Religious Hypocracy

Hi Folks,
Yesterday I went to watch the newly released movie 'Delhi 6'. The movie had a good pictoral representation of the ways of Delhi. Although it was funny at times with the 'Kala Bunder' analogy and the depiction of religious cynicism in people, the message was not impactful enough. Anyways, I am not here to write a review for the movie. That's left to some of my friends who have been writing movie reviews for some time now. I am here to write about an idea that struck me in the movie and reminded me of some past experiences which reflect the religious hypocracy in India.

So, let me start by quoting the sequence in the movie which I am talking about here.
'The Kala Bunder scare has pervaded the entire of Delhi. People are dead scared that the Kala Bunder might attack them at night. Hell lot of rumours are floating like the Bunder has a motherboard to give electric shock to anyone who touches him, someone says he is invisible and all sort of crap. Amidst all this, in the small locality which has been shown as Delhi 6, there is an attack by the Monkey man and people are out in the streets discussing the incident the next day. Now, argument goes on, and they decide that they are gonna protect their colony from the dreadful Monkey Man. And guess what do they do for protection. They call upon Sunny Baba who wears Saffron clothes, and comes in a procession sitting on a Palkhi carried by his believers. He is supposedly a disciple of Hanumanji. And this guy comes up with an out of the world explanation of the monkey man being a muslim and sparks off communal riots.'

Very well potrayed indeed. This reflects how at the time of difficulty, we loose all our common sense and turn towards such Sadhu babas whose business runs on such fears. Let me make it very clear here. I am not an athiest. I believe in the principles taught in the name of religion, love, non-violence and equality. But why is it that our faith has been converted into superstition and we start indulging in such crap?

This sequence reminded me of certain other incidents in my life as well. Once I had visited a small village called Jalore in Rajasthan and I visited one Kali Mata temple. The priest there claims that he can get Kali Maa to enter his body. Unbelievable? Well lots of people there believe him. I know the idea stupid but I thought... what the hell. At least, let's watch the drama. So, there is a gathering of around 20 odd people at a time and this guy does his thing and declares that Kali Mata has entered his body and is now ready to solve the problems of people gathered there. People bring up all sort of issues. Personal, Professional (farm issues - these are illiterate farmers mostly), other problems. This guy either gives some very generic statements as answers or whatever, he cannot explain, he would credit the shaitan (devil) for the wrong-doing and will give a savious band (to be tied on the wrist) or some other such solution. All this while, I was sitting at the side watching. I really didn't see any sign of proof for what he claims. To top it all, to claim that Kali Mata can enter his body on his command is a heavily far-fetched idea. But trust, people have done all sort of things believing him, sometimes even destroying themselves in this process.

Another incident of religious hypocracy. In our locality, (this is Mumbai I am quoting), there is a Jain Temple. Huge, really fascinating, awesome marble work and a calm and serene place to find peace and solace. One night, there is this group of trustees, some 5 or 6, who come to our house. My family, all believers, let them in. Their agenda was to gather donation for reconstruction of the temple. My family was shocked. We asked them the same question 'WHY'. This temple was as beautiful as could any temple can ever be. Constant repair work has been going on in the temple for years and it was in a perfect condition. Their answer to this why is "The upasara ( a place to meditate within the temple) is not big enough to house some 200-300 odd people who gather on the annual occasion of Paryushan". Ok we said. But now was not the right time, my Mother argued. She proposed to them "Why don't you use the money gathered through charity for helping the people who have been destroyed financially and rendered homeless by the recent floods in the river closeby to our locality". Mind you, I am talking about the small river which flows close to our locality which got flooded in the rains and overflowed, destroying the lives of several who lived close to its banks. My mother continued "Or you could use the money into some orphanage or cow ashram. After all, the temple can wait". To this, they replied in Gujarati "Eiwu nahi kewanu, Ben" (You should not say so, Sister). I don't want to discuss this further. But who can get into the heads of these superstitious bunch of old rats that serving fellow people was the greatest good deed you could do on earth, as per any religion.

Well, no idea, when people will shed these stupid beliefs of theirs and embrace common sense. We can only hope these people grow up!

