RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE...IN PRIVATE DOMAIN...

Sensitize at a young age…

Increasingly, it is borne by facts that we are religiously less tolerant than we admit.  Memories of our times are sure to leave behind this stark reality that looms large over ironically even among our educated fraternity.    Children are…what we teach them!  Well, if the maxim holds good, then we could trace the roots of religious discord plaguing our society to our academic apparatus that adds values at childhood. 

No doubt, upon a review of the innumerable acts of inhuman violence perpetrated in the name of religion, dominant sections of the mass media have indeed been receptive to condemn the same.  The ignominy of violence borne out of religious hatred also finds disfavor and condemnation across the political spectrum with varying degrees of reason.  However, these are facets of a growing modern nation that marks the expected civility in the public domain.   The fact lies that the same shall not stand scrutiny in private domain.   We are guilty of reserving all our virulent, vehement defences in our private domain.   Despite the magnitude of the social havoc or human loss brought out by any specific issue at hand, the tendency to ally with one’s stated religious loyalty shall come into auto-play in the private domain. 

Each religious school of thought has a meticulously evolved process of inculcation through a plethora of traditions, customs and ceremonies as to create an unflinching follower.   Our state guided educational system has failed in measuring up as sequel to harness intra-religious tolerance that is called for.  How many of us having reasonable access to education explain the significance of important festivals of other religions.  Despite being a beneficiary of enjoying national holidays for last forty years for Bakrid, mila-di-nabi, Ramzan, Easter, Good Friday, I cannot recollect the significance of these festivals of other religions unless I make specific efforts.  The answer may remain unchanged if the same the question is posed to a Muslim or Christian brethren.  The fact lies that many of us grow up wary and circumspect of even places of worship of other religions. 

Is it not warranted of the state guided elementary educational system to sensitise our children at a young age to harness the collective conscience to build a better civic society.   The state may not enter the contentious issue of dwelling upon the mythological legends associated with each religious festivals.  However, is there not a common thread in all these festivals that propagate virtues of common good and social ideals in equal measure.  All religions perforce effectively intrude our persona initially through a ideal virtuous set of belief system. 

As a fast growing vibrant democratic nation with self avowed commitment to secularism, our academic system at elementary level requires more sensitization efforts to infuse the required scientific temper required in such a large pluralistic and diverse society as ours.   Our academic pursuit of religious tolerance cannot remain dwarfed before the well entrenched domestic religious belief systems.

N.Sekar,

A-1, Malar Apartments,

Johnsonpet, Salem – 636007

nsekar445@gmail.com

9488031745

Alas...A LOOK @ THE SUFFERING INDIA

Mother, shall I put you to sleep?

Maariyamma is likely to be killed by her children because they cannot afford her. They will give her a loving oil bath. Several glasses of coconut water. A mouthful of mud. Perhaps a poison injection. She is just one of many old parents in Tamil Nadu dying in this way. But no one blinks at these ritual murders.

BY SHAHINA KK

Death do us apart After her friend’s son turned mercy killer, Maariyamma left her village PHOTO: G KARTHICK

IN TAMIL, it is known as thalaikoothal. A leisurely oil bath. An exercise in love and health when given to newborn children, a ceremonial beginning to festivals, and the universal answer to pitiless summers. In TamilNadu’s small industry hub of Virudhunagar, however, it is the beginning of slow murder. The marker of the devastating poverty that makes a son kill his own aging mother.

Young family members of this district in southern Tamil Nadu have been pushing their infirm, elderly dependents to death because they cannot afford to take care of them. When 65-year-old Maariyammasuspected this might happen to her too, she moved out of her son’s house two years ago. “I’m not well enough to live on my own, but it is better than being killed by them,” she says. Amazingly, there is no bitterness in her voice. Or anger. “They’re struggling hard to take care of their own children,” saysMaariyamma, of her sons. She places no blame. Her two sons and two daughters are farm labourers who travel to different villages every sowing and harvesting season. Seeing her children at pains to run their house, and feed and educate her grandchildren, Maariyammaknew she was a burden. She knew how it would end if she didn’t leave.

Maariyamma had seen it happen to other men and women of her age. Her neighbour, Parvathy,had been paralysed at the age of 76. “She had only one son,” says Maariyamma. “And he was working in Chennai, surviving on some menial job there. How could he afford to look after his bedridden mother?” One day, Maariyamma says, Parvathy’s son came, “did it” and went back to Chennai. “What else could he do?” she asks. Again, in place of anger or fear, there is helpless resignation. And a strange empathy for the person who might elaborately plan her murder

Thalaikoothal works thus: an extensive oil bath is given to an elderly person before the crack of dawn. The rest of the day, he or she is given several glasses of cold tender coconut water. Ironically, this is everything a mother would’ve told her child not do while taking an oil bath. “Tender coconut water taken in excess causes renal failure,” says Dr Ashok Kumar, a practicing physician in Madurai. By evening, the body temperature falls sharply. In a day or two, the old man or woman dies of high fever. This method is fail-proof “because the elderly often do not have the immunity to survive the sudden fever,” says Dr Kumar.

