Woman – Surviving Male Barbarism through the Ages

Guess which of the species living on earth is the most abused, tortured, raped, burnt and murdered species in the world? You’ve guessed it right – it’s the woman, the female species of homo sapiens. And the perpetrators of all manner of ghastly crimes against women are men. The irony of it all is that women suffer the birth pangs to give birth to baby boys, some of whom grow up to be men who go about committing all manner of inhuman crimes against girls and women.

But it’s not just individual males who commit barbaric crimes such as torture, rape and murder of women. Men have used religion as an instrument to commit such crimes against women on a mass scale. Human history is a witness to such ghastly crimes against women on a mass scale. The custom of sati was one such barbaric and inhuman crime against women in India. Sati was a religiously sanctified, glorified and institutionalised form of cruelty against Hindu women. This barbaric custom not only denied a widow the right to her deceased husband’s property, but more sinisterly even deprived her of the right to live after her husband’s death. For hundreds of years, thousands of widows perished alive on the funeral pyres of their deceased husbands. It is difficult to understand how such a terrible, cruel and inhuman ritual against Indian women could have come to be practiced in India, and it is beyond our imagination to even think of what it means to be burnt alive on a pyre raging with fire. The custom of sati was one was of the darkest and bloodiest blots (apart from untouchability) on Indian culture and it should make all right-thinking Indian men hang their heads in shame. We needed a firangi Lord William Bentinck to abolish sati and wash the guilt of our blood-soaked conscience.

But medieval Europe was not far behind India when it came to cruelty against women. In fact, the infamous ‘witch-hunt’ against women in Europe is a historical testimony to the brutality of men against women. The witch-hunt was launched under the aegis of the church to hunt down women who were accused of witchcraft. Any woman suspected of practising witchcraft was mercilessly tortured and killed, many a times by burning her alive at the stake. So, if there was an outbreak of some disease in a village or if a cow or a bull died of some disease or some calamity befell on a family, some hapless and helpless woman would be blamed for all the misfortunes of the village or the family and branded as a ‘witch’, after which the local priest would order the torture and killing of the accused woman. The procedure and the manner of trial and punishment were elaborately prescribed in Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger’s infamous and diabolic witch-hunt manual Malleus Maleficarum (meaning: The Witch Hammer). This witch-hunt resulted in the torture and murder of an estimated 5-9 million (50 lakh to 90 lakh) women all over Europe over a period of about 300 years (Source: Dan Brown’s ‘Da Vinci Code’). In fact, under the pretext of hunting down alleged witches, the church clergy also eliminated thousands of women who were intelligent, independent-minded and talented in arts and crafts. This was done to instil fear in the minds of women and discourage women from raising doubts about any of the church’s doctrine so that the authority of the male-dominated church remained unchallenged. However, even after such religion-sanctioned brutality, oppression and suppression, the European women managed to secure equal rights after a long struggle. But the agonising cries and spilled blood of millions of innocent women will always haunt the souls of the European church and European men.

These historical facts are just two among the countless other examples of the gender-based discrimination and injustices women had to go through the ages. The discrimination and injustices against women have not stopped, except maybe in some enlightened sections of large cities and towns. Women will continue to face injustices in our country and in other parts of the world till they are completely empowered and liberated from the shackles of the traditions laid down by the male-dominated society. Such empowerment and liberation of women would happen only through education and financial independence. More importantly, things will change for the better only when males radically change their mindset and consider girls and women as their equal partners and companions in life and treat them as such. A change in the male mindset would also necessitate a radical review of traditional gender roles in the family and the society at large.

Inventing & Abolishing Gods!

“If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him!”

- Voltaire, 18th century French Enlightenment writer, historian, playwright and philosopher.

"If God really existed, it would be necessary to abolish him!"
- Mikhail Bakunin, 19th century Russian revolutionary and Father of Collectivist Anarchism

I was quite amused when I came across these two diametrically opposite views of Voltaire and Bakunin about God. But I was not surprised at all because both of them have stated the truth: Gods have been "invented" and "abolished" over the course of about four-and-half millenniums (3000 BC to 1500 AD).

