Fighting Rama Phobia in the United States of America

‘Whether due to colonial remnants or theological ambitions, Western interests have long harbored anti-India sentiments. Often, their target is Valmiki’s Ramayana, a colossal piece of oppression-free literature, and Shri Rama, a virtuous icon who remains a guiding force, even in the modern world.

‘ Rajivji’s activism, aimed at countering Sheldon Pollock’s notorious narratives, is commendable. This work provides critical intellectual tools to challenge the anti-Rama discourse. … the author rightly observes that pre Pollock Ramayana scholars studied Valmiki’s Ramayana largely to extract the epic’s original essence. Pollock introduced a skewed lens focused on the later era’s casteism, chauvinism, and the recent era’s racist power dynamics  in Valmiki’s Ramayana, which in reality is free from and goes beyond these  corrosive notions.

‘What is even more concerning is that these anti-Ramayana ideas are  increasingly infiltrating India’s modern literature. This trend must be strongly challenged, condemned, and corrected by Shri Malhotra-like defenders’.