I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it
Evelyn Beatrice Hall
Durga pooja and Dussehra may be a day of celebration of Brahmanic Hindus of India. But not for the Adivasis. It is also the day when their ancestors/gods are killed and their killing is being celebrated. But not anymore. A case has been slapped upon people who celebrate Mahishasura vadh. For the first time in the history of India, the Adivasis have asserted culturally against the celebration of Mahishasura vadh.
In Pakhanjor of Kanker district the Adivasi Moolnivasis first warned the authorities not to permit the non-Adivasis to celebrate Durga pooja and defame their devta Mahishasur. It is assumed that the district administration had warned the pooja committee members too. When this could not prevent members of Adivasi-Moolnivasi organisation went ahead to register an FIR against the insult on Mahishasura. Lokesh Sori the Kanker district Vice-President of SC/ST Morcha is the applicant and a case has been registered under sections 153(a), 295(a) and 298 of IPC. District Collector M.L. Kotwani has confirmed the registration of FIR against members of organising committee of Durga pooja festival celebration in Pakhanjor. He has informed that those accused are now absconding and they are being traced through their mobile numbers at present. Shobaraj Agrawal, Sub-Divisional Officer-Police (SDO-P) of Pakhanjor police station has also confirmed the case and said the lookout for the culprits is on.
People from Adivasi communities over the past one year had come together during different time, means and phases and exchanged their learning and understanding of true history on which they decided to take concrete action this year. It was with this assertion they marshalled their courage and with the blessing of brave ancestors they took a bold step this round.
The first news came from Raigarh when Adivasi communities in nearly 10 panchayats resolved not to celebrate Durga pooja and burning of effigy of Ravana this year. The Sarpanchs from these 10 panchayats came together and submitted a memorandum to the Police Station in charge in Raigarh. These include presidents from Khamhar, Gorpar, Khadgoan, Pandrapani, Puchiyapani, Nagoi and two other panchayats. The Block panchayat member had also signed the memorandum.
In Mohla-Manpur of Rajnandgoan district under the banner of Sarva Adivasi Moolnivasi Samaj a memorandum was addressed to the Governor of Chhattisgarh through the Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM). The memorandum signed by nearly 20 persons including the former MLA of Daundi-Lohara Janaklal Thakur notes –
‘We the Adivasi Moolnivasi people neither follow the rites and rituals of Hindu religion nor involve in any of them. We have our unique tradition and culture. According to this Ravana and Mahishasura are our ancestors and therefore we worship them. However, Hindu religious scriptures have described them as Rakshasa (demon) and for ages these ancestors have been insulted. Therefore keeping in mind the sentiments of Adivasi Moolnivasi people we request you to ban the effigy burning of Ravana and scorning of Mahishasura in Scheduled Area with immediate effect. This is essential to ensure our rights upheld in the Constitution.’
In Sukma the Sarpanch’s have come to form a Union of Sarpanchs. The president of the union Manju Kawasi submitted on behalf of all the Sarpanchs of Sukma district. The Sarpanchs have had detailed discussion on the matter before placing it in the memorandum format. The memorandum reads like –
‘We are the indigenous and Adivasi people of India. Our faith is based on nature worship and ancestor worship and we still continue this tradition. Since India is a secular nation and accordingly people of all religion, culture and traditions live here and are respected. But Adivasis are not Hindus. This has been confirmed by the Supreme Court of the country. Since Adivasis are not Hindus, it is an insult of the community’s ancestors Ravana, Kumbhakaran and Mahishasura being burnt and killed. Such insult of religion and faith of any community is strictly prohibited by the Constitution of India.
In accordance with Article 244 under Part-X of India’s Constitution, Adivasis have been guaranteed special rights in Fifth Scheduled. In Scheduled Areas Adivasis worship Ravana, Kumbhakaran and Mahishasura whom others refer as rakshasas (demon). Hindus burn and kill our ancestors is not only an infliction of wound on community cultural but it is an act of treason. In Fifth Scheduled Area it is would lead to action under provisions of SC/ST (PoA) Act and Section 124A of IPC. Even there are provisions to terminate officials who support such crime. Therefore we request you that in the cultural heartland of Adivasis do not let our ancestors be burnt. Do not to give permission for any such activity.’
