The inverted commas of the new political correctness

Mail Today
March 14, 2008
WE as a nation are scared of our history, mythology, why even our own faces in the mirror; all three have too many warts and are not as fair and lovely as we want them to be. Earlier this week, the saffron party, Bharatiya Janata Party, and its opponent Samajwadi Party, sought the banning of a CD in Uttar Pradesh, and the Dalit chief minister readily agreed. The ban, this time was on the dramatisation of Ram’s murder of Shambhuka, a Dalit, for learning and practising Vedic rituals, an episode in Uttar Ramayan , or the Ramayan after Ram’s coronation.
Political correctness always follows the dominant political ideology of the times. In the Seventies, to be young and still not to be a leftist was like wearing papa’s clothes to college. Most of those who wore ballooning bell bottoms, long hair and jeans then, are now respectable right wing opinion makers. And for them, to be left wing now is like a middle- aged parent going to a teen- aged daughter's party in night dress.
Similarly, political correctness now dictates that 500 years ago a Rajput princess could not have married a Muslim emperor. Rajput associations of Rajasthan began pretty reasonably. One leader apparently had objections because Jodhaa was not Akbar’s wife but daughter- in- law and for those who still could not understand the brouhaha, he explained: “ It is like saying that Aishwarya Rai is Amitabh Bachchan’s wife and not Abhishek’s.” These leaders obviously reflected the state of the bewildered Rajput masses. After all the movie was on a princess from their region and their caste, who spoke their language. How could her father have given her away to a Mughal, just to keep his throne?
Now, the dominant narrative of the life and times of Rajputana states is that of the beautiful Rani Padmini and Rani Karnavati commiting jauhar or ritual mass suicide by jumping into pyres, followed by hundreds of retainers in neat Amar Chitra Katha frames. Maharana Pratap remains as unblemished as he was when he first appeared on the cover of the comic book and all his descendants too claim similar valour. Of course, a claim made loud much after their British masters left the country.
For instance, this is what the anonymous Wikipedia historian has to say about Chittor: “ Chittorgarh is the epitome of Rajput ( Indian warrior caste) pride, romance and spirit, for people of Chittor always chose death before surrendering against anyone.” The many wikipedias of popular historiography coalesce into the mainstream identity of the warrior caste members who would die or commit suicide, but would not submit to anyone, let alone seek matrimonial alliance with the “ other” to perpetuate their power.
Relative prosperity of the recent years has only added to the myth of glorious caste or community lineages. And this by no means is an exclusive upper caste Hindu construct. Most Christians ( Orthodox, Syrian Catholic and even some Anglican denominations) of Kerala claim that they were once Brahmins, depending on which generation they came into money and an English language education.
Like Wikipedia, most of these Christians have their own family histories, which are genealogies that trace their history back to the first century AD, the ( disputed) arrival of St Thomas and his personally converting a Nampoothiri Brahmin family to Christianity. Most Christian children are made to read and listen to this family history, which is often internalised. Ancient Portuguese- built churches in landlocked villages indicating Portuguese persuasion or the proof of lower caste or mass Dalit conversions by British missionaries notwithstanding, every moneyed Christian other than the Latin Catholics close to the shore, believes with great conviction that he or she is of Nampoothiri stock.
Interestingly, the colour of the skin is also applied as an absolute test for Brahminhood in this coastal state, which many light- skinned people have visited since man began sea- faring. In states with a Kshatriya- vaccum like Tamil Nadu, Thevars and Vanniyars, now categorised as other backward castes, take pride in their imagined martial past. Wherever history slips into mythology, we confront the same theme of dominant ideology pushing pluralistic variations beyond the margins, even violently. For instance, the Ram Lila troupes of Ramanand Sagar and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad seem to have copyrighted Ram. Eminent scholar AK Ramanujan’s essay on the many Ramayanas, including a Dalit version, as reading material is enough for a professor of history of Delhi University to get beaten up by VHP’s campus wing, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad.
The VHP’s Ramayan has restricted the right to imagine the text in its million regional and linguistic variations. When a consummate politician like M Karunanidhi confidently asks for Ram’s engineering degree, it is primarily because of his understanding of Ram in the Tamil milieu, which surely isn’t that of the Sangh Parivar.
According to Sangh Parivar historians, Ram is supposed to have crossed the Palk Strait from Rameshwaram, building the Adam’s bridge or Rama Sethu to save Sita. But the Parivar could only get the traffic stopped in Delhi, not Tamil Nadu over this issue. Still, the central government is uncomfortable dealing with the dredging of the Palk Strait. The political correctness of Congress, a socalled centrist political formation, is favouring the path of least resistance, instead of standing up against locally irrelevant shibboleths.
The attack on the Delhi University professor brings in a curiously counter parallel from the south. Ram is dwarfed by the magnificent portrayal of Ravan in CN Sreekantan Nair’s great Ramayan trilogy in Malayalam. The three plays span the lives of Dasharath ( Saketham ), a husband blinded by love failing his son; Ram, a cruel husband deserting his wife for the mores of power ( Kanchana Sita ); and Ravan ( Lankalakshmi ) the great king who wanted to make Sita, the jewel of Lanka. These three are not recommended reading but compulsory ones in undergraduate and graduate classes in Kerala.
But for how long? Probably, till the Sangh Parivar wins enough votes to force centrist formations to accept the VHP version of Ramayan . The NDA rule had to a great extent made Jai Shri Ram a slogan where it had no resonance earlier.
One of the best instances of the change in the popular political idiom is the acceptance of the phrase, “ pseudo- secular”. This was coined by LK Advani and his acolytes to abuse all those who opposed their project to demolish the 15th century Mughal mosque in Ayodhya. Many believed and still believe that bringing down an old mosque will and should not right the wrongs of history. Many believe that fresh blood cannot wash away the warts of history and that like our face we should learn to live with our ugly past. Advani called those who held such beliefs pseudo-secularists. Now, this phrase is bandied about even in commentaries on Naxalism.
Incidentally, two of the country’s big newspapers find the concept of secularism so odd that, they put this word within inverted commas in their political copies. This surely is no season for the syncretic faith of Din- i- Ilahi, or a subtle retelling of a great moment in medieval history, when an invader turns native and determinedly seeks to build a composite culture. In the present day political correctness, the idea of a Rajput princess, even a fictional Jodhaa as malika-e-hindustan would only be treated with suspicion or get trapped within the inverted commas of political correctness.