The Virtues of Decriminalising Mediocrity

Upon arriving in Japan, we first had to visit the railway pass counter to procure our rail pass. The lady at the counter also advised us to procure a local suica card for using public transport and this costed me a further sum of 2,000 yen per pass. As bad as I am at math, I could immediately arrive at the conclusion that for my wife and I, put together, a sum of 4,000 yen was payable. However, the sales representative used a calculator for the very same computation.

As I stepped out of the airport, I was greeted by a taxi driver dressed impeccably well in a suit. There wasn’t a smudge on his shoes and his cab was spotless. The gentleman didn’t speak a word more than what was necessary and didn’t express an ounce of frustration when he had trouble locating our hotel. As we settled into the hotel and took a walk around, everything that Japan is famous for, the courtesy, the politeness and the cleanliness became evident. But with Japan’s growth having stagnated, how does it succeed as well in maintaining the sanctity of its public spaces, while India, with all its growth story can’t solve the garbage crisis in its cities?

I guess the answer lies in the taxi driver, the sales representative at the railway pass counter and the gentleman who received us at the airport to help us with the reservations. They were all employed to perform a job that Indian society would consider mediocre. Yet, these individuals took immense pride in their jobs and were keen on doing it well. Merely because the sales representative needed a calculator to add 2 and 2, it didn’t invite her colleagues to judge adversely, her intellectual capabilities.

Far from it, the people there had tremendous respect for one another. From the way they dressed for work, to the way they executed the simple obligations cast on them, it was instrumental in the efficiency with which they delivered results. It appears to me that the secret of Japanese ideals lies in the fact that they appreciate hard work and perfection, regardless of whether it yields billions of dollars or impacts billions of lives. One doesn’t have to be an inventor or a billionaire entrepreneur to be respected in Japanese society. But one is required to be committed to one’s craft, no matter what that craft is.

Indian society on the other hand has assumed a level of unhealthy competition and has a serious issue with dignity of labour. One can be a scientist but still be mocked and condemned for not going into the industry to make billions. A school teacher is looked down upon as a product of rejections elsewhere in the economy. Someone who cleans the streets is practically treated as an untouchable, perhaps a byproduct of the caste discrimination that is pervasive and rampant. IIT graduates feel that the humanities professionals are lesser human beings. We don’t value the effort inherent to every job.

We instead value more superficial aspects of accomplishments, success stories of raising investments, making money and changing the world. I wonder if this explains our propensity for corruption. If I perceive my job, as say, a peon in a university as something that holds little or no value, the only thing I can hope to gain out of it is money in the form of bribes. It begs the question, if the peon enjoyed the respect of our society the way an engineer in an IT firm does, would he still be as keen on taking bribes? I am sure there are larger problems that can be attributed for the peon’s propensity for corruption, but the lack of pride and honour he feels in his job, I am certain, is at least one of them. I am convinced however that in our obsession with fame and money, our jobs do not provide to us, the spiritual satisfaction, the sense of honour and pride that a vocation is to provide.

The secret to cleaner cities, more sustainable development, better scruples in society and generally making our communities more courteous, liveable and sustainable, is to celebrate the importance of the so called “mediocre” jobs. The country doesn’t run only from the handful of billionaires, who are no doubt valuable, but it is kept going by the toil of several workers whose efforts, at best, we take for granted and at worst, we hold in contempt and disgust. But what is important is that we learn to value that sustainable human societies, which enable and nurture billionaires, are built on the bedrock of people performing simple jobs well and with a sense of purpose and pride. By referring to such simple jobs as mediocre, we have sowed the seeds for the disruption that we face in our everyday life in India.

To end, I remember an anecdote from Sant Kabir’s life. When his followers, questioned his decision to continue to be a waver when, in fact, his devotees were happy to take care of him, Kabir replied stating that in weaving, he discovers the divine. In every task, menial or otherwise, there is the divine. This is a shift in attitude India must make, if it is to achieve a quality of life that compliments its economic growth.

