Ramacaritamanasa in South Africa

Through the strong medium of Awadhi, Gosvami Tulsidasa’s Ramacaritamanasa conveyed to the world the message of Ramabhakti and the principles of Ramarajya. Indentured workers from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar brought the Ramacaritamanasa all over the world three hundred years after it was written down. This allowed it to be read in every corner of the globe. Between the years 1860 and 1911, many thousands of these labourers made their way to South Africa, bringing with them copies of the Ramacaritamanasa to serve as their central religious text.

This book provides an in-depth analysis of the Ramacaritamanasa’s function in the daily lives of Hindi-speaking indentured labourers, as well as their perspectives on Sri Rama and the Ramacaritamanasa. Additionally, the book discusses the indentured labourers’ progency in South Africa. It is clear that Tulsidasa’s goal of instilling a selfless devotion to Sri Rama as the Supreme Deity is being accomplished via the Ramacaritamanasa until this very day. The social and political message that Tulsidasa conveyed also received a great deal of appreciation at the time.

The Ramacaritamanasa is revered as a sacred text among South African Hindus whose ancestry is from Hindi, and these individuals seek peace and direction by immersing themselves in Sri Rama’s Act as deeply as possible. Its function among Hindi-speaking Hindus as a maintainer of religious and cultural traditions is a clear indication of the significance it will continue to have in the next year.

Author

Usha Devi Shukla

About the Author(s)

Natal, South Africa is where Usha Shukla spent her childhood and received her education. At the University of Durban Westville in South Africa, where she received her upbringing in a culturally diverse family and setting, she chose to study Hindi as one of her main courses. Soon after, she became a lecturer in Hindi at what was once known as the Department of Indian Languages. During this time, she also earned her Master of Arts and Doctor of Letters degrees in Hindi Literature. The study that Shukla did on the Ramacaritamanasa in South Africa and the Hindi Diaspora opened him numerous new avenues for investigation and put him in touch with Indians whose ancestors were indentured servants. Because of this, there was a surge in interest in spreading Hindi, and as a result, she has been regarded as one of the most effective instructors of Hindi in South Africa, both in the context of her academic work and the community-based work she has done in this area. Hindus in South Africa have shown a renewed interest in the cultural domain as a direct result of her energising lectures and public speeches, which have contributed significantly to this development. As a Senior Lecturer at the School of Languages and Literature at the University of Durban Westville, she continues the research and teaching programmes that she has been involved in before.