The Indian pseudo-liberal intelligentsia have as usual, predictably come out on the side of Hussain and Gere. In defending the porn obsessed pervert Hussain, the oft used juvenile argument, recently by the buddhi-jeevi Shashi Tharoor, is that after all isn’t there nude imagery in our temples? In response to this tripe, how about turning this question around and instead asking, “If a society which is so liberal as to depict nude images in its temples has to get so upset with Hussain, surely he must have done something so wrong to earn their anger?” Now you wont hear the pseudo-liberals approving such wording because, in their world, Hindu liberal thought and symbols are conveniently used only as an aid in actually trashing it. When Hindu interests are attacked say for example using the omnipresent “caste system” argument, the same who offer nude temple architecture as a standard to abide by today, will hardly use in its defense, the progessive aspects of the religion like its inherent pluralism, Yoga, Vedic Mathematics, meditation and vegetarianism, as examples of an evolved religion.
Another point about the nude imagery in temples is that, they depict some nameless, faceless Yakshas, or some unknown Devadasis or unknown citizen. Is there a single temple which depicts known, revered figures like Rama, Seeta or Krishna with whom there is a personal relationship in the minds of the devotees, in the nude? There is a huge difference there, as obvious even to a simpleton. What Hussain has done is equivalent to painting pornographic flights of fantasy of our near and dear ones. Those who sculpted those nude temple figures also revered and extolled, depicted and carved other facets of Hindu culture like Yoga, Ayurveda, addressing questions of metaphysics, why even basic lessons in democracy and various other aspects of culture. Have the likes of Hussain ever be seen upholding the virtues of Hinduism…unlikely. It is merely limited to religious assault using art as a smoke screen.
Hussain might next convert a temple to a brothel and proffer the argument that after all Devadasis used to live in temples. And the Shashi Tharoors and Anjolie Ela Menons would jump in his defence quite like a Pavlovian reflex experiment of dogs salivating at the sound of a bell.
Coming to Richard Gere. Gere is another of those pseudo-liberal white westerners who conveniently use all that liberal Hindu India has to offer, visiting the Dalai Lama and what not, never really discovering the true ethos of the country as is the case for most westerners. Gere simply resorts to cheap rhetoric when cornered and knows well that he will be supported by all his confused pseudo-liberal minions. If instead of Gere is a Sangh member had pawed Shetty, would the pseudo intelligentsia have defended him? Hmmm…more likely that there would have been a demand for him to be skinned alive.
Yes, in our culture we feel outraged when we see a male lustily pawing a woman in public and on national television, and we simply reserve the right to react to that as we deem fit. Gere conveniently blamed a “Hindu fundamentalist political party” ergo — BJP. After all the English newspapers that he reads when in India has educated him well — when in doubt, use the magic phrase “Hindu fundamentalist”. That the BJP had nothing to do with the Gere-Shetty episode is irrelevant to the likes of the pseudos who defend Gere. What is all the more annoying is that Gere chose to display his uncontrolled libido in absolutely the last place — a gathering to educate truck drivers about AIDS, whatwith AIDS prevention-101 being all about abstinence. If anything Gere should be sued for false propaganda and endangering public lives, if not for public indecency.
Contrast the loud hysterics of the Indian pseudos with what happend recently on a SouthWest airlines flight – http://tinyurl.com/ytzdyu
An excerpt:
” *May 5, 2007 —*
A California man may pay with prison time for a public display of affection on a plane.
Carl Persing was convicted Thursday of interfering with flight attendants
and crew members after he and his girlfriend, Dawn Sewell, were seen
“embracing, kissing and acting in a manner that made other passengers
uncomfortable, ” according to a criminal complaint.
According to assistant U.S. Attorney John Bowler, Persing will likely serve
jail time for the federal felony conviction, the Associated Press reports.
He was convicted after a three-day trial in U.S. District Court in
Wilmington, Va.”
No histrionics were on display there from a so called highly liberal/progressive society, in fact the same one that Gere hails from, after all the americans unlike our desi buddhi-jeevis are quite sure about their civilizational values and defend it without flinching. So a man could end up in prison for merely making other passengers “uncomfortable”! What can be said of a good section of an entire nation being made extremely “uncomfortable”?
What makes the actions of the likes of Gere and Hussain who seek to defend themselves by shooting off invectives of “moral policing” by a supposedly prudish society extremely suspicious, is that these same people have never been seen once paying proactive tribute to a society which has been nothing but gracious and generous to them. The Indian magazine India Today flayed the lodging of court cases against Gere as “excessive judicialism”. Gere and Hussain are lucky that those angered by him have merely filed court cases and taken the legal route and not lynched them, as they would have been in most other countries which are at a similar level of economic development as India, or perhaps get his arse caned in Singapore, or worse if it was a western country, be simply deported like was done to Acharya Rajneesh . When the Babri shanty was destroyed the same jokers cried “rule of law, rule of law!”. Now when a testosterone laden libidinous westerner is to be taken to court, its “excessive judicialism!”. Damned if you do and damned if you don’t ehh?
