Deconstructing PK

At the time of writing this, news are pouring in that all the previous box office records are shattered by PK, currently it is the only Hindi movie in 300 crore-club. The 'intellectual class' is genuflecting Aamir khan and Rajkumar Hirani for enlightening the masses about the social evils, superstitions and fraud gurus. The opinion about PK was swinging from critical acclaim to debunking it as trash. Well, I thought let me figure that out for myself. 

I assume you have watched the movie and thus I am saving the trouble of reviewing it. I read in some review that it’s a lift from the Robin Williams sitcom “Mork and Mindy” and adapted to Indian scenario. I’m not sure on that but its brief description looks like they are strikingly similar. Also, it goes without saying it has taken a lot from OMG! We will let that pass. In this post, I’ll try to focus on some of the issues raised in the movie.

The movie starts with making a caricature of what is perceived as popular Hinduism. It’s not the first movie to do so, of course. The director brings in the ‘godmen’, bhajans, bhakts and uses them to ridicule pop Hinduism. Sure, there are many fraudulent babas, gurus in present day India and there were such people in the past too. These kinds of people needs to be exposed for what they are, no doubt. But to paint all gurus as frauds is not only stupid but also malicious. 

In India, the Guru-Shishya parampara is held sacred from time immemorial and for a reason. In many ways, I can say this parampara is the bedrock of Hinduism. Hinduism, being a tradition which has open architecture gives people the freedom to choose whatever path they want. There is no ‘one book, one god, one messiah’ concoction in it. I guess the film makers have absolutely no issues about the faiths that administer such concoction. 

The never ending fixation with Pakistan

The heroine who is studying in Belgium falls in love with a Pakistani guy and they decide to get married. Situations force them to not get married by casting aspersions on his religion and nationality. Eventually he turns out to be a good guy after all. It has become the template of many Bollywood movies in which the heroine falls in love with a Pakistani guy. It’s difficult to understand Bollywood’s fixation and love with Pakistan and Pakistanis. It’s a subtle way of saying – “You idiots! Love knows no nationality or religion”. True, that. So romantic, you exclaim! Many Bollywood movie makers make the same job like some communist writers or naxal sympathizers do – to romanticize terror a serious issue and anyone associated with it. These are 'aman ki asha' type pacifists who advocate Gandhism even at the face of imminent death. To romanticize any issue is to kill it — in the sense, that romanticization disables the faculties to examine critical issues at hand. 

Inter-religious marriages

The portrayal of the heroine who falls in love with a Pakistani guy and the eventual turn of events is nothing but the synthetic pipedream of Hirani and his type of secularists. The parents of the heroine who happen to be Hindu object to the heroine’s desire of marrying a Pakistani and anyone with right mind would do exactly that. Forget Hindus objecting to getting their daughters married off to Pakistanis, I doubt whether even Indian Muslims can muster courage for such unnecessary adventures. The way in which it is showed out is completely divorced from reality and militates against common judgement. 

Let us ask this question – Are inter-religious marriages especially those of Hindu-Muslim so simple and based out of merely love? And no other issues involved and no implications at all? We need not go far. Just try to pick examples from the industry to which Rajkumar Hirani belongs to – Bollywood. Sharmila Tagore married MAK Pataudi and became Begum Ayesha Sultana, Amritha Singh had to convert to Islam before marrying Saif Ali Khan and there are examples of Lucky Ali and the likes. The cases where there was no need to convert, say like that of Mr. Sultan of Sanctimony Amir Khan, they would have expressed their desire explicitly of bringing up their kids as Muslims. Enough said. Needless to say, this is the case with the so-called ‘progressive’ Muslims.

The truth of the matter is Islam or Islamic law sharia’h to be specific, doesn’t recognize the marriage between a Muslim and a non-Muslim. Even if one marries, and refuses to convert, that marriage is unlawful according to Sharia’h. With Islam, it’s always one way street. You can get into it but can’t get out of it. This is one of the many truths that PK successfully covers up. 

