The Racist Chronicles - Part II

The ongoing row over the racist remarks being directed at an Indian actress in a British reality show makes for interesting reading, both because it shows how much the world abhors racism, as also because it illustrates that despite this overt abhorrence, racism continues and persists in almost every part of the world, and in every section of society.

I mentioned the Holocaust and the Inquisition primarily because they are something that I expect everyone might at least know something about, if not about both, then at least about the former. But they are not the only examples of racist prejudices turning to murderous intentions; rather they are perhaps amongst the few that are more prominent. Racism needn't be seen only as a prerogative of the Caucasian race; on the contrary, racism was and is practiced by each and every race on this earth, against each other.

But, it is a different thing to just voice one's opposition over something, and quite another to do something to tackle the beast by the horns. Simply stating one's outrage and one's dismay at racism rearing its head doesn't quite serve any purpose other than to illustrate that racism exists. But that isn't enough.
And this is where comments like Mr. David Cameron, leader of the Conservatives in the United Kingdom, are illustrative of what the common man can do to contribute in the fight against racism. The phrase may not be as evocative as the fight against terror, but it is equally important that we win this one as well, as emphatically as we would hope to win the other. Mr. Cameron says, and I quote, "I haven't watch this series, I don't intend to, but anyone who does and who doesn't like this racism, there's a great regulator, it's called the 'off' button."

In other words, viewers have the option of sending across the message that they don't approve of racism by simply switching off the offensive show, showing that racism isn't cool, rather, that it's plain odious. Broadcasters will soon have to either crackdown on the offenders or lose out on valuable customers (and even more valuable advertising revenues). And what they will do, should they be forced to, is any body's guess.

The Racist Chronicles - I

Racism is perhaps a virulent disease, an ailment that somehow pervades time and space, and strikes every heart, irrespective of its ethnicity or origin. And what is more ironic is that even those who suffer at the hands of another ‘race’ choose to exhibit racial prerogatives, choose to display racial biases and prejudices. Whoever said that only the one who bleeds is the one best placed to comprehend the pain perhaps never was racially discriminated against, nor saw racial discrimination being meted out to fellow human beings.

Racism, to my mind, is perhaps borne out of a deep sense of insecurity, and perhaps a generic inability to comprehend or accept that it is possible for someone coming from a different background than you can be any better than you. If you observe racial laws such as the Nuremberg laws of Nazi Germany, or the Manusmriti in India, then there is a marked mention about the need to preserve certain occupations, certain privileges and certain prerogatives for certain races/communities at the expense of the rest. And when I mean expense, I really mean it was expensive, considering that penalties for violating such ‘statutes’ of society were often either physical mutilation or death.

And perhaps this is an attitude that pervades even to this day. Previously dominant colonial powers have to face their former subjects outperforming them on all fronts, and actually developing to such a stage, that they have to learn from them how to run a country. Local denizens, who till now have been enjoying the status of first world citizens, are now trembling under the burden of unemployment, their misery something that they attribute to the growing clout of outsourcing and a resurgent Third World. They choose to ignore that they have lost the edge when it comes to the skills required to succeed in this age, that they no longer are the race prima, the primal people, the Alphas and the Omegas of the earth (actually they never were, just that then they had the muscle power to keep the others under their feet).

And this manifests in racism. You feel obliged to insult, to curse and to demean the one whom you blame for your problems, in order to make yourself feel a little bit better. You will call them names, ask them to leave ‘your’ country, which is a supreme irony, because indigenous people rarely if ever have been left pure-blooded, and now no race per se can claim purity of origin, and hence your claims on the land are as ambiguous as that of your victim. You will taunt those whom you know to be better than you in some aspect of life, merely because they happen to come from a different background than you, a background that you know may have assisted in their growth, but which you are reluctant to appreciate, for fear that doing so would imply that you are ashamed of your own background.