It is a major victory considering the facts that the Adivasis can’t even worship their own God openly. In Rokda village of Janjgir-Champa there is a Mahisashura (Bhaisasur) shrine worshipped by Adivasis and Dalits. There are many similar instances which many times the community out of fear do not garner the courage to express openly. They fear that they would be immediately identified as followers of Asura parampara (tradition) and sanskruti (culture), which could follow with repercussion on community from dominant sections. The fear that state institutions would view them as rakshasas (demons or criminals in modern terms), look them down, target and corner them had kept them off the mainstream means of expressing their history and culture.
Who Are The Asuras?
Anand Neelakantan boldly authored the book Asura where he takes the reader on a rollercoaster of different world from the perspective of Asuras, especially that of Ravana and Bhadra. He therefore reversed the reading pattern of Ramayana from that one had known till date. Almost two years ago there was a documentary Ravanayana I heard of, where the director of the film intended to retell the story of Ramayana from the point of view of Ravana, the king of Lanka. India is a land of mythologies which do not hold any scientific base. I could not see the documentary till date. However, the story of Mahishasura vadh and Ravana vadh are part of Hindu mythologies which have blinded the masses of India without any scientific evidences.
Mahishasura is termed as the buffalo-demon and every year across India Durga pooja is pompously celebrated with a lot of fervour recollecting his killing. Ravana the ten-headed demon was assumedly killed on the third day of Mahishasura vadh and the festival of Dussehra is celebrated to commemorate the victory of Rama over Ravana. Whatever the mythologies and their contexts be, there has always been a counter story to the same. Many indigenous communities – particularly Adivasis and Dalits and in some cases a few other backward communities – in different parts of India consider Mahishasura and Ravana as their ancestral Gods. There are many folktales, music, songs, paintings, musical dramas, etc. that are popular in many parts of India.
As an anthropologist, I have been studying culture of various First Nation (indigenous) communities for nearly two decades. Such stories are commonly placed as a contest between good and evil. There are two key questions in it. One is who decides what is good and what is evil. Second is, for the Aryans all Dravidian indigenous leaders and even masses were potential centres of evil. Many of the indigenous and Dravidian social groups have rejected this notion of good and evil and have their own stories around the same issue.
As a social scientist I very well understand the importance of such community beliefs in the life and system of indigenous groups and am aware of various nuances of it. It also goes against the mainstream belief and thought that has percolated and permeated amidst the Indian society. It is in contrast with the Hindu mythological tales where both Mahishasura and Ravana are depicted as Rakshasa (demon), while in indigenous stories they are Rakshaks (saviours or fighters). One need not agree to the indigenous faith and belief system; however they do not hold the right to condemn or reject such myths either. Many communities regularly worship both Mahishasura and Ravana and there are hundreds of temples dedicated to both these gods in India and in many parts of the world. It is ironic that some people call for uniform code of religion and belief. It is in this context this debate becomes all the more critical.
Grounds for the New Countercultural Movement in Chhattisgarh
Adivasis from different parts of Chhattisgarh have warned the government not to allow people to burn the effigy of Ravana as it hurts their religious sentiments. It is for the first time that in Chhattisgarh the Adivasis have taken this bold step against the wind that has been blowing till now. Beyond the academic rhetoric, the community had gone ahead to take concrete action. It began in October 2014 when Vivek Kumar a social activist from Manpur of Rajnandgoan district of Chhattisgarh forwarded a comment against the Mahishasura vadh by Durga in a WhatsApp group. It was also the context when the office of Forward Press was ransacked and raided. With BJP coming to power in the centre the right wing Sangh Parivar took it out with all their strength and the dominant caste sections filed an FIR against him. He was accused of insulting Hindu sentiments along with creating a divide between Savarnas and other ‘lower’ castes. When he was not arrested the Hindu organisations took out several rallies and called for Manpur bandh on several occasions. Several houses of Adivasis, Dalits and OBCs were ransacked. These protests came out with slogans such as Mahishasur Ke Aulado Ko; Juta Maro Salo Ko (Children of Mahishasura; Beat those rascals with shoes). Finally he was arrested and remained in jail for several months before he was released. In the meantime thousand of Adivasis, Dalits and OBCs came in his support.
