Thursday, November 30, 2006

Riot Rot: Collective Effervesence

30th November 2006

Collective effervescence (CE) is the energy formed by a gathering of people as might be experienced at a sporting event, a carnival, or a riot. This energy can cause people to act differently than in their everyday life.
- Wikipedia

Today again we got to see the "great" CE in action through Bombay and other places.

Imagine the scenario:
1) There some statue in some remote corner of UP in kanpur that ppl dont even know any hell about
2) someone deforms this statue
3) the people who consider the statued person (thankfull no more) their leader and god are engraged and beliee they have to avenge this insult.

the result
50+ buses burnt
4 people killed
hundreds of vehicles with their glasses broken
thousands injured
loss of productivity running to hundreds of crores of rupees due to disruption
trauma for everone whose loved ones have left home and havent given back a message that they are alright.........

is the "act" avenged?? I surely think not///
Ok at the risk of being called a "racist" i am hereby getting some facts and opinions out:

  1. This was the "Dalits".. firstly I dont know why they have to be called so, there is no difference between them and me... does dalit mean downtrodden THOUGHT? i think not... then why do they so proudly call themselves so? Done they have shame to extol their dalitness rather than integrating into society?
  2. Statues should be banned ... be they anyones...
  3. Tomorrow, will they kill all the pigeons and crows because they defacate on their great leader?
  4. The loss of public property like busses, buildings, cars, lightposts is so LIGHTLY condoned!
  5. even if a kid who does not understand much knocks off a vase and breaks it, the parent will admonish it so that it does ot repeat this mistake.. has the government done aything? where are the riot control police? where are the water cannons? where are the rubber pellets? once twice and three times when they are subject to this treartment, they wil not repeat this
  6. Spray the mob with some colour like red which is indelible for at least 4 days so that everyone will identify that this bastard was rioting somewhere.. this social stigma itself will stop rioters... i wish i can patent a product or idea like this
There has been so much of a loss... i have lost almost half the day as a result of being tortured like this. I took a round and round route and avoided the mob, but my workers bus was stranded and I spent an agonising 2 hours till they came to the factory. They had only gory tales of broken windows, beaten men and abusive and violent women... and they were shaking!

my canteen was forced shut by a 100 goons ( i still refuse to call them dalits) and i was forced to feed my workers from my personal pantry :-(

So we have to only wait for the grand finale on the 6th of december when hordes of them (sounds like pack of hyenas) descend on Bombay and shit around Shivaji Park turning it to resemble a public toilet. They will come in all trains without tickets, come drunk and molest women and children, create havoc and fear.... all in all i shudder to await the next 6 days... and another event is the aniversary of the babri masjid demolition....

why do we have this CE? Why does it turn a peon, a clerk, a labourer into a monstor? What is the sum effect of all this violence and damage? is there anything to gain except fear and repulsion for them in our minds? is there any logic left in their lives? can they look at their children in the eye and say "what i have done is right"..... difficult qustions with no answers!

God Bless our country.... try your best to convert it into paradise... and we have the capabilitiy to turn paradise into india!
I shall still FIGHT.... fight for my right to freedom and to keep that I have earned? i dont have to give it to a second hander......

John Galt ... where art thou? come show us the guidance and thy atlantis............

8 comments:

The Twisting Kaleidoscope 11:36 PM  

Rags,
I agree completetely with what you say. I fail to understand how these people let themselves become targets of ugly politics. as far as I can rememeber something of this kind has happened every alternate year and some how it always coincides dec6 and so on.
Why cant these people understand that they are simply being used for motives which have no connection to thier feelings or emotions and they it is they and not the others who r the biggest losers in this facade.

Unknown 2:41 AM  

“Collective effervescence” – didn’t really know this term, but completely aware of its energy. Perhaps one needs to dwell deeper to find out, why is this energy propagated in a destructive manner?
I certainly do not consider this to be a “Dalit” issue. Had seen this energy propagating after the Babri Masjid demolition, Mumbai blasts, Gujarat riots, if we go international, recently Pope Benedict XVI speech provoked outrage, leading to death of an Italian Nun, attack on churches in the Middle East and Africa. So, this is certainly not a “Dalit” issue.

Why and how is this destructive energy created?
I wouldn’t expect any sane person to join a group, which wants to put a bus to fire. So are these people insane? Not really!! These are people, who have pent up anger, frustration bottled within them for several years.
They are not happy with the state of affairs and lack basic amenities which are accessible to me round the clock. Here I am, writing a blog analyzing why did this happen and on the other end, there they are, trying to earn 2 square meals a day. Look at the stark disparity.

Equality is the key to post modern society.
The divide between the rich and poor needs to fade off, we need to bridge the gap between Hindus and Muslims, respect Islam. Each individual needs to think rationally.
And this would be possible, if all of us are at the same level.

Instead of pitying beggars on the street, we must find a decent livelihood for them. If every individual is busy with their own lives, then we will have less people responding to demolition of a statue or Danish cartoons on Prophet Mohammed.

Hope that India, Asia’s fourth largest economy, growing at the rate of 8-9%, does stream this booming economy to narrow the financial, religious gap and lays a foundation for a new moderate, tolerant, prosperous India.

“Easier said than done”.
Perhaps it is easier to write a 4 line blog ………………………. (don’t want to complete this sentence.)

Raghunandan Jagdish 8:04 AM  

shweta, rohit and latha
thank you for leaving your comments

@latha
yes ... writing a blog is easier than... my production manager was trying to ctch a rick to work when the mob confronted him and told him to go home... he just asked them "what will happen with all this violence?"
and one guy was so worked up and would have resorted to violence, the other guy told him "uncle aap nikal jjoo aur apna kaam karne do"
does this seem like a larger picture??? who gave the instructions...

Raghunandan Jagdish 8:17 AM  

We should have stern action taken on these people. I think the colour spraying idea is great... will help create social stigma.. the boss will know where the peon was, the wife will know about the husband, the mother will know about the son
and QUESTION them why they did it!

Anonymous,  8:44 AM  

Dr Ambedkar was one person who believed in uplifting the "Dalits". But by creating such a havoc are these people putting all his good work to shame. Do these people really belive that by patrayying violence, they will be able to win the respect of the people arpund?

Unknown 8:02 PM  

Guess they did it because.. they want to exhibit that they have power.. and their activities can disturb the peace of the society and the common man.. They wanted to show that they still can control and disturb the normal lives.. and cause loss to many people.. they want to create fear in the hearts of the people... Some sadistic people who derive immense pleasure in seeing innocent people being killed..

Unknown 8:04 PM  

Guess they wanted to exhibit their power.. and wanted to convey that they can still disturb the normal society.. and cause loss to many people.. Some sadists who get immense pleasure in seeing other people suffer... some power crazy people

Anonymous,  11:04 PM  

They achieved display of power. But the loss - of time, money, public property and the loss of any respect or sympathy for these guys for all the opression they were put to in older times - all much more. The great leaders fought for removing this word "Dalits" and any differences that existed, from the society. But their behaviour, asking for reservations, destruction of public property for such trivial issues have only spoilt the efforts put in by great leaders. And it is high time that they realize that any sensible person would think before doing anything. Purely driven by emotion and pain and not having any consciousness along with that is not at all, in my opinion a human quality. And every person needs to realize this.

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