Another year just went by. Is it just me or is time flying by faster? As a child I remember the day stretching on and on during seemingly endless summer holidays. Now as I grow older (albeit hardly wiser), the years rush past blithely ignoring me in their wake. Is this what they meant by relativity?
While I always strive to start the year with optimism, a few recent incidents need to be addressed.
The horrific barbarity of the Peshawar attacks shocked everybody (except its perpetrators). No God, faith or religion can justify the execution of innocent children, but twisted and perverse logic did find takers in a few Godless fanatics who sought out and slaughtered defenceless children in school. We were all suitably appalled and stood up in solidarity with Pakistan. A hashtag even trended for a while on Twitter. No distinction between good and bad Taliban was the proclamation of the establishment, and in our naivety we cheered. Two days later this false hope turned into dismay as we saw alleged perpetrators of terror attacks in India being given bail by the same establishment. I don't know why it was such a big surprise for us. After all they only promised not to differentiate between good and bad Taliban, but the perpetrators of attacks against India were never a part of the Taliban, both good and bad. The anti-India Mujahideen like LeT and JeM etc (the Hafiz Saeeds, the Masood Azhars and the Saeed Lakhvis) were clear in their anti-India agenda and not to be confused with the Taliban who had a more Afghan-centric agenda. Basically the establishment never said we will stop supporting terror against India, so then why the dismay?
The Pakistan establishment (Army and Politicians) have no choice but to keep anti-India sentiments festering in perpetuity, if only to distract attention from the myriad smorgasbord of troubles that afflict the common man in Pakistan. Why focus on small and trivial issues like education, healthcare, housing, employment, economy, human rights, intolerance, radicalisation, women's equality, child labour etc when you can galvanize public opinion against a fictional enemy, a boogeyman that you have been conditioned to hate and blame all your ills on? In a shocking and highly irresponsible act, while the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) was shouting out from the rooftops claiming responsibility for the attack, a section of the local Urdu press in Pakistan carried articles blaming India for the massacre.
Fortunately, there is a section of the public in Pakistan who are as sickened by this endless cycle of violence as the rest of the world and abhor terror in all forms. This section of Pakistan civil society finds a voice on Twitter and other social media platforms, but is under constant fear of persecution from the lunatic fringe. One can only hope and pray that this section of Pakistan society finds its voice and is able to rise and challenge the establishment. At the end of the day, people are the same. We all want the same things, we react the same way to similiar situations, aspire to the same things in life. There is little difference between the people of our two nations, in fact someone from Punjab will have more in common with someone from Karachi than someone from Kerala. The distance between Amritsar and Lahore is just 30 km. When did the distance between our hearts grow so much? When will we learn to rage against the lunatic fringe - in both our countries?
Back home our very own home grown version of the lunatic fringe was creating headlines. The Ghar Wapsi program created unnecessary controversy till the RSS had to finally step in and tone down the rhetoric. The entire business of conversion and the anti-conversion law makes a mockery of our social systems and the basic freedom of choice we all enjoy in our country. While our Hindu groups supposedly fight to reclaim and bring back into the fold those they feel have strayed, the reaction from our psuedo-secularists and the Church is in no way any less hypocritical. First - who made these Hindu groups the guardians of our faith and why does our faith need protection? Why cannot an individual's choice of religion remain a private matter between him/her and his/her God/Godess? What gives any external organisation the right to infringe on this basic human right of individual choice and free will? Forced or induced conversion is blatantly wrong and I dont think anyone sane will argue against it, but why must it become a political agenda? Dont we have enough to worry about? Secondly - the Church protesting against our Hindu groups is hypocrisy at its laughable best. Wasn't it a former Pope who, at the turn of the century, proclaimed that Asia was the final frontier in the harvesting of souls? If that isn't a nod towards conversion then what is? How about the statue of Mother Mary and Infant Jesus garbed in a tribal's attire, to make the idol more familiar and accessible to illiterate and uneducated tribes of India? Let us not get into the pot calling the kettle black, instead let the pot call the kettle a kettle. Hypocrisy on both sides is self-defeating and ultimately only leads to anger stemming from ignorance. Let religion remain a matter of faith.
Unfortunately, our home-grown fringe, not satisfied with stirring the conversion debate, decided to agitate against a hindi film, PK. "Hurting Hindu sentiments" was a popular refrain, "muslim actor" was another. The argument seems so futile, but since I have committed to it, I must persist and make a few points. Please remember it is simply a film made for entertainment purposes. It has been duly certified by the relevant authorities and approved for release and public screening. If you have a problem with its content, take it up with the relevant authorities. If you disagree with its message, don't watch it and don't recommend it to others. If you dislike it from an artistic viewpoint, feel free to pan it and pour scorn and ridicule on it. Unfortunately nothing gives you the right to vandalise private and public property if you disagree with someone's artistic expression. What is this "Hindu Sentiment" that is so sensitive that it gets hurt so easily? If it has survived centuries of persecution and thrived in the face of insurmountable odds, I am sure it can survive a mere film. Blaming the actor for the film is another excercise in futility. He is simply portraying a character - that is his job. Why not blame the writer, or producer or director? Unfortunately they are all Hindus, much loved and appreciated, so it is tough to sensationalise and besmirch their good names.
