The other day, i was watching a debate on the BJP's flag hoisting issue on TV,Prof Radha Kumar ( kashmir issue interlocutor) was also a part of the debate. Looking at her points and accent, it seemed as if Basanti from Sholey had been appointed the interlocutor for the Kashmir Issue. With due respect to her credentials, i did not find her points impressive at all.Although,it was for the first time that i was listening to her. During the debate, i was confused. My confusion was that despite being an ardent supporter of the fact that "Kashmir is an integral part of India", why was i not supporting the flag hoisting campaign? Kashmir is an integral part of India and every Indian has the right to hoist the flag in any part of the country as flag hoisting a matter of national pride. Still, was not ready to accept it in this case. My confusion was making me restless.
Later in the night,unable to sleep, i got the answer in terms of an analogy. I started comparing BJP's flag hoisting campaign to that of a husband's desperate attempt to kiss his estranged wife who is seeking divorce. On being opposed, the husband supports his move by saying that "kissing is a gesture of love"!! What a strange logic? Does this fit in the context and situation? I then understood that this was exactly my confusion, the logic given in support of the campaign that flag hoisting is a matter of national pride.
My only question is, despite kiss being a gesture of love, how does it help in saving the marriage in this case?
Monday, January 17, 2011
Monday, December 27, 2010
Kashmiri Women and "Azadi"
Watching TV these days, I start contemplating over issues for which my mother, or ladies in my locality, could go on to the streets protesting violently. I get this thought whenever I see images of "Burning Kashmir" on TV and see ordinary women shouting slogans of “Azadi". The women I am talking about are ordinary homemakers. These are not contemporary, highly qualified, so called intellectual and privileged women. So, how do these ordinary women get extra-ordinary courage to come out in the burning streets risking their lives?
Another thing that intrigues me is their slogan of "Azadi"! I ask myself, do these women actually understand the meaning of "Azadi"? And, if they do understand, what are their attributes of "Azadi"? I was unable to find a direction for my thought to explore the reason for this phenomenon. Then, I decided to explore some prominent social movements of present day India which were spearheaded by women. Two major movements that came to my mind were, anti arrack movement in Andhra Pradesh and the Chipko movement in present day Uttarakhand. I considered these two movements because they were both against the state, started spontaneously by women without any notable organised leadership and finally they brought about a substantial change in state policy.
The anti arrack agitation was started by women in Warangal, Karimnagar and Adilabad districts of Andhra Pradesh in 1990-91.This was suppressed by the government by using police force. It went to the extent of selling arrack in police protection and in some cases even in the police stations. Arrack was locally made cheap liquor. This was consumed mostly in rural areas as it was abundantly available locally and was cheap. Arrack production and sale was licensed by the government, thus, was legal. These licenses were with some powerful local contractors who were local musclemen and were politically well connected. This movement revived in August 1992 in a remote village of Nellore and later spread to other districts of Andhra Pradesh. This was when this agitation was first covered by media and people took note of it. Despite the agitation, government was reluctant to ban arrack. It tried to forcefully suppress the movement. This was because of the involvement of very powerful people in arrack business and the revenue that state government got from sale of local liquor. But, the women were in no mood of succumbing to government pressure and threats from contractors. Finally, government had to accede to the demands of the protesting women. When TDP (Telugu Desam Party) won the election in 1994 it went ahead with its promise of total prohibition. This movement was spearheaded by poor and mostly literate rural women.
The "Chipko Aandolan" as it is popularly called was started mostly by rural women in the present day Uttarakhand, then Uttar Pradesh. This was the time when nobody talked about "Global Warming"! It was the time when aggressive economic development started in India. Timber was a major export item in those days which earned the government foreign exchange. This resulted in unabated felling of trees in the hills of present Uttarakhand. Deforestation led to soil erosion, landslides, floods, silting of rivers etc. All this was realised later, the initial effects of deforestation were felt by the rural women folk in the hills. In their own terms, the forest was their "maika" which means maternal home in Hindi. This was the place which gave them food, fodder for their cattle, fuel for their "Chulas" and drinking water streams. In other terms, forest was a major constituent of a household economy. Hence, started the movement. Whenever timber contractors came to cut trees, women would first try to convince the contractors, not to cut trees, by informing them about the demerits of deforestation. Subsequently, if the contractor refused to concede, women would hug the tree such that the contractor would have to kill the woman first in order to cut the tree. Later, women also started tying holy threads around trees which is a symbol of pious bonding according to Hinduism. This strengthened their bond with the forest as this gave them emotional bonding with the forest. Such was the success of the movement that it was recognised internationally and later on the government had to go slow on felling trees despite the contractor pressure and financial loss. Reforestation drives were initiated, legal battles fought and subsequently in December 1996, The Supreme Court of India declared cutting of trees in forest areas as illegal (not solely because of Chipko movement though).
By looking at these two movements, the only point I could infer as a reason for these women to come out openly on the streets was that, the “issue in contention” in both the above cases was directly affecting their home. By home here, I mean family relationships, family peace and economy. The constituents of the threat in the above cases could be health issues, food scarcity, money scarcity, threat to social security etc. I strongly believe that the reason for women, in Kashmir, to come out on to the streets is also that they see a threat to their own home. On many occasions, in a social scenario, we see many homes failing to manage crisis situations and breaking, but we never feel that the same will happen to our home. We experience fear only when the magnitude of the problem is huge and we feel that we can also be the victims of a similar crisis. Thus, if so many women find the situation threatening to their homes in Kashmir, we can assume the magnitude of the problem.
Now that we consider, threat to one’s home, as a major problem of the protesting women. We should also find out the constituents of the threat to their homes. In a place like Kashmir, the situation is quite different from the situations mentioned in the above cases. The constituents of the threat would be different. Here, in my opinion, the constituents would primarily be threat to life of family members and threat to dignity of family members. There could be other social and economic threats, but, I consider these two to be the most important ones. Also, by the simple analogy, we can consider right to life of family members and right to dignity of family members of these women as their attributes of “Azadi”. Thus, if my analogy is correct and the attributes of “Azadi” for these women are right to life and right to dignity of family members. Then, in my opinion, there is no one else who understands the meaning of “Azadi” better than these women.