Lampooning of Lord Shiva

The scene which has been the reason for the ire of many Hindus is the scene where Lord Shiva (from the protagonist’s point of view) is chased inside the toilet and also shown in his underwear. Lord Shiva is one of the important gods in the Hindu pantheon. In Yogic lore, he is considered the first and the supreme Yogi. Anyone who knows the stories of Shiva from the lore also knows that Shiva is beyond this dichotomy of good and bad, ugly and beautiful, he is often depicted as a cool man smoking chillum. So, he is a cool god. He, as with his followers would not give two hoots for this BS. He is not one of those jealous gods who might go into incessant fits and call for a divine retribution for the perceived blasphemy. Of course Hindus didn’t kill or threatened to kill Rajkumar Hirani for this. 

Self-criticism has remained the hallmark of Hindu society. Anyone who takes some pain in studying intellectual history of India would know this as a fact. Criticism is welcome. So, the issue here is not whether Hindus are offended or not by this but the dripping hypocrisy of the film makers. Any remotely similar treatment to the other revered religious figures like say Jesus or Muhammad would have had violent repercussions. With the former, the movie wouldn’t have got the clearance from censor board; with the latter the movie maker would have met his creator. They know it and they always go for the easy targets. No risks but full bounty. 

Idol worship

Idol worship is lampooned, caricatured to the cringing levels possible. In one of the scenes, the protagonist takes a stone and pastes the stone with the paan and keeps it in front of a college building. This he does to demonstrate the stupidity of the people that they worship anything. True to his claim, people worship. Ergo, people are stupid. Thus goes the argument and its interpretation. 

Now, why would anyone hate idol worship? We need to see the source of the hate of such proportions. It started with Old Testament. There are many verses in Leviticus, Ezekiel, Deuteronomy etc. which warn against the sins of idolatry and then there is the Quran – which has many injunctions to destroy idols. When the Islamic invasions happened, they didn’t just loot the temples but also destroyed all the idols and their action was not without any reason and the actions were divinely ordained.  

The fundamental difference in the position of god in Abrahamic faiths and Dharmic traditions is that, for Abrahamic faith there is a clear duality in god and his creation but whereas in case of Dharmic tradition, god is inherent in everything. Also, when a Hindu worships an idol, he is actually not worshipping that idol but the ideal i.e. god which is represented with that idol. It’s one of the ways of travelling in the path of the ultimate. There! There. You have a problem. You remember the ‘wrong number’ reference in the movie? The insinuation in often repeated reference is that there is ONLY ONE right number i.e only one right way. This is not rational speak. This is coming out from a closet Abrahamic memeplex point of view. 

Somehow, the intellectual class which includes even some well-meaning people has come to believe that there is something wrong with the multiple gods and idol worship but the concept of single god is just alright. But history demonstrates emphatically the faiths which indulged in idol worship were close to nature and never involved in violence to coerce others to their religion. But the religions which advocated in the doctrine of ‘one god, one prophet, one path and one book’ inflicted the greatest violence on the world and it bleeds the world to this very day. But hey, let truth and facts be damned! We are having a gala time and let’s enjoy till it lasts!

Double standards of Censor Board

There are so many things that can be said about the censor board, the system of rating a movie, the way in which the members of the board are appointed and the recently resigned chairperson, the ‘contrived political martyr’ Leela Samson. Leela Samson's crimes — both as the chairperson of CBFC and before assuming that position — are too many to list in a blogpost. Since these issues are beyond the scope of this post, I am not going into the details. 

 

For brevity’s sake let me sum it up – Censor board practiced different yardsticks, standards for different movies. The treatment that PK got was way different from the treatment that the movies like Ya rub, Vishwaroopam, or the recent one MSG got. It was so brazenly different. The best thing that can happen for Indian cinema is to scrap this whole farce called censor board.