Consider these historical facts:

The residents of ancient Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq) "invented" and worshipped Abzu, Adad, Amurru, Anu, Ashur, Enki, Ishtar, Kingu, Kishar and many other deities. People living in the land of Canaan (present-day Lebanon, Israel, Palestine and Syria) "invented" and worshipped deities such as Adonis, Asherah, Ashima, Ba'al, Chemosh, Derceto, Eshmun, Hadad, Melgart, Moloch, Shalim, Yahweh, Yam and many more. Egyptians "invented" and worshipped deities such as Amun, Ra, Apis, Bakha, Isis, Horus, Osiris and Ptah. But all these and many other gods were "abolished" systematically and replaced by the one and only Allah "invented" by Prophet Mohammed. The Jews retained the Canaanite god Yahweh and abolished the rest!

The Europeans too had their own share of gods and goddesses! The ancient Greeks "invented" and worshipped deities such as Apollo, Aphrodite, Ares, Artemis, Dionysus, Hades, Hera, Hermes, Poseidon, Zeus and many others. The ancient Romans "invented" and worshipped many deities, including Mercury, Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, Apollo, Vulcan, Minerva, Juno, Janus, Diana, Vesta, Hercules and many more. But then came Jesus Christ and his followers who "abolished" all these pagan gods to make way for Jehovah, the 'Supreme Lord'. Later, Christians started considering Jesus as their God, thereby replacing Jehovah for all practical purposes.

I wonder what happened to these thousands of gods "abolished" after the advent of Judaism, Christianity and Islam in Middle-East and Europe. Where did they go? Are they still there ('there' means where? In the heavens? I don't know!) or have they taken refuge somewhere else in the cosmos? Are these ancient gods hoping that some holy man (or woman) will rediscover them and bring them back into business? (Yes, business! Isn't spiritualism a large-scale and highly lucrative business? Look at the ultra-luxurious ashrams, private jets, fleet of super-luxury cars and other kind of 'maya' accumulated by modern godmen and godwomen, and you'll agree).

And what happened to the faith of the people who believed in these deities and worshipped them with all their hearts? These people must have offered their prayers, sung hymns and paeans to seek the blessings of these deities, sacrificed animals and birds (and probably human beings too) to appease them, asked all kinds of favours (mannatein aur duayein) from them, celebrated festivals in their honour, performed all kinds of rituals to please them and undertaken fasts to seek health, wealth and happiness for themselves and their families. All of this vanished into thin air along with the deities. An entire social ecosystem of customs, traditions, beliefs and practices died when the deities were "abolished".

Indians too have "invented" and "abolished" gods but, unlike Middle-East and Europe, we "invented" large number of gods and goddesses, but did not indulge in large-scale "abolishing" of gods. That's probably the reason why we have incredibly large number of living ( jagrut?!! ) gods and goddesses!! Apart from the "invention" of grand deities such as Ram, Krishna, Shiva, Ganesh, Hanuman, Durga, Mahalakshmi, Balaji, Murugan, Ayappa and few others, there are thousands of local deities "invented" and worshipped by Indians in villages across the length and breadth of the country. In fact, the number of village deities might run into a few lakhs, considering that there are over 640,000 villages in India and almost every other village in India has its own presiding deity (gram devata). The deities named above are the most favourite among the masses, but other deities such as Indra, Brahma and Vishnu, who were highly revered and worshipped in ancient times, find themselves almost banished and ignored (if not 'abolished'). Of course, Vishnu has been cleverly retrieved in the form of his ten 'avatars', but that's a small consolation!

Not many Indians know that India's first two organised religions, Jainism and Buddhism, never propagated belief in any supernatural god. Probably, that was the reason why these religions failed to take roots in the psyche of the Indian masses who were bred on the belief in god for thousands of years. Also, since both these religions preached non-violence, the followers of these two religions never resorted to violence to spread their faiths and impose their world-view on others. 

Mercifully, human beings have stopped "inventing" gods in modern times. Is it because gods are not born in Kaliyug? Or is it because people living in Kaliyug refuse to buy the story if someone claims to be 'god'? Also, people have stopped "abolishing" other people's gods with the fanatical zeal of the ancient hordes because we have become more secular, tolerant and accommodating in our religious beliefs and outlook.