This may not always be the case. Even nations who for centuries suffered discrimination at the hands of others indulge in discriminating against others once they achieve freedom for themselves. Uganda stands out perhaps as the best example of this mindset. And this is sad, because it somehow mocks their own suffering, the trauma that they underwent.

The Holocaust and the Inquisition are prime examples of what a racially biased society can be brought about to do, if properly ‘demotivated’. One sees a lot of demotivation going around the place, and maybe this is truly the precursor to the end, the final Apocalypse, when all races will war to the finish, the ultimate finish.

Sinking into the abyss...

The execution of Saddam Hussain’s brother and associate, while in the line of justice and societal retribution for crimes against it, has left a foul taste in the mouth, leaving much to be desired with regards to the propriety of the act, and the manner in which it was conducted.

While Mr. Hussain had been executed in a somewhat humane manner, the heckling and the video-shooting of the entire charade leaves a lot to be desired from the new Iraqi disposition. I mean, this man was accused of having inhumanely killed people, of having massacred entire villages, and his alternative, the system that claims to be his alternate, has reduced his death to a similarly callous exercise in the dispensation of ‘justice’. I have always been of the opinion that while a man may be punished with the death penalty for his crimes against humanity, this death must be as dignified as possible to avoid any chances of his death/execution being seen by his supporters as a cause to rally around. And this is precisely what the Iraqi provisional government has ended up doing, maybe not by intention, but by sheer negligence.

The Shias, the Kurds, and other ethnic minorities in Iraq may have had a lot to hate Saddam Hussain and his acolytes, but they must be mindful that they have to co-exist with a resentful Sunni population. It isn’t that Saddam was always the icon of the Sunnis; on the contrary, Saddam’s modernizing ways often alienated even his own Sunni people. But when toppled, Saddam became an icon for the Sunnis, a sort of standard under which they could unite.

And executing him in the manner in which he was executed did nothing to dispel such notions of martyrdom. If anything, Hosni Mubarak was right when he said that the Iraqi government has made a martyr out of Saddam by way of his execution, a martyr that both the Americans and their allies could well have done without. Vengeance and retribution are all well and good, but reason must prevail over the need to seek vengeance. Had the Iraqi government waited until the fires had cooled, had it chosen to first prosecute Saddam and his associates for all their crimes, and not just for one single crime committed against the Shia Arabs, it stood a chance of showing the world that this isn’t a Shia-dominated government, caring only to deliver to the Shias the power that had been denied to them in the decades under Saddam. It could have assuaged the fears amongst the Sunnis that this is a sectarian state, acting on the whims and fancies of an occupying force. It could have stabilized the nation, and shown Saddam as the perpetrator of evil, and not the victim, as he is now being made out to be.

And now the insensitive executions of Barzan Ibrahim and Awad Hamed al-Bandar may just prove to be the proverbial tipping-point for the Sunnis. Somehow now, the future of Iraq seems in definite peril, and perhaps only divine providence can prevent the creation of a Balkans-like situation.

Nemo me impune lacessit...

The Noida Ripper’s case is becoming more and more sordid by the day. Theories are flying back and forth. Some would have it that the culprits were part of a larger human organ smuggling racket, while others contend, on the basis of photographic evidence found, that child pornography is the real story behind the curtain. And politicians are dropping to unimaginably low depths, what with cash compensations to grieving parents and comments about the crimes being a ‘small and routine’ affair.

I sometimes find it odd that politicians can be so very detached from reality, so removed from public emotions. I mean, no sensible person, no reasonable individual would ever state the crime as a small and routine matter. Come to think of it, the patrician who uttered this beauty must be regretting this faux pas, because he ends up achieving quite the inverse of what he must be intending to do. Perhaps he meant to say that while this was a serious matter, the police wasn’t taking this to be a small and routine matter either, or maybe not. Notwithstanding his intentions, the message that the world got, and that too from none other than the brother of the Chief Minister of the state of Uttar Pradesh where the crime took place, is that crimes of such a serious nature are so very mundane. I shudder to think what would count as a serious crime in the eyes of the notable patrician.

