All of a sudden everyone is anti-national

I have not seen so many anti-nationals in my lifetime.  It’s like raining traitors this season in India.  All of a sudden, there are traitors and anti-nationals everywhere in this country.  Like how the enemies of the State suddenly came onto the scene from within in various countries of Europe in early 1900s, like in Germany, and in Italy, there are enemies of India everywhere from within India.  These enemies of India come in the form and shape of protesting Dalit students in university campus, they come in the form of ordinary farm worker who ate beef, and they come in the form of journalists and editors. 

Sedition cases, those used by the British Empire to incarcerate the freedom fighters of India, are springing up everywhere like it’s the Spring Revolution of Tunisia.  This country is geared for witch-hunting.  All of a sudden each of us is asked to prove our patriotism.  To do that, we have to chant a devout slogan for a Goddess.  Otherwise we are traitors who will sent to Pakistan. 

And how do these traitors look? They look just like you, the ordinary people, they are your nice neighbors.  Oh! Don’t be fooled! They are all traitors, they are all anti-nationals, as the Hindutva leaders tell you.  They come in the form of liberals, the seculars, the communists, the socialists, the SCs, the STs, the OBCs, the Muslims, and the Christians. They come in the form of students, the teachers, the professors, the journalists, the editors, the book writers, and the movie makers.   They are everywhere.  They are the enemies within.  And amidst all these anti-nationals, there is only one patriot.  He wears a Khakhi uniform or wears a tilak. And he owes his allegiance to Hindutva ideology.

And there is only one prescribed and sanctioned expression of love for your country.  You have to chant ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’.  Anything less, you are traitor.  ‘Jai Hind’ won’t do.  ‘Hindustan Zindabad’ won’t do.

Bharat Mata Ki Jai – Does it have religious connotation?

On the controversy surrounding Asaduddin Owaisi’s refusal to chant ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’, Bharka Dutt of NDTV asks Owaisi, ‘Why would you say NO to a slogan which does not have a religious connotation - that simply describes the country to be a motherland?’

When I Google Searched ‘Bharath Mata’ in Images, this is what I get.  These are the first few results.

Why I won’t say ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’?

Another controversy is now brewing across the country.  Asaduddin Owaisi, MP from Hyderabad, said that he won’t say ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’. He insisted that he won’t chant this slogan even if someone puts a sword on his neck.  

Owaisi says he is a patriot, but not a nationalist (the way RSS defines).  Mr. Rakesh Sinha, the other commentator, says that a person who doesn’t say, ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ cannot love his country.  Whereas Owaisi asks, do you have a problem if we say, ‘Hindustan Zindabad'? [He later said, 'Jai Hind' on TV]

This raises fundamental questions about how we view our country.  What is India to each of us?

Video: Anupam Kher Vs Asok Ganguly - The Essential Truth

Anupam Kher Vs Asok Ganguly - The Essential Truth

Should we not protest against Supreme Court Decisions?

During the course of JNU row many have contended in TV debates and online discussions that ordinary people in India do not have a right to protest a Supreme Court Decision.   One anchor even asked a JNU student leader, ‘Do you think you know more than the Supreme Court judges that you could protest their decision?’

Most Indians tend to think that a protest against Supreme Court decision should not be allowed.  However, in most mature democracies, including India, people have protested against Supreme Court decisions.   There are many examples.  But here I describe a notable one.

When Abraham Lincoln was the President, the US Government passed 13^th, 14^th, and 15^th Amendments to US Constitution to emancipate Black people in that country, giving them equal rights.  For about twenty years they enjoyed this freedom as equal citizens.  However, a Supreme Court Decision (Plessy v. Ferguson 1896) reversed most of these amendments thereby creating Jim Crow laws that implemented ‘separate but equal’ doctrine.  Blacks were segregated, lynched, and denied voting rights.  Basically, the Black man was not treated as equal citizen.

It took major protests of 1950s and 1960s to reverse the Supreme Court decision of 1896.  People came out in thousands to protest these laws.  Martin Luther King is one of the leaders of this Civil Rights Movement.

Is this ‘freedom of speech’?

Smrita Irani, Minister for HRD, in her speech in Lok Sabha, while referring to a pamphlet on Mahishasur Martyrdom Day that described Goddess Durga as ‘sex worker’, asks, ‘Is this freedom of speech?’

She then asks, ‘What is this depraved mentality?’

She believes that a group which celebrates Mahishasur, and describes Goddess Durga as ‘sex worker’ is mentally depraved and she believes such a group should NOT be allowed to express their opinion.  She questions everyone else who is supporting JNU students:  ‘Freedom of speech, ladies and gentleman. Who wants to have this discussion…? I want to know.’