OVER THE years, other methods have evolved too. The most painful one is when mud dissolved in water is forced down; it causes indigestion and an undignified death. Velayudhamof Help age India says the families often take the mud from their own land, if they have any. “It is believed that this makes their souls happy,” he says.

Dorairaj, a farmer in Satur, confesses that Muniammal, a distant relative, had been killed four months earlier. She was 78, and too weak to fend for herself. She was given an oil bath, but somehow survived. After a few days, she was given the ‘milk treatment’. “When the milk is being poured, the nose is held tight,” says Dorairaj. This ‘milk treatment’ is often preceded by starvation. The household stops serving the parent solid food. “When milk is poured uninterruptedly into the mouth, it goes into the respiratory track. A starving person cannot withstand even a moment’s suffocation,” says 60-year-old Paul Raj, coordinator of a district elders’ welfare association.

Solitary existence When he suspected his sons saw him as a burden,Kasi moved out

For those who choose poisoning as their modus operandi,Ganeshan is the man to call. This middle-aged man lives inParamakkudy village, and introduces himself as a ‘medical practitioner’. In reality, he is Doctor Death. Ganeshan sources and administers lethal injections on demand. According to him, it is simply a service. “I am not killing anybody who may have a longer life. It is done only in the last and final stage of one’s life. Why should they suffer in poverty?” he justifies. Ganeshan defends his ‘profession’ but says he’d rather have some other means of livelihood. Azhagappan, a small shop owner, revealed thatGaneshan is not even a trained nurse. “He had worked in a hospital as the lowest grade attendant for a few months. That’s where he learned to give injections.” Azhagappan estimates that Ganeshancharges Rs. 300 to Rs. 3,000. Ganeshan refuses to disclose the chemical combination of his poison.

Though everyone seems to be in the know, thalaikoothal officially remained unexposed until the death of 60-year-old Selvaraj, ofRamasamipuram village in Virudhunagar on 18 June this year.Selvaraj, who was bed-ridden due to an accident, died suddenly.Asokan, Selvaraj’s nephew in Virudhunagar, raised the alarm on his uncle’s death. He registered an FIR, and subsequently a woman named Zeenath was arrested for administering a poisonous injection. Prabhakar, the Virudhunagar Commissioner of Police, admits that it is hard to find any evidence. “The body was cremated and there is no scope for a re-examination of the corpse,” he says.

‘It’s difficult to view it simply in a legal or criminal framework,’ says district collector VKShanmugham

Zeenath has been released on bail and refused to talk to TEHELKA when we met her in her village, Ramasamipuram. Some villagers claimed thatZeenath was a ‘professional mercy killer’.

A few days after Selvaraj’s death came to light, a newspaper published a report exposing more mysterious deaths in the district. When the district administration of Virudhunagar learnt how widespread the mercy killing was, it ordered an investigation. “It was shocking for all of us,” says V KShanmugham, district collector in Virudhunagar. He soon realised that conventional state responses like arrests, warnings and interrogations would not even scratch the surface.

Thalaikoothal lay in the indefinable space between crime and desperate acts of poverty. It was social custom, a collective family decision, a ritual goodbye to a loved one who had lived a full life. Sometimes, it was the victim’s own idea. Shanmugham found that many called it a path to “eternal peace”, an escape from the violence of poverty. “It is difficult to view this simply in a legal or criminal framework,” he adds.

If thalaikoothal is seen as a crime, an entire village is accomplice. Community members and relatives not only support the practice, several even arrive a day before the auspicious oil bath to meet the aged parent one last time. Everybody knows the man or woman is going to die.

“Nobody questions or reports it to the police. They don’t even see it as a crime. It is a kind of accepted practice,” says Dr Lakshmi, a physician in Karyappetti village. Over 75, Dr Lakshmirecollects that she has been hearing of this practice of killing the elderly for 34 years.

Community pardon In many villages, thalaikoothal is not a crime, but a social custom

The practice is not confined to a particular caste or community. “The poor do it, whatever their caste,” says Chandra Devi, the district Welfare Officer. Most residents are seasonal farm labourers, livestock shepherds or migrant workers in small factories in the nearby industrial hub Sivakasi. Their mobile lives make it virtually impossible for them to stay home to care for their parents.

Killing is indeed a brutal solution to financial burdens, but community members claim there is no alternative. “It does not mean that they do not love their parents,” says Chellathorai, the president of Paneerpetty villagePanchayat.

