Ghar Wapsi- Mission Reconversion

                                                               Ghar Wapsi- Mission Reconversion

Newspapers headline Ghar wapsi. The TV channels endlessly have a haranguing match about the validity of Ghar wapsi.  The belligerent Hindu crowds with swords and spears roar “Ghar Wapsi.” India watches in bewildered silence as it gets a new identity as Hindu nation and it is no longer Bharat but Hindustan. We have created  a new vocabulary that may enter the Oxford English Dictionary given the huge Indian population estimated at 1.27 billion. We need not be surprised by the  addition of  two more words to the list of new words for the year 2014  reflective of the changes in language and culture of a large majority of Hindus who account for 1.06 billion. It does not matter if these two potent words -“Love Jihad” and “Ghar Wapsi” spiral towards a frightening and retarding mental development. The alarming fact is these words are no longer the monopoly of the rabid Hindus, but are adopted by the fanatic zealots of other religions that include the peace loving Buddhists, the evangelical Christians, the humanistic and pragmatic Sikhs and Muslims,the second largest religious group in the world. The reports of Christians converting Hindus into their fold,  Muslims seeking to counter the belligerent conversion of its flock to Hinduism and Sikhs trying to convert Christians back into Sikhism  and Buddhists seeking to reconvert Hindus  who had earlier converted to Buddhism are making headlines everyday as an audacious response  to the Ghar wapsi(homecoming) ritual of Hindus  of reconverting Muslims and Christians to their fold.  The nation which had till now attracted the attention and admiration of the world as a multi-religious pluralistic society is now in the grip of religious dissension and polarization. The change of guard at the centre has emboldened a group of fundamentalists to raise the bogey of forced or induced conversion and embark on Mission Reconversion.

It has been borne by history that many of the Christians in India had earlier belonged either to the tribal community or were those who had been relegated to the untouchable lower castes - in short, those who were deemed to be born into no religion and  had been cast aside by Hindu casteists.  Since  these faceless groups adopted  either  Islam or Christianity or Buddhism or any other faith, they and their succeeding generations have now  a rightful inheritance to the adopted religion.    In this context, it is worth recalling  Karl Marx  who said “man makes religion; religion does not make man. Religion is the self consciousness and self esteem of man who has either not yet won through to himself, or has already lost himself again …Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people". By quoting only the last sentence out of context, we have not been able to understand the truthful reality he expounded. The truth is religion as it was and as it is practised today represents economic injustice and exploitation of the poor and the depressed. Hinduism had never properly understood the concept of ‘Chaturvarna” system that was originally created for the social growth of the society and the spiritual growth of the individual. Though divided into four categories into which a person was born, the idea behind it was to allow the individual to do the job s/he is best suited for. There was no hierarchical ranking of the four categories. But the modern Hindus have tweaked this to relegate those doing physical labourand menial jobs  as the untouchables with no entry into their religion and temples.  The dalits, the OBCS and the tribals have suffered ignominy by being outcasts of the society and this , in turn made them embrace any religion that opened its doors to them.

So this reconversion or Ghar wapsi raises a fundamental question : which Ghar they have to return when the only Ghar they have is the religion they have embraced. So Ghar wapsi is  prima facie a wrong phrase as there is no ghar for wapsi(return). Yet another problem is the fanatic fringe group that bays for reconversion to Hinduism is actually not reconverting but converting other religious believers into its fold. This goes against the core of Hinduism which is the one religion that is opposed to proselytisation. The coming to power of the rightwing BJP which used Hindutva as its election mascot has fuelled the freneticism of the fringe groups of the party to make conversion a rightful and legal procedure even if it goes against the Constitutional affirmation that India is a secular nation. Their ignorance of Hinduism is reflected in their inability to see that everyone has a right to choose and follow his faith and that  no religion-in particular Hinduism -can thrust itself on those who have opted for a religion that satisfies their spiritual thirst. In fact these half literate religious exponents have not read Emperor Ashoka’s famous saying: “There should not be honour of one’s own (religious) sect and condemnation of others without any grounds.” Similarly Love Jihad is yet another unthinking attempt to prevent marriages between Hindu girls and Muslim boys, seeing communal ghosts where there are none.

