Niyathi R. Krishna
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.
Ecofeminism,
War, Women, The Vigil, Ramayana
VOL.14, ISSUE No.1, March 2022