With ethnocentricity to egocentricity, all forms of eccentricity are on the rise. What better than terrorism can be expected. The Paris shootout is yet another proof of the growing intolerance of dissent, the rising hatred of humans against humans, and the increasingly psychopathic tendency of mankind. There is mayhem and killings and further mayhem and killings. When will all this end is the big question. What has gone wrongIJ Difficult to tell. But answers must be found. Rather, the reasons why things have gone wrong.
As opinions, ideas, explanations and observations galore are being expressed confounding the scenario further, let us try to peep into history. Particularly, because we seem to be so engrossed with the present that the past has been totally ignored. Yet, many a clues to the present problems can be found in the past.
There have been many wise men who have warned that if we don’t learn from history we are doomed to repeat it. Rather reap it. And who knows, this repetition may be tragic or farcical. The meaningless violence in Paris by the ISIS, trigger-happy jihadis, has to be seen from a wider historical perspective rather than a one-off observation. Definitely it was a raw display of spine-chilling violence that needs to be condemned in severest of the terms. Maybe, retaliated too. As strongly as possible. What the members of the ISIS outfit did in Paris cannot be offered any justification whatsoever.
Unfortunately, there are some people and countries who are still toying with the idea of ‘our’ terrorism versus ‘their’ terrorism. Terrorism is terrorism. But taking a deeper look at history may help in ensuring that histories of such gory magnitude are not repeated. If we objectively assess history, particularly the incidents and accidents that took place in the past over half a century or more, we would realise that some acts of political expediency by some countries cannot be totally ignored. Not that it is a cause and effect relationship but total disconnect also cannot be claimed.
Two old stories may be worth recounting. First is the novel Frankenstein penned some 200 years ago. The plot still appears contemporary. Mary Shelly created a character, a young science student Victor Frankenstein, who made a grotesque but highly threatening creature through an unorthodox scientific experiment. The monster later got its name Frankenstein from its creator Victor who finally had to destroy his own creation.
If that be not old enough, there is an even more ancient Indian pauranic story of Bhasmasur. Bhasmasur was a devotee of lord Shiva and performed great penance to obtain the boon of immortality from the lord. Pleased by Bhasmasur, lord Shiva asks him for the boon. But on knowing that Bhasmasur seeks immortality, the lord declines saying it is beyond his powers and tells him to seek another boon.
Bhasmasur then asks the lord to bestow him with the power that anyone whose head he touched should burn to ashes. This was granted. Having thus emboldened, Bhasmasur started chasing lord Shiva whose wife Parvati he had turned his eyes on. It was with great difficulty that Shiva could save himself and Vishnu by becoming a strikingly beautiful women Mohini and could finally ensure Bhasmasur’s demise. If you sow wind, be ready to reap whirlwind. Where did ISIS come fromIJ It is time to think more deeply.
The writer teaches management at Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad (Jharkhand). He can be reached at ppathak.ism@gmail.com