How Vibrant is Gujarat?

I recently got a chance to visit Gujarat in the month of January. The atmosphere was highly charged, the Vibrant Gujarat Global Investor's summit, JITO (Jain International Trade Organisation) summit and Makar Sankranti, all coming around the same time frame.

All around, there were flyers promoting the Vibrant Gujarat summit and the JITO summit. There were several road signs put up to promote the events. The newspapers covered the summit very closely. Everyday, there were at least 4 pages endorsing the summit for its achievements. Maybe the attention was well deserved. After all, the Vibrant Gujarat summit of 2009 alone managed to sign MOUs worth a whopping Rs. 12 lakh crore. It was confusing though. The newspapers were endorsing Modi heavily on one hand, but on the other hand, they were also pointing out that only some percentage of investments pledged in the past 3 Global Investor's summits were actually realised.

However, the largest beneficiary of all this campaigning seemed not the investors, who the events were supposed to profit, nor Gujarat which may or may not actually get the investments pledged in this summit, but Narendra Modi. He was given credit for making Gujarat a huge industrial hub in India. He was highly endorsed for liberalising the state government policies to encourage huge investments in the state. It even went to the extent of him being projected as Prime Ministerial material by top honchos of the industry.

Not that I am against Modi or something. I do not consider myself suitable to comment on the 'Prime Minister' issue. I really appreciate how he has opened up the gates of his state to investments from companies. I applaud Modi for how beautiful he has made Gujarat with his Go Green plans. I was particularly awowed by the natural beauty of Gandhinagar.

I also want to make a slightly deviant point here. Amongst all this hugh and cry of the summits, somehow the ecstacy of the festival seemed lost.

Gujarat is historically known for its spirit during Makar Sankranti. People going crazy about Kite flying. Stalls being set up and run throughout nights selling kites and 'Maanja'. The awesome home-made chikkis and Til Laddus to be had on the terrace while flying kites. But somehow, the summit took the sheen away from the festival. The International Kite festival also managed to get only a little space in the newspapers as compared to the summit. Somehow, the energy of the festival got limited to only 2 days of January 14 and 15, as compared to a month of merriment people used to have in old days on the occasion of Sankranti.

One more incident moved me. A lady driving on her honda was killed, her neck being severed by the sharp glass powder on the kite 'Maanja'. I came to know later that she was the wife of my father's colleague. We came to know later that the couple had planned moving to the US with their family. They were spending their last few days waiting for the visa process to be completed. But fate had it otherwise.

Its a known fact in Gujarat that several people die every year because of this Maanja. These are people like us. They have family. The lady who died in the flyover incident I quoted in the last paragraph had a child. I pray to God that her soul rest in peace and may God bless her child. Has anybody thought that this time, it was this lady's turn, next time it could well be yours. Or one of your dear ones'.

It seems like these incidents have become sort of a part of the Makar Sankranti tradition. When such incidents are happening every year, and are being reported every year in the newspapers, why doesn't the government open their eyes while reading the newspaper and act upon it.

I mean, the least they could do is ban the coating of glass on kite Maanja. When they can ban late night Music on Dandiya nights, why not put a ban on this as well and see it is strictly followed.

I believe Makar Sankranti is more about the spirit of the festival than about the competitiveness of Kite flying. I do not say kite flying should be stopped. But I don't see a good deed in celebrating a happy occassion with some murders on the books. People may muse that they want to be the best at kite flying by beating their competitors in kite battle. But at what cost. There are people dying here. Leave alone the birds who die or are severely injured by this.

Even if the government considers this too trivial an issue to raise any restrictive action, or if the government actually decides to do something about it and takes a few years to come up with a solution, given how fast and agile our government is, I believe we citizens can at least act a bit responsible and compromise on the sharpness of our 'maanjas' to save a few lives. Maybe, you can be a little less spiritual, go only twice a week to a temple instead of thrice, but if you save a life by this simple deed of exercising a bit of self restraint, maybe you will earn more good in the eyes of the Almighty or for that matter your own.

What say?