Ugliness of ennui

Who is to blame when the fanatic strikes? This is a question that has assumed grave importance in times when attacks of extraordinary depravity occur with extraordinary regularity. Bihar, a state that has otherwise experienced very few communal disturbances after the bloodletting at Bhagalpur ten years ago, has been witness to some particularly ugly attacks on Christian missionaries over the last few years. It is important to remember that the outrage perpetrated on Sister Ruby of St Joseph Health Centre, Jalalpur, near Chapra, when she was abducted, stripped and made to drink the urine of her tormentors, cannot be seen in isolation from other heinous attacks, including the disrobing of Father Christudas in Dhumka two years ago.

In much the same way, the Chapra incident should also not be seen in isolation from the various attacks on the Christian missionaries in the country over the last year or so, whether it was the rape of the nuns in Jhabua, Madhya Pradesh, the attacks on houses of worship in the Dangsdistrict of Gujarat, the heinous burning of Graham Staines and his sons and the recent murder of Father Arul Das in Orissa. There is a certain mindset behind each and every one of these attacks and if further proof of this is required, the questions that Sister Ruby8217;s attackers reportedly put to her provide it well enough. They wanted to know why the missionaries had not learnt a lesson from the several kidnappings, rapes and killings carried out. The idea then is to launch a campaign of terror against Christian missions in order to intimidate the men and women working within their ambit 8212; a right that the Indian Constitution gives them.

To return then to the question posed earlier: who is to blame when the fanatic strikes? The obvious answer to this is, of course, the local administration. In a state like Bihar, quite innocent of administrative will, where the most terrible massacres under the nose of security forces have become everyday occurrences, the state government certainly cannot shrug off itsresponsibility for the Chapra crime. The Bihar police have rushed to announce that they have identified the culprits. Now they had better arrest them forthwith and bring them to trial. But even if justice is finally done at the local level, there is the urgent need to address the larger project of communal hatred in the country, whether it is a matter of ensuring that Ganapati processions do not become conflagrations or whether it is a matter of protecting the lives and property of Christian tribals in remote forest tracts who find themselves under attack. Finally, there is the issue of popular apathy to such attacks. Ultimately, it is only when the ordinary man or woman begins to perceive each attack as one against his or her own person, will things change. It8217;s only when people begin to voice their strongest sense of anger against incidents of this kind and unitedly oppose the elements that thrive on such divisive projects will this country see an end to them.