and Shrupanakha Symbols of the Nation in the Amar Chitra Katha Comic Book *  Karline McLain

mar Chitra Katha “Immortal 546), (no. 579), and Valmiki’s golden age setting, and its Picture Stories”, the Ramayana (bumper issue no. 10001). demonization of the “other.” By Aleading Indian comic book The Ramayana has occupied a looking at the Ramayana comic we series, enjoys a ubiquitous presence privileges position throughout the can examine how these elements of among the urban middle-class in development of contemporary Indian the epic may be directed towards and the South Asian diaspora. These culture. It has been employed in nationalist ends in this medium of comic books are an important medium special ways by many of the most public culture. of public culture that contributes to prominent leaders of the national The main characters of the the process of identity formation. As movement, and in recent years, Ramayana, and Sita, are upheld part of the zone of debate that is public especially by nationalists. in common parlance and within culture, these comic books entail a Many examples abound of the use of nationalist ideology as the moral range of intended and received messages. However, like other the Ramayana and its characters for exemplars of Indian society. Sally mainstream mediums of public culture, political mobilisation – one of which Sutherland has summed up these ideal these comic books are greatly resulted in the demolition of the Babri constructions: “Rama throughout the influenced by the forces of modernity, Masjid mosque in by the epic is a man totally devoted to duty, globalisation, and nationalism, forces Sangh Parivar in 1992. They insist despite personal hardship, and Sita is which are apparent in the modern that a Ram Mandir be built in its place. a woman totally devoted to her lord “Indianness,” which is constructed in In the 1991 election, before this and master, despite his this medium in opposition to an demolition, the political wing of the capriciousness.”4 The duties of these “otherness.” In this essay I will focus Parivar, the ideal role models are divided on how Sita and Shrupanakha may be (BJP), participated in the communal according to their gender; a man’s interpreted as symbols of the nation agitation for a Ram Mandir with its primary concern is his dharma, while – symbols of “Indianness” and popular campaign slogan: “Ram rajya a woman’s is her husband. ki aure chale, Bhajpa ke sath chale” “otherness” – in Amar Chitra Katha Amar Chitra Katha also upholds (Let’s go towards Rama Rajya/ Let’s comic books. Rama and Sita as ideal gender move with the BJP).2 V.D. Savarkar, Amar Chitra Katha picturises the constructs in the Rama issue (no. 504): Ramayana epic. Three of the first ten the originator of the modern forms of The of Kamban, issues published by Amar Chitra Hindu nationalism which eventually Tulsidas or Tunchan are all but Katha were stories from the led to the Hindutva ideology as Ramayana tradition, and numerous practiced by the Parivar, claimed that variations on the same theme. This Ramayana-related issues are regularly India was founded by Rama, and lofty theme, embodies in the reprinted, including1 : Rama (no. 504), celebrated the Ramayana as a source characters of Rama and Sita, the 5 Ancestors of Rama (no. 572), of national integration.3 highest ideals of 'man' and 'woman.' to the Rescue (no. 254), I suggest that there are three major In characterising these figures as Humbled (no. 305), Hanuman reasons for the crucial role this epic ideal, Amar Chitra Katha has (no. 502), The Sons of Rama (no. 503), has played in Hindutva ideology: its overlooked the various arguments The Lord of (no. 541), (no. depiction of ideal gender roles, its leveled against Rama and Sita as ideal

32 MANUSHI role models. One such argument holds transform society in favor of new and dvapara yugas,10 a time now that the epic as traditionally identities which are portrayed as in often cast as the golden age when interpreted, is a text of political accordance with supposedly dharma was said to have functioned domination. For example, E.V. traditional cultural values of this more properly than in the current era. Ramasami, an activist in Tamil Nadu, mythical golden age. The tradition In this golden age men and women contested the notion of Rama as the they promote is actually based understood their appropriate roles ideal man and instead upheld Ravana primarily on the colonial definition of and, like Rama and Sita, acted as the true hero. Ramasami advocated Hindu tradition, which privileged a accordingly. Hindutva ideologists this reversal because he sought to small subset of carefully chosen use the Ramayana to critique modern social values and