Letters To My Grandchild (Part 4)
4 April 2020
Dear Child,
In my letter yesterday, I expressed fears about power and how absolute power will corrupt absolutely. One should never endeavour to improve perfection, therefore I have only slightly paraphrased British nobleman Lord Acton in the previous sentence.
Talking about the power of power, I want to impress upon you the absolute power of religion. India spectacularly lived up to its reputation of being religion-obsessed this past week.
We had all been under a total lockdown for a week, frustrated with the sameness of our lives, trying desperately to rein in a routine.
Some though, were busy assigning a religion to the virus.
If there ever was a living thing, how can it not ‘belong’ to some group? If it belonged to some group, how could the group not have its distinct characteristics? And if it had its unique nature, how could it not be given a name to differentiate it? And how could one group not attack the other?
Since scarcity was constant all along human evolution, I suspect, homo sapiens were never one single group.
It could be humans vs animals. But, it had to be humans vs other humans.
Here the virus had presented us, humans, with a fantastic opportunity to change that. It was the perfect lethal enemy. Microscopic Joker to Gotham’s Batman. It affected all humans without differentiating among them.
But, we are not used to enemies who don’t look like us. It is always more satisfying to attack someone who we perceive to be competing against us, right? Dancers want to win against dancers in a competition. Athletes would want to defeat other athletes. And students with high academic scores would want to score higher than those who ace grades.
How could humans compete with a virus, after all? No. They needed to find an enemy they could relate to. And soon.
In India, some morons did it.
Hindus form about 80% of India’s 1.3 billion people. And at least since the British left the country, Hindus have done much better than the rest. Better health, better education and better employment opportunities (There is the question of which caste has done better, but we shall deal with it in subsequent letters).
Somehow, the last six years managed to give a few Hindus a further boost. Those who believe Hindus have already won the religious race rule the country. Ironically though, they still claim to be running the race and are still looking to win. (Confused? Yes, so am I. Every time I talk to them)
In doing so, they have managed to boo Muslims at every opportunity presented.
In March, there were Hindu gatherings, Muslim gatherings, Sikh gatherings, Christian gatherings. However, even after an imminent scare of importing the virus from specific countries, an international Muslim gathering involving thousands took place in Delhi. How stupid, you say? Yes. Utterly.
At this, well trained television channels sharpened their weapons. Calling Muslim gatherings ‘corona bombs’ was just the beginning. Some of the leaders from the ruling party also began saying that Muslims deliberately brought the virus into India. Letting their creative juices flow generously, they called this ‘corona jihad’.
Did you just nod your head with disapproval at the pettiness? Did you let out a sigh of disbelief at the idiocy of the situation? In that case, you are privileged. Very very privileged. Many across the country will face the direct consequences of such venom. They will be rendered unemployed, thrown out of their homes or worse, lynched.
Child, you should read more about why there are so many religious divisions in India that seem rather permanent. It is not a simple subject to be summed up in a small letter.
Since we seem to be the only country that dared to allot a religion to the virus, I want to ensure it is documented for posterity.
The lockdown merely proved that physical confinement will not confine ideas. We used to say that about intellectuals who were imprisoned as a result of their powerful ideas. Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr, Nelson Mandela. And more recently, in India, Sudha Bahradwaj, Vernon Gonsalves, Surendra Gandling and others. These people espoused the idea of justice and were put behind bars for doing so. They continue to live there.
Lockdown taught us that was true of all types of ideas.
Perhaps humans do belong in different, competing groups. In that way, at least we know where we do not belong.
I promise to write to you tomorrow, child.
With love,
Yours,
