To be Rama or not to be Rama........

I just couldn't stop myself from laughing my head off when I heard this news and reactions to it. Yeah its true that there is no historical evidence of Ram or "Ramar Sethu" but what about the religious backlash the news is going to create ?. The Hindu fundamentalists would see this as a heaven sent opportunity to whip up the communal passion because they believe elections are round the corner. Meanwhile it'd be interesting to see how the Congress tackles the issue as the party, I believe, is in a quandary. They just can't support or reject the affidavit given by ASI. I think the coming days would be really unraveling and you could see political "oneupmanship" among the parties.

I'd rather be concerned about the ecological impact of the project because it's definitely going to affect the marine flora and fauna found in the Palk straits, most of the species being endangered ones. And the economical importance of the project(it is going to shorten the sailing time for ships bound for Tuticorin port) cannot be neglected. Well the shipping channel wouldn't be bringing the mother-ships as the proposed draught doesn't allow that, still it should be economically viable as most of the ships sailing there can utilize the shortest pass thus saving valuable money. I do hope that this would materialize causing minimal damage to the marine ecology that is so rare there.

Now back to the religious front. The historical evidence of Hindu gods cannot be determined by usual methods because you probably wouldn't find any historical documents on that. And for a long time we see history interwoven with mythology and it's really difficult to see where History ends and mythology starts or vice versa. I remember reading a book written by eminent historian A.L.Basham. The views propagated by him are informative as well as controversial. What I mean by controversial is the view on Ram and Krishna would really ruffle many a feather. You know Ram has been worshiped only since 10th century A.D. rather Bhagavad Gita was added to Maha Bharata only around 800 A.D. These are views which would really hurt some one but that's the way History is created. You either can believe it or rubbish it. I felt nothing but curiosity to explore further and the journey still continues with occasional hiccups.

As I write this, just got the news that the government has decided to withdraw the affidavit which rather passes the ball back to the Hindu gang. Well I don't see an answer to this imbroglio which is slowly brewing to a major storm and will it end up as a storm in a tea cup or be a whirlwind...... only time will tell...