Sow and reap

We were all shell shocked by the terror attacks. This time they targeted anyone and everyone, Hindu or Muslim, rich or poor. What was our fault, we wondered. And what was their motive? They did not even have any set of demands.

As a friend aptly put it, every human has both the angel and the demon inside him/her. But if you look at India’s brand of politics over this new century, it has always tried to arouse the demons within us. It has appealed to the worst of the people’s sentiments, whipped up the worst of our passions, dividing us, creating doubts and uncertainties about others, and spreading hatred for others. It has caused the Gujarat carnage, the Orissa attacks, the Marathi-North Indian divide. And we have all allowed this to happen; some of us actively, many more passively. We have allowed the politicians to play with fire. And now we are all suffering as its gone out of control and burnt our own homes.

Let me make myself more clear. Whenever there are politics of negativism, of divisiveness, of fear and hatred, it is bound to cause only violence, destruction and mayhem. When we arouse the people’s worst sentiments, we are bound to get the worst results.

A simple example. When Raj Thackeray created this entire North Indian issue, most of my Marathi friends passively supported him. We do not agree with his methods, but we agree with what he says and demands, and hence we support him, they said. And they conveniently ignored the ends can never justify the means ideology. But what they forgot is Gaussian dynamics; that for every 95 of them who don’t support the methods, there are 5 who will end up supporting the methods too. And an innocent North Indian had to give up his life thanks to this. Isn’t that terrorism too? I am sure the Raj Thackeray supporters still don’t feel so (and this is the common man I am talking about, not the politicians). Its tragic, but not terrorism, they’ll say.

Similarly, what happened in Godhra and Orissa were all manifestations of Newtons laws. They were tragic, but not terrorism. (This, again, is the common man’s justification I am talking about, not the politicians).

Now reverse the story. The Muslims in India and Pakistan feel legitimately upset and angry over the Babri demolitions and over Gujarat. The politicians and religious leaders again exploit it and arouse their worst sentiments, asking them to retaliate, to show that they are no cowards, to show what will happen if anyone tries to attempt a Gujarat again. There are many who passively support the thought, but not the execution. And then again there’s the 5% who agrees with the execution. And then 26/11 happens. Tragic, but not terrorism?!

And then we wonder what we did to deserve this?!

Isn’t it time that we decide to throw away this politics of negativism and divisiveness? That instead of arousing the demons residing inside the people, we arouse the angels instead, that we arouse the best of human spirit, the spirit that we saw so much in action in Mumbai in the last three days. Lets remember that the same corrupt policemen who take bribes and what not also had no hesitation in risking and indeed laying down their lives for the city’s and country’s sake. Its just that their better self had been appealed to!

We all love the concept of a whole and united India. Lets just put it into practice, and I am sure the problem of terrorism will be a thing of the past.


- 'How noble this city must be, for we have spent 400 years trying to finish it off and we still have not succeeded.'

Dr Juvenal Urbino, Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez