Skip to main content

Refusing to Learn: India’s tragedy



Catastrophes bring lessons with them. But who cares to learn? There is always a small minority of people who think, understand and learn from what is happening around them. Even Covid-19 will teach its lessons only to them. The majority will remain as foolish as they were before the catastrophe.

Look at what is happening in India if you don’t believe me. Almost everyday somebody or the other is being arrested or made to face some punitive action because Mr Narendra Modi doesn’t like him/her. The latest case is the show cause notice issued to Mohammad Mohsin IAS. The apparent reason is a tweet of his which said: “More than 300 Tablighi heroes are donating their plasma to serve the country in New Delhi only. What about it? Godi Media? They will not show you the works of humanity done by these heroes.” The actual reason: He had dared to check Modi’s helicopter last year during an election campaign.
 
A Reuters Headline: how the foreign media view India
Last week journalist Gowhar Geelani was booked by the J&K police for “indulging in unlawful activities through his posts and writings on social media”. He was the third journalist from the Kashmir Valley to be booked in just two days.

In Yogi’s Uttar Pradesh, a journalist who wrote about members of the Musahar community eating grass in villages around the prime minister’s parliamentary constituency was served a notice last month.

I have mentioned just three examples. There are many more instances of people being harassed in different ways for questioning Modi and his party. We can understand Modi being vindictive. Vindictiveness is in his blood. He has too small a heart in his 56-inch chest (which his tailor says is much less actually). It is not the meanness of Mr Modi that bugs me.

I see a whole lot of people (many of whom are my former students, colleagues or acquaintances) on Facebook, Twitter and other such places justifying all the wickedness perpetrated by Modi and his party people. When a global pandemic should force people to look within and introspect honestly, the amount of mendacity and hatred that is being peddled in the social media worries me. It should worry a lot more people.


This pandemic is a product of our own pettiness. We have created that virus with our mean-mindedness which led us to exploit everything and everybody without ever thinking of consequences. We are reaping the consequences now. Faced with a tragically stark reality, any sensible people would begin to shed hatred and biases and face the reality. Indians seem to be hardcore exceptions. Indians are using the pandemic to spread hatred and falsehood more vehemently than ever!

This hatred is worse than the virus. We can tame the virus with vaccines or medicines. The monster of hatred will only grow bigger and bigger as time passes especially when it has the blessings of the ruling dispensation. This hatred is going to swallow India, not the coronavirus.


xZx


The latest collection of my short stories, Love in the Time of Corona, is available below. Those who want a free copy can contact me personally. Those who would like to review it may also contact for a free copy.

https://store.pothi.com/book/ebook-tomichan-matheikal-love-time-corona



Comments

  1. Social media is much of a dubious nature these days, is what I believe. With everyone claiming some or the other fault with the current regime, drives me to check the roots of this onslaught. Many a times its found that its been driven rather than being organic. I am not a fan of any political party but an independent observer.
    Thankfully the social media represents only a handful of the people in the society living in the high towers with glass facade. The real India and real issues are far beyond these towers or the sight of these towers.
    Lockdown is not the time to fight the virus seems to have lost its meaning in the social media circles.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The social media is a representative segment of society. The evil intent you find there gets its material shape in society. The number of people getting arrested for flimsy reasons puts the regime too under the scanner.

      Delete
  2. I have been thinking along the same lines. Of how even a pandemic couldn't stop communal hatred in the country. And it is indeed sad to see many turning a blind eye to the government's ways. The educated and uneducated alike seem to fall prey to brain washing in this matter.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm happy that you acknowledge the problem. Most people I know are unwilling to do that even. They try to convince me that everything is hunky-dory in Indian politics. As long as Modi is there everything is 'mumkin' - that's their argument.

      Delete
  3. If we refuse to learn even in this hour of a crisis never thought of which has devastated not only the economy but also the social values, the sensitivity and a sense of belongingness to the mankind; then none can teach us. As far as the Bhaktas are concerned, even God can't wake them up from their self-imposed sleep. Let every individual stand up on his / her own for the cause of humanity and justice.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "Even God can't wake them..." This is just what I thought. Hence my next post which followed this: Gods of Savages.

      It is really a wonder why people refuse to learn even in the face of calamities. Or do calamities make people more mean?

