Picnic on the Top of a Volcano

The heading of this piece was the name of a Bangla book (আগ্নেয়গিরির শিখরে পিকনিক) written by the late economist Ashok Rudra long ago. It could have been written today. What else can better describe the fact that a majority of my educated upper-middleclass friends exchange thousands of inane jokes and are generally engrossed in trivia when 17% of our fellow citizens are targeted, mentally tortured, and some of them murdered in cold blood, with the active support of the state that is oath-bound to protect them? ... When what we get to watch / read as news is mostly government handouts … When people are sent to jail for expressing their opinion on Facebook (one of them is a personal friend, Souradeep Sengupta, a physics teacher in Silchar), while murderers roam free on the streets? … When courts have – barring admirable exceptions – abandoned their duty to protect the weak, and are bending over backwards to please the executive? … When historians and social scientists warn us that our country is at a cusp, and soon, the India as we know her might have become history?

Read “my educated upper-middleclass friends” above as “my educated upper-middleclass Hindu friends”. Lots of them have sold their souls to the ideology of hate and divisiveness; they somehow try to justify every wrong committed by the powerful. Some others are blissfully unconcerned about the mayhem around us, or at least, seem to be so. The second group reminds me of the decadent feudal families in Tolstoy novels or our own Bengali idle rich of the 19th century who indulged in, besides wine and women, ridiculous passions like flying pigeons and cock-fights while the poor lived a dog’s life.

However, on the other hand, there are lots of Hindus who believe that no one can be punished just for being born into a particular religious community. “Being born” cannot be a crime.

The two sides have been engaged in angry arguments, the consequences of which have been neatly summed up in the following message I received this morning [©Meha Dhondiyal, I have lightly edited the text for brevity.]

I know this will come as no consolation to my Muslim friends, but at least your families are together in sorrow n fear. OTOH, Hindu families have split straight down the middle on ideological grounds.

The generation brought up in Congress comfort are often rabid bigots thanks to WhatsApp-borne ignorance about Muslims, CAA, foreign affairs, and the state of the economy. The younger generation, creative people, intellectuals, and educated women are more likely to be liberal, informed and articulate, but their number is much smaller and they are likely to be outshouted.

Heated arguments on MoSha and Muslims are an everyday affair. Or else, political issues are not touched with a bargepole for fear of acrimony. Some can’t talk to parents or in-laws. Some are apologising for their rabid uncles. Friends and relatives have stopped inviting those who differ on ideological grounds. Or, liberals prefer not to visit any bhakt gathering.

I think it's better that we have ppl openly fighting their family for humanity and progressive values. In fact, there should be more such voices. But God knows, I've never seen such divisions in India everywhere: in polity, society, and family.

Ab ki baar is polarisation Sarkar!

Thank you, Aravind for sharing this incisive message. I too have been thinking on these lines. But in the following lines, I’d try to go a little beyond. On how we should handle the problem as individuals.

Fortunately, my family has much fewer bigots. Not too many fault lines there. But most of my childhood friends and former colleagues are, I believe, either bhakts, or “closet bhakts”. Some are even worse: they belong to the unconcerned people who I have tried to describe at some length above. For example, after the recent pogrom in Delhi, lots of my friends aren’t least perturbed by the planned, cold-blooded assault that lead to 53 deaths and that turned thousands of people paupers within three days. (I am not talking about the mental trauma that thousands will go through for the rest of their lives.)

I am tired of arguing with these “friends”. And honestly, disgusted. It would be easy not to carry such people as friends. But it will also mean drawing more lines on the ground, putting up more walls. Wouldn’t that be surrendering to the ideology of hatred?

I believe I have found the answer. Friendship happens at two levels. Some friendships define who you are. Discarding some friendships would amount to discarding some of your own self. Ditto, with some relationships.

No, I won’t let go such friends, even if they are fanatical lovers on Modi. My love for them is unconditional, it is etched in stone, no political dust storms can erase it. But, does everyone I studied or worked with, although technically a friend, qualify to be included in this group? The answer is a quiet No.

And with such people, from today, I won’t interact. I would simply tell them, and please forgive my language, “Fuck off!”

PS: There are people who haven’t been covered in this note, those who believe what’s happening around is wrong, but don’t speak up. The Desmond Tutu quotation is for their consideration.

Wednesday, 11 March 2020