Love

I wrote this blog some time back, but did not post it. Thought I might as well do it now.

I sometimes find the term 'innocent civilians' naive. I mean, if India is waging a war against the believers of a certain ideology, your Indian identity makes you a participant in the war. It is the taxes you pay that are being spent on the army which is fighting against them and this gives them right to try to kill you. They call it a war of civilisations, I call it a war of ideologies (the difference being people and ideas). Religious freedom vs religious fundatamentalism. Freedom of speech and thought vs adherence to a single ideology. Love of life as we know it vs contempt for it. And we all are soldiers in this war.

Long time back I posted on my blog that reason can not answer everything, and emotion or personal likes and dislikes, are a major determinant of ones decisions. It was a major milestone for me because until then I had been made to believe that reason or intellect is the end all of human thought. I have since not been able to write anything worthwhile.

My point is that one can argue for argument sake about different ideologies and religions to prove which is better. Ultimately the decision we have to make is which ideology appeals to us. Hence our motivation can not stem from the fact that we are right, because that is impossible to prove, but simply from our love for an idea. I love the idea that I get to determine the course of my country by voting. I love the idea of being able to protest and make my voice be heard when my government does something I dont agree with. I love the freedom of thought, expression and belief that a democracy offers me. And love needs no reason. I love my wife and I don't care about proving that she is better than anyone else.

And quite similar to us, the terrorists too love an ideology. The belief that one's life has a purpose which is higher than fulfilling the daily needs of oneself and family, is intoxicating enough to die for. We too need to be intoxicated by our love for our beliefs and rather than be 'innocent civilians' we should all be 'active soldiers', not weilding guns, but armed with our zeal to protect and nourish our idea of a good life. Not by shooting people but by being socially active to make our opinion count. Because, by not having an opinion at all against terrorism or being ambivalent in our views, we are actually being complicit in terrorism. Hence people who died in Mumbai during the three day hiest, were martyrs for one cause or the other.

Seeing the way the whole of India came together after the attacks, and the way different countries are standing behind India, it is heartening to know that people do stand for what they love.