Mumbai: India is on its edge! An unlit matchstick can spark a riot, an accidental stare can cause a scuffle and a rumour can cause gods to drink milk. We are highly suggestible today and a million so-called triggers, many imaginary, are waiting to manifest on social media platforms or on the streets. In this background one needs to look at the alleged Lenskart, Air India and the TCS controversies.
Cultural Dominance
Religious symbols worn are no longer extensions of one’s attire, or calming spiritual objects but today they are ideograms of identity, power and also assertive weaponry. This may emanate from psycho-social insecurities, desire to show religious dominance or a consequence of cultural slavery from within and without for hundreds of years
Conspiracy of Silence
To me the issues here are not about religious coercion, rape, denial of cultural rights and a conspiracy to crush a religious identity and force them into religious conversion alone. It is the conspiracy of silence of the larger populace that is hugely worrying. Many would have known the torment early but they kept quiet. Unconsciously, in the deeply embedded loudspeakers of the brain in all, the screams heard aloud are ‘It is all my fate, my karma, God will punish them, it's my destiny’.
Stockholm Syndrome
This is an unhealthy coping mechanism where victims of abuse, kidnapping, captivity develop loyalty and feelings towards their abusers. This was described by criminologist and psychiatrist Nils Bejerot in 1973 after hostages of a Stockholm bank theft defended their captors and feared the police. Are we suffering from the same? Have the multitude of invasions by those from all over the world made us largely culturally fearful? In spite of 1965, 1971, Kargil, Uri, surgical strike and Operation Sindoor, are we selectively weak while facing an atrocity that resembles selective embedded memories of the past?
Merchants of Venice
Corporates involved have no heart! Hiding behind legal teams and offering insensitive statements do not help. In my experience and interactions with corporates, I find the hearts are evaporating and the brain's white and grey matter hardens. Their whiteboard slogans are touching, yet they are losing touch with the common man. They believe that as time passes everything will settle down. This won't!
Mental Health Status
1/7 Indians are mentally ill. We are in the middle of a mental health epidemic. 1/3 people who die of suicide have family problems. Let us all focus on it. Hijab or Bindi is not the quest, but the mind behind both of them needs healthy nourishment and equanimity. Let us all contribute towards the same.
(The author is a noted Mumbai-based psychiatrist)
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