Devdutt Pattanaik had a good run on social media. But of late, the ‘mythologist’ of the Wendy Doniger school of thought has been coming off as unhinged. On the 10th of October, which happened to be the Mental Health Day ironically enough, the author resorted to using language that could only ever be construed as evidence of his deteriorating mental health.
Chup chudail . Jalti kyon hai. Limbu mirchi band hua kya ?
— Devdutt Pattanaik (@devduttmyth) October 10, 2019
It is rather uncouth and vile to call a woman ‘chudail’ (witch) for a mere difference of opinion. However, it wouldn’t dent Pattanaik’s carefully constructed feminist credentials as in the left-liberal clown world, people can easily get away with treating women extremely poorly as long as they mouth off their favourite talking points.
As it so happens, it’s not the first time that Pattanaik has had a meltdown on social media. During the Padmavat controversy, the author believed it was a good idea to demonize the men of the society in which women performed Jauhar to avoid being defiled by Islamic barbarians. He accused Hindus who understood and respected the motivations of the women who performed Jauhar of being ‘marital rapists’ and claimed they just liked burning women.
Read: Devdutt Pattanaik’s work is full of errors, manipulations, and lies: Author Nityanand Misra
You love tearing . So much suppressed violence. abused as a child ?
— Devdutt Pattanaik (@devduttmyth) September 6, 2019
On another occasion, Pattanaik told a woman that he was abusing ‘negative forces’ like her after she suggested that he needed some positive energy in his life.
Pattanaik also appears to be obsessed with the mothers of others. In one of his more horrendous tweets, the author replied to a twitter user’s query with ‘I will check with your mother’. It’s quite vulgar and wildly inappropriate but since he mouths off left-liberal talking points, he can get away with basically anything.
Pattanaik appears to have made it a habit of involving the mothers of people who mock him on social media. It’s a rather unhealthy habit he picked up from gods know where.
Your mother did that ? So sorry ?
— Devdutt Pattanaik (@devduttmyth) September 10, 2019
Actually I am rattled as your mother is very ashamed she gave birth to you .
— Devdutt Pattanaik (@devduttmyth) September 7, 2019
No your father and mother were at the bar with me ?
— Devdutt Pattanaik (@devduttmyth) September 7, 2019
Go to sleep stupid boy and apologise to your mother for your birth
— Devdutt Pattanaik (@devduttmyth) July 2, 2019
Devdutt Pattanaik also appears to love accusing people of wanting to burn women. On a very particular date, the 17th of November, 2017 to be specific, he made a series of tweets with the exact same words: “You just like burning women”. He didn’t even bother to mix his words and just went with the flow. When your primary objective is demonizing your detractors, the specific content of tweets hardly matters I suppose.
Apart from his atrocious conduct on social media, his work has been criticized heavily for errors, manipulations and outright lies. He has been accused of misinterpreting Sanskrit texts and many believe he does so on purpose to peddle a particular version of Leftist political ideology.
Read: Mr Devdutt Pattanaik, Rani Padmini did not choose death, she chose immortality
Pattanaik has also attempted to combat some of the morbid aspects of Leftist dogma, for which he has received some flak from people from that end of the political spectrum.
Women not allowed into Hindu temple – Hindus are misogynistic, patriarchal ?
Nuns not allowed to hear confessions in Church – respect the religion. ?
Women not allowed to lead prayer in mosque – kindly respect the religion. ?
BTW , if you retweet this you become ‘Sanghi’ ?— Devdutt Pattanaik (@devduttmyth) August 24, 2018
Pattanaik has also called out the anti-Brahmin bigotry that is rampant in Leftist circles and in some ways, tried to draw attention to Islamic intolerance that is always ignored by the Left ecosystem.
Many LW activist groups talk how Ram killed Shambuka, a shudra, to show how “Brahminism” is oppressive.
But same groups will not speak of how Ram also kills Ravana, a brahmin.
The latter information complicates matters and prevents reducing Ramayana into binary politics.— Devdutt Pattanaik (@devduttmyth) August 17, 2019
While Devdutt Pattanaik would like to view himself as someone who has transcended the barriers of the Left-Right divide, in reality, he is merely another prominent face of the Left-Liberal Clown World. While his tweets on one or maybe two issues voiced opinions that sensible people would agree with, the majority of them reflect opinions that are ostensibly deranged.
Combined with the fact that his work is filled with distortions that come across as a deliberate attempt to twist Hinduism to further a particular political agenda that aligns with the Left, it is understandable why even his good tweets go unappreciated. On a fundamental level, Pattanaik appears to have a rather weird way of directing his tweets at the women in the family of the people who are mocking him. This rather creepy behaviour is bound to put people off.
In an instance of remarkable irony, Pattanaik has written books titled ‘Devi’ and ‘Lakshmi’ and ‘Book of Kali’. And yet, here we have him directing crass and creepy tweets at the mothers of those who mock or disagree with him.
In a world without social media, Pattanaik would most likely continue to be widely respected across the board. However, with its advent, it is impossible to keep the masks on for long. Many ‘intellectuals’ do labour under the delusion that they did everything by the book and therefore, like their predecessors, they should have gotten their due as well in terms of respect and adulation from people. The fact that they aren’t getting what they believe is owed to them is certainly driving some of them over the edge.
