Religious intolerance puts an end to column on Ramayana

Trivandrum: Literary figure and columnist M M Basheer, who was writing a series of columns on Ramayana in the Malayalam daily Mathrubhumi, has been forced to abandon his venture owing to threats and abusive telephone calls by unidentified people.

According to a report in Indian Express, the writer, who was tasked with writing a series of six columns about Valmiki Ramayana, received a series of calls by unidentified people who sought his credibility on writing about Ramayana, citing his Muslim identity. The editorial desk of the newspaper also got calls asking why the newspaper “got a Muslim to write on the Ramayana”.

Though the callers didn’t identify themselves, a Hindutva offshoot called the Hanuman Sena, has charged the newspaper with similar allegations in posters it put up near the paper's Calicut head office. The same organisation had also indulged in vandalism in the city during the ‘Kiss of Love’ protest against moral policing a few months ago. 

The writer, a former professor of Malayalam at the University of Calicut, is an associate of the modernist movement in Malayalam literature and his doctoral work on the work of Malayalam poet Kumaran Asan is considered path breaking.

“Every day, I would get repeated calls abusing me for writing on the Ramayana. At the age of 75, I was being reduced to just a Muslim. I couldn’t take it and I stopped writing,” Basheer was reported to have said. He added, “My series was on Valmiki Ramayana. Valmiki depicts Rama with human characteristics and does not shy away from criticising his actions. The callers were taking exception to the poet’s criticism of Rama, which was given in quotes. Most of the callers would not hear out my explanation but just abuse me… few among the callers knew the difference between the two texts and very few cared,” he said.

The month of July-August, called 'Karkidakam' or Ramayana month features articles and perspectives of the various versions of Ramayana by well-known authors and theatre artists cutting across a cross section of identities, including religious. In the past, other critics such as Thomas Mathew, poet and popular lyricist, the late Yusuf Ali Kecheri, and poet and teacher, Veerankutty, have contributed to such columns despite their varying religious identities.

Malayalam, just like other languages also has different adaptations of Ramayana even including a Muslim version called “Mappilah Ramayanam”.