Dravida politics 8212; inspired by Periyar E.V. Ramasamy 8212; was based on the twin foundations of rationality and self-respect. Today, d...
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Dravida politics 8212; inspired by Periyar E.V. Ramasamy 8212; was based on the twin foundations of rationality and self-respect. Today, decades after his demise, irrationality is the order of the day, and self-respect has become so thin-skinned that the stray, and perfectly valid, observations of Kushboo, a local film star, can be construed as a grievous assault on the pride of Tamil women and a grand conspiracy against the state in general. A gaggle of political parties have even launched a Tamil Protection Movement.
Some of the cynical peddling of this faux regional honour almost certainly has to do with a crucial Tamil Nadu assembly election which is just a few months away, but the damage it is doing to the state8217;s cultural and intellectual climate is irreparable. Already fear and intimidation is all pervasive. The one courageous voice raised in defence of Kushboo8217;s right to speak her mind 8212; that of film maker Suhasini Mani Rathnam 8212; was quickly stilled through means of a gag order issued by the South India Film Artists8217; Association. Where will this stop, and who will stop it? This is dangerous stuff8212;the lunatic fringe becoming mainstream.
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In Mumbai, after the ridiculous morality play involving the removal of bar girls from our line of vision, we now have R.R. Patil8217;s police, egged on by priestesses of morality like college lecturer Pratibha Nathani, deciding what we should read and watch. Nathani, incidentally, proudly describes herself as being Bajrang Dal minus the violence, an apt enough description. A sex survey carried in a Mumbai weekly recently led to the arrest of its publisher on grounds of obscenity and for evidently creating8212;in the words of the prosecuting officer8212;the impression that 8220;free sex is available in the city8221;. Now how8217;s that for hypocrisy? As the morality thugs run riot in Mumbai and Chennai, it8217;s time for reason to assert itself. We, as readers, as movie-goers, as citizens, need to speak out with conviction and anger before our eager Talibans render us both supine and bovine.
