Article on the Ramayana 300 Essays Controversy

Hi everyone!

Check out the link:


http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/opinion/edit-page/The-Authorised-Ramayana/articleshow/10658269.cms

Based on the finals motion, the issue only seems to be picking up! It's quite a candid piece exposing the fragility of the value behind of such censorship. Interestingly, it points out the inevitability of such concealment eventually backfiring on the community. It also raises interesting questions. Can we rid ourselves of the ostensible virtuousness expounded by such tales? 

"So is this 'sanitising' an inevitable movement, an ineluctable step towards 'civilising'? To return from where i started, the 'uncivilised' Mrinmoyee in Ray's film must be brought into the fold of civilisation, through the taming of her instincts. Indeed, how precarious must we feel with the dark stranger that resides within us?"

Pay careful attention to the piece. It points out a perspective different from that of the educators' or historian's. It focuses on the social connotations of such censorship. Hence, the issue here questions the social benefit of preventing such versions from coming out, instead of pointing out a different thread of consequentialist questions which were argued by the finalist teams. Hence, is a highly filtered and unadulterated version of any folklore truly beneficial? What's the value in preserving such purportedly "untarnished" and perhaps overly appropriate versions of literature? 

This is certainly an opportunity to widen your horizon about the broader repercussions of such a move. Also, think about how even from a religion point of view, is religion for the sake of religion indeed the best way to propagate religious faith? Isn't it better for a religion itself for people to reinforce their faith in view of rational critique? These serve as alternate rationales to argue the same claim, that the move might have been a blunder. Should questioning one's faith be compromised for the benefit of a fragile and tenuous form of integrity? Can the morality we derive from a tale like Ramayana be designed and controlled by only a few?

What's really cool is that the author is a psychoanalyst! (Remember our module on perspectives?)