May god help these women get their “Azadi”
Another thing that intrigues me is their slogan of "Azadi"! I ask myself, do these women actually understand the meaning of "Azadi"? And, if they do understand, what are their attributes of "Azadi"? I was unable to find a direction for my thought to explore the reason for this phenomenon. Then, I decided to explore some prominent social movements of present day India which were spearheaded by women. Two major movements that came to my mind were, anti arrack movement in Andhra Pradesh and the Chipko movement in present day Uttarakhand. I considered these two movements because they were both against the state, started spontaneously by women without any notable organised leadership and finally they brought about a substantial change in state policy.
The anti arrack agitation was started by women in Warangal, Karimnagar and Adilabad districts of Andhra Pradesh in 1990-91.This was suppressed by the government by using police force. It went to the extent of selling arrack in police protection and in some cases even in the police stations. Arrack was locally made cheap liquor. This was consumed mostly in rural areas as it was abundantly available locally and was cheap. Arrack production and sale was licensed by the government, thus, was legal. These licenses were with some powerful local contractors who were local musclemen and were politically well connected. This movement revived in August 1992 in a remote village of Nellore and later spread to other districts of Andhra Pradesh. This was when this agitation was first covered by media and people took note of it. Despite the agitation, government was reluctant to ban arrack. It tried to forcefully suppress the movement. This was because of the involvement of very powerful people in arrack business and the revenue that state government got from sale of local liquor. But, the women were in no mood of succumbing to government pressure and threats from contractors. Finally, government had to accede to the demands of the protesting women. When TDP (Telugu Desam Party) won the election in 1994 it went ahead with its promise of total prohibition. This movement was spearheaded by poor and mostly literate rural women.
The "Chipko Aandolan" as it is popularly called was started mostly by rural women in the present day Uttarakhand, then Uttar Pradesh. This was the time when nobody talked about "Global Warming"! It was the time when aggressive economic development started in India. Timber was a major export item in those days which earned the government foreign exchange. This resulted in unabated felling of trees in the hills of present Uttarakhand. Deforestation led to soil erosion, landslides, floods, silting of rivers etc. All this was realised later, the initial effects of deforestation were felt by the rural women folk in the hills. In their own terms, the forest was their "maika" which means maternal home in Hindi. This was the place which gave them food, fodder for their cattle, fuel for their "Chulas" and drinking water streams. In other terms, forest was a major constituent of a household economy. Hence, started the movement. Whenever timber contractors came to cut trees, women would first try to convince the contractors, not to cut trees, by informing them about the demerits of deforestation. Subsequently, if the contractor refused to concede, women would hug the tree such that the contractor would have to kill the woman first in order to cut the tree. Later, women also started tying holy threads around trees which is a symbol of pious bonding according to Hinduism. This strengthened their bond with the forest as this gave them emotional bonding with the forest. Such was the success of the movement that it was recognised internationally and later on the government had to go slow on felling trees despite the contractor pressure and financial loss. Reforestation drives were initiated, legal battles fought and subsequently in December 1996, The Supreme Court of India declared cutting of trees in forest areas as illegal (not solely because of Chipko movement though).
By looking at these two movements, the only point I could infer as a reason for these women to come out openly on the streets was that, the “issue in contention” in both the above cases was directly affecting their home. By home here, I mean family relationships, family peace and economy. The constituents of the threat in the above cases could be health issues, food scarcity, money scarcity, threat to social security etc. I strongly believe that the reason for women, in Kashmir, to come out on to the streets is also that they see a threat to their own home. On many occasions, in a social scenario, we see many homes failing to manage crisis situations and breaking, but we never feel that the same will happen to our home. We experience fear only when the magnitude of the problem is huge and we feel that we can also be the victims of a similar crisis. Thus, if so many women find the situation threatening to their homes in Kashmir, we can assume the magnitude of the problem.
Now that we consider, threat to one’s home, as a major problem of the protesting women. We should also find out the constituents of the threat to their homes. In a place like Kashmir, the situation is quite different from the situations mentioned in the above cases. The constituents of the threat would be different. Here, in my opinion, the constituents would primarily be threat to life of family members and threat to dignity of family members. There could be other social and economic threats, but, I consider these two to be the most important ones. Also, by the simple analogy, we can consider right to life of family members and right to dignity of family members of these women as their attributes of “Azadi”. Thus, if my analogy is correct and the attributes of “Azadi” for these women are right to life and right to dignity of family members. Then, in my opinion, there is no one else who understands the meaning of “Azadi” better than these women.
May god help these women get their “Azadi”
Sunday, October 3, 2010
My Solution for Kashmir-Democracy with Capitalism
LET ME TELL YOU WHAT I WOULD HAVE DONE, HAD I BEEN A KASHMIRI WHO IS FULLY CONVINCED WITH MY CAUSE AND PERSONALLY CONVINCED THAT MILLITANCY HAS COME TO AN END.
I KNOW KASHMIR DOES NOT HAVE DEARTH OF MONEY AND MONEY CAN BE A GREAT INSTRUMENT IN SOLVING THE PROBLEM
HAD I BEEN IN KASHMIR I WOULD HAVE FOLLOWED THESE STEPS-
FIRST PHASE- CONFIDENCE BUILDING
1) I WOULD HAVE FORMED A KASHMIR SOCIETY. IT WOULD HAVE BEEN A DEMOCRATIC PROCESS PARALLEL TO THE MAINSTREAM GOVERNMENT, NOT CHALLENGING IT ONLY HELPING IT.
2) THE SOCIETY WOULD HAVE FIRST RACHED OUT TO NOOK AND CORNER OF THE VALLEY.
