Sadhvi Niranjan and almost all Indians are not Ramzaadas
You must give credit to people when it’s due. After 10 years of Congress spokespersons playing cute in the face of evidence, we now have their BJP counterparts trying hard to look cute. I have been watching them defend the beautiful Persian-laced Sanskrit expletives from the holy chops of a Sadhvi of no less than the ministerial order. While they admit she was way out of line, they also pretend that the media hasn’t got the gist of it. According to them, to get a metaphor is beyond our collective mental capacity. Incredibly sweet. But let us go meta on the metaphor and the defence.
She said: “Dilli mein yaa to Ramzaadon ki sarkar banegi, ya haraamzaadon ki (Delhi will have a government of either those born of Ram or those born in illegitimacy).”
The Opposition says, she has not only abused non-BJP leaders but also used communal politics to divide people by invoking Lord Ram. The accusation is that the statement was aimed at othering non-Hindus, primarily Muslims, Christians and so on.
The BJP’s defence is that she may have used an inappropriate word, Haraamzaadon, but by Ramzaadon she meant all Indians —since Ram is our common ancestor. After all, even Allama Iqbal called him Imam-e-Hind. We are all Ram’s sons and daughters. Period.
How captivating an idea for communal harmony. The trouble is, it isn’t so. Since we are all going medieval on facts, let me go technical on them.
Even if we believe that all Indians were at one point Hindus, the Sadhvi’s statement doesn’t hold water. Critics say by Ramzaadon she meant BJP supporters, because at one time the party led a movement to build a temple where Lord Ram is assumed to have been born. That movement gave birth to the new, aggressive, powerful BJP. The rathyatra man has since gone to the backstage as the Gujarat man has taken centerstage. But the party owes a lot to Ram and occasionally invokes the lord. Like the Sadhvi did, presuming she is a Ramzaadi. Is she?
Ram, according to the books, was a Kshatriya. Now try telling a Brahmin that sons of Ram spawned Brahmins. They will never ever accept that because they are proud of their “superiority” and “purity”. It’s likely that they would take that as an affront. That keeps the Brahmins out.
The other large support group, the trading communities often referred to as baniyas, cannot claim being Ramzaadas because Kshatriyas will not take that lying down. Vaishyas do not claim to be born of Ram but have for ages wished well for the most just man to walk the earth. Vaishyas have eternally needed just kings because the unjust ones would tax them heavily and make doing business difficult. A lack of rule of law would make them vulnerable to thugs and plunderers. They also needed guarantee of peace and safety that only kings could provide. Who better a king than Raja Ram? So Vaishyas believe Ram to be the ideal idol to worship, but do not consider born of him.
Since Ram was the pinnacle of justice and equanimity, his people loved him. When in exile, the Maryada Purushottam shared berries with Shabri, a Dalit in modern parlance, she was overwhelmed by the gesture. This also makes it clear that she didn’t expect a man born in a higher caste to share her food even in adversity.
Since caste is a hallmark of Hindu mythology and the lords of Dwapar and Treta Yuga have castes well marked, the chance of anybody but Kshatriyas claiming to be Ramzaadas is invalid.
It can’t be all Kshatriyas, too, because Ram was a Raghuvanshi Kshatriya. So only Raghuvanshis can claim that status. Here we must consider that Ram wasn’t the only Raghuvanshi. He had uncles and brothers, who had children. They can’t be Ramzaadas either. So much so that even Lakshman’s sons and daughters are out.
The later Kshatriyas, Rajputs, Jats and Gujjars, weren’t even living in India in the period assumed to be Treta Yuga.
Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti is a Dalit and a devotee of Ram but the books that she reveres are pretty clear about lineage. If not all, most Hindus worship Ram as the moral guiding light and consider sacred everything associated with him. They are Rambhakt, not Ramzaade. Only some of the Raghuvanshis are born of Ram or Ramzaade. What does it make you and the rest of us then, Sadhviji?