Chandramohan, the Baroda art student in the eye of a storm for “insulting” gods and goddesses has been let off on bail today after five nights in the cooler. But the dean Shivaji Panicker is still suspended from his duties for standing up for the student’s freedom to draw what he wants. Thankfully, this moral dadagiri has been restricted to Narendra Modi‘s asmita-laden Gujarat.
But what if…?
1) What if moles start leaking to tilak-toting goons what is being written, spoken and drawn by students and teachers in classrooms, seminars, and examinations?
2) What if self-appointed tilak-toting, trishul-weilding goons start going around schools, colleges and universities driving the fear of god—their notion of god—into our skulls?
3) What if students and teachers especially those in the arts—painters, poets, singers—start “learning” lessons from Chandramohan’s case and start self-censoring themselves?
4) What if vice-chancellors begin showing as little spine as the Baroda one and allow the tilak-toting, trishul-weilding goons to play moral police and run riot on campuses?
5) What if the police everywhere, out of fear and reverence, begin arresting students guilty of possessing a sense of imagination while letting the goons who only have a sense of indignation go scot-free?
6) What if governments, out of their own sense of power, begin sponsoring these tilak-toting, trishul-weilding goons and look on happily while they try to run our lives? (And what if the judges hearing the case conveniently go on leave when they have to hear the case?)
7) What if we let the tilak-toting, trishul-weilding goons decide what is offensive and insulting?
8) What if these tilak-toting, trishul-weilding goons say they will decide what we should wear, what we should see, what we should hear, what we should read—and what we should think?
9) What if we let these tilak-toting goons to decide whom we should worship and how He or She should look?
10) What if every State became a Gujarat—and what if you didn’t speak up?
Asmita of Gujarat as proclaimed by Modi was lost way back when Gujarat was set on fore after Godhra carnage and State sponsored pogrom.Annihilation of a particular community symbolised in the killing of Kaiser Banu when the sword toying saffron goons pulled out the foetus from her womb and burnt it.It was Kausar Banu then and Kausar Bi now.
What is more disturbing is the call given by its leader Advani to emulate Gujarat .Moral (?)policing to keep a vigil on the freedom of mind is nothing but a criminal institution with ulterior motives of challenging democratic social structures.It is this arrogance which also holds the reins of State power established under a secular constitution arrested Chandramohan.Down with brazen Fascism.
I condemn the assault on academic or creative freedom.
But I am less scared of the “tilak-toting, trishul-weilding” goons than I am of the scull-cap wearing Allah-worshipping fanatics.
The tilak dudes are usually posturing — they are goons more than they are Hindu.
The Allah dudes are not posturing — they are Muslim more than they are goons.
The Allah bhakts will put a knife through you because they believe that might get them the virgins in their jannat.
KP, get your priorities right!
All these what if questions are meaningless.
The simple answer to all of them is ‘Look around you’. It is happening, with the connivance of the State Government in quite a few places.
And I ask a few more troubling questions.
Is this not true of our ‘linguistic’ brethren as well?
Can anyone, in good faith, criticize the shortcomings of Rajkumar films and live to tell about it?
Can anyone, in good faith, disagree with the rest of Karnataka on the Cauvery issue and be respected for it?
Better still. Can Taslima Nasreen get Indian citizenship? or Salman Rushdie get his book ‘un-banned’?
Where was the hue and cry when protests against Danish cartoons erupted here with blood-curdling calls for murder?
Why is his ‘freedom of religion’, my ‘oppresive religious bigotry’?
Don’t blame ’tilak-toting, trishul-wielding goons’ for all the violations of our freedoms. They are only one part of large sections of our populace which only believe in the adage, ‘I’ll let you speak only if you agree with me’.
I will be happy invoke the trident on any template secular backyard 24/7
In the name of the art let the artist draw the nude pics of his mother and sister. After all its “ART”. Stupid people who have little or no respect to the sentiments of millions are worst than a rabid dogs. Any why the so called ‘Intellectual” are alwasy anti hindu ??