3) THIS REACH WOULD BE TO CONVINCE THE PEOPLE OF THE VALLEY THAT GUN IS NOT A SOLUTION.
4) THIS SOCIETY WOULD HAVE MADE AN OPEN DECLARATION TO THE PEOPLE TO GIVE UP MILLITANCY.
5) THE SOCIETY WOULD HELP SECURITY FORCES TO TRACK DOWN MILLITANTS WHO ARE STILL NOT READY TO GIVE UP GUNS.
6) THIS WOULD BE A CONFIDENCE BUILDING MEASUER.
SECOND PHASE- IDEA PROPAGATION
6) I WOULD HAVE REACHED OUT TO EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS IN KASHMIR AND DISCUSSED THE CONCEPT OF FREEDOM AND NATION THERE.LATER I WOULD ALSO ASK THEM ABOUT THEIR VIEWS IN SUPPORT AND AGAINST KASHMIR'S AZADI.
*7) I WOULD NOT HAVE MOTIVATED STUDENTS TOWARDS AZADI BECAUSE THE MOMENT YOU START DOING THIS,THE GOVT WOULD BAN SUCH AN ORGANISATION AS THE ORGANISATION WOULD BE INDULGING IN ANTI NATIONAL ACTIVITY OF PROPOGATING SECESSIONIST THOUGHT. I WOULD HAVE ONLY DISCUSSED WHAT AZADI AND COUNTRY MEANT FOR THEM.BUT, I WOULD HAVE ALWAYS KEPT KASHMIR'S AZADI AS MY TOP AGENDA AND ASK PEOPLE ABOUT THEIR VIEWS.
8) ASKING THE VIEW WOULD BE VERY IMPORTANT BECAUSE THAT WOULD ONLY TELL ABOUT THE DIRECTION OF MOVEMENT OF THOUGHT.
9) THEN I WOULD HAVE MOVED OUT TO EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS IN REST OF INDIA WHERE I WOULD HAVE DISCUSSED THE SAME.
10) I WOULD HAVE TRIED TO IMPROVE PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN DISCUSSION ACROSS THE COUNTRY.
11) FOR INCREASING THE INTEREST,I WOULD HAVE PUT DEDICATED WELL PAID PEOPLE FOR THE JOB WHO WOULD KEEP THE MOVEMENT GOING BECAUSE IT WOULD HAVE BECOME THEIR JOB.
12) IF YOU FOUND OUT THAT STUDENTS WERE NOT INTERESTED IN PARTICIPATING,THEN INFUSE INTEREST BY INTRODUCING CASH INCENTIVES FOR PARTICIPATION.
13) I WOULD HAVE BROUGHT PEOPLE FROM REST OF THE COUNTRY TO KASHMIR AND KASHMIRIS TO THE REST OF THE COUNTRY TO DISCUSS THE ISSUE.
14) I WOULD HAVE BROUGHT ABOUT PEOPLE TO PEOPLE CONTACT AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE.
15) THIS WOULD NOT BEEN AN ACTIVITY FOR A FEW MONTHS BUT MIGHT TAKE YEARS.
16) BUT, AT THE END,EITHER THE KASHMIRIS WOULD AGREE THAT THEIR CAUSE IS USELESS OR THE REST OF INDIA WOULD HAVE TO ACCEPT THE KASHMIR CAUSE.
AFTER ALL, HUMANS LIVE ON BOTH SIDES!
AN AMICABLE PEACEFUL SOLUTION COULD HAVE ARRIVED AT.MONEY (VERY IMPORTANT INSTRUMENT FOR SUCH PROJECTS) SPENT HERE WOULD BE WORTH. EVEN IF SOME PEOPLE MAKE MONEY THIS WAY IT WOULD BE JUSTIFIED.
BY THIS KASHMIR WILL NOT LOSE LIVES, EDUCATION AND MONEY. GOVERNMENT OF INDIA IS IN NO WAY EXPLOITING KASHMIR ECONOMICALLY. BY THIS PROCESS GOI CAN EVEN BE ASKED TO INVEST MORE MONEY TO MAKE GOOD THE LOSS OF 20 YEARS.
THE GOVERNMENT WILL NOT START SUCH AN INITIATIVE BECAUSE,IT DOES NOT BELIEVE IN SECESSION. BUT,IT WILL ALSO NOT STOP SUCH AN INITIATIVE AS ITS PURELY DEMOCRATIC AND DOES NOT PROFESS SECESSION.
BY THIS WE CAN AT LEAST HAVE SOME SOLUTION.
FOR PEOPLE WHO BELIEVE THAT ALL THAT IS WRITTEN ABOVE IS CRAP AND IS THE PRODUCT OF AN INCOMETENT AND IMPRACTICAL BRAIN-->EITHER THEY DO NOT PROPERLY UNDERSTAND INDIAN DEMOCRACY OR ARE AFRAID THAT THE WEAK CAUSE WOULD BE EXPOSED.
ALSO, IF MOST PEOPLE DO NOT BELIEVE IN SUCH WAYS THEN WE ARE IN FOR SOME SERIOUS TROUBLE IN THE NEAR FUTURE!!
*MOST IMPORTANT POINT
Friday, September 10, 2010
India-The Hindu way
The best ever explanation I have heard of a computer is from my friend, Mr Ambuj Oberai’s father. He used to sell Wipro PC's in the 80's. He used to explain a computer, to his customers, by comparing it to Human Beings. He used to say that a computer comprises of two parts, Hardware and the Software. This is comparable to the body and soul/thought of a Human Being respectively. Software resides in the hardware and controls it, similarly our soul/thought controls the actions of our body. Hinduism has been the soul/thought of Indians since time immemorial.
