Terrorism has the pervasive capacity to destroy everything and anything. But who will believe that the most dangerous threat faced by humanity in 21st century banks totally on the philosophy of destruction? Terrorism is a philosophy which uses terror as a weapon to spread the political, social and religious ideology of its propagators.
Terrorism is a multi layered political ideology. Its origin as suggested by many scholars, does not lie only in the revivalist Islamic movement of the west Asia and middle east .Yes the revivalist tendency in the Islamic society is much greater than any other religious realm. But how and when this revivalist movement adopted terrorism as its weapon, is a point which must be taken into consideration when we talk about terrorism.
Every body talks about Islamic revolution in Iran in 70s, as the turning point in the Islamic revivalist movement. But Iran’s Islamic revolution did not perpetuate terrorism in the way as it was done by those very people, who are now said to be the victims of terrorism. lets start with India.
In the case of India we often site the external support, as the main reason behind the terrorism. But is not true, that by neglecting the north eastern states, and not finding the ways to assimilate north eastern clture,langauage, and tradition in our main stream society we have, ourselves contributed in the rise of insurgency and terrorism among north eastern ethnic groups. We are in some ways, for sure, own some responsibility for, making them hostile to our unitary political system.can anybody believe that people of a state ,the state,which was called the paradise on earth,which was a flourishing tourist destination, started adhering to the philosophy of terrorism only because some other person told them to do so.
The reason, for rise of Tamil terrorism, or the Chechnya terrorism, or Hamas,or Kashmir militancy, should be traced somewhere, into the mistakes of the ruling establishment,and in their majoritarian policies not only in, as suggested by many , religion or the outside support.
In many parts of the globe terrorism was used as a weapon by governments to score some points over their rivals.Who will deny that Indira Gandhi tacitly supported terror outfits in Punjab to fulfill her political aspiration and who can deny that Taliban was promoted and armed by USA itself to defeat Russian plans in Afghanistan and do someone need any better example than Pakistan,which is being targeted by those very terrorists who were armed by Pakistan to wage an unending war against India.
And now to the point I raised in the start of my comment. Do you believe that an omni present phenomenon of terrorism is based only on the philosophy of destruction????? I think not. Terrorism like any other ideology, promises to its followers and its sympathizers, a society to be built on the basis of an ideology. It may be the Islamic ideology, or any other ideology or dream, as for example-the dream of creation of
Gorkahland or Bodo land ,or independence of Northern Ireland or the creation of separate BASQ state,or redistribution of land among landless people,as promised by naxalites..
To fight a threat, it is necessary to know it better , to know it in totality. and to know something better it is necessary to approach an issue without any prejudice.today terrorism has grown to acquire ominous preposition for world humanity.what we need today is a coordinated and well planned strategy,to fight against this menace.
Any suggestion put forward by any country should be examined for the ulterior motives it can have behind it. Yes the global war against terrorism ,waged mainly against the Taliban in Afganistan had the moral support of many nation including India, but can we say it for sure,that the USA had no ulterior motive behind this war of terror. In any war the main sufferers are the common civilians. As the statistics stand now the death toll of civilians in Afghanistan is much greater than the total fatality in 9/11 terror strike. What me must take in our mind that no one has to right to claim the lives of ordinary civilians in the name of war on terror
It must be taken into our mind that those people who are being drawn into the act of terrorism are also a part of humanity.any strategy to fight against terrorism must be aimed at tackling terrorism as a whole.we must realize that by eliminating terrorists we are never going to address the problem of terrorism. we must analyze and and address those social,cultural.political and religious issues ,which help in the spread of terrorism.
Yes, world is suffering from the threat of international terrorism as never before.and India in particular is the main victim of terrorism. But our response to terrorism should be more comprehensive, and measured one. The approach should not cover only the elimination of terrorists but countering the idea of terrorism.the response should be based on the construction of faith,goodwill and opportunity.
When I think about terrorism I always think about Gandhian approach towards violence.Gandhi said that violence cannot be countered by violence, It must be countered with non -violence,the force of our innerself. The strength of the inner self lies in appreciating not only our strengths but also our mistakes and weakness. I believe the world will adopt a new anti terrorism strategy which will factor in the rights of every body,and the Gandhian philosophy of non violence.
