A VILE CLOUD

A vile cloud hangs over the country. It is getting continuously impregnated by hatred -growing ever larger and darker. None of us would want to see this cloud bursting. Because if it does , it is only going to rain vile acid. Poison will pour upon us. And that will not be the end. It will only be the beginning of a cycle- dark clouds will form again , rain poison upon us again – this process will repeat till all that is left is ruin and wilderness. Our only hope is that this cloud is blown away by the winds of good sense.

It is the cloud of religious bigotry. We see today many ‘born again’ Hindus. They are hyper aggressively proud of their religion. They are easily offended – by just about everything – it is almost like they are looking for excuses to be offended. They are possessed of an irrational imagination – seeing conspiracies where none exist and almost all of them are animated by hatred – hatred of a kind that scares me.

I grew up in a very religious Hindu family. I count temple priests among my ancestors. My grandfather started his life as a temple priest before moving on to a more secular occupation. I have seen devout Hindus very closely. My Mother is one of them – extremely devout with a deep knowledge and a wide understanding of Hindu scriptures and philosophy. Yet she is no bigot. She is proud of her religion and culture , yet this pride is not of the aggressive and hostile variety. Her pride doesn’t come from a place of hypocritical superiority.

In fact , I have always found her taking a lot of pleasure in the similarities of different faiths. For instance , the similarities between Sufism and the Alwar tradition of SriVaishnavism is something she is overjoyed by. Finding God through love , song and dance and the breaking down of calcified hierarchies -is by itself inspiring. That different faiths seem to have arrived independently at similar humanistic conclusions is even more so.

The point is you can be a proud Hindu -proud of your religion and your culture -without being a Bigot. It is not that difficult. But today , a section of the population seems to be convinced that bigotry is the only way forward. That somehow different faiths cant co exist. That somehow , unless a hierarchy is established between different faiths , co existence is not possible.

Religious bigotry is the new ‘wokeness’ now. It is slowly becoming mainstream. It is being enabled by many with their “What-aboutery”. History is being twisted. Falsehoods are being presented. Atrocities are being invented. Dangers are being imagined. Even something as seemingly innocuous as a snack , seems to threaten us.

We will do well to remember -any country or society that lets religion and faith leave the private spaces of home and family and lets them enter public spaces invariably invites disaster and failure. Faith, by it’s very definition, is subjective and private. Faith and religion are not equipped to offer guidance and direction on how a modern , multi cultural society should be run. Because each faith has evolved in it’s own context ,under very specific set of conditions that made that particular faith amenable to it’s adherents. So when adherents of different faiths come together to co exist – they have to evolve rules of engagement on human and humane terms and based on the best of what each faith has to offer.

This is the very idea that India is based on. The very basis on which a complex ,interwoven social fabric has been stitched over the ages. Today , that very idea is in danger. Forces threaten to rend this fabric and once rent – there is no knowing how long it will take to put it back together again. It is now a battle of ideas and ideals. It is Humanism vs Bigotry.

Hatred is it’s own end. Hatred is it’s own object. However much we may try to convince ourselves that our hatred has particular , specific objects – it is a fire that burns the Hated and the Hater alike. Bigotry and Hatred are cancers that eat away at just about everything. Once given free rein they cant be controlled. Today it is religion , tomorrow it will be something else.

There are always people whose interest it is to see increasing levels of bigotry and hatred in a society. There will always be. However , these are invariably enabled by those that are silent -who say nothing , who don’t condemn. They may not be bigots themselves but these are the people who contribute to it’s growth the most.

The real villain of Nazi Germany was not Hitler. The real villains were the millions of ordinary Germans who chose to stay silent when the Jews were being demonized.

If you are silent , you are complicit. If you are silent , you are no better than the bigots and the hatemongers.