Those rejoicing over Indian chef's loss of contract in Dubai should be okay with whatever retribution follows, for their own opinions
Michelin-starred chef Atul Kochhar was recently sacked over an anti-Islam tweet
No, opinions are not like a*** holes. Sure, everybody has one; but so many can't possibly have the same one. For that's what you miraculously sense, with people hiding behind groups (which requires the 'other' to exist), and arriving at the same conclusion on things as diverse as Kashmir, and Katrina Kaif.
Is this grouping organic? Tough to say. But we do know that the best way to diminish an individual, or their thoughts, is to question their intention, rather than facts, and securely suck them into a box - 'Hindu', 'Muslim', 'Bhakts', 'Sanghi', 'Congi', 'Lefty', 'RW (Right Wing)', 'Libtard'….
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The pitting of one against the other is rightly called 'polarisation', a word we began to repeatedly encounter only a few years ago, while being warned against it simultaneously. Where does polarisation play out most through the day? On the Internet/social-media, of course; with people trashing/abusing each other - their fingers on the keyboard being the only deadly weapon. Sounds like an outlet to let off steam; probably. A way to outsource your own thinking to an agreeable hashtag? Perhaps. What are they fighting for/against?
To start with, religion; if you think about it, at its core, the most essentialist question of them all, actually - who are we now; why are we here; how should we be; and where do we go thereafter (hell, heaven, another life?). Is the answer passed to one by their ancestors, better than the others'? Well, territorial wars, over generations, have been fought over them. Depends on who won then, I guess. We had nothing to do with those wars. None of us can change history either. It's easy to excite emotions over them still.
Indians appear a particularly emotional lot on this matter; especially Indians living abroad. This doesn't surprise me. Perhaps having lost hope, many of them left their home to live in a country typically not their own. This decision, if made because there was no choice, could be emotionally tragic. Why did they have to move? How does the world they inhabit seem so full of opportunities, as against the one they left behind? Who did them in? They blame it on ancient/medieval/modern history. It's convenient.
Sitting in Dubai/Brampton/Jersey, the argumentative non-resident Indian often expresses his hopelessness/frustration about a country where they don't even have to live. Like the confused thousands who do. Now an argument is made from a position of belief, which at least on the face of it, can appear as verifiable truth. If open to someone else's belief, one's own truth also constantly evolves.
How does one argue with faith that in its very purpose, is supposed to be blind, unflinching, and undeterred by any evidence to the contrary? The religious among us use faith to embrace hope over reality (what choice do we have?).
The brainwashed, on the other hand, employ it to wholly divorce fact from reason, and replace debate with virulent hate. You feel, therefore an enemy exists. It's anyway far too late for anything else, especially if you've derived your identity from spreading/accepting propaganda. Many among the brainwashed, mostly poor, progressively ghettoised, seem like lost causes.
Several, with perhaps a mental condition, are pushed to violence, causing deaths, even mass destruction. Nobody engages with them to show them another side anyway. The elites see their ruinous hate, which always starts from bigotry/prejudice, as basically a law-and-order problem.
What's bigotry/prejudice, exactly? As I see it, viewing humans in bulk, as 'Hindus', 'Muslims', or any other singular identity. Hate-speech can be its vocal expression. Most are smart enough not to reveal their stupidity. Is someone's right to dumb-f***ery though, inherent to his right to free speech? What good is freedom of speech if it only protects the opinion that suits yours anyway? To start with, hate-speech helps you accurately grasp the morass we're in; besides, identify the symptoms, if ever one attempted an engagement/cure. One should.
I see social media - that blurs drawing-room chatter with public position - doing that most effectively, like nothing else in the history of opinion. Surely friends are losing friends on Twitter/Facebook (unaware, for now, that their supposed ideology won't save them in a crisis; their friends might). It's getting equally hard to enter family chat-groups on WhatsApp University, without judging that gentle uncle who's transformed into a bloodthirsty keyboard Ninja/historian.
Or, in the finest example of 'butterfly effect', an American TV show with a Bollywood star has a fictional plot of a 'Hindu' outfit being behind a terror attack, and a London-based Indian loses a chef's contract in Dubai! Corporations are dictatorships by definition. Can't argue with them.
Can tell you this: All those who rejoiced over his loss of employment over a random, bigoted tweet, that he apologised for, only armed the propagandists. Fanatics on either end feed off fanatics. They love retribution. Next time, they'll use this mild case to justify going after you. It doesn't matter what your opinion is. There's always someone opposing it. Kill him with words. Don't screw the safety-valve. You're either on the side of free speech, or a hypocrite.
Mayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture. He tweets @mayankw14 Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com
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