Defense is the worst form of Offense

Whatever I may do,

A fault,they will surely find.

Wherever I may live,

The world is still not colour blind.

Raghuraj S. Hegde from the poem Blackie

Over the past month or so I have been really worried as to how dangerous the world had become. Two incidents have much to do with what I feel right now. 

One is a seemingly funny comedy movie "PK" released last month in India to rave reviews and incredible Box office collections. It supposedly makes fun of age old superstitions in India (Disclaimer: I havent watched the movie yet). This movie has somehow caught the fancy of self claimed protectors of Hindu culture who have denounced the movie saying it insults Hinduism and promotes 100 other blasphemous things. It would have been good if it had stopped at that but no. They had to burn posters, set vehicles and theaters on fire and also file frivolous litigation in courts. Fortunately no one has died as yet because of this movie (at the time of writing). The presence of  Hindu fundamentalists, radicalists and anarchists have been denied by the Hindu majority public for a long time. Those who don't yet believe that they exist are living in middle earth. What distresses me is not that these fundamentalists exist but that they have active support from educated and informed Indians. I found this out when the discussion about this movie was brought to Facebook, Twitter and Quora. I realized many of my old colleagues, classmates and acquaintances hold a very strong opposition towards other religions. These people have passed out of the top universities, seen the world around and yet they have such a narrow view of their own religion and other religions. Many of these people started openly posting anti-Muslim or anti-Christian status updates and jokes online forgetting so many of their acquaintances are from any of the many religions in India. Any opposition from many people were ridiculed as either "sickular" or "selfish" or "blind" or "emasculate" . These people were steadfast in their hate for other religions. They claimed that Hinduism has been insulted long enough without anyone protesting and that was because Hinduism is a tolerant religion. From the vile I saw in online media Hinduism was anything but tolerant. I know it is not true. I am a Hindu by birth and proud of it. I do not see it as a religion but as a way of life. Hinduism is one of the few religions in the world which gives you the freedom to be an atheist but still belong to the religion. I presume most of these Hindu fanatics do not realize how open minded Hinduism has been and will be. You don't need 10,000 people burning posters and effigies to protect a 5000 year culture. It can stand tall on its own.

The second incident was the assassinations of cartoonists and editors of 'Charlie Hebdo' by a few of misguided French Muslims. This has again started a debate as to how this came to happen. Commentators wrongfully point out that the Charlie Hebdo bought it on themselves by publishing blasphemous cartoons over the last few years and that this would have happened sooner or later. They also go on to say that all this would not have happened if the magazine was more respectful of Islam.

Really? I mean are we even considering this argument?

As a citizen of the world and living in a democratic country I would want to have my own opinion and not things thrust upon me as politically correct. If not anything I should have the right to be offensive. Weather I choose to use that right is another matter entirely. As long as my words,writings and forms of expression do not harm anyone I have the right to say it.The 2006 article by Christopher Hitchens explains it so brilliantly here. If our only aim in life is not to offend anyone then we would see something like this in the future.

Anything you say is offensive to someone else so what should you do? Should we just stop talking or expressing? One is just waiting for the other to be "offensive enough" to start any of the following- protests,tearing posters, rioting, frivolous court cases, mass murders and genocide. If our attitude remains to encourage the above and stifle all forms of expression then soon enough we would be no different from people in China, North Korea or Saudi Arabia. 

How can you be even sure any harmless thing you say is not offensive to someone else. You can never be careful enough. If you as an individual find something unacceptable or offensive choose not to promote it, watch it or even publish it. Tearing up posters, burning movie theaters, killing cartoonists and policemen isn't going to change anything. Every religion deserves the right to be criticized or praised in the same measure. I don't believe that religion should not be debated or discussed. How else would we improve our religion to suit our modern world. If we had not debated or discussed religion we would still be practicing all the weird old practices of our forefathers. As a Hindu I have the right to question my religion and so does a Muslim or a Christian. We have to see the merits and demerits of religion as one sees himself and not how a particular religious organization decrees we see it as. If we are scared to question we will not progress. All I want to say to these people is. Thank you. I can think for myself. Please respect my intelligence.

Raghuraj Hegde

Living in a Fish Bowl!

“When a man is denied the right to live the life he believes in, he has no choice but to become an outlaw.”
― Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom: Autobiography of Nelson Mandela

We often believe that the information that reaches us is always the right information. why wouldn't we? We are not living in China where information is censored by the government nor is there any dearth of information with the world wide web which has largely been free of any restrictions till now! I recently understood the perils of listening only to one side of the story for too long. Over time that one side of the story is perceived as truth.

Last month I was working in a hospital which has international fellows coming in from different countries to train in specific disciplines and then go back to their countries to use that training. I had the good fortune to meet one such fellow from Palestine who was working in the same department I was. We shared a common love for the sub-specialty we were working in and over discussions of ophthalmology we also discussed a whole lot of international politics too. The information junkie that I am I was only too happy to know about stories I would probably never ever hear about.

