In the Dying Light

(Note: I finally sat down and read your whole write-up instead of simply glancing through it. You have perhaps previously covered some of these images in your ``ibaadat`` gallery.

The description connects. (It is well-written, one of your better reflective pieces.))

This piece includes some highly vivid clips. Paan stains and the like are not the monopoly of Varanasi - one finds them in countless temples and religious sites throughout the country. People who become a part of the landscape seldom notice them - they take them for granted - like we sometimes take for granted the garbage constantly lying out in our very own street - or the sewer smell that continuously emanates from many chaals of Mumbai and only visitors notice it - or the translucent color of the water from Hooghly river with its own particular taste which nobody takes the least notice of. The bloated carcasses can - over time - come to be seen in a similar fashion - an ever-present reality to which one gets used - one does not necessarily like it but one is also not consumed by it.

In a similar manner - a certain amount of commercialization of religion is to be expected - there is no reason to be struck too hard by it - after all, for many people, it is a means of livelihood.

Yet - mundane as they are, those images are also serene - they are supposed to be permanent and they are supposed to be immune from the demands and tears and pressures and compromises of our day-to-day lives.

So when the horrible confronts us and disrupts us and violates us, there is an understandable desire to look away from it. One does not see the dead bodies - one perhaps forcefully negates them.

But rhe dead bodies are very real! Perhaps more real than anything constructed with words here in these spaces. But even those deadbodies represent simply a form of continuity. Because the physical elements that constitute our live bodies came from nowhere other than that ground over which that drying blood and those irregular shaped bits and pieces of flesh and guts now lay spattered.

Some paths are shorter than others. Some loops close quicker than others.

It is a mistake to consider that funeral pyres represent death - those simply indicate a closure to life.

And the fragrance of wood certainly does not indicate a level of value in death - death has no value. (An argument can be made that there is no real death - because all parts of our body go on and become many parts of the act of living being carried out by other life forms.) Because of that reason, it is a mistake for anyone to be offended at bodies being thrown in water - if fact it may even be serving a good purpose for the fishes and other creatures who may nibble upon it.

All activities - even the most mundane or the most grotesque - are about life. In death, there are none.

I am surprised that you hesitated from touching the water of the Ganges - it is highly atypical - I am even surprised that you did not actually jump in or at least dip your feet - just for the sake of experiencing it - or for the adventure of it.

Reality does not go away - it certainly does not cease to exist because people look away - and it never absolves people from the results of their acts.

And real light never dies! It is not even made of a single wavelength.

Re: # 84:

BJ.Kumar:

If you did finally take the time out to read the whoel write-up instead of merely glancing through it, you will realise that your posts is in fact mirroring what I have said. Except that you seem to be revelling in unnecessary confrontation.

I know paan is everywhere...the reference was to the famed Banarasi paan. The idea was to convey that certain images stay. I did not say anything negative about the bloated carcasses; I wish people accepted that reality.

Throughout there is an interplay of life and death.

It is indeed atypical of me not to have touched the water, although I did in Hardwar and Rishikesh -- but liked the thought of the rain passing through me into the water. Isn`t connecting all about osmosis?

Thank you for plugging `Ibaadat`...I was a bit reluctant to do so myself.

#55 bjkumar

Ouch!

I suppose SOMEBODY did not like what I had already said in my March 8, 2006 i-log.

32,

That`s exactly what Pakis told me....they think they are psychologists.....: we sympathize with you sikhs....want to help you get homeland...IF you help us with Kashmir,blah blah blah....India belongs to us (the world belongs to us also).....

jay tuseen apnay piyo they naeen sukkey...tey saaday kithon????? saalay kachay ho jaanday

The hindujras are held hostages in their own homes. if the blast would`ve been in a mosque, there would`ve been riots in India, temple destructions in Pakisatan, afghanistan, and Bangladesh, and kidnappings and conversions of Hindujras....

Dur phitay moonh ehna khusrya dey...

Regarding Farzana as a writer....her case is simmilar to the boy crying wolf....the rare times she is valid or `innocent`, none, understandably wants to believe her....and her, on purpose, titlating style adds suspicion

regarding DM being a `bhagat`, if he wouldn`t be elder to me, i would be more straight forward.what a ridiculous statement....

Here’s something that will cheer everyone up.

A quote from today’s CNN:

“……Honking cars competed with pushcarts in narrow alleys and devout Hindus offered prayers on the banks of the Ganges River as Varanasi bustled again Thursday after deadly bombings in Hinduism`s holiest city….”

