Finally I have found out a solution for preventing the
growing intolerance in our country. People just need to empty their minds of
all preoccupations regarding religion, nationalism and caste politics, and
should let all kinds of art forms to occupy those empty spaces. Empty minds?,
you may ask. Empty mind is the Devil’s workshop, they say. But it is not
necessarily be so. We have reached a saturation point in our minds that we need
to de-saturate it by emptying all kinds of arguments. I remember the famous
story of a Zen master asking the visiting Professor from the US to empty his
mind in order to know anything more. Like the American professor, people in our
country have become the vessels of information and opinion to the brim. A drop
of reason cannot be poured into it as there is no space. People, literate and
semi-literate varieties, always have had their opinion on things. But they used
to listen to the scholars and learned people speaking or writing about them and
used to make self assessment of things and situations without being vociferous
about it. Today, as the noted art historian R. Sivakumar puts it, most of the
people in the social media express their opinion without research or substantial
knowledge. They have an opinion like their predecessors, but unlike them, these
people have the avenues to express it. Democratically speaking, having an
opinion and also having a platform to express it help to grow a just society.
But too many unsubstantiated opinions circulated over the social media make our
society much intolerant.
The debate of intolerance has reached to such heights that
nothing makes sense anymore. The act of returning awards to their source
organisations by the writers, film makers, historians, artists and scientists,
though had been lampooned, ridiculed and severely criticised by so many people,
calling them intolerant in turn, has however produced strong results in
controlling the negative social processes and also has prevented the country
from falling into the vicious dungeons of self aggrandisement, chest thumping and
aggressive nationalism. The intolerance level has reached to such heights that
the confessional voices of internationally acclaimed films stars in our country
could be taken out of context and used for publicly shaming them. Noted ‘spiritual
leaders’ double themselves up as art historians and makes elaborate assessment
of the works of art that allegedly have hurt the sentiments of the majorities.
While the publicly shamed film actors are from the minority communities and the
ones who become art historians and moral guardians in our society come from the
majority community. The identification or membership with the majority
(community or religion or political part or caste), especially in a scenario
where the ideology of the majority has political power in the democratically
elected government, gives many the authority to articulate what is not
qualified as a researched and substantiated opinion. The irony is while we do
not allow an unqualified person even if he or she is from the majority
community to operate upon our physical body for an ailment, we happily accept
the unqualified therefore unjustified arguments or views of the people on
subjects that need thorough research and knowledge only because they belong to
the majority community or politics or ideology.
(Arundhati Roy)
This is not the kind of mindset that would take a society to
the path of development for development is being the mantra of these days. In
my opinion, the intolerance level of this country has reached to the
unprecedented heights mainly because of three major reasons: one, the
government, though the ruling party has a very clear political ideology which
draws its energy from the majority community and religion, has completely
failed in abiding by the democratic norms of being a government of all
therefore failed in curbing the fringe elements in the majority community going
berserk and letting loose the reign terror on anything that has a dissenting
attitude. Whether it is eating beef or it is about not ‘standing’ while the
national anthem is on before the screening of a movie, what becomes operative
in curbing the freedom of the dissenting people is the false sense of power
given to anybody who could brag on his or her nationalist credentials. Only in
a fascistic atmosphere such a situation would develop where citizens turn
against fellow citizens on any flimsy reason. Trolling and public shaming of
people and ideas over the social medias is a strong evidence to my claim that
the government while trying to control the internet users through various bans
and jamming of bandwidths, lets the majority opinion flow freely in the same
domains however arrogant, deviant, perverse and threatening they are for the
dissenting and level headed people in the country.
Secondly, the media which is called the fourth estate therefore
one of the strong pillars of parliamentary democracy, no longer plays its role
effectively and impartially because the news making and distributing have
become a part of the business which has a lot to do with the political lobbying
during the elections and after the elections. In my view, nothing in our
society or in any other country is separate from our lives today. We have
become very intricate components of the gigantic machinery called the global
market. Politics which used to be different from the dynamics of market, with
the globalization has become an extension of the business and market. Governing, today means making the business
processes of the multinational corporations easier and profitable through policy
changes even if such changes would drastically affect the lives of the common
people all over the world. As media belongs to this machinery, it can no longer
be different and hence it has become a promoter of what is being sold in the
market; if it is majority politics then the media also sell the same. To hide
the policy changes and to keep the common man from the complexities of power
sharing between politics business, a lot of brain numbing entertainments are
given to the common man so that his attention would be always diverted. More
than wars today entertainments kill people. Wars are necessary for the
international arms and ammunition businesses and geographical resource sharing
between the most powerful amongst the nations. Entertainments are necessary
because they keep people distracted and spiritually dead. A cursory look at the
news channels in any country would reveals that news is no longer a serious
issue but sentimental courtroom dramas where everyone gets a chance to voice
their opinion and to appear like a saint. In some countries news hours have
reached to that level of entertainment where news readers (women) slowly strip
as they read news and by the end of the news they will be totally nude. What kind of democratic values could be imparted by
such news, I wonder.
(Aamir Khan)
I do not intend to say all the media look the other way when
serious problems come up in our society. No there are mediums that give their
considered opinion both in television and an in print media. But mostly, today
news media means entertainment. Because of the onslaught of information and
argument around issues, and also the liberal nature of the media in giving the
culprit also a chance to appear as a saint, confuses the viewers thoroughly and
eventually the purpose of news itself is lost. There are reports from the
backward areas of our country and there are several sob stories of human
suffering elsewhere in our media. At times media become the voice of the
downtrodden. However, as it comes closer to the power centres, the media
blatant becomes the sycophants of the powerful in order to survive in the
competitive market of news making and advertisement revenue sharing.