In Conclusion

Now, how does these Bollywoodians get so much confidence that they assume the high pedestal and patronize and ‘educate’ Hindus about the ‘superstitions’ they are mired in? – It’s the ignorance of the Hindus they make use of. An average Hindu knows next to nothing about his own Dharma, forget knowing about hostile ideologies or predatory religions. This makes them unable to mount any kind of effective counter-arguments when their traditions, culture are falsely criticized. Many wear this ignorance as badge of honor and mistake it for scientific temper. They think the more vociferous they are in debunking the junk called ‘superstition’, the progressive they look. When they don’t have any knowledge of their tradition & culture, a sense of history, the easiest argument to fall back on is – “All religions are same” – the same cliché-ridden, banal statement which is not only erroneous but also dangerous.

It really doesn’t take any guts to come out with the work of art be it cinema, novel or whatever that are critical of Hindus and their beliefs because you can be cocksure that you won’t be killed or ostracized from the society or from your chosen area. Many regional language cinemas have done it and none of them have run into any trouble. But, it takes real guts to criticize the cherished beliefs of Islam and Christianity ; with the later, your work of art may be censured and with the former you may be killed! One could challenge these Bollywood filmmakers whether they have the mettle to criticize these two religions with the same fervor with which they have criticized Hinduism but knowing their so-called liberalism and the supposed courage is shallow and selective, you know well in advance that the supposed bet is absolutely winnable. 

The malaise is deep, the rot is deep. PK is just a symptom. With all the pomp, PK comes across as an average entertaining movie but tries to preach ‘gyan’ in the garb of being funny. Having said this, I along with many others am against banning of any movie including PK. One of the central ideas of free society is that there should free flow of opinions and ideas – however stupid they might be. And also there is no need to attribute any bad or evil motives to Rajkumar Hirani or Amir Khan in making this movie although there are many reasons to cast such aspersions. I am a firm adherent of this dictum – “Never ascribe to malice that which can be adequately explained by incompetence”!

Book Review - Breaking India

Before starting anything, sample this : 2 authors, 5 years of research, 476 pages of data and analysis, bibliography of 61 pages, references to innumerable websites, books,and articles. Even this doesn't say how serious and important is this work -> Breaking India - Western Interventions in Dravidian and Dalit Faultlines. Authored by Rajiv Malhotra and Aravindan Neelakandan this work talks about various kinds of threats that are systematically unleashed by various coordinated forces on India and its religion. Before reading anything further, go to this official website to know more. 

The map shown is what the authors warn about in the book.

Introduction: 

There are global forces which don't like the idea of integrated India and constantly try to balkanize India so that balkanized India serves to fulfill their ultimate ends. Rajiv Malhotra calls these forces centrifugal forces. There are some interests which want to see India as one united country and these Malhotra calls as centripetal forces. Needless to say, centrifugal force that India is subjected to is far more stronger than the centripetal force which tries to unite India.

What are the centrifugal forces that want India to be divided and sub-divided? Though there are innumerable forces, institutions, individuals, all invariably fall into these three category -

1) Islamic radicalism linked with Pakistan
2) Maoists and Marxist radicals supported by China via intermediaries such as Nepal
3) Dravidian and Dalit identity separatism being fostered by the west in the name of human rights.

As the authors say in the introduction, this book focuses on the third issue -
the role of U.S. and European churches, academics, think-tanks, foundations, government and human rights groups in fostering separation of the identities of Dravidian and Dalit communities from the rest of India.

Synopsis:

The range of topics, institutions, individuals that are covered are huge that just for convenience, I have divided the issues raised by this book into these sub-headings (no way it's comprehensive)

1) Creation of identities, faultlines 

India is a diverse nation comprising of various cultures, languages, identities. But despite so many variations, there is something that creates pan-Indian identity. But the centrifugal forces (several churches, NGOs, individuals) are desperately trying to sever this pan-Indian identity and create several limited identities in its place.