This is where Hindutva gets it wrong.  Not only do they do not understand the concept of India, they fail quite miserably when they try to define Hinduism for all of us.  Each time they try to bring a new section of Hindus into their fold enforcing conformance in their definition of Hinduism, they alienate some other section of Hindus.

Smriti Irani is bang on in reflecting the true prejudices of Hindutva proponents when she accuses the group identities that have distributed the pamphlets, in her own words, “SC, ST and minority” students of JNU.   Isn’t this the same allegation levelled against Hindutva groups? That they are against the interests of SC, ST and minorities in this country?

Today I woke up in the land of Taliban

You know there is something grossly wrong with a nation when it books a man on ‘sedition’ for demanding ‘freedom from casteism’, and books another man for ‘defacement of property’ for offering ‘reward to kill a real person’.

Today I woke up in the land of Taliban – the fear that I expressed many times over the last many years.  ‘Look, I said so!’ just doesn’t cut it anymore.

The fears that I expressed about this nation are slowly turning out to be true. 

Talibanization of this country is now picking up pace.   Nationalism is hijacked by one group, one ideology, who now portray every other group, and every other ideology as ‘anti-national’.

Long ago, I wrote (in 2007):

First they came for…

First they came for the Sikhs, and I didn’t speak up,

because I wasn’t a Sikh.

Then they came for the Muslims, and I didn’t speak up,

because I wasn’t a Muslim.

Then they came for the Christians, and I didn’t speak up,

because I wasn’t a Christian.

Then they came for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up,

because I wasn’t a Communist.

Then they came for the Liberal Hindus, and I didn’t speak up,

because I was a conservative Hindu.

Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left

to speak up for me.

Why I am a traitor?

I eat beef

Therefore, I should be sent to Pakistan, but not any other beef-eating country such as England, USA, or Japan.

I criticized death sentence to Afzal Guru

Therefore, I am a supporter of terrorism.

I supported freedom of speech to the JNU students.

I could be charged with sedition.

I believe that India is not just for Hindus but home to many others.

I could be labelled as anti-nationalist.

I don’t think my country is always right just because I happen to be born in it.

I could be labelled as unpatriotic.

JNU Student Leader arrested on Sedition

Right now, as I write this, India is under a great threat.  India’s unity as a nation is under attack.  An enemy has made his intentions clear - he wants to break up India into tiny pieces.  He has the wherewithal to take away our freedoms, strip us of our institutions, and then break up this nation.  And we are all reeling under the fear.  What we believed in all these years - that this country shall always stay united - is all of a sudden put at risk. 

The enemy comes in the form of ordinary students of JNU campus in New Delhi.  What they said in their college grounds, their threats to break this nation into tiny little pieces, has made this entire country paranoid, and India has taken the necessary precaution to stop them in their tracks.  It has used the same law that the British used to incarcerate Gandhi and other national leaders during Independence Movement.  On the charges of sedition, the student union leader of JNU is arrested.

Social media is buzz with support for the threatened nation.  They believe that this nation has done the right thing putting this evil incarnate in the jail for his threats.

What is my opinion on this issue?

Afzal Guru Hanged II: Issues

[This follows from Should we celebrate, and Court ruling.]

Some people have asked me why I am bothered by the hanging of Afzal Guru.   In fact, was it not long overdue, they ask? Because it has been nearly seven years since the Supreme Court verdict gave the death sentence.  Why should there be an objection when the law of the land is actually enforced?

Afzal Guru was convicted for his involvement in the attack on Indian Parliament that took place in 2001 which was widely telecasted by all TV channels in India.  He was sentenced to death by Supreme Court in 2006, and he was hanged on 09 February 2013.  When the news came out that he was hanged in a ‘secret’ operation, many Indians celebrated the event, the way they had earlier celebrated the hanging of Ajmal Kasab, the sole surviving Pakistani terrorist who attacked the city of Mumbai killing many innocent people, an attack which was also widely telecasted by all TV channels, including many international channels. 

Afzal Guru hanged: Should we celebrate?

Throughout human history, capital punishment was used as a tool to punish the criminals, and as a deterrent, for crimes ranging from treason to murder, from religious crimes to rape, adultery, etc.  

