Gods of a lesser children

A bit of saffronomics is certainly warranted for what follows. No doubt it entails the risk of me being painted in that hue too, but still it is necessary or rather, unavoidable. And it is also worth the trouble for it is not always that one gets the opportunity to get even with the self-proclaimed rationalists whose ideas and practices are anything but rational.

Now to the point. Though it happened a week back, Laloo and the Ramnad clashes had ensured that the current subject was relegated to the background. But then, just as we think of god only at the last moment, the godless too come to our mind only in case of a vacuum.

The allusion is now to that breed of self-styled rationalists who sport a black shirt as a symbol of their faith or rather the lack of it and who had made a vow to perform a Ravana Leela, come what may. Fortunately, the promised slight on the Hindu gods-here Rama- did not materialise, not certainly owing to any divine intervention by the Protector, but more because the protectors of the people in this Kaliyug, the police, thought it wise to prevent holding of such provocative programmes.

These black shirt pracharaks of the Dravidian parivar, who treat Kaavi with disdain, always pride themselves as atheists and the sole custodians of anything that is rational on this earth. For them scriptures are for burning, idols for breaking and rituals for mocking at.

The current century has been witness to several of their pranks, all aimed at denigrating the gods, but always sought to be passed muster as an exercise in liberating the people from ignorance and superstition. Lofty ideals indeed, but for the fact that they have always chosen only Hindu religion and its gods to prove their rationalist credentials. That is where the rub lies and therein also lies their hypocrisy and irrationality.

For them atheism is to be interpreted as a lack of faith in Hindu gods only. To this date, there is never a record of these men expressing their disapproval for or denigrating any of the gods of the other religions, though we do not wish them to. But the point is that they would never do it, too.

If all men are equal in the eyes of god, then all gods must also be equal in the eyes of men, at least the rational men who also claim to be secular. Is that the case with these characters? If so there would have been at least two more Leelas accompanying the aborted Ravana Leela.

Slogans in the Periyar Thidal vociferously proclaim that those who believe in god are fools and barbarians. But the place itself is often let out for religious prayers. Well, surely business is beyond faith and the DK could certainly do with a few extra pennies as money has no religion and is secular.

But the significant point here is that the Thidal is almost always let out, sometimes after studious solicitation too, only to a particular sect of a non-Hindu community while there is reportedly an unwritten order that Hindu functions must never be allowed. Not that the Hindus are itching to perform their functions there.

 But if someone does bother to make a request, he is sure to be spurned which clearly exposes the double standards of these very rational beings. Also it seems to mock at Periyar’s ‘words of wisdom’ so dutifully inscribed below his statue in the Thidal, just outside the ‘prayer’ hall.

It is not just such hypocrisy that overflows from their cup of half boiled ideologies. Irrationality is the hallmark of their rhetoric and it gets even more pronounced when they scream from rooftops and every available pedestal about the ills of rituals and idol worship, while they themselves adopt the very same practices to further their own ideals.

Do these people not worship Periyar and garland his statue every year, that too twice? This is said not to diminish the greatness of that social reformer, but to highlight the utter hollowness of his black shirt followers. Would Periyar, who shunned idol worship, and actually, any form of worship, have approved of this practice (I can hear the rational mind saying: Periyar would never know).

Frankly, there is nothing really irrational in offering obeisance to departed leaders who were loved and revered in their lifetime. But our argument is simply that, there is also nothing wrong in offering reverence to the gods, whom the faithful believe really existed in a very distant past. If that is shunned as ritual, then so is the garlanding of leaders’ statues or for that matter anything done in the leaders’ name. If invoking god is irrational on the count that he does not exist, so is the invocation of the names of dead leaders, who are gone for ever.

Why do these men wear black shirts? Is it not a symbolism, a kind of superstition by itself? Do they believe that by wearing black shirts they get their rationalist credentials certified? If the permanent sporting of black shirts represents their commitment to ideology, does it mean that they cease to be rational when they take their bath or on a sultry Sunday afternoon, when they hang their shirts for a whiff of fresh air or whenever Arcot Veerasamy, the Minister for power cuts, makes them sweat?

Or can it be taken to mean that their ideologies are as mutable as their shirts, which could be changed at will?

There is then the mysterious secularism that is often invoked whenever the question of religion comes up. If secularism is defined as tolerance of all religions, then could it not also be taken to mean equal intolerance of all religions? For a genuine secularist it is either that all religions are true or all are farces.

If one god exists, so do the others. If one doesn’t, others too don’t. But both ways it is secularism. Ravana leela is just half way, which is no way at all. Rather such wilful ignorance is a blacker stain on their very black shirts.

It is our humble suggestion to these rationalists that if they desire to come under the secular umbrella, they must shed their selective irreverence and instead start getting intolerant with all religions. They would also do well to list all the superstitious rituals in every faith and quickly embark on a campaign to dispense with them.

Many leelas taking pot shots at every faith would be in order, too. They can also raise their voices, as they do now against all Hindu godmen summarily, to expose similar such merchants of faith like the Brothers who distribute their blessings through the Indian Postal Service and mullahs who revel with the spirits besides issuing Fatwas.

That would be the day when they can truly call themselves atheists, rationalists, secularists and whatever else they claim to be. Till then they would just remain hypocritic, godlessmen, who are as bad as the self-styled godmen, both cheating in the name of God.

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