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Transcript of 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.