Skip to main content

Rebel

 


Anyone who loves life genuinely cannot but be a rebel. You will rebel against the all-pervasive evil that appears in the forms of diseases, natural calamities, and manmade disasters. You will rebel against malevolent bacteria and viruses. Your blood will boil when you see innocent kids dying because of any reason whatever. You won’t be able to accept a fraction of the injustice you see around you. If you love life. As Ivan Karamazov tells his fervently religious brother, “I don’t accept this world of God’s… I don’t accept it at all. It’s not that I don’t accept God, you must understand, it’s the world created by Him I don’t and cannot accept.”

This world is a terrible place where, in the words of the Bard, fair is foul and foul is fair. A lot of great people have tried to change that terrible situation. What else were the Buddha and the Christ and the Prophet and the Mahatma trying to do? And what did we get because of their efforts but more evil in the names of their respective religions? Should we go on accepting this world as it is?

We needn’t if we choose. Rebellion is a refusal to accept the evils and a simultaneous affirmation of the good. Rebellion is saying No to certain realities and saying a louder Yes to better alternatives. Rebellion is throwing out the junk and bringing in dignity.

Every act of rebellion is a nostalgia for innocence, said Albert Camus. Only those who have traces of innocence left in their hearts can actually rebel. The rest can at best only shout hollow slogans and throw vacuous fists in the air. Rebellion is a genuine longing for a better world for everyone.

Rebellion is a sign of deep awareness. Every rebel knows that he is just a lamb being fed by hands that will slit his throat tomorrow.

Rebellion may fail. Indeed often it is condemned to fail. It will be suppressed. Remember the great rebels of the past? Even god-incarnates had to end up on a cross or a burning stake. Vested interests win at any rate. That is how the world is. And that is why the rebel must live. Even if he does not win. If only to become what your soul was meant to become. You don’t rebel for what you can achieve, but for who you are at heart. Rebellion belongs to the heart. Rebellion runs in the veins.

PS. This is powered by #BlogchatterA2Z

Previous post in this series: Quest

Tomorrow: Spirituality

 

 

 

Comments

  1. Penelope Potty SnooperApril 21, 2021 at 11:23 AM

    You've made a great case for rebelling. Indeed with constant rebellions will the world become a better place. But what about the destruction mayhem that rebelliousness causes?

    ReplyDelete
  2. जितेन्द्र माथुरApril 21, 2021 at 2:14 PM

    Only those who have traces of innocence left in their hearts can actually rebel. The rest can at best only shout hollow slogans and throw vacuous fists in the air. You said it. And yes, an innocent one only can rebel not to win but to become what his soul is meant to become. Considering the harsh reality of this (hypocrite) world in which vested interests are only destined to win, rebels are essential to prevent (or at least, delay) complete doom.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalApril 21, 2021 at 4:10 PM

      Glad you got exactly what i meant. I was scared this would be grossly misunderstood.

      Delete
  3. suhavijayApril 21, 2021 at 3:23 PM

    Yes, a Rebellion is the one who really longs for a better world for every one. Well said.

    ReplyDelete
  4. PadminiApril 21, 2021 at 5:05 PM

    Rightly said. Anything new or unconventional is sadly considered rebellion. But history proves that inventions are made by rebellious minds.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalApril 21, 2021 at 7:00 PM

      In today's context, all the more relevant because even simple dissent is viewed with suspicion.

      Delete
  5. Chinmayee Gayatree SahuApril 21, 2021 at 9:30 PM

    Rebellion is surely an act to voice against injustice and any ill - happening around. You have highlighted correctly that even if rebellion fails, the one who rebels must live. Can not be more appropriate keeping in mind the activities happening currently in society.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalApril 21, 2021 at 9:35 PM

      People are becoming either scared or unconcerned these days.

      Delete
  6. SuchitaApril 21, 2021 at 10:01 PM

    Reminded me of a line from a Rang De Basanti song - Be a rebel. Also made me think of 2 characters from The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Both are rebels but where 1 tries to have a conversation, 1 resorts to violence.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalApril 22, 2021 at 3:21 PM

      I worked on Albert Camus's concept of rebellion which is philosophical and highly positive if not creative. Create an alternative system. Not destroy. That's Camus's view. For more, please read his book 'The Rebel'.