Many saw with glee and amazement the fall of Laloo Prasad Yadav’s cliché in Bihar last year. Reasons for this event were numerous, right from the growing awareness of the people to the disinclination of the people to give a corrupt administration another breath of life, to the desire for change, and that too serious change. Maybe this all contributed to a great extent, but there is one thing that I feel turned the tables against Mr. Yadav. His cliché’s government failed to ensure public safety to such a basic level that even children were no longer safe from the arms of organised crime. Kidnappings were commonplace. Children were seized in broad daylight, and kept in captivity for weeks together.

In the end, man is a primitive being, given to the primeval instincts of survival. No human will bear in silence harm being done to his loved ones, and those who permit such harm to be done bear his wrath. The phrase of “Nemo me impune lacessit” doesn’t evoke strong emotions for nothing. And when a government shows itself of protecting even children, I am confident that no sentient soul would ever dream of reposing any faith in it, and so it was, and the result is there for all to see.

Why I chose to relate this particular tale is rather simple. Uttar Pradesh is similar to Bihar, and given reforms that have taken place since last year in Bihar, maybe even worse than it now. This incident puts into context the appalling state of affairs as far as law and order are concerned. The verdict seems inevitable; what remains to be seen is whether those who will emerge victorious will do anything to learn from the mistakes of the past.

Happy New Year!

Hi.
May all those who are reading this blog have a most happy, prosperous, and momentous 2007! May it be filled with peace, tranquility and general bonhomie!

Have a great 2007!

The end of a chapter...and the beginning of another

In my earlier blog on the Jessica Lal case verdict, I had said that justice should be deemed served only when the victims feel a sense of closure. Saddam Hussein, the erstwhile autocrat of Iraq, has been executed by hanging today. For a defender of capital punishment, this should be time to shut up and sit quietly, but then common men rarely keep quiet; it’s just that their voice is rarely ever heard.

Saddam Hussein had been credited by some of his supporters for modernising Iraq, and for having kept fundamentalist Islamic forces at bay by enforcing a uniformly secular policy in Iraq. This is all good, really, but I fear not enough to justify massacring innocent people, just because someone from their community tried to kill you. You may have been the symbol of Arab pride against invading American armies, but your conduct towards your fellow Arabs was never exemplary in the first place.

Augusto Pinochet, the former dictator of Chile, who passed away recently, also was credited by his supporters to have ensured that Chile emerged as the most developed economy in South America during his regime. But they don’t mention the countless thousands who simply went missing, just because they dared to oppose his excesses at times. That a ruler makes your life a pleasure doesn’t entitle him to taking it, if you should start asking him questions. A ruler is at best a symbol of the people, to govern their land at their behest, no more.

Saddam’s trial may have been a farce, considering its speed, and the manner in which it was conducted, but that doesn’t still refute one major point. No matter when Saddam would have been brought to trial, no matter by whom, in front of a tribunal appointed by the occupying American-British forces or by a democratically elected government, the verdict would have been exactly the same. His crimes were too explicit, too open to be denied, too horrible to be pardoned or to be given any sentence other than death. That this execution may smack of victor's justice is coincidental, not integral to the sentence.

And it would seem that no one in Iraq was even trying to. Maybe that is why Saddam in his last testament seemed resigned to his fate, and although he did lament his unfair trial, he advised his people not to hate, not even those who had hanged him, for hate blinds one to reason and makes one unfair. A poignant statement and perhaps a wise choice of words.

His victims and their families may now start the process of rebuilding their lives. They can now try to forget those scars which his regime forced on them, because now nothing would be served by them continuing to remember them. Let his final words, his advice to his people, be his legacy, and may it be taken seriously, so that Iraq returns to its former state, as a pristine nation, the jewel in the sand.