CAN PREJUDICES BE OVERCOME?

A WIDE CANVAS

 CAN PREJUDICES  BE OVERCOME?

Communication and commerce  have brought the nations of the world together. The influence of the media in all its forms is promoting a uniform lifestyle all over the world, dominated by a few brands or their imitations. Mass manufacture has replaced local industries, and many traditional arts and crafts are suffering a slow, painful death.Mass entertainment has killed the variety and creativity of numerous local art forms.  Agriculture as a way of life has been replaced by the commercial farm, turning it into  a huge consumer of chemical inputs, controlled by large MNCs; in the process, self-reliant, local and farmer-centred technologies are being wiped out; food security of vast populations has been severely compromised. The cost has grown beyond the capacity of the farmer to bear and recover; it has gone beyond the capacity of the consumer to pay, necessitating huge subsidies, which are met by taxation. Even then, farmers commit suicide, or sell off their lands and migrate to towns and cities. And consumers demand subsidies. Taxation has got its limits too, and then govts resort to debt- burdening future generations for the profligacy of the present ones.  The consequent ethical issues do not bother our economists who are mercenaries who are paid to use their intelligence(?) to justify any damn theory or opinion; nor do they worry our philosophers if any still left. The politicians are slaves of dead idols and defunct theories, bent on feeding people with tall promises and vain hopes. The public who elect them to power are blissfully unaware of the damage to the real economy, society or the environment. Even the so called educated segments are not aware of the basic issues.The press and the media are also busy fanning current flames and making their buck. 

An important aspect of this development has been that people who have been traditionally antagonistic and nursed grievances against each other are now brought together . It is a tribute to the basic humanity and human resilience that most people have been able to overcome past prejudices and learnt to live and prosper together. This is the phenomenon we see especially in Western Europe.

Europe is the cradle of Western civilisation, the mother of America. The USA is a big country, not yet a civilisation. Europe is essentially a civilisation, in spite of its national divisions, and historical tensions and troubles among them. The countries are not uniform, but there is a basic unity. They have been inspired by the ancient Greek and Roman ideals, rediscovered and reinterpreted, and also by the Judeo-Christian ideas. May be, no country in Europe fully absorbed  or exemplified these ideals but the greatest minds of Europe have been fired by them. And this has spread to all countries, shared by all people in course of time, each country or society giving its own shape or form to them.

Western Europe, which has been democratic in various degrees is divided by language and national pride, ethnic affiliations and religious differences; but this did not prevent ideas travelling beyond language and prejudice. English language grew, freely taking words from other European languages, so much that about 40% of the language consists of words of French origin- this in spite of their political rivalry and fought wars. The British 'romantic' movement was based on the ideas of  German philosophers, and drew inspiration from the French Revolution, though the final turn that it took did not please the British temperament.

For us, it will always remain a mystery why on earth these civilised countries, sharing a common intellectual and religious heritage, descended  into two world wars, fought savagely, and causing enormous misery to the victor and vanquished alike.  But it also led to severe soul-searching among its leaders and has now resulted in the great European Union, beginning with small steps. Churchill said that only a United States of Europe could ensure peace and prosperity. Konrad Adenauer, the West German Chancellor and President De Gaulle of  France entered into a treaty of friendship in 1963, burying the past enmity, and it has held for half a century! 

Sculpture showing Adenaur and De Gaulle, to commemorate the restoration of relations between Germany and France.


There were other visionaries like Joseph Bech of Luxembourg,John Bayen, Alcide Gasperi of Italy,Walter Hallstein, Jean Monnet, Robert Schuman, Paul Henri Spaak, Altiero Spinelli, who must all be regarded as the Fathers of the European Union. We must salute the people who are able to rise above past prejudices and petty interests. (And just see how Indian politicians are daily devising  new methods  to divide the people!)

Even so, some prejudices die hard. And history has been used by both politicians and so called scholars alike to keep and foster some prejudices. It has been observed that in England, history at the school level is dominated by anti-German sentiment- as if they are still at war! Historians have pointed out that during this period, (World War II) England also had to shed its colonies, that Great Britain was reduced to Small England, an island nation, and that the War against Germany serves to reinforce its national identity! But for the youngsters there to be taught about the Nazis - who ruled but for 12 years, in such intense manner , 70 years after those events seems odd, when right now Germany is its largest trading partner! Germany was a great country before, noted for its philosophy,science, technology, music and other arts.English Royalty has German blood. Its people suffered due to the Soviet imposed partition; it made miraculous economic recovery and has again united. The Nazi period is just like a scar, no more when seen in the light of  its whole history and accomplishments and  over all contribution to humanity . Not that it did not make blunders or even commit wrongs.But which of our nations have been wholly free of these? (Churchill denied food grains to Bengal during the great famine of the 40s and caused 3 million deaths of innocent, poor civilians- all subjects of the British empire. And the English officers  escaped to safety, after negotiating with the Japanese and abandoning the thousands of Indian troops defending Singapore, and making them surrender to the Japanese. Many of those who survived this joined the INA of Subhas Bose; (those who did not join were executed by the Japanese.) and many  perished in the march through Burma. But it was this INA which made the British lose confidence in the loyalty of the  Army and  Navy and hastened their decision to leave India!)