Various methods were used to kill the convicted.  Some of these methods are:  decapitation (removing the head with an axe or sword), disembowelment (cutting the abdomen to remove the intestine), impalement (piercing a person using pole through length of the body), execution by burning (tying the person to a stake and burning till death), dismemberment (killing a person by pulling out legs and hands), crushing (by placing stones or using elephants), sawing (hanging the person upside down and then sawing the person starting at the groin), crucifixion (person is nailed to a wooden cross and left to die), boiling to death (by immersing in boiling oil or water), flaying (death by removing the skin of the body), slow slicing (removing parts of the body slowly with a knife), or blowing from a gun (a head blown from cannon).

Right to Offend - Poster

Right to Offend

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Facebook message on Bal Thackery

Yesterday, a 21-year old girl Shaheen Dhada, who put a message on her Face book ‘questioning the total shutdown’ of Mumbai city for Bal Thackeray’s funeral, and her friend Renu who ‘liked’ the message were arrested by the Maharashtra police.   The alleged message she posted was:

Everyday thousands of people die but still the world moves on.  Due to one political leader’s death, a natural death, everyone just goes bonkers.  They should know we are resilient by force not by choice.  When was the last time anyone showed some respect for Shahid Bhagat Singh, Azad or Sukhdeo.   Respect is earned, not given and definitely not forced… Today Mumbai shuts down due to fear, not respect.

The police arrested them under IPC Section 505 (2) which reads as:

Statements creating or promoting enmity, hatred or ill- will between classes

- shall be punished with imprisonment which may extend to three years, or with fine, or with both.

Of course, a mob of Shiv Sainiks then vandalized the girl’s uncle’s orthopedic hospital. 

Why it is easy to molest a woman in India?

In the last few months, we have seen hundreds of incidents where a woman in India was molested, teased, sexually harassed, and stripped in public, sometimes in the view of cameras and bystanders.  One woman was thrown out of a moving train, another was attacked by acid, and others were physically molested.  

One of the immediate reactions from the media is that it is a 'law and order' problem. What they mean is that we don’t give strong punishment to the offenders, that the law is vague on these offences, or that the police officers are not very keen on registering the cases or following up on the case.  

I, on the other hand, don’t think 'law and order' is the main problem.  While 'law and order' is  one of the problems, it is not the primary one.  There are few countries, like Saudi Arabia, where the law is extremely strict, so much so that a convicted thief’s hand may be cut, and yet there is rampant mistreatment and abuse of women in that country. 

Also, I tend to think that most of these offenders, in countries like India, take a high moral ground because many people tend to sympathize with the offenders.  In the recent past, many administrative officers, police officers, organization heads and elected political leaders have all blamed the woman when such harassments happened.  They blamed the woman for inviting the man to molest her by dressing provocatively. 

Bengal leads India into abyss

The report card is out.  Mamata Banerjee, the new love of Bengalis worldwide, is far more Left than the Left.   Mamata Banerjee is not only more Left, she is far less democratic than the communists of India.  She is autocratic, averse to criticism, and does not tolerate dissent.  It is unfortunate that Bengalis are now thrown from frying pan into fire.  But it is not just Bengalis who should be worried.  In fact, whole of India should be concerned.

What happens in Bengal could happen to India.   Bengal is the place where Great Britain installed their first capital city to create the Indian Empire.  Bengalis then led India into our own version of enlightenment, if there is one.   When most of us in the hinterland lands of India were still dwelling in forests, Bengalis were discussing Aristotle and Socrates.  The sun first shone in Bengal and then over the rest of India, literally and figuratively.  Bengalis were one of the forerunners of Indian National Movement contributing many great men and women to the cause.  During the 19^th century, Bengal’s stars shone the brightest in the sky.  It produced many authors,  artists, and scientists.  Rabindranath Tagore won Asia’s first Nobel Prize. 

M F Husain: Nude Saraswati

Many modern Hindus who have never seen old temples or never been to a museum identify with only one version of Saraswati - a sari-clad and jewelry-decked, modest and serene lady, who resembles more of a conservative Indian male chauvinist’s idea of a virtuous woman.

I do not know exactly when such a version has come to prominence, but it is clear that as soon as the pictures of gods started entering ordinary family man’s homes, the deity started to become conservative.  By the time Ravi Verma painted his Saraswati, it looks like such modesty was already an attribute of a Hindu Goddess.

Understanding why M F Husain might have painted Nude Hindu Gods

Many people ask this question:

Why did M F Husain NOT paint Muslim icons in nude? Why did he paint only Hindu gods in nude?