We are a tiny speck in this vast universe, and if we believe that God has created the entire universe, it is really very simple logic. If God has created us, he has also created every diversity on the face of the known universe. It is us, mere mortals, who have conceived him in our own image. If God had to create us in His image, it could only be a facet of Himself, since everything is created from Him. To me, God is shapeless, formless, sexless, timeless and utterly incomprehensible. He is the beginning and the end. He is everything,everything comes from Him and everything must return to Him. He is time and space. He is the alphabet, the words. the text and the subtext. He is matter and anti-matter. He is the prayer, the hymn, the incantation and the aazaan. He is a million billion trillion parts and He is One. We view him as we wish, as prescribed by organised religion, simply so that our feeble minds can grasp an understandable concept. We visualise him in a manner that we can comprehend, and accept the rest on faith. Surely we can rest assured that if he has created everything, He certainly does not need us to protect Him. Funnily enough, this is a sentiment expressed in the film as well, and is the subject of protest by the very same elements the film terms "wrong number". The lunatics who vandalise and destroy in the name of Bajrang and Ram, please realise that the deity you pretend to worship and follow would be repulsed by your actions. Sri Ram was supposed to be the ideal man, an incarnation of Vishnu, and Hanuman his most ardent devotee. By vandalising in their names, you desecrate their values and all the good they stood for.
The hypocrisy does not end there. Since PK is being trashed by fringe Hindu groups, psuedo-secularists and shameless opportunists like Akshilesh Yadav etc, in a blatant display of vote bank appeasement, declare PK a tax free film and proclaim it the best film ever. Obviously, shamelessness can descend to depths lower than one can imagine. These same upholders of secularism were the ones who banned The Satanic Verses, The Last Temptation of Christ and other works of art that offended non-hindu groups. In their thinking, it is ok to offend the majority, but the minority must be treated with kid gloves. It is this vile and despicable mindset that we have to destroy if we wish to enter an age of enlightenment.
Good Governance and Progress for All have to transcend from being mere mantras to a practical way of life for all, where the freedoms promised actually manifest themselves and not remain idealistic outpourings of poets and philosophers. This is the year to deliver on promises made. May we all live long and prosper, and remember the lessons of decency that our grandmothers taught us. Be good, do good, treat others the way you would like them to treat you, respect women and start with yourself.
While I always strive to start the year with optimism, a few recent incidents need to be addressed.
The horrific barbarity of the Peshawar attacks shocked everybody (except its perpetrators). No God, faith or religion can justify the execution of innocent children, but twisted and perverse logic did find takers in a few Godless fanatics who sought out and slaughtered defenceless children in school. We were all suitably appalled and stood up in solidarity with Pakistan. A hashtag even trended for a while on Twitter. No distinction between good and bad Taliban was the proclamation of the establishment, and in our naivety we cheered. Two days later this false hope turned into dismay as we saw alleged perpetrators of terror attacks in India being given bail by the same establishment. I don't know why it was such a big surprise for us. After all they only promised not to differentiate between good and bad Taliban, but the perpetrators of attacks against India were never a part of the Taliban, both good and bad. The anti-India Mujahideen like LeT and JeM etc (the Hafiz Saeeds, the Masood Azhars and the Saeed Lakhvis) were clear in their anti-India agenda and not to be confused with the Taliban who had a more Afghan-centric agenda. Basically the establishment never said we will stop supporting terror against India, so then why the dismay?
The Pakistan establishment (Army and Politicians) have no choice but to keep anti-India sentiments festering in perpetuity, if only to distract attention from the myriad smorgasbord of troubles that afflict the common man in Pakistan. Why focus on small and trivial issues like education, healthcare, housing, employment, economy, human rights, intolerance, radicalisation, women's equality, child labour etc when you can galvanize public opinion against a fictional enemy, a boogeyman that you have been conditioned to hate and blame all your ills on? In a shocking and highly irresponsible act, while the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) was shouting out from the rooftops claiming responsibility for the attack, a section of the local Urdu press in Pakistan carried articles blaming India for the massacre.
Fortunately, there is a section of the public in Pakistan who are as sickened by this endless cycle of violence as the rest of the world and abhor terror in all forms. This section of Pakistan civil society finds a voice on Twitter and other social media platforms, but is under constant fear of persecution from the lunatic fringe. One can only hope and pray that this section of Pakistan society finds its voice and is able to rise and challenge the establishment. At the end of the day, people are the same. We all want the same things, we react the same way to similiar situations, aspire to the same things in life. There is little difference between the people of our two nations, in fact someone from Punjab will have more in common with someone from Karachi than someone from Kerala. The distance between Amritsar and Lahore is just 30 km. When did the distance between our hearts grow so much? When will we learn to rage against the lunatic fringe - in both our countries?