In October 2016 when Vijay Khandekar was arrested in Mungeli for assumedly defaming goddess Durga on his Facebook timeline, it erupted into a debate on the same issue among the Dalit sections in the state. In fact Khandekar only copied and pasted a message that has been already trolling for some time over WhatsApp, Facebook and other social media. This incident created a riot like situation between the dominant castes and Satnamis in Mungeli. After being in jail for four months, he got conditional bail from the High Court of Chhattisgarh in which he was restricted from entering Mungeli district. He was placed as a person with ‘criminally dangerous’ intention.
It is during the same time the National President of Adivasi Mahasabha and CPI leader Manish Kunjam of Sukma issued a public statement, ‘I am the son of Mahisashura and Ravana. They are my ancestors and as per Adivasi culture our ancestors are our Gods. Stop killing our devta every year.’ This was a bold statement from the tall Adivasi leader. Apart from hurling abuses on social media, Kunjan was physically attacked by Hindu organisations in Jagdalpur while he was conducting a press conference in CPI district office.
What was more significant in this entire episode is that it gave birth to a series of discussion and debate across the state among the Adivasis and Dalits on community culture, history and ethics. Pitambar Nirala of Dalit Mukti Morcha says, ‘neither Hindu devas are good nor Asuras are bad. Ravana was the king of the unknown multitudes – an able and good ruler, a kind human to his subjects, a scholar par excellence without any parallel, physically strong person with the strength of 10 men, a maestro in Veena music and so on. That is why Lanka prospered under his rule. There was no poverty or famine during his age.’
In many of those villages where people were conscious, particularly Dalits and Adivasis community members, they resolved not to celebrate Durga pooja and Dussehra anymore. Parallel to this at another level, Community Organisations and Social Organisations got engaged in severe discussion on questions such as Who is Mahisashura? Who is Ravana? Why are they killed every year? Youths in particular began to raise these questions with community elders, leaders, bards, researchers and other persons with knowledge on community aspects. These young men and women from the community went on to read more about their own history as retold from a non-Brahminical perspective. Group reading and sharing of what they learnt from these different sources went around.
They searched and researched who were these two characters Mahisashura and Ravana where they figured out Asura was one of their own oldest clans that fought brave battles against the Aryan invaders. They found the theoretical postulation that whosoever fought against the Arayan invasion were in fact the community’s freedom fighters who turned out to be a star in the sky. As per these beliefs these ancestors have becomes their Duma or devta or God in modern English parlances. It is these Dumas who have been regularly placed as devils, demons and centre of all evil. They in fact were good people, who fought the battery of external invasions of Aryans and others. That is the key reason why they have been revered and worshiped even today in many parts of India – from North to South.
Digree Prasad Chauhan a leader of Dalit Mukti Morcha says, ‘cultural imperialism of Hindutva has been blinded our people. Hence we need to break such shackles of slavery that killed our ancestors where the killers are worshiped. All those who were killed may it be Eklavya, Mahishasura, Ravana, Shambhug, Bali, Holika are our debtas and such moves needs to have a complete stop for all times. Moolnivasis have to be affirmative about what their true history is.’
Priyanka Sandilya an Adivasi scholar notes that, ‘how long we Adivasis should carry the label as Hindu slaves? How long are our Asura tribes to hide in fear of Durga’s anger during the period of navaratri? It is time to affirm that we are not the descendents of Aryan invaders or of their religion. We are who we are and what we are. We are the First Nations and no Hindu god belongs to us. Rather all those who are depicted as Rakshasas are our true god as they were our freedom fighters, our saviours. They posed severe threat to the external invaders and therefore were branded as Rakshasas.’
