Mrinal Pande: A land where no one speaks truth to power

By Dilip -

Ram, the crown prince of Ayodhya, was born in Chaitra, the first month in the lunar Hindu new year. Ever since, chaiti songs have Ram’s name woven into them. His mother’s lament still resounds all over the Indo-Gangetic plains in popular chaitis: “Kin more Awadh ujaari ho, bilkhain Kaushalya/ Ram bina mori sooni Ayodhya, / Kou samujhavat naahin … (Queen Kaushalya cries, ‘Who has ruined my Ayodhya and banished my Ram?/Why is no one trying to talk sense?’)”

After being banished to the forest for 14 years, Ram’s life begins to correspond to the life cycles of most epic heroes, from Odysseus to Beowulf to Gandhi. The young hero goes on a long journey to alien lands to defeat a monster or wild beast. He kills the demon, rescues a captive lady, and is rewarded with a throne. But now he must rule over near-strangers, constantly squabbling among themselves and gossiping about him. Ram created a Ram Rajya as Gandhi created independent India — at great personal cost. Finally, he handed his throne to his sons and entered a cave, never to emerge. Ayodhya was left rudderless a second time. Still, in folk songs, Ayodhya blames Ram’s sorrows on his stepmother Kaikeyi. The father, who gave the order of banishment, escapes direct blame….

https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/ayodhya-land-where-no-one-speaks-truth-to-power-7700598/


MRINAL PANDE - What Lies Behind the Hairsplitting Over Dharma, Panth and Secularism


Mrinal Pande: The Lament of the Half Golden Mongoose


Mukul Kesavan - Kumbh vs Corona The logic of Hindu nationalism / Milind Murugkar: The political project of Hindutva is up against many contradictions


Ramachandra Guha: The unmaking of India


Sunita Viswanath: Why I feel the need to bring my Hinduism to the streets


Sunita Viswanath - I refuse to cede Hinduism to those who want to make India a Hindu rashtra


Public Appeal by Hindus for Human Rights, USA


Pratap Bhanu Mehta: Serial authoritarianism picks out targets and tires out challenges


Pratap Bhanu Mehta: Ram’s political triumph // Purushottam Agrawal: Being Hindu in a Hindu Rashtra


Purushottam Agrawal - Nehru's Spectacularly Indian Vision and the Wrath of the RSS


Kabir’s search for solitude resembles our search for privacy in totalitarian times


Purushottam Agrawal - Absurdity of epic proportions: Are people aware of the content in Jayasi's Padmavat? / Mukul Kesavan - Rajputs redux: Padmini's long afterlife


Purushottam Agrawal - Lost in translation


सत्यपाल डांग को याद करते हुए.. RIP comrade Satyapal Dang - homage to a great man

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