The Pattern of Hatred

What is truly frightening is that education doesn’t make better people of us. And how can it? What is modern education in the best universities used for? To generate an income rather than to open the mind and heart. People go to universities to become employable. Modern day trade apprentices is what we have become. Where should people go to learn how to be happier? To the herbalists, or to spas or to the spiritualists? Spiritualists are also professionals. Buy this, this and this to be happy. To do anything, to be anything, one has to buy. Go to a restaurant, a supermarket or a coffee house. Go and buy. Buying is so tiring. It doesn’t make one happy. After the packaging drops off, things always look less pretty. After a week, one even forgets why we ever bought the damn thing anyway, so we buy more. We are still unhappy. Still tired even after 8 hours of sleep. As though the magic 8 hours will erase the weariness of the soul. It seems to me that today the human is the most redundant thing in the human being. In this atmosphere, where indulgence takes the place of contentment, where emotions are always under threat, the only relief for people seems to come from watching violence and shopping. So much for the educated.

Watching TV has become an exercise in how much one can close one’s mind and still appear sentient. TV shows us that the only news worth repeating is bad news. The next best is victory—some sort of victory and any sort of victory. Victory in war or war like acts is the most watched; it ensures that people stay glued to their TV screens. After months of watching the biggest story of 2001-2, a profound weariness has taken hold of the spirit. Is this all that humans are capable of? We blame violence on lack of opportunity, ignorance and poverty. But what happens when people are well off and educated? They watch violence and shop. There are however, a few places where diversity is a good thing. One such place, Chowk was created to house all that is human and to fight the rising tide of justification for all that is inhuman. It is a bastion in the face of systematic hatred and its accompanying rhetoric, since here identity is what you make of it, period. It is hard work, though we don’t have to break stones or pick heavy objects.

My ideals hurt to read a comment from an interactor saying that he ought to be allowed to post the same hate rhetoric as another interactor. (He wasn’t stopped from doing so). It is obvious that he is a true gentlemen and his request is driven by one or two interactors’ insistence on posting hatred in the guise of reason and now he wants to reply in kind with different ‘facts’. It seems people ignore, “All are welcome to read, write and think at Chowk”. Fact is, the only thing the editorial policy cares about is the truth as you see it, without abuse of others. There is bound to be controversy where there is freedom of speech. Contentious, difficult questions abound especially when people confront others with opposite and hardened views. Chowk guidelines help you draw a line between hatred and intellectual criticism. In this marketplace of ideas, there is also some confusion, I don’t know how common, that Chowk.com //is// somehow Pakistani. It is interesting how we conclude that. If “Pakistani” people post, it must be Pakistani, if “Indians” do so, it must be Indian. If people whose national identities are unknown, post articles and replies then, what is “it”? “It” happens to be a space on a microchip residing in a computer. But intuitively speaking, there appears to be a profound premise that national identity must to be something you must defend, no matter what. If you defend India, you must be Hindu, if Pakistan you must be Muslim and Pakistani. If you criticize both, what are you? Does it matter? Aren’t we all little children collecting pebbles on the shores of life? Is it so terrible to be objective? Does it mean that one is less authentic as a thinker or as a person? Obviously not, depth of reason demands intellectual honesty.

Perhaps the biggest tragedy is that new technology comes, amid much brouhaha, but people carry their geographic identities and hate rhetoric beyond borders, like heavy chips on their shoulders. What human need does this serve? I believe that it is not a question of human need but human habit. Human beings are habit bound—I have never seen a smoker quit, nor does a fat person lose weight for life. Cognitive scientists have a theories around habits, according to them certain patterns in our brains become so ingrained that new behaviour does not successfully impose itself on our brains. It seems to be simple case of inertia, since the human brain is capable of much more than the patterns we have learnt in childhood. Perhaps it is more gratifying to see things in Muslim, Hindu, India, Pakistan classifications than to see things in more complex patterns. Different patterns are difficult to perceive, because people cannot easily accept some truths. For one, people find it difficult to accept their own capacity for rage. The rage that make us burn and kill others of the same specie except for some beliefs we believe are different. The irony is that people don’t choose to be born where they are born, the supreme irony is that despite knowing that, they kill others for the same crime.

It is easier to blame this human failing on ethnic hatred, religions and borders. It is easier to excuse the beastliness of murderers, especially because they belong to MY ethnic group, than to admit that hey, I have a habit of blaming Mushy, Vajpayee, Aurangzeb, Islam, Hindutva. If “I” also happens to be in power, I can make sure that I side with my own and make my prejudice a rule of law. Of-course it helps if I can blame my behaviour on the past. Instead of punishing the ones who incite the rage of others, these people are made leaders of societies. Smart politicians understand the power of hatred, but smart people understand the power of tolerance. A recent example of a smart politician is my friend Mr L.K. Advani. I would really like to meet a man who so completely thrives on hatred and manages to convince the elites of India that his hatred is justified and must be supported. He reminds me of others like him in Pakistan and in the ever-expanding annals of history. Unfortunately, his brand of politics is not original at all. Perhaps a great fortune of the combined history of India and Pakistan has been the Mahatama and the greatest misfortune that there may never be another leader like him.

When will the smart people, you and I stand up and say that we, the people do not want any violence in the name of religion? We don’t want to take sides, we don’t want to hate. We won’t be oppressed under the justification of identity and nationhood. But when will we be so bold as to give up the fight? How can we resist from soothing on the talcum powder of ethnicity and nationhood?. Do we realise, that a few more percentage points under a different head in our mutual national accounts would mean lower child mortality rates and more primary education? That a little bit more on civic life would mean a transport system that works all the time. That more not less democracy would result if we stopped simultaneously buying weapons and sending our brightest to the great drains abroad.

But before we blame it all on the cognitive patterns in our brains, let me also talk about those who must have broken the pattern—the hold of that terrible taskmaster in our heads. Let’s commemorate those successful few who quit smoking for life, those who actually develop an open mind after studying at Harvard (or any other obscenely huge place of learning) and those who lose weight for life. Let’s also mention those who in spite of inheriting Pakistani passports marry those with Indian passports and thrive. Please don’t forget those lifelong friendships that exist between the blue and the green passports that help create open spaces like Chowk. At Chowk, only creativity and ability matters. I wish to dedicate this article to the people who break the pattern of hatred and live a life of peace. Hats off to you for shining like a star for others. To Chowkwalas, posting or reading a polite reply may not amount to a lot, but every little bit of reason and tolerance helps to fight against the tide of hatred that engulfs us. I am sad that those who dare not break the pattern may indulge themselves to the point of a war and subsequent nuclear holocaust. Besides, their negativity directly affects the opportunities and chances of growth and development of millions of less lucky people from India and Pakistan. Let’s think of those people who will never go to school because their governments put all the money they earn from you into defence programs instead of social uplift.

You are important. You are the people who influence public policy and your words and actions affect policy. I appeal to all those who read this article to fight the negative forces of hatred and fight on the side of tolerance and justice with words and actions. I know that for some that might mean biting back on a choice invective or two or a delicious point of debate by which you can win and humiliate that bloody paki, hindu, muslim or what have you. Hats off to you for your patience, persistence and positive thinking. You set a standard for the rest of us.