No Place For Intellectual Pluralism

By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam 10 February 2024 A professor and five students from Pune University were arrested a week ago on charges of allegedly hurting religious sentiments through a play based on 'Ramleela,' which reportedly contained objectionable dialogues and scenes, as per police reports on Saturday. A clash erupted between members of the RSS-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and students from Pune University's Lalit Kala Kendra over the play staged on Friday evening. "When a group of people suddenly becomes acutely 'aware' and over-sensitive about certain ethnic and religious beliefs and starts defending them tooth and nail, their fanaticism and belligerence may shock even those who belong to their belief system but aren't so truculent." Dr Amartya Sen, The Argumentative Indian (added notes) Mind you, Sen's The Argumentative Indian hit the stands in 2005. Almost two decades have elapsed since then. Twenty years ago, there may have been some sane voices among the Hindus but today, Hindu society has become religiously over-sensitive and touchy. A city like Poona, which has always been culturally and intellectually advanced like Calcutta, is also condemning the students and their teacher for 'insulting' the religious beliefs of the majority. This trend is alarming. First of all, this show was a part of the curriculum. It was a workshop which was vandalised by the goons. What the students enacted on the stage was nothing new. The same has been going on for decades and centuries in Ramleela shows in the Hindi belt of India. None ever objected. Ramayana is more of a folklore than being a (definite) mythological book or treatise. It can be interpreted in various ways. The sub-plots of Ramayana are ' interpretative and experimental appendages.' They've been interpreted differently. For example, the character of Meghnad (Ravan's son) has been presented in more than 30 ways. Michael Madhusudan Dutt's celebrated 'Meghnad Vadh' (written in blank verse) presents him positively. So much so that Sita cursed Lakshman for killing Meghnad on the sly! No one ever objected. But today, if you say that, Hindus will say that being a Christian (Michael Madhusudan Dutt embraced Christianity), Dutt's intention was to 'insult' Sita. Not only that, it'll be an act of sacrilege or blasphemy in today's Hindu India. Alas, things have drastically changed in the last ten years. There's no place for public debate and intellectual pluralism. Today, an average Hindu is as much a zealot as an average Muslim has always been. This saddens all those who're rational and consider god and religion as anathemas to mankind. ---- A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in several languages including Persian. URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/intellectual-pluralism-hindu-india/d/131688 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism