“Why should a person detonate himself or herself to espouse a cause, however powerful it may seem, is something that baffles those who’re still alive and will continue to perplex even the best of brains.” Scotland Yard’s Jonas Storren’s state of perplexity over the macabre phenomenon of suicide bombings is indeed highly puzzling even to the experts of criminologists, warfare, neurology and other spheres of human psychology.
For another time on Indian soil, a suicide bomber exploded himself into smithereens along with 44 soldiers at Pulwama in Kashmir on ironically the ‘Day of Love’, Valentine’s Day after LTTE’s Dhanu had blown herself along with Rajiv Gandhi at Sriperumbudur on May 21, 1991. It is, therefore, all the more significant from our perspective as we have only heard about suicide bombers volcanising themselves along with scores of people in other parts of our increasingly volatile world.
There’s a melange of factors contributing to this phenomenon and developing the cult of harakiri. Humans are ideologically driven creatures. Even the most evolved of us have certain covert and overt ideologies embedded so deep in the psyche that even the possessors are unaware of. Yuval Noah Harari says that every ideology is basically discriminatory in nature and creates the You and I and They and Us differences. Humans are, therefore, ideologically violent.
Of all ideologies, two are the most potent and they’re: Territorial Ideology and Religious ideology. In modern times and context, these two ideologies have come together to become even more potent, nay dangerously precarious and potentially cumulative. The end culmination is: Religio-territorial ideology. Before that, it will not be wide off the mark to mention that LTTE’s suicide bombers exploded themselves to espouse Territorial ideology to form Tamil Elam, a separate place for Tamil people in Sri Lanka.
Now the suicide bombings have assumed the tones and hues of religio-territorial ideology. In Semitic religions, viz, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Territory and Theological imperatives play very important roles. These ideological necessities are much more prominent in Judaism and Islam, the latter being an offshoot of the former on many counts.
The early humans or Neanderthals fought for the territories and despite some degree of (relatively rapid) evolution in last 20-25 thousand years, the remnants and vestiges of pre-historic DNA patterns percolated down to ‘modern’ humans in the forms of nations, ethnicity, states etc. When those primitive patterns forged with religious instincts of later day, a fatal and flawed ideology of usurpation or retention emerged with a presupposed divine sanction. It’s because of this putative and presupposed perception of the so-called celestial sanction, all suicide bombers justify their acts as divinely sanctioned and scripturally ordained. This helps them (handlers as well as the bombers) dilute or completely remove the nagging feeling of guilt or a niggling sense of wrongdoing. They perpetrate the heinous act with a self-supposed feeling of impunity and glorify themselves.
Criminologists examined the suicide-bombers (who either failed in their missions or backed out at the last moment) and found most of them religiously not just fanatic, but pathologically distorted as well. One more attribute that came up during the mind-reading sessions of these individuals is their overwhelming sado-masochistic instincts. Even before rigorous indoctrination, they were found to be gluttons for self-infliction and gore-fascination (a term in Forensic Science that means ‘to be in love with one’s own blood’). Gore is the thick blood of human veins that has a blackish tinge. The word ‘gory’ (bloody) originated from it. The ‘rescued’ suicide bombers were found to be morbidly in love with the mutilation, dismemberment, disembowelment and obsessed with their own blood and festering wounds. They preferred festering and bleeding over healing! To them, these were the glaring signs and signatures of their unusual valour. An erroneous sense of heroism lionised them.
Professor Umberto Eco, the father of Semiotics (Science of signs and symbols), observed that all indoctrinated suicide bombers feel some kind of psycho-orgasmic heightened state of existence when they embark upon their deadly missions. It’s a drugged state of mind which (mis)leads them to the path of insanity.
The lure of afterlife and eternal happiness in an imaginary heaven also eggs them on to finish themselves in such a blood-curdling manner.
The ‘Earthly or Quotidian Non-Existence Syndrome’ is also responsible for becoming a suicide bomber. To elaborate it: While indoctrinating these people, their handlers keep telling them that this life on earth is meaningless. This is no existence at all. The real life is up there with all temptations. The tag of martyrdom or Istishhad (martyrdom operation in Arabic) also appeals to these individuals who die and vie for self-sacrifice for a cause which they consider to be the greatest ever. In other words, they become increasingly delusional in their approach to life and immediate objective.
Suicide bombers also see it as a sign of being super-special when they are hand-picked by the handlers as human bombs. That they’ve been given preference over their peers is a thought that caresses their ego. ‘We’re different’ feeling sustains them till they blow themselves into pieces. So, they allow themselves to be brainwashed with less or no resistance.
Man’s eternal vulnerability, his belief in supernatural, ideological allegiance and still-to-evolve state of mind work in a confluence to make someone a suicide-bomber. The day, we all will be ideologically free individuals, the gore and ghastliness of these phenomena will also vanish into thin air. But wait till then. We are still un-evolved and unthinkably violent.
