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A Diaspora Ramayana in Southall

Paula Richman

Editor’s note: The Ramayana is one of Hinduism’s oldest and best- loved epic stories. It probably began even as early as 500 bce as an oral story, but over the centuries has been retold, rewritten, tele- vised, and acted out (theatrical versions are called Ramlila) in many different languages in many different versions. Richman’s article presents us with one such version, what might be called a “postco- lonial” version. The story, in briefest synopsis, goes something like this: The king of Ayodhya is childless, but makes a sacrifice from which are born three sons, each to a different wife. Rama is the eldest. Because of jealousy and strife in the palace, Rama’s brother Bharata is named king upon their father’s death, and Rama—the rightful heir to the throne—is sent into a fourteen-year exile. With him go his wife, Sita, and his loyal youngest brother, Lakshmana. While in exile, Rama defeats and banishes many evil creatures. Finally, with the aid of his monkey friend Hanuman, Rama vanquishes even the evil Ravana, a many-headed demon king who would wreak havoc in the universe and who has lusted after and finally kidnapped Sita. Having saved the kingdom and Sita from the demons, and having lived out his exile, Rama returns triumphantly to Ayodhya, where he reigns as a just and dharmic king. In a controversial episode, not part of all versions, Rama fears that Sita’s chastity and purity may have been sullied by Ravana. Doubting Sita, unjustly, he allows her to jump into a fire. But she emerges unscathed—so pure is she—and they rule together as king and queen.

A longer version of this essay originally appeared in the Journal of the American Academy of Religion 67, no. 1 (Winter 1999). Reprinted with permission.

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Everyday Life in South Asia, edited by Diane P. Mines, and Sarah Lamb, Indiana University Press, 2010. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/unt/detail.action?docID=1402903. Created from unt on 2022-05-03 21:21:36.

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What happens when the Ramlila travels abroad? On 19 October 1979, a feminist group of South Asian and African Caribbean women in Southall, Greater London, staged a Ramlila that reflects a precise moment in the his- tory of South Asian immigration to the United Kingdom. The women who produced the play, members of the Southall Black Sisters (SBS),1 did so to help defray legal costs of friends arrested when they participated in a protest against the neo-Nazi National Front Party. SBS incorporated into their rendi- tion of the Ramlila humorous commentary with a topical slant. In doing so, they linked events portrayed in the performance to the racism, labor condi- tions, electoral politics, and sexism they encountered in everyday life.

Like traditional Ramlilas, the performance ended with the death of Ra va- na, king of the Demons, but the SBS Ravana was unique. He sported a huge mask composed of ten heads, upon each of which was drawn a person or symbol that represented an aspect of immigrant life in Britain. Some heads bore pictures of conservative political leaders, while others carried symbols of racism, such as the insignia of the British riot police. The Ramlila perfor- mance culminated with fireworks to celebrate the destruction of Ravana, to the accompaniment of cheers from the audience. The Ramlila’s dramatic structure, casting practices, and interpretation of Ravana tell us a great deal about the historical moment of its performance.

They also reveal some broader insights about how a religious text can mi- grate from South Asia to Britain, retain its formal contours, express diverse aspects of the diaspora experience, and continue to be part of the multifac- eted Ramayana tradition. SBS produced a Ramlila of great creativity, reflect- ing in unique ways the specific experiences of those onstage and many of those in the audience, but it also contains elements that are in consonance with what recent scholarship has revealed about the Ramayana tradition in South Asia. In SBS’s incorporation of women’s perspectives, it echoes aspects of women’s folk-song traditions in South Asia (Narayana Rao 1991; Nilsson 2000). Its inclusion of topical humor is part of a long tradition of linking im- provisatory commentary to local events (e.g., Blackburn 1996; GoldbergBelle 1989). Its skillful use of multiple frames enables characters to provide meta- narrative about themselves and the story (Hess 1993, 2000; Shulman 2000). In short, the SBS created a Ramlila in keeping with long-established trends within Ramayana tradition.