For the past few years, many students and youths at the university level have been observing the season of Durga pooja as Mahishasura Martyrdom Day (and week). Since then a nationwide debate emerged across the country, including the Indian parliament on evidentiary facts of such festivities where killings are glorified and certain particularly social groups are vilified thoroughly. However this counterculture movement at the village and community level is a new development that has given rise to the current action. This initiative from Chhattisgarh is an attempt to revive the indigenous culture and rescue the gods from the chains of Brahminical systems.
Stories of Mahishasura Martyrdom
Durga pooja was first celebrated in Dinajpur Rajbari in present-day Bangladesh in the 14th century. Since then, the celebration has transformed from a “landlord’s festival” to a community one. However, despite this seeming homogenisation, all these poojas and celebrations are dominated by the upper caste Brahmins and Kayasthas, where Dalits and other lower caste masses are disallowed mostly.
Quoting from a report of Hindustan Times Ranchi edition published on October 2, 2014, Malati Asur says, ‘Devas are power-hungry people. Whenever anyone has challenged them, they branded them as devils. Our ancestors always challenged them so they were branded as demonic figures.’
The slaying of Asuras by the devas might be an ‘ancient truth’ that the ‘Savarnas’ have conveniently made us forget our true history. ‘During Durga Pooja, the Asur tribe in Jharkhand, lock themselves up in their houses during the day and come out in the night to mourn the death of their king, Mahishasura. They fear that if they come out during the day, the devas would slay them,’ says the report in Hindustan Times. This provides a basis to the myth of the Asur community.
In Bengal Asuras observe a state of mourning during the period of navaratri. Similarly the Ravana worshippers in Haryana also observe mourning during the same period. It is period of sorrow and sadness when the world is celebrating the assassination of their god. In Bundhelkhand (Madhya Pradesh & Uttar Pradesh) Dalits worship Mahisashura to rescue them from calamity like drought, bad crops, epidemics, etc. Similar belief systems exist in parts of Haryana, Telengana, Jharkhand, Bengal, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamilnadu.
Conclusion
The Adivasis, Dalits, OBCs and other indigenous people have filed cases in different places. It is more important since it is the community that has come forward to take this bold step to file their protest and resistance against the maligning and vilifying their faith under the ambit of celebration of a Hindu festival. The community consciousness speaks loud. It is all the more relevant as the efforts are aimed to re-read history from the prism of the First Nations who have been hitherto kept as secondary subaltern citizens of an independent nation. Thus a reversal of history reading is not just the compulsion of indigenous philosophy rather it is an essential pre-requisite to understand the inhuman history and culture that has been until now glorified by Indian society in the name of culture.
History has always been narrated from the winner’s point of view and regretfully losers are always posed as the villain. However, the filtered version of these epics provides ample scope to read the unwritten history of the First Nations, particularly with the rich pedestal of geo-centric culture and tradition. This is where researchers, scholars, intellectuals and writers from community go beyond the shadows under which one is instructed to walk and learn to unearth the true history. Such epical scriptures passed down from generation to generation prove it is not all black and white as have been told us time and again to believe. Every character is a shade of grey and even those painted the worst have more beauty than the ones painted as the best. Let there be a reversal of history from the chains of Brahminism to a more human indigenous First Nation one!
The author is an activist and social scientist living in Chhattisgarh. He has been the founder of Dalit Mukti Morcha and many other similar movements. Currently he is the Convener of Chhattisgarh Nagrik Sanyukt Sangarsh Samiti (CNSSS) as well as the Chief Editor of Journal of People’s Studies. He has been a student of Cultural Anthropology and holds a PhD from Tata Institute of Social Science.
Always thought the Asuras in Hindu mythology were the Assyrians. Consider the name Ashurbanipal and may be you will see a reason why I might have made the mistake. It made sense to me because North Indian population have their ancestry in people who arrived in India in successive waves through the Khyber Pass from regions in or near the Assyrian empire. These people may even have been in conflict with the Assyrians.
You may be right. Everywhere the history is written by the conquerors – Indian case may be most ancient. Think of Latin America and North America, Australia and .New Zealand -the same story of subjugation of the indigenous population.
What on earth is the need of gods and goddesses to become sacred? Is it to create chances for identity politics based on the dichotomy of faith and blasphemy? Earthly children of gods and goddesses, or may they be the shapeless omnipresence, must always practice history, take side of the loser so that the chances for striking a balance still remains, but fiddling withe the same old flute of faith will not bring any positive change.
