Women face real intolerance: Amish

Fans of Amish’s Shiva Trilogy and his recent book ‘The Scion of Ikshvaku’ were in for a treat at the Times LitFest on Saturday when he hinted at writing a series on Manu, as well as on the Mahabharat. Talking about the significance of the date of a battle between Dasaratha and Ravana and the birth of Rama on the same day being given as 3433BCE in his book, Amish revealed that it is a clue to a story on Manu which he be write .He also revealed that there are clues in the four books he has published so far to subsequent books in the Ramchandra series.
“The Shiva trilogy and The Scion of ikshvaku are linked. If you want clues for what will happen in the rest of the rest of Ramchandra series you can go back to the Shiva trilogy, The description of the Vishnu temple in ‘Oath of the Vayuputras’, for example, is not random but will be linked to the second and fourth book of the Ramchandra series.” he said
His latest book also has an episode reminiscent of the Nirbhaya rape case, with Rama and Bharata taking different stances on justice for juvenile ciminals. The debate was, however, left open in the book,
“It was a tough call and frankly I couldn’t make up my mind and so I have left it open. The problem is that there is no reasonable debate happening on the issue and juvenile crime is a huge epidemic in India today. Lord Rama says if the law is there he couldn't be punished whereas Bharata’s view is to serve the purpose of justice. This is a debate whether justice is important or law. Whatever debates are there on TV get judgmental or emotional. It is a fault of the society itself and it needs to reflect on this,” he said.
Asked whether he agreed with Rama sending Sita into exile, Amish said, “‘Often the way we look at women today has been coloured by medieval interpretations of our texts and 1980s television serials. If you see our ancient texts, women are respected quite a lot and they were treated as equals. I don’t think there is any Rama devotee who thinks what he did to Sita was right. But if you look at Lord Rama, he is a symbol of a life of laws. If you have a leader who is living a life of laws it's normally very good for the country he leads but not so so good for his family or for his personal happiness. And Rama is not the only example, take the case of Gautam Buddha and Mahatma Gandhi. There are some leaders who sacrifice their families for the nation, and others who sacrifice the nation for their families.”
The depiction of many characters and events in his books marks a sharp deviation from traditional mythology but none of his works have stirred controversy. According to Amish, “I think 95% of the times controversies are created by authors themselves with the help of friends in the media for the sake of publicity and to sell their books. If you yourself avoid controversy then they don’t happen and that is my learning in life. I write my books with respect and I think people realise that."
Amish also spoke on the issue of award-wapasi and the debate on intolerance by referring to an article he had recently written in TOI. “I only said with utmost respect towards my seniors that when you receive an award it's not from the state, it's from the people of india. If you are returning the award, you are actually passing a judgement on 1.25 billion people and if you pass a judgement on that many people it can't be based on a few incidents. It has to be based on reasonably big data. Does data show that India as a country has become communal? No. The data does show, however, that India is intolerant towards women, that we are uncaring about our farmers. More farmers commit suicide every year than all the people who have died in all the religious violence cumulatively in the last 50 years. We are getting sidetracked. There are massive problems we are ignoring.”