[INDOLOGY] Discussion on Sita being made into a rabid feminist to call him a 'pig'

[Camillo Formigatti]

There is also this (apologies for stealing this line from a reply to another thread about rape in India):

https://thewire.in/religion/the-many-criticisms-of-rama-and-the-anger-of-the-hindu-right

Again, if I may put my two cents in, this is clearly a political, not a scholarly discussion. For what is worth, I think that every scholar has the right to interpret any kind of text in any way she or he wants and if somebody is offended by this interpretation, that’s not the scholar’s problem. In this specific case, the only question to be asked in my opinion is whether the interpretation and rendering of this passage is sound and not anachronistic. I do think for instance that the concept of misogyny applied to this Ramayana passage is completely anachronistic and thus this interpretation is not sound, but at the same time I do not really understand the problem in criticizing Rama’s behaviour, whatever the choice of words. Let’s call this issue for what it really is, namely the umpteenth attempt of right-winged Hindu supporters to silence any possible interpretation of sacred texts that is in contrast with their own interpretation. This is what really scares me and I believe that all of us should be really scared and outraged reading the reactions to Audrey Truschke’s tweet, they are awful.

Best wishes,

Camillo

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John Clay Sanskrit Librarian

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From: Nagaraj Paturi [mailto:nagarajpaturi at gmail.com]
Sent: 27 April 2018 05:06
To: Indology <INDOLOGY at list.indology.info>
Subject: [INDOLOGY] Discussion on Sita being made into a rabid feminist to call him a 'pig'

Some of you might be interested in

https://swarajyamag.com/culture/the-scholar-whom-audrey-truschke-cites-finds-her-tweet-shocking

--
Nagaraj Paturi

Hyderabad, Telangana, INDIA.


BoS, MIT School of Vedic Sciences, Pune, Maharashtra

BoS, Chinmaya Vishwavidyapeeth, Veliyanad, Kerala

Former Senior Professor of Cultural Studies

FLAME School of Communication and FLAME School of  Liberal Education,

(Pune, Maharashtra, INDIA )





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