The Brave Pedestrian

I had this conversation with a Hindu friend who wanted every Indian child and adult to compulsorily say, "Bharat Mata Ki Jai". "If they don't say it, then it means they are unpatriotic, and they don't love India. Anybody who doesn't love India should get out and go to Pakistan or wherever," she said. And so we had an argument, which went like this: I: For Sunni Muslims, bowing before or even imagining any deity other than Allah feels sinful. So the idea of saying "Bharat Mata" makes them very uncomfortable. You know that, right? She: Since when does an atheist like you sympathize with people's religious feelings? And what is the harm if Hindus, Muslims and everyone else is compelled to express love publicly for our motherland? We must all be patriotic and love and respect India, who is like our mother. I: Personifying India is a very Hindu thing to do. We tend to personify and worship anything, and it comes natu...

Every time someone tries to force you to respect an inanimate object, a dead person, an ideology or an institution, they indirectly steal your self-respect from you. By making you "respect" the dead and the non-living, they make you respect yourself less. And they make you respect other people less -- people who are alive. Respect is a currency in our social lives. It is a scarce and precious currency. This is a diversion of respect from those who are alive, to those who are dead, or those who were never alive in the first place. I object to such diversion. When I talk about respect, I talk about all the forms of respect.  Respect for the non-living and non-existent manifests itself in many forms. It manifests as worship and devotion. As fear and awe. As blind following and blind faith. As a refusal to think and question. As a refusal to act rightly, or speak out, when violence is being inflicted upon the living. Without thinking, without questioning, people say ...

On New Year's eve, Modi-ji will make a surprise announcement, ordering that every Indian should be publicly spanked by the police. Bhakts will be seen lining up with bare bottoms in front of police stations, and advising us that it is every Indian's patriotic duty to accept their spanking gracefully and gratefully, so that the corrupt black-money hoarders get a spanking. Every patriotic Indian must stand in line and accept a public spanking for the good of the nation. "No other leader since Independence has had the great vision or the daring to spank the black-money hoard ers," the bhakts will proclaim. "Surely, after this spanking, nobody will dare to accept bribes or hoard black money again," they will argue, telling all of us khangresis , sickulars and leftists to take our pants off. After three days, our great prime minister will appear on television, shedding tears of joy and pride about how millions of Indians with reddened and bru...

July 1, 2006: There’s a myth that what’s good for your country, your community, your neighbourhood is good for you.  “Hum tho tumhare hi bhalai chahte hain, beta!’,  says  desh aur   samaaj.  And, most of the times, you take it on faith that it’s completely true, because, after all, d esh aur samaaj ka izzat karna hi apni sanskuti hai. I’d like to say that there’s a lot of bullshit in that belief. In fact, it’s at most only 50% true. And here’s why: It is common knowledge that the interests of individuals, even in the same household, often conflict. The grandparents may need peace and quiet for their own wellbeing, but the 8-year-old kid may need to make noise and enjoy jumping around for his mental and physical well-being and growth. The parents of the kids may need some privacy and space, but the children and the aged folk may need them to be available all the time. And some situations pit the individual against the entire household. The adolescent daug...

We of the modern mechanistic civilization seek to define all things and phenomena as ‘it’, as against he or she. We objectify (as against personify) the world when we refer to it as ‘it’, and not he or she. By contrast, we personify our country as ‘she’, ‘Bharat Mata’ etc. Some decades earlier, when people referred to India as  Bharat Mata , they meant it literally. Those who participated in the freedom struggle were inspired by the feeling that they were risking their lives for an entity that mattered a lot more than ordinary mortals, and yet was intimately connected to them and their families. Today, we don’t think that way. We think of India as ‘it’. India is beautiful as long as the the GDP, forex reserves and Sensex look sexy, and as long as the world is cheering it lustily as the new, rising BRIC nation. We don’t love India the way we loved  Bharat Mata. I think objectifying impoverishes us. Objectifying is fine when you’re dealing with micro-realities a...

Dear friends, January 30, 2012: Yesterday, I saw a movie about a puppy named Bolt, who is conned into believing that he has super-powers that he uses for protecting the little girl who owns him. Midway through the movie, he realizes that he has no super-powers; he is just an ordinary, helpless puppy. He feels crushed by this realization.  So Bolt faces a choice: to quit? Or to believe that he is still a hero, and keep struggling against the forces of evil? The thought that his little girl still needs a hero helps him make the right decision: keep fighting. I think we activists face the same choice. India needs a hero; are you willing to try? Am I willing to try? Yes, we are not cut out to be heroes. Yes, as individuals, we are full of weaknesses and limitations. But India needs heroes now. She cannot wait another 10 years for someone better to emerge. You and I are the only ones currently available. So we will have to say, “My motherland needs a he...

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high,  Into that heaven of freedom, my father,  Let my country awaken. THE NIGHTMARE OF A GROWING GIRL is the benignly smiling relative – the great man whose reputation is beyond questioning. No matter what he does with you in his private moments, nobody believes a word against him — not even your mother. THE NIGHTMARE OF A MARRIED WOMAN is the family guru – the great man with credentials that cannot be dented. What he says becomes the law. For decades he exploits your family, but his every word is regarded as golden truth. THE NIGHTMARE OF AN HONEST WORKER is the charismatic boss – the great man to whom all credit gravitates. He takes credit for your work, while you carry the blame for his failings. And you hide your rage behind words of praise for his astute management, and smile when your colleagues smile. THE NIGHTMARE OF A JUSTICE-SEEKER is the judge whose mask of unquestionable author...