The spirit of Benares is returning. Sorry for the plug, but everyone please listen to the “Spirit of Benares” by Pandit Sharda Sahai Ji, and if you don’t like it, I will personally reimburse you. The CD is available at any decent music store, Amazon, etc.

The tendency to respond to negative comments seems to always take precedence.

Just want to thank those who tried to understand the emotions/thoughts being expressed here.

The term Nothing instead of `void` was used because the shoonya stithi cannot be striven for in `emptiness`.

And there are no `I`s in this post!

To end with a quote from the Buddha again:

``There are five things which no one is able to accomplish in this world: first, to cease growing old when he is growing old; second, to cease being sick; third, to cease dying; fourth, to deny dissolution when there is dissolution; fifth, to deny non-being.``

#77 by dost-mittar

You don`t have to explain. Anyone with half of a mind would understand anyway.

arstoo#58:

It is not uncommon for people to remember people and places after a tragedy. I did the same when I evoked sweet memories of my friend Munish when he was gunned down by an assasin in Bangalore a couple of months ago.

I might agree with some of your views about Islam, but it is not necessary to admire Islam to appreciate the contributions of Indian Muslims; Daagh`s poetry is an example of that.

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no news reports for me cos such reports are just an expression of an individual`s existentialangst who in this case must b a hindooooooooooo i am sure

Re: #69 by takeiteasy

Sitamarhi Riots: Yet Another Example of Muslim Intolerance

Publication: News India
Date: Nov. 13, 1992

However much we love to despise Laloo Prasad Yadav, it is simply bad form to gloat over his discomfiture at the horrible riots in Sitamarhi which, by official count, left 44 people dead. From all accounts, and despite the chief minister`s disclaimer, the riots were communal in character, and like Bhagalpur in 1989, spread from the town of Sitamarhi to adjoining villages. There are also reasons to believe that had the chief minister not camped in Sitamarhi and personally supervised the policing and administration arrangements, the casualty figure would have been much higher. The local Muslim community in particular should be greatful that communal harmony is sufficiently high on Laloo Yadav`s list of priorities for him to inform fellow Yadavs in characteristically blunt terms: ``sab lok lathi lekar duty karo. Tum apneko Laloo Yadav samajho aur Musalmanoko bachao.``

As with any communal riot, there are many lessons to be learnt from Sitamarhi. The local reaction to the special courts that the Bihar govt has promised to establish to try rioters, will demonstrate whether or not prompt action is a suitable deterrent against future riots. The chief min- ister, ever anxious to preserve his casteist and communal vote banks, will need to monitor the impact of Sitamarhi on his much touted ``Maya`` alliance of Muslims and Yadavas. Any cracks in the electoral coalition could prove disastrous for Janata Dal. The chief minister will also need to ponder over the implications of the reports that the local Janata Dal MLA, Syed Ali Khan, encouraged Muslim bellicosity while another party leader, Nawal Kishore Rai, was in the vanguard of Hindu retaliation. Most important, the wider political fallout of the departure from the tendency of blaming the BJP and RSS for each and every riot will also need to be studied.

Obviously, there is enough in Sitamarhi to keep Laloo Yadav and the Bihar administration preoccupied for some time. But the lessons of Sitamarhi stretch beyond the frontiers of localism. This should be apparent from the fact that the events which triggered rioting in the town on Dusserah day were by no means unique.

Facts, as reported in the press is seen beyond dispute. The river in which the idols of the Goddess Durga are immersed on Dusserah had apparently run dry. The organizers of the local puja selected a pond for the immersion and the details of the new route to be followed by the procession was worked out in consultation with a local `peace committee` which included Muslim representatives. The committee had been set up a few days earlier following tension over the harassment of some women attending the Durga Puja in Sitamarhi. In any event, the decision of the committee remained confined to the paper. When the immersion procession approached Mehsaul Chowk - Dumra Road, it was stopped near the local Jama Masjid by the supporters of Syed Ali Khan and Anwarul Huq, a former Congress MLA. The Janata Dal MP, Harik- ishore Singh, attempted to reason with the Muslim crowd. Unfortunately, his attempt met with little success. As the procession attempted to advance, it was greeted with brickbats which prompted the police to fire. The immersion was disrupted and by the next morning riots broke out in Sitamarhi.