The stories the international media feeds us or even the Indian media feeds us is that Palestinians are a group of people governed by terrorists and that Israelis are always the victims of Palestinian intolerance. We’ve been fed these pro- Israeli stories so many times that we believe it as fact. But the true picture is not so straightforward.

I do not want to go into the whole history of Israel- Palestinian conflict which is extensive and most of which is available on the internet. I want to talk about stereotypes and misconceptions created by international media. It’s interesting to note that Israel is a country that was formed only in 1948 on Palestinian land and now ironically it is the state of Palestine that is not recognized by the UN. The British who  ruled over the Palestine area could not handle local tensions between Arabs and Jews so after the world war II out of a sense of compensation for the Holocaust granted the formation of the state of Israel.This in turn resulted in the large immigration of Jews into the Palestine area hence making it a Jewish majority. The Israelis have been fighting the Arab countries ever since and the conflict with Palestinians have continued to this day while Israelis have peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan.

As an impressionable teenager I read with tears in my eyes the story that Anne Frank was narrating so calmly in her autobiography. The Holocaust was a truly horrific episode in Jewish history. The 1972 massacre of the Olympic athletes was tragic as well (Steven Spielberg made the movie ‘Munich’ from this episode, who incidentally was the director of the Holocaust movie ‘Schindler’s List’). I had concluded after reading so extensively about Jews, about the tortures and concentration camps during the Nazi regime that Jews were the most oppressed race in the world and that anyone who are against Jews are inhuman by default. But i failed to realize until I met this Palestinian doctor, how instances of injustice to the Jews have been documented over the years in print, broadcasting and movies but the Palestinian stories are somehow elusive to all of us. I’m not belittling the Holocaust nor am I endorsing the terrorist attacks on Jews. I want to shed some light on the other side of this Israel-Palestine conflict.

You would be surprised to know (I was too) that Palestinian territories are landlocked territories surrounded by Israel and people from these areas are not allowed to go towards the sea by Israeli authorities (though it is only 40km from their border) and all the Palestinian borders are controlled by Israel including its borders with Egypt and Jordan. There are no airports in Palestine and anybody wanting to leave the country will have to go through Israeli airports for which you would need loads of paperwork and permission. There are two Palestinian territories, the Gaza strip and the West bank but these are separated by Israel and hence have two different governments with no common governing mandate and ruled by different political outfits. A Palestinian from one territory is not allowed easy access to the other territory hence both these territories are mutually exclusive and independent of each other.

Despite being highly educated there are limited employment opportunities in Palestine hence many Palestinians choose to live and work in Israel. Israel is a developed country while Palestine is barely there due to restriction of Palestinian border trade by Israel. Palestinians who chose to live in Israel are forbidden to marry, have a family or even ever visit Palestine again. Even this Palestinian doctor i met works in Israel in a Christian hospital. He lives near the border with his family and makes the daily to and fro journey from Palestine to Israel just to earn his livelihood. His wife too does the same to work in some telecom company in Israel. All these journeys and checks to have the right to have a family!!!

But the most touching story I heard from him was this. His elder sister married and emigrated to Australia with her In-laws in 1987.Since 1987 she has never been able to visit Palestine again. So she decided to visit her country of origin with her two kids last year. After landing at the Israeli airport she was stopped at the border check point. She and her kids were Australian citizens with Aussie passports. The Israeli authorities told her that her sons had the right to pass the border but since she had been a Palestinian before 1987 she would have to produce a Palestinian ID to do the same. His sister and her kids had to return home without visiting anyone from their family. My Palestinian friend has not seen his own sister for the last 25 yrs!!! These stories are not exceptions but these are commonplace instances in that region.

This is like a goldfish living in a fishbowl…. despite seeing everything the goldfish can never go out of the bowl nor can it hope any other goldfish to give it company. Its life is governed by the rules of whoever feeds the goldfish and not by what the goldfish wants. If you make them live like goldfish is it any surprise that they retaliate in a violent way? Humans were not meant to be in a fish bowl nor are they goldfishes.

When he spoke about the whole situation there was no anger in his voice, only sadness.Sadness over all the Jewish friends he has lost over the years, over the misconceptions that dominate all over the world about Palestinians, about all the family members he can never see and how their freedom to live life the way they want it is not there but no one knows or cares about it outside their country.
His words at the end were very profound, “No Palestinian ever killed a Jew in the Holocaust yet today it is we Palestinians who are paying the price for it.”

P.S. just check out this one article i found on the net which can be said mildly anti-Israel…. its by Arindam Choudhury of whom i’m not a huge fan but in this case he seems to have got his research right!

http://www.thesundayindian.com/en/story/when-weapons-are-to-be-tested-the-gazas-become-the-casualty/44225/