The Study of History:

The Futile Search for Heroes and Villains

Before we dwell into the theme central to our title, I wish to digress and focus on a slightly different but relevant topic, cognitive sciences. One of the most intriguing books I read in the recent past was “The Case Against Reality” by Donald D. Hoffman, Professor of Cognitive Sciences at the University of California, Irvine. In his book, he makes a compelling case to argue that we are incapable of seeing reality objectively and instead we perceive a version of reality, or a part of reality, relevant to our evolutionary objectives and instincts. The language of this perception comprises of space, time, texture, taste, odor, etc., which fails to describe reality when there is no perceiver.

Of relevance for today’s topic is the reference to the delayed-choice experiment, which suggests that depending upon the choice the observer makes to measure or trace the path of a photon from a distance quasar, the very story and journey of the photon changes. The same photon could, thus, have two different histories attached to it, simply based on the point of view of the observer and the story teller. In other words, as conscious perceivers, we have the means to reach back in time and distance to re-write history. Forgive the lack of accuracy in capturing the science. This is not my area of expertise. Rather than defending the scientific merits of what I have understood, I wish to dwell more into what this understanding means for the post on history.

I begin the specific discussion on today’s topic with two illustrations from History- Gandhi and Tippu Sultan.

Gandhi, a prolific writer, leader and speaker, one who fought and won an assymetric war for freedom against militarily superior enemy. His celibacy experiments with his niece, hardly inspired any suspicion as to his character back in his time and certainly did not come in the way of him being declared as a father of the nation. Yet, when the morals of Indian society evolved to embrace the viciousness of child marriage and sexual relations with a child and the power dynamics that vitiate informed consent, Gandhi testing the limits of his celibacy by sleeping in the nude with his niece, presents to us, a more complex character of study.

Tippu Sultan and his father, Hyder Ali, represented a very formidable, well organized and concerted armed defense against the might of the British Empire. Hyder Ali, had the good sense to leverage political faultlines in Europe, specifically Anglo-French rivalries, to partner with his French Allies to defeat the English and in one instance, almost decisively. Bengaluru, specifically the Hindus who perform the Karaga ceremony, remember Hyder Alia as a noble and generous patron and credit him for fortifying the city and creating the Lal Bagh. Tippu while accused of strategic indecisiveness, kept up a spirited fight against the British. Yet, equally true, is the atrocities of Tippu Sultan against the Coorgis, the Melkote Iyengars and the Christians of Mangalore. If you belong to these communities or relate even to them, then Tippu Sultan exists as a Tyrant. But if you are sensitive to his words of sympathy to the seer of the Sringeri Muttha, following the Maratha onslaught against it, he is a defender of the pious.

From these examples, what emerges is that every action of historical characters worthy of study, are ultimately the study of just two things, the context and the circumstances, which then guide us towards a better understanding of the intent and motives of the subjects of our historical study. Context and circumstances are gathered, by several factors, two of the principal ones being the following,

Time: When time variables change, the history changes. Between 2001-2004, history tells us that the USA won the war on terror in Afghanistan. Expand the field of vision from 2001 to 2024, the history changes to “USA invaded Afghanistan and after a bloody war that ran for almost two decades, they were beaten by the Taliban”. Between 1600 and 1947, history tells us that the British ruled over India and left us worse off. Cut ahead to 2024, an Indian origin Prime Minister is the executive head of the United Kingdom.

Space: Similarly, when the field of vision of the world around a historical character zooms out, a wider geographical picture emerges. Portuguese atrocities in its Indian colonies, can in turn be traced back to the fall of Byzantine Constantinople to the Islamic Turks. Cornwallis’ dogged determination to win the battles in India, goes back to his defeat at the hands of the American Freedom Fighters. Aurangzeb’s ascendancy to the throne over his more tolerant brother, Dara Shikoh, resulted in a stronger Mughal government, which probably deferred the pillaging ambitions of the British. However, this respite came at the cost of the tragedies inflicted on the Hindus and Hindu Temples. Tippu Sultan’s empathy towards the Sringeri Muttha, following the Maratha strikes had perhaps, as much to do with the Marathas being his enemy and being across the border, as much as it had to do with his personal sentiments towards the his holiness, the seer of the Sringeri Muttha.

