My job in life is to write books, not chew the cud over them.” The iconoclasm
Years after the fact, Menen suggested that “efforts should be made to lift all bans on all books. Thus the book was unceremoniously banned from being imported into India (it was originally published in England) in 1956, and the ban is upheld to this day. Even the journalist MV Kamath chimed in, saying the book was “an abomination …in no culture is virtue and decency laughing matter", thereby successfully genuflecting to the sanskaari status quo. In another corner, the conservative statesman C Rajagopalachari, who would soon come out with an abridged English translation of the Ramayana by both Valmiki and by the Cholan Tamil poet Kambar, offered the rather puerile criticism that the book was "nonsense but of the unreadable kind, i.e., pure nonsense", a tone that evoked a headmaster chiding his ward for a particularly scurrilous note that he was caught passing. His efforts to " secularise a religious book" seemed like the natural course to take in the fledgling republic, but this endeavour, according to Menen himself, was nipped in the bud by an uncertain Jawaharlal Nehru who was "afraid of being criticised." Menen, in his trademark pithy style, dismissed Nehru's vagaries as the deep-seated “childhood guilt” of a man who “believes in nothing”, that results in one’s being particularly sensitive to matters of religion. It is from this precarious gaze that Menen wrote Rama Retold or, simply The Ramayana, as my dog-eared, secondhand American edition is titled.Īt the time the book was published in 1954, no side would have the iconoclast. This vague middle ground that Menen straddles stems from the fact that his writings eschew any discernible ideology, even that hallowed literary ideal of seriousness.
However, to describe Menen as a “serious” writer would be an act of slander, but relegating him to mere comic relief would be an equal disservice. Even in the rare, flattering mention, he's described as a satirist – a term the literary hegemons assign to anyone who happens to be funny while they're being serious. Watch: Farewell video lets Scrat from ‘Ice Age’ have his acornĪubrey Menen's place in the Indian English literary canon has largely been forgotten.Before Pakistan can produce any science worth the name, it must overcome its deeply held prejudices.BJP trying to create a communal situation in India, says NCP chief Sharad Pawar.Indian football's strange history with head coaches.The big news: AAP alleges Jahangirpuri violence accused is a BJP leader, and nine other top stories.How a young Parsi from Gujarat went to fight in World War I and had the adventures of his life.‘Jayeshbhai Jordaar’ trailer: Ranveer Singh’s hero battles for the girl child.Watch: Bride’s father steals the show with ‘Oo Antava’ dance performance from the film ‘Pushpa’.Mumtaz, can: Hockey Women’s Junior World Cup brings a daring Indian youngster to spotlight.How a Punjabi-origin war hero became an important political figure in the Philippines.By cherry-picking development spend data, Sitharaman and Chidambaram are missing the larger picture.In Australia, debate continues about claims Indian High Commission interfered in academic institute.