Tackling the economy of intolerance and violence (Soter)

Article published in oHeraldo on 6th July 2014

Goans are so caught up in opposing the entry of Ram Sene and the latest PWD Minister’s latest remarks against women in pubs and wearing of bikinis on beaches, that they ‘can’t see the wood for the trees’.

By Soter D’Souza | 05 Jul, 2014, 09:06PM IST

Goans are so caught up in opposing the entry of Ram Sene and the latest PWD Minister’s latest remarks against women in pubs and wearing of bikinis on beaches, that they ‘can’t see the wood for the trees’. Selective targeting and demonizing of individuals and sensationalizing only certain aspects in the on-going controversy may help market stories and arouse public emotions, but will it actually help in addressing the root of the problem? Whether we are open to accept it or not, a Muthalik and Dhavlikar are only pawns being moved on a larger chess board while the issue of pubs and bikinis becomes the legitimate excuse to cover what seems to be a larger anti-social conspiracy.

By crying foul only over remarks about banning women in pubs and bikinis on beaches and ignoring other related attempts like the push for a ban on cow slaughter and religious conversions, efforts to distort history and saffronise education by the very same forces actually amounts to abetting the larger problem of ‘intolerance’ and ‘violence’. It is most unfortunate that the threat of religious and cultural intolerance gets denied merely on grounds that there are no visible signs of communal violence. One should not be surprised to over-hear a whisper campaign on how a particular community is behind this controversy to defend its western culture and destroy the Bharatiya sanskriti which gets equated with an affront on Hindus.

Goans should not forget that promotion of western culture has been deliberately attributed to one particular religious community even though other religious communities these days are more western in their life styles. Bollywood films and tourism promos have been used to portray members of a particular realigion as goons, drunkards, flirts, and the rest. Noises from Salcete will automatically get attributed to one community while that from Pernem or Canacona will be interpretedotherwise. This is why Goans need to be more cautious about the source of provocation and the intended outcome desired by certain forces.

Instead of focusing on these irrelevant entities who utter rubbish and gain undeserving publicity, Goans need to increasingly be weary of a political economy that is breeding this intolerance and violence. Goans need to condemn those that monetarily and morally support such divisive and violent elements. The peaceful nature of Goans should

not be allowed to be taken for granted. Fighting these forces needs to be a two pronged attack with the tourism lobby exercising moderation and modesty in their profit seeking ventures and society using the information tools to isolate the actual culprits behind these divisiveagendas by formulating a prudent and discerning response to arrest, if not eradicate, this fast spreading social disease.

(The author is Community worker for self-sustained/reliant development and Social Harmony)

 

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