2) Creation of race theories, their large implications in forming identities

Race theories were the products of colonial constructs of 18th century and are outdated. Still, to this day they are regurgitated to divide and sub-divide India. The creation of Aryan theory is well known and we know how the British used it to justify their dominion. The church and the colonialists have used Biblical myth of Ham to justify both racism and colonialism.

The authors warn of the outcome of creation and manipulations of race identities (master race, slave race having strong parallels with Aryan and Dravidian race theories) citing the examples of Sri Lanka and Rwanda. These two countries witnessed the worst civil wars of history killing thousands of people. 

3) Dravidian and Dalit faultlines

There are consistent efforts to portray Dravidian identity as an unique identity and different from pan-Indian identity. Same goes with the Dalit identity. Every effort is made to keep them apart from mainstream Hinduism and pan-Indian identity. Once the identities are separated from the pan-Indian identity, it can be used to map it to Christianity. So, many high profile churches are involved in this because it ultimately helps in proselytizing.

4) Dravidian Christianity, digesting Hinduism 

Attempts have been made to portray history of Christianity in India as an ancient one starting from the myth of St.Thomas. Just to give you a glimpse of some crackpot theories, sample these:

1.    India is a Dravidian Christian nation.
2.    Veda Vyasa is a Christian missionary.
3.    Shakti is the holy ghost in the christian trinity.
4.    Famed 6 Darshanas, Purva mimansa et al.have christian origin.
5.    Hinduism and Sanskrit were formed in 2nd century A.D.     

Did you say "Are you freaking kidding me?" but yes,these are the kinds of spurious theories which are passing of as scholarship. Basic contention is this: Anything good in Hinduism should be of Christian origin. First they tell Hinduism and Christianity are similar. Then they say Christianity as the pristine,the only truth and there is no salvation without Christ. All these so-called academic exercises are done only to aid conversion.

5) India and Hindu bashing industry of the west

India and Hindu bashing industry of the west is highly lucrative. There are many institutions which are dedicated to do this job. Of course they do it in the name of 'human rights', 'empowerment', 'protection of minorities' etc. There is a huge nexus of this India-bashing industry which uses every possible incident in India in the international circle to portray India and Hinduism in a bad light. These are high paying roles which promises reputation, money, foreign trips etc.

6) Church interests and U.S. direct involvement  

Church has severe interests in India and for its evangelical plans, it has mapped India to be inside the 10/40 window. India falls under the region where church has planned aggressive evangelism. The other major regions which fall under this region are China, Arab countries where proselytizing is outlawed or heavily restricted. So, India becomes the natural target.

To fulfill the mission of 'reaching out to the unreached masses' which is an euphemism for conversion, the church can go to any extent. For instance the Church and Maoists have come together in North-East India to break away from India.

The right-wing politics and lobbying is very strong in the U.S such that they eventually influence the policies of the U.S which can have many far reaching effects on India.

7)  Pan-Islam, China and the west

These are three civilizations which are working for the world's domination. They fight amongst themselves owing to difference in ideology. But when it comes to India, they all come together because they have a common enemy: India and its culture. All these forces have made India an ideological battleground. Truth be told, they have nothing to lose but everything to gain. The increase of Jihadi network in Kerala, the Naxalism in some states, Maoism in the north-east India and the huge infrastructure and networks these forces have created bear testimony to the fact that they are getting more stronger by the day.  


The Ultimatum :

This book should be studied by all who want to see India as one united country. The book is not trying to churn out some conspiracy theories but instead relies on hard,well-documented facts. So, the importance of the book can't be overstated. This book is important in many levels like: strategic,security, policy making etc.

Once you finish the book, you might get a feeling that India is a piece of meat lying on the ground waiting to be devoured by the vultures flying in the sky. The vultures which represent the centrifugal forces are far more equipped, organized, networked than the centripetal forces. The message and gentle warning that the book gives,if simplified could be:'be vigilant,organize,strategize or perish'

A small critique on religions !