gen1der awaken South Indians to their Brahmanic texts that would aid them oppression by North Indians and their constructions by reinscribing their in dominating the society, and a limited true identity as Dravidians.6 own version of the more “authentic” set of practices that were supposedly values of the Hindu golden age, the Women have also frequently derived from these texts.9 contested the idea that Rama and Sita utopian past uncorrupted by other are ideal characters. Narayana Rao The Ramayana epic revolves cultures. One could argue that the and have around the notion of dharma (duty, comic book Ramayana functions discussed how women’s oral righteousness). It is set in the treta similarly in illustrating proper Ramayana traditions, in Andhra Pradesh and Bangladesh respectively, counter the public Ramayanas’ conception of Rama as ideal by questioning his morality, wisdom, honesty, and integrity.7 Women have also criticized the male nationalists’ notion of Sita as the feminine ideal. One early criticism occurred in the Hindi journal Stree Darpan (1918), in which Uma Nehru criticised male nationalists for upholding Sita as the ideal woman and the preserver of Hindu tradition while men were simultaneously aping Western ways.8 By overlooking these and other criticisms, Amar Chitra Katha joins the dominant discourse which reinforces gender roles that contribute to the maintenance of the type of social hierarchy that is crucial to the legitimisation of the Hindutva ideologists’ political position. This also contributes to the exclusion of women as active citizens, because when nationalist ideologies are founded on gender difference, women too often become symbolic figures and are denied agency. The second reason for the use of the Ramayana as a tool of the Sangh Parivar is related to its setting in the ideal past, depicted as the golden age of . Their ideology is a modern construction that seeks to

No. 122 33 behavioral guidelines for men and Parishad (VHP), arguing that the literary telling of the life of Rama, and women and in simultaneously centrality given to their version of it is this version that is widely critiquing modern social norms. Rama worship ruptures traditional regarded as the “original” Ramayana. The third reason for the devotional patterns in Bengal and Amar Chitra Katha has produced Ramayana’s importance to Hindutva other non-Hindi belt regions and issues that are based on other tellings ideology is that it is a text that legitimises the operations of an of the Ramayana, but their pre- demonizes the “other.” In this epic authoritarian political formation that planned bound miniseries version is Rama’s wife Sita is abducted by defines not only Muslims, but also entitled Valmiki’s Ramayana (no. Ravana, king of the , which solely in its own terms.12 10001). The introduction to this issue triggers the battle between Rama and Rakshasas, both male and female, states the relation and import of the rakshasas. An oft-debated as variously interpreted “others” who Valmiki’s work to the other question is what historical group of lie outside the fold are a Ramayanas: people the rakshasas represent. threat to the existing social order. In “Valmiki’s Ramayana is believed Sheldon Pollock suggests that a the Amar Chitra Katha Ramayana, to be the first poetic work written in concrete identification of the this threat is made apparent through Sanskrit; it is, therefore, referred to as rakshasas is irrelevant; what is the visual depiction of the rakshasas, the Adikavya. Valmiki’s monumental relevant is that the identity of this which may be seen as indicative of work influenced other great poems on “other” group is flexible and can be racial differences. In the Ramayana- the same theme. Among these are the altered depending on the times.11 This related comic issues all humans are Hindi, Tamil and Bengali versions of flexibility of the identity of the “other,” fair-skinned, except for blue-skinned, the Ramayana written by Tulsidas in I believe, is one reason why the divine Rama. All men are handsome the North; Kamban in the South; and Ramayana has been employed again and well muscled; all women are fair- Krittivasa in the East.”13 and again as a vehicle for the skinned, voluptuous, and have The reason for the exalted status demonization and domination of other flowing hair. Even Hanuman and other given to the Valmiki Ramayana by the groups on the basis of historical shifts animal allies of Rama are human-like. publishers of Amar Chitra Katha is in political structures. Contemporary The rakshasas are depicted that they too think of it as the Hindutva nationalism has frequently differently: They are dark-skinned, “original” version of the Ramayana. interpreted