I love thee, O modern society!
I came across two articles in the last few days –
Johann Hari writing in The Independent
and Speech Impediments in The Economist
Now, it is not a development that has happened overnight, but it is unnerving to see how gradually, creeping like a shadow, the spectre of religious bigotry has firmly risen all over the world. Ordinarily I wouldn’t care, but it pains to think that the society I am growing up in is becoming more intolerant by the day. Twenty years back to this day, when The Satanic Verses was released, the Islamic world was up in arms, condemning the author to death. Although I was in no shape then to make a sense of what was happening around me, subsequent reading told me that the world of free-thinking people as a whole was appalled at such an obvious attempt to murder the right to freedom of thought. That year, the book was one of the finalists on Booker Prize. If it was today, as one of the articles mentions, this society of so called free thinkers would be gunning for the author’s head. I am surprised no one’s issued a Fatwa against Hari yet.
Since when did we embark on this retrograde path to the Dark Ages, the last time when freedom of speech and thought was curtailed to such severe extent? Today I see it rising slowly, in pockets of the world, and sadly I also see the rest of the world condoning it. It almost seems like either the world elites are not concerned, or they don’t have the guts to take a stand against it. I don’t remember hearing any of it so intensely back in school – so either my memory doesn’t serve me right, or something has changed in the way we have started dealing with such voices. Calls for ‘racism’, ‘prejudice against us’, ‘in the name of the religion’ were never so fashionable and powerful tools.
Zimbabwe, Turkey-Armenia, Arab World, Chechen-Ingushetiya-South Ossetia, Greeks-Cypriots, an increasingly-autocratic South America ( Bolivia, Venezuela), Swat …. the list is endless. Some of these developments are still evolving, and may not pan out that way, which is what we should hope.
It is justified to torture a blogger who argues for a reformed religion ( Egyptian blogger), but not okay to raise voices against it in an international audience, among the so-called world elite? Here’s another excerpt –
“…. The main objections have come from free speech campaigners such as Roy Brown of the International Humanist and Ethical Union, who has tried to raise topics like the stoning of women accused of adultery or child marriage.When Mr Brown tried to speak to the UN, the Egyptian delegate stood up to announce that any discussion of shariah "will not happen" and "Islam will not be crucified in this council" – and Mr Brown was ordered to stop talking by the UN Commission on Human Rights, which is controlled by the Muslim state membership, and therefore any criticism of Islamic practices has therefore effectively been gagged…” seriously, when did we take this wrong turn on our path to a better society?
Aren’t we even willing to accommodate a dialogue? Wasn’t it democracy which was clearly established as, for lack of better options, a winner among social and economic systems? Hasn’t history proved that societies that have constantly gagged its free thinkers never got very far? Have we become so intolerant that we are not even willing to engage in healthy debates about what is right and what is wrong? Or is it just restricted to garnering TRPs for Barkha Dutt on ‘We the People’?
I don’t even want to write about the hullabaloo over Valentine’s, year after year. It is so disgusting to anyone who wishes to do what he/she wants to do in a free society that sometimes I wonder if being a part of it is even befitting. It is not the laws of the land that fail us, but the people who handle them, giving the violators an increasingly powerful voice and encouragement for, basically, gunda-giri.
Sometimes one feels so sad that right in front of the eyes, one can only helplessly watch a free society being gradually choked to death. The people who are best placed to do something about it are the ones who sit back and do nothing. Us, the armchair experts, the middle class elites, the beacons of the next generation India, the so called future leaders. We blog a bit, discuss it here or there, and end up going back to the cozy comfort of our existences, probably create another group on Facebook.
It saddens me to see that the society I will be leaving to the next generation will be worse off than the one I was handed over.
PS: The Independent article was reprinted in Statesman, last week. Our Islamic brethren staged protests in front of their office in Calcutta, disrupting lives and resorting to violence. The editors were put under arrest. ( Statesman Editor). It was never reported in the media, which has ample time and footage to devote to women being beaten and a filmstar’s dog being treated for cough (okay, the latter is an exaggeration, but I won’t be surprised if it is true :-) ). Thank you, modern society, for allowing me the opportunity to grow up as a part of you. Where would I be without you?
