March 19th, 2001
[The Bamiyan Buddhas installation] was vandalised and destroyed by the Taliban of Afghanistan.
The followers of Islam are embarrassed as never before. Their enemies , the RSS/VHP/BJP Shiv Sena the Akalis and the U. S. of A. are delighted. The vandals of 6th December 1992 who destroyed the Babari Musjid under the leadership of Lal Krishna Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi have had their action justified in retrospect. The President of the USA [] poor countries like Sudan Afghanistan and Iraq with bombs and deadly missiles reducing dwellings to dust and rubble and injuring and killing civilians, women children and the aged.
The belief or canard that all Muslims are ‘fundamentalist’ which means illiterate uncouth rough and almost if not quite subhuman is propagated. What the U.S. President, Democrat or Republican does by way of brutality is therefore justified and not a crime against humanity.
The Taliban have given justification for such a view being taken.
As far as India is concerned the Taliban have legitimised the division of history into ‘Hindu’ ‘and ‘Muslim’ periods. Hindus and Sikhs can now continue to read their doctored by the British histories in which Muslims brutalised them for centuries. Hindus and Sikhs will nurse their communal hatreds while indulging in foeticide and infanticide of females @ some 3 millions a per annum. Between the 1981 and the 1991 census 30 million females disappeared in India. This is larger than the 20 million Chinese who died of starvation under the Communist regime. No one talks about it amongst the RSS/VHP/BJP/Shiv Sena/Akalis as they are too busy nursing grievances against Muslims
All this raises a question.
How should one react to outrage? An outrage like the destruction of the Bamiyaan Buddhas?
The perpetrators enjoy the ecstasy of indulging in an act of violence in full public view. This reinforces smug self satisfied sanctimoniousness. Remember the video coverage of the Babari demolition?, the joyous faces of L K Advani, Bal Thakeray, Uma Bharati, Kalyan Singh etc during and after the demolition of the Babari Masjid? Their joy was sick making and obscene. They had achieved the heart’s desire at no cost to themselves. At the lowest or street level the Indian threat is ‘Tujhey Nungaa Kar Doongaa’ (I will strip you in public). And this is what they thought they had done to the Muslims who had [supposedly] brutalised them over the centuries.
Now these people are in power and are busy escaping the legal consequences of their act. After the Tehelka tapes many colleagues have joined them in becoming fugitives from justice. One crime leads to another.
What of the others? Those not guilty of the specific outrage?
The headline describing the atrocity elicits the knee jerk reaction of full throated howls of protest and condemnation. It would be heartless to say that ‘A good time is had by all’ but what else is one to make of the present situation? The ‘liberal’ Hindus and Sikhs who have joined in the protest chorus will do nothing about the brutality to females in their societies.
30 million females disappeared from the population projections between 1981-1991. This is much larger than the number of Chinese who died from starvation caused by Mao Tse Tung’s marxist policies. Even Amartya Sen does not think it a problem worth addressing. The rightist or fundamentalist Hindus, the mirror image of the Talibans which are the RSS are in power in India but the others are all party to female foeticide, infanticide, dowry deaths and widow burning going unpunished.
If the Government of India had any aesthetic susceptibility they would have addressed the Departments of Art and Culture with greater sincerity. The crude manner in which they behaved towards the IGNCA shows the reality.
The Minister for Culture, Ananth Kumar, chosen by the Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpeyi, comes from the RSS. The RSS are modelled on Hitler youth. Goebbles said ‘Every time I hear the word ‘Culture’ I reach for my revolver!’
The Taliban are the RSS of the Afghans and a blessing for Hindutva as they are providing it the justification necessary for existence.
The one good thing that has come out of the tragedy of Baamiyaan is that before the final moment of the extinction of the great beauty that were the Buddha colossi of Afghanistan their visages were projected hour after hour on the T.V. screens of the world. These icons which had ceased to be worshipped about a thousand years ago made their way into the hearts and minds of the peoples of the world who are susceptible to aesthetic beauty. The words of Walter De La Mare come to mind
‘Look thy last upon all things beautiful every hour ‘
This way perhaps there will be greater aesthetic sensitivity, and, hopefully less brutality and outrage.