Remembering The Holocaust

I recently found myself going through a forwarded mail of the kind that shakes one to the core. I often receive forwarded mails. Everyone does I suppose. Some you dispose off without reading while others you stop to check out. Of the ones you  take the trouble to look over, some make you laugh, some are informative and others request support for various causes. I end up signing quite a few of them, from campaigns in favour of animal rights to those which fight injustice in the human sphere. Why not, if it helps to increase awareness or to build up public support for the right causes.

 The mail I read this morning came with a wide range of photographs detailing the grisly conditions in the Nazi concentration camps. Next to each was a sickeningly similar photograph showing the treatment meted out by the Israeli government  to Palestinian civilians today. Makes you wonder who the victim is and who the perpetrator, really it does.  More than anything I would say the mail was saddening. At the same time I felt somewhat (I would not say entirely ... but just a bit) disillusioned about the value of spreading such messages. I thought to myself, we feel stirred for a few moments, we express our horror at such doings, we insist that this must not happen again ... and then we go back to watching cricket or chatting about politics.

At Basicindia we have been attempting to bring about more awareness at a day to day level, encouraging each other to go into issues, concerning not only political excesses but also concerning the injustices we perpetuate against each other on a daily basis through our indifference to each other, our inability to listen to each other. What does it mean, to form a new society? How can we contribute to the making of a new world? Is it even possible? These are some of the questions we find ourselves confronted with and they are not easy questions to deal with.

A report on  experiments carried out by psychologists  in the last decades confirms one’s worst suspicions – that human beings, are far too conformist for their own good, agreeing with views and statements that contradict their own direct observation. When believing to be on their own, they tend to trust their own judgement and to act for the good of others. However, when finding themselves in a room with even four other persons, they tend to abdicate their own responsibility and (or) to go along with the popular opinion no matter how twisted it might be.  Clearly, it is not just obviously repressive people or regimes who need to examine their values and behaviour. Most of us need to - but unfortunately  avoid - the kind of self examination necessary to lay the foundations of peace in our world.

It is difficult to motivate people to give of their time and energy to work together towards a better world in a concrete fashion, if the effort does not in some way bring about instant results such as money, worldly success or power. It seems difficult to convince people that we need to not only initiate and carry out much needed reforms at the material level but that side by side we need to develop the right kind of spirit through it all – the spirit of fair play, of mutual respect, of generosity in relationship.  Out of perhaps a thousand people who will be moved enough to forward a mail like the one I mentioned above (which, let me once again state, did really move me) not even 5 or 10 will find time to make peace a reality in their own (our) lives. Do we really want to listen to each other? Do we want to examine our own attitudes and prejudices? Are we prepared, as individuals, for critical feedback? Do we want to learn how to deal with disagreements in a healthy fashion? If not, are we even aware that we are not free as individuals, to do what we know is right?

Trying to engage people in the work we do, I find that attracting interest in a long term realistic project is a back breaking and simultaneously humbling task. Soon after the Bombay terrorist attack individuals were buzzing with energy and the determination to do something constructive. Three weeks down the line nobody was to be seen or heard on the matter. What happened? Everyone seemed to have got lost once again in their own routine, to have returned to their own niche. Somehow, people are not able to get involved because of visiting aunts, distant cousins getting married, a not-to-be-missed film screening on the very evening that a meeting is scheduled and other quite interesting reasons.

I ask myself at this point, should I even express the thoughts and feelings which I am doing here? Is it foolish to carry on a venture in the face of a wall of apathy? But then each time I feel like giving up, I begin to sense the presence of three, four or more persons in my life, whether in Bombay or outside, who are willing to pitch in, who are "there" - not so much for me, as for the sake of our joint effort, individuals who have the stamina, the faith (if one can call it that) the perseverance to go beyond the talk, even when things look outwardly bleak. This makes me think of how there must be such small groups of friends all over the world, doing what they can and what is possible, to bring more freedom into the world. Bringing freedom that is, not only through talking or writing about it or discussing the subject at seminars or tea parties, but through actively examining their own lives and relationships, through actually working on conflicts in their lives, through bringing more clarity and openness into their day to day relationships. Because lessons in peace or justice cannot be learned only through reading books, although a book or an article might well make a good starting point for looking at oneself. Real lessons in living peacefully can only be learned in and through the mirror of our relationships with each other.

More than anything it is those individuals who are learning to shed their illusions and make way for genuine relationships who give me hope because it is they - people who are not looking to save the world but aiming to change themselves - who in their own miniscule way will help to further the new spirit which I think we all want to live by but find so difficult to do.

Uma

 

Comments

[Sudha Honavar]

I agree most of us are guilty of not stating our views when they seem to be other than those popular at the moment... I definitely am. My defence is that it will not make a difference, anyway, so why attract attention, and probably ridicule. Seeing in put in words, somehow makes me ashamed. I also realise that if something has to change, it HAS to begin with oneself. Even if it means only saying what you think and feel.Will try!