Source – Google
Wednesday, August 5, 2020, marked a momentous overturn for India’s broader policy narrative, a new steer in inter-state relations forged on the bedrock of heritage and mythology. Citing Lord Ram’s benign influence that ties India’s spiritual core to its state of polity, Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his address on the occasion of the bhoomi-poojan ceremony for a grand Ram Temple in Ayodhya, did not fail to highlight the broader international reach the deity’s halo has attained over ages. It was an instance of reckoning, as the Prime Minister went on to describe Lord Ram’s historical linkages with the cultures and populations of a range of countries and the diverse proliferation of the Ramayana in different forms across the peninsula. From the Ramker Ramayana read in Cambodia to Hikayat Seri Ram in Malaysia and Ramaken in Thailand, the address was a testimonial to Ram’s ever-stretching influence and might. Interesting was the element that PM Modi pushed in his address as the common thread of Ram’s redolence. Even in countries primarily Islamic, such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Iran, and India’s adversaries such as Pakistan and China, Lord Ram’s influence has commingled with local ways of life in a manner several define as the undergird of India’s erstwhile hold over the Asian frontier.
Lord Ram’s paragon in the Indian fore is not unknown, for his ideals and life have been erected as the most admirable edifice backgrounding the Indian political thought. The same Constitution which eulogises Ram’s eternal figure of justice and righteousness on the covering motif of Part III-Fundamental Rights of its original copy, also gives the breadth of ideal detail to the guiding principles of India’s foreign policy in Part IV. Article 51 of the Constitution of India employs the phrase “open, just, and honourable” characterising the balanced utopia of international relations that must be achieved by the state– more or less the same principles Lord Ram is known to have avowed to in his private and public life.
The defining principles of Ram Rajya have been those governing the constitutionally mandated as well as the morally acknowledged position of the Indian state in and beyond the subcontinent. When this constitutional morality is synonymously used for merits of the rule of law, good governance, justice for all, and equality among equals– when the people come at the topmost echelon of the chain to be catered by the state politick– it becomes evident that the architects of modern India were thinking of Ram’s philosophy and existence.
On the other hand, Ram’s hand in the overall state trajectory constructing a healthy Indian society has also been overlooked, and the deity is seldom pulled into the picture. The reality is different. The way Ram has captured the Indian political imagination over the last 7 decades and more largely remains unparalleled by any other figure of historical or mythological significance. From Gandhi’s “Hey Ram!” to Periyar’s cynical view of the Ramkatha, it is clear that in one form or another, Lord Ram has been a primary face of inspiration and commentary since the very incipient nurturing points where the political scene was beginning to take the shape as we know it best today.
As the global discourse took a dramatic turn the past year with a looming pandemic crippling the economy and bringing human lives to their knees, India was turning to the light of Ram. While human lives turned indoors, the Government of India decided to rerun Ramanand Sagar’s 1987 mega-show on Doordarshan, simultaneously recognising 15 essential destinations as landmarks within the national Ramayana Circuit, an initiative by the Ministry of Tourism. This has marked an overt and conspicuous twist in Ram’s outward projection, given the fact that Ram’s association with the extreme Hindu Right has hitherto been the sole facet of his magnanimous identity from India’s end on the global map. India’s dealing of COVID-19 seemed to change that.
The frequent invocation of Ram’s tethering ideals and, through him, one common heritage, in most ASEAN summits in recent years has added a distinct dimension to India’s Act East Policy. Proposals as specific as diplomacy drives across Asia-Pacific in the name of Ram have been a newly emergent bubble in the game, and for India’s foreign relations, this novel outward mission to repaint Ram’s figure as an institution of camaraderie as well as a mutual history has helped us gain a warmth that can only be expected of people sharing common heritage.
Soft diplomacy unfolding with exchange of artefacts and presents in Ram’s name, inauguration of kite festivals based on Ramayana in Jakarta, recounting of the Persian melding in the grandiose of the epic, as also the frequent analogies of Kashi with Kyoto and Ayodhya with Korea have been just a few aspects of this new trend in the broader Ram paean. The historical and more explicit litany for Ram in the form of the recognition of the Adam’s Bridge as ‘Ram Setu’ in Sri Lanka leading to the unveiling of the Ramayana Trail in 2015 has only strengthened the shared cultural ties between the two nations in the last decade.
The 2020 feud on the international fora between India and Nepal over Lord Ram’s original place of birth was concerning, but also reiterative of the fact that the position the deity has assumed in recency is not just characterised by its uniqueness, but is also a reminder for the country that for people across the world, the deity is more than just a cultural symbol, a spiritual treasure to be preserved and cherished. Again, India’s charitable help to over 150 countries with resources during the global pandemic, and now with the homegrown COVID-19 vaccine to countries like Bhutan, Pakistan, Oman, Brazil, Nepal, among others is a resounding echo of the way the Indian political way of thinking is being more and more reflective of administrator Ram, the beau ideal manifestation of the principles that only still blared with the Ram-Rajya allusion.
So, when state heads, ranging from Brazil’s Bolsonaro and the UK’s Boris Johnson commend India’s vaccine help as ‘sanjeevani’ or chant Ramayana’s anthology as a metaphor against the pandemic, when Sri Lanka bows its head towards a common culture by naming its first-ever satellite “Raavana-1”, or when the Indonesian President Joko Widodo surprises India with Ramayana-inspired mementos, it is hardly surprising.
It was time India sealed scattered and threadbare external bonds with an unprecedented calibration, strategies that are far-seeing but also symbolically golden. Has India been successful in the endeavour? So far, so good. It was also time India re-embraced Ram as its central beacon of light, for its tryst with the truth and for its values higher than the essence of life. And for India, things are now changing.
Disclaimer: The following article is an opinion piece and is based purely on the personal opinion of the author. The opinions expressed do not reflect the opinions of the organization.
Samridhi Chugh is a final-year student of Journalism with Political Science at Lady Shri Ram College for Women.
Interested in exploring the confluence of law, policy and print media, she tends to use the written word as a conduit for her scattered emotions.
She aspires to pursue legal journalism at a near future.