In the past, Western and Indian scholars have paid most attention to au- thoritative tellings of Ramkatha (Rama’s story), especially the one attributed to Valmiki (Goldman 1984: 1, 6; Pollock 1993: 263). More recently, however, scholars have increasingly turned their attention to oral renditions (Black- burn 1996), commentarial concerns (Hess 2000), and transformations shaped by print culture (Narayana Rao 2000). Such studies have demonstrated the range, diversity, and vitality of nondominant tellings of Ramkatha. A close examination of the SBS Ramlila reveals a great deal about the capaciousness

Everyday Life in South Asia, edited by Diane P. Mines, and Sarah Lamb, Indiana University Press, 2010. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/unt/detail.action?docID=1402903. Created from unt on 2022-05-03 21:21:36.

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of the Ramayana tradition: the SBS has recounted and recast the story in re- lation to their locality, its social structures of dominance, and their concerns about gender.

Recent research has highlighted how many tellings of Rama’s story ques- tion hierarchies of power (e.g., Freeman 2000; Lutgendorf 2000; Richman 1991; R. Lamb 1991). Interrogation of gendered representation proves par- ticularly salient in the SBS Ramlila. Unique in its casting practices, its mix of Punjabi and English, and its vision of Ravana, the SBS Ramlila lies squarely in the midst of a Ramayana tradition that is diverse, inventive, and open to questions.

M i g r a t i o n a n d S B S

Most early South Asian immigrants to Southall left the subcontinent soon after Partition (1947), arriving in Greater London in the late 1950s. Primarily Sikhs or Hindus and mainly Punjabi speakers, many came from the peas- ant proprietor class whose members had lost land, savings, and security through the dislocation that accompanied Partition. Upon arrival most were able to obtain jobs only at factories in or near Southall, at low pay, with long hours and few benefits (Brah 1996; Fryer 1984; Visram 1986; Dhanjal 1976; Lee 1972). In the late 1960s and early 1970s, a new group of South Asians from East Africa arrived in Southall, bringing with them their middle-class urban experience as well as skills as owners of small businesses, enriching the Southall community in many ways (Bhachu 1985; Brah 1996; Institute of Race Relations 1981). Soon after their arrival, however, immigration came under explicit attack by the National Front (NF), a party that presented itself as protecting the “racial purity” of England (Taylor 1978; Hanna 1974; Nu- gent 1976).

The NF’s announcement that it would hold an election meeting on 23 April 1979, in Southall, was the first in a set of events leading to the SBS Ramlila. Just two days before the planned meeting, an NF leader called upon members to emulate the heroes of H. G. Wells’s The Time Machine and de- feat “dark-skinned, hook-nosed dwarfs” (Dummett 1980: 190). Not surpris- ingly, a large group of protesters from Southall and elsewhere in the country showed up to contest the views of the NF. The presence of the police that day was large as well, with highly visible representation from the Special Patrol Group police, a corps of crack riot police. In the violence that ensued during the meeting and protest, hundreds of protesters were injured, one man died, and about seven hundred were arrested. While “mainstream” English-language newspapers such as the Daily Telegraph reported the event with the headline “Asian Fury at Election Meeting” and the subheading “40 Police Hurt in Protest over National Front” (24 May 1979), a local newspaper, Punjab Times, argued that people of Southall had been reduced to “the sta-

Everyday Life in South Asia, edited by Diane P. Mines, and Sarah Lamb, Indiana University Press, 2010. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/unt/detail.action?docID=1402903. Created from unt on 2022-05-03 21:21:36.

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tus of a British Imperial Colony from that of a town of free citizens” (1 May 1979).

In the aftermath of the event, SBS met to discuss how they should re- spond. The group contained women of South Asian descent born in Britain, women with South Asian parents who had grown up in East Africa, and women of African Caribbean descent born in Britain or the Caribbean. The Asian community in Southall was larger than the African Caribbean one at that time, and the groups had different pre-immigration histories. Yet SBS women found that their roots in colonized countries and their current ex- perience of racism and sexism in Britain gave them many shared experienc- es, issues, and hopes.2 The founding members of SBS ranged from teenage schoolgirls to young postgraduates and working women.