Under the name artistic freedom, if one were to paint nudes of your mother, sisters will you keep quiet ? Many years ago DH was burnt just because the a character in a story was named Mohammed ! Alacrity with which the intellectuals at Bangalore staged a demo exhibits an equally disturbing mindset. No one here has seen the paintings and what it contains. This is not to defend VHP bandwagon, neither can i sympathize with the Pseudo secular intellectuals. If the Court can hold a man in cooler for 5 days, then question the system. If today GOM can say Daya Nayak is innocent, ten there is something wrong with criminal justice system.
Chandramohan still lives to tell the tale. Remember, Theo Van Gogh, the dutch director, who was killed by Islamic fanatics.
I didn’t see any “secularists” (or KP, for that matter) out on the streets protesting that. Maybe there were scared sh** for their own lives. Cowards, all.
Why is the Muslims center of universe for so many of the Guys here. Did KP compared between Muslim and Tilak-goons?
Do people in general really fear Muslims? Fear agains what? numerical strength…which is hardly 12%. Economic well being…….which again laid bare by sanchar report their state.
Then again the question why do the reactions of so many so hostile?
Can someone shed light? Really I want to know…what are the grouses against Muslims….don’t mention boiler plate points. Appreciate if discussion stays within India……. I know the tendecy of some to equate pak jehadis with Indian Muslims.
Zulfi ..your questions are understandable and your patriotism is never in question .
The most crucial question we need to ask the muslims in India is
Is religion above the country and patriotism ? Why cant religion be kept as private ?
Have you ever wondered why the whole world hates Muslims ( Not islam remember ) ? Show me one muslim country which is progressive
where the Islamic extermism hasnt touched ? Is there any working democracy without any past history of coup in Islamic replublics ?
What is that the muslims are afraid of? why do they resort to extremism? Why this Intolerance towards other religions?
why they consider all non believers of ALLAH as Infidels ? Why there is not much freedom to women across the ‘ISLAMIC WORLD’ ?
There are many more questions …
To Dheerendragopal,
the issue of Muslims in India is being blown to PanIslamic proportions which I feel need not be so.We shall confine to the conflict of majority communalism camouflaged as cultural nationalism and minority communalism borne out of insecurity and fuelled by rabid fundamentalists.The nation is remembering with pride the first independence movement of 1857 in its 150th year.The rebellious upsurge of Company sepoys united both Hindus and Muslims.But subsequent struggle for freedom under the aegis of Congress and its abject neglect of this stream of unity alienated them and resulted into clear division.This is history untold.Hatredness and myseries have been carried to generations. There are many sane people outnumbering the handful communal miscreants of all colours who have a responsibility of establishing a land of diversified cultures brimming with prosperity.
Amidst growing Islamic terrorism we have a sigh of releif in the developments happening inTurky where millions of people came on streets in protection of secular character of their country.Do we need to draw a lesson from Turky?
Vijay , Yes we certainly need to learn from turkey where a million people came out on streets .
We need the muslims in millions to come out on street whenever the terrorist attack against us is done . We need them to show solidarity whenever the massacre of sikhs that happened in kashmir a few years back . We need them to take to streets when ever a prof.puri is killed by miscreants? thats all we ask from our mulim brethern .
We dont need a shabana azmi, javed akhtar or a farooq sheikh to protest against the best bakery case but we need the aam mussalman to protest ? that is what we desire .
We need them to take to streets demanding a death sentence to aftab if he has been implicated in Parliament attack case?
Can they do all the above?
Zulfi
We are waiting for your reply.
Zulfi and others, please read this article from vanity Fair.
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/06/hitchens200706?currentPage=1
Once again, Zulfi and others please also read
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/06/hitchensqanda200706
Some of the quotes are simply brilliant!
DB..
thanks for the links odirlilla. WD kooda ide lines alli bardidaare.
but I find these guys very patronizing.
anywho, to be fair to Zulfi, what has he got to do with London’s problems?
