Friday, April 14, 2006

Utterly appalling

In what remote, imaginable, fantastic way is setting fire to a bus, beating a policeman to death, and engaging in jingoist mob violence supposed to be an indication of affection for your favourite movie star? Not only is the absolutely ludicrous and shameful reaction of people upon the death of Rajkumar a sign that law and order in our country has broken down, but I think it is a sign of an even more fundamental march towards a complete loss of the most basic of human sensibilities and rationality, towards a resurgence of violent tribal and uncivilised instincts, and towards the cessation of every form of common sense and dignity in human behaviour. And not for a few hours or a day, but for three whole days in processions that lead to a virtual shutdown of the normal workings of a city? We have always been a country of idol worshippers, and this is a quality that has been found in the psyche of people participating in the most vicious and depraved acts of history (Nazism, Fascism etc.) Fortunately for us, this hero-worship has not led us to catapult a bigot into power (or has it?...) but in terms of maintaining decency of civilization, how is this any better? Fundamentally, how is this much different from the widely criticized acts of Islamic fundamentalists who took to senseless violence for days to protest against their prophet's cartoons?
India is a unique country, where human life is so cheap that the most far-flung and unrelated of reasons can be reason enough to take one.
Shameful beyond words, this.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi Ashutosh!

I haven't been able to read your blog for a while since I've been in Bangalore (I witnessed the bullshit first-hand) for the past few days. Will catch up soon.

But I'd like to hear what you have to say on this:
http://sinshady016.journalspace.com/?entryid=104

6:28 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home