These phrases have come to stay at least in the Indian-English dictionary. If they get accepted by Oxford English Dictionary, the fall out will be a major global disaster. All the Protestants in England and in Ireland will be asked to do a Ghar wapsi and return to the Catholic fold or face dire consequences. The Hindus in the Eelam region will be asked to convert to Buddhism. Israel will insist on all Palestinians to accept Judaism if they wish to stay in Israel and vice versa.  The Russian Orthodox Church(ROC) that was eliminated by the communist revolution of 1917 has now partially returned to fill the ideological vacuum left by the bankruptcy of Communism and it may seek the return of all Russians and all those in the eastern and Southern Europe  to ROC under the Ghar wapsi concept. Migration to any nation will be ruled out and every migrant should do a ghar wapsi if he does not convert to the majority religion of the nation he wishes to migrate.

The Indians known for their tolerance and acceptance of all faiths, who celebrate all festivals of all religions have shown to the world in the last 67 years what it is to be human  which cannot be  determined by his/her religion. WhileSamuel Huntingdon and others talked about the clash of civilizations, we showed to the world that this country believed in co-existence and would not allow to be divided on the basis of religion. We have the exampleo of monotheistic religion in Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, and the Middle east where clashes between sects of the same religion are an everyday affair resulting in the killings of many thousands of innocent people. India which has stood firm with its political, social, religious and cultural pluralism is now wending its way to Hindu Rashtra without realizing the bloody consequences of such an attempt.

Globalization will be passé. What could have paved the way for co-existence, enhancement and enrichment of different  cultures and religions will now  unfortunately yield to  religious and cultural atavism citing divine sanction for enforcing religious uniformity and  identity. “Cultural origin is the new aristocratism of the masses.  The emphasis on difference, which in principle should have made us more sensitive to the existence of others, has on the contrary mainly served to sharpen our craving for identity. Every culture is arrogating to itself the right to be inhuman, and cultural rights are the prerogatives of the inhuman.”

Can 2015 reconvert the Hindu Zealots to the multireligious, multicultural and multilingual India that has been not only a pride to all of us but has served as a beacon light to the world to forge  inter-religious faith among humanity? Let us work for Mission Reconversion in the new year and foster the concept of One Planet, one Mankind.

  

Confronting the Ubiquitous C- word

                                          Confronting the Ubiquitous C- word

A recent centre page article in the Times of India confers a depressing and ignominious distinction on India for having the lowest rates of cancer survival. This is ironical considering the giant strides India has made in epidemiological studies.  India is home to world class orthopedic and cardiac surgeons and ranks among three top medical tourism destinations in Asia with an estimated 1,50,000 foreigners travelling to India for low cost and high quality healthcare  procedures every year. Despite the availability of the latest medical technologies and comparatively reduced medical expenses vis-à-vis the prohibitive costs in the developed countries, India,  as per the latest global statistics  lags far behind in cancer survival rate. The article details the steps needed to confront the C word that ails our nation.

 As for India the C word is applicable not only to the fatal cancer, but the deadly  word is equally applicable to all other aspects that we confront daily  in all walks of life. Cancer as a fatal disease accounts for the death of nearly 7 lakhs of men and women every year in the country. But cancer of the mind and soul afflicts the entire population that is estimated today at 1.27 billion(roughly 17.5% of the world population). To confront this ubiquitous C is far more challenging than confronting cancer disease because the cure for the former involves a combined and collaborative effort of all of us while the cure for the latter rests with the shared work of a restricted group of physicians and scientists. A lot of new medicines and therapies have already proved successful in the treatment of cancer and early detection is a vital key to cancer survival. There is a big list of cancers that affect almost every part of the body-the brain, the lungs, the uterine cervix, the breasts, the liver, the prostate, mouth, esophagu, skin and the glands. Though a few of them may be attributable to our genetic inheritance or to our indulgence in smoking, drinking, and other wrong life style habits, it is difficult to assign any single or multiple causes for the occurrence of cancer.  But the ubiquitous C is singularly attributable to human failings.

The ubiquitous cancer has many parallel or equivalence with the cancer illness. Brain cancer is among the deadly ones and the cause is unknown, though it is often noted that it is secondary as an offshoot of primary cancer somewhere else in the body. Treatment includes surgery, chemo and radiotherapy. But the equivalence of brain cancer in our daily life is the most virulent and infectious form of mental sickness that causes dismemberment of an entire community or nation. It spreads fast and is poisonous as it corrodes the mind and the heart of the people. The communal  fire stoked by the mindless concoction of phrases such as love-Jihad, Ghar wapsi(home coming after reconversion), “Patriot, thy name is Godse”  “Turn Hindu, become Indian” etc threaten to disunite the nation that had remained  strong and robust for the last 67 years as a multi-cultural, multi religious, pluralistic society.  This attempt at reconversion and inciting communal clashes is as lethal as what ISIS is currently doing in different parts of Africa and the Middle-East. Instead of killing non believers as ISIS does, the dastardly effort of mindless and semiliterate Hindus is killing the souls of believers in Islam and Christianity by brutalizing these minority groups, labelling them as seditious and saying that they cannot be Indians as  they are not Hindus.  “India is for Hindus and Hindus alone can be Indians” is an emotional slogan to influence the Hindu majority against all other religious minorities. This is the most pernicious spread of hatred against all those who profess faith in religions other than Hinduism.

