Skip to main content

Civilisation is skin-deep



R G Collingwood, professor of metaphysics, regards civilisation as an attitude which enables ideal social relationships of ‘civility’.  In practice, this means becoming progressively less violent, more scientific and more inclusive. This never happens, though. Most people remain savages at heart. Scratch any civilisation and savagery will bleed out.

If there is a little support from the government, even tacit support, then savagery will become the dominant force in any nation. Savagery appeals far more to people in general than civilisation. Let us take a quick glance at what is happening to India now.

Both the society and the polity in India have been transformed into sites of discursive and physical violence, increasing fidelity to myths and superstitions, and burgeoning hatred of certain communities – just the opposite of what Collingwood described as characteristics of civilisation.

This situation is largely a creation of the government at the Centre which is doing all that it can to convert India into a Hindu nation. Making Gandhi a Hindu icon, pitting Patel against Nehru, and designating 14 Aug as Partition Horror Memorial Day are just a few examples of reshaping history and thus reshaping the nation itself. Institutions, persons and practices that embody secular ideals are attacked systematically one way or another. Savarkar and Godse are made heroes.

There are open calls for genocide of both Muslims and Christians, the former bearing the larger brunt. The Dharam Sansads convened in Haridwar and Delhi in Dec 2021 pledged to exterminate Muslims from India altogether. The Haridwar Sansad started with making a public mockery of the Indian Constitution which was brought on the stage and lampooned. Soon the audience was exhorted to take up arms against Muslims. One of the speakers said that if he was an MP in Manmohan Singh’s parliament, he would have pumped bullet after bullet into Dr Singh’s heart for defending the rights of India’s minorities. Another said, “If we have to finish their (Muslim) population, we are ready to kill and go to jail.” In the Delhi Sansad, 250 people took a solemn pledge to kill the minority community people in order to facilitate the creation of a Hindu nation.

This is just how Nazism ran its roots in the German soil. Collingwood cites the Nazi Germany as an example of a highly uncivilised nation.

India is claiming to be the cradle of an ancient civilisation while perpetrating atrocities against chosen people. Collingwood must be sneering in his grave.

Violence is the most conspicuous characteristic of the present dispensation in India. In the first three years of Modi’s tenure as Prime Minister, a research report found that 97% of all cow-related violence in India came after he came into power in Delhi. The Indian Express reported on 20 Jan 2020 that offences promoting enmity between groups more than doubled over 2016. From 478 case in 2016, the number rose to 958 in 2017 and 1114 in 2018. The numbers for the next years will come in due course of time. Will we be shocked? Or will we feel smug?

The answer depends on what bleeds out when your civilisation is scratched.


PS.
I'm participating in #BlogchatterA2Z 

Previous post: Bhatti Mines is a symbol

Tomorrow: The Desert Teaches

Comments

  1. "Most people remain savages at heart. Scratch any civilisation and savagery will bleed out- very interesting observation. Sadly, we see the scratching happening frequently these days.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hari OM
    Clear Collation of the Concept... the very root of 'civilisation' is that there be civility! Something that has been cruelly crushed these days... YAM xx
    C=Connections

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have repeatedly spoken of the role of the leader in the shaping of a nation's attitudes. India unfortunately has a leader who is going to take the nation to its worst history. That's my prediction.

      Delete
  3. After reading the post and the comments shared above, I'm left silent. Poetry is what I'll be reading to find solace. I know it's not the thing to do but for now--that'll have to do for me. It takes courage to write what you write Tomichan. Clarity and courage.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A hug to you, Arti. Most people think that I'm just an armchair critic of Modi government. The truth is i would love to be part of a revolutionary movement in this country. But i too choose the way of poetry though my lines jar almost invariably - like in this post. Another thing which most of my critics fail to understand is my love for the genuine version of Hinduism which is so very tolerant. My happiest years were spent in a Hindu residential school - not 1 ot 2 years, a decade and a half, the longest i ever had in one single institution....

