Ravana's Women

Why does Hindutva only see women as Sita or Surpanakha and not talk about the warrior women of Ramayana at the receiving end of violence?

- Devdutt Pattanaik

THE Hindutva brigade keeps insisting it is the sole representative of Hinduism in the world, while it keeps promoting only Hindi, a north Indian language. Hence, a bill that aims to enable the equality of women in Indian politics is given a Hindi name, the Nari Shakti Vandan Abhinayam (or the Women’s Reservation Bill, 2023).

But typically, it becomes patronising as the bill is presented as an obeisance (vandan) to women’s power (nari shakti). That this obeisance will be given a few years later, not immediately, reveals the cynical nature of the bill.

Those promoting this bill are Hindi-speaking men who joyfully heckle Tamil female parliamentarians, on camera. This draws attention to an old divide, amplified since the 19th century—north Indian men are seen as followers of the Aryan Ram, and south Indian women are seen as the Dravidian king Ravana’s women.

Sanatani Hindutva’s Ram is always visualised alone, as a warrior, never as husband or lover, brother, son or father. Hindutva’s Hanuman, Krishna and Shiva are also visualised alone, in an aggressive stance. Women are shown as Durga, again a warrior, again alone. Bharat Mata is also alone, with a lion and weapons. God is male here and if not male, certainly violent. To justify the violence, the victims have to be evil or unjust or barbaric. That’s the job of the media, to project all victims as villains, deserving of violence. Ravana is then seen as a villain, but the problem is that he is also a Brahmin, and since the 19th century, a Dravidian. And he is surrounded by women who fight for him.