ON October 6 last year, the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) official X handle uploaded a poster of Rahul Gandhi dressed as Raavan, sporting metallic war-guards and seven heads. The muscular image of the Congress leader accompanied a politically charged caption: "The new age Raavan is here. He is Evil. Anti-Dharma.
Anti-Ram. His aim is to Destroy Bharat." Interestingly, this poster popped up just three months before the consecration ceremony of the Ram Temple, which was presided over by none other than Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself.
The contest over the portrayals of Ram and Raavan in Indian political narratives is not new. In December 1974, a year after the death of Dravidian activist-scholar Periyar, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) supporters organised a Raavan Leela in Chennai (then Madras), where they burnt effigies of Ram, Lakshman and Sita. This Raavan Leela was a political response to Indira Gandhi's participation in a Ram Leela event.
Esta historia es de la edición October 21, 2024 de Outlook.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor ? Conectar
Esta historia es de la edición October 21, 2024 de Outlook.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor? Conectar
Love in Bombay
In a city continuously grappling for space, lovers have found their own pockets of expression jostling against one another
Unscripted Moments
Street photography is all about finding the extraordinary in the ordinary, one candid moment at a time
Sambhal Files
An engineered silence weighs heavily on the stillness of the empty streets in the centuries-old town of Sambhal, Uttar Pradesh, where clashes with police over yet another 'mandir-masjid' dispute led to the deaths of local Muslim men
A State of Difference
What is about the Adivasis of Jharkhand that prevents the saffron lotus from blooming or even taking root, unlike in the Adivasi-majority seats of Chhattisgarh and Odisha where the BJP did exceedingly well in the past few years?
BJP Trumps Thackeray's Sena
The tables have turned on the original harbingers of communal politics in Maharashtra
Verses of Witnessing
The most imaginative chronicles of Mumbai's \"spirit\" come to us from the city's poets
Walking Through the Homes
Chandni Chowk is being usurped by a redevelopment model that will wipe out its unique blend of history, culture and commerce
Cost of Living, Price of Loving
In Mumbai's Kamathipura, the business of sex fails to keep up with the profits of real estate
A Taste of History
A delectable food walk in Old Delhi uncovers layers of history
Dramatis Personae
Comparing an actor's struggles in Delhi and Mumbai maps out the differing cultures of two disparate cities