Thus, every character of history simply is a variable in an equation, influenced by the volatilities of time and the events, elsewhere in space. As variables, these characters in the historical equation of how the world came to be what it is today, keep shifting roles from being protagonists to antagonists. Thus, if one has to study history, one has to make peace with the fact that history is ultimately boring, for it lacks the flair of a story with a protagonist and an antagonist embroiled in a war of good over evil. Rather the study of history reveals to us, not the full truth, but only the story of the one observing it, the sources that the said observer studies, the comparison of those sources with other sources and the opinion of other observers, to ultimately present the many different points of view, that do not shape history but our perception of it.

The objective of historical study is not to judge the historical characters for their moral integrity or bankruptcy. Rather, it is to simply arrive at an unemotional understanding of how the world, with its many idiosyncrasies, came to be. Unfortunately, we are who we are as a result of the good, the bad and the ugly. A true historian can ultimately recognise that as much murder and cruelty as Hitler perpetrated, the tragedy inspired the universal declaration of human rights. She knows that the Americans who fought for the dignity of the “undesirables” against Hitler, were at peace in dropping the atomic bomb on Japan and not Germany, because the caucasian American leadership perceived the asiatic Japanese as sub human. Historians do not have the luxury of living in a world of good and evil, nor should we impose that burden on them. For if they were to engage in the search for heroes and villains in our past, they are likely to be left disappointed with what their findings will be.

The Ideological Causation of Islamic Extremism: Beyond Myth and Hyperbole

Background

The city of Bengaluru recently woke up to the news of a bomb blast in a very well known restaurant. Subsequent reports suggested that the improvised explosive device was planted by a person claiming allegiance to and inspired by Islamic State of Iraq and Syria also known as Islamic State of Iraq and Levant. A terror attack is, to be clear, a crime. I have my reasons as to why I don’t think it serves the cause of counter terrorism, to attribute it to a larger conspiracy by an entire civilization. But that’s for another day and time. Currently, though I wish to address the issue of the political correctness or the lack of it, in branding the perpetrators of the Rameshwaram Café blast as “Islamic Terrorists” or the merits of divesting religion from the crime.

The basis for the label of “Islamic Terrorist”

The study of terrorism or terrorist organisations, either for academic purpose or for purposes of counter terrorism, necessarily involves an effort to understand, amongst other things, who are the leaders, how are they procuring their weapons, what are their tactics and lastly, what motivates the members of the terrorist organisations. A clinical endeavor to understand terrorism, would reveal that Islamic terrorism is relatively new in the scheme of history. Be it the Jewish zealots of the Roman Era, the Basque separatists of Europe, the Red Brigades of Italy, the Jewish Resistance during the time of British governed Palestine, the Naxal movement in India, the ULFA in the North East- insurgency movements are not new and they come in all shapes, size, form and manner. Whether or not they are branded as terrorists involves a complex set of parameters. But what one can universally agree upon is that any armed movement that is tolerant to or intends to harm civilians or spread terror amongst non combatants, can safely be branded as a terrorist organization. That would render no distinction between a Hitler and a Bin Laden, for their sense of racial superiority and love for violence and the appetite for inflicting injustice and lastly the acumen to justify their crimes by falling back on political philosophy, renders them brothers separated by time.