      Delete
  7. Molly's CanopyApril 22, 2021 at 4:03 AM

    As we found yesterday, rebellion brought a measure of justice -- even if not as great or generalized a measure of justice as we would hope. So voices must and will continue to be raised.
    Visiting from A to Z https://mollyscanopy.com/2021/04/rock-n-roll-djs-my-brief-crush-on-jack-rose/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalApril 22, 2021 at 3:22 PM

      Yes, voices must rise at appropriate times. India now stands in need of some great rebels.

      Delete
  8. ArtiApril 22, 2021 at 7:19 PM

    I'll say amen to that.
    This line "Every act of rebellion is a nostalgia for innocence." of Camus you quoted is gold.
    Brilliant read. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Ira MishraApril 24, 2021 at 6:20 AM

    "Rebellion may fail. Indeed often it is condemned to fail. It will be suppressed. Remember the great rebels of the past? Even god-incarnates had to end up on a cross or a burning stake. " And I guess that's the reason many don't rebel!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalApril 24, 2021 at 7:40 AM

      Possibly and most probably. People love expediency.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl
47 comments
Read more

Shooting an Elephant

George Orwell [1903-1950] We had an anthology of classical essays as part of our undergrad English course. Shooting an Elephant by George Orwell was one of the essays. The horror of political hegemony is the core theme of the essay. Orwell was a subdivisional police officer of the British Empire in Burma (today Myanmar) when he was forced to shoot an elephant. The elephant had gone musth (an Urdu term for the temporary insanity of male elephants when they are in need of a female) and Orwell was asked to control the commotion created by the giant creature. By the time Orwell reached with his gun, the elephant had become normal. Yet Orwell shot it. The first bullet stunned the animal, the second made him waver, and Orwell had to empty the entire magazine into the elephant’s body in order to put an end to its mammoth suffering. “He was dying,” writes Orwell, “very slowly and in great agony, but in some world remote from me where not even a bullet could damage him further…. It seeme...
11 comments
Read more

Urban Naxal

Fiction “We have to guard against the urban Naxals who are the biggest threat to the nation’s unity today,” the Prime Minister was saying on the TV. He was addressing an audience that stood a hundred metres away for security reasons. It was the birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel which the Prime Minister had sanctified as National Unity Day. “In order to usurp the Sardar from the Congress,” Mathew said. The clarification was meant for Alice, his niece who had landed from London a couple of days back.    Mathew had retired a few months back as a lecturer in sociology from the University of Kerala. He was known for his radical leftist views. He would be what the PM calls an urban Naxal. Alice knew that. Her mother, Mathew’s sister, had told her all about her learned uncle’s “leftist perversions.” “Your uncle thinks that he is a Messiah of the masses,” Alice’s mother had warned her before she left for India on a short holiday. “Don’t let him infiltrate your brai...
14 comments
Read more

The Little Girl

The Little Girl is a short story by Katherine Mansfield given in the class 9 English course of NCERT. Maggie gave an assignment to her students based on the story and one of her students, Athena Baby Sabu, presented a brilliant job. She converted the story into a delightful comic strip. Mansfield tells the story of Kezia who is the eponymous little girl. Kezia is scared of her father who wields a lot of control on the entire family. She is punished severely for an unwitting mistake which makes her even more scared of her father. Her grandmother is fond of her and is her emotional succour. The grandmother is away from home one day with Kezia's mother who is hospitalised. Kezia gets her usual nightmare and is terrified. There is no one at home to console her except her father from whom she does not expect any consolation. But the father rises to the occasion and lets the little girl sleep beside him that night. She rests her head on her father's chest and can feel his heart...
19 comments
Read more

Egregious

·       Donald Trump terminated all trade negotiations with Canada “based on their egregious behaviour.” ·       Pakistan has an egregious record of assassinations among its leaders. ·       Benjamin Netanyahu’s egregious disregard for civilian suffering has drawn widespread international condemnation. Now, look at the following sentences. ·       Archias is an egregious and most excellent man. [Cicero’s speech in 62 BCE] ·       “An egregious captain and most valiant soldier.” [Roger Ascham in 1545] U p to about 16 th century, the word egregious had a positive meaning: excellent or outstanding . Cicero was defending Greek poet Aulus Licinius Archias’s request for Roman citizenship. Archias had left his country out of disgust for the corruption of its Seleucid rulers. Ascham was speaking about the qualities of valiant soldiers when he used the ...
6 comments
Read more