A mad dog is far more dangerous than an enemy. Why? Because one is able to identify the so-called “enemy.” One can also anticipate his actions and plan counter moves, just like in a game of chess. Even military strategists play “war games” in the War Room.
The same cannot be said for a mad dog menace. Because there is no way of anticipating and therefore countervailing its actions. Where, When and Who will it bite next? There is no answer, because there is no “Why” in the question! Its rabid acts are illogical and sans rationale. Is there any cure for rabies? No, but there are anti-rabies vaccines, that go by the principle “Prevention is better than cure”.
Who are the mad dogs today? Those who indulge in wanton acts of destruction, without any pattern or logic. They just kill. These thoughts came to me while addressing a seminar on “Finding Solutions to Terrorism.”
The U.S. considered Al Qaida and the Taliban as its “enemies,” and waged war against them. They eliminated Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein in the mistaken notion that it was the solution. It wasn’t. It only spawned even more lethal organizations like the IS and Boko Haram. They attack anybody, anywhere at any time. They have no rulebook. They just kill and ruthlessly torture. They are rabid mad dogs.
Strangely, or significantly, such rabid organizations have recruits from all over the Islamic world, but negligible support in India. This, despite the fact that after Indonesia, India has the largest Muslim population.
There has to be a reason for this. Is it because Indian Muslims have been inoculated before they could get indoctrinated? I am inclined to believe so. Despite some hiccups or aberrations like the demolition of the Babri Masjid, Muslims are by and large safe in India, and their interests protected. There are umpteen government schemes for the welfare of the Minorities. We should be proud of this heritage, and safeguard it.
What of the lions? They are not naked aggressors. They have a well thought out strategy for hunting their prey. St Peter gives us this warning, “Your enemy, the devil, roams around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour” (1 Pet 5:8). He must surely have known what he was saying when he gave the analogy of a lion. Interestingly, lions never hunt! They are too proud to do so. They just roar. Their prey are then stampeded in the opposite direction, straight into the trap set by the pride of lionesses, lying in wait for them. Brilliant planning, executed to perfection.
The lion is therefore rightly called an “enemy”. It knows what it is doing, and traps its unsuspecting prey by stampeding them in the wrong direction. In India this is a favourite tactic employed by right wing Hindutvawadis. They create a fear psychosis (an imaginary threat) like the Muslims having 5 wives and 25 children, or Christian conversions. They thereby bring simple, unsuspecting followers into their fold. A clever and effective ploy! The Lion, the enemy, never shows its true colors until it is too late.
They also use another tactic called infiltration, or the slow boil. They put you in a tub of water and turn the flame on low. You fell relaxed and comfortable, lulled into complacency. By the time they turn on the heat it is too late for the hapless victims to jump out of the “hot water”.
We find that the mad dogs and lions have contrasting styles, but both are dangerous. The mad dog has blatant naked aggression, conflagration or confrontation. In contrast the lion uses the process of infiltration, once so effectively used by the Marxists, to engineer their revolutions. Infiltration will go on unobtrusively in carefully selected target groups – institutions that influence the minds of others; be they historical, educational or scientific. The lions will assume key positions, and attract with their magnificent manes (grandiose “cultural” ideas). They won’t use the real word – religion.
So how do we counter the attacks of the mad dogs or the ploys of the lions? Just as a leopard doesn’t change its spots, so too there is no cure for these species. Earlier criminologists would try and crack a crime by entering into the mind of the criminal, to determine his motive. They also worked on the premise that a criminal would seek to destroy evidence, cover his tracks, and make good his escape. Such principles of criminology don’t work on mad dogs, whose acts of destruction are illogical and unpredictable, besides being suicidal.
I now revert to what I had said earlier. What cannot be cured can be prevented. The success of an army is not gauged by how many wars it fought and won; but by how many it prevented from happening. The same goes for fire fighters or doctors. So we need to identify root causes and prevent or circumvent them.