The study of counter-terrorism is thus, also the study of the ideological motivations of terrorist organisations. In behavioral sciences, there is a term known as “feedback filter”, which refers to, amongst other things, the reasons or the circumstances one cites to justify the crime. Understanding this feedback[i] filter is also critical to understanding how the criminal thinks and behaves and thus the optimal means of fighting him. In the context of terrorism also, the feedback filter is critical. For example, the Basque Separatists in Spain wanted independence from Spain and thus were motivated by the sense of a Basque homeland. Hence, the term “Basque Terrorists”. The IRA similarly was motivated by a desire to break free from England and assert a sense of Irish identity and hence the term ‘Irish Separatists’. The Naxal movement in India is driven by communist philosophy and hence the term ‘Red Terrorists’. Any effort to protect civilian populations and assert national security against terrorists, necessarily must fight the battle on multiple fronts, propaganda and information being one of them. In the day and age of hybrid warfare, this is a reality and thus, identifying the precise contours of a terrorist’s motivation is key to neutralizing the ideological inspiration before a terrorist act.

In that endeavour, the study of the fight against an ISIS or an Al-Qaeda or a Lashkar-e-Toiba, must necessarily investigate and understand what motivates them. That question will inevitably and in all likelihood find, that the members of these organizations ultimately find justification for their heinous actions in certain philosophies of their faith, i.e., Islam. No doubt their interpretation of Islam is controversial, but it is an interpretation and it is what drives them. The label of “Islamic Terrorism” may thus serve a limited function of describing the motivation of the terrorist organization.

Why the term “Islamic Terrorist” is inadequate?

In that limited sense, the label “Islamic Terrorism” is not inaccurate and should therefore not be controversial. Islamic Terrorism is also formidable for the reason that its perpetrators are well motivated, well networked and have either the active backing of conventional states such as Pakistan (through the Directorate S of the ISI) or the indirect backing of other nations that do not do enough to cut funding and the feeding of propaganda. A classic example, ironically is Great Britain, which has a history of backing Islamic Extremism going back to World War 1 when it used militant Islam as a weapon against Turkey. It also did not do enough to put down Mohammad Amin Al-Huessini whose genocidal rant against jewish inhabitants of British governed Palestine, earned him the friendship of Hitler.

However, while the term “Islamic Terrorism” is not inaccurate, this label is also inadequate in describing the complete set of geopolitical, historic and cultural factors that sustains the ISIS and Al-Qaedas of the world. I explain this with the help of two illustrations

Hamas and Al-Qaeda are both branded as terrorist organisations, but they are vastly different in terms of their structure, tactics and motivations. While Islam is probably an underlining sub-text to their activities, there is also a reason, beyond just Islam, that causes them to be different organisations and not collaborate. For example, though the Al-Qaeda cites the Palestinian cause as one of its goals, under Abū Muṣʻab Zarqāwī’s leadership, it indulged in indiscriminate killing of Shias in Iraq and thus earned the enmity of Iran. Al-Qaeda also envisions a global Islamic state. Hamas on the other hand doesn’t believe in a global Islamic state and conversion of the world to Islam. It’s slated purpose is Palestine. Though comprised of Sunnis, it collaborates with Shia Iran and Hezbollah. They are both capable of being labelled as “Islamic” Terrorist Organisations, but they are so much more than that and using that as a term would give us an inadequate understanding of who they are, why they exist, why they survive and why they are supported by the actors that support them. Such an incorrect understanding could fundamentally derail counter terrorism strategies.

ISIS is another example. When the ISIS movement started, the west, with its over simplistic views, probably did not even recognize the distinction between an ISIS or an Al Nusra movement. Nor did it realise that the release of the followers of Abū Muṣʻab Zarqāwi, a particularly brutal (now deceased) Al-Qaeda Commander by Assad, in response to perceived US support to the Arab Spring revolution against him, would be the origins of ISIS. Thus when ISIS emerged, in all likelihood, Israel and the USA were watching and waiting, instead of branding them as terrorists, hoping that they would overthrow Assad. Yet, ISIS’ contempt for Israel and the USA and their propaganda against them, is well known. If the US had caught the precise character of the Al Nusra/ISIS front against Assad, chances are that American made weapons wouldnt fall into the hands of the ISIS terrorists whose atrocities in Iraq are well known[ii].