5 April 2009
terrorism and the global response
Terrorism has the pervasive capacity to destroy everything and anything. But who will believe that the most dangerous threat faced by humanity in 21st century banks totally on the philosophy of destruction? Terrorism is a philosophy which uses terror as a weapon to spread the political, social and religious ideology of its propagators.
Terrorism is a multi layered political ideology. Its origin as suggested by many scholars, does not lie only in the revivalist Islamic movement of the west Asia and middle east .Yes the revivalist tendency in the Islamic society is much greater than any other religious realm. But how and when this revivalist movement adopted terrorism as its weapon, is a point which must be taken into consideration when we talk about terrorism.
Every body talks about Islamic revolution in Iran in 70s, as the turning point in the Islamic revivalist movement. But Iran’s Islamic revolution did not perpetuate terrorism in the way as it was done by those very people, who are now said to be the victims of terrorism. lets start with India.
In the case of India we often site the external support, as the main reason behind the terrorism. But is not true, that by neglecting the north eastern states, and not finding the ways to assimilate north eastern clture,langauage, and tradition in our main stream society we have, ourselves contributed in the rise of insurgency and terrorism among north eastern ethnic groups. We are in some ways, for sure, own some responsibility for, making them hostile to our unitary political system.can anybody believe that people of a state ,the state,which was called the paradise on earth,which was a flourishing tourist destination, started adhering to the philosophy of terrorism only because some other person told them to do so.
The reason, for rise of Tamil terrorism, or the Chechnya terrorism, or Hamas,or Kashmir militancy, should be traced somewhere, into the mistakes of the ruling establishment,and in their majoritarian policies not only in, as suggested by many , religion or the outside support.
In many parts of the globe terrorism was used as a weapon by governments to score some points over their rivals.Who will deny that Indira Gandhi tacitly supported terror outfits in Punjab to fulfill her political aspiration and who can deny that Taliban was promoted and armed by USA itself to defeat Russian plans in Afghanistan and do someone need any better example than Pakistan,which is being targeted by those very terrorists who were armed by Pakistan to wage an unending war against India.
And now to the point I raised in the start of my comment. Do you believe that an omni present phenomenon of terrorism is based only on the philosophy of destruction????? I think not. Terrorism like any other ideology, promises to its followers and its sympathizers, a society to be built on the basis of an ideology. It may be the Islamic ideology, or any other ideology or dream, as for example-the dream of creation of
Gorkahland or Bodo land ,or independence of Northern Ireland or the creation of separate BASQ state,or redistribution of land among landless people,as promised by naxalites..
To fight a threat, it is necessary to know it better , to know it in totality. and to know something better it is necessary to approach an issue without any prejudice.today terrorism has grown to acquire ominous preposition for world humanity.what we need today is a coordinated and well planned strategy,to fight against this menace.
Any suggestion put forward by any country should be examined for the ulterior motives it can have behind it. Yes the global war against terrorism ,waged mainly against the Taliban in Afganistan had the moral support of many nation including India, but can we say it for sure,that the USA had no ulterior motive behind this war of terror. In any war the main sufferers are the common civilians. As the statistics stand now the death toll of civilians in Afghanistan is much greater than the total fatality in 9/11 terror strike. What me must take in our mind that no one has to right to claim the lives of ordinary civilians in the name of war on terror
It must be taken into our mind that those people who are being drawn into the act of terrorism are also a part of humanity.any strategy to fight against terrorism must be aimed at tackling terrorism as a whole.we must realize that by eliminating terrorists we are never going to address the problem of terrorism. we must analyze and and address those social,cultural.political and religious issues ,which help in the spread of terrorism.
Yes, world is suffering from the threat of international terrorism as never before.and India in particular is the main victim of terrorism. But our response to terrorism should be more comprehensive, and measured one. The approach should not cover only the elimination of terrorists but countering the idea of terrorism.the response should be based on the construction of faith,goodwill and opportunity.
