Controversies in India are given greater prominence than pressing issues
like the oppression of women that need to be brought out in public,
says best-selling author Amish Tripathi, who "approaches the subject
with a heart" to avoid unnecessary trouble while writing on religion.
"Please
don't misunderstand me... but I fear that we don't focus on real issues
that I have spoken about many times, and it is the subject of women's
oppression," Tripathi told IANS in an interview on the sidelines of the
Jaipur LitFest.
"Our society behaves in a horrendous manner with
women. I am not just talking about rape, but about mass murder through
foeticide and systematic malnutrition," he added.
Religion is a
dangerous territory to tread in any country, but the author of the
"Shiva Trilogy" has been successfully retelling mythologies without
getting into controversies.
"Let's be honest...95 percent of the
controversies are generated and are not genuine controversies. They are
generated with a hope of creating publicity to sell books and movies or
anything," he said.
"If you write from a position where your
heart is approaching the subject with respect, it will show in your work
and would reflect what you believe in," he added.
Tripathi, 40,
announced at the recent Jaipur Literature Festival that his next series
of books will be on Lord Ram and the first one, "The Scion of Ishkwaku",
will be released in October.
According to the
banker-turned-author, he had signed a deal with his publishers
(Westland) in 2013 but wasn't sure about the subject till a woman at a
literature festival spoke bitterly about Lord Ram.
"The way that
girl spoke about Lord Ram was deeply disrespectful and that upset me
greatly. And this is how I decided to write on this subject,"
recollected the author of "The Immortals of Meluha", "The Secret of the
Nagas" and "The Oath of the Vayuputras".
"I would like to look at
him holistically and completely. Practically all Indians love and
respect him for what is known as 'Rama Rajya', but I wonder how many
people would have actually thought through what 'Rama Rajya' is. That is
the thing I want to write about and how he built that society," he
said.
But aren't the characteristics of Ram and Shiva different?
If Shiva's dynamic personality has many layers to be discovered, Lord
Ram's character doesn't offer many shades of the rainbow.
"Through
Lord Ram, we might learn that it is cool to follow rules. And that is
something I think modern Indians might need to learn," he said.
Tripathi
doesn't like to be labeled as the "pioneer of retelling mythologies".
He said myths and other such stories have been popular for over 1,000
years in India, but the mainstream publishers never took serious note of
this.
But things have changed now and in the Indian literary
landscape, the retelling of mythologies has become extremely popular.
Writers are approaching the topic by reinventing the story for modern
readers.
"Mythology in the Indian language publishing space never
ran out of popularity, but it came a bit later in English literature.
It was probably because people making decisions had a westernised way of
outlook," he concluded.
(Shilpa Raina can be contacted at [email protected])
