by F. S. AIJAZUDDIN
History tells us more about Sita (the misjudged consort of Lord Rama) and about Shrimata Kasturbai (the suffering spouse of Mahatma Gandhi) than we know about Smt Jashodaben (the invisible wife of Prime Minister Narendra Modi).
These three form a pious trinity whose loyalty to their often unfeeling husbands personifies courage, the quality John F. Kennedy defined as “grace under pressure”.
Sita’s fidelity to her husband Rama remained intact throughout the 14 years she spent in exile with him, the last as a prisoner of the demon king Ravana in Lanka. Even after her return to Ayodhya and despite her protestations of purity, Rama sent her into a second exile. She spent 15 more years in the hermitage of the sage Valmiki who taught her twin sons Lava and Kusa (deemed founders of Lahore and Kasur) the Ramayana he composed.
Persuaded to rejoin her husband in Ayodhya, Sita found herself under suspicion yet again. She appealed to Mother Earth which then obligingly swallowed her.
The cacophony that greeted the original return of Rama and Sita to Ayodhya reverberated on Jan 22 this year. Ramabhakts expect a restoration of Rama Rajya — a halcyon age “marked by peace, prosperity, and harmony”. Some though felt that Sita should also have been venerated for her uncomplaining devotion to Lord Rama.
When I visited Ayodhya and the ruins of the Babri Masjid in 2005, I stayed in the guest house of a temple dedicated to Sita. It was built by a matriarch of the Orchha royal family and is serviced with food and fresh bathwater every day, as if Sita and Rama still lived there. Its other occupants were an uncontrollable troop of monkeys, given free rein for being descendants of Rama’s monkey ally Hanuman.
Another Sita of sorts was Kasturbai Gandhi, M.K. Gandhi’s loyal wife. She endured endless humiliation at his hands, estrangement from her children, and even accepted his unilateral decision to become a brahmacharya. Shamed by him into forgoing salt and pulses, she died, swallowed by his insatiable ideals.
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