Echoes of Hypocrisy

Having had a moderately satisfactory day so far, I was watching some TV, cooling down after the exam in the morning. There was this pretty good movie showing, and I was slowly letting my mind unravel, letting thoughts cease as I let the idiot box take over.

Then something annoying happened. For reasons known only to the patron saints of cable-TV operators, the channel changed. I was suddenly faced with a couple of young 'desirable' Indians of opposing sexes dancing about in some exotic locale. Another 'Indian' Music Video. To search for my movie channel, I began flipping the remote, but stopped after the very first attempt.

There, on a news channel, was a story about public outrage against the rape-mutilation-massacre of the Dalit family in a village near Nagpur. I'd read about it first a few weeks ago, in the Tehelka weekly, before any other media instrument picked it up.

That Sunday was a pretty gruesome one, after reading in detail about what had been done to those women. Notice, I do not use the adjective 'poor' here. They were not weak in any sense of the word. It takes courage beyond measure to stand up against a village full of people out to get you, using the law to force circumstances on you to such a flashpoint that you no longer care about right or wrong. You just care about standing up, and making sure NOONE gets your land.

That woman, that mother, stood up. She tried her level best not to let the 'higher' caste villagers twist the law to strip her of her land. She defied the powers that be, and she was struck down. Nowhere, in any report by any media piece, does it mention that she asked for mercy, that she pleaded to be let go except for her children to be spared the fate reserved for her. Can you imagine what simple courage it must take? Can you imagine the very force of her will holding her mind together? I tremble at the very thought of it. My hands begin to shake a little, and blood courses through my back. I feel adrenalin pumping into my bloodstream as my anger boils out from the hitherto suppressed state.

Man, am I mad. If I could, I would personally strangle each of those imbeciles, who refuse to look above the differences and bigotry passed onto them from their even more hateful predecessors. This is infinitely viler than any typical Sicilian family vendetta.

But then, I would regret it once I cooled down. Violence is not the way. What is needed here is some common sense. And not on part of those villagers, but by you and me.

What do we expect them to do? Suddenly become astute edifices of morality and pillars of character the moment we leave then with their new water well?

Where are all the religious leaders? Why do they waste their time fighting with each other over points of dogma instead of going to such villages and seeing that peace is maintained, honor grown.

Why do political leaders building their mandate on divisions of caste not cater to those of their caste? Why? Why do the Dalit leaders not cater to the Dalits? As they claim to be worried about the prospects of the oppressed castes, why do they forget about it the next day after the elections?

And why are we, the educated stupid enough to hold the opinion that if the oppressed don't mind the leaders forgetting them after ballot, why should we care? If they are stupid enough to fall for the same ploy every five years, why bother trying to persuade them that a vote is power to change your lot, not something to be exchanged for a bottle or a blanket?

The country is going downhill, even if you choose to ignore the massacres and look only at Delhi's bid for the Olympics. But the instances of human rights violations are only increasing, and the percentage of actual number of crimes these reports represent are decreasing. This means that while we see a huge increase in the number of massacres and such reported to the common man, we mistakenly attribute this surge to more cases being reported out of the total. What we do not see is that the total is increasing exponentially.

The per-capita income of the country is increasing, even if mostly because of the IT sector. Yet the number of suicides because of indebtedness among farmers is increasing. People are killing themselves over loans of Rs 8000. More and more children are being sold ever year.

The rich grow richer, and we see Starbucks and Corvettes coming to India. The urban India. Far away from the shining lights, I wouldn't be surprised if the average life expectancy increasing only means more suffering per life, per person.

And all the while, our 'leaders' the trustworthy stalwarts to whom we've entrusted the future and present of our country, are walking out of parliament, causing losses in the Crores, just to protest against a remark or two made by one belonging to the other party.

This situation is so ludicrous, that if it weren't so gruesome as well, it'd be hilarious. I'd be laughing my head off if this had been a novel. Yet it isn't. Every time Mirth starts to creep up in my mind, at the absolute comedy of errors if viewed from a detached perspective, the image of Bhaiyyalal hiding behind a pile of hay, watching as his world is brought to ruin in front of him, shatters that perspective. It squashes the mirth, and feeds it to the worms of disgust and rage.

How dare anyone commit such a crime in my country, and then claim to have the right to do so, simply because he has the same last name as a rishi a thousand years ago?

The people of India have always prided themselves on having descended from great sages. Their castes and 'gotra's are testaments to the claim. I am supposed to have descended from some fellow named Jaimini. Personally, if you ask me, it seems like a girl's name. However, if all you zealots out there think me making fun of a name is heresy, let me tell you that if I really am descended from that chap, and all your stories

About the purity of character being preserved through bloodlines are correct, then if this Jaimini couldn't take a joke, he was no ancestor of mine. This supposition may be verified by judging the 'practical joker quotient' of the last three members in my bloodline. (I had to be on my guard every time I went to visit my grandparents.)

Anyway, coming back to the topic, if any sage were to know of what crimes his descendants have white-washed with his name over the ages, he'd not only turn in his grave, he'd kill himself a million times over. There is no caste that has not been completely evil at times.

And still we go on killing each other. Not only killing each other, but raping little girls. I understand that the finer qualities of life leave you, and your sensibilities desert you, if you lead a hard life, but can you ever, ever at all justify rape? If you can, you were never a good man to start with, and no justifications and mitigations hold water.

