TRAGIC IDIOM by OV Vijayan 2
1 | 2
The coronation of the democratic leader necessitates the creation of unfree structures, and senior bureaucrats and ministerial colleagues are taken out of the civilized processes of government and reduced to the status of domestics. A cabinet reshuffle takes place, with contemptuous casualness, on the eve of the prime minister's foreign tour; civil servants, proud record holders of universities, are no longer the inviolable managers of government but a kind of non sexual harem for the pleasure of the political master. The dissident, when he is driven to rebellion, has to rebel in terms of the slavery itself: a Pranab Mukherjee had to style himself an Indira loyalist or a Tripathi reaffirm his allegiance to the family and heredity of the ruler.
We need machines and industry, but on our terms, and in ways which would ensure justice and wellbeing. The figures of economic growth being constantly put out by the government have no bearing on reality, because if we add up Birlas' income with that of the slum out there and come to the arithmetical average, we would certainly get a figure of growth. Nor is the mere increment of product to be equated with useful wealth. We can produce 50 million nylon stockings, but it would add nothing to the wealth of India's 100,000 villages.
For Gandhi religion was not an instrument of politics, it was his manual of living. It might sound ridiculous, but even the freedom of the country was of secondary importance in comparison with the freedom of his inner universe. Often we hear snide comments about Gandhi's experiments with his own sexuality. It is here that we become blind to his attempts to fathom the depths, and know the mystic energy which, unknown to us, courses through our genetic continuities. It is in the genes, in the granules within the genes, and within them perhaps, in the inner reaches of the subtler reality, that Evolution calibrates human behaviour. These are beyond even microbiology in the same way as the newest discovery of galactic wall several million light-years wide is threatening the Big Bang, and plaguing the Hubble's telescope with an impenetrable mystery.
The West, with nearly a century of stable institutions, could afford salon humour; I cannot, even if my fellow cartoonists think they can. The cartoon is an attribute of democracy; but mine is a precarious island democracy whose shores are being licked by erratic waters all the while. On this insecure perch, do you expect me to laugh - or cry?
COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL/ courtesy: DC Books
RELATED PAGES
» OV Vijayan Collection
» Search Colours
The coronation of the democratic leader necessitates the creation of unfree structures, and senior bureaucrats and ministerial colleagues are taken out of the civilized processes of government and reduced to the status of domestics. A cabinet reshuffle takes place, with contemptuous casualness, on the eve of the prime minister's foreign tour; civil servants, proud record holders of universities, are no longer the inviolable managers of government but a kind of non sexual harem for the pleasure of the political master. The dissident, when he is driven to rebellion, has to rebel in terms of the slavery itself: a Pranab Mukherjee had to style himself an Indira loyalist or a Tripathi reaffirm his allegiance to the family and heredity of the ruler.
We need machines and industry, but on our terms, and in ways which would ensure justice and wellbeing. The figures of economic growth being constantly put out by the government have no bearing on reality, because if we add up Birlas' income with that of the slum out there and come to the arithmetical average, we would certainly get a figure of growth. Nor is the mere increment of product to be equated with useful wealth. We can produce 50 million nylon stockings, but it would add nothing to the wealth of India's 100,000 villages.
For Gandhi religion was not an instrument of politics, it was his manual of living. It might sound ridiculous, but even the freedom of the country was of secondary importance in comparison with the freedom of his inner universe. Often we hear snide comments about Gandhi's experiments with his own sexuality. It is here that we become blind to his attempts to fathom the depths, and know the mystic energy which, unknown to us, courses through our genetic continuities. It is in the genes, in the granules within the genes, and within them perhaps, in the inner reaches of the subtler reality, that Evolution calibrates human behaviour. These are beyond even microbiology in the same way as the newest discovery of galactic wall several million light-years wide is threatening the Big Bang, and plaguing the Hubble's telescope with an impenetrable mystery.
The West, with nearly a century of stable institutions, could afford salon humour; I cannot, even if my fellow cartoonists think they can. The cartoon is an attribute of democracy; but mine is a precarious island democracy whose shores are being licked by erratic waters all the while. On this insecure perch, do you expect me to laugh - or cry?
COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL/ courtesy: DC Books
RELATED PAGES
» OV Vijayan Collection
» Search Colours
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Please note that anonymous comments may not be approved.
- team indulekha
>> CHANNEL HOME >> INDULEKHA HOME