Past Imperfect
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
It is time to interpret our symbolism related to our festivities. Ofcourse, I will analyze them on every occasion whenever the festivities come as it is important to question those. Time has come to debunk popular myth and ask questions so that the future generations do not live in an illusion and learn to fight against evil and corruption in true sense.
Every year Indians spend millions of rupees to burn the 'effigies' of Ravana who is projected as the 'epitome' of corruption and immorality in our society. So much is the hatred towards Ravana that we do not have any other person for similar names. Nobody ask a basic question as what were the faults of Ravana and why is he hated so much even today by the caste based Indian mindset which refuse to change.
The basic question is what did Ravana do to deserve this humiliation which we 'celebrate' every year to ensure that 'truth shall prevails' ignoring the big fact that even if analyze the mythology, Ravana actually comes out as a man of character who did everything to avenge her sister's humiliation but at the same point of time did not humiliate Sita despite the known fact that she was under his 'custody'.
He abducted Sita, say our 'mythologists' to prove their point that Ravana was a bad character even though this too is contested by many. These moralists of the highest hypocrite order do not go further as why did he 'abduct' her.
The priest would say 'Because Lakshmana cut the nose of Supernakha who was the sister of Ravana'. But why did Lakshmana cut her nose. 'She was 'teasing' him. He never looked towards the girls and when she went beyond her 'limit' he cut her nose. Just relate this to what is happening in our society. Any girl who want to smile or keep her head high are despised and violated and there are justifications for that too. So, it is the Suparnakhas who are being asked questions and kept in perpetual humiliation and ignominy despite being violated and those who violate roam around preaching us about morality and 'cultural values' of our life. It is important that way at least, Ravana according to his own conscience played the role of a real brother who can do anything to save the honor of his brother. He only wanted Lakshmna to marry Suparnakha after this humiliation. It should also be noted that Ravana did not kill Suparnakha but assured her that he would take revenge of her dishonor.
If any right thinking person analyse these mythological events in connection with right or wrong today, when thing is clear Ramayana myth harmed women more than anything else. Rama can never be called as a 'Maryada purushottam' or an 'ideal man' according to modern human rights perspective. In fact, Rama could seriously face 'inflicting of brutality' to his wife in the court of law. And that is not once but several time. First when Sita is found at the courtyard of Ravana and Rama does not go him. He sends Hanuman. That is insulting for a wife that a husband who pretend to love her yet does not go to greet her when found. Another humiliation is in the form of 'agni pareeksha' which is nothing but an 'internal court of inquiry' or physical checking of whether there was any relationship or not. Ravana was a great saint as he did not even touch Sita. He would have done so if wanted but that is his character that treating a slave with dignity and honor. He does not kill Sita. He allows her to live a life of her own. Hence, why is Ravana hated so much that we burn his effigies every year and waste billions of rupees in useless celebrations where every crooked politician climb upto the podium and take the bow in his hand and we all chant ' satyameva jayate'.
As a wife Sita had equal right over Rama. She was dishonored and humiliated in front of all without any fault of her. She passed her 'agni pariksha' and yet Rama exiled her when he heard that the people of Ayodhya are rumoring about her. Sita was pregnant when Lakshmana was asked to leave her to the forest even without her knowledge. Can we find any such instance of cruelty in our life? How can such a man be considered as ideal. Yes, the feudal social order made him ideal saying ' Rama did not wait to throw his wife when the people started speaking against her?' What does it prove? It proves that Rama was too conscious about his 'prestige' and he did not give Sita a chance to defend her. He had come to the conclusion that she was not 'pure'. It is shamelessness of the highest order. When Sita has passed her 'agnipareeksha' to the ultimate satisfaction of Rama then when did he ordered her out from Ayodhya. If the people of his state were unhappy with this decision, he could have himself left the throne as he did following his father's order and accompany Sita. That would have been a great act of courage and in defense of a woman's right who was wronged so many time. But Rama's action actually helped the power elite to deny women right and humiliate them every now and then without getting any punishment for the same. If women of India are paying a price of their life for freedom and equality, the feudal values of our religious text books must be taken to task. It is time we refuse to idolize such figures which are symbol of feudal patriarchical social order.
Our history is full of garbage but the rightwing nationalist forces want to inject the 'glorious past' in our heart. And that is the biggest tragedy of any history when we forget right and wrong and try to create a false impression about our ancestry just because it is our past. Past is not great all the time and we need to learn a lot of lessons from our past. Those who are imprisoned in past often turned out to be anti-people and anti-humanity because they try to justify their act in philosophies of past and not in right and wrong.
The question is what do a parent tell her daughter about the greatness of a king who actually ask his wife to ' prove' her innocence even when he knows that she did not go along with Ravana at her own. What would have happened if Ravana had violated Sita? Do we ask these questions or we say these are hypothetical questions but let us discuss things in hypothesis when the girls have to pass so many test. Despite no fault of their own they have to answer every question. Why no woman ever has 'Suparnakha' as her name. What was the fault of Suparnkha that her name is not repeated? The problem is if any girl is named as Suparnkha, the society, the moralists here would make her life miserable.
It is clear that we live in symbolic world which religion has provided us. It has given window of corruption to everyone. You kill a person and go to a priest and he will give ideas to save you from that sin. You violate a girl or a woman and later find out from the priest as what went wrong and he will give ideas that your 'grahas' and 'dasha' was not good or you 'violated' in wrong time. So, religion has given us different windows to keep this corruption going and people are trapped in worshipping the symbols and ignoring the real meaning of these rituals. When we worship symbol and we are told that 'God' and 'Gods word' cannot be questioned then the biggest casualty is truth. And that is why despite billions of rupees wasted on these festivities and celebrations we only end up in polluting our minds and environment. There is nothing wrong in celebrations and greetings but when we emphasize so much on these symbolic burning of the 'effigies' of Ravana, then it is time also to question the basics again. How long will we speak lie to our children and future generations?
Corruption emanates from corrupt cultural philosophy and it cannot be rooted out through these fictitious and absolutely farcical methods which are not only symbolic but also strengthen the status quo. If we have to root out corruption let us develop a counter culture based on equality and liberty. Let us reanalysis all those mythologies and legends who we consider as our 'Idols'. Let us give that chance to our children to decide what is good and what is bad. Let us not make our children dumb not to question. Even when they are mythologies and fictitious we need to find out and analyze whether these fictions will make our future generations enlightened or prejudiced. One thing is clear, at least, the Ravana land is much safer and better for women then the so called Arya vrat where people have no shame in killing their daughters and Khapists are not happy to see girls smiling and playing. Let us not be hypocrite on this day that we are fighting for the victory of truth. A victory is not necessarily of truth and hence the history has often been the interpretation of victorious and therefore it is time when we create a better environment among our children by asking them to enjoy the day but do not enjoy these fictions which actually defeat the very purpose of finding the truth. As long as we burnt the effigies of Ravana in the name of 'victory of truth over untruth', the historical facts and truth will always remain outside the domain of common man and we will only celebrate actually victory of victorious and not necessarily victory of truth over evil.
Vidya Bhushan Rawat
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