the rakshasas as stocky, and grotesque. The men have That the original source of this representing the Muslim community, potbellies and pointy moustaches. tradition is appealed to, despite the the dangerous “other” within Only ten-headed Ravana and his fact that other versions are actually contemporary Indian society. brother , both commonly more popular in contemporary India regarded as heroes, are drawn with Despite this flexibility in the (such as the sixteenth-century A.D. well-muscled, fair-skinned bodies. identification of the “other” group, the Hindi epic Ramcaritmanas of The women rakshasis are also dark- Ramayana has historically acted as a Tulsidas14 ), indicates that there is an skinned and stocky, with sagging hegemonizing influence that has effort in the production of these breasts, fangs, and exaggerated noses promoted a dominant North to seek legitimaise of the and lips. Apart from this overtly Brahmanical, Sanskritic culture over values found within them via an negative depiction of the dark- South Indian Dravidian culture. In appeal to the ancientness and skinned rakshasas, their threatening this context the rakshasas of the authenticity of the tradition. Valmiki Ramayana (and of other status as “other” is also suggested The Valmiki Ramayana presents Northern renditions) have been through the pejorative depictions of Sita and Rama as the ideal woman and interpreted as representing a less-restrained sexual behaviour by man. However, this characterisation radicalised depiction of southern the female rakshasis. This topic will can pose a dilemma for authors and Dravidian Indians conquered by the be taken up in the following audiences alike, as several episodes northern Brahmanic crew led by Rama. discussion. In this way the current popularity of in the epic can be seen as morally the Ramayana epic may be Sita and Shrupanakha ambiguous. I will explore two such threatening not only to the Muslim The Ramayana is a South Asian episodes – the mutilation of culture in contemporary India, but also epic tradition found in a multipilicity Shrupanakha and Sita’s ordeal – to the historical plurality of Hindus. of tellings. The Ramayana as told by discern how a gendered notion of Tapan Basu et al. have discussed this Valmiki in Sanskrit (circa 2nd c. BCE – Indianness is constructed in the in the context of the Vishva Hindu 2nd c. CE) is the most extensive early Valmiki’s Ramayana comic book.

34 MANUSHI In the first episode, Shrupanakha women are allowed no agency they of a woman in the specific way sees Rama and desires him are relegated to the symbolic realm, described in the epic can symbolically immediately; hence she decides to as the boundary marker of a be interpreted as a gendered approach him. She assumes an community’s honour. This communal punishment for sexual transgression. attractive human female form, honour is ultimately dependent upon In Indian legal texts disfigurement of introduces herself, and asks Rama to control over expressions of their a woman is the most common marry her. Rama replies that he is sexuality. Purshottam Agarwal argues punishment for crimes of a sexual already married and jokingly suggests that this nationalist construction nature.17 Shrupanakha was mutilated she ask . Lakshmana also results in opposing male attitudes not for her attack on Sita, but for her protests, saying that he is unworthy directed to different groups of women sexual assertiveness. But of her. Twice rejected, Shrupanakha – “ours” and “others” – and that Shrupanakha does not suffer this asks Rama if he spurns her because rhetoric about the dignity of “our” humiliation just because she has been of his ugly wife, Sita. Shrupanakha women only complements the sexually assertive – her status as the then threatens to devour Sita so that aggressiveness such ideologies direct “other”, also figures in her she alone can have Rama. But as against women from the “other.”16 In disfiguration. In communal struggles Shrupanakha approaches Sita, Rama this episode of the comic book a the humiliation of the “other” woman intervenes and commands Lakshmana message that may be received – plays a crucial role: to stop her. Lakshmana does stop her whether it is intentional or not – is from attacking Sita and proceeds to that it is okay, even morally justified, “In struggles between different mutilate her, cutting off her ears and nose. Shrupanakha then returns to her true rakshasi form and flees to her brothers. The comic book faithfully reproduces this episode, including a drawing of Shrupanakha’s mutilated face. , editor of Amar Chitra Katha, has stated that in consideration for his young audience he minimizes the violence depicted in the comics while still truthfully