We live in a democracy, where everyone is entitled to the freedom of expression. So am I. This is a post celebrating this freedom.
This post is also an attempt at expressing my opinions which, I am sure, would not be easy to digest. And that is why it is necessary.
There are many reasons for the recent conflict surrounding the movie. But one strong reason for majority of people on both sides of the argument is one - they are Hindu.
This religion teaches us tolerance. We are sporty enough to joke about our idiosyncracies, apparent ambiquities which exist in our practices.
And we have been doing this all the time. We are aware of the loot which goes on in the name of religion; the fake godmen that exist etc. But mark one thing - this is prevalent everywhere. Not that this justifies it, but it only means that these are the characteristics of the times that we live in.
One thing however, remains forever true - the wrong doers should be brought to book, whoever they are - irrespective of whether they belong to a religion which has been accorded minority or majority status. But the popular approach to handling this problem is a bit partial in its nature.
Repeatedly, only the fallacies of the majority religion in India are highlighted in the daily media, even when we have reported cases of such issues going on in other religions as well. But the amplification is only reserved for the Hindu religion. And its adherents are either not concerned or have no power to defend their opinions on their issues in our secular Land.
An unequal manipulation power balance, based on religious division exists in this secular State. An imbalance of any kind of power is a dangerous thing, irrespective of whichever side it leans on. If the majority have it, we have a state like Pakistan where minorities are persecuted. If it is on the side of the minorty, we have India in its present state.
This is what the supporters of the boycott/ban think like. I hope you are able to understand their minds now. Now lets try to see why the other side exists among the Hindus.
We Hindus derive sadistic pleasure when someone tells us of the umpteen 'evil' things our religion has. This attitude is begotten from the years of slavery we were living in when we forsook the life of tapas/penance, and became servile to the hope of surviving by pleasing our "masters". Survival became the keyword, even if was at the cost of self respect. We gave up our way of living because our masters would not approve. We moulded ourselves based on the education our masters felt was suitable for us. We felt it would help us go about survival. What did we know that it would make us eternal slaves to their ways of thinking and perpetual enemies of our glorious ancient ways!
Now i am not saying our religion did not degrade. Time rusts out everything and what is needed is a revival. But alas! we are not doing anything in that direction, not even trying to stop the bashing which goes on. We either dont care or constantly quote the greatness of our religion and its in-destructability.
But our tolerance to this bashing damages our culture in ways which all of us are not aware yet. It does not probably affect the faith of the adherents who understand their religion and responsibilities. But it surely affects the outlook of the younger generations, and this aspect is concerning. Adherents of each religion have the personal right to defend their kids from going astray. These kids will consider that what media shows is the whole reality - they are the frogs of the well.
The broadminded adherents of Christianity, and Atheism want us to think like them and are very aggressive about their viewpoints - i do not blame them. But I blame us Hindus for being docile and giving an advantage to anyone who can present a "seemingly better" argument to us. We are not able to argue back, or even defend what we believe in. Why is this so?
This is because we have long given up the spirit of enquiry which our Sages had; the same spirit of enquiry which revealed to them the eternal, secular wisdom of the Vedas. Our scriptures are not the commandments given to some person by God, but contain eternal axioms which are imbibed in each later religion of the World. The Sun has always risen from one direction and that is how true ideas are - they never change and they cannot be contradicted. These ideas are the basis of Hinduism - there is no other reason why this religion and its associated civilization could have survived so long.
My opposition is for one thing - the widespread bashing of religion has to stop - not because we are hypocrites who cannot accept the dark realities of our religion but because
1. Every religion has its dark side, and it is the duty of the adherents alone to fight them.
2. No other religious adherent has the right to poke his/her nose in the matter of other faiths, let alone influence those people to his/her way of thinking.
3. India is a secular country, where religion is a personal concern and the conflicts should be solved by those affected by it; the media should not act as an interpretor.
People say PK is a movie with a message. My question is, is it some new message? We Indians are amused to see the same things from various angles, but will be the last to actionise. Do we not know of the evils of our religion, and do such movies even help actionise us? No they are basically to be seen, discussed, fought over and forgotten.