When I think about terrorism I always think about Gandhian approach towards violence.Gandhi said that violence cannot be countered by violence, It must be countered with non -violence,the force of our innerself. The strength of the inner self lies in appreciating not only our strengths but also our mistakes and weakness. I believe the world will adopt a new anti terrorism strategy which will factor in the rights of every body,and the Gandhian philosophy of non violence.
29 March 2009
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE,concluding part.
It is this second India, which is depicted as the central theme in not only SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, but also in this years Booker Award winning novel THE WHITE TIGER. So, is there finally some sense of connection with the India ,which is lagging behind and and trying to survive the onslaught of the prosperous India?
Let us talk about these artistic creations first. What I sincerly feel is , that ,both these creations should be viewed mainly as a piece of art.they are not meant to be viewed as surveys. To demand authenticity from an art form is like demanding electricity from an water storage tank. But for few reasons I expected some authenticity from these creations.To be true I must say that Adiga’s novel disappointed me completely on this front.The main protagonist Munna’s tale is a commentary on India.But It is not Munna’s tale.It is Adiga who speaks on his behalf. What Adiga says and describes through Munna's storiy ,is not,what he ,himself has seen or felt, but only what he thinks and perceives, others should feel in any given circumstances. And here he has failed very miserably.
Every individual irrespective of his class or caste has his own share of joy,happiness and hope.Any novel must see and depict those joys and emotions .This makes the novel authentic.The White Tiger not only lacks authenticity it also lacks the grip over human emotions .it has just been reduced to a commentary, which is very sadly, one sided and tourist eyed. it sees darkness but shuts its eyes to light.
In comparison, Slumdog Millionaire scores some points over White Tiger. it is not lost compeletely in the murkier aspects of life.It inspires hope. It has some very visible shades of real India.but ,still the question of authenticity haunts it too. The film is basically a fairytale , an impossible story of triumph of hope. contrary to popular beliefs,It is neither a story of indian slums,nor is it based on the lives of slumdwellers.Slumdog Millionaire lacks sympathy with the people of slums.the scene in which the boy,Salim emerges from an oozing latrine is aimed at generating sensation rather than empathy with the slum lives.
to bill slumdog a poverty porn is not fair. Slumdog is not a poverty porn.In India poverty is a reality,which must be faced head on,and any attempt of exposing the matrix of poverty should be welcomed.But sadly, in Slumdog Millionare,poverty is no problem.For every slum dweller poverty leads to work,whichever work they opt.It may be car washing to stealing to robbery.But this is not the case with Slumdog Millionaire.There is not a single turn in story which is the result of poverty. basically what we admire about slumdog millionaire is not related with the story itself but the technique of story telling.
So why so much euphoria over the oscar to slumdog millionaire?isn’t it true that if the same film would not have won the Oscars ,we won’t have given much attention to it..In recent years we had some very soul touching films made in India, like , HAZARON KHWHAISHEN AISI , WATER ,DOR, SWADESH,THE WEDNESDAY,or AAMIR but these film went passed us, almost unnoticed. In fact in the case of Slumdog Millionaire,we are not stuck by the concept of the film but by the international awards it haswon.
The euphoria generated by this film is understandable.an Oscar has always been an elusive dream for many Indians.Winning no Oscars may be due to many reasons.It may be due to the fact that we are still not grown up to the standard of the west,or it may be due to our emphasis on commercial cinema,but it may also be due to our colonial history.or it may even be due to the perceived inferiority of Indian cinema in the minds of western world.
This theory may be applied to understand the fact ,that in almost, last one hundred years no Indian author (those who write in regional languages),have been able to win any big international award. Does it mean that the local Indian literature is substandard and second class.many of you, unfortunately believe,it to be true. If any of yoy would have read, KITNE PAKISTAN by Kamleshwar,or KALIKATHA VIA BIPASS, by. Alka Saragwi or DEEWAR ME KHIDKI REHTI THI by Vinod Kumar Shukla or LEKIN DARWAJA by Pankaj Bishta,or RAAG DARBARI by Shrilal Shukla,or novels by Mahashweta Devi, or Indira Goswami,and those innumerable intense tales of human emotions and plight ,written in our native languages,then only you could understand the truth behind the advertised idea of inferiority of Indian language and literature. If only you would have read RAMCHARIT MANAS, or PADMAVAT, then only you could have resisted the label of “below standard”, pasted on our language and literature.