India has always been a prosperous land where nature itself supports development of Human Life. This is evident by the fact the sub-continent is home to about 22% of the world's population with only 2.2% of the world's land surface area. Thus, India has been a country which has attracted various softwares/thoughts from across the world, since time immemorial, and accommodated them. Indians always believed that accommodating these thoughts is a part of development of the society. But, Indians were deceived in 1947 when a part of their soul asked for its own land! A particular thought (Islam) that India had accommodated long ago wanted its own land. India was partitioned into two countries, one being for Muslims (remember that the remaining India still belongs to people of all faiths), while it was evolving into a modern nation state (I emphasize on the Modern Indian State Factor). India, then, paid the price for being liberal and accommodative and is still paying the price for the same.
This is evident by a number of practises which are still prevalent in independent modern Indian State. Majority of Indians including Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists etc consider cow to be a sacred animal. It has been given the status of "Mother" in Hinduism. Thus, Hindus pray cows. But, it is ironical that "Cow Slaughter" is legal in India which has a Hindu majority. The argument in favour of cow slaughter being, banning cow slaughter infringes upon the eating habits of some communities and hence, banning cow slaughter, is a non-democratic and non-secular move. Democratic value of secularism is only expected out of Hindus. Others have been exempted from practising it. Still, ironically, Hindu is called communal and India, anti Islamic!
Another important observation that can be made is the absence of a common civil code. This means that Muslims in India have immunity to some of the laws which are applicable to the rest of the population. Muslim personal law board is the custodian is of these laws. If Pakistan was made for Muslims, then people who did not want to abide by "Common Law" should have moved to Pakistan. How can there be a separate set of rules for a Muslim and a separate set for the rest of the communities. Casteism and Sati Pratha can be banned by law but Polygamy, Triple Talaq etc cannot be banned by law because they are under the premise of the Muslim Personal Law. All this, despite the fact that India is a Hindu majority country. A Hindu is still advised to practise religious tolerance, Strange Indeed!
Some people make a hue and cry about the proposition by some political parties to make religious conversion illegal in India. They consider that religious freedom is the soul of India. Soul is very discretionary for Muslims, it is only used to their personal advantage. No one wants to look at the fact that conversion also promotes "Religious Comparison" which is a basic reason for communal discord. A person will convert to another religion only when he finds one religion either better or lucrative (most of the times there are financial benefits attached to conversion) than his existing one. Why allow conversion when present day law has the provision of banning discriminatory practises in religion (Only Muslims are immune to law by means of personal law board). Still I hear voices(from well educated people) which say that Muslims feel that they are unwanted in India, only problem for Hindus is that there are 20 crore Muslims and such a large number can neither be killed nor driven out of the country. Thus, have to somehow adjust. What a ridiculous thought?
There are many other discriminatory practises but, the final issue that I would like to take up in this blog is the biggest controversy that surrounds India for centuries, The Babri Masjid Issue. Can you imagine of a country in which there exists a mosque (which belongs to the minority community) at the birthplace of the most revered religious figure of the majority community? Leave apart the idea of having a place of worship. India had such a place! Babri Masjid was at a place where the most revered religious figure of Hindus, Sri Ram, was born. It was brought down after one of the biggest movement’s of independent India in 1992. Although, Hindus have not been able to make a temple at that spot till now, the issue has been blown out of proportion by Muslims. Many consider it to be the trigger for resentment of Muslims in India. Muslims still stake their claim on the site.
I do not want to get into any of the legal aspects of the dispute and just want Muslims to compromise their stand on only this issue for the sake of mutual brotherhood. Hindus, as narrated in the article, have compromised on all issues which were offensive to self but were in the favour of Muslims. If Muslims consider India to be their motherland and value the sentiments of Hindus, I expect them to compromise on this issue. Today, Babri Masjid is only an issue of compromise for the sake of peace.
Let us leave apart the history of creation of India. After taking into account all that is said above which takes place in present day independent India, it is high time that the so called educated and liberal Hindus take a stand on this and stop considering Babri Masjid, or any of the above mentioned issues, as religious issues. They should consider these issues as issues of understanding between two communities. Else, there will be a time when their liberal thought will cease to exist and Hindu will have no identity in the world. Identity of Hindu is completely dependent on India, if India exists Hindus exist and vice versa.
Now, this might have confused all people who have read my earlier blogs, they must be thinking how come a person who speaks about liberal and modern thought has suddenly developed a fundamentalist tone! This has a reason and I am going to discuss it now.
Almost, no Hindu will find a fault with my blog. Everyone will believe in what I have written because this blog has been written from their perspective. Many Muslims might contest the thought because they have been told about a different “Idea of India”. They will contest the fact about India being a single country since time immemorial. Many would say that India was always ruled by different rulers and was never a single country. In any case, it is only a matter of perspective on issues and the above arguments are enough to convince a Hindu that Hinduism is under threat. Thus, one has to agree to the importance of perspective and intent even while discussing facts.
All the above mentioned Hindu resentment can be very easily contested by the logic of liberal and modern thought which most of the Indians want to follow. But, when issues like the one in Kashmir come up and the scale in which they come up, it gives a very strong reason for Hindus to believe in the above mentioned logic. This also gives an opportunity to Hindu Fundamentalists to exploit the Hindu sentiment. Thus, it becomes the responsibility of every one of us who believes in modern thought to start creating a positive opinion with the intent of making a progressive nation and society as a whole.
This blog also intends to put forth the complexities that exist in the Kashmir issue from a larger Indian perspective. It is not as easy as autonomy or Plebiscite, there is a larger picture associated with it. I hope, as one of my senior says, good sense prevails after reading this piece of writing.
India has always been a prosperous land where nature itself supports development of Human Life. This is evident by the fact the sub-continent is home to about 22% of the world's population with only 2.2% of the world's land surface area. Thus, India has been a country which has attracted various softwares/thoughts from across the world, since time immemorial, and accommodated them. Indians always believed that accommodating these thoughts is a part of development of the society. But, Indians were deceived in 1947 when a part of their soul asked for its own land! A particular thought (Islam) that India had accommodated long ago wanted its own land. India was partitioned into two countries, one being for Muslims (remember that the remaining India still belongs to people of all faiths), while it was evolving into a modern nation state (I emphasize on the Modern Indian State Factor). India, then, paid the price for being liberal and accommodative and is still paying the price for the same.
