Mr. Manivannan has, during the course of interaction through Facebook, asked five questions on the sins of ancestors
and the responsibility of their descendants. Those questions are attempted to
be answered to. They are:
Q 1: Do you believe that some people are born evil because of
their birth and/or how they are raised and by whom?
Reply: I do
not believe that anybody is born evil. But, when some people join together on
the basis of certain identity, and subjugate, in an organised manner, the
others who do not have that identity, the evil mentality of that group creates
social conflicts in a peaceful society. If that group succeeds in acquiring
such dominant position and trains its descendants methodically, to retain its
dominant status forever, it is training its descendants to be
evils-personified. Such groups are classified as races without conscience.
“...(the Aryan) in his encounters with lower peoples,
subjugated them and bent them to his will... As long as he ruthlessly upheld
the master attitude, not only did he remain master but also the preserver and
increaser of culture”, said Adolf Hitler. -( Pages 86 & 87 - A History
of Nazi Germany by William L. Shirer). This was the theory believed and
propagated by Hitler. But, the present Germans do not subscribe to this theory.
They are ashamed of it. But, they do not suppress the history but transcend
beyond it. That is the hallmark of civilisation.
“Germany abounds in history, history to be proud of as well
as history to be ashamed of. ….Germans will not let their shame be hidden. They
need themselves and the world to know that they have acknowledged the evil that
overpowered their nation and will not fall victim again.” - Laura B.
Koetter.
I, therefore, believe that nobody is born evil, but when a group
does not want to forego the illgotten benefits bequeathed to it by its
ancestors and wants to continue with the same terrorist methods adopted by its
ancestors, that society is committing organised crime against humanity. They
are not only the perpetrators of evil but perpetuators of evil. These people believe
in ‘ruthlessly upholding their master attitude’ as advised to them by their
ancestor, Hitler.
What Samuel Gompers had said in respect of the conflicts between
employers and employees hold good, in India, for the conflicts in social set
up.
"When a
dominating class wants to keep a subject class under its control, what better
way to distract it than to keep it fighting amongst itself. If a subject class
is kept busy fighting each other as individuals and trying to gain small
advantages or favouritism over each other, it will be all the easier to keep
them in check. A subject class which is divided on the basis of arbitrary and
superficial differences such as sex, race or nationality will always remain
subject” - Samuel Gompers (1850-1924), President of the American
Federation of Labour.
Q.2: Do you think that some people can never be clean and will
always remain polluted?
Reply: I
believe that this question is about the mental make up of the people. As long
as a dominant group thinks that it is superior to the others by birth and
enforces that theory in public life by preventing the others from occupying the
posts appropriated and reserved by it for itself for millennia, that dominant
group would have only a polluted mind and would not be rated as clean in its
outlook and activities.
World history testified to the fact that there had been many
thinkers in such dominant groups in the West who revolted against such system
and worked for the welfare of the subjugated groups. William Wilberforce, Abraham
Lincoln, Morris Dees, H.D. Thoreau were a few among them. Their services to the
society made the dominant group develop a sense of empathy and that made that
dominant group clean.
Q.3: Do you think that
some people must be evicted from India because they are descended from people
who came from outside India, mainly as invaders but also as traders?
Reply: I
am never for any kind of ethnic cleansing anywhere in the world. I admire
Kanian Poongundaranaar. But, I cannot agree to the position that the group
which perpetuates apartheid in society and captures the bureaucracy, media and
judiciary through unfair means and terrorist tactics and runs the society with
mafia-like grip, must be accepted and acquiesced. I am for equality and
fraternity as that alone will ensure unity.
I fight against the groups which follow literally, day in and
day out, the directives of Hitler, who advised the dominant group to maintain
its racial exclusivity. Racial exclusivity has, always, been the
choice of only the oppressors. The components of such
dominant race must mend themselves and develop empathy.
“The
Aryan gave up the purity of blood and, therefore, lost his sojourn in the
paradise which he had made for himself. He became submerged in the racial
mixture and gradually lost his cultural creativeness', I have therefore warned,
'The stronger must dominate and not blend with the weaker, thus sacrificing his
own greatness. Only the born weakling can view this as cruel”,
says Hitler (A History of Nazi Germany - William L. Shirer - Page 87).
Q.4: Do you think that
children of tomorrow are guilty of the sins of their ancestors - all of them -
from today to 4000 years ago?
Reply:
Yes, if those children do not want to be objective in their approach and try to
justify the crimes committed by their forefathers against humanity. Why not
they learn lessons from the present day Germans who disown Hitler but do not
cover-up his misdeeds. The same could be said in respect of the history of
Anglophones who harassed the Francophones in Canada two centuries ago. Anglophones of the
present day do not justify the crimes committed by their ancestors
against the Quebecois. Hon’ble Supreme Court has said, in “State of
Punjab Vs. Hira Lal and Others” (C.A. No. 1218 of 1968), “Advantages
secured due to historical reasons cannot be claimed as fundamental rights”,
dismissing the imaginary grievances of the upper classes. The descendants of
the dominant group must realize that they must make the society egalitatian, at
least, now. They will not then be guilty of the crimes committed by their
forefathers against humanity.
They should not suppress the past history by usurping the
key-posts in the ICHR or NCERT. I must accept the history as it was. That
alone is the first step towards a civilized life.
“It is better to explore and accept history rather than to
repress and deny it”, says Edward W. Said in his book Culture and
Imperialism. “The two nations must never stop discussing their history’, said
President Jiang Zemin while referring to the enmity between China and Japan:
‘only thus can they hope to transcend it.”- The Hindu, December 27, 1998.
We must acknowledge the past to transcend the past without getting stuck into
the past.
Q.5: Do you accept responsibility for all of the sins of your
ancestors?
Reply:
Yes. If I continue to enjoy or if I have the intention to continue to retain
the ill-gotten benefits bequeathed to me by my ancstors, I must accept
responsibility for all the sins of my ancestors. If I am ready to turn a new
leaf and make amends, I am not required to assume such responsibility.
Annie Besant, Abraham Lincoln, Bharathiyar and others of their
kind are held in high esteem not because they perpetuated the tyranny of their
forefathers but because they broke away from the attitude and activities of
their dominant group, overturned their tyranny and empathised themselves with
the subjugated masses. They need not accept responsibility for the sins of
their ancestors.
World returns to peaceful way of life only when the Mightier
develops empathy and sense of remorse. Only those who really believe that there
is no one superior to them and no one inferior to them can elevate humanity to
a civilized status. When, after a struggle of about three decades, the Labour
Party came to power with resounding majority in 1945 in England, the President
of the Indian National Congress greeted Lord Attlee and said, “Hearty
congratulations to the people of Great Britain on the results of the election
which demonstrate their abandonment of old ideas and acceptance of a new
world”(Page 216- The Transfer of Power in India – V.P. Menon – Orient
Longman). Have the people in the dominant group in India, abandoned their
old ideas and accepted a new world?
I would be happy, if the
dominant group joins hands with me in ushering in that new world. Let history
always be the thing of past. It is time we turned new leaf like the Helots and
Spartans, learning from history and not repeating the history.
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N.B: In the context of India, the steps to be taken by the society to
evolve a civilized India, have been identified and enumerated in the following
link, for whatever it is worth:
http://vaeyurutholibangan.blogspot.in/2014/08/towards-civilised-india.html
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