INDRANI RAMPERSAD

 

FULL RESPECT, PANDITA

 

By Natasha Coker

Religion Reporter

Express

August 28, 2000

Page 25

 

It's been almost seven years since Pandita Indrani Rampersad dared to break tradition by becoming the first Hindu woman to become a pundit.  But the tongues have not stopped wagging.

 

"I try not to upset people, I try to work quietly," she said.

 

But people do get upset.

 

Just recently a Hindu man approached her.  The conversation went like this:

 

"I don't agree with women pundits!"

"Really, but I respect you for that."

"What do you mean you respect me for that? Women should not be pundits!"

"Well, I still respect you, but I don't live by your rules and I don't give you permission to enter my space."

 

Indeed, the record shows that Pandita Indrani, as she is called, is not afraid of breaking the rules - especially those she feels cannot be justified theologically.  When she became a priest in September 1993 that meant she stood on the same platform as her male counterparts in being able to conduct all 16 'rites of passage', including marriage and cremation.

 

There were other women before her, who acted as priests unofficially, but since their organisations were not incorporated, Rampersad is the first to be recognised by the State.

 

Rampersad recently returned home to participate in the World Hindu Conference, which ended on Sunday.  She didn't present any papers at the conference, but was invited to sit on a panel during a discussion on conversion.

 

Rampersad is also a journalist.  It is her journalism career and not her role as a pandita that has her busy these days.  She's working on her PhD in mass communication and journalism at the University of Pune in India.  Her first degree was in Indian philosophy and religion at Benares Hindu University in the Holy City of Benares, India.

 

Rampersad grew up in a strong Hindu home on Don Miguel Road.  Her father died when she was eight and she remembers her grandparents looking after her mother and six siblings.  Her own spiritual quest began at age 15 and by 17 she had become a student of yoga.

 

"That was another motivation to go to India, to seek the spiritual world.  The degree was to take care of secular maters," she said, flashing her disarming smile.

 

Rampersad returned to Trinidad in 1976 and taught until 1985.  During that time she became frustrated with the education system.

 

"I was frustrated about what I was doing.  I did not feel fulfillment in a job that's geared to churning out kids with a certificate.  There was no remedial work for kids who didn’t meet the standard."

 

From Trinidad she travelled to the US, but she soon found herself back home because "I couldn't stay away from Trinidad for long".  She got a job working at the Guardian and became that newspaper's bureau chief in the then newly opened Central office.

 

Her aim there, she said, was to open the "Indian ethnic market" to the media.

 

The market was always there, she said, "we just never tapped it."

 

Journalism is where she found herself and she feels just as passionately about that calling as she does about her religious beliefs.  Her choice of topic for PhD is: "The professional education of journalism to face the challenges of the information age."  When she returns to Trinidad, Rampersad wants to contribute to the professional education of journalists.

 

And there is a parallel between journalism and being a pundit, she said.

 

"To me religion is a quest for truth and in the Hindu Dharma, we call that truth God For me in journalism, there is also that quest for truth - to get that information, to get the facts behind what we see and present it to the reader or the consumers."

 

How does she plan to juggle the two roles?

 

"Let me put it this way, if I'm working on a job full-time as a professional journalist, then my pundit work becomes weekend and a part-time activity."

 

She hastened to add, "My mind is not compartmentalised, because it gives me a greater depth of insight into the Hindu community and the world of religion and the world of religious communities I'm sensitive to these issues, so I can add something to whatever organisation I work with."

 

When she's not in India, Rampersad is in New York where she is an adjunct professor in English at City University of New York.  She also teaches day school in New York.  She hopes to leave the US in October and return to India to complete her studies.

 

Since becoming a pundit, Rampersad said, she found older Hindu men to be more accepting than Hindu women.

 

A member of the Arya Pratinidhi Sabha of Trinidad, Rampersad, received support from the leadership of the organisation when she made the big step.

 

"It was my grandfather who asked me why don't I consider becoming a pundit.  I remember when I was 17, way back in the 70s, Pundit Ramcharan Gosine, who is now a well known pundit asked me then why don't I think of becoming a pundit."

 

Back then, she viewed that suggestion as "way out".  She said, "Even though there was that spiritual quest, I did not see myself in any leadership role because there were no women role models."

 

Rampersad, who said she is in her 'mid 40s', did not know of any reference in the Hindu scriptures that forbade her from becoming a pundit.

 

She challenges anyone who disagrees to, "Get beyond the emotion and show me."

 

A member of the Rashtra Savika Samiti, the largest Hindu women's organisation in India, Rampersad said there are hundreds of trained female pundits in south India.  The Mogul invasion in India involving a Mongolian Muslim dynasty, caused "a lot of Muslim patriarchal values" to infiltrate north India, she said.

 

She drew an example: "You have a lot of covering of the head in north India, not in south India."  The Hindus in Trinidad are mostly from north India.

 

Still, Rampersad said even those pundits who don't agree with her status have never disrespected her.

 

"Even though they don't address me with 'Pundit', they will call me 'sister' with respect."  And surprisingly, she has garnered more acceptance from older Hindu men, than from Hindu women.

 

Since her induction, women in Trinidad have not been queuing up to become panditas, but Rampersad is content that she has "broken the ground."

 

She said, "It has planted a seed in the minds of women.  They can now ask 'Why can't I? Why shouldn't I'?  Hopefully, the next breed, we will see more."

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