Among the many things the Western world does to civilize us heathens
is their effort to tamper with our Sanskriti. One of the important parts of our
Sanskriti are the Puranas. As the name would suggest, Purana means something that
happened at an earlier time.
That clearly means that it isn’t a work of fiction or
imagination. While I wouldn’t get much into why and how here. There are many
resources available on net about dating Ramayana that debunk the lies put out
by Max Muller and co[1].
These thinkers consider Ramayana as a story written not by
one (person) Valmiki but many, many people over a period of very many years. They say Ramayana originated as the story of a
King called Ram in the Jataka Tales of the Buddhists. The Brahmins then copied
it from them and started using Ramayana as a tool for social oppression with the blessings of the Kings[2].
The characters in Ramayana don’t have the power to think on
their own, they are controlled and manipulated by powerful characters. For
example, Rama is asked to go to the forest by Dasharata and without batting an
eyelid he goes. He doesn’t reason it out with Dasharata which means that Rama
is controlled by him and Rama can’t think on his own[3].
The other important thing they put forward is that Ramayana
is the story about suppressing the “other”. The “Good” Rama kills the “Demonic”,
“Other” Ravana. This is based on a Western thought called “othering” where you demonize the other person whom you don't like or want to fight against. According
to these scholars, Ramayana and the cult of Rama didn’t exist in India (like
today) before the Islamic invasion happened. So worshiping and celebrating
Rama started only after the Islamic invasion as a tool to fan hatred against
the “other” invader and encourage people to fight them the same way Rama fought
Ravana. They project this theory on to the Rama Janmabhoomi dispute to show how
the Hindu fundamentalists “other” the minorities[4].
There are other issues in Ramayana according to them, like
oppression of the backward classes, women etc. Encouraging the fact that the
ruler is god, he should be worshiped and he shouldn’t be questioned[5].
This sort of distortion of truth to infuse our literature
with Western concepts and rewrite them in a "secular" or "sanitized" way is not just limited to Ramayana. This is
done on all works Indian and all things Sanatana Dharma. The Western scholars
call this secularizing Indian literature.
They want to remove all the oppressive elements from our
literature, clean it and then give us back a sanitized, secular version for public consumption. So,
Siya Ke Ram is one of the secularized versions of Ramayana which is being fed
to us.
If you notice, there is a subtle women’s right, tribal
oppression, regressive rituals, diabolic thinking of ancient Indians that is
highlighted in the serial.
For example, to show Sita as the champion example of a free
thinking, independent woman there is this promo I saw recently which shows her capturing
a Asvamedha horse from Ayodhya and being shown as THE example of a progressive woman, a
rebel.
If you know even a bit of Valmiki Ramayana, you will know
that Dasharata performed ONE Asvamedha before Rama was born, Sita wasn’t born
before Rama. And therefore Sita couldn’t have captured the Asva (horse) from
that Yajna ? Logic, right ? The story has been distorted to show Sita as a
rebel and an independent woman.
The next one is about the story of Shanta (Dasharata & Kaushalya’s
eldest daughter who was adopted by the King of Anga, Dasharata's very close friend and his wife, Kaushalya's elder sister).
Siya Ke Ram shows that Dasharata abandons his daughter in quest for a “Male”
child. And he makes Shanta sacrifice her
youth and beauty (I have put it very mildly here. I’m sure those who watched
the serial know how they show it) to go to the forest with Rishyasringa. All
this in exchange for getting Rishyasringa to do a Puthrakameshti Yajya to beget
a “Male” child. So you give away a "Female" child and pray for a "Male" child, a prime example for gender bias and oppression of women.
There are other things highlighted by many like showing the
demon “Other” as a tribal. This is to create tensions among the people of India
to get brother hate brother[6].
In essence Siya Ke Ram is nothing but an attempt by the Hinduphobic to discredit our Sanskriti. So that our kids (and even us)
who watch this serial think that our Puranas are nothing but oppressive stories
and start hating our own past and move to the more secular options that the Western
world will provide.
That is the reason why I say, Siya Ke Ram is pure poison
that is best avoided. If you really want to know more about Ramayana, indulge
in the Ramanand Sagar version that we saw as kids when we were growing up. That
is a far superior version that doesn’t contain the many distortions that the
current version has.
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