Muni Tarun sagar once said that the house should be destroyed after a hundred years of its construction and then should be rebuilt. In the same way, religions should be destroyed after one thousand years. Because of a long duration of time, many junks might have made their way to the religion. So, it would be near impossibility to set all the things right. The actual meaning and intention of the religion would have lost long ago. So, the process of cleaning the unwanted aspects should always be on.



Any religion should be open to criticism. Because that’s the main thing which helps to look deep about certain aspects and clean them if needed and also helps in reaffirming the faith in the good aspects of the religion. But a few religions consider themselves to be perfect and beyond evaluation or criticism. Worse than that, they intimidate the people who criticize it and create a kind of phobia.

Hinduism which is perhaps the oldest religion of the world has faced the same. Owing to the long-presence of it, it picked up junk and some aspects of it became intolerable. Though it had some very beautiful things that no other religions had, the junk had piled up so much that it began to mask the great aspects of the religion. So, the reformers came for the rescue. They could see the problem. Many of them criticized and brought many reforms. But due to its enormity and vastness, still many junks has remained. But, one appreciable fact is that Hinduism is open to criticism. No acts were considered as blasphemous acts even though many acts were nothing less.

Christianity also gives a fair amount of freedom in criticizing the religion and for the reforms. But as Christianity is a highly organized religion, it is not as easy as Hinduism to criticize and evaluate. Organization of religion has its own weaknesses and strength. But, with its limitations, Christianity has come a long way and it has given scope for criticism and evaluation.

But the religion which hasn’t opened up at all is the religion of Islam. The very word Islam means ‘to surrender’. It’s a beautiful thing to surrender to something. Unless you are truly humble, it is impossible to surrender to something completely. But as mentioned before, no religion is perfect. Every religion has its own piece of scrap which has to be cleaned up from time to time. If the scraps are not cleaned, the scraps become more and cover the entire religion and the religion appears as a joke.

Islam has hardly gone through reforms over the years. It is as medieval as it was in the 7th century. There is not much difference between Aurangazeb and Osama Bin Laden. Both might belong to completely different eras but the point to be noted is that both were motivated by the same ideology. Obviously, there should be something wrong in some part of the religion. If someone questions that, instead of brooding over the reasons, the very act of questioning is considered blasphemous and the person who questions it is persecuted or worse, killed. So, none dares to question and all want to be politically correct.

Subramaniam Swamy (President of Janatha Party and former minister) had written an article about Islamic terror and the ways to wipe it. Though there were some extreme points in it, he had raised some valid issues. I had posted the article on my Facebook profile. Irfan, one of my college mates in my post graduation got offended by the article and he began to throw some personal slurs at me and also started his line of defense defending his religion and tried to portray his religion as the religion of peace(had he said piece, I would have readily agreed!). The person was so blind that he was not even ready to acknowledge the well-established fact of the Islamic terror. Then Naveen, one of my college mates in my graduation joined this guy and they continued to defend their argument.

Then the rhetoric began: ‘Terrorism has no religions’, ‘You can’t attribute terrorism to one single religion’, ‘Terrorism has a socio-economic-political cause than religious ones’. It was a typical Indian situation: One guy from the minority, to defend him a pseudo-secular intellectual and one hopeless moron against them. My hope to drive home some points to them remained hope till the end because one person had mortgaged his intelligence to his religion and the other one to some ideology and pseudo-secularism. So, the arguments yielded no results. But, the next morning I was surprised to see that my name was promptly removed from his friend’s list. I was bewildered at the level of narrow-mindedness!!

To do a cover-up job for a problem is not the way to encounter a problem at all. To solve any problem, one has to acknowledge the existence of the problem first. If someone is the denial mode and act as if the problem doesn’t exist, the existence of the problem is undeterred and it can only exacerbate over a period of time.