Madras Cafe

I recently watched the movie ‘Madras Cafe’ and was pleasantly surprised at the deft handling of such a sensitive issue and paved a way for such unbiased portrayals of sensitive issues in the future - especially a portrayal completely devoid of observational bias. The movie has kept its glasses of objectivity while portraying all sides of this issue - the brutal assault by the Sri Lankan military has been called for what it is - while the ideological standing of LTTE has been shown with all its intentions and its flaws.

However, given the outrage in some parts of Tamil Nadu over this issue, shows to us that this issue has always been a thorn in Tamil Nadu politics with the obvious enemy being the Sri Lankan government and the easy scapegoat being the Indian government at the centre. There has been so much chest-thumping about ethnic pride than the everyone has failed to see this issue for what it actually is - a human issue. And I am pretty sure, that way, it would be easier to get the Indian populace to empathize with the human issue - rather than allowing them to label it a ‘Tamil issue’, pander to it and move on - all the while doing absolutely nothing for the actual people affected - Sri Lankan Tamils. 

While it may be easy for us to assume that its just political parties which try to seek brownie points on this issue - the fact of the matter is that there is a credible percentage of Tamil Nadu which is still motivated by this issue and do consider the Sri Lankan Tamils as their own - and  sometimes go to the extent of suspecting the inaction by the Indian Government through the prism of ethnicity. 

I believe that the inaction by the Indian Government can be attributed to various factors - ethnic hatred is certainly not one of those. People in Tamil Nadu forget that this is the Indian system which counts lethargy and inaction as one of its hallmark. A system which lets thousands of farmers in Vidarbha commit suicide surely doesn’t need any other reason for inaction - lethargy is good enough. Also,the geopolitical issues have been completely forgotten by supporters of tough-regulations on Sri Lanka. We are surrounded by various countries on our side and protecting the Indian interests first over Sri Lankan Tamils becomes a necessary and a bitter pill to swallow. Inspite of this, when the draft came about in the UN regarding the genocide of Sri Lankan Tamils by the Sinhalese Army - the Indian Government supported it. But many Tamil parties opposed it saying it was too diluted. This is exactly the same stance that LTTE had in their opposition to the political process. And thanks to that - we have not been able to give the Sri Lankan Tamils the justice they deserved. As Oscar Wilde rightly said - ‘Everything in moderation, including moderation”’.

So, consider the paradox here - Rajiv Gandhi was killed by the LTTE in his efforts to push for peaceful and political action. I am not here to say that the means used by the Indian Army have been completely right - and to its credit Madras Cafe does shows these things with an extreme finesse. But to say that the intentions of the Indian Government and the Army were dishonest and spurred by ethnic hatred/indifference is willfully ignorant at best.

So, given all this - why would a certain section of Tamil Nadu choose to side with its ethnic companions rather than national ones? And the sad part is - such ethnic chest thumping has been displayed by various parts of the country during various point of history. Perhaps, the idea of India is far too new to override the default settings of ethnic pride. Letting aside the mindset of older generations, the more important question is why (and rather how) does the Indian youth today - come to choose ethnic pride over an Indian one - especially on such issue is beyond me. 

Travails of a parochial soceity

Our founding fathers, who envisioned a country free of parochial and linguistic chest-thumping, would be thoroughly dismayed by the behavior that's shamelessly parading the streets of India. Given the current state of affairs, I really wonder if we have been hoaxed into believing that people like Tagore, Phule, Raja Ram Mohan Roy were Indians. Because looking at the current Indian populace, it is at best an anomaly that these people were born in the same geographical location that we live.

We trample each other and zealously defend our beliefs and institution - be it religion, language, culture, race, ethnicity and other stupid societal associations that one can think of. All that we need is one difference that could draw a fence between two people. Day in and day out, we have people crying out for their “own” based on one of these parameters - at the same time failing to understand the limited scope of the association that they are defending. To some it may point to the lack of critical and rational thinking - which is why everything becomes so “sensitive” to people and we all culminate into a society that is marked by appeasement of each institution - rather than a one driven by critical thought.

While each institution sparks a different kind of rage/despair among people, the question very much remains the cause for such behavior. Why does it so happen that most humans refuse to look beyond the pitfalls of each of their institutions. To a large extent I believe, this has something do with connecting your identity with that particular institution. I don’t necessarily think that people do these things to support the institutions that they claim to represent - rather they do this to merely “prove” to themselves the validity of their stand and guard their identities. For inherently, man is nothing but a selfish creature, driven primarily to defend his own self - just that in this case, the physical self has metamorphosized into “self-identity”.

Take for example, the extreme association, people carry with their languages. Language was merely meant for you to communicate with fellow humans and not to divide and certainly not to wear it as a badge of pride. Or speaking in generalities - I will protest against XYZ group because it dared to question “my” ABC group - i.e. questioned something that is essentially part of me. And once that happens the mind shuts down its critical prowess and ascends into morbid fervor to quench tribal justice.

And this to me points to a society filled with people with extreme low self-esteem - where you need these props - religion, language, ethnicity and these days, the smartphone OS platform you choose - to define your so-called identity - firstly to yourself and largely to this world. That to me represents an extreme shallow way of thinking, one that essentially boxes you in the parameters that you have defined for yourself.  Think of this example - you live in your home and it naturally is very difficult for you to “question” your home - for it provides you with shelter. Similarly, I believe that we let these identities shelter our “true self” - thereby, making it difficult for us to question - firstly, the validity of these institutions in the first place and then the need to shelter ourselves with these institutions.

Finally, I guess all this boils down to the notion of pride - for some it is - “I am proud of what I do” and for most of us - “I am proud of what I am”. I guess it is the latter that is the root cause of problem. I belong to XYZ religion - it lends me my identity and thereby, I am proud of it. It is largely a circular way of thinking - and it is difficult to fit critical analysis in such a stupid logic.