The geopolitics that enables an ISIS or Hezbollah to survive and thrive is far more complex than mere religion, for it also doesn’t explain why an ISIS and its predecessor, Al Qaeda (headed by Al Marqawi) attacked Shia establishments in Iraq, whereas Hezbollah, a Shia militia, rises for the defense of a Sunni Hamas. This raises the need for a nuance in the understanding of these terrorist organisations, which would be impossible if one were to simply go by the label of “Islamic Terrorism”.

The Historic and Cultural Background of Militant Islam

To understand the background of these actors in the conflict in the middle east, one must study, fully and holistically and not on a piece meal basis, the history of Islam and Islamic Extremism. Such a study, particularly, of the times of the Mongol invasions and the Crusades, would reveal that Militant Islam was a reaction and a defense to the other movements of religious terrorism that suddenly put the entire Muslim world to threat[iii]. Lets not forget the large scale genocide of muslims during the crusader conquest of Jerusalem[iv]. Militant Islam emerged as a necessity to bring together a divided world of Muslims, consisting of Fatimids, Nizaris, Ismailis, Turks, Arabs and many other factions, to fight under a common banner against the European invasions and atrocities in the Levant, inspired, funded and blessed by the Catholic Church. Militant Islam wasn’t born out of a thirst for conquest and conversion. However, as a tool to achieve homogeneity and unity, it hasn’t succeeded entirely.

The merits of going beyond “Islamic Terrorism” as a label

This doesn’t in anyway mitigate or justify Islamic Terrorism, but it does provide to the cause of counter-terrorism, the information and data necessary to contextualize the words of historic muslim scholars cited by terrorists, counter propaganda and lay bare, the fallacies and untenable nature of the lies and the hate that the Bin Ladens of the world spread in order to earn foot soldiers for their cause. This is critical to counter terrorist propaganda. Rather than citing the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights to argue for the right of religious freedom with muslims falling under the influence of ISIS, we would be more effective if we referred instead to the words of the acclaimed Islamic Scholar, Ibn Taymiyya. He, according to Reza Aslan (the author of several books on Islam and religion), argued that the idea of killing nonbelievers who refused to convert to Islam—the foundation of the classical doctrine of jihad—not only defied the example of Prophet Muhammad but also violated one of the most important principles in the Quran: that “there can be no compulsion in religion” (2:256)[v].

No doubt, these tenets of the Quran have not been followed by several muslim leaders when they undertook invasions in the past. The onslaught of Islamic invasions and its impact on the Hindu temples of India and the Hindu way of life of invading muslims is well documented. In all fairness, these invaders also took inspiration from sources of Islamic law to justify their crimes. But this wakes us up to the fact that there is an Islam that for example, condemns the destruction of Hindus and Hindu way of life by the Muslim Invaders and there is a version of Islam, twisted as it may be, that mandates it.

Thus for the Non-Islamic world, there fundamentally exists two questions or options- 1) Is it a winning strategy to insult, humiliate and constantly attack the entire religion of Islam and its followers and force them to stop believing or existing or 2) Or does a smart strategy dictate that we encourage, respect and acknowledge a version of Islam that is inclusive, pluralistic and consistent with democratic values, extol the virtues of this version of Islam, encourage and fund the spread of its values in order convince the followers of Islam to turn to a version that is compassionate and humane? Bear in mind that we must choose one of the options at least, as we ultimately need a strategy for information warfare to achieve a victory against “Islamic Terrorists”.

To stereotype or not to Stereotype?

The 1^st option is a call for genocide and conflict and complete subjugation, a goal that military history will tell us, is unachievable, morally reprehensible and legally untenable under international law. The latter option on the other hand is, difficult and challenging, but ultimately more likely achievable. More importantly the means of achieving the 2^nd option, will not rob us of the soul and the values we are fighting to defend against the Al-Qaedas of the world. Which option we choose, will reflect our intelligence as a civilised world. But more importantly, what choice we make, says more about our character than the character of the “Islamic” Terrorists who we are fighting today.

