continuation of last blog...

This blogger is proud to be a citizen of a country that believes in the ideals of secularism and has enshrined the right to practice and propagate religion to all (this individual right is curtailed in many countries) in the constitution. The protection of minorities is an indication of evolved society and stable state. But when individuals start to blabber about secularism is when you can be sure they are looking for power and have divisive agenda. Take for instance last week a cricketer turned politician (from BJP) made an amazing statement that “Pakistan players in IPL will help India’s secular credential”. This ridiculous statement is just another example of how they try work their position, clearly the fellow seem to be keen on moving away from BJP to ‘secular party’ this is his try. It is a different matter that Pakistan is an Islamic country that is shifting quite rapidly to cruder form of religion. Associating friendliness with Pakistan to gain confidence of Indian Muslims is one of the ploy of crude and dangerous form of secularism that some power monger practice quite blatantly, it is not only an insult to common people of this country (in particular Muslims) but compromises national security. It also put severe pressure on common Muslims on the street, they have to keep proving their patriotic credential all the time, obviously these attempts at secularism alienates and divide people. This affliction to Pakistan is a strange behavior of north part of the country (in particular the Punjabi types). I recall when Gen. Mushraff visited India the ‘secular parties’ were found shamelessly vying for his audience. That the fellow is a military dictator who usurped power and pushed that unfortunate country further into chaos is nobody’s business (this fellow was also the architect of kargil that was responsible for many deaths). That India to a large extend despite poverty and related problems remains a vibrant democracy and Indian people don’t need these crude forms of symbolism of secularism too is nobody’s business. Secularism seems to be emboldening fundamentalism and some really nasty people, seriously threatening the life of common people. It has become source of power play by socio-political elite.

I recall when I was in Delhi I used to spend time with painters (they though preferred to call themselves artists), mostly mediocre and amazingly selfish but high on attitude. There was this north Indian painter fellow with whom I was once, with us was also a malayalee muslim acquaintance of mine. Now this north Indian fellow (who also considered himself as some kind of sophisticate-I guess that is one way of being liberal) found rather puzzling that this muslim doesn’t know Urdu. He told him he should know Urdu and that it is his language. It is only now that I understand the significance of this thinking. It is a step towards creating muslim symbolism, it though doesn’t matter that it leads to ghettoisation. The impetus is on assertion of misplaced rights and be divisive, if you support these you are automatically elevated as secularist. The pertinent question here is how is Urdu a language of particular community?. There are vested sections that actively pursue this and many common muslims tend to believe that Urdu is what they should learn (I met a muslim auto driver in Gujarat he mentioned that he spoke Gujarati but was being asked to speak Urdu. Take also the example of kashmiri being replaced by Urdu). This is how alienation happens (the western initiates would like to mistake it for freedom and liberty), these blatant attempts to undermine local culture and tradition creates discordant relation with larger community. I don’t really blame that north Indian painter he was only following the existing narration of secularism to further his career, in places like Delhi clinging to these can easily classify you as an activist- which can be a substitute to mediocrity, and related perks.

When I was kid used to visit my home town (in the interior of Kollam in Kerala) and spend lots of time listening to talks and occasional story telling, it was relatively big house with verandah for people to sit (now demolished as people slip into poverty). The neighbors (who happened to be Muslims) were frequent visitors to these evening talks and mostly were like extended family. Few years back when I visited this place I was told that the muslim neighbors have adopted a new lifestyle and started to wear dark dress and women rarely interact, they keep to themselves (this is also the place where muslim fundamentalism is on the rise). This is how society gets fractured. In cities and in particular in so called developed countries like Britain these are how they define freedom but in poorer societies social bonding and interaction is what keeps the society alive, these are important checks to prevent disruption, they stop prejudices and alienations to take root.

Every religion has its cruder form but they are mostly kept in check or people would try not to identify with them, they would like to evolve from these primitive world, I guess that is what happens with having education. But the virulent form of Islam seems to be having a free run (and in a strange irony sought to be portrayed as beacon of identity), the Sunni wahhabi leads this pack. This extremely intolerant and crude interpretation of religion that seeks to create an insular and intolerant world have threatened and eliminated many subtler forms of Islam that is rooted in socio cultural context of the land around the world. They have created societies with alienated individuals who are easily indoctrinated to be extreme and violent, petrodollar has helped easy inroad to poorer societies (hapless poor illiterate people are easy target, I am reminded of some brilliant Samira Makmalbaf movies on these subject). Overnight we are seeing aliens sprouting in the neighborhood. Modesty is important understanding and subtle in its practice unfortunately neither religious fundamentalists nor market have any use of these.