To start with, I believe that answering such a question is a foolish exercise. Artists do lot of things which ordinary people cannot comprehend or understand.  Picasso and Dali did lot of bizarre things.  It is a pointless exercise to try to understand the motives of an artist or a poet.  But since M F Husain’s paintings of nude Hindu goddesses has allegedly ‘hurt’ so many Hindus in India and abroad, we might as well waste some time to understand why he might have painted Hindu goddesses in nude, but not Muslim figures in nude.

Before you read this further, let me make it clear that no explanation that I provide here would give the actual reasons why he painted Hindu gods in nude, and this exercise is only an attempt to make those Hindus understand who are otherwise quite rational and liberal in outlook but have the same nagging question as the one above.

Scrap the Insane Laws, Immediately

Now that MF Husain died in exile, some Hindus are breathing a sigh of relief.  When he was alive, Husain was a pain in the neck, an irritant, whose existence made Hindus uncomfortable; because it made them face some awkward truths which, according to them, were best avoided. 

Is Hinduism a great religion? These Hindus tout, ‘yes, it is’.  Then how come it is threatened by a puny artist and his art?  Is Hinduism tolerant and liberal? These Hindus say, ‘yes it is’.  Then how come some nude pictures of their goddesses by a contemporary artist become such a big problem when thousands of temples in India blatantly depict gods and goddesses in explicit nudity, some of them positioning these gods in perversely sexual acts?

Now that MF Husain is dead and gone, these Hindus conveniently excuse themselves from answering these uncomfortable questions.  Many Hindus who hounded Husain when he was alive are now ready to make amends by calling him a great artist.  They want to let bygones be bygones.  They want to see this as a ‘closed chapter’.

That’s where I find this whole ‘lets-forget-this-and-move-on’ charade dangerous.  I believe that NOW is the right time to face those awkward truths and ask uncomfortable questions because they have far-reaching consequences on how we are going to define this supposedly free nation.   Few years from now if we have done some good parenting, another Husain will be born in India who will do something more outrageous by taking a position which will make us even more uncomfortable.  What will India do then?  Will it hang him, or force him into exile?

MF Husain Dies: Intolerance Wins, India Loses

A nation that calls itself free should hang its head in shame if it cannot be home to people who harbor and express unpopular ideas and opinions, however controversial or egregious those opinions are.  MF Husain, a famous artist born in India, died in exile in London as a Qatari citizen.  Hounded and targeted by the new generation of Indian Hindus who could not fathom why we are a proud nation, MF Husain left his home country never to return again. 

A basic requirement of a free nation is that it should allow expression of conflicting and dissenting ideas. And those who express those ideas should be protected from persecution, even when the targets are sacred symbols of majority or minority groups.  A nation can be considered to be free only when it allows its strongest dissenters and critics to live within enjoying the freedom like any other.  A country like United States shall remain a great free nation as long as Noam Chomsky and Michael Moore continue living there without fear of persecution.  But even the most free of the nations succumb to the pressures of the majority and turn tyrannical. 

History is fraught with victories of tyrannical intolerance where individuals were targeted for an expression that did not conform to the mores and standards of the majority.   Galileo Galilei was house arrested, and was asked to shut up and renounce his belief in the Copernican Solar System, just because the majority Christians led by the Vatican found his ideas disagreeable.  He escaped being burnt at stake by a whisker. 

Freedom from persecution

A constitutional right can be loosely defined as a freedom guaranteed by the state allowing an individual to do certain things without fear of persecution, without getting harassed or obstructed, either from the state, a group or another individuals.  One commenter on my blog writes:

…while it is right for Ms Roy to question the status of J&K in Indian union, the court is also right in allowing FIR to be lodged…it is correct to have a court hearing on it and matter be decided in a non-emotive atmosphere.

In the case of MF Husain’s episode, the High Court ruling clearly exonerated MF Husain of any wrongdoing and let him go free.  However, that did not stop various groups to continuously lodge complaints against the artists, or stop many police stations from issuing warrants for his arrest.  Basically, Indians kicked out MF Husain by hounding him with thousands of cases, generating hundreds of arrest warrants against him, depriving him of his freedoms.    He could have fought each case meticulously one after another, but then he would have wasted lot of his time and money, and ended up not doing what he wants to do – which is to paint. 

A freedom sanctioned by the state of India also includes freedom from such frivolous and unnecessary prosecution, from such arrest warrants in each and every Indian city, and from related court summons.   So that we don’t have to negotiate each freedom in a court of law, the Indian Constitution makes certain freedoms non-negotiable and gives them as rights to its citizens, in order to protect these citizens from harassment of the state or other groups or other individuals, so that these citizens can go ahead and live a free life without getting hindered and obstructed by other people.