Much has been commented on the Gurmehar Kaur issue. The
young girl has been trolled and abused by many. Others have stood by her and
appreciated her courage. The issue has occupied center stage in media (print
and visual), on facebook, whatsapp groups, among politicians, celebrities and
the entire nation. The crux of the views expressed by Gurmehar was that the act
of war was a destructive act (a big revelation as if), that this destructive
act was responsible for her father’s death, that she was opposed to use of
violence (and any group that used it) in order to stifle expression of opinions
contrary to one’s own and that she had understood the futility of harboring
hatred towards a specific nation or community through personal experience and
struggle within herself, and had since come to value peace over war and love
over hatred. What is rankling my mind, after listening to the din of voices
crying hoarse in order to be heard, is the issues (or non-issues) that dominate
popular debates, the extent of polarization these debates can create, the level
which one can attain in trying to defend one’s point of view and the role of
mass media in determining the direction of a discourse.
India is a developing nation and is a part of a world which
is dealing with numerous crisis situations. There are multitudinous issues that
require immediate attention, which if not given, can lead to dire irreversible
consequences. Visible and real climate change seems to me the foremost among
these issues, which poses an existential threat to the entire world community.
Depleting natural resources and increasing population is bound to result into a
fierce competition among humankind, for their ownership. All this, because humankind
accepted that survival of the fittest was the only theory by which one could
exist, that blind competition was the only way possible by which society could
be made to function effectively, that nature, earth and its resources were
unlimited and at humankind’s disposal to be utilized at free will. The mantra
was to aim for maximum material growth and unbridled power to rule over the
world. In this mad race, everyone forgot to stop and think that even a maximum
needs to have a concrete definition, that the resources are actually not
non-extinguishable, that in proving one to be the fittest, one also stands the
risk of being left alone in a vast universe of death and destruction, with not
a soul surviving to even congratulate one on attaining the status of the
‘fittest’.
What has all of the above to do with Gurmehar Kaur? Nothing.
Except that all the minds that are at work in inventing reasons to denounce her
and all the minds that are at work (including mine) in trying their best to
protect and support her, have loads of actual, real, concrete issues that have
the capacity to destroy mankind, to work their minds on. There is no dearth of
problems that are threatening humankind. Then why is it that we choose to blow out
of proportion and spend days and months on issues that are actually non-issues?
If a girl expresses her views against the horrors of war, against the futility
of hatred, against the use of violence as a threat to silence voices, then what
is it that makes one so insecure as to come all guns blazing against her, so
disproportionate, as to scare her out of her wits? The seeds of hatred that are
being sown, watered and carefully nurtured will reap only more hatred. Not a
single soul will ever benefit out of this, be it the ones sowing these seeds,
the ones quietly watching them grow, or the ones trying to nip them in the bud.
Today there is Gurmehar Kaur, tomorrow there will be someone
else who will become an easy target for the entire nation to show their
debating skills, the matchless arguments that they can garner. The media will
have a field day and will use all tools at their disposal to finish at the top
of the TRP race. In a course of a few days or months, things will fizzle out
and one Gurmehar Kaur will be replaced by some other, for the entire cycle to
be repeated again. In all this entertainment drama, there will be no thought
spared for the individual for whom this entire experience will be a
life-changing one, who, probably, will struggle to emerge from the impact of
it, who, probably, will be a changed individual thenceforth. Not a thought will
be spared to ruminate on the depths to which humankind is day-by-day stooping.
Nobody will stop and think, take stock of the situation, try to make amends,
because all will be pre-occupied with thinking of the next witty comment they
can make, of the ways in which they can make their fellows trip and fall and
race ahead themselves, of the numerous ways in which they can prove their
superiority over others. The only thing that will be forgotten in this
hullaballoo is that a blind and mad race can only lead to more madness and
blindness and nothing more than that.
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