In 2024, we shrank as human beings a bit more. Blame ideology for it. It is a soul-destroying force. It truncated us by drilling into our minds ideas of exclusivity and identity, and it nourished both by a liberal sprinkling of hatred. Loyalty to an ideology means ceding the power to think free and curtailing a part of one’s individuality to fit in. It can take a toll on one’s innate humanism. India has been losing it for sometime now, it was no better this year.
Is it possible in India to be a liberal without being tagged as Left-liberal? Is it possible to be secular without being termed a Congressi? Is it possible to be a Hindu without hating Muslims? Is it possible in India to be a rationalist without being called anti-religion? These are bizarre times. Traits natural to you get an ideological interpretation. You are a Leftist if you think in a particular way and you are a follower of the Right if you are inclined in a different way. It’s immaterial if you are both Left and Right in different situations. You must have a tag. This tag is a bondage; it stops you from being a free-flowing human being.
Once you have the tag you must join the fight against the ‘other’. If you are independent, you don’t belong; you stay in a vacuum. Once you are in the fight you need to summon whatever ruthlessness you have. You don’t want Muslims or Hindus to be targets of attack and vicious campaign, in India or Bangladesh or anywhere. You want people to live in peace and harmony wherever they are. As your normal self you would welcome disagreement with your own views and bear no rancour for the ‘other’. But once in a fight, you need to abandon all that. You must kill a part of your goodness.
The idea of India always evokes contrasting views. It can be extremely beautiful and extremely ugly. It is in the eyes of the beholder. Also, it’s in the personality type. If you want to find beauty, you won’t cease to be amazed; if you want to see ugliness, you would seek it out in every nook. You would worship a Zakir Hussain or Ustad Bismillah Khan or Hariprasad Chaurasia with equal reverence if you are interested in the beauty of India; you would find Hindu and Muslim identities in them if you love ugliness.
Once you are in the fight, your focus has to be on ugliness, negatives. Qualities of affection, respect, sympathy and empathy must be suppressed, otherwise you don’t belong. Ideology does that to you. The ideology of the Left was easily the biggest killer in human history. The ideology of the Right threatens to be moving that way. But must we belong to either? Where does that leave us as normal human beings capable of both love and a bit of maliciousness too?
Some people are rigorously trained to be hateful and some – like the andh bhakts in all ideologies – acquire the capacity. There maybe overlaps in both categories though. There are others who sense an opportunity in siding with the dominant force. Where does that leave the freethinkers, liberals and normal human beings? Well, nowhere.
Should they change responding to the times? It’s a troubling question. In 2024, there was no answer. In 2025, there may be none either. But the fact remains that Ideologies are shrinking us in many ways.
(By arrangements with Perspective Bytes)