DB have to go now. aamel complete maaDthini.
First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.
-Attributed to Pastor Martin Niemoller
Dear Dheerendra gopal,
The very fact that you mention my patriotism is wrong… leve the patriotism to Infy chief and all. I requested, that you be restrict your discussion to indian borders………which again you have not done. I wanted to know as majority of churmuri readers are from karnatak or southern india, what are their grouses against muslim?
@ doddibuddi
My friend doddiboddi is linking for article in vanity fait….you do understand my pleading doddibuddi don’t you. Don’t equate Indian Muslims to pkais period. have you heard the saying vinaash kaale doddibuddi? So don’t go looking all over world whats happening, am not going to defend for every thing , my purpose in asking is to understand whats wrong muslims doing in karnatak or India.
Hate just for the sake of hate is not good for anybody.
am still awaiting any meaningful insight from anyone here.
Zulfi,
Thank you. I think your replies are reasonable.
TS
I wasn’t targeting Zulfi–I got a feeling he was seeing every issue as black and white. I think he just proved that he is a reasonable guy.
WD yaaru? I was just posting these links to show what happens when you start reasoning with irrational people–in this case the jihadi Muslims in UK. I was struck by the logic of certain replies and I could not have written them any better.
The only contribution of a fire-spewing mouse called L.K. Advani is that he made it so convenient for every inarticulate Hindu to slap the adjective “pseudo-secular” on everything that didn’t conform to their closely held beliefs and fears, to foreclose issues that demand discussion. And the trajectory of this debate proves just that.
Why is it difficult to see the case of Chandramohan for what it is—a naked assault on our power to think and imagine—without invoking every one of the ghosts that has been haunting us? Again, I believe this is the great legacy of “Iron Man” Advani. We cannot talk of anything without first mandatorily paying obeisance at the altar of Kashmiri Pandits.
@ Mysorean: “the Tilak dudes are goons more than they are Hindu”. On what wondrous basis? So for Hindu goons, their goondagiri comes first, but for Muslim goons, their religion comes first?
Grow up, brother. In the Gujarat of Sohrabuddin and countless other atrocities, there have been widely documented cases of Hindu goons ripping apart foetuses and inscribing ‘Om’. We are not talking of simple goons here, we are talking of trained killers who are using, abusing and misusing a great way of life called Hinduism to the cheap applause of the knicker lobby?
@ Alok: You are right, there are several other freedoms that have been excised from our lives. But should our reaction be to keep quiet or to stand up in whatever way we can? Don’t tell me you do not know of people who are not using their own ingenuious ways of making their point on Raj Kumar and Cauvery?
@kbharadwaj81 & jeevarathna: have you not received the office memo? That obscenity is not the same thing as vulgarity.
@ Dheerendragopal: “We need the muslims in millions to come out on street whenever the terrorist attack against us is done.” Who is us? We are all us. Muslims are as Indian as anybody else. We don’t need this Norman Tebbit kind of bogus test of patriotism to be invoked. When was the last time “Hindus in millions” came out on the streets when Muslims were killed in attacks, blasts, wars? If you were apathetic because you weren’t responsible, why expect Muslims who were not responsible to do likewise?
@Doddi Buddi: You reveal yourself by expressing your intent to plunge a trident in with those who do not share the same beliefs as you do. But, my friend, Zulfi doesn’t have to prove shit to you. Nor does any Muslim. On the other hand, you have much to prove if you’re a Hindu. That, in its vast embrace, some of its greatness and goodness has rubbed off on you. Not the wileness and hatred that oozes through these smart-alecky gibes.
‘On the other hand, you have much to prove if you’re a Hindu.’
With stress on ‘On the other hand’ AS, this asymmetrical imposition of the burden of secularism on the hindu is exactly what pseudo secularism is. As much as DB has to wear his secular credentials on his sleeves, so does ‘our friend’ Z. DB makes hunky dory platitudes and Z casts aspertions on intellectual honesty of a person only pointing out that a 500 lb tiger would take uber human, forget royal ‘muslim’, capabilities to be subdued, just becoz somewhere in the author’s name is a ‘ram’.
