An expression of our failures
The Mathura episode reminds us that the State has a role to play when people flock to godmen and are cheated, writes SACHIN PILOT
The recent incident in Mathura, where a several hundred-strong armed militia had thrived for a long time and added to its ranks right under the nose of the central and state authorities, has raised several questions, ranging from the underlying politics, intelligence failures, possible connivance, the limits of acceptable dissent in a democracy, etc. The intelligence apparatus and the State machinery in the area were caught unawares.
While such debates are important to identify and hopefully fix infirmities of certain policies, it would be useful to think of the broader social forces that catalyse the inception and growth of such organisational structures and precipitate such tragic face-offs with the State.
The nation is faced with an epidemic of self-styled and often flamboyant socio-religious characters whose promises range from fixing broken households to ensuring people’s physical, emotional, spiritual, and material well-being, with a few unflinchingly even claiming instant cures for cancer, AIDS and homosexuality. They boast of large followings, generally among the less wealthy, disenfranchised strata of our society, socially disadvantaged sections and women, an increasing number of people straitened by the forces of urbanization and weakening social support mechanisms, and declining prospects of upward mobility in rural areas. Their nostrums range from the mildly amusing prescriptions of eating ‘chaat papdi’ to largely cosmetic placebos like talismans and amulets and a more commercial promotion of consuming their branded ‘prasad’ and other merchandise.
What surprises me no end is the amount of space and, as a result, an indirect eligibility most of our mainstream electronic and print media give to such events, programmes and promos. Is it purely a monetary arrangement or pressure from unknown quarters that motivates this colossal coverage? These unregulated and not so thinly disguised entrepreneurial endeavours, their call for vague and mostly pointless crusades and desperate attempts to reach the pinnacles of glory by whatever means seek to bypass any reasonable scrutiny, until something dramatic or tragic befalls the fortunes of such cult leaders.
Hardly anyone dares to challenge this obvious, mindless propaganda of their products and services in the name of tradition. They appeal to myth and tradition, some variety of nationalism, and semantic differentiators to set themselves apart from others of the same kind. But more often than not, we wait. We wait for some activist, some victim or some daring Bollywood-type cop to come out and challenge the vast private empires of such godmen, gurus, and strongmen, supported by the savvy media and online marketing. When we betray our instincts and fall short on courage and conviction by not speaking up about such brainwashing and farcical displays in front of our eyes, are we not failing to deliver on the promises we made to ourselves as a young nation on the eve of our independence? Promises of equality of opportunity and equality before the law, fostering a scientific temper, and working towards an inclusive society?
Indian history is the bedrock of spirituality, religious beliefs and rituals that go back many a millennium, and our cultural identities are shaped by these faiths and traditions. But some of these new-age gurus, who feed on people’s insecurities and sometimes greed, are making our religious space perverse and clouded with suspicion and controversies. We are known as the land where one can hope to discover inner tranquillity, spiritual calm and religious salvation. Then must we not put a stern stop to the mindless explosion of self-styled cult leaders and gurus among us?
While people have always flocked to perceived sources of spiritual solace, many of today’s godmen are fleecing people and offering almost magical and scientifically unproved solutions to all sorts of ailments, often pushing deadly diseases into terminal phases, when even modern medicine can do little. They channelise broad discontent into movements that eventually undermine legitimate institutions and the State machinery. Such multiple reasons have created room for sexual exploitation, preaching disaffection against the State, violence, and attempts to move the political agenda away from a secular, inclusive one. The difference between an armed sect and a religious-fundamentalist one is thin, and often qualitative. One often overlaps with the other. Both centre round a cult concept of leadership, ritual and uncritical commitment, germane to which are retributive and cruel judgments in kangaroo courts, fencing off the State and social institutions and effective operations outside the ambit of the law.
Sometimes implicit permissiveness for a certain kind of fundamentalism and machismo allows a critical mass of deviation to spill over into armed movements, when the ‘us versus them’ rhetoric emboldens fringe elements. The abiding belief that every failure of governance can be masked and campaigned away through the right mix of media and perception management papers over the real deprivations and privations of tens of millions of people and allows discontent to fester. It is almost inevitable that such a situation would lead to violent polarisation, sometimes leading to devastating outcomes.
The Mathura episode and many such incidents are not, therefore, the expression of an ideologically inflamed guerrilla force, but of a people at the end of their tether, seeking meaningful solutions to their existential issues of being a genuine stakeholder in our mainstream society and with a fair chance of moving up the societal and economic ladder in their lifetime. The governments of the day, whether state or central, are obliged by their mandate to provide such opportunities to the people, who could otherwise be ready fodder for extreme propaganda mills. If we as a nation fail to address these issues, civil unrest, unfortunately, will grow and, sadly, more such tragedies might await us.