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| Image from The Guardian |
The problem with organisations like the Taliban and the Sri
Rama Sena or Bajrang Dal is that they make choices for everyone in the country.
The Taliban decides what the people of Afghanistan will wear, eat, learn, etc.
The myriad right-wing organisations in India make similar choices for Indians
though they haven’t yet reached the extremes of the Taliban. They will. It’s
just a matter of time. Once the descent begins, it gathers momentum more
rapidly than you imagine. All degeneration is like the avalanche: small
beginning and disastrous ending.
Who wants to make decisions for
everyone in the country? Who decides what everyone should wear, eat, drink, which
god they will worship, which language they will speak, who they will love or
hate? The answer is obvious. Only those who think they possess all truths can
make such choices for everyone.
The Taliban think they are the
custodians of all the essential truths. One such essential truth is that the
television, music and cinema are immoral. Another: girls aged 10 and over should
not study in schools. These custodians of truths are against knowledge, arts,
and science. They think ignorance is innocence. They think morality is the edge
of their sword. Their god is not very unlike a mafia don.
Last month, when the Taliban
tightened their tentacles in many parts of Afghanistan, a directive was issued
to religious leaders to provide a list of girls over 15 and widows under 45 for
‘marriage’ with Taliban fighters. For the women in Afghanistan, hell is just beginning.
The women of Afghanistan won’t forget what the Taliban did to them when the outfit
was in power during 1996-2001.
Is it about morality, truth, goodness?
No way. It’s about who controls whom? It’s about power.
If it was about morality, truth and
goodness, people would welcome it. Instead people are fleeing Afghanistan. They
are jumping into airplanes. Some of them are hanging on the tyres. And
they are falling off the planes from the skies. If the Taliban was bringing
paradise, would the people be killing themselves this way?
The Taliban is giving to people what
they want, not what the people want. They are not people’s leaders. Are they
god’s men? Well, you decide. And don’t forget we have similar creatures in the making
in India right now.
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| A paragraph from Tariq Ali's book, The Clash of Fundamentalisms |
xxx
Hari OM
ReplyDeleteAppreciating the personal anger generated (trust me, there is gnashing of teeth and wailing in The Hutch at the state of Kabul today), it must also be understood that none of this, ultimately has anything at all to do with any Non-Earthly Presence and everything to do with greed and power. What is more, it is not the power you may think.
As you quote Tariq Ali's book which was a repsonse to 9/11 and which holds clear arguments as to the influence of 'the west' (read USA in particular) in all these regions and how it actually is a causative factor, this recent discourse from TA may interest you. In it he mentions 'listen to the bells tolling in Kabul'... the filming was four months back.
What is happening is an international disgrace. Within that wider scope, at the local level, what is happening could be considered a crime against humanity. Both of these are political in nature and require political response.
Closer still, pertaining to the tract you chose to share in the image, is the personal effect by some on some. There we have crimimal behaviours within the structure of society. A societal injury requires societal treatment.
In the political arena, we are at the mercy of those we elect (or elected by majority, whether we voted there or not). Change can oly be effected by the majority lobbying and voting. In the societal arena, any one of us can make a difference and take a lead in making change.
The great problem for Afghanistan and India at the moment is that these two things have been conflated. The unholy union of religion and state - the most 'ungodlike' of situations. Very difficult to see this ending in anything short of tragedy... YAM xx
Even the US media doesn't seem happy about what their country did to Afghanistan. They took over Afghanistan from the Taliban 20 years ago and now handed it back to them just like that. What was the point of all those exercises and killings? I can't understand this kind of power-games. "International disgrace," indeed. It's time the world took serious actions against this sort of things.
DeleteYes, again, we are the mercy of the very people whom we elect to power. Bregman is right: Democracy is not the government of the people but of the elected leaders. And if the leaders are useless, what can the people do?
You've said it as it is.
ReplyDeleteWatching the events unfold, it feels like we're speeding towards our own end with our eyes closed.
Fundamentalism, as you've said, is exactly like an avalanche.
I have been questioning religion itself for many years precisely because of its misuse like this. The good done by religions seems so insignificant in comparison.
DeleteAgree with every word of your article. It's agonizingly astonishing that the world at large (including the so-called progressive countries as well as the UN) appears to be silently supporting Taliban.
ReplyDeleteI think the West is just washing its hands off the entire mess they created in the first place.
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