This is evident by a number of practises which are still prevalent in independent modern Indian State. Majority of Indians including Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists etc consider cow to be a sacred animal. It has been given the status of "Mother" in Hinduism. Thus, Hindus pray cows. But, it is ironical that "Cow Slaughter" is legal in India which has a Hindu majority. The argument in favour of cow slaughter being, banning cow slaughter infringes upon the eating habits of some communities and hence, banning cow slaughter, is a non-democratic and non-secular move. Democratic value of secularism is only expected out of Hindus. Others have been exempted from practising it. Still, ironically, Hindu is called communal and India, anti Islamic!
Another important observation that can be made is the absence of a common civil code. This means that Muslims in India have immunity to some of the laws which are applicable to the rest of the population. Muslim personal law board is the custodian is of these laws. If Pakistan was made for Muslims, then people who did not want to abide by "Common Law" should have moved to Pakistan. How can there be a separate set of rules for a Muslim and a separate set for the rest of the communities. Casteism and Sati Pratha can be banned by law but Polygamy, Triple Talaq etc cannot be banned by law because they are under the premise of the Muslim Personal Law. All this, despite the fact that India is a Hindu majority country. A Hindu is still advised to practise religious tolerance, Strange Indeed!
Some people make a hue and cry about the proposition by some political parties to make religious conversion illegal in India. They consider that religious freedom is the soul of India. Soul is very discretionary for Muslims, it is only used to their personal advantage. No one wants to look at the fact that conversion also promotes "Religious Comparison" which is a basic reason for communal discord. A person will convert to another religion only when he finds one religion either better or lucrative (most of the times there are financial benefits attached to conversion) than his existing one. Why allow conversion when present day law has the provision of banning discriminatory practises in religion (Only Muslims are immune to law by means of personal law board). Still I hear voices(from well educated people) which say that Muslims feel that they are unwanted in India, only problem for Hindus is that there are 20 crore Muslims and such a large number can neither be killed nor driven out of the country. Thus, have to somehow adjust. What a ridiculous thought?
There are many other discriminatory practises but, the final issue that I would like to take up in this blog is the biggest controversy that surrounds India for centuries, The Babri Masjid Issue. Can you imagine of a country in which there exists a mosque (which belongs to the minority community) at the birthplace of the most revered religious figure of the majority community? Leave apart the idea of having a place of worship. India had such a place! Babri Masjid was at a place where the most revered religious figure of Hindus, Sri Ram, was born. It was brought down after one of the biggest movement’s of independent India in 1992. Although, Hindus have not been able to make a temple at that spot till now, the issue has been blown out of proportion by Muslims. Many consider it to be the trigger for resentment of Muslims in India. Muslims still stake their claim on the site.
I do not want to get into any of the legal aspects of the dispute and just want Muslims to compromise their stand on only this issue for the sake of mutual brotherhood. Hindus, as narrated in the article, have compromised on all issues which were offensive to self but were in the favour of Muslims. If Muslims consider India to be their motherland and value the sentiments of Hindus, I expect them to compromise on this issue. Today, Babri Masjid is only an issue of compromise for the sake of peace.
Let us leave apart the history of creation of India. After taking into account all that is said above which takes place in present day independent India, it is high time that the so called educated and liberal Hindus take a stand on this and stop considering Babri Masjid, or any of the above mentioned issues, as religious issues. They should consider these issues as issues of understanding between two communities. Else, there will be a time when their liberal thought will cease to exist and Hindu will have no identity in the world. Identity of Hindu is completely dependent on India, if India exists Hindus exist and vice versa.
Now, this might have confused all people who have read my earlier blogs, they must be thinking how come a person who speaks about liberal and modern thought has suddenly developed a fundamentalist tone! This has a reason and I am going to discuss it now.
Almost, no Hindu will find a fault with my blog. Everyone will believe in what I have written because this blog has been written from their perspective. Many Muslims might contest the thought because they have been told about a different “Idea of India”. They will contest the fact about India being a single country since time immemorial. Many would say that India was always ruled by different rulers and was never a single country. In any case, it is only a matter of perspective on issues and the above arguments are enough to convince a Hindu that Hinduism is under threat. Thus, one has to agree to the importance of perspective and intent even while discussing facts.
All the above mentioned Hindu resentment can be very easily contested by the logic of liberal and modern thought which most of the Indians want to follow. But, when issues like the one in Kashmir come up and the scale in which they come up, it gives a very strong reason for Hindus to believe in the above mentioned logic. This also gives an opportunity to Hindu Fundamentalists to exploit the Hindu sentiment. Thus, it becomes the responsibility of every one of us who believes in modern thought to start creating a positive opinion with the intent of making a progressive nation and society as a whole.
This blog also intends to put forth the complexities that exist in the Kashmir issue from a larger Indian perspective. It is not as easy as autonomy or Plebiscite, there is a larger picture associated with it. I hope, as one of my senior says, good sense prevails after reading this piece of writing.
Saturday, August 21, 2010
My Introduction to Fundamentalism
To tell you about my introduction to Fundamentalism, I will have to start the story right from the days of my schooling. I was born and brought up in a very protected environment; it was high on intellectual/academic inputs but almost completely lacked real time exposure to life. I knew only two campuses, NIRD (National Institute of Rural Development) where I stayed and NPA (National Police Academy) where my school was. By protected environment I mean, I had no opportunities to make day to day operational decisions. My life was highly structured, wake up at six, in the toilet for half an hour completing my sleep, opening books for half an hour, getting ready for school, catching the school bus at 8.15, coming back at 3.30, again opening the book for about an hour, playing in the campus from 5 to 7, again opening the book from 7 to 9, then watching TV till 10 and then finally going to sleep. This was my daily schedule which changed only on holidays and festivals.
