WAR, WOMEN AND ECOLOGY: RETELLING RAMAYANA THROUGH SARAH JOSEPH’S THE VIGIL

Abstract

The Vigil (2014) is the English translation of the Malayalam novel Oorukaval (2008) written by Sarah Joseph and translated by Vasanthi Sankaranarayanan. The novel recounts Ramayana from the perspective of war, women and ecology, through the eyes of Angada, a monkey as evolved as human, whose father Bali was killed by Rama. Angada’s anger, anxiety and agony are picturised in the novel while he is forced to join Rama’s army in search of the later’s wife Sita. When the novel divulges the journey of Angada prepared for the Rama-Ravana war, it also becomes rewriting of Ramayana from an ecocentric, subaltern, female as well as Third world perspective. It also describes the far-reaching consequences of war, the perilous ecological destruction and exploitation of the underprivileged due to the greed and quest for power. While exploring and examining the narration of nature, women, and the marginalised in the novel from an ecofeminist perspective through textual and content analysis, the paper argues that the novel propounds a new sense of eco-masculinity as opposed to the toxicity associated with the hegemonic masculinity that is war here. In addition, the non-human perspective of ecofeminism and the ‘women-other human Others-nature interconnections’ are vividly manifested in the novel. The ecofeminist analysis of war and its disastrous effects on women and the nature also unveil the ingrained philosophical standpoints of the novel with respect to sustainable development. At the end, Angada throws away his weapon, along with the hatred and revenge that he has been carrying, realising its burden over humanity. Over the last thirty years of the political climate of India, Temple of Rama in Ayodhya is a contested matter and re-reading of Ramayana at this context is extremely significant, as the novel urges for re-inventing a culture of mutual co-existence.