Raavan As A Symbol Resistance

In an imaginary courtroom in 1982, Raavan stands ready to defend himself. This extraordinary retrial challenges the verdict pronounced by the 13th century Tamil poet Kamban, author of the revered Kamba Ramayana. Kamban’s portrayal of Raavan as a “merciless demon” has echoed through the centuries, shaping perceptions and damning the once-mighty king. Hence, Raavan is standing in the court before the ‘God of Justice cross-examining’ Kamban, the poet. Both Raavan and Kamban materialise before the celestial bench, their presence charged with the weight of history and myth. The air crackles with anticipation as Raavan prepares to present his case, determined to shatter the notions Kamban set in stone.

This is a scene from the play Neethi Devan Mayakkam (The God of Justice in Slumber), written by C N Annadurai, a prominent leader of the Dravidian movement and a disciple of Periyar (E V Ramasamy), and the first chief minister of Tamil Nadu. His play illustrates how Raavan, believed to be a Dravidian king, was wrongly portrayed as a villain who abducted Sita. According to Annadurai, the gods of Aryan mythology, such as Agni, and sages like Vishvamitra, had done injustice to Raavan.

This is a scene from the play Neethi Devan Mayakkam (The God of Justice in Slumber), written by C N Annadurai, a prominent leader of the Dravidian movement and a disciple of Periyar (E V Ramasamy), and the first chief minister of Tamil Nadu. His play illustrates how Raavan, believed to be a Dravidian king, was wrongly portrayed as a villain who abducted Sita. According to Annadurai, the gods of Aryan mythology, such as Agni, and sages like Vishvamitra, had done injustice to Raavan.

While the Ramayana became a prominent political theme in most of India only in the late 1980s, following the television serial that portrayed Ram as a divine figure, Tamil Nadu has a much longer history of politicising the epic. In Dravidian mythology and culture, Raavan was seen as a heroic king, not the villain portrayed in the traditional Ramayana. In Tamil Nadu, Ram embodies the Aryan invasion, while Raavan represents the Dravidian resistance against it.

Raavan Leela: A Counter-Narrative

While Tamil Nadu does not typically have temples dedicated to Raavan worship, the figure of Raavan has been conceived as a symbol of resistance against the Brahminical hegemony promoted by Hindu right-wing organisations.

The first Raavan Leela in Tamil Nadu was organised in 1974, a year after Periyar’s demise, as a counter-narrative to the Ram Leela celebrations prevalent in north India. This event was orchestrated by the Dravidar Kazhagam (DK), the organisation founded by Periyar that later gave rise to both the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), the two rival political parties. The inaugural Raavan Leela took place at Periyar Thidal in Chennai. Raavan Leela, which was staged in the wake of Periyar’s death, was presided over by Maniammai, Periyar’s wife, who was also a hard core Dravidian activist. The event marked an important moment in the ongoing narrative of Dravidian political and cultural assertion in Tamil Nadu. Prior to his death, Periyar had proposed countering the traditional Ramayana narrative through a Raavan Leela, aiming to assert Dravidian identity and challenge the prevailing Hindu portrayals of Ram and Raavan.

Before the commencement of the Dussehra festival, Maniammai and K Veeramani, the general secretary of the DK, wrote letters to the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, urging her to halt the Ram Leela celebrations. The DK argued that Ram Leela was an insult to Raavan, offending the sentiments of the Dravidian people.

Maniammai specifically wrote to Indira Gandhi asserting that the ritual of burning Raavan’s effigy during Ram Leela celebrations contradicted the principles of secularism. She cautioned the prime minister that if the burning of Raavan’s effigy could not be stopped, the people of Tamil Nadu might retaliate by burning effigies of Ram.

Despite the protests, Ram Leela celebrations and the ritual of burning Raavan’s effigy were not halted. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi responded to the DK leaders stating that the Ram Leela was a cultural practice and that the Ramayana was one of the world’s greatest epics. She asserted that there was no racial connotation to the ritual of burning Raavan’s effigy.

In response, the DK organised the Raavan Leela where effigies of Ram, Lakshman, Sita and Indira Gandhi were burned. This event was part of a two-day conference held on December 24-25, 1974, commemorating Periyar’s death anniversary. The Raavan Leela took place on the second day of this conference.

Following the event, criminal cases were filed against the participants, and several were arrested. Initially, 12 individuals were convicted by a lower court. However, they were later acquitted by the Sessions Court, which found that the organisers of the Raavan Leela had not intended to hurt the sentiments of any community.

