You know, I had typed a long comment, but for fear of my government I won’t type it here. There is no freedom of speech.

I know this will get be labelled as “anti-patriotic” and what not, but this is precisely my point. I am a big admirer of Gandhi because whatever else he may be labelled as, you cannot label him a terrorist. You might, in the worst case, say he did absolutely and utterly nothing for India, but you cannot say he was a terrorist. He may not have been, according to many, a freedom fighter, but nobody in the world can call him a terrorist by even a longshot.

The reason I “understand” (not endorse) the current terrorists is becase as a society, we have admired such people. Who can deny we have a corrupt and oppressive government? Who can deny there is rampant racism, castism, facism in the country? How are we different today from the British Raj 70 years ago? And if we endorse the violent actions of Indians against the British, what moral authority do we reserve to blame these terrorists?

We claim violence was necessary to “get heard”. I recently read an article by of how Google helped identify a person for posting on an orkut community called “I hate Sonia Gandhi” and he is being proscecuted in a criminal court. Weren’t we guilty and did we “deserve” to be proscecuted by the British when we printed underground newspapers and newsletters which claimed to “hate British Raj?”.

It’s perfect symmetry. We endorsed this! We glamourised this! Now we’re paying the price. If speech were free – if people were allowed to express whom they hated without repurcussion or persecution, perhaps people would not resort to such extreme measures. If I wasn’t one of the 3% indians who pay taxes while I see crores of rupees in black money being traded by acquaintances, I might perhaps accept that India is a “poor country”. If I didn’t see the British educational system in India, I might criticise the terrorists.

This is not about right or wrong, this is about giving them textbook justifications. They are fighting the _exact_same_things_ we praise people for having fought just 70 years ago.

Well drawing parallels is OK. I think one might equate what Hitler did in Germany to the Jews to what Americans are doing in Afghanistan or Iraq to whoever that is. But the point remains, They are killing innocent people.
As a admirer of Gandhi then what do you recommend we offer blue prints of our nuclear reactors? (Show another cheek if one slaps on one of them!!)
My point was to avoid the divide that this kind of situation put in the Indian society. Well let me say it will widen it, and let me acknowledge that it does exists. And unfortunately it is based on the caste or religion, but lets face it, the divide does exists, so what is the point? Do we let it grow further? or rebuild our society? I wanted to emphasize the importance of rebuilding than dividing any further.

What I’m emphasising is that we first stop justifying _all_ such behaviour – even when it suited us. I didn’t say it was right. I said we gave them the authority by justifying it. When we stop drawing parallels, we earn the moral authority to criticise them.

And yes, what Hitler did to the Jews does equate to what America does in Iraq or Afganistan. And many Americans are criticising what happens in Guantanamo Bay Cuba. Both the political parties are now committed to pulling out troops from Iraq – I’m sure they’re not doing it unless they are sure of losing votes unless they don’t.

You don’t avoid the divide by speaking about it or wishing it. We must be ever-vigilant. You don’t avoid a divide by curbing the freedom of speech. You don’t avoid a divide by not taking action.

Fighting an oppressive government is not only the right, but the duty of every citizen. Perhaps these people need to be educated on how to fight it. Perhaps if they found resources on how they can hold their politicians accountable, perhaps if they were shown exactly how they can help in curbing the entire off-the-grid economy in the country, at least _some_ of them will try and use those means.

A man turns to desperation only when all other means have either failed, or he/she knows of no other means to make a difference, or they are pure evil. We can’t help the third kind, but we can certainly try and reduce the first two kinds by providing them more constructive outlets.

[...] fighters, Gandhianism, indian cities, non-violence, terrorism — archisgore @ 3:26 am A friend of mine recently blogged about the latest bombings taking place in prominent Indian cities. He and I had a rather [...]