Otherwise we shall be faulted at home for what one sees in the Vedas. Some of them are filled with spiteful prayers of hatred for the Dasyu race. Today’s hate-mongers will still like to see such prayers of hatred as invocations for the destruction of the evil or as legitimate instruments of castigating ‘the threatening other’. Implicitly they also fall into the mold of uncivilized ancestors who considered the Dalits as essentially evil. Even today many dominant caste persons do not want to look at Dalits, leave alone talk to them. Aberrations of civilization! Human history has to pass through such phases in its trajectory.
Scriptures are huge documents of inspiration. Do not mistake this. Those who are inspired can easily be possessed. In that possessed state of mind they can spew venom. It is a sort of compulsion. You have seen behavior of the possessed. They operate under compulsion. Saner persons cannot reach out to them. They do not care on whom they belch out their venom. They cannot even see what harm it does to the other. They dance all the way at the way their venom destroys people and civilization.
Has human society really civilized itself? One group of nations, inspired by their religion and faith, meanders around the world with missiles and corporations and destroys sovereignties. Another group of fellows want India to be a nation of their religion and culture, the mother of all religions. All others have to follow suit or get out of the country. Yet another group of religious fanatics borrow their dance and set up their stage just opposite proclaiming that nothing exists except their only god. All have a jolly good time with their dance of death and destruction. Death of the human spirit and destruction of refined interpersonal relationships!
The writers of the new scriptures of hatred fill the present world covering the void created by civilized voices. The problem is that shouting aloud is not seen as civilization. Those who are ‘civilized’ do not shout. Their voices are drowned often enough. Those who are ‘uncivilized’ in any case firmly believe in shouting. Be it the Advanis, the Togadias, the Varun Gandhis, the Owaisis or their masters of yore. There is no dearth of hate-mongers in human history.
But hatred as a compulsion is only one side of the coin. Hatred as a political tool can be much more destructive in the long run. The Muslims hating all others in order to gain political power through their religion, the Hindus producing philosophies of hatred, encapsulated in sugar coated discourses of nationalism and patriotism, the Christians producing paradigm after paradigm of democracy in effect colonizing the entire world! Everyone is in a mad rush for political power. It is not to bring prosperity to humanity. But to destroy the other so that ‘my people’, ‘my religion’ may prosper and dominate throughout the world.
Yes, no more arguments! All of us know that hatred exists and why it exists. What do we do about it?
The saner elements in religions should work towards the removal of all verses of hatred from scriptures of their respective religions. They will be butchered by the insane fellows. That will be much better than spreading venom into the entire humanity. If followers of religions of hatred should hate one another of their own ilk and mutually destroy themselves, let them do so. Nothing should hold back the rest of the world. But the saner ones should also increase their tribe and gain the authority within their religious structures. An onerous job indeed but not an impossible one!
The ‘unbelievers’, the atheists, the rationalists etc. please stop giving publicity to such hate speeches. Ignore them. Let their voices be drained into the gutter unnoticed by any. Those who think that theirs is the saner voice in society, unfortunately keep on harping on the hate speeches of others instead of producing their own discourses of love and free space for all people. Just do not allow hatred to touch your system, I mean your body and your thinking. Hatred is bound to vanish if you do not allow it to touch you.
But it will be only wishful thinking if political aspirations of oppressed and marginalized people are repressed further in the name of peace. In political aspirations one must distinguish between the aspiration to political domination and the aspiration to political space. The moment these two are mixed up there is going to be further anger among the saner ones and it could lead to compulsive anger and that further leading to hatred. A nation can easily be caught in a vicious cycle of hatred as a consequence.
Look at the facts. Muslims in our country are about 15% of total population but their representation in the parliament is less than 7%. It is possible that hate speeches are made into instruments of legitimizing political aspirations of the underdogs. How else would one explain the swiftness with which Owaisi was arrested and put in jail for his hate speech and Advani and Co. are still sitting in the Parliament after destroying the Babri Masjid? The long arm of law must encompass all alike. How come that reservation is given to Dalits who are considered to be Hindus and Buddhists and not who are Muslims and Christians? Serious issues of governance! This can generate unnecessary hatred not toward governments but towards other communities.
Why not legislate strictly that any elected member who indulges in hate speeches should be divested of his/her positions both in the Legislative Assembly and in the Parliament. There should be no mercy. Normal law can take its course in the case of unknown ordinary citizens caught in the cobweb of hatred and hate speeches. But elected members and people in positions of power including bureaucrats must be dismissed forthwith by a very quick dispensation of justice through legal procedures. Special Courts, yes! If the government can spend crores of rupees for creation of Special Squads, Rapid Action Force, Black Cats etc. why not spend money for special courts only to prevent the country from marching into the limbo through hate-mongers?
Let there be sanity in governance and let there be sanity among citizens. Let the country march into the haven of peace.