i. See “Sexual Homicide, Patterns and Motives” by Dr. Ann Burgess, John Douglas and Robert Ressler

ii. “Black Flags Rise of ISIS” by Joby Warrick

iii. Saladin’s use of propaganda to unite divided factions of Muslim Armies against invading “Franks”, was perhaps one of the first of many instances of Jihadism becoming the foundation of the defense of Muslim Lands. For more information, see “Saladin: The Life, the Legend and the Islamic Empire”

iv. The Crusades: The Authoritative History of the War for the Holy Land” by Thomas Asbridge

v. Reza Aslan in fact further argues that on this point the Quran is adamant by quoting the following verses which state that “The truth is from your Lord,” and it says; “believe it if you like, or do not” (18:29). He further supports his argument in the following words “The Quran also asks rhetorically, “Can you compel people to believe against their will?” (10:100). Obviously not; the Quran therefore commands believers to say to those who do not believe, “To you your religion; to me mine” (109:6).
See Aslan, Reza. No God But God . Random House. Kindle Edition.

Language of the Sciences

As I was helping a child I know, figure out where she went wrong with her science exam, an exercise I am profoundly ill equipped to assist in, one particular answer caught my attention. To the question of what is momentum, the answer, albeit an incorrect one, was momentum is speed. As a lawyer with a keen interest in science and technology, my understanding of concepts in science is basic and rudimentary at best. But the question that popped up in my mind was, if momentum and speed are one and the same, why would the English language have two different words for it? Furthermore, upon a reflection of how one uses the word “momentum” in everyday language, a part me guessed that it must be a function of mass and velocity. Turns out I was not incorrect in my inquiry and guess work.

It begs the question, are the kids of today disabled in their ability to learn due to a crisis of language. My niece often bombards me with terms such as “dark academia” and “lawyer aesthetic”, terms that I cannot grasp or comprehend because they are so far off from the traditional English language. That’s the world my niece lives in, where the words my generation uses and the words her generation uses are different, but yet are meant to refer to the same things. But where the language of the teenagers have evolved, the language of the sciences and so many other disciplines remain the same. Could this be the reason why the child (the author of the momentum=speed answer), could not employ her everyday language skills to negate the assumption that momentum and speed are one and the same?

This brings us to a larger problem in the education system, the aversion or the trivialization of language as a subject of study. The Indian Education System suffers from an affliction which convinces its educators and consumers alike that the pursuit of language, whether as a primary vocation or even as an interest, must not come at the cost of the pursuit of sciences which is often branded, incorrectly, as the only viable source of success and livelihood. Yet what connects a student to the subject he or she is trying to master, is the medium of language. As a medium of instruction and exchange of ideas, a language is what enables us to comprehend the world around us, which includes the subjects of study. If the medium is fractured or compromised in anyway, a student’s ability to comprehend the ideas at the end of that medium is also compromised. This disconnect isolates our children from the world around them and ends up affecting their ability, adversely, to comprehend concepts and dwell deep into them.

In the short story, “Story of my Life” by Ted Chiang, which became a movie called “Arrival”, the author makes a case for how our very perception of time and other concepts of physics is shaped by our language. By the end of the plot of the movie, when the protagonist finally grasps the language of the aliens, her understanding of time changes from one that is linear to one that is not, allowing her to travel freely between the past, present and the future. I find this to be particularly intriguing for ever since the time I started raising my dogs, learning their language, has opened my eyes to an entire new reality of the world of animals and to some extent plants, their behaviour and emotions, which was otherwise blind to me. I am surprised at how much I am able to read my dog’s emotions just by her facial expressions and how small or big her eyes are. Anecdotally speaking, language has indeed shaped my consciousness, from one that could perceive human beings only, to one that is a little less limited now.

If we are to truly produce the intellectual leaders of tomorrow, the average Indian parent must first learn to refrain from judging subjects as “useful” or “useless”. Inter-disciplinary approaches to complex problems are increasingly yielding useful dividends. We may indeed live in the era of specialization, but it is certainly not a time where we have the luxury of knowing something at the cost of not knowing anything else.