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The religious responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in Hindu India were manifold and, at times, publicly contested, which raises the question of which societal differences became visible and were augmented as the pandemic unfolded. Based on observations mainly from the first coronavirus wave in 2020, this article argues that the limited religious innovation that ensued gave rise to a lively public debate that revealed marked differences within the Hindu community, that the pandemic offered new possibilities for affirming Hindu identities while othering Muslims, and that it accelerated the transition to online religious services in prominent temples while pausing the activities in others, thus augmenting a marked digital divide that may well outlast the pandemic. Pandemic religious changes notwithstanding, the article concludes that most of the changes were ephemeral and produced minor jolts rather than major transformations.

The earliest genre of Indian film, the Mythological, presented the gods and heroes from the myths and epics of Hinduism in a new medium, with all the entrancing corporeality that the cinema screen suggested. Audience reception, to be found in an energetic culture of newspaper review, over time expresses not only the changing tastes of a maturing filmic critical faculty, but the way in which this feedback influenced cinematic portrayals, often leading to an eventual transmogrification of beloved characters. The physical representation on the screen of the bodies of divinities and avatars presented different problems to producers as their concerns grew to encompass not only censorship, but competition from other increasingly popular genres; such as the social genre film, in which sexuality could be scrutinized by the audience while pruriently censured. Films of such genres came to accommodate those physical types that had long been a staple of the Mythological genre, its champions and villains, along with its stories; without the growing confusion that the Mythological genre displayed in the physical portrayal of characters, or in faithfulness to character histories or even names. The alterations over the period of the genre’s dominance and decline, to clothing, sexuality and personal relationships, extended to the representation of myth and epic in other mediums, that of picture books and television, the two worlds in which the Mythological genre was reincarnated., El primer género que existió en el cine indio, el mitológico, nos presentaba a los dioses y héroes de los mitos y epopeyas hindúes en un medio nuevo, con toda la corporeidad deslumbrante que ofrecía la pantalla de cine. La recepción de la audiencia, reflejada en una cultura de crítica periodística efervescente, expresa no solo los gustos cambiantes de una facultad crítica cinematográfica en proceso de crecimiento a lo largo de este periodo, sino también la forma en la que esta retroalimentación influyó en las representaciones cinematográficas, lo que a menudo se traducía en una metamorfosis de los personajes más apreciados. La representación física en la pantalla de los cuerpos de divinidades y sus reencarnaciones planteaban problemas diversos a los productores, cuyas preocupaciones crecían no solo en lo que a sortear la censura se refiere, sino también a la hora de competir con otros géneros cada vez más populares, como las películas de carácter social, en las que la sexualidad podía ser escrutada por la audiencia a la vez que simultáneamente se censuraba la lascivia. Las películas que pertenecían a esos géneros ofrecían una tipología física que durante mucho tiempo había sido un elemento fundamental del género mitológico, sus campeones y sus villanos, junto con las historias en las que se inscribían; todo ello, además, sin la confusión cada vez más acentuada que ofrecía el género mitológico en cuanto a la representación física de los personajes, o en referencia a la fidelidad a las historias de personajes o incluso a sus nombres. Los cambios durante el período de hegemonía y declive del género, en la vestimenta, la sexualidad y las relaciones personales, se extendieron a la representación del mito y la épica en otros medios, de los libros ilustrados a la televisión, los dos mundos en los que se reencarnó el género mitológico.

The Vedic literature constitutes the fulcrum of Sanskrit literature and is repositories of some fundamental concepts of human rights. This manuscript endeavors to decode the tenets of human rights concealed in the Vedic texts. It further endeavors to view a connection between archaic Vedic literature and human rights and approaches the subject of human rights from the perspectives of Vedic texts. As an articulated concept, human rights have distinct western inception though the elements that constitute the concept postulate different cultural forms and are found in sundry civilizations of which one is Vedic civilization. The Vedic rights are certainly not akin to modern-day human rights but then it would not be feasible to expect much from the texts that are approximately 3500 to 4000 years old. Though the Vedic literature vividly resonates with some rudimentary conceptions of human rights, the relationship between Vedic literature and human rights is not entirely smooth and tension free. This manuscript withal fixates on the incongruities subsisting between Vedic literature and human rights.

This thesis examines the role that the Hindu epic the «em»Ramayana«/em» plays in shaping the relationship between conservative Hindu Indian nationalism and gender in post-colonial India. It demonstrates how the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has manipulated understandings of the Ramayana to best serve its political aims since 1980, and to further an inherently sexist and discriminatory agenda.«br /» «br /» Chapter One outlines the role of exclusionary narrative in constructing national identity along conservative and fundamentalist lines. Drawing from this, it goes on to present and expand upon the key research questions explored in this thesis. Chapter Two examines the various relevant fields of literature which are involved in this discussion. Chapter Three outlines the key methodological fields from which this thesis draws as an intersectional study. Chapter Four analyses Valmiki’s Ramayana in considering its depiction of gender constructs, and touches upon the significance of the 1987 Ramayan television serial by Ramanand Sagar. Chapter Five explores the role of gender in the Indian Independence movement and the development of Hindu nationalism. It then examines postcolonial secularism and nationalism, and women’s rights till the BJP’s founding in 1980.«br /» «br /» Chapter Six focuses on India, the rise of the BJP, and the shape of women’s issues over the past forty years. Chapter Seven focuses upon three separate endeavours to approach the Ramayana«em» «/em»from unconventional perspectives, one of which is my experience writing and directing the 2014 production Fire to Earth«em» «/em»with the UNSW Indian Society. Chapter Eight outlines the BJP’s attempts to moderate in recent years, summarises the current state of women’s affairs, and concludes by highlighting some of the lacunae that still need to be addressed in this field.«br /» «br /» This thesis situates itself at the intersection of Ramayana studies, Indian women’s studies, and postcolonial Indian politics. It takes a multifaceted methodological approach to answering its principal questions, incorporating narrative studies, politics, gender studies, and literature studies. I acknowledge the numerous perspectives in these fields and synthesise their various contributions to illustrate the deep-rooted connections between Hindu nationalism, gender exclusion and oppression, and the Ramayana.

The Kiski Kahani project in Pune, India, is a not-for-profit program that compiles stories of the Ramayana, a South Asian epic, and publishes them in English. Kiski Kahani’s ideology rejects the Hindu nationalist master narrative of the Ramayana, and privileges the fragmentary, improvised stories of the epics. As a socially grounded language practice, Kiski Kahani’s retellings are grounded in pan-Indian, cosmopolitan modalities that index a sense of belonging to a pluri-cultural nation: the use of English rather than Hindi or Marathi, and a curation of stories from diverse Indian regions and languages that develops an emerging genre.