Earlier, SBS had undertaken a series of community projects to improve the lives of girls and women in Southall and had worked with other orga- nizations to combat racism in Greater London. They also staffed an advice center on Saturdays at the Southall Rights Building, volunteering their time to give information about legal issues and immigration laws, as well as pro- viding support to women experiencing difficulties in their families or rela- tionships. Heretofore, male elders and community leaders within the South Asian community had counseled wives to use strategies of avoidance and compliance when dealing with domestic violence and other gender-related issues. SBS felt that women needed advice from other women, especially ones without a vested interest in maintaining the status quo within families.

Some male members of the Southall community greeted the formation of SBS with suspicion. A few saw SBS as troublemakers who threatened the stability of the family structure, especially because they helped women who fled their homes because of domestic violence. Other men felt that the South Asian community should speak as a single group, and SBS would under- mine that. Some worried this new group might later siphon funds away from established social service organizations or draw support away from such groups as the Southall Youth Movement, founded in 1976 to combat racist at- tacks. Nonetheless, SBS-initiated projects such as picketing the “Miss South- all” beauty contest won them support in the larger community. Feminist goals in this case had paralleled those of some male-dominated groups who had earlier been suspicious of SBS. After the events on 23 April in Southall, SBS chose a Ramlila as their means to express their solidarity with those ar- rested and with the larger Southall community.

C o n c e p t u a l i z i n g a R a m l i l a

Among the stories that hold a special place in South Asian culture, SBS chose Ramkatha because its narrative resources helped them to dramatize their ideal relationship to their community and to express their defiance of Brit-

Everyday Life in South Asia, edited by Diane P. Mines, and Sarah Lamb, Indiana University Press, 2010. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/unt/detail.action?docID=1402903. Created from unt on 2022-05-03 21:21:36.

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ish racism. Rama and Sita show their deep commitment to virtue when they save the reputation of Rama’s father for truthfulness by going into forest exile. During their stay there, the demon Ravana tricks Rama into leaving Sita alone and then abducts her. After an extended search Rama finds Sita, defeats Ravana in battle, and rescues his wife. This narrative has long been dramatized in South Asia.

Several factors shaped the SBS decision to perform a Ramlila in response to the incidents of 23 April 1979. First, as an anti-racist group, they sought some form of symbolic action that would make visible their outrage about police brutality against the black population of Southall. A benefit perfor- mance whose proceeds would be donated to the Southall Legal Defense Fund, an organization helping to defray the legal costs of those charged in the 23 April conflict, seemed an appropriate project. Although the SBS real- ized that the performance might not raise a large amount of money, they viewed the benefit both as a material contribution and as an expression of solidarity.

Second, they wanted to undertake a project that would demonstrate pub- licly their connection to the cultural traditions of their community, as un- derstood by their elders. Such an event would show that criticisms of SBS as divisive to the community were unwarranted. SBS chose a Ramlila because of its link with Divali, a major South Asian festival of lights long popular in north India, in which Hindus commemorated the destruction of a demon.3 Before communalism in India became as pronounced as it did later, lighting lamps and sharing sweets with one’s Hindu and non-Hindu neighbors was common at Divali in many parts of the subcontinent. SBS chose a Ramlila at Divali because of its traditional connections with unity, celebration, and good fortune.

Third, the story of Ravana’s destruction resonated strongly with recent events. Ramlila celebrates the victory of good over evil, dramatizing a tale of oppressive rule destroyed by the perseverance of those committed to vir- tue. At a symbolic level, it could be seen as paralleling Southall resistance to abuse from the British state, and might comfort those recovering from the physical and psychological wounds of policy brutality in April.

