The massive scale on which Ram Navami (Ram’s legendary birthday) and Hanuman Jayanti (the monkey god Hanuman’s birthday) were celebrated in different parts of India indicate a new trend in the practice of popular religious festivals – mainly sponsored by the BJP. Till a few years ago, except in the north-central states of what is known as the Hindu-Hindi heartland (often ridiculed as the cow-belt), these two celebrations were hardly observed in the southern and eastern states. In the south, the main popular festivals are Pongal , Dasara and Onam among other such ceremonies which have nothing to do with either Ram or Hanuman, and are primarily associated with seasonal changes like spring or autumn. In the east in Bengal, the main religious festival is Durga Puja, worshipping of the goddess Durga in autumn, which synchronizes with the harvesting of new crops, and reflects the festive mood of the people. Bengalis worship Durga and her children Lakshmi, Saraswati and Kartik, the images of which are sculpted by local sculptors in Kumartoli in north Kolkata. There has never been any presence of Ram or Hanuman in these religious festivals in Bengal. Over the years Durga Puja had acquired a secular character, attracting Muslims, Christians, Dalits to the Puja pandals (sites where the images of Durga and her children are installed) and to the eating stalls which are set up by the puja-organizers, as well as to the cultural performances that accompany the four day puja.
Ram and Hanuman in Bengali popular psyche
To come down to brass tacks, Ram and Hanuman had always been butts of ridicule in Bengali popular sayings. To quote one – “Kala khelo jato bandor, rajya pelo Ramchandar” (Ram acquired the throne due to the banana-chewing monkeys) . The followers of Ram are looked down upon as exploiters and humbugs, as the following saying indicates: “ Ram nam mukhey, chhuri rekhey bukey” (They swear by the name of Ram, while threatening us with a dagger at our chests). (Re: Sushil Kumar Dey: Bangla Prabad).
In Bengali colloquial slang, the name Ram is often used in a derisive and derogatory sense – like the term Ram-chhagal (a goat named Ram) to describe a fat goat. It is also used as a suffix in terms like Boka-Ram (a foolish Ram) to dismiss someone as an idiot. The trend of demystification of Ram in Bengal reached its height when the Bengali poet Madhusudan Dutta in the mid-nineteenth century composed the iconoclastic epic poem Meghnad Badh Kavya, where he paid homage to Ravana’s son Meghnad (known also as Indrajit) who more than once defeated Ram and Lakshman in the battlefield as described in Valmiki’s Ramayana. In his poem, Madhusudan denounced Lakshman for resorting to the devious mode of killing Meghnad by sneaking into Nikumbhila, the prayer hall where Meghnad was engaged in praying. Taking advantage of his unarmed state, Lakshman murdered him. Explaining his decision to valorize Meghnad, Madhusudan in a letter to his friend Rajnarayan Basu wrote: “I despise Ram and his rabble, but the idea of Ravana elevates and kindles my imagination; he was a grand fellow.” (January 25, 1824).
Despite this tradition, this year, a Bengali BJP leader managed to organize a Ram Navami procession in Kolkata by recruiting the local unemployed youth – promising them jobs if they bring BJP to power. He allured them by repeating Modi’s slogan of `double-engine’, meaning the engine in the states can only function if they are aligned to the central engine in Delhi run by the BJP.
Homogenizing the diverse Hindu people under the hegemony of Ram
The centralizing authoritarian Modi government, which is running into conflict with Opposition ruled states, and threatening the spirit of federalism that is embedded in our Constitution, is trying to justify its misdeeds by invoking the name of Ram, playing on the religious sentiments of the majority Hindu population. After attempting to impose Hindi as a national language all over India and crush linguistic diversities, the Modi government is now trying to project the Hindu god Ram as a national icon in the name of unifying all Indians under the umbrella of nationalism. Anyone refusing to worship Ram and join Ram Navami processions will be hauled up for blasphemy.