retelling the story or events. One example of this policy at work is found in the comic book (no. 603), in to physically harm an “other” woman. communities (for communities read which Akbar’s cruelty as a young king Indeed, the “other” woman often is men) a woman is metamorphosed into is demonstrated by retelling his perceived as deserving punishment a metaphor of both sacredness and beheading of Hemu. The actual because her sexuality is not controlled humiliation. And the virility of the beheading is not depicted; rather, it is according to the criteria of the community comes to hinge upon reported in the text accompanied by a dominant group. defending one’s honour and drawing of the gallows, in silhouette, Shrupanakha is a sexually humiliating the ‘other’ through the 15 where it occurred. In light of this assertive woman. She approaches the agency of the sexuality of a 18 careful policy, we must conclude that two men, informs them bluntly of her woman.” the Amar Chitra Katha staff saw no sexual desires, and is not just mocked reason to censor Shrupanakha’s Shrupanakha is mutilated at for it, but is punished. The immediate mutilation because she is so clearly Rama’s order because as a sexually reason for her mutilation might appear “other” as a rakshasi that this assertive “other” woman she to be her threatened attack on Sita, standard simply doesn’t apply. represents a threat to the community, but the actual reason is more and it is the ideal man’s duty to Does this depiction of the ideal intimately connected with her gender, eliminate the threat of the “other” man and the “other” woman carry any sexuality, and communal identity. Had community. implications for the adolescent the idea been just to subdue audience of these comics? Frequently Shurpanakha, her mutilation would I believe that this episode in the in male nationalist ideologies in which not have been necessary. Mutilation Ramayana is not morally ambiguous

No. 122 35 when understood from the standpoint with the reasons the dominant culture appealed to by those leaders in order of Hindu nationalism as interpreted sees Rama as the ideal man: Rama is to spur men into taking combative by the advocates of Hindutva. Quite the ideal man not only because he action with the “other” community of the opposite, this is one of the goes to amazing lengths in order to Pakistani Muslim men: reasons that Rama is often upheld in retrieve his woman from the “other” “We all know our history,” said contemporary contexts as the ideal community, but also because he one MP in Parliament, “of what man – because he defends the honour refuses to accept a wife who is tainted happened in the time of Shri Ram when of his community and proves his merely by the extent and duration of Sita was abducted. Here, where masculinity through this humiliating her proximity to the chief. thousands of girls are concerned, we treatment of the “other” woman. Sita, in turn, is the ideal woman cannot forget this. We can forget all The second episode to be not only because she remained the properties, we can forget every examined is Sita’s ordeal. In the faithful to her husband after she was other thing but this cannot be Ramayana Rama’s wife Sita is abducted by an “other” man, but also forgotten.” And again, “As abducted by Ravana, the rakshasa because she could prove her chastity descendants of Ram we have to bring king, and taken away to Lanka. Rama before her community. A conclusion back every Sita that is alive.”21 grieves heartily at this loss and that can be drawn is that the ideal Some legislators even advocated gathers forces in order to battle woman should desire to kill herself the humiliation of Pakistani Muslim Ravana. Eventually Rama does defeat before allowing herself or her women by counter-abduction and and kill Ravana, regaining his wife. husband’s reputation to be defiled, counter-rape, under the guise of But when the two meet again Rama however unjustified the accusation protecting the honour of Indian rejects her, saying that no man can of impurity. In this way women’s women. Furthermore, the sexual take back a wife who has lived in sexuality is a definitive boundary of contrast between “our” women as another man’s house. Sita swears her communal honour: embodied by Sita and the “other” faithfulness to Rama and enters into women as embodied by Shrupanakha “Exclusive control of her sexuality a fire ordeal to prove it. The god of was paralleled in this discourse. Hindu by the legitimate ‘owner’ is the fire recognises Sita’s purity and women were characterised as mothers prctical honour. That is why it is refuses to consume her, hence Rama and innocent victims, while Muslim expected that an ideal woman should accepts