Those little prejudices that you don't even notice
Like a lot of my other posts even this one begins after watching a good movie- this time it’s the Pakistani movie, Khuda Kay Liye. However this movie is not about the movie, it’s more about intolerance and freedom of choice.
The only limited point I am trying to make here is that almost all of us agree that everyone is entitled to an opinion and the right to choose, but when it comes to things that are close to us, most of us let our prejudices take the better of us. What is worse is that in most cases it’s not even a belief, or not even a prejudice, it’s a habit driven into us from childhood. This is what makes its correctness escape the question of a discerning eye and also the easiest to remedy.
Let us take a few simple examples. A Hindu mother will believe she s broad minded because her son plays with a Muslim girl, but come the time of marriage, all hell will break loose if her son chooses a Muslim girl. There cannot be any half way on the freedom of choice. It is absolute for an individual, obviously restricted to the point that it causes no harm to others. There can be a debate on this point as to what is “harm” and what is “others” but that will only trivialize the moot point of discussion here.
It is easiest to tell a person not to do something and then take the garb of abstract concepts like religion and what’s again worse, custom. However religions per se are I believe (and I am not qualified enough to say I know) far more based on sound logic than an irrational mind. So a Muslim father will tell his son not to eat pork, but not explain that the reasons lay in the fact that pigs lived in dirt and hence bore lot of diseases, that given the hot climate, in these parts we were most susceptible to.
There s another classic movie that probably explains it better. It’s a movie called “Gentlemen’s Agreement” on anti Semitism with more than a hint of sarcasm. The basic point that the protagonist makes is that a lot of these unfair prejudices continue even today is because, most of the educated genteel refuse to stand up and protest.
I’ll do my best to see what I can do about it. Won’t you?
The only limited point I am trying to make here is that almost all of us agree that everyone is entitled to an opinion and the right to choose, but when it comes to things that are close to us, most of us let our prejudices take the better of us. What is worse is that in most cases it’s not even a belief, or not even a prejudice, it’s a habit driven into us from childhood. This is what makes its correctness escape the question of a discerning eye and also the easiest to remedy.
Let us take a few simple examples. A Hindu mother will believe she s broad minded because her son plays with a Muslim girl, but come the time of marriage, all hell will break loose if her son chooses a Muslim girl. There cannot be any half way on the freedom of choice. It is absolute for an individual, obviously restricted to the point that it causes no harm to others. There can be a debate on this point as to what is “harm” and what is “others” but that will only trivialize the moot point of discussion here.
It is easiest to tell a person not to do something and then take the garb of abstract concepts like religion and what’s again worse, custom. However religions per se are I believe (and I am not qualified enough to say I know) far more based on sound logic than an irrational mind. So a Muslim father will tell his son not to eat pork, but not explain that the reasons lay in the fact that pigs lived in dirt and hence bore lot of diseases, that given the hot climate, in these parts we were most susceptible to.
There s another classic movie that probably explains it better. It’s a movie called “Gentlemen’s Agreement” on anti Semitism with more than a hint of sarcasm. The basic point that the protagonist makes is that a lot of these unfair prejudices continue even today is because, most of the educated genteel refuse to stand up and protest.
I’ll do my best to see what I can do about it. Won’t you?
posted by Abilin Mukherjee at 10:58 AM
1 Comments:
bhaloi to likhish...comment some more on other people's blogs and you'll get lots of responses.
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