[South Asia Citizens Web | April 18, 2003]
Rage
Nirmalangshu Mukherji
I met him recently. He is a graying, sagely university teacher. A Gandhian, he wears the simplest clothes, leads a simple life. A scholar of philosophy and social history, his life revolves around his students and his books. Outside the class, he is at a loss for words; he shies away from visibility, the crowds, the noise of the streets. He is uneasy with slogans; by instinct, he is wary of simple solutions to complex problems. If there is a need to show strong disagreement, he attempts to construct some personal example, failing which, he retreats into himself. This makes him mildly reactionary when it comes to political action.
Ever since 9/11, the city of Delhi has seen an endless number of sit-ins and demonstrations, often joined by sections of the academia. There were protests against the US bombing of Afghanistan, the renewed aggression on Palestine, the state-sponsored massacre in Gujrat. Our sagely professor stayed away from all this. In private, he expressed much concern. But he never marched. He was never sure if there was enough compulsion to act.
Among the recent US-sponsored horrors in the world, Kosovo was too distant and too complex a problem for most in India. There were reports of massive ethnic cleansing, spiraling of mindless violence between bloodthirsty factions each aiming for a slice of the territory: thousands of orphaned children, millions of refugees. Given the palpably immobile UN, people like our professor could even have wondered if NATO could do something about it. When the bombing started he could have heaved a sigh of relief. He lapsed into inert confusion when the picture finally came out after the bombing was long over.
Afghanistan was closer to home. The monstrous Taliban loomed large: the public lynching, the outrageous attacks on women, the callous destruction of Bamian statues. It looked as if the medieval, fundamentalist Islamic forces, with their plan of controlling the rest of humanity, found a sanctuary in this devastated land. Our professor wanted this regime to end no matter how. Even if the Americans had no legal right to bomb another country, even if there was no credible evidence linking the al-queda to 9/11, even if he detested mass violence, the professor was caught up between what he thought was a real moral choice between the Taliban and the Pentagon. The professor knew that the US directly promoted both the Taliban and the al-queda when it suited its cold-war interests. This is all the more reason, the professor thought, why the US must clean up the mess. With the dust from Afghanistan almost within breathing distance, our Delhi professor allowed the small picture to enlarge and cover the bigger one.
I met him recently in a demonstration by the university teachers against the US invasion of Iraq. He was standing quietly under a tree waiting for the march to begin. This time he had left his study. Peddlers that we have become, I fished out papers from my bag and started to tell him about the series of political actions that have been planned for the coming days. I was trying to appeal to the teacher in him by placing particular emphasis on a plan to talk to the people in the streets with sheets of well-documented facts about the war in hand, complete with Hindi translation and pictures of maimed children. He listened for a while.
Then he looked directly at me, sweat building on his forehead, his face contorted with pain. "Bombs", he said. "We need bombs, bigger the better, some nukes as well." "We must throw them at every institution they have, let them find out what mass destruction is really all about."
I looked around to see if anyone else was listening. I saw faces, all twisted with helpless anger. Aging professors, young intellectuals, sections of the elite, most with national and international distinction, lives devoted to rational inquiry and generally friendly gestures. The war in Iraq does not touch their personal lives, for now. Yet, they are out in the streets under the scorching midday Sun, perhaps for the first time, raising their fists to stall the avalanche of atrocity committed over a people. Many listened to what the professor said, no one objected.
Think what is happening to the psyche of the Arab youth huddled in the ghetto. Think
Nirmalangshu Mukherji teaches Philosophy in Delhi University. E-mail: somanshu@bol.net.in
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