her, stating that he did not women were characterised as end her life, which is incidental doubt her purity, but he being the dangerous, sexual women anyway, if her chastity has been king, it had to be proved to the people. representing a threat to the social defiled. While this holds true in the order.22 There is an important contrast context of honour, where the between the sexuality of “our” women community is concerned, an ideal Sita’s Abandonment in this episode and the sexuality of woman is expected to offer herself for and Redemption the “other” woman in the previous the supreme sacrifice even if there is episode. “Other” women are lustful, merely a probability of defilement.”20 The above examination of two morally sexually aggressive women who roam ambiguous episodes from the comic These gender ideals are not just the forest alone, not under the control Ramayana illustrates several ways in relics of a past era, but have been of a husband, father, or brother, and which Amar Chitra Katha – along with upheld by many within Hindu proposition strangers; “our” women other popular culture retellings of the nationalist movements. An example Ramayana epic – may be interpreted are chaste women who become of the modern employment of such sexually and morally suspect when gender ideals, and the simultaneous as existing in relationship with the not under the protection of a male demonization of the “other” Sangh Parivar type of Hindu relative. This episode is another community, is found in the discourse nationalism, by similarly employing the window into understanding the on the abduction and rape of Indian Ramayana epic tradition to both re- construction of ideal gender roles.19 women during partition. inscribe extremely restrictive gender Audiences often question how and Kamla Bhasin discuss how the roles and to critique contemporary Rama, depicted as such a loving leaders of the Indian state regulated social behaviour. The interconnected husband, could reject his wife and women’s sexuality at the time of relationship between the Ramayana watch her immolate herself. Again, I partition in order to preserve the tradition, Hindutva ideology, and suggest that this episode is not community’s honour, and cite mainstream forms of public culture morally ambiguous, but is consistent examples of how the Ramayana was such as comic books is perhaps best

36 MANUSHI demonstrated by the way one of the unpleasant act of Rama abandoning understood today: final scenes of the Ramayana epic is Sita, then pregnant with twin boys, is That the epic has survived for so handled in the Valmiki’s Ramayana not narrated. For what purposes is long in its present form is testimony, issue of the comic book series. the “truth,” or faithfulness to the in part, to the fact that the relationship In the Uttara Kanda of the Valmiki original story line sacrificed to present [between Rama and Sita] is felt to be Ramayana, Rama is informed that a happily-ever-after scenario in resolved, and in a manner that is rumours are circulating amongst the the comic book Ramayana? The understandable and acceptable to its introduction to Valmiki's Ramayana people about Sita’s impurity due to vast audience.26 her stay with Ravana. He decides gives a reason for the exclusion of the Although the events of the Uttara that, as king, he cannot keep a wife events of the Uttara Kanda in this Kanda were left out of the comic book whose purity is questionable, even comic book: retelling of the Ramayana out of a though she has already undergone a The Ramayana consists of 24,000 fire ordeal to prove her virtue before verses. There are six sections – The sense of scholarly exactitude, and not the community. For the sake of his Bala Kanda, the Ayodhya Kanda, the out of an explicit identification with reputation as king, Rama, the ideal Aranya Kanda, the Sangh Parivar ideology, nonetheless monarch, repudiates Sita, who is Kanda, the Sundara Kanda and the this recasting of the Ramayana pregnant, and abandons her in the Yuddha Kanda. The seventh section, tradition may still lend itself to a forest. In the Valmiki’s Ramayana the Uttara Kanda, is probably an Hindutva reading, as does much of comic book this episode is missing. interpolation.25 public culture with its inherent This version of the epic ends just after emphasis on the Ramayana epic. I Although the Uttara Kanda is Rama accepts Sita, following her suggest that a secondary reason for thought to be a later interpolation by survival of the fire ordeal. At this the elimination of the final many scholars, it remains nonetheless point in the comic book the two return abandonment of Sita from the comic an essential part of the Ramayana that to Ayodhya where Rama assumes the