adapt it

according to local cultural needs. In this issue, we try to remind ourselves of the ancient,

ever-alive, vibrant cultural phenomenon that fundamentalists are trying to replace with

a new, soulless, authorised version of the Ramayana . Thus robbing us of our cultural

heritage, an epic that offered a palimpsest so wide that anyone, anywhere, could write

his or her own story into it.

Dear Reader,

volume VII issue 5&6 the little magazine 1

DISCLAIMER : The views presented in this issue reflect the diversity of opinion and thecultural pluralism in India and do not necessarily reflect the personal views of any individual or this publication.


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volume VII: issue5&6

E S S A Y S

6 The return of the sacred After the age of secular ideologies, religion has

defied the obituary notices and re-emerged. And

there is no enigma here, says Ashis Nandy

16 The god who dividesHinduism has flourished for so long because of

its chaotic diversity. To Semitise it would be to

devalue it, writes Meghnad Desai

20 In defence of the Rama Setu

Subramanian Swamy invokes the scripturalauthenticity of the Ramayana in defence of the

movement against the Sethusamudram project

24 Let a hundred Ramas bloomRespect those who believe in Rama, writes

Sitaram Yechuri, but don’t drag him on to the

streets as a political mascot

29 The moving spiritChandan Mitra traces the evolution of Rama

from religious icon to political phenomenon

33 My Rama: Secular Hindu DivineSyeda Hameed recalls the poetry of Iqbal heard

in childhood, which spoke of Ram, Jesus and

Mohammad in the same breath

36 On edgeNabaneeta Dev Sen explores the many

countercultural oral Ramayanas of the little

tradition, sung on the margins of society

43 Not perfect, but closeKamban’s Ram reflects the triumph of fallible

man over flawless god, writes Indira Parthasarathy

47 The Kunkna SitaG. N. Devy retells the delightful story of an

Adivasi Ramayana from Dangs, Gujarat

52 Between sacred and secularSwapan Majumdar analyses the myriad

adaptations of the Ramayana in east India, which

freely interpret the text to fit local realities

56 Urban legendSeeking the English Ramayana , Parsa

Venkateshwar Rao Jr finds that the modern

translator cannot tell god from demon

64 Revisioning Rama

M.F. Husain’s exile and the attack on women inMangalore are the result of a process that began

in 1993, writes Ram Rahman

68 The shadow of unreasonKetan Mehta reminds us of the the lawsuit

against Raja Ravi Varma, the first fundamentalist

assault on art in modern times

76 Ramanama Tridip Suhrud revisits the Rama that we have

forgotten — Gandhi’s personal God who was hisstrength during India’s freedom struggle

80 Rama Redux Arshia Sattar evaluates righteous Rama as a

literary character trying to come to terms with

the hand that fate has dealt him

85 The deletion of memoryIt is all too easy to overwrite history and create

the illusion of destiny, writes Chandrashekhar

Sastry, but the results are not easy to live with

89 Kings of the heartRama and Jesus are similar figures, offering

salvation through personal faith, says A.J. Philip

93 The curse of Draupadi Veejay Sai traces the history of the Karaga, a

syncretic festival which kept Bangalore safe from

communal violence until recent times


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P O E T R Y

Serigraph by JATIN DAS


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HINDI / INDIA

K U N W A R N A R A I N

Ayodhya, 1992

Translated from the Hindi poem of the same title by Pratik Kanjilal

Many believe Kunwar Narain to be the finest living poet in Hindi. Strongly influenced by

European literature, he is also firmly rooted in his own culture. His honours include the Padma

Bhushan, the Jnanpith Award and the Sahitya Akademi Award. He lives in Delhi.

Hé Ram,

Life is a bitter truth

And you are a poetic epic!

You don’t have it in you

To vanquish the ungodly,

Who no longer number in tens or twenties

But are now million-headed — million-armed,

Besides, who knows whom Vibhishan

Sides with now.

Could our misfortune

Be greater?

Your empire has dwindled

To a disputed site.

Today, Ayodhya is not your warless kingdom

It is the Lanka of yoddhas, of warriors

The Ramacharitamanas is not about you

It is just a call to elections.

Hé Ram, how distant this time

From your glorious Treta Yuga

How remote the Best of Men

From this political neta yuga.

I humbly plead, dear God, that you return forthwith

To a Purana or a religious text

In good health, with your wife in tow…

Today’s jungles are not the forests

That Valmiki walked.

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