Mumbai Madness

I was following an online thread of discussion on the train-bombings in Mumbai. Emotions ranged from anger to confusion to resignation and all the way up to optimism. The optimism was because some people thought that the West will now empathize with the terrorism that India suffers. Fat chance; people don't notice a burn until their own skin gets singed, so we can forget about that.

Pakistan was brought up. Religion was brought up. In the middle of all this, someone piped up with this:
[...] People who do these kind of things do not follow any God or religion.
I sometimes wonder what is it exactly that leads people to speak or write a sentence such as this one above. Is it an inability to comprehend the nature of the world, or a refusal?

My brief response:
Sez you. The people in question, on the other hand, follow a very specific God, notwithstanding your denial. And they would in all likelihood severely resent your assigning to them a theological position of your choice.

This is very presumptuous of me, but judging from your comment, I would place a small bet that your personal God, if you have one, is a gentle, kind, live-and-let-live, hang-loose kind of God. Quite possibly a reflection of yourself. But why do you simple-mindedly project the attributes of this God of yours onto the Gods of other people? Do you not acknowledge the reality that other people might have--and indeed do have--other, very different kind of Gods?

Gods are bound by the imagination and shaped by the motivations of the people who create them. Hence it is perfectly possible to have jealous gods, vindictive gods, and murderous gods as it is possible to have gentle, loving gods. It all depends on who is creating the god. And the rum thing is that such a god, once created, in turn affects the actions of the descendants of its creators, reaching across the gap of centuries like a long malevolent shadow. It is a bi-directional and symbiotic relationship.

People who do "these kind of things" indeed follow their God and religion. To the letter.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

well said. I hate the articles that are still favoring that religion as if it has no ambiguity for these manics to misinterpret.
Accepted not everyone of them is a bad person but the fact remains that there is an ambiguity that remains to be exploted by the remained lot to destroy other people.
I can't pass a few hours not thinking about it. Yet the media talks about them being scared (http://ia.rediff.com/news/2006/jul/14spec.htm?q=tp&file=.htm). I really want to question, who should be scared, them or us.
This helplessness is frustrating.
well written article. Our government is too pussy to take any actions.

J. Alfred Prufrock said...

You know where they say that "God created man in His image"? Actually the opposite holds true.

It's true. Ask any Iraqi, Kashmiri, Rwandan, Mumbaikar ...

J.A.P.

The Moving Finger said...

Sougata

Short sharp and incisive. And you have driven home your point very well.

I am just way too upset over the Mumbai blasts. Having been born and brought up there all my life, I am taking this very personally: the sheer audacity of these people has simply left me speechless.

Cheers

Jyoti

Balajee said...

India held a 2 minute period of silence at 6:24 pm (to time the first of the series of blasts) to show solidarity with Mumbai.

One news reader observed that it will also demonstrate our will to be undettered..

Yeah... that'll show the terrorists. After the next terror episode, perhaps we should have a 4 minute silence.. and then an 8 minute silence... and then.. until we remain silent forever and those bastards blow up our fuckin world!!

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