It is called liberty of faith.
Thank you for sharing this, it is worth reading the history of tribes with their own lenses. I am also a researcher and i would like to understand the history of Nomadic Tribes in India. Can you please give your email id?
Ravana was a brahmin. The article start with lies. Is that the kind of scholar you want to cite Deepali?
One more ground being created for breaking up the country. If Mahishasur is an Adivasi God they should worship him. Why pick up fights with others about. These are all conspiracies to breakup the country. Soon Arundhati Roy and her cohorts will start supporting this group and start blaming Hindus.
Ravana was a brahmin not some dalit. They start with blatant lies.
Poorly written article without scholarship. It wont stick around. To counter Aryan mythology a proper perspective of Indian history is a must. Navarathri is a celebration of Dravidian Viswakarmas. Aryans used to denigrate their festival by eating buffalo meat during the celebrations. That practice is there still in Orissa and West Bengal. Later the hijacked the festival with a feminine twist. How will you counter it blindly?
wonder why myths need rebuttal from history….myths by their very nature fall apart..what you have read above must be eye opening to you..there is no other way..even RSS is accepting this..
Starts with dussehra a win by brahmins against adivasi. Lol. Ravana was a brahmin by birth.
Myths don’t fall apart. New myths wont replace the old. Myths just evolve. Durga pooja is an evolved myth. It has changed more than hundred times in the country. To understand and deconstruct a myth you need to know the history. Myths cannot be understood with myths. What is the evidence that Ravana, Mahisha and Mahabali are tribal deities? They were Dravidian deities. Tribals just picked them up out of love as these personalities were also benevolent to them.Please read history critically. RSS is accepting it? What is RSS brain made of? Mahisa shit?
Situation in jharkhand-:
Adivasis are divided into various community,(foot dalo raj karo system).
The question of Not to burn Rawan was raised, but due to TIKDHAM
(Few mistakes made by our adiwasi people)we were unable to stop burning of Rawan.
But,situation will change in near future.modi jee Gaye to raghuwar ka patta v saf ho jayega.
Very interesting, informative and thought provoking article based on deep understanding of anthropology and a bold and courageous step to put the things in right perspective.
Most of the Geneticists agree on ANI ASI Theory which says that the last significant Genetic Influx in Indian Subcontinent happened nearly 50K – 60K years ago and those who settled in Northern Part are now called Ancient North Indians (ANI), those who settled in Southern Part are now called Ancient South Indians (ASI), this Aryan Dravidian Theory is mostly dead, Even the Hardcore Aryan Theorists are saying that there may be an Aryan Migration but not Aryan Invasion even though there was no significant Genetic Influx at the time of the proposed Aryan Migration and in Sanskrit Aryan means noble, that’s all, Hinduism is a lifestyle of a civilization, its not organized which is why these different sects survived within it, unlike Abrahamic Organized Religions, Hinduism don’t see everything in Black and White, there are grey areas and certainly unlike Abrahamic Organized Religion, Hinduism don’t erase local customs and cultures, these people who are now saying that they will not tolerate the insult of Mahisasura and Ravana must know that Mahisasura is being worshiped along with Goddess Durga and Ravana was considered a Brahmin as he was a Scholar and he was the Priest of Ram in his worship, so everything is not Black and White and these people are claiming that they are not Hindus are being able to do that just because unlike Abrahamic Organized Religions, Hinduism is a lifestyle which accepted and accepts all, if Hinduism was an organized religion then it would have erased these separate identities long ago and these Adibasis want to go out of the One Last Surviving Multicultural Lifestyle which accepts diversity as its ethos, Hinduism is an alliance of ideologies, philosophies, those who will go out will have to face the mighty economically powerful Organized Religions alone and they will face the fate of Nagaland Adibasis as most of them are now converted, anyway, as I said they are free to go as Hinduism as a Liberal Multicultural lifestyle don’t have any Blasphemy Laws, I like it because I can be an Atheist, Agnostic, Theist whatever I want and still be a Hindu, none impose diktat here, so I am not living an Ancient Civilization’s Lifestyle, those who want to fall prey of divisive policy propagated by Organized Religions to defeat Hinduism can do it at their own peril as I can assure them that they will not stand a chance to save their customs and cultures outside of this Liberal Multicultural Lifestyle, soon the Organized Religions will devour them and erase their customs and cultures and its not a threat, its just an observation based on earlier incidents, I will probably be called Brahminist here but Hinduism is not Brahminism.