Ramayana is because this episode and is almost always included in both throne and they live happily ever after, scholarly and popular versions of the the events following it call into clearly deviating from the Valmiki epic. Certainly, as Sally Sutherland question Rama’s status as the ideal tradition: notes, the Uttara Kanda resolution is man. “Rama ruled his kingdom wisely essential to the Ramayana epic as In the Valmiki Ramayana when and strictly followed the path of dharma. People followed his example and carried out their respective duties. Under Rama’s rule, there was universal happiness.”23 Amar Chitra Katha comics are advertised as scholastically accurate products that make good educational tools. However, Anant Pai, editor of Amar Chitra Katha, also believes that the stories told must be pleasant. As John Stratton Hawley has noted, Anant Pai operates by a Sanskrit maxim that states: “You must tell the truth; you must tell what is pleasant. And that which is unpleasant, just because it is true, you need not say it.”24 In the Valmiki's Ramayana comic both the mutilation of Shrupanakha and the fire ordeal of Sita are narrated; both of these events may certainly be considered unpleasant. Yet the Sita's abduction by Ravana

No. 122 37 Rama abandons Sita in the forest after represented by Shrupanakha, who Ravana reversal is found in C. hearing of the scandalous rumours stands at the margins of society, Subrahmaniya Bharati’s retelling entitled The Horns of the Horse. See spreading amongst the common marking and clarifying its boundaries. Paula Richman, “Ram as Abductor: people, he is fulfilling his dharma as This is an example of masculinist Subrahmaniya Bharathi’s Ramayan” in the king of Ayodhya. Throughout the nationalist ideology that depends upon Manushi 116 (Jan.-Feb. 2000), 15-18. whole of this Ramayana, Rama is a binary, oppositional categorization of 7. Velcheru Narayana Rao, “A Ramayana repeatedly characterised as the ideal women into “ours” and “others.” of Their Own: Women’s Oral Tradition in Telegu” in P. Richman (ed.), op. cit., king, whose concerns are first and Though oppositional, these categories 129; and Nabaneeta Dev Sen, “When foremost those of his subjects. He is are similar in that both women are Women Retell the Ramayan,” Manushi a ruler always willing to put duty objectified and relegated to the 108 (Sept.-Oct. 1998), 18-27. before his own or his wife’s happiness. symbolic realm, restricted from active 8. Quoted in Vir Bharat Talwar, “Feminist Consciousness in Women’s Journals in In the Valmiki Ramayana, Rama is the citizenship. The so-called notion of Hindi, 1910-20" in K. Sangari and S. ideal king, not the ideal husband. “universal happiness” under Ram Vaid (eds.), Recasting Women: Essays When this episode is eliminated Rajya that the comic book closes with, in Indian Colonial History, (New is based upon violence and exclusion Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, from the Valmiki’s Ramayana comic, [1989], reprint 1997), 228. towards women and cultural others. Rama is preserved as both the ideal 9. On the modern definition of tradition, monarch and the ideal man/husband. see Lata Mani, “Contentious * This paper is a shortened version The happily-ever-after ending both Traditions: The Debate on in of a chapter of my Master’s thesis, emphasizes Sita’s idealness as a wife, Colonial India” in K. Sangari and S. Vaid “Nationalism and the Woman Ques- (eds.), ibid., 88-126; and Rosalind and absolves Rama of all blame. tion in Indian Comic Book Litera- O’Hanlon, “Issues of Widowhood: Interestingly, the televised version of Gender and Resistance in Colonial ture” (May 1999, The University of the Ramayana by Ramanand Sagar Western India” in D. Haynes and G. Texas at Austin). The author is grate- also drastically altered the ending of Prakash (eds.), Contesting Power: ful for the input received from Drs. Resistance and Everyday Social the epic by portraying Sita as insisting Kamala Visweswaran and Gail Relations in South Asia, (Berkeley: on going into exile – rather than Rama University of California Press, 1992), Minault during the writing of the banishing her – in order to again 62-108. thesis. Any errors are mine alone. portray Sita as the ideal, self-sacrificing, 10. Although the time of the Veda, the krita yuga, is the time when dharma is the long-suffering wife and Rama as the purest, nonetheless the epic era is 27 References ideal king who is beyond reproach. 