You cannot have asymmetrical systems where there is a constant, incessant attack on all aspects of the hindu’s life by the media/seculars/intellectuals while no corresponding ‘correction’, ‘introspection’ is imposed on the ‘minority’. How many media reams have been written on manu smrithi how many on Q & how many on B? How many times has it been written that Q is a book of peace & how many times has it been written that manu smrithi has other passages that, for example make ‘progressive’ prescriptions? Leave the big B alone, it has been left to the west for any analysis on it. I mean the heathen is way too parochial to be critical of his texts, but the lord’s choosen man he’s another being altogether. He could analyze everything with dispassionate detachment. But the heathen? He’s blind enough to not even know that the Bhagwad Gita is a violently violent text. That the Ganesha’s trunk is really phallus explained by Freudian auto erotic phenomena, even the Freud’s theories themselves are no longer deemed fit to treat current day alcoholics of the nth degree.
Back to our own soil, where is the criticism of Mushirul Hassan & Irfan Habib? And what is the ciriticism of Shourie, Talageri oter than ad hominems?
If true church – state separation is what is the sought ideal, then both LKA’s relatively temporary politics à religion & Bhukari’s more permanent religion à politics moves should be equally opposed. The day Kanchi Matha, Deoband & SB Mega Church are all treated with the same respect/disdain then LKA’s pseudo-secularism will become redundant.
As much as ‘secularism’ has its place in putting the religions to grind, it will be useless if it is shallow enough not to be open to criticism itself.
author’s name is a ‘ram’ .. it(secularism) does not work like this.
sorry.
even when Freud’s theories themselves are no longer deemed fit to treat current day alcoholics of the nth degree.
TS
Thank you. Soultruth you are frothing at the mouth with your pseudo-secular saliva. Take it easy dude!
Tarlesubba, you are my new hero. :)
Agree with all you write, except that Lalkrishnus Advanius is a “mouse.” He is actually a tiger — a paper one though. But I like him.
Aatmasakshi, criticism accepted.
What I meant was that the so-called Hindu goons are not motivated by religion — the Hindu philosophies clearly reject evangelism or proselytization or “conversion” of any kind. On the other hand, Muslim goons are always motivated by Islam which clearly orders them to kill the “infidels.”
So it is completely unfair to compare Hindu violence, which is reactionary, with Muslim violence, which is ideological. That’s all I was trying to say. Just read Christopher Hitchens, the “anti-theist’s” recent views of Islam for a clearer picture of why Hindu Vedantic traditions are so much more evolved than are the tribalistic Islamic black-and-white (to use DB’s term) edicts.
And thank you sir, I am trying to grow up. :)
TS..Did you play lot of CHOOR CHANDU when you were youngu
Mysorean,
Thank you for the attribute…in fact you must grow up.
Hindu Vedantic traditions are so much more evolved than are the tribalistic Islamic black-and-white (to use DB’s term) edicts.
they are not. they might contain fashionable metaphysics but as a religion it is just like others. there is nothing special in it.
DB.
why thanks? my point is we are all bigots, how can any honest person not be a bigot?
and my point was there is nothing special about a hindu bigot vis-a-vis a non hindu even an irreligious bigot, that he should be held to special standards.
enuf said.
another attempt at telling us what to think, this time by attacks on a woman by elected members.
Taslima Nasrin
Taslima Nasreen
Calling all Buddhi Jeevis/ Patrakartas/ Janapara Vedikes/ Komu Sauharda Vedikes/ Human rights people/ Amnesty??
are you all dead?
if there is smallest episode involving corrupt journos, you all cry foul….now Taslima Nasreen (a woman- that too from minority community) is attacked right inside a press club…and you are all silent!
so you all cry foul only when situation suits you?
or you are all afraid of attackers?