Prime Minister Narendra Modi went to Ayodhya for the inauguration of the Ram Mandir on August 5 dressed for the part. His hair and beard ha...
Prime Minister Narendra Modi went to Ayodhya for the inauguration of the Ram Mandir on August 5 dressed for the part. His hair and beard had been modelled on the image of the ancient sages that we had imbibed from Amar Chitra Katha comics. And when he spoke, he seemed to have struck all the right chords in speaking of the diversity of the Ramayana traditions, even though the temple where he was speaking was built by ending the very diversity he was invoking. His statements only served to underline that the Sangh’s view of Ram and the Ramayana had triumphed so radically that even diversity could now be paid lip-service.
The prime minister referred to the “different Ramayanas” with ease: “You will find Ram in different forms, in the different Ramayanas, but Ram is present everywhere, Ram is for all. That is why Ram is the connecting link in India’s ‘unity in diversity’”, he said. He was able to do so confident in the knowledge that the different Ramayanas that once may have troubled his compatriots have been consigned to archival projects or narratives most in the country have never encountered. And the small pockets of the Hindi heartland where the different traditions...
