Dushera Effigies
Every year we celebrate Dushera with much pomp and show culminating in the burning of effigies of Ravana, Kumbhakarna and Meghanada. Here Ravana and his allies are characterised as the symbol of all evils.
History and Puranas shows that Ravana was a man of many virtues. He was an able administrator, an intellectual giant a renowned scholar, a great warrior and above all a gentleman. It is ironical that a person of Ravana’s stature is ridiculed in this manner when our own standards in public life have reached the lowest ebb. To symbolise Ravana as the synonym of all evils is travesty of facts, to say the least.
Can we not celebrate the festival by burning the effigies of real evils and taking a pledge on this auspicious occasion to eradicate the evils of corruption, dishonesty, immorality etc from public life?
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On a broader scale, it is a psychological tool to make people believe in the victory of invading Aryans over the indigenous Dravidians. Ram - the Aryan king of Ayodhya, Ravan - the Dravidian king of Lanka. It was seen okay by the Ayrans to chop off breasts and ears of proposing Dravidian women. Well that is the reason why Aryan festivals like Diwali, Dussera etc. have less importance than harvest festivals like Ugadi, Pongal, Onam, Vishu.
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