It took you almost 50 years, after incessant opposition, to leave the Aryan native home theory but you are still, by conjuring new theories want to not yield ground on wars between indigenous people and the Aryans..sooner or later you will realise that nothing else explains your mythology….we have brought the horse to the pond, we will make it drink too my dear..
Repeating a lie thousand times does not make it truth. Aryan-Dravidian is unsicnetific and false.
Repeating a lie thousand times does not make it true. Aryan Dravidian is unscientific and false. If you want to live in fairytale land, you are free to do so. If you are a war mogerer, say so openly.
ANI ASI too is a scientific construct to understand the genetics. It is not that they are different races or something. Or one came after other or something.
It is, in the end, easy to deduce and prove using scientific method of inquiry. Take a random genetic sampling of different groups. Then find the links. … For example, Arabs and Jews have the SAME genetic background, it has been proven. African Americans share almost 100% with Americans with white skin and NOT Africans anymore. … All that it takes is a few simple tests on DNA provided, for example, by saliva. … Then roots could be traced, too — roots with others outside of India. … Yet who would fund such a study?
Its ironical to see that those who lost their customs, cultures, identity, native name to Abrahamic Religions are sermonizing Hinduism about erasing their previous culture which was actually preserved well by the Hinduism unlike Abrahamic Religion which changed even their names within a Generation, these Pseudo Ambedkarites perhaps never read what Babasaheb himself wrote about Aryan Theory, Babasaheb outright rubbished the Aryan Theory, he made a Gender Neutral Secular Law named Hindu Marriage Act for Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs, perhaps he made it because he also thought Hinduism as a lifestyle rather than a religion.
Exactly. And as you can see the author’s origin so the idea is conversion by the same divide and rule.
Consider this….in Persia, “Ahura” was God and “Daevas” were devils, in fact the very word “devil” comes from it.
Read Rigveda. All 33 Devas were also mentioned as Asura. It is much later development that this conflict rose. And followers of Ahur Mazda (Assur Medha in Sanskrit).
The movement out of India happened after Dasha Ranjana War. So you are partly correct and are describing the later development. But Rigveda does not say that.
I have always maintained that aadivasi are not Hindus. They predated Aryans. History is always written by the victors. So they are devta and all others are demons.
You need to get updated from your 8th standard history pushed by the left based on missionary creation. There is no genetic evidence, archeological evidence, or even linguistic evidence. But Colonized narratives are pushed as wisdom.
High hold the indegineous culture & oppose the brahminical rhetoric.
It is encouranging that history is being rewritten in opposition to Brahminical rhetoric.
This fake narrative created by Missionaries who are breaking India forces. The Maheshsura and Durga is not the story of physical beings. Durga is just Mahamaya, because of which duality appears. Here Maha Laxshami, Maha saraswati and Maha Kaali are just three Gunas (Stava, Rajas, and Tamo Guna) or also presented as (Icha shakti, Gnyana Shakti or Kriya Shakti). This is by which universe is brought forth in Hindu cosmology.
Assura means powerful,, unlike the later connotations. And the Assuras here are associate Ahamkara and other human vices that have to be controlled by these Icha, Jnyana and Kriya Shakti.
Even Durga herself is called Assuri Bhayankari, because through these shafts one can overs=come these vices.
Asuras of Rigveda are Persians and followers of AhurMazda (Assur Mazda), AL the Devas were addressed as Asura s well as Devas.
Now Missionaries have created these narratives to break the society. And out non-vigilant society is falling prey to that. It will split India open
Defanding a criminal is more than a crime.