Now, come to the psychological aspect of the whole thing. A family is massacred, after rape. Or even before (There are reports of shades of necrophilia.) The whole village watches. Even the women. And they all go back and eat their dinner, and make love and go to sleep. Something is wrong here.

It looks like the entire village is neurotic. How can a group of people do this, (and in the open at that), and then go on living as if nothing interesting happened? What is even more neurotic, is that there is no cry raised by the media till the blogs picked it up, and there is no candle-light vigil for the victims. Sure, Jessica Lal and Ms. Matoo were victims too, but are they more important to us simply because they were urban, and this family was not? If there were even a shred of decency in us, 'We, the People' would do something about this. Even if just a silent protest.

Traders threaten to get violent if their livelihoods are taken away, everybody talks about 'Gandhigiri', while the film that started this resurge in affection for the Old Man's methods goes to the UN, and there is not even one poster demanding punishment for the perpetrators of the massacre?

Governments are toppled in a large number of states over issues such as the price of onions, the availability of power and water, reservations in institutions for HIGHER education, while no-one even look at the fact that the officers and men that our government pays to keep justice in our country refuse to file even an FIR on matters like these? Are we blind? Or just plain stupid?

Where is this country going if Manmohan Singh is more concerned about out GDP growth rate than Surekha and Bhaiyyalal? The sheer gall of every political party confounds me. In a few days, after this story is picked up by the media in regional languages, and starts getting to the rural population in other areas, those parties that pride themselves on taking care of the 'oppressed' will stage protests and rallies in the villages, trying to get the message across that if they are voted into power, nothing like this will
happen in other areas.

What is beyond disgust is that these people are not actively seeking out conflicts like in the little village near Nagpur, and trying to put out the fire before it explodes in a shower of hot sparks that scalds everyone close by.

In the Second World War, the Underground of any country occupied by the Nazis, be it France or Poland went looking for trouble. They tried to protect all citizens that the Nazis might be persecuting, or be looking for. The USA entered the war in Iraq to 'protect the people' from the atrocities of their ruler.

India decided to give aid to Sri Lanka at the height of the LTTE militancy. Thousands of people have died in that piece of mountainous terrain between the two unequal 'halves' of Hindustan, all for a few hundred square kilometers of snow ice, and rock. Millions of millions of dollars have been spent over the years. And yet when the PM announces a special compensation scheme for the farmers in India, they continue to kill themselves.

What does all this talk tell us? That India has not got it's priorities straight! Forget about Pakistan. They are not, and will never be able to invade us successfully. We don't have to have arms enough to take on the entire world. Concentrate on tactical weapons, strategic ones that shall allow you to annihilate any aggressor, and then leave the arms race.

Weapons are a necessity, for you never know when the world's morals will change. Yet today it is possible to have a nuclear arsenal. Do you think we could ever dream of taking on the US in a no-holds-barred conflict? If their existence were threatened, we'd be a land of radioactive dust in a matter of hours. And the environment be damned.

The point is, build up your effective arsenal, while at the same time cutting down on recurring costs. Why is it necessary to keep so many troops in Siachen? If anyone attacks, blast the valley out of existence, and ask questions later. You think China would ask if it was indeed us were we to try to break through Nathu La?

And what if we do accede Kashmir to Pakistan? Or if that sounds like too extreme a step, hold a referendum in the state, asking the people if they'd rather be ruled by one of the countries, or prefer Independence. Get all your extra security there, ask for international aid in keeping the vote impartial, and guarantee that no one will face retribution for voicing their opinion. Then let us see just how right we are to hold on to that area. If Kashmir wants us, then by the 330 million Gods, go in and get it all. If anyone tries to stop you, blast them off the face of the Earth. If the military bigwigs like the US try to play the holier than thou attitude, ask where they were hiding when Israel attacked Lebanon. And if the Kashmiris would rather be on their own, leave them to their peace. We need to be practical about our problem areas, not sentimental.

Harping about economic reprioritization is fine, but till there is a climate where people can live without fear of another Bhotmangle fate, or without having to kill themselves over an amount small enough to not cause even a fresh employee in the lowest-rung call-center to fret, India will never be moving forward.

In fact, I wonder if we have ever stop this backward slant? Ever since 1947, things have only been getting worse.

I read in a book once, that no nation can last long on conscripts. There was a tradition in Rome, of mothers telling their sons who volunteered for the army, "Come back with your shield, or on it." Later this tradition declined, so did Rome.

We are riding this wave of prosperity on the backs of those in Orissa, and in Andhra Pradesh. Premium fabric retailers make a few thousands for the cotton that gets the farmer not even enough to eat two times a day.

How long can this economic instability last? Every system has to come to equilibrium. But sometimes, if you push the envelope too far, the system will never come back to equilibrium. This is known to us as Escape velocity, or sometimes, even as Critical Mass.

India is a pendulum, swinging further out with every stroke. And if nothing is done to slow the stroke down, there will come a time when the pendulum will swing away from the lynch-pin, escape away from the supporting structure, and the assembly will fall apart. Anarchy doesn't seem so fanciful in the not-so-distant future. In fact, I wonder if we're not already there...