By Vedant Kabra
From Rushdie’s Satanic Verses to Taslima Nasreen’s Lajja, everything in India has been a subject of useless and baseless conjecture and subsequent ban (or non-guarantee of security leading to the writer fleeing from the country.) Da Vinci Code, Vishwaroopam and Aarakshan have been some films which were banned because of reasons too obscure to be true. And when films aren’t banned – they’re censored (Sanskaari Bond-gate. God bless Sooraj Barjatya)
Bans aren’t limited to what we watch alone – they extend to what we hear and eat too. Paoli Dam’s Hate Story poster in Bengal were digitally recreated and her bare back was then ‘covered’ with clothes. Meat was stolen from the mouth of beef eaters (Oly Pub Beef steak, Kolkatans?) and people have been killed due to their APPARENT possession of beef.
India has ALWAYS been an intolerant nation. Even before it was India we found way to be and show intolerance to anything that was not ‘our own’: caste, religion, sex, language, culinary habits. Porn, homosexuality and for that matter – even sex are considered to be tabboos. Our culinary way of life gets threatened by my neighbour eating meat. Our sexual urges are brought to fore because a woman we do not know and have never met wears a short skirt. Someone making love with people of the same sex makes us worry that we may get infected.
Linking the very idea of communal disharmony to intolerance with articles over the web criticising the Khans of not fleeing India post 26/11 makes me sick. The intolerance Aamir spoke of was the very thing we resorted to – we would much rather censor him because he called India unsafe (HOW COULD HE. ITS ONLY THAT MOBS LYNCH FAMILIES FOR .. WELL)
It is for a change that the entire country has united – but against what? a man speaking his heart out? and expressing his very fears for his son? It isn’t his patriotism at play, but his paternal instincts instead. Hats off to those who thought it was in order to uninstall and down vote the Snapdeal App. That’s true tolerance.
Overtime you log onto a porn website, wear ‘socially unacceptable clothes’ or eat steak and chips – remember – they’re luxuries. And they’d be taken away from you at any point of time. And you’d be able to do nothing about it. Except voice your opinions.
Imagine that, and you’ll see why Aamir isn’t wrong. Until then, do not change the rules of this game only because he’s a celebrity. Also, it is the very ‘intolerance’ that will soon render the Preamble and every word written on it useless.
Soon. Sooner than you can imagine.
