The Blog Of Dysfunction

As I mentioned in part 1 of this series, not all is well with our Motherland. Not even educated people are spending their time in the most profitable way, nor are all of them free from outlooks and habits that sets them free. Thus just as our forefathers fought with determination and arms to liberate Indian from foreign domination, we too need to do everything at our disposal to bring in a mental, social, and spiritual liberation. Blogging is a powerful tool to this end.

As Alex pointed out in the comments section of the first article, not all bloggers blog for public welfare, nor are all of them interested in helping others. This is tragic, and I am sure we can definitely motivate at least some of those introverts to look to the world around them, but that can come later. For the present task it would be sufficient to begin with a large number of Indian bloggers who are definitely interested in helping others, but who have not yet discovered the methods to do so through the love of Blogging. I am confident that once a few of them them begin to use at least part of their blogging time for liberating our Motherland that the phenomenon will begin to grow — perhaps slowly in the initial stages, but with an accelerated pace eventually.

In article 1 of this series I asked several questions, and let me repeat two of them:

• Are all educated Indians free from superstition
• Are all educated Indians compassionate to the underdogs

The answer, obviously, is: no, not all educated Indians are free from superstition. Nor are all of them compassionate to the underdogs (anyone subordinate to them in any way). In turn these two things enslave us — I mean these two enslave many educated people. Educated families abound in our country where opportunities available to the young are often violently snatched away from the aspiring young because the moment was not auspicious or because there was some bad omen. This slavery has in turn cost us much in terms of lost opportunities, lost promotions, lost national revenue, and even death.

There is a popular Hindi fortnightly called “Sarita”. It has a regular column named “Our Bondage” which carries first-person stories of medicine denied, first aid refused, sick people forced to take bath in cold water, children passed under elephants and so on because of superstitions. Without exception someone was hurt, handicapped, or fell victim to death in these cases. A determined blogger can pick up these incidents and prepare expositions or even stories to educate people against the hurt caused by superstitions. Educating does liberate people, and it is the educated people who need to undergo this process first. A blog is a convenient and financially viable medium for it. What is more, the potential readers — the educated young people — flock to blogs. Once empowered through knowledge, they will not repeat this when it is their turn to control others.

Everyone hates exploitation and cruelty. The educated young ones often speak against it, especially when they are on the receiving end of the pain. Yet, surveys have shown that, surprisingly those who know the pain of exploitation often become the next generation of exploiters instead of rising up as liberators. Two examples immediately come to my mind. Almost every student in a professional college knows the pain and humiliation of ragging. Yet, when they become seniors, a large proportion of them only go on to contrive more painful methods of torture — instead of liberating the underlings from pain and humiliation.

For centuries a good number of married women in India have been tortured by the women in-laws (mothers and sisters in law). Yet when the tortured women become mothers-in-law, they only perpetuate the same social evil. Very few women become liberators of the next generation. This evil keeps perpetuating, keeping women in perpetual bondage of a social evil. It has been going on for thousands of years in our country.

Yet the influence of social welfare organizations, social activists, and education has shown that liberation is possible, provided someone takes the pain to write and educate people. Blogging can be a good medium to liberate the next generation. Here is one possible scenario:

Perhaps some determined young men and women can set up blogs where they (anonymously, if needed) expose what goes on in colleges in the name of ragging. The evil of it. The inability of juniors to fight against it. The vicious bondage of the system which prevents people from breaking this perpetuation of evil. I am sure such writing will result in many things, some of which are

• It will create a wide awareness among parents, whom their children never inform of the humiliation and torture they had to face.
• It will create a strong reaction among parents, educators, lawmakers, police, and even the judiciary about the social evil known as ragging.
• Once sufficient number of people are outraged, the evil practice will be outlawed, suppressed, and will become a punishable offense.

Blogging can do a lot of things. Many kinds of bandages can be destroyed by creating awareness, because awareness beyond a critical mass creates a momentum sufficient to destroy (or at least to suppress) many evil practices.

In this article I mentioned only the need to liberate the educated and the possibilities of doing so through blogging. In the next we will have a look at how Blogs (which are meant for the educated and computer savvy masses) can also become an instrument of liberation for the uneducated Indians.

Guest Post: Dr. Johnson C. Philip

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Part 1 Of This Series: Blog To Liberate India — 1