The dawn of the theocratic age

As globalization accelerates and the barriers between countries fade, countries tend to cling to their culture and traditions. This has led to the rampant growth of fundamentalism across the world. Constant watchfulness and paranoia in governments has led to acts like SOPA, PIPA and CCTVs on every corner. It is turning states into cowards that bow down to fear and are way too willing to give up freedom in the name of security.

This leads governments to believe that they must eliminate any sort of threat to security, avoid controversy and play nice with all the minorities—especially when elections are around the corner. At the end of last year, we saw the SlutWalk being canceled in Bangalore as right-wing politicians decided they would never let something that would promote “cheap morals” take place in their state. They failed to understand that the walk was a rally to raise awareness about the real cause of rape and champion women’s rights.

Similarly, at the beginning of the year we saw the vice chancellor of Bangalore University blaming the way women dress for the crimes against women. She claimed that some women’s “inappropriate” clothing was the reason they are raped and asked how Indian men could be expected to close their eyes.

In the second week of January we even had the United States coming out with bills like SOPA and PIPA that would curb the freedom of the Internet and control content that one can view and post online.

If we view the Salman Rushdie incident in this light, it’s not an isolated incident, but just India following the new wave of theocracy that seems to have engulfed the world.

The Jaipur police actually invented an assassination threat to keep the author away from the festival. It is the same way we lost one of the other brilliant artists of our country—M.F. Hussain. I agree our country has a history of banning anything that has a slight hint of controversial content that might offend the sensibilities of the right-wing minorities.

This seems to be a first though—faking a threat to keep someone away from a literature festival. This incident I think has formally ushered in the theocratic age in India. The way the world is behaving today is shameful—we are running around like headless chickens under the umbrella of “protection” that the government offers us.

Like all the ages the world has seen this is the dawn of the ice age of our intelligence, sensibility and soon freedom. Living in fear is as good as not living at all.

“Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold,” Helen Keller said. I think we should pay heed before we lose control of everything, including our thoughts.

Originally published here