Finally, the shared feminist convictions of members of SBS challenged them to find an appropriate way to depict the relationship between Rama and his utterly devoted wife Sita. In most well-known tellings of the story, the portrayal of Sita could be seen as reinforcing patriarchal views of gender. SBS members did not want to stage a play that could be seen as contradicting the feminist tenets of SBS. On the other hand, if they found an appropriate way to incorporate their critical views into the play, it could provide them with an opportunity to share their political convictions with members of their community. At that time, they were the only inside group that could mount a critique of sexist attitudes to improve it, rather than attack it from the outside to disparage South Asian culture, as some racist groups had done.

Everyday Life in South Asia, edited by Diane P. Mines, and Sarah Lamb, Indiana University Press, 2010. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/unt/detail.action?docID=1402903. Created from unt on 2022-05-03 21:21:36.

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Therefore, the SBS chose to stage a unique Ramlila that would combine cultural appreciation with cultural critique. Many South Asian members of SBS had participated in Ramlilas during their school years. The SBS decided to produce a Ramlila similar to such plays in general, but differing in ideo- logical goals. This drama would question patriarchal attitudes in the com- munity, but do so in a spirit of affection and celebration.

Immediately complex issues surfaced. Several Marxist SBS members felt that supporting the project would affirm religious ideals (and according to classical Marxist thought, religion is the opiate of the masses, as well as epi- phenomenal). Second, as one member asked, “What’s the contribution of this play to the African Caribbean community?” The Ramayana was linked pri- marily with South Asian Hindu culture, so why should African Caribbeans or, indeed, other South Asian religious groups such as Sikhs and Muslims, see it as a meaningful drama for them?4 In response, the group sought to mount a Ramlila that would strengthen and celebrate the entire Southall black community, and contest patriarchal ideologies at the same time. But this, pointed out another member of the group, might offend orthodox mem- bers of the community who would attend expecting a pious reiteration of the story. Would such a performance defeat the goal of bringing the community together? SBS wanted to create a thought-provoking Ramlila that would take into account these multiple concerns (Brah 1988).

Financial and temporal limitations contributed to the improvisational nature of the production. The SBS had virtually no funding and exactly three weeks to prepare the drama to be staged on Friday, 19 October 1979. SBS received help from many people, including the Indian Workers Asso- ciation, which loaned them a venue; an Indian classical music teacher who volunteered to provide musical accompaniment to enhance the mood of the scenes; and an Indian restaurant in Southall that provided free sweets to dis- tribute to members of the audience. Samosas, fried dumplings stuffed with spicy potato filling, were donated for sale at the performance as a fundraiser. Several women donated old saris to be sewn into a stage curtain, while oth- ers lent jewelry and other props. Many women who were not SBS members helped set up the stage, put out chairs, distribute sweets, and sell tickets. The performance was publicized in local shops and by community groups, as well as some nationally based anti-racist groups. A small notice appeared in the Southall Gazette (19 October 1979).

The collaborative manner in which SBS wrote the script, in keeping with its principle of coalitional practices, led to a play whose emphases were in- tensely debated, critiqued, and revised before the performance. Perminder Dhillon, to whom primary responsibility fell for synthesizing the many ideas for the script, recounted in an interview with me the intensity and excitement of working through and with the many views taken into account in conceptualizing the play (1994 interview). The collaborative manner in which the play developed also meant that the SBS Ramlila represented the

Everyday Life in South Asia, edited by Diane P. Mines, and Sarah Lamb, Indiana University Press, 2010. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/unt/detail.action?docID=1402903. Created from unt on 2022-05-03 21:21:36.

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views of the group in a way that no performance put together by a single director could.

P e r f o r m i n g t h e S B S R a m l i l a

SBS told Rama’s story in ways that would encourage members of the audi- ence to question some widely accepted cultural assumptions about women, but would still contain elements that made the drama clearly recognizable as a Ramlila. The play included the familiar events in the story: Rama’s birth, the exile to the forest, the abduction of Sita, and Rama’s victory over Ra- vana. Although the narrative remained fairly standard, certain decisions about casting and framing devices introduced multiple perspectives into the drama.