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ayodhya: Kingdom of Sorrows

T he Sarayu carried more tears than water. Ayodhya was a sad kingdom. Dasaratha was a good king. He upheld dharma – justice and morality – as best as he could. The citizens were apparently happy. Then, one day, it all changed. One person is enough to change the destiny of a whole kingdom. Who was that one person? Some say it was Kaikeyi, one of the three official wives of Dasaratha. Some others say it was Manthara, Kaikeyi’s chief maid. Manthara was a hunchback. She was the caretaker of Kaikeyi right from the latter’s childhood; foster mother, so to say, because Kaikeyi had no mother. The absence of maternal influence can distort a girl child’s personality. With a foster mother like Manthara, the distortion can be really bad. Manthara was cunning, selfish, and morally ambiguous. A severe physical deformity can make one worse than all that. Manthara was as devious and manipulative as a woman could be in a men’s world. Add to that all the jealousy and ambition that insecure peo...

Abdullah’s Religion

O Abdulla Renowned Malayalam movie actor Mohanlal recently offered special prayers for Mammootty, another equally renowned actor of Kerala. The ritual was performed at Sabarimala temple, one of the supreme Hindu pilgrimage centres in Kerala. No one in Kerala found anything wrong in Mohanlal, a Hindu, praying for Mammootty, a Muslim, to a Hindu deity. Malayalis were concerned about Mammootty’s wellbeing and were relieved to know that the actor wasn’t suffering from anything as serious as it appeared. Except O Abdulla. Who is this Abdulla? I had never heard of him until he created an unsavoury controversy about a Hindu praying for a Muslim. This man’s Facebook profile describes him as: “Former Professor Islahiaya, Media Critic, Ex-Interpreter of Indian Ambassador, Founder Member MADHYAMAM.” He has 108K followers on FB. As I was reading Malayalam weekly this morning, I came to know that this Abdulla is a former member of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind Kerala , a fundamentalist organisation. ...

Lucifer and some reflections

Let me start with a disclaimer: this is not a review of the Malayalam movie, Lucifer . These are some thoughts that came to my mind as I watched the movie today. However, just to give an idea about the movie: it’s a good entertainer with an engaging plot, Bollywood style settings, superman type violence in which the hero decimates the villains with pomp and show, and a spicy dance that is neatly tucked into the terribly orgasmic climax of the plot. The theme is highly relevant and that is what engaged me more. The role of certain mafia gangs in political governance is a theme that deserves to be examined in a good movie. In the movie, the mafia-politician nexus is busted and, like in our great myths, virtue triumphs over vice. Such a triumph is an artistic requirement. Real life, however, follows the principle of entropy: chaos flourishes with vengeance. Lucifer is the real winner in real life. The title of the movie as well as a final dialogue from the eponymous hero sugg...

Bharata: The Ascetic King

Bharata is disillusioned yet again. His brother, Rama the ideal man, Maryada Purushottam , is making yet another grotesque demand. Sita Devi has to prove her purity now, years after the Agni Pariksha she arranged for herself long ago in Lanka itself. Now, when she has been living for years far away from Rama with her two sons Luva and Kusha in the paternal care of no less a saint than Valmiki himself! What has happened to Rama? Bharata sits on the bank of the Sarayu with tears welling up in his eyes. Give me an answer, Sarayu, he said. Sarayu accepted Bharata’s tears too. She was used to absorbing tears. How many times has Rama come and sat upon this very same bank and wept too? Life is sorrow, Sarayu muttered to Bharata. Even if you are royal descendants of divinity itself. Rama had brought the children Luva and Kusha to Ayodhya on the day of the Ashvamedha Yagna which he was conducting in order to reaffirm his sovereignty and legitimacy over his kingdom. He didn’t know they w...

Empuraan and Ramayana

Maggie and I will be watching the Malayalam movie Empuraan tomorrow. The tickets are booked. The movie has created a lot of controversy in Kerala and the director has decided to impose no less than 17 censors on it himself. I want to watch it before the jingoistic scissors find its way to the movie. It is surprising that the people of Kerala took such exception to this movie when the same people had no problem with the utterly malicious and mendacious movie The Kerala Story (2023). [My post on that movie, which I didn’t watch, is here .] Empuraan is based partly on the Gujarat riots of 2002. The riots were real and the BJP’s role in it (Mr Modi’s, in fact) is well-known. So, Empuraan isn’t giving the audience any falsehood as The Kerala Story did. Moreover, The Kerala Story maligned the people of Kerala while Empuraan is about something that happened in the faraway Gujarat quite long ago. Why are the people of Kerala then upset with Empuraan ? Because it tells the truth, M...