[Reader-list] Romanticising violence - Tazeen Javed

[Pawan Durani]

An Op-Ed by my favorite Pakistani Blogger ....Tazeen .

http://tribune.com.pk/story/8182/romanticising-violence/

By Tazeen Javed
April 22, 2010

Ever since Arundhati Roy published her long article recently in favour
of what the Indian government calls Maoist rebels, the Indian media
and blogosphere has quite unanimously denounced Roy, labelling her
naive admiration for the Maoists a proclivity towards “left-wing
utopianism”.

Roy enraged a lot of Indians when she called very violent Maoists
‘Gandhians with arms’ adherents of the philosophy of non violence
consider this sacrilegious. Just like Arundhati Roy, Pakistan has
Imran Khan who supports the Taliban and is critical of army operations
in Swat and Fata. Like Roy, Khan also believes that it is the
circumstances that have turned peace-loving tribals into warring
security threats.

If you hear their arguments, they are almost identical. They both
question the legitimacy of a state to declare war against its own
citizens, they both think the state policies are responsible for the
creation of the Taliban and Maoists in their respective countries, and
they both think that rebels are essentially good people.

The modus operandi of the Taliban and the Maoists are similar. Both
are brutal and only believe in their own version of justice. Both
conduct show trials and execute whomever they deem guilty. Both use
explosive devices against government officials, police, army and
common people. Both try to control the supply lines in their
respective areas.

Both recruit under-age boys, at times by force, and brainwash them
into carrying out operations. The situation in both the insurgency
inflicted areas is similar. People on both sides of the border have
legitimate grievances – 62 years into independence, their rights like
access to water and sewerage have been neglected by successive
governments.

The parallels don’t just end here. If President Zaradri calls the
Taliban the ‘biggest security threat’ then Indian Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh has called the Maoist threat the ‘gravest national
security crisis’ India faces. The Taliban in Pakistan and Maoists in
India are lucky to find supporters in Khan and Roy.

If Imran Khan is a firebrand speaker who can get college kids to
support his cause, then Roy’s reputation as a prize winning writer and
activist lends credo to the Maoist cause. If he speaks at left- wing
forums in England and regales them with tales of government atrocities
against the Taliban, Roy portrays a romantic image of the Maoists
fighting the big bad government and capitalism.

Imran Khan won the world cup for Pakistan in 1992 and Arundhati Roy
won her Booker prize in 1997. They may truly believe in the cause of
the Maoists and the Taliban or perhaps they always root for the
underdog, but one must keep in mind that it can also be a case of
keeping the adulation of people alive through taking up causes against
the government.

Even though we live in times when non-state actors are considered
responsible for most of the chaos and terrorism, being anti state is
still considered cool. If you hear the arguments presented by Roy and
Khan, everything is either black or white but in politics and more so
in power politics, things are almost always grey.

The state has failed to address the issues of its people but even
then, only the state has the legitimacy to change it. Romanticising
violence may win Arundhati Roy and Imran Khan popularity, but it can
never provide a long lasting solution for peace.