[Reader-list] Youth, Violence and Terrorism: A Fatal Attraction

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Youth, Violence and Terrorism: A Fatal Attraction
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Thursday, December 4, 2008 at 10:13pm

By Anita Ratnam

In the midst of the ghastly images of bloodshed and brutality in Mumbai, the loss of lives and the reign of fear, the images of the young faces of the “terrorists” continue to pose very basic questions about youths attraction to terrorism and violence. What actually makes an educated young person able to turn guns and grenades on innocent people going home from work, eating out at a restaurant or just working/staying in a hotel? Apparently, he manages to dehumanise his victims. He watches them die, becomes numb to the pain of their loved ones and turns oblivious to the sufferings of the injured. Shouldn’t a young man in his early twenties be busy enjoying friendships, creating a career, re-examining faith, exploring his many identities? Youth-hood should be about romantic relationships and discovering the beauty of life. Instead, we see young people turning into monsters who can gloat over a pyrrhic demonic victory, even where their own death is a
 foregone conclusion.

That young people are susceptible to developing a fascination for violence, is something we need to really grapple with. Be it in the Bajrang Dal, the Naxalite groups, the extremist Islamic organisations, Zionists, the LTTE, the mafia gangs, the school shoot outs or indeed the Armies of various countries, young people, especially young men, have demonstrated an attraction towards violence that is unnerving and dangerous. While each of these routes to violence are very different, eventually they share a common denominator of death as an outcome.

The incidents in Mumbai force an unflinching gaze on young Muslim youth and their journey to taking part in organised acts of terror. It is not yet clear whether these youth were from Pakistan or from Britain. It is important to point out that there have been significant differences between Muslim youth fighting within countries like Palestine, Turkey, Algeria, Somalia or Chechnya and those who have been recruited into trans-national networks like the Al-Qaeda. While the former are territorially defined and fighting against “occupations” or marginalisation or fighting to establish Islamic States within their countries, the supra- national de-territorialized networks are fighting against the American Imperialism and the “West”. These networks often recruit radicalised Muslim youth living in Europe as well as the Middle East. Their targets too are global “agents” of American imperialism as demonstrated by terror strikes in various cities in
 Europe and other parts of the world, with Mumbai being the latest site of terror.

How does this international network appeal to young educated Muslims ( as well as a few non Muslims who convert) to take on roles as suicide bombers and members of terror squads? Not only has the traditional Leftist Anti Imperialist discourse entrenched in parts of Europe been re-cast in religious terms, the need for solidarity with the suffering community is stressed through powerful narratives and visual imagery about death and humiliation in Kashmir, Bosnia, Palestine etc. Added to this is the heroism offered to young men and women who are convinced they would be avenging the humiliation of the brotherhood. Jihad as personal compulsory duty is invoked and the hope for salvation through sacrifice and death makes violence one of the main fascinations of the recruitment process. Such heroism has immense appeal to young people caught between cultures and inter generational conflicts, unsure of their own identities and convictions. Second and third
 generation Muslim immigrants in Europe from Algeria, Afghanistan, Pakistan and parts of the Middle East are specially vulnerable on this score, making it easier for trans-national terrorist networks to recruit them.

All this is not to condone what the group of young “terrorists” did in Mumbai, but to learn lessons from what is happening around us. Whether it is 9/11 or 7/7 or Mumbai on 27/11, connections between youth and terrorism are becoming increasingly evident. Undoubtedly, neo-colonialism, American Imperialism and interventions in the Middle East need to be historically critiqued and may be even problematised by all young people today, irrespective of religion or nationality. Yet, when neo-colonialism is demonised, a healthy and constructive indignation is soon replaced by vicious hatred, intolerance and a sense of moral superiority that paves the way for violence and terror.

The heady concoction of ideology, religion, personal salvation and violence is so potent, only someone who is well grounded in a alternative and open discourse of spirituality and faith will be able to withstand such an onslaught. A young person who respects religious diversity , who believes in democracy and dialogue, who is integrated into a multicultural society, who sees jihad as war within oneself and who celebrates a love of life will be able to condemn violence and fragmentation of humankind. While most muslim youth, despite their difficult political circumstances and personal traumas, are able to see the futility and destructiveness of terrorism as a mode to fight the “west”, the tragedy is that it took only 20 -30 recruits to unleash the bloodbath in Mumbai.

Is such terrorism limited to radicalised Islam? In India, we are today witnessing a new trend in bomb making and suicide squads with very young recruits among the Sangh Parivar organisations as well. The global networks of the Sangh Parivar are growing both in size and in terms of passion they have been able to invoke.. What does this portend? Here too a nationalist discourse is recast in religious terms, and swadeshi has been coopted as an integral part of the Hindutva vocabulary. A historical narrative of the Hindus as a humiliated nation and wounded community at risk from Islam and Christianity is being propounded and swayam sevaks are projected as martyrs who will save Hindus from further ignominy. When ideological frameworks for analysis and solution seeking are replaced by emotionally charged narratives that create a rage based on a “ identity of humiliation” on religious lines, we are in deep trouble. Whether it is Mumbai riots, the genocide
 and mass rapes in Gujarat, or attacks on churches in Karnataka or the assaults on adivasis, nuns and priests in Orissa- terror has been unleashed and the use of horrific violence justified.

In a recent interview, Pramod Muthalik asserts that the Shri Rama Sena is training young men to assist the police in saving the country from ( mulsim) terrorists. He insists that the Sena itself, despite arms training and suspected involvement in the Malegaon Blasts, is not a terrorist force but an anti terror squad! The terror attacks in Mumbai will only increase their venom towards Muslims. It could even be used to justify a demand for a war with Pakistan or sanctify their aggressive stance towards what they term “enemies of India”.

In all this chaos and fomenting of hatred, what comes across clearly is the need to give our young people a grounding in values of social justice, pluralism and secularism through democratic dialogue even as they youthfully explore religion, culture and their multiple identities. Let young men and women genuinely explore their experiences and self-perceptions based on class, gender, sexuality ,ethnicity as well as their interests and affinities in the realms of music, literature or art. Today, a deeper political engagement by young people for democratisation of our world is essential- an engagement that is rooted in ideas and values rather than on constructed narratives, singled out identities, cultural alienation or the need for heroism and salvation through killings.

Our hope lies in our young people developing an ability to critique emerging forms of imperialism and to identify the multiple and layered processes of marginalisation and exclusion that are operating within and across nations. Be it feudalism in our hinterlands, or the brutality of neo-liberal market economics, or the exclusion of the majority of Muslims and Scheduled castes from the fruits of double digit growth, or the new forms of gendered violence, young peoples’ critical engagement with larger systems of oppression is the need of the hour.

Yet such engagement needs to see beyond narratives, beyond personal experiences to analyse structures, systems, historical phenomenon and embedded hegemonies. For this they desperately need role models, inter-generational understanding, a faith in political institutions and a humanist spirituality either with or without religion. And an ability to occasionally even laugh at oneself! They also need an atmosphere where autonomy to explore their own work and life options, teaches them the value of freedom. Only then can they learn expressions of dissent through democratic dialogue. Only then will any recourse to violence and terror be soundly rejected.