50 "Presenting" the Past
The Hindutva forces' invocation of Ram and Ramayana along the lines
of Eurocentric taxonomies such as national history facilitates not just the
evocation of Hindus but also the eradication of Islam and Muslims. This
composition of the cosmos implies that the "pure old glory" of Hinduism
prevails and the "polluting and invading" Islam becomes simply nonexis-
tent. This kind of tale "continue to mould existence for their assenting pos-
sessors" and initiate a process of acculturation in which the legatees absorb
the possessors' legacy, their "historical knowledge and consciousness."^18
As this legacy of the Hindutva forces corresponds with the picture gal-
lery the people have in their minds, the acculturation process takes tricky
turns (as described in the following two chapters). What is attempted here
is a cursory probe into the tale itself.
RAM STORIES: DISPARATE TELLINGS OF DIVERSE
PEOPLES
The broad outline of the various Ram stories may be sketched as follows:
King Dasaratha, the benevolent king of Kosala, was worried that he had
no successor to inherit his solar dynasty. When he confided this sad pre-
dicament in his spiritual mentor, the latter advised him to perform a reli-
gious sacrifice, for he had obtained the knowledge of some divine secret.
Earlier on, all the gods in the heavens had complained to the protector
god, Vishnu, about a demon called Ravana and his brothers acquiring tre-
mendous powers, threatening to enslave them, and thwarting virtues and
goodness everywhere. Vishnu promised them that Ravana had not asked
for protection from a human being, and hence he himself would incarnate
as King Dasaratha's son and deal with Ravana. He further revealed that
the conch and the wheel he carried in his hands and the serpent on which
he rested would be born as his brothers also.
When the sacrifice was held successfully, Dasaratha had four sons from
his three wives: Rama from Kausalya, Bharatha from Kaikeyi, and Lak-
shmana and Sathrugna from Sumithra. When the aging king had made
preparations to hand over the throne to his eldest son, Rama, one of
his wives, Kaikeyi, approached the king and reminded him of his ear-
lier promise of granting two unconditional boons of her choice as and
when she demanded them. Grabbing the opportune moment, Kaikeyi
demanded that her son, Bharatha, be crowned as the king and that Rama
be sent to the forest for 14 years in exile. Depressed and desolate as he was,
Dasaratha tried in vain to change his favorite wife's mind and slipped into
a fatal melancholy.
Kaikeyi, however, relentlessly engineered her cunning plans and prepa-
rations. Rama accepted the situation graciously without malice toward
his stepmother, expressed his determination to keep up his father's prom-
ise, and prepared to go to the forest instantly. His wife, Sita, and one of