Netaji laying the foundation of the INA Memorial at Singapore.8 July 1945. It was demolished by the Indian Army in September,1945.
Netaji was elected Congress president  in 1939 in the teeth of open opposition from Gandhi. But Gandhi did not allow him to function. Later, he foisted Nehru as the PM, though a majority of the PCC leaders openly preferred Sardar Patel. Indian govt. under Nehru and his clan has  tried to erase the very memory of Netaji from Indian minds!

The manner the Nazis dealt with the Jews- culminating in the Holocaust, involving the killing of two out of every three Jews living in Europe at the time, is surely something we cannot wish away. But are only  the Nazis to blame? Or, were the Jews the only victims of the Nazis?  Could it have been a sudden development? 

The history of the Jews officially begins with the Exodus from Egypt, but for the last 2000 years they have been wandering without a homeland. They were treated as less than second class citizens in most places, made to live in ghettos, denied many common rights, denied entry to many occupations or professions- all by the God-fearing Christians! Even then, they prospered in whatever they were allowed to do- finance, banking, trade; and their success only attracted further envy and persecution!  They were persecuted by the Communists, no less than the Christians. Research has now shown that every country in Europe, except England, joined or assisted the Nazis in their crime. Even leaders such as former French President Mitterrand, UN Secretary General Kurt Waldheim and Pope  Benedict XVI  (Joseph Ratzinger) are revealed to have had Nazi connections. Even Switzerland, considered neutral, refused to admit Jewish refugees into Switzerland and  to give details of the accounts of the Jews in their banks, or assist their descendants in tracing back their accounts. The property of the Jews were taken away, their monies appropriated, their art collections looted and traded freely in the market, apart from what the Nazis and Soviet commies pocketed for their private possession. It seems anti-Semitic prejudice is part of the Christian or Western mind. Nazi was one extreme; now the Arab attitude is another extreme. In my view, president Obama is deeply  anti-Semitic, if not a neo-Nazi! Just wait and watch. [Obama is entering into a nuclear deal with Iran, without insisting on Iran giving an assurance about not attacking Israel (even if that assurance is  not worth anything). Before  World War II  British PM Neville Chamberlain appeased Hitler,with the Munich Agreement! It only gave time for Hitler to consolidate his position, without having to bother about England. Now Obama is committing a more serious blunder. Every non-Muslim  and non-Shia Muslim country in the region has reason to fear this development.]

PM Chamberlain announcing the Munich Agreement on return to England, as ensuring "peace for our time"! Britain entered the War in less than a year.

Chamberlain, French PM Daladier, Hitler and Mussolini after the Munich Agreement.29/30 September,1938.
Bundesarchiv Bild183-R69173/CC BY -SA 3.0 creativecommons via Wikimedia Commons.

Ironically, the Jews did not make much of the Holocaust for the first twenty years or so, after World War II. They brushed it aside as a bad dream, and got on with the job of living. As the anti-Israeli sentiment grew to mad proportions among the Arabs, resulting in wars, and even the UN started blaming the Jews for everything, it appears that the Holocaust is serving to foster among the Jews all over the world a sense of unity- a shared misfortune, from which  they have to build a new future. The Jews are an intellectually diverse community and are not given to herd thinking (like the Muslims) There are Jews who fiercely oppose Israel (anti-Zionism). Over the centuries, the Jews took to education and cultivation of the intellect in a big way- as this was one property which no one could take away at the borders! This only seems to strengthen the prejudice against them!

On the other side of the globe, Japan has emerged as a world economic power. People may remember that it was also a main player in the War. Hiroshima and Nagasaki are surely remembered. Most people may not know that it was the stealth Japanese  attack on Pearl Harbour that brought the US into the War and changed the course of the War and subsequent world history- including that of Japan. It was the US which allowed the Japanese emperor to retain his title, but forced  a democratic system on the country after the War!

USS Arizona burning at the Pearl Harbour, Dec,7, 1941. Public Domain, Wikipedia Commons 

But what most people do not know or care to remember is that Japan was one of the most brutal and  savage powers, its armed forces trained to inflict  unimaginably atrocious,inhuman and violent orgies against opponents, POW, civilians- most of whom were fellow Asians, and non-combatants! It is estimated that Japan killed 30 million people- Filipinos, Malays,Vietnamese,Cambodians, Indonesians,Burmese. (23 million were supposed to be ethnic Chinese).  Their atrocities included besides massacres and mass murders, human experimentation, biological war, use of chemical weapons, cannibalism, forced labour, looting, perfidy, forcing women as "comfort women " for soldiers (mass rape/prostitution) followed by brutal assault and murder of even young girls.

Chinese being prepared to be buried alive.

An Australian POW about to be beheaded.

Japanese shoot Sikh prisoners who have been blindfolded. Public Domain

Somehow, Japan has been able to outlive this dark period in its history and the mention of the name does not somehow bring those atrocities to mind, as the mention of the  name Germany does. We  rather view Japan as the victim of the first atomic attack! Of course, what the Muslims are currently doing to their own fellow-Muslims, and others far exceeds all this- though there is supposed to be no such big war raging now! Japan has profusely apologized for its war record.

We see countries and people trying to forge ahead, forgetting the past blunders.Time heals wounds, and adds perspective to our vision and brings understanding. But we also see new prejudices rising and swaying people. Modern academics is fostering new prejudices: feminism, leftism, multiculturalism, race-based preferences, justice coloured by special interests, moral relativism, etc.