Presented at National Seminar,
17 December 2005
Department of Psychology,
B R Ambedkar College, Univ. of Delhi.
- Dr.
R.P.Dwivedi
The
question of terrorism is always debated as ‘legitimate’ and ‘illegitimate’.
Many a time freedom fighters and revolutionaries are also termed as terrorists.
Our literature, creative as well as factual, is full of such instances. In our
history, Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev were declared as terrorists, during
British Rule, and hanged for their struggle. Needless to say that there are
many more examples for such people. History is a rather more modern area of
study than literature. In our ancient and medieval literature there were many
words for the people engaged in ‘illegitimate’ deeds e.g. demons, devils etc.
Therefore ‘terrorism’ is a new concept/word, which essentially represents a
‘Human’ involvement in destructive and illegal activities, which is completely
different from demons, and devils, which were equally equipped with
supernatural powers like their counterparts Gods. So, terrorism is not just a
mythological story but it really creating a big problem and challenge to our
civilized society.
Right
to protest and right of expression of ideas are the basic rights in any
democracy. Terrorism is also a kind of protest-towards the establishments and
the system from which a group of people, generally called terrorists or
extremists, feel dissatisfaction and use means of violence. Thomas Perry
Thornton proposed an often-cited definition in 1964, terrorism entails "a
symbolic act designed to influence political behavior by extra normal means,
entailing the use or threat of violence.” But, sometimes-violent protests too
cannot be categorized as terrorism as in the case of Bhagat Singh and others.
Some
scholars also see loss of identity as the reason behind the terror acts. Modern
society transforms us into a multi-identity personality. We could born as a
Hindu, Muslim or Buddhist (religious identity), Hindi, Urdu, Bengali or Tamil
(linguistic identity ) speaking family, Brahmin, Vaishya or Kshatriya or Dalit
(Jati identity) and Indian, Pakistani, Afghani (national-geographical
identity). If a person focuses, adopts and emphasizes only one identity and
forgets about the rests, it’s quite possible, that person will generate an
inclination towards terrorism. For example, a person born in a Hindu family is
also part of Tamil speaking group (Linguistic) as well as Dalit (Jati) and Indian
(National). So people get some of their identities by birth, which are beyond
their control, many other they achieve with their education, activities, jobs
etc. If a person, for example Osama Bin Laden, forgets about his other
identities and strongly sticks to only one, his religious identity i.e. Muslim
and feels unsatisfied with the treatment towards it by America he will initiate
terrorists activities against it killing innocent and common people. Osama Bin
Laden is a Muslim but at the same time he is human being, a global citizen, an
Afghan national too but he identifies himself as only and only as Muslim and
forgets rest of his identities. Sole-identities or imbalanced identities gives
birth to terrorism. Multiple identities make us a responsible and tolerant
person and inspire us to walk along with the world-order.
One
of the major reasons of the terrorist’s activities is to seek attention of
common people through media for an special ‘cause’. In nineteenth century with
the rise of media-newspapers, magazine, radio and TV- terrorist activities are
widely covered and thus have a great impact on our social-psyche. Creative
artist-film makers, writers, poets, painter and photographers-also find
terrorism as an important social concern and depict it in their art. In
literature complexity of terrorism is raised and sometimes-sympathetic views
also appear. Many scholars like renowned
Bengali author Mahashweta Devi and Arundhati Roy bring criticism from fellow
writers for their sympathetic writing on terrorism. There are many more
writers, word wide, who have such kind of opinion. They blame economic
disparity and political hegemony among nations for international terrorism.
Exploitation of natural resources for the benefit of small chunk is another
major cause for terrorist activities in India. Surely, Naxalism, is a major
part of our literary writings as well as cinema. Naxal movement, despite it
strong ideological acceptance, has been termed
as terror activity by the government machinery and pacifist
institutions. Now there is a vibrant and hot debate about it in literary
domain. In the last 150 years, there have been countless novels, stories, and
thrillers in which terrorists play the villain. Their cleverness, secrecy,
their tactics to shake the system and topple the government establishments and
police forces, their irrational desire to kill innocent people across the world
are finding space in creative writings and getting popularity among wide range
of readers.
Some
authors, particularly fiction writes and filmmakers have focused on the
socio-economic and political conditions that give rise to terrorists as an
organized group, others have focused on the cultural and religious institutions
that terrorists claim to oppose. There are many writings, which try to identify social conditions and psychological
roots of terrorism. some literature explains or criticizes, while others focus
only on the experience of being a victim of terrorism.
Culture
is an integral part of human existence. Cultural values shape our day-to-day
life and give strength for our survival. Culture also provides us a distinctive
identity and feeling of proudness. In almost all the cultures across the world
self-sacrifice is a key value. whenever there is a danger on an identity and
cultural-value system from an ‘outsider’ some people come forward to protect it
and willingly sacrifice their lives and taking others. In Indian society
religion plays a vital role in cultural activities. Religion is so strong that
it has penetrated into our political system and influencing common people in
all arena of their lives. Recently, religion based terrorism has is rising
allover the world. A controversial term ‘Hindu Terrorism’ too can be heard in
common discussions. Such type of terrorism emerges because of some people think
that there is a threat to their religious beliefs and values from other
cultures or religious communities. Terrorists conduct extremist activities and
use violence as part of their duty
without any regret. Killing others and challenging ‘authorities’ give them
pleasure and feeling of strength. After 9/11 (2001, America) the world has
become new battle ground for terrorist groups and pacifist agencies. Scholars also analyze it
as capitalist point of view and raise issue of developed and underdeveloped
nations. There is also a feeling of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ to trigger extremist
activities. In recent years Islam and Christianity are highly loaded with such
feeling. In literature we can categorically identify these cultural tussles.
Needless
to say that literature and culture, jointly, can show the path to overcome the
problem of terrorism. Cultural tolerance must be taught to the society through
literature. Non-violence, tolerance, apropkra, peaceful protest, faith in
democratic values and respect for others should incorporated in literary
writings and cultural activities. Many authors, poets, film makers, artists are
doing a lot but still there is much more required to be done in this direction.
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