Readers of the Indian Express on January 23 might have overlooked – in the flood of Ram Mandir stories – one news item tucked away in the interior pages. It talked about a small temple in the village of Raveri in Yavatmal district, the same region of Maharashtra where, according to the Valmiki Ramayana, Sita and her sons Luv and Kush, had spent their exile from Ayodhya.
The article claims that it is the only Sita Temple in the whole of India. There had been, prior to the bulldozing of the ground in preparation for the new Ram Mandir, a building called Sita’s Kitchen. But that wasn’t even a temple.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had spoken, after consecrating the Ram Statue in the new premises, of the need to create a Ram Rajya that embodies the virtues of a just, inclusive and compassionate rule.
It would have been befitting for an event which the present prime minister evoked in such terms and called a historic moment, to not only welcome back Ram, but also resurrect his consort. For far too long our Sitas have been buried under the furrows of the land to which she had retreated in order to save her honour as a wife and a woman.
Sita’s Sati had been a silent protest against the treatment meted out to her by her spouse and king. To many women in India, throughout its long history, Sita has been seen not only as the model wife, but also as the archetypal victim of a male-dominated world. To this day, male pre-eminence remains the societal norm reserved to men, best represented by the figure of King Ram, and sanctified by his assigned divine status.
Ever since the constitution was established by India’s first parliament – a document which, it is worth remembering, the current prime minister himself has called his ‘Gita’ – the equal rights of women have been enshrined and guaranteed. The foundation had thus been laid for a society that is neither patriarchal nor matriarchal, but based on the mutual respect of a shared citizenship.
The symbolic framing of the inauguration of a Ram Temple in Ayodhya as a ‘second Birth of the Nation’, this time not political but cultural and societal ruling elite, could have offered the chance to welcome back Sita as the country’s queen alongside her spouse.
It would have been even more befitting if one looks at the inthronisation of Ram in his child avatar as Ram Lalla, moreover at his very birthplace. Sita’s presence would have given due respect to the symbol of motherhood and to the essential role a mother plays in delivering a child and rearing it to full personhood.
It was not to be, and this erasure of constitutional Dharma reflects not only the male-dominated narrative of the whole Mandir movement and its apogee moment, the grand ceremony of January 22, 2024. It also leads one to suspect (and fear!) that the Golden Future of Indian Society envisaged by the ruling elite remains trapped in the male-dominated past.
For it is not only the legal code of the constitution which directs society – and its male flag bearers – to give up their predominant role. It is also a historical duty. For far too long Indian and indeed global society have lived by the negative values that are rooted in male psychology – those of power and authority, of rivalry and the language of violence.
There is no doubt in my mind that this one factor has brought the world to its present predicament, riven by constant wars, by systematic violence against nature, and a climate of suspicion and envy, of fear and hate among citizens.
Resurrecting Sita from her grave – especially after ‘unearthing’ the very spot of her birth-giving as the spiritual fulcrum – would have been a powerful symbol of healing for both men and women of India. It would have put a spotlight on the shadows that besiege our society, proof of which can be seen in the fact that India’s poets and folk tellers have constantly given it expression in the many versions of the Ramayana Katha.
The mere survival, viz. thriving of this myth through two millennia, is testimony enough that these shadows exist, and that they need to be looked at. To give this continuing erasure a symbolic focus point, Sita should, at the very least, be given a sacred place of redemption in her honour. A new peaceful and respectful movement should start – today for every Sita to rise in the hearts of every woman.
Jai Siyaram.
Rashna Imhasly-Gandhy is a psychologist and author of the books The Psychology of Love – Wisdom of Indian Mythology and The Emerging Feminine – discovering the Heroine Within.