Dead Fishes On Juhu Beach
By Subhash Gatade
27 October, 2005
Countercurrents.orgB'bay nay Mumbai made headlines last week for altogether different reasons. The crumbling empire of the Thackrays or the longsprawling network of the D company or for that matter the latest developments in Bollywood all the regular stuff got overshadowed by a tragic scence on the Juhu beach. The sudden appearance of thousands of dead fishes - small as well as big - made policy makers as well as citizenry sit up and wonder what precipitated this phenomenon.
It was expected that the senior bosses of the fisheries department would not be forthcoming about this issue. When asked to divulge the possible reasons they made a few general comments focussing around increased pollution of water leading to such deaths. A fishermen talked of fishes developing 'suicidal tendencies' during this period of time
Different people, different takes. But nobody was ready to tell that the immediate reason for the increase in level of pollution had something to do with the immersion of idols in their thousands in the month of september followed by October. Interestingly a study of the pollution levels of Yamuna river in September done by the 'Central Pollution Control Board'( Indian Express 13 September 2005) had thrown light on this phenomenon which had clearly underlined how immersion increases quantity of metals and decreases dissolved oxygen in the river and thus leads to choking of the river. It was observed that while mercury concentration in the river is nil in normal period, it goes up in the festive season after the idol immersion. The way people dispose of flowers, plastics, ashes in the river also adds to the pollution levels. The CPCB tells us that the capital witnesses every year around 1700 immersions and looking at the enormous popularity of Ganesh festival in Maharashtra one can imagine the enormity of the immersions in B'bay.
Definitely the immersion of idols causing irreparable damage to the environment is not the only example which demonstrate how rituals of a section of people can become nuisance of sorts for the wider populace or for that matter the ecosystem itself. It was only in the month of July-August that Delhi witnessed the thronging of Kawarias , devotees of Shiva, in their thousands. The slogans of 'Bol Bam' reverberated everywhere. But this public demonstration of faith which was joined in by a significant section of the civil society itself was also accompanied by the official closing of many highways for thouroughfares for days together. The Delhi-Haridwar highway or the Delhi-Meerut highway remained out of bounds for public transport of any kind. One can easity imagine how a broad section of people which was not party to this 'Bol Bam' jamboree must have been put to lot of inconvenience. Ofcourse one need not mention the many unsavoury incidents wherein the Kawarias were found to be involved.
It would be opportune to revisit one of the gory episodes in our very own times which can show how the faith of the people provides absurd justifications for inhuman acts committed by them. It has been more than three years that Dulina, Jhajjar, Haryana became a mute witness to the killing of five dalits in broad daylight supposedly for 'killing' a cow. And the police which was said to be in connivance with the agitated mob, promptly registered an FIR against the dead dalits for this 'act'. Even the corpse of the cow was duly sent for postmartem. Later it was revealed that the cow was long dead then only the very first FIR against the dead dalits was withdrawn. Looking back in any other civilized country the way powers that be presented themselves in this case would have become a matter of national shame and the perpetrators of this violence would have faced social boycott. But exactly reverse happened. None of the officers was even reprimanded for his muted presence at the spot and the perpetrators were treated as 'heroes' who had fought to save the life a 'Gomata' What led to this reversal of fortunes. Since a large majority of the crowd sincerely believed in the concept of 'Gomata' ( Cow mother), and for them the very act of killing the dalits was part of their ordained duties.
May it be mass deaths of fishes or the incovenience caused to the broader public because of holding of religious processions every other day or for that matter holding of namaaz prayers on the street itself to accomodate a large gathering or the sprouting up of 'ancient' temples on busy thoroughfares or colonies one can vouchsafe that faith of a section of the people is not neutral as it is presented to be. While the onset of communal riots on some minor pretext could be said to be the extreme manifestation of this phenomenon the non riot like situation which othewise exists is not a guarantee that everything is normal at the societal level.
The way one is witness to the explosion of religosity the world over one can imagine how vulnerable the faith of the people has become which could be manipulated by formations to meet their selfish ends.The audacity with which George Bush talked of 'God's message' to him supposedly to attack Iraq or eliminate the Talibans or the way his bete noire Osama Bin Laden invoked god to justify the terrorist attacks launched under his stewardship could be said to be the prime examples of this phenomenon.What can be done so that in the wee hours of 21st century we are saved from the 'crusades' like situation at local level which was a hallmark of the medieval ages. The most important thing in a backward country like India is that people are made to understand that in a country which is celebrated for its diversity vis-a-vis religion, language, culture any attempt to legitimise majoritarianism in any form would not help the cause of harmony and progress.
It is clear that the makers of constitution who had rightly added freedom of faith including its propagation as one of the cardinal principles of the democratic experiment could not have envisaged this state of affairs. It then becomes high time that one takes a fresh look at way things unfolded before us in postindependence times. The whole concept of secularism as it has been practised in our country also needs to be revisited. While we have rightly emphasised that the state maintains its secular character, the whole issue of secularisation of society has largely remained unaddressed. The further we are able to march on this road where religion or any faith based ideology would have lesser and lesser space in impacting the functioning of the state and society, the better it would be for the real flowering of democracy.
