Tavleen Singh - Summer in crazy town
When the economy slows
enough to seem stuck at a speed-breaker and the Finance Minister has to explain
new rules about trading in cattle, you know something is very wrong. To be
completely truthful I am sick of writing about cows, but every time I try to
change the subject, and speak, for instance, about more important things like
the terrible bombing last week in Afghanistan, I am forced to return to the
craziness that has spread across the land in the name of cows and other
non-human beings like peacocks. When a high court judge declares that peacocks
breed without copulation and that cows were sent to Earth by Lord Krishna as an
advance guard for his own arrival, then it is really not possible to ignore the
craziness that is going around these days in the name of Hindutva.
Justice Mahesh Chandra
Sharma gave several interviews last week on the day that he was retiring from
the Rajasthan High Court. Not about the failure of our justice system to speed
up the delivery of justice, but about his faith. So he declared that, “There is
a reference in Bhagwat Purana about peacocks not having sex… the main
characteristic of the peacock is his celibacy. The peahen gets pregnant by
swallowing the tears of the peacock.” And, “Cow is revered as a mother in the
country, so it should be given the status of national mother. Cow killers
should be given capital punishment instead of life imprisonment.”
Fact-check of Honourable Judge’s cow order in Rajasthan
BJP Leader Sangeet Som's Link With Meat Export Firms Exposed by Documents
So if the killers of
Pehlu Khan had been brought before Justice Sharma, they may have been rewarded
rather than punished. Is it any wonder that the Finance Minister needed to
explain the latest rules of cattle-trading at his press conference? He would
have done better to announce an amendment, because if the rules remain as they
are and killing buffaloes becomes as dangerous as killing cows, then the rural
economy could soon collapse. Most farmers breed buffaloes for their milk and
when they are too old they send them for slaughter. They do this because they
cannot afford to keep them any longer. Under the new rules, they would be
forced to release old buffaloes into the streets to fend for themselves as
already happens with old cows.
To return though to
the craziness that currently spreads in the cause of Hindutva, I was stunned to
see a pious Hindu defend Justice Sharma’s celibate peacock theory on national
television in these words. “Do you not believe in the Bhagwat Gita?” he asked
two CNN-News 18 anchors menacingly. “If you do, then you know that it is part
of the Mahabharata, so please tell me how the Pandavas were born?” I mention
this bizarre comment only because on my Twitter timeline daily I find similar
comments from pious Hindus who accuse people like me of being too Westernised
and too ‘elitist’ to understand the new India. By ‘elitist’ they mean
anyone who speaks English, eats meat, drinks wine or dares to write their
columns in air-conditioned rooms. Air-conditioning really makes their blood
boil and they have a special hatred for those who may have rubbed shoulders
with political leaders who live in ‘Lootyens’ Delhi. They describe themselves
as ‘nationalist Hindus’ and as ardent supporters of the Modi government. I have
been heavily targeted in recent weeks for daring to post on Twitter a picture I
took of a cow sitting in a field of garbage within the premises of the
Gorakhnath temple. Yogi Aditynath is their new hero and they saw my picture as
an attempt to defame him.
In India, myth,
history, gods, kings and religion have long been so woven into each other that
ordinary, pious Hindus are unable to distinguish where boundaries end and new
ones begin. This is partly due to the failure of religious teachers and partly
due to an education system that has treated the study of Indian religions and
pre-Islamic Indian history with disdain. So one solution to the current
craziness would be to introduce into school and college syllabuses, Indian
studies.
It is possible that
the blurred lines between myth and reality might become clearer. We must at
least hope they will, or what seems just craziness now could soon transmute
into fanaticism and violence. Already there are many denizens of the ‘new’
India who believe that if they work hard enough to get rid of all Muslims, this
will one day come to pass. They make no effort to conceal their hatred of Islam
and pin on this religion all of India’s problems. Since rational analysis and
fanaticism do not go together, it is impossible for them to understand that it
is wrong to blame the sins of dead Muslim rulers on Muslims who live in India
today. And, futile to explain that Indian Muslims are as Indian as Hindus.
http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/fifth-column-summer-in-crazy-town-4687793/see also
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