Recently, I watched the Hindi movie, Ram Setu. It’s an exploration movie where the team went on to explore the Ram Setu and if it’s made at the time of Ramchandra, which they said some seven thousand years back, or a natural one. I liked the movie, which I would have of any culture or religion as it’s an exploration movie. I wouldn’t have a problem with anything, but the ending of the movie changed everything.
When the judgement was going to be delivered by the court on the Ram Setu, there’re some certain dialogues which showed the colour of Hindutva in the movie. From the beginning to almost the end, the movie was smooth with no indication of the Hindutva. Last 5-10 minutes, the concluding part, was interpretated on the idea of the theories of the Hindutva mob.
Misrepresentation of Sikhi
There are two points that I am able to recall related to Sikhi which’re wrongly mentioned in the movie.
First was when the character (Akshay Kumar) of the movie expounded the presence of Ramayana in different cultures and religions. So, they included Sikhi too that Ramayana’s presence is there in the religion. It should be highlighted that at the time of the inauguration of Ram Temple in Ayodhya, Prime Minister Narendra Modi raised the same point. The perception of the Sangh and its members is that the presence of ‘Ramayana’ in Sikhi is because of the veneration of the Sikh Gurus towards Ramchandra. But the truth is the tenth Sikh Guru not only wrote about the Ramchandra but other incarnations of Vishnu too to have a warlike spirit among the Sikhs.
This message of his of no association to the deities is written by himself. When the Guru completes Rama Avatar in Choobees Avatar, the Guru writes:
ਪਾਇ ਗਹੇ ਜਬ ਤੇ ਤੁਮਰੇ ਤਬ ਤੇ ਕੋਊ ਆਂਖ ਤਰੇ ਨਹੀ ਆਨਯੋ ।।
Since I have taken refuge under You, I haven’t considered any other (for worship).
ਰਾਮ ਰਹੀਮ ਪੁਰਾਨ ਕੁਰਾਨ ਅਨੇਕ ਕਹੈਂ ਮਤ ਏਕ ਨ ਮਾਨਯੋ ।।
There’re many Thoughts/Religions of different kinds associated with Ram, Rahim, Puranas and Quran, but I don’t believe in any one of them.
There can’t be more precise and clear point than this.
It’s the reason the Sikh scholars, and Sikhs in general, have said these people misinterpreting the Sikh religious texts. You will never have heard of the above verses from Narendra Modi or the character in the Ram Setu movie.
Second point, which’s related to that only, is the mentioning of the word Ram in Guru Granth Sahib ji. The character in the movie says in Guru Granth Sahib ji the word Ram is mentioned numerous times. This was to suggest Ram of Guru Granth Sahib ji is Ram of Ayodhya – Ramchandra.
I have written about it more than I can count. The Ram of Guru Granth Sahib ji is the omnipresent one, not the avatar of Vishnu. But over the years the brigades of Hindutva ideology have said the opposite. If the movies of Bollywood are to show Sikhi in bad light – or shake hands with the Hindutva politics – the Sikhs should think collectively and take a stand on this. And the people involved in the movies should be questioned when they come to Punjab to promote their movies.