By intellectual inputs, I mean, I believed beyond doubt in facts like India is the greatest country in the world, India is an example of unity in diversity, Indian freedom fighters were the greatest people ever born on earth, we should respect elders, all religions should be respected, cigarettes and liquor are a curse to the society etc. Lack of practical exposure can be ascertained by the fact that, I was bhaya to all girls younger to me and all girls elder to me were didi’s (no scope left for morality!!), Rakshabandhan was among the most awaited festivals, the number of Rakhis on a boy’s hand was a measure of his local standing, and finally, I believed that affairs between boys and girls could happen only in movies! These thoughts and perceptions were deeply ingrained in me, this can be figured out by the fact that carnal feelings towards a female always had a fair amount of guilt attached to it, traces of it still carry on!
Although, I started experiencing life firsthand from class eleven. The first shock of my life came to me when my father was transferred to NIRD’s regional centre at Guwahati, Assam, as its director.I moved to Guwahati when I got into class twelve. The Director’s Bungalow, in the campus, was not ready. Thus, we had to take a house on rent in the city. New place meant new set of friends, both at home and school, new thoughts, new practises and new topics of discussion. One important topic of discussion which gave me my first shock was “the indifferent attitude of India towards the North Eastern states” (I do not know if this still remains as the favourite topic as things have changed a lot in the past 15 years there). I actually could not understand the difference between “India” and “Northeast”. It was little later that I could figure out that India meant “New Delhi”. Most people might not be able to relate to my confusion, but, believe me it was confusing. My belief of India had shaken. Now, it meant, “Hyderabad and India were different”, this was not acceptable to me. I started taking these discussions personally, I started defending India because I believed India could never be wrong. This was my first expression of Fundamentalism. I call it fundamentalism because I defended India because of my feelings and beliefs, not by rationality or logic. I made my logic on the basis of my feelings and beliefs; one can call it as conditioning also. Above all, it was a fundamentalist approach because I felt that I was right and “they were wrong”.
This was the time when my de-conditioning started. I, while introspecting, had started questioning my beliefs. I started searching for India. Some of my personality traits like an inquisitive and rebellious mind, docile nature and ability to survive in an unsettled physical and mental state have been very helpful in my quest. These traits also act like double edged swords, thus, if I have gained a lot out of it, I have also lost a lot. Anyways, all this is a part and parcel of life! Also, I will limit my discussion on my quest for India here as this piece of writing is also a part of the same. One realization I made during my stay in the Northeast is about the importance of politics and economics in a person’s life. Although, I still did not know (at that time) how these two things are important! Fortunately or Unfortunately, I somehow qualified for engineering immediately after my twelfth class. My only option was REC Srinagar as I was not a domicile of the state and was not eligible for admission in Assam Government Colleges and my score in the entrance test did not qualify me for a seat in any other REC. I believe, this was destined to happen as this was the place that I was about to get the second major shock of my life.
The two questions which I had to answer within a few days of coming to Kashmir and were no less that a shock to me were: - “Tum Hindustan se aye ho?”(Meaning, have you come from India?) and “What is your religion?”. Although, my being a Hindu and being from a different state did not in any way affect my relationship with the locals. But still, my confusion prevailed. As far as I remember, I up till an age of 13 or 14 did not know that I am a Brahmin. Another thing that I was fed with during the 1992 riots is that, it was not Hindus and Muslims fighting, these were all hired criminals. There was no difference between Hindus and Muslims. I still do not know if this is the right way of upbringing secular children in secular India! In the context of the questions relating to Hindustan and religion, I later observed that religion had a lot of involvement in the daily life of a Kashmiri. This never existed in my life; I did not know the importance of religion in my life. The only thing I knew was that Eid was a Muslim festival and seriously felt sad for Muslims because they did not have exciting festivals like Holi and Diwali. Because of this involvement of religion in daily life, I got introduced to Islam. It was great and exciting, the people talking about Islam were not necessarily the Mullahs, there were many clean shaven, jeans wearing, and convent educated boys giving logical views on practises in Islam and their validity in daily life. I was impressed and in my own words “I would have converted to Islam, had those people convinced me of their view on mandatory hijab by women and had they not, of course unknowingly, hurt my pride as a Hindu”(Of course, courage would have also been required). I had started comparing Hinduism with Islam. I did not know about any logic supporting daily life practises in Hinduism. On the contrary, I had only heard of bad practises like casteism, sati pratha, etc in Hinduism. To be precise, I had started developing an inferiority complex. I felt, I belonged to a non contemporary religion which had outdated practises. I had no answers for these questions and was also unable to find a source to get the answers. My major handicap that continues to be one is that I am not a voracious reader and there was no source other than books, especially in those days when internet had just reached India, which could have solved my problem. But, I was destined to get my answers from a different channel. Differences cropped up between students from other regions and the students from Kashmir, tension escalated and later the students from other regions decided that it was not safe for them to continue their studies in Kashmir. They decided to approach the Government of India and ask the government to move us all out of Kashmir. The government, after months of following up and protest, finally agreed. I was moved from REC Srinagar to REC Bhopal. In the process of following up with the government, I got in touch with RSS (Rastriya Swayamsewak Sangh). RSS sympathised with us during our migration process and helped us on many accounts. Also, interaction with some top leaders like LK Advani, who were also former RSS pracharaks, created a soft corner for RSS in my heart. This was the start of my association with Hindu fundamentalism.