Yet, in the southern states, people treat Ram and Sita and worship them in different ways that are in stark contrast with the practices followed in the Hindu-Hindi heartland. The Ramayana that the Tamilians read is the version by Kampan, the 12th century author of Iramavataram, which in certain sections vastly differ from Valmiki’s narrative, and puts Sita on a higher pedestal. Similarly, Telegu-speaking women in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have invented a Ramayana of their own by composing and singing songs that domesticate the travails of Sita in terms of their own diurnal experiences. In Kerala, the Rama story is visualized through puppet plays, which reduce the size of the monumental epic characters to that of dolls to be manipulated by the puppeteers from behind the scenes. (Re: Many Ramayanas. The Diversity of a Narrative Tradition in South Asia. Ed. Paula Richman. OUP. New Delhi. 1992)
Given these diverse interpretations of Ramayana, and the different understanding of Ram and Sita in popular perception, varying from one region to another, the Modi government’s attempt to impose Ram as a hegemonizing icon on all Hindus cannot work. Further, his determination to elevate Ram as a Hindi-speaking god is alienating the Hindus of the southern states. Their chief ministers are protesting against the infliction of Hindi on their official correspondence.
Positioning Ram and Hanuman against Muslims, depicted as present followers of Ravana.
The state-sponsored elevation of Ram through ceremonies like Ram Navami are aimed at unifying these diverse and often mutually conflicting sections of the Hindu population. But such ceremonies are also becoming tools in the hands of the Hindu fanatical outfits like Vishva Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal who deliberately organize demonstrations in front of mosques, shouting slogans insulting the Muslim worshippers there. Shops run by Muslims are being forcibly closed down by the goons of these outfits during Hindu religious festivals. Muslim pedestrians are being harassed by these goons who force them to shout `Jai Shri Ram.’
Defending the weaponization of Ram Navami by the Sangh Parivar, a BJP leader from West Bengal, Dilip Ghosh while recently addressing a public rally in the North 24-Parganas district there proudly claimed: “Ten years ago, people didn’t know what Ram Navami processions were. Today, such processions are being held in every locality because Hindus have realized they need to unite.” He then advised Hindus to keep weapons at home for self- protection. (Re: Times of India. April 18, 2025). By admitting that ten years ago Bengalis didn’t know what Ram Navami processions were, he acknowledges that it is a newly imported festival under the auspices of the BJP. Not satisfied with imposing Ram Navami as a national ceremony on all the diverse sections of our people, the Sangh Parivar is now demanding that privilege for Ram’s army general, the monkey-god Hanuman. Hanuman Jayanti was celebrated on a massive scale this year in BJP-ruled states, where the governments spent money from their exchequer to subsidize these celebrations. It is necessary to remind our people that this money is being diverted from the taxes that they pay which are accumulated in the exchequer. Do all the tax-payers, coming from different religious denominations, want their taxes to subsidize the religious ceremonies of a single community, the majoritarian Hindus ?
Agitation against the Waqf (Amendment) Act – considered as Na-pak by Muslims
The enactment of the Waqf (Amendment) Act has become the proverbial last straw on the camel’s back. The Muslim community could not bear it any more and they have come out in the legislature as well as in the streets to voice their protest. The Act is a controversial piece of legislation. Some Muslim organizations have expressed apprehensions that it would curb the Waqf board’s power to distribute charity, and its control over its properties. Some other Muslim groups have reserved their opinions.
The opposition to the Act took a violent communal shape in the Murshidabad district of the Trinamul-ruled state of West Bengal. Islamist fanatical groups (Muslim counterparts of the Hindu fanatical Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad) attacked Hindu homes and killed a father and son duo. They alleged that stones were thrown on their anti-Waqft demonstration by this Hindu family. A Muslim man has been accused and arrested in this connection. At around the same time, a Muslim youth was killed by police bullets. There are unconfirmed reports that Islamic terrorists from Bangladesh have infiltrated into Bengal after the present Yunus-led caretaker government (which is anti-India and has lifted ban on Islamic fundamentalist organizations and allowed them to cross over to Bengal to create unrest). Yet, if we go back to the past in Bengal, there had always been a general public recognition and grateful acknowledgment by Hindus also, of Muslim owners transferring their lands and properties to the Waqf board for charitable purposes. We come across an old Bengali document signed by one Habibullah Bahar who “Waqf koriya Islamer sebaye bilaya diyachhilen” (donated his property in the name of Waqf). (Re: Byaboharik Bangla Abhidhan. Bangla Academy. Dhaka. 1992)