Cancers of the breast, the cervix, and the private parts of the body have their equivalence in the sex crimes, sexual abuse and assault on women.  It is a shame that India is considered the rape nation of the world and its capital Delhi, the rape capital. This is the cancer that destroys the finer instincts of human feelings replacing it with beastly instincts and assaults female victims with physical violence and mental trauma. Cancer is a malignant growth caused by abnormal and uncontrolled cell division. It is this division of humanity into animality that has made it as the most heinous and reprehensible kind. The road rage  which has become an everyday affair is another example of the animal instincts that assault human sensibility causing danger to the life of its victim.

The skin cancer is rearing its equivalent ugly head in the form of racism. The spate of attacks on the northeast men and women in Delhi and Bengaluru, the attack on the African women in Delhi are symptomatic of the xenophobic prejudice that the brown skinned Indians are superior both to the dark skinned Africans and the chinky -eyed people from the northeast  which is truly a part of India.

Just as lymphoma or the malignant tumour in the lymph nodes spread fast to other parts of the body through the lymphatic system, the filth and dirt that swamp our nation spreads illesses and disease all around. We the people of India are the architects of refuse, garbage, pollution and sewage and we suffer from infectious diseases such as malaria, dengue, diahorrea, gastroenteritis , asthma etc through all seasons of the year.  Corruption has been endemic among all sections of society and is a deadly killer of all ethical and moral principles that are basic to economic and social development.

Last but not the least is the oral cancer or the cancer of the mouth. The vile language that is used that defies all civil discourse in the country, the absence of polite debates, the lack of civilized behaviour and the noise and shouting that accompanies  all dialogues ,television debates and street brawls have destroyed  culture , polish and refinement that are the essence of  civilized living.How do we confront this ubiquitous C that has caused damage to our mind, intellect and emotions much more than Cancer the disease that limits itself to the physical body? What are the therapies we can practice to defeat the obnoxious C in our midst?  

We need Education- education that opens up our mind and sensitizes us to respect gender differences, to empathize with the emotional needs of others, to appreciate beauty and goodness, to recognize the oneness of humanity while accommodating diversity, heterogeneity and multi-formity.

Just as early detection raises the rate of cancer survival, “catch them young “is the phrase to spread education and awareness among the adolescents about drug and sexual abuse and about responsible behaviour and about our duty by the society and the nation. If the young are schooled in the use of civil language and polite conduct, it helps them to have a control over their negative emotions and behaviour. The idea of “swachh bharat”, the concept of nationalism for the promotion of multi- culturalism and syncretism, the development of taste for universal and timeless artistic value, the love for reading and enhancing one’s knowledge, the cultivation of ethics or principles of right conduct should begin at a time when the brain is in its formative stage and is in readiness to accept learning in all its diverse dimensions .

Cancer is the unnatural proliferation of cells that metastasize into dangerous –almost fatal condition but it can be arrested if the cell division is controlled. In a similar way the ubiquitous C can be arrested if human beings are not divided on the basis of religion, language, caste and colour. To understand and cultivate humanity may provide the key to challenge the pernicious spread of mental, intellectual,  racial, religious divisions and to restore the idea of India ,embodying unity in diversity, pluralism, democracy and compassion with malice towards none and empathy towards all. Let us all together confront the ubiquitous C, the colonizer of our thoughts and emotions with the same determination and commitment as our freedom fighters did to win against the mighty colonizers who had made us intellectually suspect, emotionally fearful and wholly servile to their imperialist power. Let us try to restore India to its original civilization which formed the base for all religions, cultures, languages, thoughts and beliefs where they retained their distinct identities and reverential respect for each other and stood as  a functioning example of all for one and one for all.