To attribute the disturbances in Sitamarhi to the localized tensions aris- ing from an incident of so-called ``eve-teasing``, as the BJP delegation has done, would be tantamount to missing the wood for the trees. Riots which have their origin in attacks - often quite unprovoked - on Hindu religious processions, are becoming increasingly common.

In 1990, a bomb was hurled on a Durga Puja procession in the town of Colonelgang in Gonda district of Uttar Pradesh and resulted in vicious rioting, affecting neighboring villages as well. Like in Sitamarhi, the needle of suspicion pointed to an MP, Munnan Khan, an activist of Babri Masjid Action Committee (BMAC) and a close associate of Mulayam Singh Yadav. Last year, a Kalibari procession was obstructed in the Madanpura locality of Varanasi which led to riots. And earlier this year, Ahmedabad exploded once again following an attack on the Jagannath rath yatra. In a single day, 300 shops were looted and burnt, and reports suggested a link between the attack on rath yatra and earlier arrest of a notorious bootlegger, Abdul Latif.

Nor is it accurate to suggest that these attacks are a recent phenomenon which can be attributed to a wave of majoritarian assertiveness linked to the Ram Janmabhoomi movement. True, the unresolved dispute and the per- sistence of pseudosecularist tendencies in the policy have made Hindus far more conscious of their religious identity. For example, Durga Puja, which was earlier an exclusively Bengali celebration, has transcended regional boundaries and become popular in Bombay, Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh. There are some indications of similar rise in the popularity of the Jagan- nath rath yatra and the Ganapati festival. But these important milestones in the construction of pan-Indian Hindu identity do not by themselves pose threat to communal harmony. The danger arises when rising Hindu conscious- ness is confronted by intemperate Muslim moves to enlarge boundries of the community`s sacred place.

In a nutshell, this means the rising Muslim demand for demarcating no-go areas for Muslim religious processions. The inspiration for these prepos- terous attempts to creat communal ghettoes comes from the pattern of Muslim mobilization in the 1920s and 1930s. Although the earliest recorded ``music before mosque`` dispute dates back to a clash before the Hooghly Emambara in Bengal in 1863, it became a recurrent feature of communal mobilization after an Arya Samaj procession was attacked in Calcutta in April 1926. Later, the traditional Janmashtami procession was obstructed in Dacca (which, incidentally was a Hindu majority city till partition) the same year. The pattern was repeated throughout small towns in East Bengal and reached such alarming proportions that Satindranath Sen, a Congress leader of Bakarganj district, felt compelled to organize a 4-month satyagraha in Patuakhali to press for ``civil rights`` of Hindus to play music on all pub- lic thoroughfares. The satyagraha attracted nationwide attension, was sup- ported by the Bengal Congress, but failed to move the Muslim leadership.

It is a matter of utmost shame that in independent India, the day is approaching when some local leader will have to undertake a Patuakhali-type satyagraha to press for the right of free passage of all religious proces- sions. Certainly, the need for such an assertion has arisen in view of the inability of the secular leadership to discern that what took place in Sitamarhi opens up dangerous possibilities of segregation, ghettoisation, exclusivism and, finally, separatism. The responsible Muslim leadership must take note of what happened in Sitamarhi because, in the ultimate analysis, it is the minorities who are at the receiving end of riots.

It is easy, as the Munnan Khans, Abdul Latifs and Syed Ali Khans have vividly demonstrated, to start a riot. For more distressing is having to face up to its horrible consequences.

here we go again another of the clan holding up the we are harmless banner after killing thousands yes yes i get it everything was started by muslims hindooooooos are just so innocent that gave them a liscence to kill muslims well the dear kar sevaks for whom u r so sympathetic were the same against whom charges like molestation of women on a railway station and disturbing peace and rioting were registered in UP as thier sabarmati express crossed UP i say these men earned it

In fact Kashmir problem was STARTED by Muslims (by invading Kashmir illegally - Pakistani govt claimed they had nothing to do with it - the soldiers were on leave - bloody liars).

And we will finish it. Keep watching.

Re: #69

Gujarat was STARTED by Muslims burning hindu men, women, and children alive.

Ayodhya/Babri was STARTED by Muslims by destroying Lord Rama`s temple built over his birthplace and building a mosque over it.

I don`t know the details of Bhagalpur and Meerut, but I am willing to bet that it was STARTED by Muslims as well.

Well if you start it, someone has to finish it. No?

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