      Delete
  4. Caste and religion are easy weapons to activate the commoners in to criminals. Communalism - in any form , by any sides - are threat to our growth.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Exactly. The more number of people realise it, the better for all of us.

      Delete
  5. As always, you write to the point and back it up with all the facts and show us the real mirror of the current times which is nothing but alarming. I was appalled by what happened during the recent Hindu New year celebrations! I feel numb when I see such news.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I, like you and many other Indians, look forward to a better India. My fulminations in writing are only signs of that longing for my nation.

      Delete
  6. Absolutely. "Violence is the most conspicuous characteristic of the present dispensation in India." Unfortunately true.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

In this Wonderland

I didn’t write anything in the last few days. Nor did I feel any urge to write. I don’t know if this lack of interest to write is what’s called writer’s block. Or is it simple disenchantment with whatever is happening around me? We’re living in a time that offers much, too much, to writers. The whole world looks like a complex plot for a gigantic epic. The line between truth and fiction has disappeared. Mass murders have become no-news. Animals get more compassion than fellow human beings. Even their excreta are venerated! Folk tales are presented as scientific truths while scientific truths are sacrificed on the altar of political expediency. When the young generation in Nepal set fire to their Parliament and Supreme Court buildings, they were making an unmistakable statement: that they are sick of their political leaders and their systems. Is there any country whose leaders don’t sicken their citizens? I’m just wondering. Maybe, there are good leaders still left in a few coun...

Death as a Sculptor

Book Discussion An Introductory Note : This is not a book review but a reflection on one of the many themes in The Infatuations , novel by Javier Marias. If you have any intention of reading the novel, please be forewarned that this post contains spoilers. For my review of the book, without spoilers, read an earlier post: The Infatuations (2013). D eath can reshape the reality for the survivors of the departed. For example, a man’s death can entirely alter the lives of his surviving family members: his wife and children, particularly. That sounds like a clichĂ©. Javier Marias’ novel, The Infatuations , shows us that death can alter a lot more; it can reshape meanings, relationships, and even morality of the people affected by the death. Miguel Deverne is killed by an abnormal man right in the beginning of the novel. It seems like an accidental killing. But it isn’t. There are more people than the apparently insane killer involved in the crime and there are motives which are di...

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

When Cricket Becomes War

Illustration by Copilot Designer Why did India agree to play Pakistan at all if the animosity runs so deep that Indian players could not even extend the customary handshake: a simple ritual that embodies the very essence of sportsmanship? Cricket is not war, in the first place. When a nation turns a game into a war, it does not defeat its rival; it only wages war on its own culture, poisoning its acclaimed greatness. India which claims to be Viswaguru , the world’s Guru, is degenerating itself day after day with mounting hatred against everyone who is not Hindu. How can we forget what India did to a young cricket player named Mohammed Siraj , especially in this context? In the recent test series against England, India achieved an unexpected draw because of Siraj. 1113 balls and 23 wickets. He was instrumental in India’s series-levelling victory in the final Test at the Oval and was declared the Player of the Match. But India did not celebrate him. Instead, it mocked him for his o...

Whose Rama?

Book Review Title: Whose Rama? [Malayalam] Author: T S Syamkumar Publisher: D C Books, Kerala Pages: 352 Rama may be an incarnation of God Vishnu, but is he as noble a man [ Maryada Purushottam ] as he is projected to be by certain sections of Hindus? This is the theme of Dr Syamkumar’s book, written in Malayalam. There is no English translation available yet. Rama is a creation of the Brahmins, asserts the author of this book. The Ramayana upholds the unjust caste system created by Brahmins for their own wellbeing. Everyone else exists for the sake of the Brahmin wellbeing. If the Kshatriyas are given the role of rulers, it is only because the Brahmins need such men to fight and die for them. Valmiki’s Rama too upheld that unjust system merely because that was his Kshatriya-dharma, allotted by the Brahmins. One of the many evils that Valmiki’s Rama perpetrates heartlessly is the killing of Shambuka, a boy who belonged to a low caste but chose to become an ascetic. The...