Bharatnatyam dancer Anita Rathnam, part of Leela camp, associated herself with Inculturation specialist Rani David and claims in her 2007 event in Maryland: "Rani David laid down facts and demonstrated that Christianity existed along with Bharatanatyam and Sanga Thamizh, but history lost in time has given Christianity a western outlook"
This is blatantly false claim. Rajiv's incisive analysis on this: It is interesting to note how self-conscious and strategic the various Christians are when engaged in this cross-religious activity. Their Christianity is very explicitly present in their minds and they are deliberate in making their strategic choices. On the other hand, Hindus engaged in such cross-religious activities are easily lost in ideas of "everything is the same" and "there is no us and them." One side (i.e. Christian) has a strategy and is constantly reworking it and perfecting it, in order to expand itself. The other side (i.e. Hindu) is naively unconcerned, and unwilling to see this is a competitive arena.
Anita Rathnam says "nothing is interesting in the Ramayana for me". Phd degree in Women's Studies from Mother Teresa University has such a colonizing effect!
Q: You have done a piece on Ahalya, an item on almost the whole Ramayana compressed into a 20 minute item and so on. What attracts you to the Ramayana story?
A: You are referring to the Raga Alapana section of the Dikshitar Kriti "Ranga Pura Vihara" from NEELAM. That song speaks of Vishnu as Rama and the alapana just pleaded for the Ramayana to be painted in broad brush strokes. In that way, the story is so familiar that I could not imagine filling that aural space with any other images. But nothing is interesting in the Ramayana for me. The only period of time I loved the story was listening to my professional Kadhai Vadyar (story telling priest) who would unravel the mysteries and adventures of this epic while I was growing up in Mylapore. As a dancer, I never learnt any songs from the Ramayana except take part in one of Rukmini Devi's ballets RAMA VANAGAMANAM, where, due to my height, I played Kausalya - mother to the much older Janardhan Sir's Rama! It was the same production in which another tall girl, Preetha Reddy of Apollo Hospitals, played Sumitra! We were both Kalakshetra students at that time.