Of course it helps the power hungry secularist to see obnoxious burqa (the whole body cover) as religious expression, it is a symbol of male chauvinism and patriarchy is clear. First it makes women disappear from public space (apart from alienation within the society at the micro level as was pointed earlier), few centuries back most women’s movement were restricted within house premise and there was strict socio-sexual control by men. Burqa is that regressive symbol. Further one has to understand that families where these are followed rarely have other female member given a choice of not wearing these particularly in poor societies (need to add here that in the same manner a woman may not have the choice to choose outside sari in many families, but the degree patriarchy is at limited scale compared to the appalling world of burqa) it further adds to exploitation of women, clearly these are not coincidence they are part of crude world. You just have to look at the societies from which they originate, they still live in dark ages and have absolutely no idea of democracy or individual freedom (take for instance Saudis). They also don’t give any right to other religion, it is an insular world. It is the same world they carry to other countries. They are now called the Islamists. They singularly lack mindset that is needed to live in multicultural community.

West is doing a big mistake to classify it as Islamophobia. You cannot categorize a religion like that and indeed most muslims don’t identify with these primitive and extreme form of Islam as much as I will cringe being classified in the same group of hindu fundamentalist or the practitioner of primitive chauvinist form of Hinduism. West in the process is legitimizing these crude people by victimizing the whole community. Understand this crude cannot produce or practice enlightened thoughts it is highly unlikely; the next generation therefore will be further alienated thus victimized. Britain has provided all kinds of freedom for extreme forms of people (I guess it is typical British snobbish superiority complex, probably trying to teach something to the world) it has only worsened and emboldened fundamentalists and extremists. It’s difficult to tolerate fundamentalists and their way of life and so there they are now victims of intolerance!!. Is it a coincidence that most terrorists seem to have link in Britain (and not France) even the latest caught trying to bomb American plane. They seem to have ambiguous worldview until they reach Britain where it seems they get emboldened (even the Indians who were involved in suicide attack in London few years back, they wouldn’t have thought of these extreme worldview if they were in India), am I surprised?. Britain is facing problems of its own making and other countries could learn from it (and not take extreme actions like the Swiss, it victimizes the whole community because of some crude people. I do feel French have been bit too extreme). To be asked to tolerate what is extreme- that lacks propriety, that seeks to create insular world view, that justifies male chauvinism- puts severe pressure on entire population. It creates situation for extreme reactions and violence.

There is a market driven world view that religious community should try to rectify itself and outsiders shouldn’t comment (you are free to do your crap and I mine). That is humbug and worst form of irresponsible behavior. First there is nothing like single community and that within any community nobody can take any decision for all, in a democratic set up they don’t really have authority to. It gets controlled by powerful interest group within the community at the expense of silent and suffering majority, they are used as pawns in power play. Secondly they are seriously affecting my world, my life, of course I will have to take action, react. In fact I am quite angry last few years my freedom has been curtailed because of security reasons, everywhere walls are coming up, people are suspicious of each other. Everywhere I travel I am put through question I don’t like. All this because of these jihadi macaques and their exaggerated victimhood, in fact I would argue that these breed lack any tolerance to live with people who have different god or worldview, so when they have to accommodate they end up fighting. Thirdly wherein the contribution of Christians has been stupendous in terms of providing quality education (this blogger is a direct beneficiary), medical facilities as also women who actively take part in social space. In contrast I haven’t really seen much from cruder form of islam, they end up building mosques and madrasas- that teaches (mostly for their own community) matter that doesn’t give anyone employability or confidence to tackle modern world nor to live in multicultural world (some Hindu groups can be accused of the same but they haven’t created as much havoc, nor are they beacon of freedom). They haven’t really created the kind of institutions that was expected from the kind of access to fund they had. Muslim community in the northern part of the country is one of the poorest (as also the case in Africa). What have they done?

What they are doing is spreading poison around the world. They are trying to destroy subtler world I know. I cannot even imagine in this increasingly crude world we live any muslim family would name their child Geeta (the name of my muslim neighbor in trivandrum, I got along with her younger sis quite well so much so I used to spend most of my free time at their home!). This is the world I would fiercely defend and would not allow secularist and fundamentalists to work out their share. It need to be added here that elite muslims have had a freak out time at the expense of common muslims. They have positioned themselves as symbolism for common muslim, so any matter wherein anyone has to work their secular credentials they just have to feed these pretentious people. It is therefore in their interest that fundamentalism grows since it hugely benefits them. This the reason why polygamy, burqa and all forms of crap are dumped onto common people as part of freedom, in a world where words like freedom is increasingly making no much sense. People then get caught in wrong place of no fault of theirs and become what they call hate victims.