When the DK ceased to exist, its offshoots—the DMK and the AIADMK—emerged as the dominant political voices in Tamil Nadu. The Congress was sidelined, and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) remained invisible. However, despite being political rivals, both the DMK and the AIADMK represented the ethos of Dravidian culture. Raavan’s image as a hero who fought against Aryan domination remains unchallenged. Though Tamil Nadu has Ram temples and devotees, Raavan continues to be a hero, deeply ingrained in the cultural and political history of the state.

Ravana Kavyam, a collection of 3,100 songs composed by Pulavur Kuzhandhai and published in 1946, is considered one of the most significant epics in Tamil literature. It interprets the Ramayana from Raavan’s perspective, portraying him as a hero who fought against Aryan hegemony. “In south India, especially Tamil Nadu, for over 200 years, Raavan has been celebrated as the leader of the Dravidian people. The majority of the people in Tamil Nadu, including Muslims, firmly believe they are Dravidians,” says K M Shariff, president, Tamilaga Makkal Jananayaga Katchi, a Chennai-based pro-Tamil political outfit. He believes that the Ramayana is a one-sided narrative of the Aryan-Dravidian conflict, and that the Dravidians are the people driven out from the Indus Valley region.

2016: The Second Raavan Leela

In October 2016, the Thanthai Periyar Dravida Kazhagam, a Dravidian Periyarist group, organised the Raavan Leela in Chennai. The organisation wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking him to stop the Ram Leela celebrations during Dussehra. According to the organisation, burning the effigy of Raavan mocks and insults Dravidian culture.

“It was a mark of protest against aggressive Hindutva being manifested through such festivals. Raavan symbolises the resistance against Aryan domination,” says Thirumurugan Gandhi, the founder of the May 17th Movement, who was also part of the Raavan Leela protest. The May 17th Movement is a Tamil nationalist crusade formed in response to the massacre of Sri Lankan Tamils on May 17, 2009, during the civil war.

At an event organised on October, 12, 2016, in Mylapore, Chennai, effigies of Ram, Lakshman and Sita were burned. However, various right-wing organisations protested and marched towards the venue. G Radhakrishnan, the then president of the Shiv Sena, sent a letter to the Union government demanding a probe into the incident. Hindutva organisations alleged that the police took no action to prevent the burning of the effigies.

The 2024 Raavan Leela: In Response to Pran Pratishtha

This time, the Raavan Leela was organised by the Tamil Nationalist Coalition, a collective advocating the rights of Tamils, on January 22, 2024. On that day, when the rest of the country’s attention was focused on Pran Pratishtha, Tamil Nadu made headlines by organising the Raavan Leela. The Tamil Nationalist Coalition, consisting of the May 17th Movement, Tamilaga Makkal Jananayaga Katchi, and Viduthalai Tamil Puligal Katchi (Liberation Tigers Party), organised the Raavan Leela as a gesture of protest against the Pran Pratishtha at K K Nagar, one of the most crowded areas in Chennai.

“When a Ram Temple is built at the site where the Babri Masjid was demolished, we need to counter it by all means—culturally and politically. The Aryan-Dravida war has not yet ceased, as the Sangh Parivar organisations are constantly attempting to demolish our secular ethos. Celebrating Raavan becomes relevant in this context,” says Thirumurugan Gandhi.

However, this time there was no burning of effigies of Ram or Lakshman. “It was banned. Hence, we did not go to that extent,” says Thirumurugan Gandhi.

The cultural history of Tamil Nadu indicates the reasons for its detachment with the Hindutva ideology. The interpretation of the Ramayana as a war between the Aryans and the Dravidians, and the personification of Raavan as the Dravidian king and a symbol of resistance, play a vital role in Tamil Nadu’s disassociation with the Sangh Parivar politics. The Ram vs Raavan theme has consistently been political in Tamil Nadu since the time of Periyar. Anti-Ram sentiments have deep roots dating back to the 1920s, during the formation of the Dravidian movement. Political leaders have stuck to this stance, as aligning with Ram is not considered wise in Tamil Nadu’s cultural context.

The Dussehra festival season has often sparked controversies related to Ram and Raavan in Tamil Nadu. In 1998, during Dussehra, M Karunanidhi, then chief minister and DMK leader, stirred a controversy by stating that insulting Raavan was equivalent to insulting himself. Scholars like M S S Pandian observed this as a tactical resistance to the imposition of a certain vision of India based on Hindu, Hindi and Hindustan. Pandian argues that just as the Ramayana was used as an allegory for the Aryan invasion, the same allegory was used to counter this hegemony.

However, it is worth noting that the number of supporters of the Raavan Leela has declined. Activities such as the burning of the effigy of Ram have become increasingly difficult in Tamil Nadu, which seems to indicate the growing influence of Hindutva. Activists from Periyarist movements admit that actions like the burning of Ram’s effigy, once seen as a political statement, could incite communal violence in the current political climate.