Paul Raj, of the district elders welfare association, recently requested the district collector for government protection for the elderly. “The aged in these villages are highly vulnerable. We demand government’s immediate action.” Raj, however, realises that while police forces can protect an aged woman from her children, what they really need is protection from penury. “If the seniors had some income, they would not be considered so burdensome,” says Raj. “For example, if they got more pension, or at least got it regularly, it might give some respite.”

‘The practice is not confined to any caste,’ says district welfare officer Chandra Devi. ‘Poverty is the reason’

Kasi, a daily wager, moved out of his son’s house after his wife died. He’snot sure if he’s 65 or 70, but his shock of white hair, equally white handlebar moustache, and soil-black wrinkled skin are testament to his long and arduous life. Kasi had decided to leave when he watched his children grow tired of tending to their father’s every need. “I’m very fond of them, and can’t imagine they will try to kill me,” he says. “But anyway, I didn’t want to push them to any extreme step.” Whether he too would have been invited for that chilling oil bath some years down, Kasi doesn’tknow. And he didn’t stick around to find out.

ACROSS VIRUDHUNAGAR, even as elderly men and women leave their homes, they make excuses for their children. “My son was struggling with his own life,” says Kasi. They put up a brave front. “I’m surviving fine with the ration rice at 2 per kilo,” says a reed-thin Maariyamma. They starve, and sigh, but do not complain. Thalaikoothal is to them not cowardly murder, but a brave farewell. Kasi and Maariyamma do not see how extreme it is, how dramatic. For them, it is a sort of practical love that is simply about survival.

THIS IS THE MOST DANGEROUS OF SITUATIONS...

After temple entry, Dalits here live in fear

R. Ilangovan

— Photo: E. Lakshmi Narayanan 

No entry:Dalits are not allowed to enter again in the Sri Chidambareshwarar Temple at East Rajapalayam village in Gengavalli block, Salem district.

SALEM: For the Dalits in East Rajapalayam, Gengavalli block, in Salem district, their recent entry into the ancient Sri Chidambareshwarar Temple in the village, as expected, has not broken the fetters of discrimination. Instead it has brought in woes and fears in abundance.

All these years, the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments-controlled temple and its sub temples in the village have remained out of the reach for the 250 families of Dalits.

When the majority caste Hindus, some 1,500 families, had refused to allow them to participate at its ‘Maha kumbaabhisekam' function held on August 22 this year, they raised a banner of revolt.

On September 3, when the women and children went to the temple to offer prayers, they were denied entry and curtly told to perform poojas outside the temple. “Till then, we have not realised the intensity of the hatred of untouchability against us in the village,” said N. Kannusamy (65), a Dalit, who recalled the good old days when he, as a 10-year-old boy, used to play village sports with others in front of the sprawling temple complex.

But the denial spurred the village Dalits to regroup. A few among them including teachers and a few VCK functionaries took up the issue to the notice of the district administration.

A complaint was preferred at Veeraganur Police Station. They submitted a petition to the Office of HR and CE at Salem on September 15.

Senior revenue and police officials convened a peace meeting at Attur on October 1 and after much coercion forced the caste Hindus to concede to the Dalits' demand to enter temple.

“We entered the temple on October 3, which happened to be our dooms' day. Since then we undergo untold sufferings and face intimidation,” said a Dalit youth working in a school in a near-by village.

Today, they are all forced to keep away from the vicinity of the temple, which commands many acres of fertile lands in which cotton and maize are being grown.

“The temple property is being enjoyed by the caste Hindus and we can never participate in its auction,” alleges another.

They told The Hindu that caste Hindus had ostracised even two of their youths for attending a funeral on Adi Dravidar Street recently. “The temple has a Dalit as a member on its trustee board. But he is voiceless,” they claimed.

The Dalits are now living in morbid fear for having entered the temple in the presence of officials and against the wishes of locals.

The Veeraganur police in a letter dated October 25 have alerted the Gengavalli Tahsildhar about a possible law and order issue in the village. The Dalits have sought police protection, which is yet to be given.

Bridging the social divide ; a social responsibility…..

Bridging the social divide ; a social responsibility…..

Within a day of the prominent reportage in The Hindu of existence of a fence separating the Dalits and other castes in a village in Krishnagiri District, the civil administration swung into action to swiftly remove the fence.  The event is yet another significant day in the annals of social emancipation.  The responsible role of a progressive media in the form of The Hindu’s prominent reportage, the uncompromising stand of a political party, the CPI(M) that has been steadfast and unequivocal on taking up social issues and the decisive intervention by the administration in swiftly removing the discriminative fence, made this possible.  The fence crumbled under the combined weight and concerted action of all these progressive and democratic sections of the society.  The dividing fence in a village in Krishnagiri has been removed.  But, the scourge of caste and social discrimination remains rampant and well entrenched in our country. 

