J.Devika must be in a shock now. It was in the last month
she finally wrote a letter to the editor of the Mathrubhoomi News paper that
she had decided to stop the subscription of the newspaper because the paper had
been giving exaggerated news on Hindutva and imbalanced views on Dalit and
minority issues. Her letter had gone viral in the social media and many people
including this writer had welcomed her move. But now it has become all our duty
to save Mathrubhoomi from the hooligans from yet another Hindutva outfit namely
‘Hanuman Sena’. Dr.M.M.Basheer, a renowned scholar of Malayalam and Sanskrit
literature was threatened by this outfit and he was forced to withdraw his
column on Ramayana halfway in the Mathrubhoomi Newspaper. Once he started his
six parts series in the said newspaper, Dr.Basheer started getting threat calls
asking him to back off from finishing it. Finally, by the fifth column
Dr.Basheer decided to call the series off, publicly expressing his disgust by
saying that at the age of 75 he had been reduced into just a Muslim.
What offended the Hanuman Sena is Dr.Basheer’s take on Lord
Ram. According to the scholar he was appreciating the sage poet Valmiki’s
ability to delve deeper into the human psyche which could unearth the human side
of Lord Ram, who was primarily a king and a husband later. Hanuman Sena was not
that large hearted enough to take the arguments of Dr.Basheer. They threatened
him and also threatened the editor of the newspaper. I do not know what exactly
is the stance of Mathrubhoomi on this issue, however it is said that the
counter arguments of the editor also did not hold much water for the hooligans
from this Hindutva outfit. I could see a special report on this filed by an online
news portal, ‘the news minute’ and also could see some pictures of the members
of this outfit.
(Hanuman Sena in Kerala)
The names of these members are very interesting, Tulsidas,
Bhaktavalsalan etc. Tulsidas, by the way is the name of the composer of
Ramayana during the Bhakti movement during the fifteenth century.
Bhaktavalsalan is a generic Hindu name with an over doze of Hindutva meanings.
I doubt whether these names have led them to this outfit or it is just a
coincidence that they have this name since birth. But I have strong doubts that
these names are adapted to cover up their normal names as Suresh or Subhash.
What surprised me is the presence of two women wearing saffron sarees in the
protest march held by this outfit to the newspaper office. Do these women know that Hanuman is a nitya
brahmachari (permanently celibate) and the iconography does not entertain any
woman other than Sita. The banner that these people carry says that it is a
national organization though the reports say that it has only fifty odd members
and it is hardly three years old. Also the banner has a subtitle before the
original title that reads like this: Sacrifice, Service, Goodness, Security,
Adventure and Culture. As a person who knows Indian mythology I should have any
doubts on these qualities of Hanuman as a demi-god. He is the embodiment of all
these.
At the risk of inviting some Hindutva ire, I would like to
say that Hanuman is a character who is blinded by faith. Even the sincerest of
the servants would question their masters when they are about to commit some
blunder in their lives. Hanuman, being a monkey gentleman and also he is adopted
from the sub-human regime of the south Indians, he is often shown as a person
who does not discern when it comes to action. He acts on duty and he has
unquestioning trust and complete faith in what his master says. His lack of discerning
is with him right from the beginning. He flies to the morning sun thinking that
it is a fruit. He is crushed down by Lord Indra, causing damage to the baby
Hanuman’s jaw bone. Later, during the Lanka War, to revive the fainted duo Ram
and Lakshman, Hanuman is sent to the Maruthvamala (Maruthva Hills) in order to
fetch Mrutha Sanjeevani (an elixir that would revive the fainted and dead). As
he could not find the medicine, he brings the whole hill on his shoulders. We
have so many instances to doubt his discerning capacity. In Lanka when he goes
to give Ram’s message to Sita, once captured he burns his own tail to gut the
city of Lanka. Later he brings the happy family back on his shoulders. And when
asked to show his devotion to the divine family, he tears opens his chest and
shows the picture of Ram and Sita. Where else you would find this blameless
servant. But Hanuman is relegated to the backdrop when Sita is about to be
casted away to the forest. He does not have a voice nor does he question his
master. Hanuman is a master of servility and at the same time he is so fond of
adventures.
