Shiv Visvanathan: Think like a civilisation
The biggest
casualty of unquestioning enthusiasm for war is democracy and rational thought
This essay is a piece
of dissent at a time when dissent may not be welcome. It is an attempt to look
at what I call the Pulwama syndrome, after India’s bombing of terrorist camps
in Pakistan. There is an air of achievement and competence, a
feeling that we have given a fitting reply to Pakistan. Newspapers have in
unison supported the government, and citizens, from actors to cricketers, have
been content in stating their loyalty, literally issuing certificates to the
government. Yet watching all this, I feel a deep sense of unease, a feeling
that India is celebrating a moment which needs to be located in a different
context.
Peace needs courage: It reminded me of
something that happened when I was in school. I had just come back from a war movie
featuring Winston Churchill. I came back home excitedly and told my father
about Churchill. He smiled sadly and said, “Churchill was a bully. He was not
fit to touch Gandhi’s chappals.” He then added thoughtfully that “war creates a
schoolboy loyalty, half boy scout, half mob”, which becomes epidemic. “Peace,”
he said, “demands a courage few men have.” I still remember these lines, and I
realised their relevance for the events this week.
One sees an instant
unity which is almost miraculous. This sense of unity does not tolerate
difference. People take loyalty literally and become paranoid. Crowds attack a
long-standing bakery to remove the word ‘Karachi’ from its signage. War becomes
an evangelical issue as each man desperately competes to prove his loyalty.
Doubt and dissent become impossible, rationality is rare, and pluralism a
remote possibility. There is a sense of solidarity with the ruling regime which
is surreal. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was encrusted with doubts a week
before, appears like an untarnished hero. Even the cynicism around these
attitudes is ignored. One watches with indifference as Bharatiya Janata Party
president Amit Shah virtually claims that security and war are part of his vote
bank.
Thought becomes a
casualty as people conflate terms such as Kashmiri, Pakistani and Muslim while
threatening citizens peacefully pursuing their livelihood. One watches aghast
as India turns war into a feud, indifferent to a wider conflagration. The whole
country lives from event to event and TV becomes hysterical, not knowing the
difference between war and cricket... read more:
'Abhinandan', 'Balakot', 'Pulwama': Bollywood Producers Fight To Register “Patriotic” Movie Titles
While most of India anxiously waits for news of war and prays for the safe return of captured Indian Air Force Pilot, Abhinandan Varthaman, Bollywood is moving quickly to capitalise on this national tragedy.
A message and an appeal
