*Life in a violent world

*Life in a violent world

**For the very young, *
*Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi *
*is an icon of sorts. *
*They are very unclear about what he stood for. *
*Somewhere in the recess of their minds, *
*they understand that*
* he had something to do with our freedom struggle. *
*But for older generation, *
*Gandhi *
*is irrevocably associated*
* with non-violence, communal harmony, and tolerance.*
* Today *
*all these concepts are fading *
*so fast from the country's collective memory.*
* Our political leaders *
*who will be paying a lot of lip service *
*to the father of the nation in a couple of days,*
* have stopped thinking about him many years ago.

Otherwise how can one explain*
* the growing culture of violence and intolerance? *
**
*Just look at some of the headlines in the past few weeks.*
* How does one explain such a seasoned *
*and experienced politician like *
*Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Karunanidhi's statement on Rama?*
**
* Whatever may be his personal belief and his party's ideology,*
* he surely knows it will hurt the sentiments *
*of the silent majority,*
* which is also his constituency.*
* In the atmosphere of intolerance prevailing in the country,*
* reaction is swift. *
*Activists allegedly belonging to *
*the particular set a **Tamil Nadu State Transort Corporation *
*bus on fire **near Bangalore and two innocent commuters died. *
**
*They had also stoned the house of *
*Karunanidhi's daughter in Bangalore. *
*The lunatic fringes of the Sangh Parivar also got into the act.*
* Swami Vedanti*
* apparently said *
*that anyone beheading Karunanidhi will be weighed*
* in gold by the saints of Ayodhya. *
*He later claimed that he had simply quoted the religious books *
*on the punishment prescribed for blasphemy.

Retribution was equally swift.*
* The DMK cadres decided to show their solidarity *
*to their leader by attacking the BJP offices and the leaders' houses in the
state.*
* Didn't Gandhi famously say once*
*that eye for an eye would make the world go blind!*
*But *
*who remembers all this anymore.*
* INDIA*
*** is slowly seeing more and more mob violence everywhere. *
*If the TV group*
* decides to launch their Direct To Home (DTH) operations, *
*cable operators go on the rampage. *
*Cables are cut and wild threats are issued, *
*instead of accepting market realities*
* and figuring out how to stay in the business.

Intolerance is rampant everywhere.*
* If Karunanidhi's grand nephew publishes*
* a survey report that is not flattering to his son,*
* the son's followers choose to throw petrol bombs*
* in the office of the publication.*
* We cannot single out alone for unjustifiable violent reactions.*
* Outlook magazine calls *
*Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray *
*a villain and the office is attacked immediately.*
* In West Bengal,*
* both Nandigram and Singur have seen *
*police firing and mob violence.*
* We cannot laugh at our leaders,*
* lampoon them or utter a word of criticism.*
* Their loving cadre will make our lives not worth living.

There is intolerance at all levels. *
*Suddenly we are emerging as a nation committed to moral policing. *
*Political parties tell us how to behave and *
*what is right and acceptable. *
*Harmless celebrations like Valentine's Day*
* become symbols of western influence and moral corruption.*
* In our country *
*we very rarely expose our leaders *
*with their pants down unlike in the West. *
*So their followers find it easy to preach about morals of young people. *
*Police have taken it as their bounden *
*duty to round up lovers in parks *
*and the beach and humiliate them. *
*In a state with a huge consumption of alcohol*
* (the excise duty on alcohol fills the state's coffers)*
* police regularly conduct raids on hotels which *
*serve wine for private parties. *
*Couples are scared to drive down the *
*East Coast Road after sunset, *
*as they get hauled up to the police station.

Our ruling classes seem to have forgotten,*
* that Gandhi fought to win our freedom, *
*so that India will emerge a democracy and not a fascist dictatorship. *
*Let me give you the definition of fascism.*
* "A system of government marked by centralisation *
*of authority under a dictator,*
* stringent socioeconomic controls, *
*suppression of the opposition through terror and censorship, *
*and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism."*
* Aren't we moving towards a rule,*
* which closely resembles this definition?

Gandhi enters our psyche periodically,*
* thanks to the entertainment industry. *
*Richard Attenborough's Gandhi released almost *
*25 years ago made waves all over the world.*
* Last year,*
* the entire country fell in love with the Hindi film,*
* Lage Raho Munnabhai ,*
*with its message of Gandhigiri. *
*Young people went to the film in droves. *
*Which surely means, *
*Gandhi is still able to touch hearts, *
*and connect somewhere. *
*That he cannot be written off as irrelevant.