Humans beings have "invented" and "abolished" thousands of gods till date across all cultures all over the world. That's why I say: God by now must be really weary and wary(!) of being "invented" by the believers and "abolished" by the non-believers!!!

[I have presented above some of the bare historical facts and treated the subject in a sarcastic, light-hearted and casual manner, with few serious comments thrown in between. Also, I have deliberately used the words "invented" and "abolished" repeatedly in relation to gods to keep the focus on the views of Voltaire and Bakunin. For an exhaustive and critical exposition of the phenomenology of God and religion, read my forthcoming book.]

Bhagwan Ko Sanmati?

"Ishwar, Allah tero naam, sabko sanmati de Bhagwan..." so goes the popular bhajan. Read some of the scriptures below and decide whether you really want to have the kind of 'sanmati' some of the gods are peddling!

OLD TESTAMENT:

Here’s what the Old Testament, the fountainhead of Judaism and Christianity, tells Jews and Christians to do if someone tells them to worship other gods or convert to other faith:

 “If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son or daughter, or the wife of your bosom, tries to secretly entice you, saying: ‘Let us go and serve other gods’, you must kill him, your hand must strike the first blow in putting him to death and the hands of the rest of the people following. You must stone him to death, since he has tried to divert you from your God…”

[Deuteronomy, Ch. 13, v. 6-10]

QUR’AN:

If a person does not believe in Allah’s revelations in the Qur’an, here’s what Allah will do to them:

“Lo! Those who disbelieve Our revelations, We shall expose them to the Fire. As often as their skins are consumed We shall exchange them for fresh skins that they taste the torment.”

(Surah IV, verse 56).

So Allah will roast us in fire because we do not believe in his revelations in the Qur’an. When our skins get fully burnt in fire, he’ll replace them with fresh skins so that we taste the torment once again!

If anyone dares to fight against Muslims, here’s the ‘reward’ from Allah:

“The only reward of those who make war upon Allah and His messenger and strive after corruption in the land will be that they will be killed or crucified, or have their hands and feet on alternate sides cut off, or will be expelled out of the land. Such will be their degradation in the world, and in the Hereafter, theirs will be an awful doom.”

(Surah V, verse 33).

What kind of punishment ('reward') is that: "killed or crucified, or have their hands and feet on alternate sides cut off"?  

Allah prescribes revenge against non-Muslims, thus:

“And We prescribed for them therein: The life for the life, and the eye for the eye, and the nose for the nose, and the ear for the ear, and the tooth for the tooth, and for the wounds retaliation. But whoso forgoeth it (in the way of charity), it shall be expiation for him. Whoso judgeth not by that which Allah hath revealed: such are wrong-doers.” (Surah V, verse 45)

Did Mahatma Gandhi say, “An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind”? Here Allah commands the Muslims to take not just an eye for an eye, but also life for life, nose for nose, ear for ear, tooth for tooth and retaliation for wounds!

Want to know my views on these and other 'religious' verses (as well as views of scientists, sociologists, psychologists and Nobel Prize winners on gods, religions, religious scriptures)? Read them in my forthcoming book! J

But can't resist making couple of comments, though. If this is Ishwar's, Allah's and God's 'sanmati', then we need to change the bhajan to "Ishwar, Allah tero naam, sabko sanmati de Insaan"!! Also, since these scriptures reveal these gods as unforgiving, the English saying "To err is human, to forgive divine" should be changed to: "To punish is divine, to forgive human"!

Creativity Lost!

The other day I watched with amusement the ICICI Prudential ad on TV where a school girl asks her father if he could buy her a laptop and her father replies ‘yes’ explaining to his reticent wife that their daughter would have higher education and invent something like Facebook or YouTube when she grows up. Here brand ambassador Big B interjects the father and explains that higher education costs money and therefore it is important to take the Children’s Education Policy.

It's like any other persuasive ad you get to see on TV every day and I do not wish to go into the merits or demerits of having or not having a policy for children's education. What really got me thinking is the father’s fond hope that his daughter would invent something like Facebook or YouTube after completing her studies. How many Indian software guys have invented something like Google, Facebook, YouTube or Twitter till date? Isn’t it surprising that after being a software superpower for about two decades, Indians have not been able to come up with anything like Google, Facebook, YouTube, Wikipedia, Twitter and the like? (Probably the only exception being Sabeer Bhatia’s ‘Hotmail’, which was a joint effort between Sabeer and his American colleague Jack Smith).