In contrast to some Indian dramatic traditions where men play both fe- male and male roles (because acting is considered disreputable for women),5 in the SBS Ramlila women played all the parts. In addition, casting choices deliberately thwarted traditional expectations. For example, Sita was played by a tall Asian woman, while Rama was played by a short African Caribbean woman. This casting undercut notions that the story “belongs” to a single ethnic group. It also subverted a widely held belief that a “proper” wife must be shorter than her husband.

In a manner crucial to its critical edge, the SBS production included a storyteller and two jesters, who mediated between the events depicted and the audience: The storyteller would come onstage, give background for the upcoming scene, and begin to comment on its significance. As she did so, the two jesters would interrupt her, drawing the audience’s attention to tra- ditional sayings, pointing out topical parallels, or interrogating certain as- sumptions about women reflected in the scene. One jester, a South Asian woman fluent in both English and Punjabi, included well-known Punjabi expressions in her speeches. The other jester, an African Caribbean woman, found ways to translate those Punjabi phrases in her comments, mediating for audience members who did not know Punjabi. Both functioned to dis- rupt the familiar, easy flow of the Ramayana narrative and question stereo- typical gender roles in the play.

For an example of how this structure worked, consider how SBS dealt with the birth of Rama and his brothers. After many childless years, Dasaratha performed a special sacrificial rite, as a result of which his three wives con- ceived and gave birth to male children. What a great celebration the king sponsored! At this moment the first jester said:

Yes, it was like that when my brother was born—a great celebration and my family passed out laddhus [a round sweet made of brown sugar and butter]. But when I was born, they didn’t celebrate. My mother said, “Hi Veh Raba, soota mundiyan dha thaba.”

Everyday Life in South Asia, edited by Diane P. Mines, and Sarah Lamb, Indiana University Press, 2010. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/unt/detail.action?docID=1402903. Created from unt on 2022-05-03 21:21:36.

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A Diaspora Ramayana in Southall / 443

Immediately following the first jester’s comments, the second one responded by paraphrasing the Punjabi comment in English, and adding her own eco- nomic analysis of the situation:

She said to God, “Why don’t you just throw me a bunch of boys?” Why such jubilation when the son is born, but not the daughter? She must have been worrying about the dowry to be paid for the marriage of a daughter.

The interchange between jesters directs the listeners’ attention to the socio- economic forces that immediately begin to shape parents’ attitudes toward their children: It was not a daughter per se that was disagreeable; instead it was the custom of giving dowry for a bride, and thus commodifying her, that allowed such fears about and responses to the birth of daughters to continue.

One performer recalled that her mother brought to the play a grand- mother and some elderly aunts who spoke Punjabi and knew little English. They were used to sitting through community meetings conducted in Eng- lish without understanding them, coming anyway in order to meet friends and feel part of their community. Until the first jester’s comment, they had viewed the drama primarily as a pious reiteration of Lord Rama’s greatness, enjoying the event in their own terms, as a religious holiday and a chance to socialize. Their perception of the Ramlila received confirmation as they entered the theater and received special Divali sweets. They responded to the first jester’s idiomatic Punjabi comments with laughs of recognition; the play called attention to the greater value placed on male babies than female babies, a fact of life with which they were all too familiar. That women out- numbered men in the audience meant many of them had personal experi- ence with the differing ways in which the birth of a girl or a boy was greeted.

The majority of those of South Asian descent who attended the SBS Ram- lila spoke English. For example, one member of the cast recalled that her mother brought along not only pious older womenfolk but younger sisters, brothers, and cousins who were fluent in English as a result of their school- ing. Thus the second jester’s translation of the Punjabi phrase and the dia- logue between the two jesters enhanced the process of questioning certain gender assumptions that might otherwise have been received without fur- ther reflection.

