One mythic event supports opposite triumphal and defeat narratives for different peoples

Evidence

To take an example, the high holiday of Indian Hindus is the Triumph of Durga. I was told by Mahasweta Devi, on whose work I write, that for Indian tribals (the First Nations), or at least for certain groups of tribals, this day is mourned as a day of defeat. Because the golden-yellow-colored goddess, winning over the principle of evil, who is in the disguise of a buffalo, might very well conceal the seeds of a historical-mythic event which for tribals betokens the defeat in the hands of the invading “Aryan” Hindus. It is a different story for them. What for “us” is the story of triumph is for “them” the story of defeat. And most caste-Hindus don’t even know this. … (Factually, the “Aryans” did not exist—it is the name of the language—and the Aryan-speaking groups migrated, but does this disqualify the mourning?) — Donna Landry and Gerald MacLean, The Spivak Reader, 232

Categorization

• QUESTION: The closing question — whether factual falsity of the Aryan migration narrative disqualifies tribals’ mourning — is precisely the bind the reader is chasing: does strategic grounding collapse when its factual basis is shown to be ‘made’?
• XREF: Echoes the counter-history motif from Foucault’s Society Must Be Defended — a contest over who the ancestor-victims are, where the same event is claimed by victor and vanquished narratives. — connects to: Epic traditions differ sharply in how they humanize their antagonists — , A Year of World Stories, 6773; Conquered peoples create counter-historiographies to resist triumphant conqueror narratives — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 523; National mythologies depend on suppressing contrary histories — Sherene Razack, Casting Out: The Eviction of Muslims…, 284
• SEED: Potential essay angle: when a group’s foundational mourning rests on a factually false history (Aryans never existed as a race), can the lament be held strategically without belief — exactly Spivak’s strategic essentialism test in miniature.
• SHARE: The Durga-as-defeat observation from Mahasweta Devi, and that Aryans never existed as a people, is a striking reversal of the Indian national calendar worth sharing with anyone in postcolonial studies.

Broader Connections

• Conquered peoples create counter-historiographies to resist triumphant conqueror narratives #expands (0.85) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 523
• National mythologies depend on suppressing contrary histories #complicates (0.75) — Sherene Razack, Casting Out, 284
• Epic traditions differ sharply in how they humanize their antagonists #qualifies (0.70) — , A Year of World Stories, 6773