Tradition’s a convenient peg on which to hang prejudice, bias, discrimination, stereotyping, oppression, dogmatism and attitudes of those general types. Take the brouhaha over jallikattu . I thought governments and governance were about creating safe, peaceful, efficient environments for living and livelihood. Instead, we have a government that says bullying bulls and deliberately hurting them is a right granted by grand old tradition, so please, please don’t stop our bloodthirsty citizens from letting out their frenzy. As someone wrote in a letter to the editor of BusinessLine , it’s shocking how a country that reveres the cow treats the bull so shamelessly.
This is nothing short of terrorism – and homo sapiens would do well to realise that they don’t own sole rights to terrorism, the bulls feel terror too, intensely. If this is what tradition does, then I don’t want any part of it. After all, what makes me human? Thinking, feeling, reacting, being rational, engaging, understanding, responding, communicating… Because I can do all this, I think I am superior. And then, ironically, I stop doing all this, that is, thinking, feeling, reacting, being rational, engaging, understanding…. and I believe I am even more superior. That’s when I become dangerous, because I’m no longer human.
What would you call discriminating against menstruating women? Not allowing them on Sabarimala, for instance? It’s natural for women to bleed every month, in a way that it’s not natural for men to spill their semen whenever and wherever. Yet, try telling some women that they are not “impure” at this time, they can do anything they want to (unless, of course, they’re cramped with pain). But no, the tradition’s embedded. They won’t go to places of worship, they are forbidden from touching the fishing nets, they won’t enter the kitchen, and so ridiculously on. Our grandmothers didn’t have a choice, we do… but who’s listening?
It’s tradition!
Some political worthies said indulgently, in the context of growing incidents of rape, that boys will be boys, they can’t control themselves. Hey, but you know what, women can’t stop themselves from having periods either; you know, it’s built into their operating system. (And let me tell you, they sure do want to be able to control it because, frankly, it’s hell.) On the other hand, “the boys who will be boys” generally operate their own systems.
Agricultural societies the world over have traditionally celebrated good harvests when they were not praying for them. So, come Pongal, what do we celebrate in cities and towns? We harvest agricultural lands and build smarting cities on them, deplete water resources, clear out the flora and drive away the fauna.
As small farmers get further and further marginalised, we make a pretty unedifying package of suicides even as we loudly oppose welfare schemes for poor farmers. But we do like our rice and dal cheap because we have to make pongal , sweet and salty — that’s de rigueur for the celebration. Never mind that these are routinely available round the year – just as we no longer wait for Diwali or Pujo to shop for new clothes. It’s “Tradition!”, as Topol thundered in Fiddler on the Roof . Oh and yes, don’t forget kaanum pongal, the day of visiting friends and relatives and leaving the city littered with plastic. Flood or festival, it’s all the same. How else would anyone know you were there?
The frozen mind
Back in the days when children were married off, the only way they could be persuaded to participate in the ceremonies was possibly if they were dolled up in fancy clothes and made to play games – basically, distracted into making the biggest commitment of their lives without a contract being signed and their really not knowing what they were getting into. Now, it’s all about pre-nups and suchlike, but the fancy dresses are getting dollier and the games are rolling over into days and nights. The funny thing is, we love the mehendi and sangeet and monsoon wedding masala, but we are very particular about the sanctity of our social, religious, cultural traditions – no, no, no renting to a non-veg. Anybody recently smelled our cities?
Traditionally, the goddess is regarded as mother, nature, everything worth cherishing and honouring. She is the all-powerful, awe-inspiring Devi, benign and terrifying in aspect. Devi is woman. The movies would have us believe that the mother’s word is law. But what if you don’t like what she’s saying? Or you just plain and simple want her? Or want to mess with her? What about tradition? Ah, that’s a whole other thing, separate from this. That’s for when it’s holy feeling time — you know, ash on the forehead, butter won’t melt expression on the face. But this is just, well, feeling time. And no-feeling time, if it’s children we’re talking about.
There’s lots more to reflect on, in this business of tradition. How easily we latch on to the theme without a thought for the here and now, and never asking why.
So, if the body’s travelled long distances over time, what happened to the mind?