Column

“If we were to wake up some morning and find that everyone was the same race, creed and colour, we would find some other cause for prejudice by noon” — George D Aiken, American politician

In the last week, we have had Taslima Nasreen hounded out of Kolkata for upsetting Islamic fundamentalists, ethnic Indians in Malaysia accusing their government of discrimination, Dalits stopping a Hindi film from being shown because of insulting film lyrics and we have yet to recover from the CPM in West Bengal targeting whoever does not subscribe to their way of thinking.

We humans are bigots who discriminate against each other on some pretext or the other. Colour, gender, caste, race, religion — these are the big issues. There are countless subtle, nuanced ways — as in the lyrics in the film Aaja Nachle, which have since been altered. There are prejudices of class and money, which usually get translated into privileges. If you are rich enough, you can pay for private places where you can give space to your bigotry even if your biases go against the laws of the land, of society or of a larger human picture.

Yet, even within our ideas of fairness are inbuilt prejudices. Nasreen has offended conservative Muslims and their objections have offended liberals and rightwing Hindus alike. The Left Front has been offended by anyone questioning their actions while their actions have offended everyone else, including some card-carrying commies. Narendra Modi’s words and actions offend just about everyone who is not a right-wing Hindu but all right-wing Hindus are offended by any criticism of Modi.

Dalits have been offended by lines in a film song and liberals have been offended by the fact that Dalits have been offended and that someone has caved in. But other liberals find that to insult Dalits in the name of creative licence is to win a minor battle and lose the war. With ethnic Indians in Malaysia, are we offended by their being discriminated against because they are of Indian origin, are Hindus or are we indeed bothered at all?

Meanwhile, Manoj Kumar was offended because the film Om Shanti Om made fun of him and some of us were offended by the behaviour of Mumbai cricket fans when they saw Andrew Symonds. If he was offended, he did not make it official.

Often, of course, when all these offences collide, it makes for a vibrant, dynamic society. But that argument cannot always hold. At an inter-school debate on World Aids Day that I attended last week, the subject was whether stigma and discrimination against Aids/HIV patients was right or wrong. The students had done their homework and argued intelligently.

The off-key note at the end of the event was struck by a fairly well-known doctor who appeared to blame the rise of Aids patients in India on the increased promiscuity of women who insist on studying and working. Like the Dalit issue, the case against gender discrimination is almost inviolable. For an adult to blame women for Aids in front of an audience of schoolchildren is irresponsible.

It reaffirms old prejudices and sets the struggle for gender equality back by a few pegs. After all, this is a country where girls are freely killed before they are even born; if they are now also blamed for the Aids epidemic, imagine the incentive to kill even more of them.

So, while anyone's right to think in a prejudiced, bigoted, narrow-minded, badly educated, discriminatory and largely ill-informed manner cannot be contested in a free country, it doesn't really have to be encouraged. The doctor's argument was countered almost immediately by another doctor and it is only to be hoped that no damage was done.

Long ago, my friends said of me that I was not prejudiced, I just hated everyone. It was at the time a comforting label of free thought. Now when I wake up every morning, I find the prejudiced more hate-worthy than anyone else.

Email: b_ranjona@dnaindia.net