Ahura Mazda has nothing to do with Asura. Sura is the Divine Law derived from the Prathamo Upanishad. The Asuras are “Anti-Law”
It was of course, Ambedkar, Naiker, Karunanidhi and others of the British persuasion who claimed Mahishasura and Ravana as the ancestors of the Dalits. Was Asura Vani Pala (Asurbanipal to the British) a Draavid-Daalit too? The prosecution rests.
What a disastrous understanding of Hinduism. The word brahmincal signifies your ignorance.. Ramayana itself signifies Ravana as a scholar of Vedas. Asuras are not demons. Where do you get these translations from? According o genetics, the ANI and ASI – two kinds of genes came in around 50k to 60k years ago. From that period, Adivasis and their customs have been preserved in this country not because of any human rights activism. So stop this half baked knowledge of hindu tradition.
Do read this post by TrueIndology https://trueindology.wordpress.com/2016/02/27/jnu-and-the-saga-of-calumny/. Share and spread. The propaganda by vested interests has gone for far too long and people need to be told the facts.
No wonder there is no unity in India as there are people from different faith and ideologies want to distort history to control and brainwash innocent people and sow the seeds of manufacture hatred through vile and ridiculous articles like this.Seems like author of this article has no understanding of Hinduism at all. This what happens when a fool tries to interpret an epic text which is beyond his mental capacity.
Wonder why so many Muslims and Christians are so keen on Hinduism and its relationship with tribes.
The same Ramayana extolls Ravan as a very learned Brahmin …a basic error in the article above . However for someone with an agenda these things do not matter.
One should always follow the right path of living without hurting other human beings . One should not have right to comment on any of the religions the people of India follows since one should never forget that our country is a secular state a place for all the country men following all types of religion and respect for all the religions few people for their own selfish nature are creating differences among all the religions.
It is not about whether ravana was Brahmin or dalit. The adivasis have right to follow their own faith. The brahminical tyranny with fascist aggression is not letting them live their lives according to their will. The manu order is trying for a strong foothold to suppress the rights of Muslims, dalits, OBCs and others who do not belong to upper Brahmin / bania castes’. This is caste hegemony and should be opposed.
In solidarity with adivasis !
Till date you have been propagating that Ravan was a Rakshasha. And so has been Mahisasur Now all of a sudden he become a Brahmin. This itself is the biggest lie of your Vedas and Shastras. Why cannot you people understand and read the indigenous history from the perspective of the First Nations? Oh then all of a sudden such authors become traitors, Christian missionaries, Islamic Jihadis, nation-breakers, ANI-ASI theories, Rigveda’s chapters all come in place.
So your research from Hindu scriptures to modern DNA science will go against what our history would say. There is no wonder in it. Not a wonder that you people come up with such comments. This is not new for us. You people have been doing it since 3500 years. And we know that you will keep doing it. We are not scared with such moves. Yes all the Aryans are traitors and they cheated the indigenous people of this nation one after another. All your research and Shastras are just lies nothing else.
Dr. George’s article is highly scholastic and I salute his courage to write such an article. He has the real metal that you cannot digest. He has come up with a different reading of history from his long lived deeper learning of Cultural Anthropology of people who have been hitherto dismissed as wild, uncivilised and decultured. We Adibasi have our civilisation and culture, much powerful than what you have. It is uncluttered like yours. Your history, culture and civilisation of Aryanism is filled with violence, killing, rape against Adibasis, Dalits and Women. We don’t have such ones. We have all rights to come up with our history and culture beyond what you understand it to be. It was never written but now our people have began to write it. And that is your problem!
Yes we will keep writing history, whatever you say or write still we will write. People like Dr. Goldy has their space and relevance in our history. Such people are our heroes. Thank you Dr. Goldy for this well researched article. Sir, let those who have ears listen and those who cannot bear it let them beat the bush.
Jai Ravan
Jai Mahisasur
Jai Adivasi
Jai Moolnivasi
Jai all our Ancestors
It is the same ugly pattern everywhere. You should see about what happened to the Native Americans in the USA and all across the world. … Denigration, control and carnage have got to stop! We must resist with all of our might! I am with you in spirit!