Ankit Prasad

S193dcs06

Ma sociology

Between 2013-2017 men on motorcycles shot dead four prominent Indian rationalists. All of the
dissenters of upper-caste, right-wing Hindutva supremacy; much reminiscent of Gandhi's being
gunned down half a century earlier. The forces that inspired Gandhi's elimination had gone
underground for decades post the act. Today the same forces, having taken on a new face, is in
power, lending impunity to hate crimes, lynching, and other acts of violence. Vivek explores how
resistance seems to be an unavoidable recourse and response at this point.

The battle between faith and Reason is universal and ongoing. In India, the world's largest
democracy, the ideology that murdered Mahatma Gandhi has been in power since 2014. The
secular democracy that once aspired to the values of enlightenment and non-violence is being
dismantled as accusations fly of "eating cow meat" or "treason of Mother India," minorities and
those who fight for the poor the brunt of rising Hindu majoritarianism and a complicit corporate
media. The film fearlessly examines the far right at massive rallies and introduces us to
rationalists who, despite appearing on hit lists, lead a growing resistance. The documentary,
which has eight chapters, opens with the life (and death) of Narender Dabholkar and Govind
Pansare, both of whom were murdered for promoting rationality, equality, and justice. In its
essence, Reason is a tribute to their martyrdom. In depicting the struggles of the two rationalists,
the documentary captures the spirit of resistance. It reveals how the Sanatan Sanstha, the Goa-
based organization which allegedly planned both murders, injects hatred into the veins of India's
secular being.

The documentary then drifts into Dalit resistance to the rising brutalities against them. It begins
tracing this resistance from the response to the public thrashing of Dalit cow skinners in Una. It
shows how a mass Dalit movement is brewing in the country, with the rise of Dalit leaders such
as Jignesh Mevani, who takes a mass oath at a rally, asking the crowd to repeat after him that
they will refuse to lift cow carcasses in the future. As we witness yet another incident of violence
in the name of stopping cow-slaughter by groups of vigilantes known as gau-rakshaks, we revisit
BR Ambedkar's 1948 work The Untouchables: Who Were They and Why They Became
Untouchables? which grapples with many of the issues that continue to plague India even today.
He explains how cow eating was very familiar and popular among the Hindus, especially
Brahmin. The Reason for departure from beef-eating to vegetarianism is because of the
supremacy war between Brahmanism and Buddhism. He explains like Buddhists, they also
started making massive temples and installed Shiva and Vishnu statue. Still, they failed to attract
the masses because of animal sacrifice; the cow was also an agricultural animal and very useful.
So to show them superior to Buddhists, they started propaganda of cow worship and banned
animal sacrifice. However, Ambedkar did not highlight why only worship of cow was promoted,
not ox. Ox is also the most important animal for agriculture.

Further, the non-brahmins left the beef-eating die to the practice of sankritization. They followed
the habit of the Brahmin. However, in the case of broken-man, they failed to follow the process
because they were immigrants and dependent on the permanent settlers. So the Brahmin, to
maintain the supremacy, labeled them as untouchables. The same thing is happening with Indian
cultural history.

As Jaya Prakash Narayan said in Constituent Assembly, it was just when religion was utilized to
serve socio-economic and political interests that there was communal violence. What should
have been done in light of a legitimate concern for secularism was to join an article in the
Constitution restricting the utilization of religious foundations for political purposes or the
setting up political associations on a religious premise. It was not religion fundamentally but
rather its politicization which incited violence in the modern state. This statement is very
relevant in the current scenario. To spread the propaganda of Hindu rastra, the Sanatan Sanstha
and other similar organizations promote Shivaji's image as the Muslim killer and the savior of
Hindus and cows. They are building the statues of Shivaji on a large scale. Also, they spread
misinformation by explaining to people how he hated Muslims. The people who try to rectify
their mistakes or come in the way of their propaganda face violence.

The film is not without its moments of humor. The chest-thumping primetime news anchor we
all know so well is seen shouting at JNU student leader Umar Khalid. It appears that the anchor's
voice is drowned in his noise. The uncomfortable silence and mumbling of the ABVP leader
when asked to name at least five leaders from the BJP who had gone to jail during the freedom
struggle is not only humorous but also revealing.

Reference
 Shefali Jha. (2002). Secularism in the Constituent Assembly Debates, 1946-1950. Economic
and Political Weekly, 37(30), 3175-3180. Retrieved November 22, 2020, from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/4412419
 Patwardhan, A. (Director). (2018). Reason (2018) [Video file]. Retrieved November 23, 2020,
from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5VsGdPHsz0
 Ambedkar, B. (2002). Untouchability, the Dead Cow and the Brahmin. In 1073956250
816769844 D. N. Jha (Author), The myth of the holy cow (pp. 184-207). London: Verso.