From TINA to NINA

                                                                            From TINA to NINA

A wonderful caption From TINA to NINA” appeared in one of the newspapers last week.  The Tina factor has plagued us far too long and given us a legitimate excuse to welcome mediocrity in all aspects of life. We have been content with below par quality purchases as they were the best out of what was available and we blamed it with a wry comment: TINA. Even in the best of apple or mango seasons, we are content to have second grade fruits because they are the only ones available- the top grade fruits get exported. Hiring a driver or a servant was again a question of selecting from a poor crop of workers available than going in for the best. In the universities and schools, vacancies had necessarily to be filled lest the students should suffer and we went in for average or below average candidates since the better ones had either taken wings or grabbed by MNCs and top companies for a ugly fat salary.  It was always the same refrain: TINA. Marriages In India are not always between the best boy and the best girl- rather the best groom and the best bride -but between two deemed to be better people available from the money sucking matrimonial sites  and who could fit into the family budget .  TINA was the answer to matches made through marriage.com sites. When we went to vote, we voted not for the best candidate( because there was  no one with unimpeachable credentials), but we voted one who was the least disagreeable and we together made a chorus of TINA. Even ater defeat,the Congress party says it will hold on to the mother-son duo because of TINA. We Indians are endowed with so much tolerance that we embrace mediocrity with great gusto solely on the basis of TINA factor.

We have of late realized how we have sold our souls to TINA because it is easy to give the mind holiday and not stress it to make a choice out of qualitatively superior persons or products  or policies and pick any from the available lot as one is no better than the other. No regrets as the choice is a choiceless choice.  But one now perceives a slow turn towards NINA

In fact modern Indian history post independence had shown a ding-dong between TINA and NINA. We witnessed glimpses of the replacement of TINA by NINA after the disastrous emergency era was ushered in by Indira Gandhi who was ironically born into and nurtured by  a family steeped in democratic principles. A decade after the initial euphoric years of self governance, we, Indians began to understand the virtues of democracy. Congress party that had metamorphosed into Cong(I) under Indira Gandhi with a hand symbol was no longer the one to be voted to power on the basis of TINA . We changed TINA to NINA (Now I Need  Alternatives) and voted repeatedly for Kalaidescopic coalitions at the Centre of ideologically opposed parties. With no principles (common mInimum programmes) strong enough to bind the parties, Governance became a casualty  and made people wonder if they had misread TINA and found in these rickety, bedraggled alignments the alternative to TINA. The coalition adharma made the voters in the recent elections vote BJP with a massive majority as the TINA factor worked in its favour.

Can TINA sustain for long? Already cracks seem to be appearing as the government and the cadres are speaking in different voices leading to communal unrest in the country. But the experiment with AAP as the NINA factor no longer enthuses the people. It will be a pity if NINA factor that lets in fresh air is stifled and we are made to breathe the TINA air that gets polluted by absolute power and the arrogance that goes with it.

There is no alternative to NINA. We have to find NINA to save ourselves from being dragged into a whirlpool of mediocrity. The PM’s passionate call for Swachha Bharat is to lift us out of that welter of dirt  into which we have blindly pushed ourselves saying “This Is India; there is no alternative to the dirt and filth that is around us”. So is his call for  “Make in India”. Though this was meant to attract foreign manufacturers to invest in India, the truth is all the products that have till now made in India including potato chips are of poor quality. Even the local white shirts that our sportspersons wear cannot match the whiteness of foreign shirts. There is a certain indifference to quality for we are easily satisfied with poor stuff justifying our love for mediocrity on TINA factor.  The lack of attention to details in everything that we do (barring our Space scientists) is because of our strong conviction and attitude that everything goes (is acceptable)-  “sab chalta hai” . A bad teacher, a poor worker, an indifferent clerk, an unethical doctor, a greedy lawyer, an ineffective cop- we can go on and on with a list of service providers whose indifference is tolerated by us as a TINA factor. It is time for us to rouse ourselves to fight TINA with a robust call for NINA. It is in NINA that we can finda change for the better..

Nietzsche wrote God is dead. Why he killed God was to kill the TINA factor that made men hold on to God as a crutch and not evolve further. He wanted Man  to assert NINA and find an alternative to evolve higher into a Superman by discarding the crutch. Unless we affirm to ourselves that Now I Need Alternatives, we may be forever doomed to mediocrity. Sir Arthur Conal Doyle wrote "Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself…” Unless we lift ourselves to seek higher and better ways of living with a self conviction that Now I Need Alternatives,,we shall forever remain prisoners of TINA.  

The Uncertainty Principle of Existence

Life is a movement from beginning to end. While the beginning marks the entry into the world, the end puts a full stop to any further movement unless we agree with the Hindu theory of reincarnation. For the non-Hindus the final entry is the tomb while for the Hindus it will be the womb. The Uncertainty principle which asserts that the position and momentum of a particle cannot be simultaneously measured with arbitrarily high precision enshrines a level of fuzziness in our existence. We can never predict at any given point where we will be nor can we accurately say how we will behave or what our nature will be at that moment. As one grows older and is venerated as a Senior Citizen, s/he wonders how far one will travel in this phase and how will one face the changes that senior citizenship shall bring to his/her declining physical and mental levels.

