The politics of change…
I am a Hindu by birth and I grew up in a liberal household at least where politics and religious leanings are concerned. Everybody in my house is opinionated but no one is a fascist. My mom and dad have different political ideologies. So does my extended family. We however have no sort of ego battles with regards to it.
When it came to my brother and I, we couldn’t care any less growing up. We were busy as it is and had no much say in anything whatsoever and were influenced by whoever put up a stronger argument at home. Not some serious life altering arguments, but we do have our pastime debates on current affairs.
To be social and secular was not something anyone had to teach us. It is pretty much a part of our DNA. We grew up with that value system unconsciously and we heard of those terms only in school history/civics textbooks and in the frivolous subject which was more pastime than anything else called ‘Value Education’. What some others call ‘Moral Science’. How is morality a science? Whatever! For us those were not political values, they were human values. You didn’t need to be told to be considerate and fair with a fellow human being. For most people who are not conditioned to the contrary, these things come naturally.
I once read this very beautiful quote:- “We aren’t born hating each other. You have to be taught to hate. If you can be taught to hate, so can you be taught to love for love comes more naturally to a human being than hate.”
So, when people were vociferous about Hindu ideologies, I always felt that they were being too lopsided with their standpoint and I became louder about minority rights. It somehow felt right because we were always conditioned to believe that somehow minorities are oppressed in our country. At least that is how the news media portrayed their plight. Fringe incidents would be picked up and given too much media coverage. Eye catchy headlines, loud and opinionated news reporting with more drama in the back drop and I had come to convince myself that all Hindus were off their rockers and teetering on fascist intolerance.
My biases were further strengthened by absolutely idiotic social media posts bordering on what could be called ‘abusive’ and ‘un classy’. People think they will score brownie points only if they cheapen with their verbal attack. If optics is what a certain group was aiming for, they were certainly screwing up their narrative. The opposite group on the other hand always managed to get the optics right at least with regards to the international media with what can be termed as ‘Minority appeasement politics’ and the age old ‘Divisive politics’. If they have picked up anything from the imperial powers, it has to be this. I do not even need to mention whom all I am talking about. When either of them read this, they will identify themselves for sure.
Our political honchos need to reign it in on social media and also in the parliament house. Letting people speak isn’t the same as agreeing with them as long as the exchange is civil. Heckling people, uprooting microphones, unnecessary jingoism and sloganism make us look like what our teachers in school would describe as ‘Unruly’.
If my view points were skewed towards the minority, well, our majoritarian were not making it any easier. It took me some effort from my end to understand our country’s history and how our civilizational narrative was shaped, re-shaped and finally distorted overtime. We had been colonized for 1000 years at least and since history is always written by the victor, we never had a chance to aptly write ours.
This contorted narrative is then passed down across generations and then gets imprinted on to our psyche like some lethal gene mutation. It then decides how we perceive ourselves with an inferiority complex, our country and the world around us and our idea of right and wrong. If any one enlightened being decides to wake up and challenge the status quo, they will find themselves swimming against the tide of the collective ideology of our forefathers.
So, after a lot of thought, the apolitical me now had an opinion. Not like the distasteful ones you see on the internet, but rather what ideology I would support keeping the sanctity of human values intact. Now the new problem is that my family thinks I have consumed this deadly saffron potion which has colored my view point a gaudy orange and no amount of bleaching it with their naivety will scrub it off. So, now I am officially the family fascist and as per them I will soon get promoted to sending ‘Jai Shree Ram’ messages on the family WhatsApp group.
The guidelines are somehow set in stone, by I am not sure who, probably our propaganda machinery. If you are a pro Hindu then you are a fascist and if you are anti-Hindu, you are somehow a liberal. Asinine! Also, I get along with people of all faiths and I have the utmost love and respect for all of them. At heart I am still apolitical, but I do want the best for my country.
Also, I sometimes wonder as to who coined the term ‘religious tolerance’? Not respect, not appreciation but tolerance. Sometimes, irrespective of our civilizational history it is impossible to take things back to where we were 1000 years ago with respect to the cultural demographics. We are a mixed populace today and that has to be accepted without being apologetic of our own identity. That is something I feel about the recent Israel -Palestenian war too. One may want to take things back to how it was 2000 years ago or maybe even just 75 years ago, but it isn’t always a practical solution for either of them. You got to work things out forwards at times.
And, No! Hindus aren’t and India isn’t fascist. You suppose I would be able to openly criticize our governments in any other country? (except maybe the United States). I believe my country is way more tolerant than even the USA. We are 1.4 billion for heavens sake. It is next to impossible to have this machinery function with zero glitches. That is why I believe change starts with calling out the mistakes of your own tribe. I see more and more conscientious youngsters doing it here and abroad and that is indeed a welcome change.