Back home our very own home grown version of the lunatic fringe was creating headlines. The Ghar Wapsi program created unnecessary controversy till the RSS had to finally step in and tone down the rhetoric. The entire business of conversion and the anti-conversion law makes a mockery of our social systems and the basic freedom of choice we all enjoy in our country. While our Hindu groups supposedly fight to reclaim and bring back into the fold those they feel have strayed, the reaction from our psuedo-secularists and the Church is in no way any less hypocritical. First - who made these Hindu groups the guardians of our faith and why does our faith need protection? Why cannot an individual's choice of religion remain a private matter between him/her and his/her God/Godess? What gives any external organisation the right to infringe on this basic human right of individual choice and free will? Forced or induced conversion is blatantly wrong and I dont think anyone sane will argue against it, but why must it become a political agenda? Dont we have enough to worry about? Secondly - the Church protesting against our Hindu groups is hypocrisy at its laughable best. Wasn't it a former Pope who, at the turn of the century, proclaimed that Asia was the final frontier in the harvesting of souls? If that isn't a nod towards conversion then what is? How about the statue of Mother Mary and Infant Jesus garbed in a tribal's attire, to make the idol more familiar and accessible to illiterate and uneducated tribes of India? Let us not get into the pot calling the kettle black, instead let the pot call the kettle a kettle. Hypocrisy on both sides is self-defeating and ultimately only leads to anger stemming from ignorance. Let religion remain a matter of faith.
Unfortunately, our home-grown fringe, not satisfied with stirring the conversion debate, decided to agitate against a hindi film, PK. "Hurting Hindu sentiments" was a popular refrain, "muslim actor" was another. The argument seems so futile, but since I have committed to it, I must persist and make a few points. Please remember it is simply a film made for entertainment purposes. It has been duly certified by the relevant authorities and approved for release and public screening. If you have a problem with its content, take it up with the relevant authorities. If you disagree with its message, don't watch it and don't recommend it to others. If you dislike it from an artistic viewpoint, feel free to pan it and pour scorn and ridicule on it. Unfortunately nothing gives you the right to vandalise private and public property if you disagree with someone's artistic expression. What is this "Hindu Sentiment" that is so sensitive that it gets hurt so easily? If it has survived centuries of persecution and thrived in the face of insurmountable odds, I am sure it can survive a mere film. Blaming the actor for the film is another excercise in futility. He is simply portraying a character - that is his job. Why not blame the writer, or producer or director? Unfortunately they are all Hindus, much loved and appreciated, so it is tough to sensationalise and besmirch their good names.
We are a tiny speck in this vast universe, and if we believe that God has created the entire universe, it is really very simple logic. If God has created us, he has also created every diversity on the face of the known universe. It is us, mere mortals, who have conceived him in our own image. If God had to create us in His image, it could only be a facet of Himself, since everything is created from Him. To me, God is shapeless, formless, sexless, timeless and utterly incomprehensible. He is the beginning and the end. He is everything,everything comes from Him and everything must return to Him. He is time and space. He is the alphabet, the words. the text and the subtext. He is matter and anti-matter. He is the prayer, the hymn, the incantation and the aazaan. He is a million billion trillion parts and He is One. We view him as we wish, as prescribed by organised religion, simply so that our feeble minds can grasp an understandable concept. We visualise him in a manner that we can comprehend, and accept the rest on faith. Surely we can rest assured that if he has created everything, He certainly does not need us to protect Him. Funnily enough, this is a sentiment expressed in the film as well, and is the subject of protest by the very same elements the film terms "wrong number". The lunatics who vandalise and destroy in the name of Bajrang and Ram, please realise that the deity you pretend to worship and follow would be repulsed by your actions. Sri Ram was supposed to be the ideal man, an incarnation of Vishnu, and Hanuman his most ardent devotee. By vandalising in their names, you desecrate their values and all the good they stood for.
The hypocrisy does not end there. Since PK is being trashed by fringe Hindu groups, psuedo-secularists and shameless opportunists like Akshilesh Yadav etc, in a blatant display of vote bank appeasement, declare PK a tax free film and proclaim it the best film ever. Obviously, shamelessness can descend to depths lower than one can imagine. These same upholders of secularism were the ones who banned The Satanic Verses, The Last Temptation of Christ and other works of art that offended non-hindu groups. In their thinking, it is ok to offend the majority, but the minority must be treated with kid gloves. It is this vile and despicable mindset that we have to destroy if we wish to enter an age of enlightenment.
Good Governance and Progress for All have to transcend from being mere mantras to a practical way of life for all, where the freedoms promised actually manifest themselves and not remain idealistic outpourings of poets and philosophers. This is the year to deliver on promises made. May we all live long and prosper, and remember the lessons of decency that our grandmothers taught us. Be good, do good, treat others the way you would like them to treat you, respect women and start with yourself.
Men who killed innocent children, I wonder how they can look at their own children and not remember those innocent faces they shot at... for all that vandalism, pk makers are laughing away to the bank... I won't be surprised if these same rioteers approach Amir Khan with a party ticket in next elections.
ReplyDeleteExcellent writing Sourabh. You must keep writing...