1. See Frances Pritchett, “The World of commonly regarded as a golden age in These altered endings leave little space Amar Chitra Katha,” in L. Babb and S. contrast with the modern era. for their respective audiences to Wadley (eds.), Media and the 11. Sheldon Pollock, “Ramayana and criticise Rama’s treatment of Sita, and Transformation of Religion in South Political Imagination in India,” The Asia (Philadelphia: University of Journal of Asian Studies 52.2 (May attempt to convey the impression that Pennsylvania Press, 1995), 82. 1993), 283. universal happiness will be achieved 2. Tapan Basu, Pradip Datta, Sumit Sarkar, 12. Tapan Basu et al., op. cit., 57 if the rule of Ram Rajya can be attained. Tanika Sarkar, and Sambuddha Sen, 13. Valmiki’s Ramayana, Amar Chitra In many respects Amar Chitra Khaki Shorts and Saffron Flags: A Katha no. 10001, (Bombay: India Book Critique of the Hindu Right (New Delhi: House, 1992), inside front cover. Katha has attempted to promote Orient Longman, 1993), 61. 14. On the popularity of the national integration and to recognise 3. V.D.Savarkar, Hindutva: Who is a Hindu? Ramcaritmanas see Philip Lutgendorf’s and appreciate diversity. However, in (Bombay: Veer Savarkar Prakashan, articles: “Ram’s Story in ’s City” several other respects these comic [1923], reprint 1969),11-12. in S. Frietag (ed.), Culture and Power books – like other mainstream public 4. Sally Sutherland, “Sita and : in Benares, (Berke ley: University of Aggressive Behavior and Female Role- California Press, 1989) and “The ‘Great culture media – overlap with Hindutva Models in the Sanskrit Epics,” Journal Sacrifice’ of Ramayana Recitation: nationalist ideology. This overlap is of the American Oriental Society 109.1 Ritual Performance of the most apparent in terms of the resolution (Jan.-Mar. 1989), 77. Ramcaritmanas” in M. Thiel of the “woman question,” the place and 5. Rama, Amar Chitra Katha no. 504, Horstmann(ed.), Ramayana and role of women in society. The comic (Bombay: India Book House, [1970], Ramayanas, (Wiesbaden: Otto book retelling of the Ramayana uses reprint May 1998), inside front cover. Harrasowitz, 1991). 6. Paula Richman, “E.V. Ramasami’s women as symbolic boundary markers 15. John Stratton Hawley, “The Saints Reading of the Ramayana” in Richman Subdued: Domestic Virtue and National in two ways: The “traditional” Hindu (ed.), Many Ramayanas: The Diversity Integration in Amar Chitra Katha” in L. wife/mother, represented by Sita, who of a Narrative Tradition in South Asia, Babb and S. Wadley (eds.) op. cit., 115. stands in the centre of society; and the (Berkeley: University of California 16. Purshottam Agarwal, “Savarkar, Surat sexually corrupt “other” woman, Press, 1991), 176. Another Rama/ and Draupadi: Legitimising Rape as a

38 MANUSHI Political Weapon,” in T. Sarkar and U. Butalia (eds.), Women and the Hindu Right,(Delhi: Press, 1995), 30. 17. See Kathleen Erndl, “The Mutilation of Shurpanakha,” in Richman, (ed.), op. cit., 82. 18. Agarwal, op. cit., 38-9, parenthetics original. Ritu Menon and Kamla Bhasin also discuss the range of sexual violence which was acted out on “other” women in the communal violence of partition, including mutilation, disfigurement, tattooing or branding of breasts and genitalia, amputating breasts, knifing open the womb,and raping,among other acts of violence. See their book Borders andBoundaries: Women in India’s Partition, (New Delhi: Kali for Women, 1998), 43. 19. This nationalist construction of the pure, sexually controlled Hindu woman and the impure, lustful Muslim woman has been reproduced in many different mediums. An interesting example is found in the 19th century play by Pandit Gauri Datta, “A Mime of Hindi and Urdu,”in the Hindi-Urdu language controversy. In this play Urdu is depicted as a Muslim prostitute, while Hindi is represented as a Hindu matron modestly clothed in a sari. See Christopher R. King, “Images of Virtue and Vice: The Hindi-Urdu Controversy in Two Nineteenth-century Hindi plays” in K. Jones (ed.), Religious Controversy in BritishIndia, (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992),123-148. 20. Agarwal, op. cit., 38. 21. Constituent Assembly of India (Legislative) Debates,December 1949, cited by Ritu Menon and Kamla Bhasin, “Abducted Women, the State and Questions of Honour,” in K. Jayawardena and M. De Alwis, (eds.), Embodied violence, (Delhi: Kali Press, 1996), 6. See also Menon and Bhasin, Borders and Boundaries, op. cit., esp. pp. 68 and 114. 22. See , “Muslims and Hindus, Men and Women,” in T. Sarkar and U. Butalia (eds.), op. cit., esp p. 70. 23. Valmiki’s Ramayana, op. cit., 95. 24. Hawley, op. cit., 109. The original Sanskrit quote is “satyam bruyat priyam bruyat ma bruyat satyam apriyam.” 25. Valmiki’s Ramayana, op. cit., inside front cover. 26. Sutherland, op. cit., 78. 27. Purnima Mankekar, Screening Culture, Viewing Politics, (Durham: Duke University Press, 1999), 213.

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