Tuesday
The Ramayana and Rama as a figure have been used for political agendas. The “History, Myth, India, and Hinduism” in Cultural revolution explains how current Hindu Nationalist Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi pushes for Hindu nationalism in India. Modi put together a committee of scholars to ultimately push their ideas and “to shape the national identity to match their religious views, that India is a nation of and for Hindus” (Jain). The nationalist Hindu group called the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, or the RSS, “asserts that ancestors of all people of Indian origin - including 172 million Muslims - were Hindu and that they must accept their common ancestry as part of Bharat Mata, or Mother India” (Jain). They are attempting to rewrite ancient Indian history in favor of Hinduism to eventually have political control that aligns with their religious beliefs.
In “The Rama Temple Incident” S. P. Udayakumar explains specifically the connectedness of this political scheme and the Ramayana. The Ramayana especially as a myth allows for a “discursive space for changes in the knowledge of the past, and this discursiveness gains a divine ordination when religious symbols and sensibilities are added to it” (Udayakumar 17). The Ramayana is seen as “‘scripture of the ancient Hindu Race’ that reveals ‘picture after picture of fascinating beauty in the life of India in that period in our history’” (Udayakumar 18). It is used to justify that “the 'pure old glory' of Hinduism prevails and the 'polluting and invading' Islam becomes simply non-existent” (Udayakumar 18). Ultimately, the political “party wished ‘to return to the glorious days of Rama's rule, where everybody was contented, prosperous and religious’” (Udayakumar 19) which emphasizes Indians being Hindu and putting policies in place that are parallel to teachings in the Ramayana which favor Hindus. These sources present a hierarchy between Hindus and Muslims in India and justify tension between the two.
Thursday
From “The Ramayana and Its Muslim Interpreters,” the idea of “different patterns of relationship between the story of Rama and Muslims elsewhere in India” is presented. In the article, Vasudha Narayanan notes that “Tamil-speaking Muslims have produced some of the best scholarship on Kamban’s Ramayana” (Narayanan 280). This article disrupts the supremacy of Hinduism in the Ramayana that Tuesday’s article.