Makes me feel small and stupid and uninformed. Self-awareness comes late to some, but when it comes, it sticks.
Discussion Question: Didn't somebody or the other say that you are truly enlightened when you have achieved complete self-realization. So how about a guy who realizes very completely that he is small, stupid and uninformed? Is he now enlightened? Has he attained Buddha-hood? Please tell to me. I wants to know.
Getting back to what I was saying, I have often resolved to be johnny-on-the-spot with the latest news. "If it's happening in the world today, it'll be on my blog tomorrow; complete with a half-assed analysis," I have frequently said to myself. But as the sage among us will appreciate, there is an universe of difference between saying pretty stuff and actually getting off your dead ass and doing it.
So, the short takeaway is this. You want latest news, intelligent analyses, hot pictures of Ashley Simpson, go look at a newspaper.
Having set expectations, here is an article from rediff.com from July 21:
A Dalit autorickshaw driver was blinded in a Bihar village for asking Rs 50 as fare.
Sanjay Paswan, in his early 30s, was blinded by a group of five men on Tuesday in the presence of a village headman of Balua panchayat in Maner near Patna.
Paswan's relatives said that after the incident, the local police refused to lodge a police complaint as the attackers enjoyed political patronage.
"When he asked for the fare, they abused and threatened him. Then, they beat him and dragged him to the village mukhiya (headman) where he was beaten up again. Finally they blinded him with an umbrella," Paswan's younger brother said.
Read more at: http://www.rediff.com/news/2005/jul/21dalit.htm
If you did bother to read that complete article right now, or have read it before, I am sure that you, like me, will be intrigued by the title of the story. Which goes: "Dalit blinded for demanding fare". Why is the title phrased like this? Wouldn't it convey an equal amount of relevant information if it were worded thus: "Man blinded for demanding fare".
I scanned the story carefully. Nothing in it suggested that Mr. Paswan's being a Dalit specifically contributed to getting his eyes poked out. Or that had he been a non-Dalit, he would have avoided this hideous fate.
There was also no mention of the caste of the attackers. I didn't see anything that suggested that (A) they were of a higher caste and (B) it was precisely this fact that caused them to attack and brutalize Mr. Paswan. The article only said that the attackers enjoyed "political patronage."
Now let's get two things out of the way.
(1) My heart goes out to Mr. Paswan and I futilely hope that God will visit terrible judgement on his attackers. What else do you want me to say? The law will certainly not visit anything on them; this is Bihar we're talking about here.
(2) I identify myself as a Hindu to the core but I am the first to admit that a statistically significant section of Hindus are casteist bigots. That includes some close family and some of my friends and close acquaintances. (You want gentle truth, get out of my blog.) Also, I know that egregious stuff goes on in Bihar and elsewhere in India in the name of caste.
But that sort of reporting as noted above is irresponsible and leading because it insinuates a high-caste on low-caste crime without backing that up with sufficient proof. I don't know if the bias is due to an error of omission (maybe Mr. Paswan's being Dalit really had something to do with his fate and the reporter simply forgot to mention it) or commission.
If it is not one of omission, I would say that there is an excellent chance that this reporter, this Sahay guy, is also a bigot. And I wonder, is this sort of wording deliberately calculated to inflame passions and further embitter and pit Hindu against Hindu? And I am stupefied by the fact that it is another Hindu who is doing the embittering and pitting.
I despair for my country and for the culture that I grew up in. And I feel lonely in my despair.
I despair for my country and for the culture that I grew up in. And I feel lonely in my despair.
12 comments:
I came upon your blog in a similar who-blogs-what tour and much against my bloated ego, I was left speechless. I love the depth of your thoughts, the rage and reasoning of it and above all your penmanship. Rage, for lack of a better word, is good (thanks Douglas). *Your* blog makes me feel - inadequate (the same inadequate that you ask to scorn). You bongs have a way of doing that a lot, must be something in the Bengal earth.
Anon,
I am extremely flattered and honoured. Thank you. You are very kind.
I am also surprised that you liked my posts. Because I really thought that I had managed to offend just about everybody by now. I am obviously not doing my job well enough. I'll redouble my efforts :)
Are you from India also? If so, do you live in India?
Sougata.
Hi Sougata,
Very perceptive. The media all over the world is known for reporting news with inaccurate precision, so don't please depair just at the Indian news. I call it selective reporting and perspective. Just take it with a barrelful of salt and pepper.
On your question on Buddha-nature, the first step to knowing is the realisation that one does not know. And then onwards, uncovering that ignorance with wisdom ,insight and compassion. So you seem to have taken the first step on the path to Buddha-hood. Hope that answers your question. Have you heard of Alan Watts. He writes beautifully on Buddhism
Cheers
'Sensationalism!'
That's really what the media today is all about.
Man today is very territorial as you put it and this in turn amkes him idenitfy himself with different groups..