Earlier wars were fought for territorial gains, plunder, or even an ideology (revolutions). Today almost all collective violence or intolerance is religion based. It is not just a “clash of civilizations’, as Huntington would have us believe. It is an all out battle for religious hegemony or supremacy. So how do we face up to this? If the disease is religion (or rather a distortion of it), then the panacea is also through controlled does of religion, the principle on which vaccination works.
In recent times we have seen how religious leaders have brought about rapprochement and reconciliation. It was Abp Desmond Tutu who played a lead role in bringing Nelson Mandela back into the mainstream in South Africa, and ending apartheid, without a bloody “partition” of minds. More recently, Pope Francis invited both the Israelis and Palestinians to the Vatican; and negotiated the end of the decades old standoff between Cuba and the USA. Earlier Pope John Paul II had organized a meeting of all religious leaders in Assisi, most appropriate, as during the crusades it was Francis of Assisi who had reached out to the Saracens (Muslims).
We know that St Francis of Assisi inspires Pope Francis. He must take the initiative to bring religious rapprochement, reconciliation and respect. He has the goodwill of the world. Such an opportunity should not be lost.
If religious fanaticism is the greatest threat to world peace today, then it becomes imperative for world religious leaders to set all else aside, to come together on one platform and tell the world that violence only begets more violence, and true religion does not justify killings.
This initiative must be taken at all levels, down to the remotest village or slum. In India I would expect Gandhians, Leftists and rationalists to take the lead. Let me give some small examples of how our very presence can make a difference.
At the meeting that I was attending, the mayor, a hardcore BJP man who was earlier in the army, was the chief guest. Since I was sitting in the front row, he kept taking my name, and recalled an incident when he was posted in Mizoram. He said that it was to the credit of the Baptist missionaries that Mizoram had overtaken even Kerala as the most literate state. I believe that if I had not been sitting there he would not have made that admission, or projected it differently.
Some years ago I was attending a huge gathering in a Muslim area. My Gandhian mentor, a Hindu, and myself a Christian, were the only non-Muslims in that mammoth concourse. A young man, owing allegiance to the Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI had not yet been banned) began ranting against the kafirs (infidels). In deference to our presence on the stage the organizers immediately stopped the use of such offensive language. Our very presence had spoken, louder than words.
Recently, for the International Yoga Day, my friends from the Vishwa Gayatri Parivar (a reformist Hindu organization) insisted that I come on stage with them and clearly stated that those who did not wish to do the Surya Namaskar were at complete liberty not to do so. In the past I was even asked to preside over a religious convention of over 5,000 persons by this same organization. I believe that it is critical to promote communal harmony and universal brotherhood at all levels. That is the best way to isolate (quarantine) the mad dogs or lions.
Another suggestion. Sometime in the 1970’s, when I was living in Jyotiniketan Ashram, Bareilly, we had organized an ecumenical meet. One of the speakers was Rev Kenneth Sharp of the Anglican Communion. An observation of his has since remained etched in my memory. He said that we may argue on theology till the cows come home, and we will not be able to agree. But there is one area of unity that is indisputable – service. Let us serve people in need, that is the best antidote to disunity and social disharmony.
Sociologists offer us an insight into the third solution. They say, “Violence is the option of those who have nothing to lose.”
The obverse is equally true, that those who have something don’t want to lose it to violence. So the solution also lies in poverty alleviation, to reduce criminalisation of the mind; from the alleys of Harlem to the shanties of Rio and ghettos across the world. They could be breeding grounds for terror. Education must also go hand in hand with poverty alleviation.
Though one must admit that even well off and educated people are often today the leaders of the pack of mad dogs or lions. The only difference is that they use the poor as cannon fodder for their nefarious designs. Tackling terror and disharmony, whether by confrontation or infiltration, is a long haul. That should not stop us from moving in the right direction, or taking the first step.
(The writer is a Gandhian activist. This is based on his recent presentation at the Kanpur Press Club)