Ideological bias in translation

Periyar E. V. Ramasami Naicker

Like the Mahabharata, the translations or rewritings of Ramayana are too numerous to be recorded comprehensively. We have seen how Jain retellings radically altered the story and interrogated the Brahiministic bias of Valmiki. Ideologically oriented translations like these, from the dalit viewpoint or feminist viewpoint, have been done in the 20th century. Of these, the one worth mentioning is the Tamil Iramayanakkurippukal  (Notes on the Ramayana) written by E. V. Ramasamy Naicker in 1955. This was actually an interpretation of the Ramayana from his political viewpoint of the Dravidian movement. He also wrote the Iramayanappatirankal (Characters from the Ramayana) in 1930, which was an interpretation of the characters in the epic. Both were violently subversive, in that they successfully dethroned Rama and gave a sympathetic portrayal of Ravana. Periyar, as he was known, was acidly against what he perceived to be the North Indian Brahmin bias in Valmiki’s epic. His campaign for a South India that was free of North Indian domination tended to view the epics also with suspicion. Thus in his reading Ravana becomes the symbol of the victims of North Indian oppression; this in due course came to be extended to all dalits or victims of caste oppression. His works were widely translated and even now continues to have the support of dalit movements in other parts of India. His work inspired a play called Keemayanam in which Rama was a drunkard and Sita was a woman of loose character.

Periyar’s work of interpretation is a good example of how a translation can be used to push an ideology across. In fact, his literary writings gained him widespread popularity and eventually led to the establishment of what is today the political party of Dravida Munnetra Kazhakam (DMK). Paula Richman says:  “… his denial of the epic's sacrality echoes his own youthful disillusionment with Hinduism, while his condemnation of Rama as an agent of North Indian oppression parallels his attack on Brahmins as dominating both the Congress Party and local positions of power. What makes his reading of the text more than an idiosyncratic response to the Ramayana , however, is the extent to which E.V.R. imbued this response with political purpose and self-consciously presented his reading for public consumption” (Many Ramayanas). This is an instance of how a translation can be used to promote a particular reading, even in a context far removed from its original one.