Some humorous relief in the age of lynching.
By Sujeet Rajan
NEW YORK: Finally, some light-hearted humor is emanating from India, after months of toxic, inflammable build-up of communal tension, bashing of secular ideals, ghar wapsis, beef bans, murders of activists, writers, lynching of a Muslim, burning of Dalit children.
The apex Supreme Court will hear the matter of Santa-Banta jokes, offensive to many, but often bandied about with glee. Decide if such jokes should be banned from websites. A petitioner managed to convince a bench of the court derogatory jokes hurt sensibilities of Sikhs; Sikh boys and girls hate being singled out for their religion, endure incessant teasing.
Jokes about Santa-Banta proliferated, exploded on social media today. It’s not the end of the world, for sure, but indulge in comic revelry till humor is quarantined, martyred, seem to be the overriding feeling.
Just to clarify for the ignoramus of the world: the term Santa has nothing to do with Santa Claus or Banta with Batman. It’s targeted at Sikhs, especially those who wear turbans. The two characters Santa-Banta are caricatured as ludicrous simpletons who, as a popular joke about them has it, need an IQ upgrade. Laurel and Hardy are just ordinary suburbanites, in comparison.
The Sikh community, of course, don’t deserve the jokes, malicious or not. Just like any other community who is the target of such jokes, doesn’t deserve it too.
It’s not been a bad week for humor, as far as India is concerned.
There was also the amusing parody recited by the Chief Minister of Bihar Nitish Kumar, targeted at the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to get an upper hand in the state polls, which evinced much laughter.
The hilarious parody was based on a song from the Aamir Khan starrer ‘3 Idiots’ and went like this: “Bahti hawa sa tha woh, Gujarat se aaya tha woh, kaala dhan laane wala thaa wo, kahan gaya use doondho. Humko desh ki fikr sataati hai, woh bus videsh ke daure lagaate hain, humko badhti mahangai satata, wo bas mann ki baat sunata. Har waqt apni selfie khinchta tha woh, Dawood ko laane wala tha woh, kahan gaya use dhoondo (He was like the blowing wind, he came from Gujarat with promises to bring back black money, where has he gone? Find him. While we worry about the country, he travels abroad; while price rise bothers us, he tells us only his ‘Mann ki baat’. He is always busy clicking selfies, he promised to bring back Dawood. Where has he gone? Find him).”
Sloganeering is a hallmark of Indian elections, parody a novelty. However, while Kumar’s parody hit the mark, Modi in his repartee, failed miserably, with his weak remark that the alliance of JD (U)-RJD-Congress are the ‘3 Idiots’.
In the film, the term ‘3 Idiots’ itself is coined by a smug, academically-bent bookworm by the name of Chatur Ramalingam (played by the Indian American actor Omi Vaidya) who is shown later as being at the mercy of the characters he dubs as the ‘3 Idiots’, brought down to Earth. Chatur, despite making it in the corporate world in America, is humbled by the brilliance of the character played by Aamir Khan, with his native roots and charitable disposition.
Modi definitely doesn’t fit the mold of the capitalist-and-consumerist submerged character played by Vaidya. His rejoinder only helped to elevate the stature of Kumar. It’s a rare instance where the prime minister faltered in his witticism, verbal jousting.
Then there was the dark humor by cabinet minister Venkaiah Naidu – if it can be called that – when he termed the former BJP cabinet minister and one of the best journalists India has ever produced, Arun Shourie, as “not being the voice of the people.”
Surely, Naidu, who cannot hope to emulate the accomplishments and public appeal of Shourie in this lifetime, made the remark in jest. For, Shourie indeed is the voice of India. At least the sane voice of India. Perhaps, Naidu and others in the BJP camp need to reconcile quickly to the fact that Shourie was an avid supporter of the party when they came to power. Now, he’s shunning the same party and its ideals, finds it abhorrent.
Naidu’s remark came after Shourie termed the policies of the BJP government as akin to the Congress party’s policies, with, albeit a difference: “Congress plus cow”. The jocular term, like Kumar’s parody, hit the mark squarely in the middle.
On the question of cows, just like the alcohol-imbibing folks from Kerala are keeping close count of how many bars are left open in the state with each passing day, and a palpably sinking heart, the urgent question is: how many water buffaloes, goat and chicken are left in the country? India will soon overtake Brazil as the largest exporter of cows in the world, but hey, how many of the legally edible meat is left in the country before it has to be imported?
In reality, India really needs all the witticism, parody and humor it can collectively come up with, to ward off looming threat of communal violence. People are getting scared of the BJP rule, their worst fears are playing out in slow motion, like the prediction of an eclipse come true.
When a Dalit writer/activist in Karnataka is threatened with amputation, it’s not far away when the machetes used in Bangladesh to hack secular bloggers to death, will travel across the border. When the Kerala House cafeteria is raided by the police to protect people inside from saffron-wearing, trishul-sporting Hindutva fanatics who love a cow more than their own mother, it’s only a matter of time before some of the people eating lunch there would be murdered. When some Muslim men suspected of cattle thievery are chased on the road, attacked viciously by a mob, and one of them killed, it’s not far off when any Muslim man walking alongside a cow on a street anywhere in India, will be killed without a second thought. When writers, scientists, historians, and filmmakers return awards, it’s not because they are scared of being hacked to death as secular bloggers were in Bangladesh, but to help avoid that happening in India to others like them who believe in the freedom of expression.
It’s not just Moody’s dire warning for the Modi government and India of an economic debacle if right wing Hindutva elements are not corralled, that the people of India need to be wary of. It’s losing their sense of humor in such trying times.
That’s why the Supreme Court decision to even hear the Santa-Banta joke case is a wrong one. There really is no humor in it. Not one bit.
The Supreme Court should have quashed the public interest plea. There aren’t going to be any winners or losers post-verdict. Just a lot of sad, angry, frustrated people. If the jokes are canned and obliterated, it would be yet another blow for freedom of expression. If the jokes are allowed to flourish, it would be a blow to the psyche of the Sikh community, they would feel humiliated. And with good reason.
If the jokes against Sikhs are banned, will it entitle a Sikh man or woman to file a police case against a person who utters a joke in public? Would a Sikh man or woman be entitled to hit the person who cracked the joke? A police case was lodged some years ago against a publisher in India who brought out a book of jokes targeting the Sikhs. Like live-in partners who were spurned filing for rape against their former beaus, the new norm would be jokesters who didn’t learn to keep their mouth shut in public facing some quality jail time.
If the Santa-Banta jokes are banned, will it be the turn of the Malayali and Tamil community next to sputter in anger against lungi and pronunciation jokes, and try ban even the lungi dance by Shah Rukh Khan from the film ‘Chennai Express’?
Or will all the boys and girls in schools who wear spectacles and are called ‘chokhas’ (four-eyes, like I was called in school in New Delhi for being the first in my class to sport spectacles) protest that the Supreme Court help them out?
Where will the Santa-Banta jokes end?
(Sujeet Rajan is Editor-in-Chief, The American Bazaar)