Keep Right – Radicalization Ahead

A friend recently asked me what I thought of the recent Mangalore ‘pub attack’ and the ensuing events between the clowns of Ram Sena, the politicians and other parties involved. I e-mailed her saying this – it’s a circus. A small group relatively unheard of  like the Ram Sene wanting to make it’s mark in politics, regionally, state wise or god forbid nationally, attack as a mob – a couple of helpless women, for a twisted cause. To gain recognition as a group with considerable power in hands.

Some analysts may brush this off – how can attacking women in a pub bring them ‘recognition’? Sadly it’s the current state of India caught between generations of unseen financial independence, widening gap between rural and urban settings, and clash of the religions.

Twelve years ago, one of my first cousins to migrate abroad, called up to say that he wanted to visit Bangalore (or now, Bengaluru), when he is back – pubs and parties, he said. Bangalore was more happening than Hyderabad, and boy did I agree more. It’s surprising to see twelve years ago I wouldn’t have thought of a possibility of being attacked for going to a pub. Surely, we have turned ourselves backward, and I seriously doubted such an attack would have taken place in Bangalore until now, but thanks to the growing intolerance everywhere maybe that won’t be surprising anymore.

The underlying reason for the growing intolerance – terror attacks, both against the majority religion -Hinduism and by some Hindus that further complicates the problem, with people and their ideologue groups ever-ready to take responsibility of ‘correcting’ the so-called ills.

Why would a group like Ram Sene find followers, from what seems like a fairly young crowd who could actually be taking part in Valentine’s Day rather than tearing down hallmark stores and beating up their contemporaries? Is it that they can never see themselves with a girl on Feb 14th and the burning rage to see someone else that way? Or, to see their own family member go out on Valentine’s Day and be annoyed with that, or the half cooked belief that it is against our culture? When and where was it defined in our culture that college going kids should not hang out with each other on a day, and when our ‘culture’ was being established did they actually take into account college education and co-ed practices? I thought girls/women were in the kitchen at that time? And to add logic to the statement, beating up young people on Feb 14th will no deter them from meeting or hanging around for rest of the 365 days of the year. For God’s sake – they sit in a class for 6-8 hrs a day seldom listening to the lectures. Have you ever been inside a college? And if something wasn’t addressed in our culture guidelines (I assume there’s a manual somewhere) before, and now is an individual choice anyway, why create unnecessary nuisance?

A sample of what we have adopted from the west includes the popular concepts like say, the Gregorian calendar (decreed by a Pope), or the New Year, or the computer or the ipod. Heck, we have even imported their cheerleaders for a game that the British brought here and then we continue to worship it no matter what. We have adopted some of the best and some of the worst of other’s practices and yet survived as a mixture, our marriages and festivals are based on the lunar calendar, and no denying they are an important part of Indian life. So who decides what to import and what not? Certainly not the ‘Ram Sene‘, then why the violent way forcing to accept their beliefs on perfectly mature, sound minded individuals enjoying food and drinks in a place that was supposed to provide them with food, drinks and now security.

And why is a moderate religion being used to impose personal extremist beliefs on others? Ram sena from the TV serials of  Ramanand Sagar or Sanjay Khan, Amar Chitra Katha comics, or NTR movies or even the abridged versions of Rajaji’s and others’ never pointed out Lord Ram’s army men beating their own townspeople for indulging in drinking. In fact, from the stories I remember, a simple rumor would make the mighty king to make unreasonable sacrifices to his own family to clear his name and preserve his dignity. The only similarity I can think of, is that the stories depict an unreasonable treatment of women and this Ram Sene’s army seem to have taken literally the actions of that Ram sena’s army as a cue.

The next few years will define for us and our immediate neighbours, where we are going. Growing intolerance against the terror attacks against which our government is outright defensive, instead of being protective, and Pakistan’s government which is also defensive and on the verge of being self-consumed by the hatred built throughout the decades. There’s already been a considerable presence of Hindu extremists in India in the last two years, and with the way things are going, there will only be more and it’s logical that this will compound the existing problems. And there are worse things to happen, people like Raj Thackeray or Narendra Modi eyeing posts within or just out of their reach, and the mayhem that they will create in the belief that it is for the long term good, when history has repeatedly shown, again, again, again and again, that once you create or try to support divisive problems, the problems never get resolved and the monster grows into a self sustaining and then a destructive entity without making things any better.

The way a responsible leader sees these problems is different, true that Marathi doesn’t get the status it possibly deserves, true that a train compartment full of Ram Bakhts was burnt down, but the people being attacked now by you are the commoners, and all the actions taking place in retaliation are only adding fuel to the burning issues, something that threatens to engulf, the nation and it’s culture, all the languages, the people, the regions, the future generations, if the current ones survive it. Something  – that will not leave anything behind worth fighting for anyway. Pseudo secularists like me are many in number and there’s a reason why we are this way, the right way, and we challenge your way the extreme right-wing way that is wrong in every sense. The problem as such is astoundingly big and complex, and in my view the only ones involved in solving this are taking it in the opposite direction and adding to terrorism.

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