Tools for the Multicultural

The majority of Norwegians let Breivik know he wasn't brave, just weak. Why? He gunned
down 79 helpless, innocent, harmless Norwegians full of LIFE and fun. To my mind his
reason for destroying their lives and those of their loved ones was warped - he wanted people
of his own kind to live in his country and no one different. So he killed people of his own
kind. This is the reasoning of a slightly derranged terrorist if ever there was reasoning from
one. Kill my own kind to save the world from the different others.

In his mind, the end, that of letting the world know his point of view, justified the means. The
means were his plotting for over a year, then putting his plan to kill some wonderful human
beings, into action. He snuffed out their young lives, destroyed their families by causing them
unbearable anguish and then stood vulgarly in court facing the victims families trying to
seek his moment of justification, fame and glory.

He said he was against the policy of multiculturalism and for letting 'Muslims into Norway'.
If we can force the government to break down multiculturalism by killing just 70 people that
will preserve our values and prevent war in future. He felt the victims were being
indoctrinated for multiculturalism by their leaders the Labour party. Most of the victims
were the youth wing of the Labour party.

What a worm; what a warped mind; what a disgraceful, sick, miserable creature to believe he
had the right to kill other human beings to get his message across.

Heres what the Huffington post had to say. When Breivik addressed the court, he lashed out
at everything he finds wrong with the world, from the Labor Party's immigration policies, to
non-ethnic Norwegians representing the country in the Eurovision Song Contest and the
sexually liberated lifestyle of the characters "Carrie" and "Samantha" in "Sex and the City."
These are the ideals that are presented to our sisters and daughters today," he said. "They
should be censored and removed from our society."

Ask whoever was left to grieve over the loss of family members at his hands and they would
repulse and reject his calling them his sisters and daughters with all their hearts. He was
their killer and as one victims mum put it, she hoped she would never have to see his face
again and that he would just disappear from Norwegian society into jail forever.

Which brings me to what Breivik didnt like - MULTICULTURALISM. There are so many
in the world who subscribe to the view that their own culture is the only one to live by. Most
of them might despise others who are different but on the whole, they are peaceful and abhor
violence.

Let us talk about India. We have hardcore Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Tamilians, Christians,
Parsis and in fact, hardcore traditionalists in every community that lives in India. They feel
theirs is the only culture that is truly gracious, the only religion that will give them a passage
to heaven and theirs is the only language worth speaking. They might live side by side with
the hateful others, send their children to the same schools and even work with them but
only because they have to. If they do speak about these others, it is only to heap scorn on
their differences.
How do the easygoing face up to such hardcore traditionalists?
Most of the rest of us are quite happy to live side by side with people from other cultures.
We have this easy going attitude of live and let live and are comfortable with our differences.
Whats more, we feel free to indulge our curiosity for, and enjoyment of, the huge variety of
traditions and cultures we have always lived side by side with.

Heres a strange phenomenon. We might be easy going about other cultures but we are really
proud of our own. Imagine someone trying to criticise anything about our heritage, our
khandaan, and see how quickly that puts our defences up. It is curious because this pride we
have in our own unique culture simply cannot be explained away by reason or logic. It just is,
wherever in this world we might be.

Then why blame someone trying to preserve that uniqueness? There are many reasons.
Many of us grow up understanding that our liking for individuals is irrespective of culture.
When youngsters fall in love with someone from a different culture ask them what they
would give up easily their desire to preserve their uniqueness or their friendship? When I
watched the movie, Bombay I know I wanted the two young lovers to be happy together
irrespective of the fact that one was a Hindu and the other, a Muslim.

For most of us, it isnt someone's desire to preserve their own traditions or culture that is the
bigger problem. It is the use of violence to preserve it that disturbs. It goes against our core
humanity. To witness carnage and bloodshed sickens us. The majority of Norwegians spoke
out against Breivik for that very reason.

They spoke out against the violent methods he adopted to highlight the problem which isnt
to say they spoke out for the immigration of people who they perceived as different, into their
country. That is a separate issue. It remains a problem in many countries today, including
India. Why, I hear you ask, is it an issue in India? In India, we already are a multicultural
society. Weve had people of different cultures, religions (about eight?) and languages (say at
least seventeen languages and 5 to 600 dialects?) living side by side for hundreds of years. I
might even be justified in adding peaceful co-existence has been an issue with us way before
it became an issue for some other countries. Their problems of trying to assimilate people of
different physical appearances and from different religions and cultures started in earnest
after WWII. It is fairly recent.

In India, weve been multicultural since centuries with a large number from every community
suspicious of the others. And as we all know, of late, many of our hardcore traditionalists
have resorted to violence to uphold their own values and traditions to the exclusion of all
others.

How do we, the secular minded Indians, the ones who dont feel threatened by the presence
of other cultures in our midst address this issue? On two fronts.

First, to try and understand why our traditionalists feel threatened and overwhelmed by other
communities, why they have these nameless fears and prejudices against the others, Ill let a
character from a book tell us what she thinks is their mindset.

"They feel threatened by the very presence of other communities. They feel their own culture
is being swamped and overshadowed."
[Promotion alert: Bharati says much more in the book, "Never Mind Yaar".]

Second, to solve the issue of violence because of racial prejudice, we have two options. First,
we must denounce it. Not to do so is to condone it. To condone something that goes against
our basic human values eats away at what makes us human.

Secondly, we need ongoing discussions to try and resolve this issue. It has come back to
haunt and hurt us repeatedly and open discussions and debates will throw up a few more
urgently needed ideas to stem its growth. Perhaps this is what will give our non-violent but
communal minded friends the strength to speak out against violence within their own ranks
too.