I dread walking into a Senior Citizens Home though it is better to be care of the “S.C.Home” than remain a nuisance at home to the active and busy younger members of one’s family. I am thinking of people like me who have not become physically decrepit and mentally bankrupt and can still keep pace with all the daily chores that had become a habit with most of us. The problem that our group of 70+ experience is of a different kind. Born in a middle class family of the 1940s in Tamilnadu, where to have a cook or a servant was a luxury, we have been trained to be hardy and tough. For nearly five decades- if not more-doing one’s own work was never considered demeaning and debasing. One enlarged on the trained domestic skills with acquired competence to drive, to work with modern gadgets, to carry out responsibilities that any job outside of home demanded. We were always energetic and felt embarrassed to admit that we were tired or weak. Getting up before the sun rose and going to bed after the moon had completed 50% of her night drive, we never complained of lack of sleep. This was the pre-X/Y/Z generations.

At 70+ we want to carry on as before and here we come into conflict with the younger generation whose outlook on work and well being has changed. This is really the generational shift that no one talks about. The new generation is also hardworking engaged more in mental exertion than physical strain. The younger people work for hours at their desk subjecting themselves to severe stress to meet deadlines- both imaginary and imposed. They are mentally fatigued and return home slumped and exhausted. They go gym-ming over the weekends- more of a fad and that too compulsorily cultivated. They look upon household chores as a daily drudgery to be done by servants, cooks and drivers.  The daily grind -to attend to all details at home, to do one’s own shopping as mundane as vegetable and grocery, to drive your own car,  to pick from and to drop the lids at school –used to fill us with pride because we had the time and we had the great sense of wholesome  participation in matters strictly personal. We never asked for recognition nor ever received any but the joy and satisfaction of doing one’s home duties were adequate rewards.  We went to bed, exhausted but with a smile unlike the present generation who retire to bed with a stress and a smirk.

The younger generation finds the presence of the oldies irksome. Not that they do not like them but they feel the elders are debasing themselves at their age by doing things that should be left to the hired employees. “You have no sense of pride that your son is the VP of a multi- national and you want to slog like a servant. You want to show me in poor light to the world as a callous son and that will be the talk of the town” How can you argue that I love driving, I love cooking, I love shopping for the kitchen, I love watering the plants etc etc” Their pride is only in working for million dollar profit for the American company and how can they understand the earlier era’s  “ little, unremembered acts of kindness  love and pleasure.”

Again as old people( Senior Citizens-for the sake of respectability), we are in a perpetual dilemma.  Some of us have been teachers and have spent our lifetime with young adults. The generational change does not affect us. We continue to be young at heart. Though brought up on classical music and dance with a defined and developed taste for classical aesthetics, we do not lack in appreciation of the modern Rap and rock varieties. We may not be knowledgeable, but we can shake a leg (if we had not undergone knee transplants) to the new musical beats that are far removed from classical Western or Carnatic or Hindustani music.  We may not go for a Rockstar’s show but when we see it on the TV screens and enjoy the music, the youngsters feel highly embarrassed especially when their young friends see us tapping to the music.. They would like us to see the Ramayan and the Mahbharat serials( which no doubt, we do see) than beat a rhythm with them. We are branded as senior citizens only fit for bhajans and satsangs.

The third tectonic shift that has taken place among generations is in the sartorial get up. Senior Citizens should be prim and proper; capris or shorts or ¾ pants are taboo for men;  skirts, tights, leggings, shorts, capris not for women. The youngsters mindful of their social status want to present us in our old attires. No question of indulging in anything other than formal dresses to preserve the old world values.  We have to be presented as though we were born apparelled in suits and sarees.

Our children- now grown big to have their own children feel that we will be happy if we stay with our age group, preferably in a senior citizens home, repeat stale jokes of yesteryears, indulge in nostalgia about what it was to be alive in those days and laugh vigorously as though we were watching the comedy show of the gone by eras. But the most damaging generational change we notice is when the present generation has no appreciation for the accumulated wisdom of the ages that we carry on our drooping shoulders. “You know nothing of the present age. Please don’t spill these words in front of my friends.”

Where do we go?  To Senior Citizens  home and hang around with oldies like us till death does part us  or stay to enjoy the new age life and culture, music and dance in the company of our youngsters who have come of age.  The crux of the argument is we are appreciated if we stay true to the age we belonged to and we are depreciated if we dare to change with the times. The Uncertainty Principle is we do not know where we are headed to and what should be our nature.