So, why are our software guys doing the routine things they have been doing all these years instead of doing something creative? Has the routine work sapped their creativity or have they become complacent, wallowing in their ‘success’ (measured in fat bank balances, swanky cars and plush houses in upmarket localities) and remaining content with writing codes day in and day out for their companies? If so, I think India’s success as a software powerhouse is just a mirage which will disappear when the labour cost advantage vanishes as more and more cheaper destinations become available to American companies and the dollar deluge becomes a trickle.

Internet is an immensely powerful and versatile medium and I guess there are many more innovations waiting to be discovered. We need some great innovations to fall back on when our cost advantage disappears. If our Indian software guys just start thinking out-of-the-box, they might as well hit upon quite a few really great ideas. That would be the day when a parent, like the dad in the ad, would find buying a laptop for a school-going son or daughter worthwhile.

The Power Of Ahimsa!

Once again, the power of Ahimsa was witnessed when Anna Hazare’s fast-unto-death forced the UPA government to accept the demand for Lok Pal bill. What could not be achieved in more than four decades was achieved in 96 hours. It was a glimpse of our own Independence struggle when a dhoti-clad bald and lanky old man walking with just a lathi in his hands brought the mighty British empire to its knees. The anti-corruption crusade is our second freedom struggle and it took an Anna Hazare to kick-start it.

It's heartening to see the success of a non-violent struggle. But many people do not believe in non-violence and feel that only an armed struggle can bring about a radical change. Can corruption be eradicated by violent means? Can an army of rebels armed with AK-47s, hand grenades and Molotov cocktails put an end to corruption by unleashing violence against corrupt politicians and babus? The answer is: NO. The government (with its power-drunk and corrupt politicians and bureaucrats) has the military, paramilitary and police forces at its disposal and can easily crush any violent uprising. An armed army of rebels is simply no match against the might of the government’s forces. Also, the violence of the rebels provides the government with the justification to unleash its own violence.

Therefore, the only way to challenge the brutal might of the government is through non-violent struggle (Ahimsa) and Mahatma Gandhi realized the importance of people’s power and the power of Ahimsa during the Independence struggle. When thousands (or sometimes even lakhs) of people come out on streets to demonstrate peacefully, the government is at a loss to figure out how to respond. On the one hand, it cannot order the police or the armed forces to open fire on the unarmed masses (rare exceptions being the Jallianwala Bagh and Tiananmen Square massacres), but on the other hand, it also knows fully well that if a people’s agitation keeps simmering for long it is likely to snowball into a revolutionary movement. So the only option for the government is to negotiate with the leaders of the agitation and arrive at a mutually acceptable settlement. The British did that with the Mahatma; our deshi firangees have done just that with Anna. That’s the power of Ahimsa!

But the fight against corruption does not end with the passage of the Lok Pal bill in the parliament - the fight will actually begin after its passage. The Lok Pals/Lok Ayuktas have to be persons of unimpeachable integrity who will do their duty without fear or favour and make eradication of corruption from public life their life's mission. The fight will be truly successful when all corrupt politicians and babus are put behind bars and all their ill-gotten wealth confiscated by the courts. So let's not celebrate now, but keep our celebrations for the day when we win our second Independence from these deshi white-collar bandits.

Prophetic Words

“Power will go into the hands of rascals, rogues, freebooters; all Indian leaders will be of low calibre and men of straw. They will have sweet tongues and silly hearts. They will fight amongst themselves for power and India will be lost in political squabbles. A day would come when even air and water would be taxed in India."

The above quote is attributed to the British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill. The source of this quote is not known, but Churchill is supposed to have made the remark “on the eve of Indian Independence” or in the House of Commons. If Churchill had indeed made such derogatory and demeaning remark about Indians, the then nationalist leaders such as Gandhi, Nehru, Patel, Azad, and many others would have definitely condemned it and rightly so. After all, the nationalist leaders who fought and won our freedom were selfless men and women of character and integrity who sacrificed everything for the country and were always committed to the welfare of the people at large. So, all Indians would have condemned Churchill’s remark as highly objectionable and yet another instance of British arrogance, colonial mentality and insensitivity.