Thirdly, as I mentioned, the unconsidered views expressed by
any literate or semi-literate kind of person against the people who demand a
tolerant society via social media and the kind of permissibility given to such
people by the authorities. In the social media, there are some automatic
controls that prevent overtly obscene images and items from circulation. There
is another kind of censorship possible in the social media; one, by trolling
someone and abusing him or her for expressing the voice of dissent. Two, by
mass reporting to the admins of the social media about the people who dissent. Of
late there have been several incidents in India where people who demand or
argue for tolerance are hooted down or forced move out of social media by the
literate volunteers of the hate rule. In the name of democratic freedom and
freedom of expression one cannot just abuse people like Romila Thapar, Girish
Karnad, Amartya Sen, Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Arundhati Roy or anybody of
such status and repute. I am not being too much a status quoits or I do not say
that they are the ultimate words of tolerance but I do say that in their
respective fields they have contributed immensely and their voices could
influence people and that’s why they are invited to express their opinion. It
is not fair to troll them and shame them once they openly speak their minds.
And imagine, those people who troll them are absolutely unqualified people like
some office goers or local party workers or some nobodys only because they read
newspapers (really?) or they see their favourite and biased television channels
and have got a facebook account. I should not be partial when I say this and I
insist that those people who lampoon the majority community and counter troll
from that group also should not get into the same mode which would vitiate and
aggravate the situation of intolerance. As Gandhiji had said, an eye for an eye
would render world blind.
(Prof.Amartya Sen)
Nobel Laureate economist Amartya Sen in his book, the
Country of First Boys, speaks of how partial we are in our arguments. He says
that often we cite Bhagat Gita for justifying many of our actions because
Krishna had advised Arjuna that he should do his ‘karma’ and should not think
about the consequences. Taken out of the context, Sen says that it could be a
justification for any kind of injustice. He insists that we should see it as
the answer to the scepticism expressed by Arjun in saying that a war of that
scale would be futile if he was to kill all his kith and kin and wrest power.
The post war scenario definitely, Sen says, proves the scepticism of Arjun
right. In that way we all should see every scriptural diktat in context as most
of are not autonomous in themselves but form the part of a continuity. Sen says
that all the scriptures including the Vedas should be seen it in this secular
liberal context than a religious context. We should heed these words of this
wise man carefully because most of the social media opinions on tolerance and
intolerance come without a context. They are the results of hearsays, gossips,
beliefs, superstitions, traditions, rituals, practice, routine, habit and so
on. We need to accept that there are learned people who speak from the depths
as well as from the heights of research, practice and experience in the
concerned areas. A person armed with bullishness, ignorance and some blind
faith in a religion or a political party cannot abuse the intellectuals and
also cannot say a definite opinion against intolerance only because he or she
has a facebook account. If it continues to be so, we are going to get into a
dark age of information confusion and unfounded opinion.
At the outset of this essay I
mentioned the need for emptying ourselves. Our half baked knowledge has become
a huge hurdle before us in crossing several social barriers. This also prevents
us from engaging ourselves in intelligent conversations. We need to unlearn and
listen to the wise people speaking. The word Upanishad means ‘sit near around’.
This is how knowledge was imparted at some point of time in our country. The
guru used to sit under a tree and the disciples used to sit near around him.
Gurostu maunam vykhyanam means the silence of the guru could also be an
explanation. Guru taught, spoke and even made his disciples do his household
works. But all were part of the learning. This Upanishadic experience tells us
to be silent and listen to the masters. The Zen master had asked the professor
to come back empty headed. We also should empty ourselves of our half baked
knowledge about things. Either we should get into a research mode or we should
just shut up and listen. If we get into the real research, like the young
barrister in Chekhov’s story, the Bet, we would leave the material world and
seek our solace in silence, in the wilderness. Unfortunately, we are mere
mortals but we can shut ourselves up and listen to the sages of our times.
(Shah Rukh Khan)
Also I said that the remedy for all
kinds of intolerance is to turn to art and cultural things. A person who could
look at a painting for a few minutes will not think about killing someone or
looting someone. A person who could touch a sculpture cannot shoot someone; but
he could shoot a selfie with that sculpture. A person who makes a work of art
cannot think of harming another person. A person before the presence of anything
beautiful cannot think of negating the beauty inherent in another view or
argument. A person who listens to music cannot elbow someone for space. A
person who dances cannot make a coarse movement even inside the bathroom. Writing
is a way of creating art so is reading. A person who reads cannot push and pull
the other people around. A person who writes does not get time even to think of
discarding something or someone. We all know the temples were the places of learning
and art. They became the places of worship slowly. Then they became the seats
of power, money and arrogance. Today we cannot find solace in temples for their
spirituality is bartered for money. But we can turn the galleries, museums,
cafes, libraries, concert halls, theatres, clubs, libraries and all into places
of learning and art. Walk into a gallery without any intention to buy a work of
art. Sit or stand before a work of art for at least two minutes, forget everything
and even forget the fact that you are in front of a piece of art. When you come
out you come out as a different person. The world will look different. Listen
to a good piece of music, you will turn divine. Read a good book, you will
become the world. Tolerance happens when mind becomes empty and to that void
allow all the goodness of art and culture pour in. I am sure the future belongs
to art and culture, of any kind. Paper money eventually returns to its
intrinsic value- zeor, said Voltaire. But art and culture never returns to zero
because they start from zero and moves towards the sublime where the word
intolerance has no relevance.
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