What About Kashmiri Pundits?
The other day, I shared an article from the Wired that charted the rise of Hindu Right Wing and its ideology in north-central India, with a focus on Bajrang Dal; and someone asked me: why is Babri Masjid included and not Kashmiri Pundits?
A version of this question is posed almost every time an anti-Muslim atrocity is reported in the media. What about that Hindu guy who was beaten up by some Muslims? What about that Hindu woman who was raped by a Muslim? Why is that not a part of your story?
This question is a cousin to the question that gets asked each time feminism is mentioned and women’s place in the world is discussed. What about men’s rights? What about men’s representation? Why are you just asking for women’s reps in stories? What about men? Did you know that women abused men too? That women sexually assaulted men? What about creative freedom? Shouldn’t the creator decide freely the gender of their character? Why are you restricting the right of men to write freely about men?
If you say black lives matter. You will be told, all lives matter not just blacks. If you talk about issues of racism, you will be told the stories of the white guys who are losing out. Don’t their stories matter?
If there is a gay pride parade, why is there not a straight parade? Will you make all your characters gay now to serve your agenda? Or Trans? Don’t straight men and women need stories?
Those are all the right questions to ask. If you view the world as a zero-sum game where there is a scorecard. You list all the wrongs or merits of your side. The other side lists all theirs. And then someone, may be you, may be some other entity, decides who won. Based on that score, you get assigned your winnings. The feeling that you are right, and they are wrong. Or, Hindus are better than Muslims and have always been put up on by them. Or, Muslims were put up on by the rest of the world. Or, whites were. Or, men were. Or straight people were.
Those are all the right questions to ask, when you are calling for war between your group and theirs and you need to recruit the most people to your cause by telling them how righteous it is.
Who wins in this score?
Who wins this war?
No one.
No one wins a war. Lives are lost on every side. A lot of potential is lost. A lot of grief needs to be overcome. A lot of the world needs to be rebuilt. And, we are set back a hundred years.
No one wins in this zero-sum game.
Ever since winning independence, Pakistan and (in many aspects though more in recent times) India has focused on each other as their enemies. A lot of resources have been spent by each country on countering its enemy other—not a huge cost in terms of GDP but then it is the environment that begets that enmity not the military spending by itself. Where are we on the human development indices? Pakistan is 152, India, 129 as of 2019. 38.3% of Pakistan’s population is poor. For India, it is 27.9.
Assam since 1979 has been on the roils of anti-immigrant agitation against Bengali, especially Bengali Muslim immigration to Assam. What has that brought Assam? Even with legitimate grievance regarding ruling by Bengali administration officials and loss of culture pre-independence, what has just focusing on ouster instead of co-building brought Assam? Failure of successive state governments, ostracization of Bengalis, loss of development—because every time this question is posed, people want to know if the illegal immigrants are getting anything that actually belongs to the original Assamese. Land redistribution? What about Bengalis? Better farm implements and agricultural schemes? What about Bengalis?
What has the focus on boys and men and their worth to the perpetuation of family name brought to the modern-day India and China? Nearly 30+ million unmarried men each because families choose to abort female fetuses (or kill female infants); a gap that will only widen as more and more boys come of age. That is just gender selection. The cost is higher when you consider losses to murders and rapes and to malnutrition. Because, every time a humanizing narrative for straight women and queer people is tried through stories, through straight women + queer-oriented programs, through just identifying the inequality that exists, or through focusing on issues that are gender neutral but traditionally male, some people (of all genders) want to know, but what about men? And, straight women and queer people are killed while men end up alone and vulnerable to death by suicide.
What has the anti-immigrant sentiment in the US brought the white farm owners in the South and mid-Western United States (and many other rural areas including California)? A lack of farm workers and losses. The white rural people? Lack of resources such as hospitals because they refuse to vote Democratic owing to racism and white identity politics.
What has the distrust of Muslims brought the Hindus? Deaths and poverty. Not just in terms of India and Pakistan. Not just in identifying who gets the benefits as in Assam. But also, in lives lost in violence. Because every time communal pogroms occur, it is not just the Muslims that get killed. A third of the people killed are Hindus too. The people who have to run around to prove their identity, who will lose everything trying to prove it, a huge number will be Hindus too.
And, those are just basic data. If you consider the amount of resources spent on propaganda, on identifying the bad guys, on agitating against Muslims or Hindus (or blacks or whites, minorities vs. majority), on judicial engagement, on ensuring that someone else doesn’t get a benefit because they are Muslim, or Christian or Ahmadiyyas or whatever… on men killed, on women raped and killed… on the creative potential lost because either people are scared or because people are busy scaring people… So much money and mental and physical effort that could have actually been spent on bettering the lives of each other and making each other happy is spent on preparing for war.
A loss to not just Hindus or to Muslims. Not just to men or to women. Not just to queer people. To Whites or Blacks or Brown people. To East or to West.
A loss to everyone.
Nobody wins a war.
Who won the Mahabharata war?
Kauravas lost their lives and their progeny. Pandavas their grandfather, their cousins, their teachers, their sons, their in laws, their friends and countless citizens. Who won?
A war fought because despite being a prince, Duryodhana felt cheated out of his rightful inheritance. His country. His alone. Not even a needlepoint of land to be given to those others. Who knows who their father was?
A war fought because even with 99 brothers and a sister, even with parents, Duryodhana felt put up on by fatherless Pandavs who kept giving in to him hoping he would stop. Who won that war?
A war fought because a blind person was judged incapable for being blind. A war fought because a woman wasn’t told about her options when asked to marry a blind man. A war fought because a woman was first asked to serve a rishi and then to hide her child out of fear. A war fought because a boy wasn’t told that whoever rules, it is justice that must be done and the land is no one’s inheritance but everyone’s responsibility. A war fought because a man for fun or for pride felt equal to bet his brothers and wife. Who won that war?
A war fought because a woman chose other men over your own tribe and you couldn’t bear it. A war between people of the same land. Who won that war?
A war is always unjust. In a war, everyone is humiliated.
Nobody wins a war.
Stop preparing for war and start building a world. Our world.
Notes:
https://caravanmagazine.in/reportage/ranjan-gogoi-gifts-government
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/world/too-many-men/
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190313-why-more-men-kill-themselves-than-women
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/03/business/economy/immigration-labor-economy.html
https://www.wired.com/story/indias-frightening-descent-social-media-terror/
"No one wins a war. Lives are lost on every side. A lot of potential is lost. A lot of grief needs to be overcome. A lot of the world needs to be rebuilt. And, we are set back a hundred years."--> This is so true. And so well said!