The fact lies that majority of the dalits are subjected to innumerable inhuman forms of social discrimination.  It begins at birth and continues till death.  Forced to live in clusters away from the village mainstream, denial of permission to draw water from a common well, serving tea in separate tumblers often called “twin tumbler system”, restrictions in access to common pathways, differential treatment of dalit children at schools, denial of rights to hair cuts, denial of right to participate in religious functions in village temples, curtailment of entry into temples or having spaces earmarked specifying areas where dalits should confine while other dominant castes have darshan standing close to the deity, separate roads for funeral procession and separate cremation grounds are many but common cruel forms of oppression that dalits are forced to bear. 

The reason why truce prevails at many places despite these inhuman demands of the dominant castes and discrimination is their economic dependence over the latter for their livelihood.  Dalits constitute the majority of the poor and marginalized sections of the society.  Assertions of natural justice and human rights have turned hostile witnessing violent clashes in the past.  Such assertions are often described as caste clashes. 

The general attitude of the administration is to decline the prevalence of social discrimination, oppression or untouchability.  Any admission of prevalence is generally construed as administrative of their administrative failure.  The truce and consequent tranquility that prevails across the country rests on the ignominy of the forced discrimination on the dalits. 

No other nation is saddled with such a cruel form of social structure.  The movement to eradicate the evil of social divide will be protracted one.  After all, the system and the resultant divide has sustained through hundred of years and withstood and even flourished even under the British rule.  The cynical and prejudicial social standards is a scar on the whole of the society.  The hiatus of social divide that exists cannot be erased unless the responsible, democratic and progressive sections of the society respond to the challenge in one voice as in the instant issue.  The entire civil society should unite to create a equitable, developed and secular India. 

N.Sekar,

A-1, Malar Apartments,

Johnsonpet, Salem – 636007 ; nsekar445@gmail.com, 9488031745

The President's visit...

Welcome Mr. President……….

The forthcoming visit of the President of the USA, Barak Obama has already stirred enormous interest and intense debate on the issues that shall receive attention during the visit.  India is one country that is supposed to have enormous goodwill for US and no doubt the charismatic President’s visit shall cause more flutters than any of his illustrious predecessors. 

The President of the world’s super power is visiting even as world leaders still scurry and huddle under the aegis of G-8, G-20, IMF, World Bank, and the UN to grapple with the consequences of the world economic crisis that has been christened the worst to befall the globe after the famous “Great Depression of the 1930s”.   The greatest of powers stood in silence and disbelief even as the most prosperous and tallest of behemoths fell into abyss taking with them the rest in the system. 

The tremors that erupted since the now famous ‘sub-prime mortgage crisis’ gave away for never ending shocks that seem to create a crater large enough to plunge the global financial landscape deep beneath the rubble.  I’m sure very small and privileged group of Indians shall get to meet and talk to the President.  Few questions have been infecting my mind ever since the crisis and alas ! if I got a chance to talk to the President….Shall I ask him ?

In the US, epicenter of the shock, more than 20 lakh people were rendered homeless, 8 lakhs have lost their livelihood, 2 trillion dollars worth of pension funds have evaporated into thin air.  16 trillion has been lost world wide, ILO reports loss of 20 million jobs in 2009 and estimates 210 million overall with a parting note – these are estimates on what has happened so far while specialists still reassure that the worst is far from over.  The first and the last leg of the rescue plan have been large dozes of bailout packages that you so deftly ushered through the Congress.  That Huge Corporations and investment Banks were bailed out made all headlines.  Has a penny been spent to people who have been rendered pauper or lost their livelihood in the process? What happened to the ‘customer’ for who’s delight the invincible ‘free market’ edifice was so painstakingly built ? What happened to the customers who lost their savings, their homes, their pension funds, their jobs and with it all their future?  Does not your action end in resuscitating a system that could possibly re-live leaving all humans associated with it dead?

Was not ‘free market ‘unabashedly seeking state intervention to sustain itself? Well, the irony is you still prescribe cure through more reforms, well this time to be served with a flavor of more stringent regulation? Has in any of the Summits that you preside been a debate to evaluate the human component of the crisis earnestly? Is it not imperative that a dispassionate and non-dogmatic approach be made to restore peace in the livelihood of millions of people in the world where you still are the super power? 

Mr.President…you would have noticed the protagonists of the “free market” system who not too long ago were seen singing praise over the infallibility and invincibility of the system hushed up quickly to rebuke their own creation.  The innumerable money spinning inventions of the all conquering speculative financial world in the form of ‘derivatives’ and ‘instruments’ were derided with contemptuous demeanor.  I admire your intervention in stifling the self aggrandizement and lavish indulgence of the industry chieftains.  But, shall that prevent future innovations that would deprive others of their savings?  Are not these systems and institutions created to serve humans after all?

N.Sekar,

nsekar445@gmail.com, 9488031745