The jesters included pointedly topical comparisons to show that the re- lationships in the story were not only ones enacted in some mythic past, but echoed events in the daily life of the audience. In one scene, for example, Sita begged her husband to take her along on his forest exile, but he refused, claiming to her that life would be too harsh for her: her tender lotus-feet might get cut by thorns and bruised by rocks. Sita hit him in the shoulder with a thump and said, “I’m good enough to wear myself out doing all the housework in our home, but not good enough to go to the forest with you?” Submissively, Rama replied, “Whatever you say, my dear.” His response

Everyday Life in South Asia, edited by Diane P. Mines, and Sarah Lamb, Indiana University Press, 2010. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/unt/detail.action?docID=1402903. Created from unt on 2022-05-03 21:21:36.

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parodied the way a “proper” wife is “supposed” to answer her husband’s commands.

At another point, when the narrator enumerated the heavy duties that fall to a wife, a jester interrupted, saying, “Yeh, it’s a bit like how hard the women at T’walls Factory work, isn’t it?” Many South Asian women worked long hours at local factories, and then returned home to cook and clean house. The jester asked why women have to work a shift outside the home, and a shift inside the home as well. The scene also undermined the gender construct of a wife as a weak creature.

The Ramlila presented these topical comments humorously, in a non- threatening way, linking them to daily life by referring to familiar places. Among the actors and audience members whom I interviewed, it is this topi- cal humor that has remained most sharply etched in people’s memories of the Ramlila. Almost everyone remembered the funny asides of the jesters, a few repeating the Punjabi line quoted above. Several others recited word for word, as a high point of the performance, the line about Sita’s tender lotus- feet and its irony; these women had to deal on an everyday basis with mul- tiple pressures and dangerous work environments in factories, laundries, their homes, and during their journeys to and from work. They had little time to worry about their tender lotus-feet.

Members of the cast raised questions about notions of masculinity as well. In a scene set in the forest, for example, Rama’s brother Lakshmana heard the calls of wild animals, cowered in fear, and then ran to hide be- hind Sita, who reassured him, “Don’t worry, I’m here.” This line would be particularly comic for regular Ramlila-goers because Lakshmana is usually portrayed as a fearless warrior, ready to attack anyone who poses the slight- est threat to Rama, Sita, or the kingly lineage.

Toward the end of the Ramlila where Rama battles Ravana, the objects of critique shift from gender relations to the current electoral situation in Southall. As the brief program notes say, “Ravana is killed by Rama. Good wins over evil” (Southall Black Sisters 1979: 1). The interpretation of Ravana as Evil Incarnate determined the appearance of Ravana’s mask, composed of ten different visual images. Several of the heads were enlarged photographs of specific people, including Enoch Powell, major figures in the NF, a local member of the Ealing council, and even Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Other heads represented oppression in more abstract form. For example, the hat worn by riot police was drawn on one head to stand for police brutal- ity. A bobby’s black hat over a drawing of a pig symbolized the policing to which the community was subject on a regular basis (Dhillon 1979). Anoth- er drawing represented the increasingly restrictive immigration laws that threatened to tear apart families and penalize those whose parents were not born in Britain. The symbolism of Ravana, therefore, encompassed crucial concerns not just of South Asian immigrant communities but of African Ca- ribbean ones as well.

Everyday Life in South Asia, edited by Diane P. Mines, and Sarah Lamb, Indiana University Press, 2010. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/unt/detail.action?docID=1402903. Created from unt on 2022-05-03 21:21:36.

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The practice of culminating the Ramlila by burning Ravana in effigy, ac- companied by celebratory fireworks, is an ancient and venerable one, sym- bolizing the conquest of good over evil. In the SBS production, after Rama defeated Ravana, the storyteller told the audience, “I’ll see you in the car- park, where we’ll finish Ravana off.” There SBS set off fireworks, much to the delight of the spectators. In this Ramlila, the destruction of Ravana’s effigy symbolized the desire to end racism in Britain. This final message brought together the concerns of the varied members of the audience: Pun jabi and English speakers,

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