Author Amish Tripathi believes that the rebuilding of the Ram temple in Ayodhya is a 'moment of unity'. Speaking to Editorji's Vikram Chandra, the author said the legal procedure that led to the construction of the new Ram temple is 'an example' how such matters can be handled across the world without giving in to the 'tempers of the moment'.
Amish Tripathi also spoke about his documentary 'Ram Janmabhoomi Temple: The Return of a Splendid Sun' which chronicles the history of the Ram temple.
Here are some excerpts from the interview:
Vikram Chandra: Hello everyone, welcome to this Editorji special. We have with us none other than Amish Tripathi, who is of course India's number 1 best known author. The person behind the Ramchandra series, also the person behind the ‘The Immortals of Meluha’. If you really want to understand anything about Indian culture, Indian mythology and, by the way, Indian history also if you put Suheldev and other such stories into the mix, no one better could tell us about our own history and our own heritage and our own mythology more than Amish. So, Amish it's always a pleasure talking to you.
Amish Tripathi: Thank you Vikram. What an embarrassing introduction, thank you so much! I'll try live up to it.
Vikram Chandra: Accurate. It may be embarrassing but accurate. The interesting thing is… that is what I want to talk to you about… is you are now moving written text to video. This new documentary that you have just done on the Ram Mandir is actually been really burning up the charts right, it was fairly, it was beating a lot of movies when I last saw the Jio numbers.
Amish Tripathi: Yeah, it's… You know I think...the thing that struck me is that the rebuilding of this temple is actually, in a way, a seminal moment. Not just for a country, for a civilisation. Many, particularly among the youth, don't truly understand the significance of this. You can't blame them, because no one is telling them the entire story. You know, from the beginning till now, from the birth of Lord Ram till now… we thought that how about if we make a documentary on this. And we actually had a brief, you know the director, he actually said, "Look, we will not be left wing or right wing, we will only be Ram wing."
It is essentially a story which actually carries everyone along so that people can understand what truly happened, right. So what this documentary does… first of all we have the who is who, anyone associated with the movement and the temple itself. So, honourable Chief Minister Yogi Adityanth, Shri Shri Ravi Shankar who was in the mediation panel, Chief Justice Bobde who was in the panel that actually issued the judgement, Madhu Trehan who was among the only journalist who actually had video evidence of what happened in 1992.
We had historians like Meenakshi Jain, KK Mohammed the legendary archaeologist who was part of the group which actually did excavation work there…BR Mani who was the chief of the excavation that was ordered by the honourable high court of Prayagraj, then Allahabad. You know, so it truly is, and of course we got you know, even folk singers like Malini Awasthi who celebrates Lord Ram… Amjad Ali Khan who many don’t know made the music for Ramayana. It is essentially a story of what Lord Ram means to us. The story of the temple itself from the beginning till now and what is the way forward. So, this actually… if you want to see one documentary to understand the entire story and a short one… 75 minutes that's it… this is the one to see.
Vikram Chandra: But you know, can I ask you one question, the issue with the story like this, the story of Lord Ram, is that sometimes it is very difficult to get everyone to understand or accept or to even be on the same page as what the story was and who better to point at out than you because your reading of the story of Lord Ram himself is very different from what the traditional story around him is with the fact that he was not… everyone believes that he was the most revered and the most loved person in Ayodhya through his entire childhood, your books have them actually is being almost an outcast.
Amish Tripathi: And he suffered, he suffered a lot, but even in the traditional Ramayana, he did suffer a lot. And I think that's a thing to learn from lord Ram that there are...
Vikram Chandra: But Amish, there are people of Ayodhya, everyone believes that people of Ayodhya loved Lord Ram all through his growing years and you are saying that is not true.
Amish Tripathi: No, in fact, even in the traditional Ramayana, there were some who didn't, like Manthara didn't, like Ma Kaikeyi didn't but how did he behave with them as well. Like the dhobi, when he came back, he didn't (like Ram). He questioned him as well. But how did he behave, and to me that is the lesson from Lord Ram. Someone like Ravan, he suffered greatly, but his reaction to his suffering was that he would revisit it to the world times ten. If you hurt me, I will hurt the entire world… that was Ravan's approach, right. Lord Ram’s approach was that even to those who behave unfairly with him like Ma Kaikeyi, he behaved even more nobly, right. And this is one of the things, you know one of the things that beautifully came up in our documentary.
You know, we had of course, you know a sadhu who spoke to us. He told us his wonderful folk tradition that when Ravan was battlling Lord Ram and Lord Ram had defeated him. He let Ravana go saying he does not attack someone who is unarmed. Ravan then tells his wife Mandodari that there are many who say that Ram is the ideal son, the ideal friend, the ideal brother, but Ram is the ideal enemy as well. Ravan was lucky that he had an enemy like Lord Ram. So, in that sense, lord Ram is a precursor to what Mahatma Gandhi said… if you behave nobly, of course you improve your own character, but you actually improve the character of your enemy as well. Because even they are forced to, and I think these are the things that we can learn from Ram and the story.
This is a story that emerged for us from the way the Ram Janmabhoomi movement happened. And of course what happened in 1992, and even those who were there like, you know... the former Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani said that was wrong, but, if you see the movement after that, it was actually taken through a torturous process of law, where evidence was presented. There are such similar instances across the world, Hagia Sophia for example, right. What happened us, happened to many other cultures, you know across the world. This can be an example of how such issues can be handled. Not through the tempers of the moment and violence. But through a calm process of law where evidence is presented.
What's the benefit of something like this Vikram? One of the things that we learned, someone like Iqbal sahab who was actually one of the Muslim litigants, right, in the case and he actually said, I'm paraphrasing, but he said that if evidence is presented, you know that there was indeed a temple, he said he will accept his mistake and come for the darshan. And do you know that he was actually there on 22nd January. He said I want to come for the darshan… he was invited and he came, you know. If you go through a process of law where evidence is presented, where both sides can actually see what happens, it will probably lead to a better outcome. That was my learning, you know, from a documentary like this.
Vikram Chandra: Coming back to 1992 and the riot after that, obviously, the Ram Temple itself has become a highly politicised issue, not just the Ram Temple, even a simple phrase like ‘Jai Shree Ram’, which basically means victory to lord Ram, even that phrase became politically charged, a politically loaded phrase, right. Which is why it was interesting that on the 22nd, ‘Jai Siya Ram’, ‘Siyavar Ram Chandra ki Jai’, those sort of slogans were being used. How do you view that part of it? The politicisation of what is in… in other senses… something rooted in our history and our culture and our mythology.
Amish Tripathi: So look, politics does enter at times and one can't, you know, kind of step away from that. But the way I see it is politics will do what politics must. But there are those of us who are looking only at society and I think when you're looking at society, essentially, you're looking at a longer term period. Politics is by its very nature, and you can't blame politicians for that, is short term oriented because every politician will, and it's natural, will look only at the next elections as they should, you know, that's their job, right. Those of us who speak on society who speak on social issues, which are, which are much more long term oriented where the space one is looking at is at a much longer. It's not just for a few years, it is looking at a 20-year, 30-year period.
If you look at it from that perspective, then I think the rebuilding of the temple can be a moment of unity.