Opinion The many ways of seeing
The outrage mob was quick to perceive casteist pride in Sudha Murthy’s unfortunate remark, the word “pure” suggestive that meat eaters are, in some sense, impure
After such an eventful and successful life, it’s highly unlikely that Murthy is in any way caught up with notions of Brahminical superiority. (Express File Photo) 
Philanthropist Sudha Murthy recently stirred the proverbial hornet’s nest by expressing disgust for non-vegetarian fare. Twitter was agog at her saying she carries her own food and utensils while traveling abroad — “I’m a pure vegetarian, what if the same spoon is used for non-veg fare?” The outrage mob was quick to perceive casteist pride in Murthy’s unfortunate remark, the word “pure” suggestive that meat eaters are, in some sense, impure. After such an eventful and successful life, it’s highly unlikely that Murthy is in any way caught up with notions of Brahminical superiority. However, it’s hard to miss an element of sanctimoniousness in her statement.
There’s a wry joke that goes: how do you know someone’s vegetarian? Don’t worry, they’ll tell you. There’s nothing, particularly, to admire about a lifelong vegetarian whose aversion to meat stems from habit not experience (as opposed to the aggravating and growing subspecies of vegans, who, having given up cheese and butter have at least earned the social justice warrior tag). Quite a lot of what passes off for dialogue in society is really an attempt to grab the moral high ground and make the point that our own choices are the best ones, and really, everyone else would be better off following our lead. Murthy’s virtue signalling is the default setting of our times. There’s a holier-than-thou mentality perpetually on display on social media. We all want to be good but more importantly, we want to be seen as being good.
It’s a valiant aim, except human beings are a bundle of messy contradictions ruled by quirks and idiosyncrasies. Take Indian vegetarians, for instance. Memes on them are a constant source of hilarity on the Internet. There’s the pescatarian, the eggetarian, the Tuesday vegetarian, the eggetarian who’s fine with egg in a cake but not otherwise or the “vegetarian” who can eat a kabab outside the home, on weekends. As a hardcore non-vegetarian I don’t fare much better. Very virtuously, I decided some years back I wouldn’t try any new meats and I feel appalled when I see endangered species like shark or horse on restaurant menus. Yes, our minds harbour wildly flawed ideas about ethics and one upmanship. So it’s worth remembering that even when we manage to live up to a high standard in one aspect of life, in all likelihood, we will fail to do so in another.
While it’s only too natural to occasionally fall prey to the performance of goodness — lest we forget, all the world’s a stage and men and women merely players — it would be too cynical to presume that everyone’s always faking it about the issues that concern us all. Right intentions are a beginning. Barely an hour from where I live, simmering communal tensions are threatening to boil over and become an ongoing problem till the elections in 2024. Staying silent over the distressing persecution of a people is probably worse, even though clacking out some support on change.org from behind a keyboard achieves nothing. Sure, talk is cheap; online talk, even cheaper. But sometimes, the best any of us can hope to do is make an effort to look at the world through someone else’s eyes and speak up, once we understand what they’re going through.
It’s easy to miss that under all of the world’s collective, righteous, posturing lurks the uneasy fear that in our one shot at life, things will never improve and time is running out. The weirdly compelling film The Banshees of Inisherin explores the theme of existential despair via a failing friendship — what do we owe each other when circumstance and historical injustices combine to thwart our ambitions and futures? Heroically, pounding the pavement, rallying for a cause isn’t always an option. Do whatever you can from wherever you are.
The writer is director, Hutkay Films
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