REC Bhopal was altogether quite different from REC Srinagar. Students were least bothered about the world and were interested in living their life to the extreme. As usual, I because of my habit of giving valuable advice free of cost on all issues irrespective of the issue’s relevance to me and irrespective of having being asked to give one entered the “Hall of Fame” of the college. In the mean time, I also had RSS pracharaks visiting me. This was because, I was among the few people who entertained them and showed keen interest in their “idea of India”. I was already confused with both India and Hinduism. These were the people who connected India with Hinduism. Their idea of “India is Hinduism” and “ Hinduism is India” excited me. This was for the first time I was hearing rational talk on India and Hinduism. My inferiority complex, of being a Hindu, attracted me towards these pracharaks and they quenched my thirst for logical Hinduism. Adding to my inclination was the fact that these pracharaks were highly qualified men with modern logic supporting traditional Hindu practises. One of them was a M.Tech from REC Bhopal itself. As my association with RSS increased, I was invited for a two day introduction camp in Bhopal itself. I attended it, this increased my attachment with the organisation. Again, I went on a two day visit to tribal villages in Madhya Pradesh. This further increased my respect for the organisation. I started conforming to the view that it is only because of the sangh that the country is surviving attempts by foreign forces to disintegrate it. My logic started growing stronger and stronger in support of the sangh. I started feeling that these were actually the answers I was looking for since a long time. But, my personality traits mentioned above helped me again. It was later, I realised that all that these people whom I met in Kashmir and Bhopal were talking about two truths. Like these two many other truths also existed in the world. Religion is a social, economic and political system which stands on very strong logic. But, believing that only my system is right and that of others is wrong, is a fundamentalist approach. Although, you will not find a single fundamentalist claiming openly that other systems are wrong, but, they so strongly impress upon the fact about their system being right that a person by general analogy infers that the other system is wrong! A person starts looking only at the threats associated with the other system and does not look at the liberals having faith in that system around him as his strength. Another weakness of these fundamentalists is that these people use time based and incident based logic. This can be noted by two common observations, a fundamentalist always says before he puts his point, “in those days” or “if you look at this incident”. Now, I reply to these arguments by saying; “gone are the days” and “look at other incidents”.
I was lucky that I got out of the clutches of fundamentalists, but, everybody is not that lucky. Some end up losing their lives and consider it to be their passports to heaven, jannat, swarg etc. Mind you all these are different. Because, reaching here requires you to stick to different set of practices. As one of my college friend, Kesari Kumar, used to put forth to my Kashmiri seniors. “Sir, you will never go to swarg because you eat beef and I will never go to jannat because I do not offer namaz”, Strange Indeed! Even more dangerous than their misinformed death is that, these people inspire many others to follow their path. In the specific case of Kashmir, I would consider that inferiority complex has developed in a Kashmiri after being branded as a terrorist for more than two decades now! This multiplies in an idle condition where a person has nothing to do for self development. He receives no appreciation, here he finds the idea of giving life for the purpose of so called truth better than living. He might get appreciation for his sacrifice, but what is the use when he himself is not there to listen to it. Adding to the woes of a Kashmiri is the way in which the world conceives of Islam these days. This is the view that needs to change if the world wants to get rid of Islamic fundamentalism.
Thus, as I got solace in the company of RSS, a Kashmiri Muslim might get it in the company of Hisbul Mujahedeen. I was lucky, I had a way out. Does a Kashmiri have it? Can life be so rude to a Kashmiri!!
By intellectual inputs, I mean, I believed beyond doubt in facts like India is the greatest country in the world, India is an example of unity in diversity, Indian freedom fighters were the greatest people ever born on earth, we should respect elders, all religions should be respected, cigarettes and liquor are a curse to the society etc. Lack of practical exposure can be ascertained by the fact that, I was bhaya to all girls younger to me and all girls elder to me were didi’s (no scope left for morality!!), Rakshabandhan was among the most awaited festivals, the number of Rakhis on a boy’s hand was a measure of his local standing, and finally, I believed that affairs between boys and girls could happen only in movies! These thoughts and perceptions were deeply ingrained in me, this can be figured out by the fact that carnal feelings towards a female always had a fair amount of guilt attached to it, traces of it still carry on!
Although, I started experiencing life firsthand from class eleven. The first shock of my life came to me when my father was transferred to NIRD’s regional centre at Guwahati, Assam, as its director.I moved to Guwahati when I got into class twelve. The Director’s Bungalow, in the campus, was not ready. Thus, we had to take a house on rent in the city. New place meant new set of friends, both at home and school, new thoughts, new practises and new topics of discussion. One important topic of discussion which gave me my first shock was “the indifferent attitude of India towards the North Eastern states” (I do not know if this still remains as the favourite topic as things have changed a lot in the past 15 years there). I actually could not understand the difference between “India” and “Northeast”. It was little later that I could figure out that India meant “New Delhi”. Most people might not be able to relate to my confusion, but, believe me it was confusing. My belief of India had shaken. Now, it meant, “Hyderabad and India were different”, this was not acceptable to me. I started taking these discussions personally, I started defending India because I believed India could never be wrong. This was my first expression of Fundamentalism. I call it fundamentalism because I defended India because of my feelings and beliefs, not by rationality or logic. I made my logic on the basis of my feelings and beliefs; one can call it as conditioning also. Above all, it was a fundamentalist approach because I felt that I was right and “they were wrong”.
This was the time when my de-conditioning started. I, while introspecting, had started questioning my beliefs. I started searching for India. Some of my personality traits like an inquisitive and rebellious mind, docile nature and ability to survive in an unsettled physical and mental state have been very helpful in my quest. These traits also act like double edged swords, thus, if I have gained a lot out of it, I have also lost a lot. Anyways, all this is a part and parcel of life! Also, I will limit my discussion on my quest for India here as this piece of writing is also a part of the same. One realization I made during my stay in the Northeast is about the importance of politics and economics in a person’s life. Although, I still did not know (at that time) how these two things are important! Fortunately or Unfortunately, I somehow qualified for engineering immediately after my twelfth class. My only option was REC Srinagar as I was not a domicile of the state and was not eligible for admission in Assam Government Colleges and my score in the entrance test did not qualify me for a seat in any other REC. I believe, this was destined to happen as this was the place that I was about to get the second major shock of my life.