Naturally, one way to ensure that there is adequate readership is to ensure that you toy with the reader's sense of identity (in this case, you either identify yourself as a dalit or an upper class) and then mix it with a tad of sensationalism, and voila! you have several intelligent well educated individuals writing about it in their blogs and even discussing this. Inflame people's passion in the name of journalism and you've done your job.
My guess is that if you did indeed some across a title 'Man blinded for demanding fare,' you would not have really devoted any time to reading that.. after all, we are generally oblivious to such minor cruelties perpetuated against fellow human beings. Now, if a whole village was blinded for one man demanding fare, then it may pique our interest a little bit.. morbid, but that's how desensitized we have become as a race.
Journalism and investigative journalism, the way it was meant to me, is dead and buried. We'll just have to live with this.
Jyoti,
Thanks both for the comment and the book recommendation. I have just ordered "The Way of Zen" from Amazon. I hope I chose the right book.
You want to know the real reason why I update this blog once in a while? Because of these book recommendations that I get. I kid you not. I have bought more books since I started this blog than in the preceding year before the blog. That giant sucking sound is the sound of Amazon cashing my checks.
Every individual has a bounded, limited but flexible window into the sum total of human literature. If you take two different people, you frequently find that large sections of their individual windows overlap -- I've read Dickens, you have too, I've read V.S. Naipaul, perhaps you have too.
But it is the non-overlapping portions of the windows that I am interested in. I want to know what you found to be worth knowing. I want to know what you know and I don't :) That is the benefit I hope to capture from this transaction. That is my hidden agenda.
Balajee,
I like your analysis. Very nice. I also very much like the phrase "toy with the reader's sense of identity" and plan to steal it when you are not looking.
Best,
Sougata.
Hi Sougata,
You might also be interested in Alan Watts's "Buddhism - The Religion of No Religion". Christmas Humphreys is another talented writer and I would recommend a title of his ,"Teach yourself Zen" or something to that effect. I hope you find them interesting. Btw, I do mean to book-tag on my blog too. Soon, I hope.
Cheers
Dada and Balajee,
Wonderful writing, both of you.
Despair and compassion are qualities which are fast fading -at least from conscious Indian perception. But it's there, hiding behind the fear, "Will that be my face tomorrow?" that forces people to ignore the squalor and turn their eyes away. Too many things come to mind, too many scenes of abject poverty, of patient, dull, unseeing eyes.
Yes, we've become desentisized as a race. But it is a survival mechanism.
Will expand on it later. Both your writings so clearly restructured the pitiable faces and misery I witnessed in Calcutta and was weak enough to be affected by. And it's awful. Just awful.
BTW, the counter argument against your Gandhi bashing is still pending.
And also, Balajee, I'm so sorry, but I don't remember you at all :)) Except for some incident I heard from didi(Sukanya) about a fatigue jacket of yours and some teacher (South Indian Christian) at Indian School taking umbrage at it. :))
Dulai, it feels incredible to imagine the way you are today.. I still remember the little girl who insisted on hanging out with us.. insisted on getting her share of playing video games.. and quite happy to get pampered. I do infact remember the fatigue jacket incident, but trust me, there were many many more like that. At that age, we were just rebels without a cause. I can share with you very interesting details about your dada and his exploits (atleast those I witnessed).. :)
I am happy to hear about what you are doing these days and you have my best wishes always!
Coming to your comment, I do agree to some extent that it is a survival mechanism, but there is a big difference that I observe. If you see situations that you described (such as the Cacutta episodes) it affects you in a way that you cannot be affected if you read about it. It may be a survival mechanism when you witness it or are seeing it in flesh and blood, but I don't think we tend to get affected by it if we read in the paper. For instance, when they showed images of the recent Bombay rains, I found myself thinking more along the lines of 'Wow.. look at that' and thinking about things like drainage systems and poor infrastructure rather than think about the hunderds of people whose lives have forever changed. I don't feel proud about it, but it is really a social conditioning issue. We have become more apathetic to people's suffering. This is precisely why the media has to sensationalize things for us to take notice of it. Otherwise, we are just going to flip to the sports section and complain about the performance of our cricket team.
Which is the cause and which is the consequence? That is a little difficult to determine, but it is a viscious cycle. I am getting more desensitized, the media wants to sesationalize events so that they can get me to look at it, and I know that they are sensationalizing it, so I tend to ignore them more, thereby becoming more indifferent.. I think we are really beyond help on this one..
Anyways.. how's the weather like in NZ? Developed an accent yet?
Getting blogs on your side
If you can't beat 'em, hire 'em. That emerging marketing strategy is creating a new career: corporate bloggers.
Hello nice blog site! Added it to my bookmarks for future reference.
I have a Ceiling Fan Globe site/blog. It pretty much covers Ceiling Fan Globe related stuff.
Come check mine out if you get time.
"But it is the non-overlapping portions of the windows that I am interested in. I want to know what you found to be worth knowing. I want to know what you know and I don't :) That is the benefit I hope to capture from this transaction. That is my hidden agenda."
That's amazon.com's hidden agenda too :)
Have never read some many posts from a single blog in a day...
you must be doing something terribly right...
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