This post is also an attempt at expressing my opinions which, I am sure, would not be easy to digest. And that is why it is necessary.
There are many reasons for the recent conflict surrounding the movie. But one strong reason for majority of people on both sides of the argument is one - they are Hindu.
This religion teaches us tolerance. We are sporty enough to joke about our idiosyncracies, apparent ambiquities which exist in our practices.
And we have been doing this all the time. We are aware of the loot which goes on in the name of religion; the fake godmen that exist etc. But mark one thing - this is prevalent everywhere. Not that this justifies it, but it only means that these are the characteristics of the times that we live in.
One thing however, remains forever true - the wrong doers should be brought to book, whoever they are - irrespective of whether they belong to a religion which has been accorded minority or majority status. But the popular approach to handling this problem is a bit partial in its nature.
Repeatedly, only the fallacies of the majority religion in India are highlighted in the daily media, even when we have reported cases of such issues going on in other religions as well. But the amplification is only reserved for the Hindu religion. And its adherents are either not concerned or have no power to defend their opinions on their issues in our secular Land.
An unequal manipulation power balance, based on religious division exists in this secular State. An imbalance of any kind of power is a dangerous thing, irrespective of whichever side it leans on. If the majority have it, we have a state like Pakistan where minorities are persecuted. If it is on the side of the minorty, we have India in its present state.
This is what the supporters of the boycott/ban think like. I hope you are able to understand their minds now. Now lets try to see why the other side exists among the Hindus.
We Hindus derive sadistic pleasure when someone tells us of the umpteen 'evil' things our religion has. This attitude is begotten from the years of slavery we were living in when we forsook the life of tapas/penance, and became servile to the hope of surviving by pleasing our "masters". Survival became the keyword, even if was at the cost of self respect. We gave up our way of living because our masters would not approve. We moulded ourselves based on the education our masters felt was suitable for us. We felt it would help us go about survival. What did we know that it would make us eternal slaves to their ways of thinking and perpetual enemies of our glorious ancient ways!
Now i am not saying our religion did not degrade. Time rusts out everything and what is needed is a revival. But alas! we are not doing anything in that direction, not even trying to stop the bashing which goes on. We either dont care or constantly quote the greatness of our religion and its in-destructability.
But our tolerance to this bashing damages our culture in ways which all of us are not aware yet. It does not probably affect the faith of the adherents who understand their religion and responsibilities. But it surely affects the outlook of the younger generations, and this aspect is concerning. Adherents of each religion have the personal right to defend their kids from going astray. These kids will consider that what media shows is the whole reality - they are the frogs of the well.
The broadminded adherents of Christianity, and Atheism want us to think like them and are very aggressive about their viewpoints - i do not blame them. But I blame us Hindus for being docile and giving an advantage to anyone who can present a "seemingly better" argument to us. We are not able to argue back, or even defend what we believe in. Why is this so?
This is because we have long given up the spirit of enquiry which our Sages had; the same spirit of enquiry which revealed to them the eternal, secular wisdom of the Vedas. Our scriptures are not the commandments given to some person by God, but contain eternal axioms which are imbibed in each later religion of the World. The Sun has always risen from one direction and that is how true ideas are - they never change and they cannot be contradicted. These ideas are the basis of Hinduism - there is no other reason why this religion and its associated civilization could have survived so long.
My opposition is for one thing - the widespread bashing of religion has to stop - not because we are hypocrites who cannot accept the dark realities of our religion but because
1. Every religion has its dark side, and it is the duty of the adherents alone to fight them.
2. No other religious adherent has the right to poke his/her nose in the matter of other faiths, let alone influence those people to his/her way of thinking.
3. India is a secular country, where religion is a personal concern and the conflicts should be solved by those affected by it; the media should not act as an interpretor.
People say PK is a movie with a message. My question is, is it some new message? We Indians are amused to see the same things from various angles, but will be the last to actionise. Do we not know of the evils of our religion, and do such movies even help actionise us? No they are basically to be seen, discussed, fought over and forgotten.