The two questions which I had to answer within a few days of coming to Kashmir and were no less that a shock to me were: - “Tum Hindustan se aye ho?”(Meaning, have you come from India?) and “What is your religion?”. Although, my being a Hindu and being from a different state did not in any way affect my relationship with the locals. But still, my confusion prevailed. As far as I remember, I up till an age of 13 or 14 did not know that I am a Brahmin. Another thing that I was fed with during the 1992 riots is that, it was not Hindus and Muslims fighting, these were all hired criminals. There was no difference between Hindus and Muslims. I still do not know if this is the right way of upbringing secular children in secular India! In the context of the questions relating to Hindustan and religion, I later observed that religion had a lot of involvement in the daily life of a Kashmiri. This never existed in my life; I did not know the importance of religion in my life. The only thing I knew was that Eid was a Muslim festival and seriously felt sad for Muslims because they did not have exciting festivals like Holi and Diwali. Because of this involvement of religion in daily life, I got introduced to Islam. It was great and exciting, the people talking about Islam were not necessarily the Mullahs, there were many clean shaven, jeans wearing, and convent educated boys giving logical views on practises in Islam and their validity in daily life. I was impressed and in my own words “I would have converted to Islam, had those people convinced me of their view on mandatory hijab by women and had they not, of course unknowingly, hurt my pride as a Hindu”(Of course, courage would have also been required). I had started comparing Hinduism with Islam. I did not know about any logic supporting daily life practises in Hinduism. On the contrary, I had only heard of bad practises like casteism, sati pratha, etc in Hinduism. To be precise, I had started developing an inferiority complex. I felt, I belonged to a non contemporary religion which had outdated practises. I had no answers for these questions and was also unable to find a source to get the answers. My major handicap that continues to be one is that I am not a voracious reader and there was no source other than books, especially in those days when internet had just reached India, which could have solved my problem. But, I was destined to get my answers from a different channel. Differences cropped up between students from other regions and the students from Kashmir, tension escalated and later the students from other regions decided that it was not safe for them to continue their studies in Kashmir. They decided to approach the Government of India and ask the government to move us all out of Kashmir. The government, after months of following up and protest, finally agreed. I was moved from REC Srinagar to REC Bhopal. In the process of following up with the government, I got in touch with RSS (Rastriya Swayamsewak Sangh). RSS sympathised with us during our migration process and helped us on many accounts. Also, interaction with some top leaders like LK Advani, who were also former RSS pracharaks, created a soft corner for RSS in my heart. This was the start of my association with Hindu fundamentalism.
REC Bhopal was altogether quite different from REC Srinagar. Students were least bothered about the world and were interested in living their life to the extreme. As usual, I because of my habit of giving valuable advice free of cost on all issues irrespective of the issue’s relevance to me and irrespective of having being asked to give one entered the “Hall of Fame” of the college. In the mean time, I also had RSS pracharaks visiting me. This was because, I was among the few people who entertained them and showed keen interest in their “idea of India”. I was already confused with both India and Hinduism. These were the people who connected India with Hinduism. Their idea of “India is Hinduism” and “ Hinduism is India” excited me. This was for the first time I was hearing rational talk on India and Hinduism. My inferiority complex, of being a Hindu, attracted me towards these pracharaks and they quenched my thirst for logical Hinduism. Adding to my inclination was the fact that these pracharaks were highly qualified men with modern logic supporting traditional Hindu practises. One of them was a M.Tech from REC Bhopal itself. As my association with RSS increased, I was invited for a two day introduction camp in Bhopal itself. I attended it, this increased my attachment with the organisation. Again, I went on a two day visit to tribal villages in Madhya Pradesh. This further increased my respect for the organisation. I started conforming to the view that it is only because of the sangh that the country is surviving attempts by foreign forces to disintegrate it. My logic started growing stronger and stronger in support of the sangh. I started feeling that these were actually the answers I was looking for since a long time. But, my personality traits mentioned above helped me again. It was later, I realised that all that these people whom I met in Kashmir and Bhopal were talking about two truths. Like these two many other truths also existed in the world. Religion is a social, economic and political system which stands on very strong logic. But, believing that only my system is right and that of others is wrong, is a fundamentalist approach. Although, you will not find a single fundamentalist claiming openly that other systems are wrong, but, they so strongly impress upon the fact about their system being right that a person by general analogy infers that the other system is wrong! A person starts looking only at the threats associated with the other system and does not look at the liberals having faith in that system around him as his strength. Another weakness of these fundamentalists is that these people use time based and incident based logic. This can be noted by two common observations, a fundamentalist always says before he puts his point, “in those days” or “if you look at this incident”. Now, I reply to these arguments by saying; “gone are the days” and “look at other incidents”.
I was lucky that I got out of the clutches of fundamentalists, but, everybody is not that lucky. Some end up losing their lives and consider it to be their passports to heaven, jannat, swarg etc. Mind you all these are different. Because, reaching here requires you to stick to different set of practices. As one of my college friend, Kesari Kumar, used to put forth to my Kashmiri seniors. “Sir, you will never go to swarg because you eat beef and I will never go to jannat because I do not offer namaz”, Strange Indeed! Even more dangerous than their misinformed death is that, these people inspire many others to follow their path. In the specific case of Kashmir, I would consider that inferiority complex has developed in a Kashmiri after being branded as a terrorist for more than two decades now! This multiplies in an idle condition where a person has nothing to do for self development. He receives no appreciation, here he finds the idea of giving life for the purpose of so called truth better than living. He might get appreciation for his sacrifice, but what is the use when he himself is not there to listen to it. Adding to the woes of a Kashmiri is the way in which the world conceives of Islam these days. This is the view that needs to change if the world wants to get rid of Islamic fundamentalism.
Thus, as I got solace in the company of RSS, a Kashmiri Muslim might get it in the company of Hisbul Mujahedeen. I was lucky, I had a way out. Does a Kashmiri have it? Can life be so rude to a Kashmiri!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)