Saturday, January 05, 2013

Sense and sensitivity

   The Delhi rape case happened and later, we witnessed the public up in arms against the system but isn't this the same Delhi public that offered her no help while the victim and her partner lay mauled and bleeding on the street in the cold of the night. The survivor says that around 25 minutes passed with passersby pausing and staring but none helping.

 In the continuing string of farces that we've seen of late, politicians too are spewing out the lava inside their dirty mind. It’s nothing new, they have an agenda and whenever they get a chance, they start propaganda.

I quote from The Hindu   
“RSS  chief Mohan Bhagwat has said rapes are mainly prevalent in urban India due to western influence and that such crimes do not happen in Bharat — rural areas.”  

  Although they do occur there, "rape" is not a product of the West. Rapists are a product of the high-headedness of superiority (whether of gender, race or caste) mixed with the intensity and insensitivity of testosterone and the light-headedness of the confidence that they'll get away with it. 

Additionally it’s a tool used by men of one group/clan to instill fear in the mind of those belonging to another group/clan and in that form it is quite common in India. Here extremists rampantly rape and kill during pogroms and even our defense forces houses the tormentors. 

  • http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/crpf-jawan-arrested-for-raping-physically-challenged-woman-313219
  • http://www.firstpost.com/india/were-rapes-by-army-men-enquired-into-by-vk-singh-570692.html
  • http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-01-03/gurgaon/36129751_1_army-men-army-personnel-minors

I quote another article from the Indian Express 
“Women will be punished like Sita's 'haran' by Ravan if they cross 'maryada' (moral) limits: BJP's Kailash Vijayvargiya quotes Ramayana, refuses to apologise.”
The Taliban too used their religious text to usurp power and govern, do we want to become like that? If he was so pressed to use religion in his speech, the minister could’ve used some other passage from Ramayana to deal with the current scenario in a somber and sensible manner. Such acts ultimately end up making fun of religion. We have to evolve and interpret religious text to progress, not retrograde. Unfortunately, many in our country are turning more misaligned and hardened to archaic interpretations that are not just oppressive, they are downright selfish and will definitely bomb us into a dark age.

   I feel odd to live in place that is so condescending of its own people based on a race, color, caste, creed, gender, you name it, we have it rampantly in the open and many of the perpetrators stand proud of their acts.  I remember from some lines of a Hindi poem I read in school that translated as "take from the past only the things that can be used now and leave the rest".  This is applicable to all religions and cultures of the world. I personally would like to add that take only parts that will lead to equality and happiness of all, not just things for selfish gains, I’m sure morality will ensue in doing so. 

  I might have all the love and respect for  the great saint and poet Tulsidas but I will not shower praises on him for framing a quote like ""Dhol, gawar, sudra, pashu, nari sakal tadan ke adhikari" (Translated as: Drums, illiterate, lower castes, animals, and women deserve a beating to straighten up and get their act together).  Tulsidas lived in a different world, we live in different one.

  I’ve grown cynical of the people around me, even of ones I call my own. I see brainwashing, manipulations happening all around me. I feel gnawed, impaled by the ones near me, the naïve and the gullible becoming rebels under the influence of the clever sweet talkers and insinuators. We do it the open as well as in our own homes. We use all in our means, including religious text  to feed our greed, gain favor and to oppress. What we really ought to be doing is to use it for a general good of everyone. We need to change become a little less selfish and open our eyes to the pain of others around us. 

I leave you with this image of a website that published a certain news. Take a look at the whole page and think of what a paradox it is to be publishing this news with such links to other saucy news. We worship money, we worship sleaze and we will never acknowledge it with our lips. You know what the media give? They give what the people want. So apparently we Indians want to watch lose women along side ranting about victims of rape and parading for their attackers to be hacked!! ...hmmm! Kinda Paradoxical indeed!