Lack of discernment and enthusiasm for adventure are what
make Hanuman Sena distinct from other cultural organizations. There are many
Senas like that. We have not yet forgotten the bad deeds of Ram Sena in
Bangalore. The members of this outfit dragged boys and girls out of beer pubs
and performed their moral policing the worst way possible. But the extremists
were publicly shamed by the Pink Chaddi movement initiated by a bold woman
journalist. Now Muthalik, the leader of the outfit is barred from entering
places like Goa. Though the court order that debars Muthalik from entering Goa
gives some hope to people like us, our headache is made severe by the sudden
appearance of Senas like this. Hanuman Sena is on an adventure trail. It just
wants to cause nuisance in our society. They know for sure that whether they
are approved by the RSS or BJP headquarters or not, eventually when it is
bracketed as a Hindutva organization, they cannot be treated as pariahs by the
mainstream organizations. Hence, their vandalism will create hue and cry and
they slowly start getting public attention. Once they are in the public eye,
their power and money would draw the fringe youth to it. Slowly the
non-existent outfit will grow into a muscled and moneyed mainstream organization.
What should be done is one question that comes to my mind.
If our political parties have any will to govern left in their minds, they
should immediately arrest these people. Hinduism is not a religion that will be
disturbed or destroyed if an Muslim scholar writes about Ramayana
appreciatively or critically. Hinduism cannot be a brittle religion that needs
hooligans like Hanuman Sena to protect its followers or their ethical beliefs.
The government should come forward to ban the organization and also put
everyone involved in this organization into jail. Here we have a state that is
hell bent on hunting down Maoists and other human rights organizations who
stand for the dispossessed people. When they are put into jails, the fringe
hooligans are let free so that they could stop scholars. The government should
learn from the latest political and religious developments in our country. It
was just a week before Dr.M.M.Kalburgi was shot dead in Bangalore in broad day
light by the Hindutva hooligans. His crime that invited death penalty by goons
from the religious outfit was his staunch stance against religion on behalf of
logic and scientism.
(Where do we come from, what are we, where are we going? Painting by Paul Gaugin)
Goa based artist and social activist Dr.Subodh Kerkar had
once articulated the mindset of people whose religious sentiments are hurt even
at the drop of a hat. Dr.Kerkar calls it ‘Sentiments Hurtitis’. This neologism lampoons
the easily hurting sentiments of the people. They are the people who cause a
lot of social unrest. Sentiments Hurtitis has become a social religion now.
When the poet and scholar A.K.Ramanujan’s ‘Many Ramayanas’ was introduced for
graduate studies in Delhi University, it was banned after protests from the
Hindutva outfits. When Perumal Murugan wrote about a religious custom in one of
the obscure villages in Tamil Nadu in his novel ‘Mathorupagan’
(Ardhanaareeswaran) , he was forced to commit a symbolic suicide by the
Hindutva activists. Perumal Murugan declared that he would never write a word
as literature and he has killed the author in him. Wendy Doringer’s book on
Hinduism had been withdrawn from the shelves and the publishing giant, Penguin
was coerced to pulp the remaining copies of the book. There are a lot many
other writers who have been persecuted in India for having a different opinion.
Famous 19th century artist Paul Gaugin in 1897
painted a large mural scale work and titled ‘Where do we come from, what are we
and where are we going?’Gaugin painted this work when he had just shifted to
Tahiti islands from Paris. His retreat and the decision to take a retreat had
caused a lot of existential crisis in him. He wanted to question the basic idea
of being a human. It is high time that we too ask the same question. Where do
we come from, what are we and where are we going? If we have a clear answer to
this question as a whole, I think we have some hope for redemption. Otherwise
we are going to be reduced into blood and filth before we could understand what
has befallen on us. People are out there to take away our lives if we are ready
to speak up. If we do not speak up, we would be partners in crime. Illustrious
poet, Dante had said in his poem, Inferno that during the time of crisis the
crime is to take no part. It is high time that we all stand up, speak up and
also act for our rights. When a small outfit of hardly fifty people could stop
a writer, tomorrow a larger crowd could silence the mass of writers and
artists. It has happened in the world. And the world has paid for such
atrocities with the Second World War. Is India going to be the cradle and
reason for the Third World War? Considering the world crisis, we may sigh in relief
because there are more crisis ridden regions in the world. But ours is a
rampant spread of religious and intellectual intolerance. To kill a
civilization bombs and weapons of mass destruction are not needed. Just the
silence of thoughts and censorship on free speech will do. And we have enough
of it.
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