Now, cut to today’s India. Look at our current breed of politicians and the words of Churchill do not seem objectionable at all. In fact, his words seem so prophetic because whatever Churchill had said is the reality today. Power has indeed gone into the hands of “rascals, rogues, freebooters” (and, if I may add, murderers, rapists, dacoits, mafias, scamsters, etc.) who have plundered India in the last 45 years (assuming that during the first 20 years after Independence, we had men and women of integrity at the helm) more than the British did in their 200-year rule. The series of scams being unearthed every other day shows how India is being plundered, looted and pillaged by our very own desi bandits going by the names of the Raja, Karunanidhi (and his clan), Kalmadi, Koda, Pawar, Gandhi (not the Mahatma), Chavan, Deshmukh, Mayawati, Laloo, Yeddyurappa, Jayalalitha, Sukharam...the list is endless. These dacoits (in the garb of our leaders) have plundered billions and trillions and stashed the ill-gotten moolah in foreign banks.

In the early 1990s, the scams used to be of the order of a few hundred crores or few thousand crore rupees, but today the scams are in tens of thousand crores and even couple of lakh crore rupees. But we Indians have become so morose and moribund that even these mindboggling amounts do not shock us anymore and it’s business as usual for us as we continue with our daily routines. So the white-kurta-and-dhoti clad or the safari suit-wearing dacoits are gleefully continuing with their looting spree.

Almost all Indian leaders we have today (barring some honourable exceptions) are “of low calibre and men of straw” who have “sweet tongues and silly hearts”. What a realistic and perfect description of our political nincompoops! Is it not true that these leaders “fight amongst themselves for power” and, as a result, India has got “lost in political squabbles”. As for taxes, the good news is that they have already taxed water long time back, while the tax on air is perhaps just a matter of time! 

I think Churchill deserves to be conferred with a “Bharat Ratna’ posthumously for providing us 65 years ago such an accurate and realistic description of our future leaders! 

Our present day leaders make me feel the British rule was probably much better (despite some 'aberrations'). Can’t we throw these leaders into the Indian Ocean (with 500-kg stones tied around their neck!) and bring back the British once again?

New Book - A Course Correction

It's been three months and a week since I began writing a book full-time, but after three months of exhaustive readings, contemplation and introspection, I began to feel that probably I have bitten more than I can chew. The subjects on which the book was supposed to be written are so vast that I realised it was virtually impossible to complete the book in 2-3 years' time (as I had initially thought I would). Now I feel that such a voluminous book would take at least 8-10 years to complete, and if I try to complete it in 2-3 years, I would not be able to do justice to the topics because I would have to rush it to meet the deadline. Also, I cannot think of writing full-time for 8-10 years without a job because I do not have the bank balance which could last that long. And taking up a job once again is definitely NOT an option because my experience shows that trying to write such a book while doing a job simply doesn't work.
So, what do I do now? I was in a fix and needed to find a way out of this tight spot. And I found a way in a casual remark I had made in the presence of some of my office colleagues. I had casually hinted to them about the possibility of splitting the book into six different books. Which means that instead of covering six different topics with the same theme in a single book, there could be six different books on six different topics with the same theme! A sort of 'series' of books with a single theme! That was it. I decided I'll write these six books instead of writing a single voluminous book. This makes my life easy and the target very much manageable and achievable within the time-frame where my savings can sustain me. I expect that the publication of first book will bring me the money I need to keep me going for the next book, and so will the subsequent books. Most importantly, assuming that it would take me 18-24 months to complete one book, the six books will keep me occupied for the next 10-12 years (health permitting, hopefully)!!
Now, the next question was: what would be the topic of the first book in the series? I had no hesitation in deciding on this: it would be on spirituality, no doubt. God and religion are the most sensitive subjects arousing intense passions, emotions and reactions among followers, so I decided to deal with the topic first. After that, the next book would be on yet another hot topic: politics. Thereafter, it will be economy, society & culture, human understanding (philosophy) and science & technology, in that order.
The first book on spirituality should be out by the third or fourth quarter of 2012.