But being a former colony we have grown in such a way that we always yearn for international recognition.in fact we have become a glory starved nation.the irony is that an international award can even prompt us to celebrate our own poverty.but we ourselves keep on neglecting our own rich heritage.
Perhaps ,one day when people,from the other side of the globe will recognise our own language, our own literature,our art and architecture,our cultre, then only we shall be able to understand the importance of it. till then, it is OK with Arundahti Roys,Arvind Adigas , Mcburgers,Pizzas ,Zazz,. Pop Music, belly dance and ..............keep waiting for outside recognition.
24 March 2009
SLUMDOG MILLIOINAIRE(PART 2,OF 3 PART SERIES)
It is really shocking that we rarely celebrated for genuine reasons. I believe it will be disturbing you now.So,why not do some soul searching??
Isn't it true that we have become a country ,going almost medalless in Olympics for years,a country producing rather no noble laureates,(Amartya sen, and Mother Terressa being the exceptions,but do they owe their noble to India???),a country winning no Oscar awards in decades,A country standing way behind the developed countries, in terms of per capita income,literacy,life expectancy,child mortality,disease iradication...etc... and finally to acountry which is suffering from the disease of mass amnesia.
why has this situation arisen ?? I believe its answer lies somewhere in our colonial history. During British rule over India,a propaganda was always propagated that Indians are deprived of any great cultural history and that a good shelf of books of Britain will weigh heavier than all the literature India and the Arabian world has,and whatever is good and great is from west. Indians are just a bunch of snake and monkey charmers. We need not to say that this propaganda could not hold ground.Our national leaders and reformers opposed any such idea of British supremacy with recreating our own sense of history.
Since independence this sense of history,the pride we can take from our own cultural heritage, slowly but steadily started evaporating. this was due to deliberate neglect of our own culture,language and history. Our social and political reformers had always stressed on modernization of society, rather than on westernization.but sadly enough we opted for westernization and even on englishization. English was promoted on the pretext of making use of it as our national and global language.We believed that English opens the doors of civilization,and can help average middle class indian in getting decent jobs. So english was promoted as progressive language,and regional languages,specially hindi, as backward language. British rulers attached language with knowledge and propagated the idea that knowledge is possible only in their language.This was just another theory put forward by an imperialist nation to tighten its command on its colonies..The idea being that once the idea of British supremacy is established in the minds of people ,it will be possible to extend the British rule for ever.
It is sad but true that even after our independence we followed, what the much hated Macaulay’s minute prescribed for us way back in 1835..It is always said that during British rule such was the policy of appointment and promotion in government services that very few native people could reach to higher posts.today's case is no different.if u have to be at the top you need to learn English.Regional languages will be of no use to you.The shortcut to success passes through the island of English.It is not just about getting jobs.even in the social hierarchy English speaking persons enjoy more respect and recognition. For the elites of the society indigenous art,language and culture has become a forgotten and forbidden territory.
It was due to this policy of neglect of our language,our history,our culture that the indian state failed to reduce the inequality between the previlaged and underprevilaged.it was nothing but a cruel joke with millions of people to ask them to learn english and adopt a western way of life,to move up, in the ladder of prosperity.amid the rhetoric of welfare state the indian poor who lacked the resource to equip itself with modern day education, kept getting marginalized and overlooked.this callous neglect of masses for decades widened the chasm between the rich and the poor,the previlaged and undeprevilaged.the neo-liberal pursuit of indian state has only helped in widening this chasm further.At the one side of the chasm is a vibrant, prosperous,and simmering India,and on the other side lies the neglected India,langushing in abject poverty.
For many it may look interesting that this year's two major creative pieces,which has shifted world's focus on India, deals with the phenomena of two India within an India.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)