The Great Hypocrisy
Our country has always boasted of her rich heritage and culture. Culture specifically includes our ‘values’ and ‘customs’. Post-modern Indian youth generally and Gen-Y in particular have always championed the assumption that India as a country has survived various social and cultural catastrophies because we proudly follow our value-system. The question is how far we practice what we preach or boast. We need to understand that the so called values of our society are basically set of fashions of society that existed in a bygone time-frame. Although you can follow some of them but others just don’t fit in the present society. Some of our values and customs at times become so suffocating that it becomes tough to survive. We can discuss few illustrations.
Our values talk about ‘Decency’. Now comically in our society a couple sitting affectionately in a lonely park can be indecent for so called champions of morality but a man pissing on a wall in broad day light is perfectly right. Hindu right wing organizations are much against the celebration of ‘Valentines Day’ but for them if people misbehave with girls on the occasion of ‘Holi’, then it is ‘bura naa mano Holi hai’. Decency herein is just conveniently interpreted. Not only Hindus, it seems that certain extreemist Muslims of India find it more appropriate to copy their Talibani counterparts instead of their progressive Turkish or Iranian brothers.
Again in our society ‘Disrespect’ has various interpretations. Marrying a girl or opting for a profession against ones' parents wish means disrespecting them. On the other hand watching them lash out at our old grandparents is perfectly normal, a part of ‘beta woh ab irritating ho gayein hain isliye humain unse space chahiye’ ideology. We Indians are also God-fearing people. We love to spend money in the name of god but then we also know how to earn more by immoral means. Accumulation of Black money or earning through unfair means is part of our ‘sab chalta hai yaar’ attitude, in our country.
Even our generation is full of pseudo western thought preachers who wear Gucci's and Armanis, carrying cock-tails and Blackberry’s, but when it comes to social opinions they view that a prostitute has virtually got no right against rape while homosexuals are deviants who corrupt society. They are the ones who shout dialogues of ‘Rang de basanti’ and sing ‘Sadda Haq’ but have not time to even go and cast vote. On a larger canvas we still live in a society where we proudly boast of ‘Manusmriti and Neeti ke Dohe’ but shy away from acknowledging ‘Vatsayaan or Khajurao architecture’ as part of India culture. We proudly say that we are modern and believe in unity of the country but still we are plagued with evils like ‘Honor Killing’.
Political parties are more interested in organising ‘Rath yatras’ and erecting marble statues while failing to save both ‘tiger’ and ‘girl child’. The judiciary is not immune from this hypocrisy. Rule of Law suddenly becomes very important for Mr. Kasab but definitely not a treat for commoners, of fame such as Rudul Shah case, who languish in jails as under-trials. Dr. Binayak Sen is declared a terrorist while it took active media participation for convicting Manu Sharma, as the state failed to prosecute him.
The issue is not what you are preaching but it involves ‘how far you practice what you preach?’
-Vaibhav Dixit
