Tandav Controversy: Govt Must Nudge OTT Platforms to Self-Regulate Without Explicitly Binding Law
It was Prime Minister Indira Gandhi of the Congress party who imposed a nationwide Emergency in 1975 and ushered in 19 months of press censorship before she lost a humbling election in 1977, paying the price for suspending democracy. The wound is still fresh in Indian hearts and minds. If there is a lesson to be learned from there, it is that it is difficult to shut up a billion-odd people separated by language, religion, habits, and attitudes and yet united under one flag and a common Constitution. In such a context, free speech and creative freedoms can be seen as a cement that helps vent emotions and improves communication at the same time.
Uttara Kaanda book review: Silent voices speak
It takes someone with a deep understanding of the storyteller’s art to notice the flaws in an epic
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Rewriting epics has been a popular genre in Indian literature, with the regional influences adding extra colour to the plot.
Express News Service
A story is made up of events, but is both more and less than them. While the events may mean multiple things, the story forces them into specific interpretations and discards the rest. SL Bhyrappa deconstructs the classic Indian epic of the Ramayana into events, and back together into a different story in Uttara Kanda one that focuses on Sita and the other women.
What can notions of dharma and contemporary law tell us about the Ramayana? Two books investigate
While Arshiya Sattar teases out the meaning of ‘maryada’ in her new book, Anil and Vipul Maheshwari look at the Ramayana through the lens of contemporary law. A Thai fresco depicting the battle between Ram and Ravana | Wikimedia Commons
One of the most popular tropes from the Indian epic,
Ramayana, is that of the Lakshman rekha
– the magical protective boundary that Lakshman draws around Sita. The moment Sita breaches it to serve Ravana-in-disguise, she is abducted and taken away to Lanka. This mythological episode is a favoured piece of patriarchal rebuke, often thrown in the faces of women who dare to disobey authority, who cross any real or imaginary lines of control.