Mahabharat, Ramayana and the BJP
Why the BJP loves referring to Lord Ram
In a world in which most people have a black and white worldview - with PC wokes on one side and the orthodox right wingers on the other, I’m probably in the minority which looks at the world with grey tinted glasses. Instead of having strong opinions on many topics or be passionately attached to ideas and dogmas, I always try to get be dispassionate about them. This allows me to have a more nuanced interpretation of what is really happening and helps me be better informed. If the world was better informed and less opinionated, I’m convinced that most of the teething issues we face will go away.
Now, one of the things I regret about my childhood is how I didnt know much about Hindu mythology. This was probably due to a mix of my own apathy and being from an elite English speaking convent school (I probably knew more about the Bible than the Ramayana at a time). I did learn a little about the Ramayana thanks to Ramayana: The Legend of Prince Rama (fun fact - Bryan Cranston of Breaking Bad was the voice of Ram in the Western version) and through children’s story books but learnt very little about the Mahabharata. I told this to my wife recently and baselessly cited that Ramayana is a better epic and her reaction was of disbelief and scoff. So I made up my mind to read up on the Mahabharata soon and collected 2-3 books on the same (I have read one as I write this).
My first reaction - My wife couldn't be more right - The Mahabharat blew my mind. Apart from all the infinite relatable wisdom, what I really love at how grey that world was! A protagonist wife with 5 rotating husbands, a god on earth who promoted war and didn’t mind killing an enemy peeth piche, protagonists who weren’t really protagonists and stories and characters full of greed, envy, lust and what not.
At the same time, the Ramayana is far more straightforward and black and white. The ideal good guy who was wronged and went into exile overcomes the odds and beats the bad guy who kidnaps his wife. It does not have the immoral elements that the Mahabharat is full off.
And that is probably why the BJP/RSS loves mentioning Lord Ram everywhere (Jai Shri Ram, Ram Mandir, Ram Rajya etc) - he is the embodiment is the ideal person and is far easier to market and falls in line with how the party projects PM Modi. It is far easier to sell the image of an ideal man (a far simpler narrative) than a non idealistic man who does what needs to be done (Lord Krishna). This thread on quora gave a few answers on the same lines.
My knowledge of Hindu mythology is obviously still very limited. I’d love to hear if this does not make sense to you.
Maybe this is why the left wing junta wasn’t all too happy with the movie RRR - the movies is as black and white as it gets and shows the protagonist (Ram Charan) as en embodiment of Lord Ram