Johann Hari writing in The Independent
and Speech Impediments in The Economist
Now, it is not a development that has happened overnight, but it is unnerving to see how gradually, creeping like a shadow, the spectre of religious bigotry has firmly risen all over the world. Ordinarily I wouldn’t care, but it pains to think that the society I am growing up in is becoming more intolerant by the day. Twenty years back to this day, when The Satanic Verses was released, the Islamic world was up in arms, condemning the author to death. Although I was in no shape then to make a sense of what was happening around me, subsequent reading told me that the world of free-thinking people as a whole was appalled at such an obvious attempt to murder the right to freedom of thought. That year, the book was one of the finalists on Booker Prize. If it was today, as one of the articles mentions, this society of so called free thinkers would be gunning for the author’s head. I am surprised no one’s issued a Fatwa against Hari yet.
Since when did we embark on this retrograde path to the Dark Ages, the last time when freedom of speech and thought was curtailed to such severe extent? Today I see it rising slowly, in pockets of the world, and sadly I also see the rest of the world condoning it. It almost seems like either the world elites are not concerned, or they don’t have the guts to take a stand against it. I don’t remember hearing any of it so intensely back in school – so either my memory doesn’t serve me right, or something has changed in the way we have started dealing with such voices. Calls for ‘racism’, ‘prejudice against us’, ‘in the name of the religion’ were never so fashionable and powerful tools.
Zimbabwe, Turkey-Armenia, Arab World, Chechen-Ingushetiya-South Ossetia, Greeks-Cypriots, an increasingly-autocratic South America ( Bolivia, Venezuela), Swat …. the list is endless. Some of these developments are still evolving, and may not pan out that way, which is what we should hope.
It is justified to torture a blogger who argues for a reformed religion ( Egyptian blogger), but not okay to raise voices against it in an international audience, among the so-called world elite? Here’s another excerpt –
“…. The main objections have come from free speech campaigners such as Roy Brown of the International Humanist and Ethical Union, who has tried to raise topics like the stoning of women accused of adultery or child marriage.When Mr Brown tried to speak to the UN, the Egyptian delegate stood up to announce that any discussion of shariah "will not happen" and "Islam will not be crucified in this council" – and Mr Brown was ordered to stop talking by the UN Commission on Human Rights, which is controlled by the Muslim state membership, and therefore any criticism of Islamic practices has therefore effectively been gagged…” seriously, when did we take this wrong turn on our path to a better society?
Aren’t we even willing to accommodate a dialogue? Wasn’t it democracy which was clearly established as, for lack of better options, a winner among social and economic systems? Hasn’t history proved that societies that have constantly gagged its free thinkers never got very far? Have we become so intolerant that we are not even willing to engage in healthy debates about what is right and what is wrong? Or is it just restricted to garnering TRPs for Barkha Dutt on ‘We the People’?
I don’t even want to write about the hullabaloo over Valentine’s, year after year. It is so disgusting to anyone who wishes to do what he/she wants to do in a free society that sometimes I wonder if being a part of it is even befitting. It is not the laws of the land that fail us, but the people who handle them, giving the violators an increasingly powerful voice and encouragement for, basically, gunda-giri.
Sometimes one feels so sad that right in front of the eyes, one can only helplessly watch a free society being gradually choked to death. The people who are best placed to do something about it are the ones who sit back and do nothing. Us, the armchair experts, the middle class elites, the beacons of the next generation India, the so called future leaders. We blog a bit, discuss it here or there, and end up going back to the cozy comfort of our existences, probably create another group on Facebook.
It saddens me to see that the society I will be leaving to the next generation will be worse off than the one I was handed over.
PS: The Independent article was reprinted in Statesman, last week. Our Islamic brethren staged protests in front of their office in Calcutta, disrupting lives and resorting to violence. The editors were put under arrest. ( Statesman Editor). It was never reported in the media, which has ample time and footage to devote to women being beaten and a filmstar’s dog being treated for cough (okay, the latter is an exaggeration, but I won’t be surprised if it is true :-) ). Thank you, modern society, for allowing me the opportunity to grow up as a part of you. Where would I be without you?
posted by Anshuman at 3:04 PM
1 comments
