From Lanka with love

 

Good guy?

Ravana is the demon-king and ruler of Lanka who is the chief protagonist of Rama in the Hindu epic Ramayana. In other words: Ravana is the bad guy in a story considered sacred scripture by many Hindus. Rama, by contrast, is regarded as an avatar of the god Vishnu and worshipped as a deity in his own right. He is associated with Ayodhya in northern India.

One of the central plot elements of the epic is Rama´s invasion of Lanka and overthrow of its wicked ruler Ravana (who had abducted Rama´s wife Sita). Lanka is virtually always identified with the island of Ceylon south of India. Today, Ceylon is co-terminous with the independent state of Sri Lanka. For decades, Sri Lanka suffered a civil war between the Buddhist Singhalese and the Hindu Tamils. At one point, India sent "peace keepers" to the northern portion of Sri Lanka. Many Singhelese regarded this as a foreign Hindu aggression in support of the Tamils. Note that most Tamils live in southern India, in the state of Tamil Nadu. 

It was probably inevitable that Singhalese nationalists would appropriate the figure of Ravana and turn him into *the good guy* who defended ancient Lanka against a similar Hindu incursion. The Sri Lankan government even named the nation´s first satellite after Ravana! A scholar has refered to this process as "Ravanisation". 

It seems that the entire Ravana problematique is pretty complex. For instance, the Tamils themselves have appropriated Ravana as a positive symbol. Despite being Hindu, many Indian Tamils resent the perceived domination of northern Indian "Aryans" and Hindutva nationalists. Since these rever Rama, casting his enemy Ravana in the role of hero becomes tempting for Tamil regionalists. In a final fine irony, the Singhalese on Sri Lanka are actually also "Aryans", while being suspicious of both Tamils and northern Indian "Aryans"...

Why Sri Lanka named its first ever satellite after Ravana

Tamils praise Ravana on Twitter