Pseudo-Secularism

Hindu dharma is implicitly at odds with monotheistic intolerance. What is happening in India is a new historical awakening... Indian intellectuals, who want to be secure in their liberal beliefs, may not understand what is going on. But every other Indian knows precisely what is happening: deep down he knows that a larger response is emerging even if at times this response appears in his eyes to be threatening.

Saturday, July 22, 2006

Indifference — thy name is the Spirit of Mumbai

Friday, July 14, 2006 21:41 IST



Ashoke Pandit

I was in Cooper Hospital helping the victims of Terrible Tuesday. The smell of burnt flesh, the sight of the blood-strewn corridor, wailing women and fathers fainting marked the night of 7/11.

The next day, all news channels were claiming that life in Mumbai was back on track within 14 hours of the blasts that killed more than 200 people and injured hundreds.

They went on and on about the spirit of Mumbai. I was amazed to see people carry on with their chores as if nothing had happened the previous night.

There was no doubt that a section of people were on the streets, helping the wounded get to the hospital and providing food and water to the stranded. The other section,typically drawing room activists with opinions on everything, watched TV through the evening, had dinner and went to bed.

They had to get up next morning to get to work, the same way they had on Tuesday. Their routine continued as if nothing had happened. Then we scream hoarse, 'We are a bunch of resilient people who got back to our normal life when our fellow Mumbaikars were blown off to death'.

Our resilience seems to be our insensitivity to pain. Would the 'resilient' be the same if he was the one who had to run around in hospitals to claim the charred body of his kin? Would he be able to march to work the next day with the same sprint in his gait?

But now he can, because he is not affected. We always think that such things happen to others and not to us. This pigeonhole mentality of ours is taking us to the drains.

In fact, we don't know the difference between resilience and indifference. If we were a bunch of resilient people, we would have fought back and not gone galloping to take the first train to work. Such was the indifference of our
leaders that there was no need felt to declare a national mourning.

This might be the only country in the world where the stock market zooms up by 500 points following a series of blasts and the finance minister makes a statement that the terror attack will not affect our economy. What are we made of?

At times I think that our political establishment fans this whole 'spirit' thing, because it suits them. People on the other side of the border have realised that this spirit is leading this country to impotency. Why else would our PM repeat after every terror attack that we will not bend? To an outsider, we are a country of spineless people.

See how the US handled the situation post-9/11. Osama is in hiding and meekly sends out cassettes of threat in the name of terror. For last five years, there has not been a single terror attack in the US. In India however, there is a terror attack every day and all we do is praise our spirit. What is more terrifying is that this country seems to be getting immune to a culture of terrorism and we are feeling proud about it.

It's great to have a spirit of resilience; at least we fight back. But an entire country suffering from a spirit syndrome in the name of indifference and insensitivity is not worth it.
(Ashoke Pandit is a filmmaker and a social activist)

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